by Pepe Escobar for RT
The ideological matrix and the modus operandi of color revolutions by now are a matter of public domain. Not so much the concept of Unconventional War (UW).
UW was spelled out by the 2010 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual. Here’s the money quote:
“The intent of US [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish US strategic objectives… For the foreseeable future, US forces will predominantly engage in irregular warfare (IW) operations.”
“Hostile” powers are meant not only in a military sense; any state that dares to defy any significant plank of the Washington-centric world “order” – from Sudan to Argentina – may be branded “hostile”.
The dangerous liaisons between color revolutions and UW have now fully blossomed as Hybrid War; a warped case of Flowers of Evil. A color revolution is nothing but the first stage of what will become Hybrid War. And Hybrid War can be interpreted essentially as the weaponization of chaos theory – an absolute conceptual darling of the US military (“politics is the continuation of war by linguistic means”). My 2014 book Empire of Chaos essentially tracks its myriad manifestations.
This very well-argued three-part thesis clarifies the central objective behind a major Hybrid War; “to disrupt multipolar transnational connective projects through externally provoked identity conflicts (ethnic, religious, political, etc.) within a targeted transit state.”
The BRICS – an extremely dirty word/concept in the Beltway/Wall Street axis – had to be the prime targets of Hybrid War. For myriad reasons. Among them; the push for trade and commerce in their own currencies, bypassing the US dollar; the creation of the BRICS development bank; the avowed drive towards Eurasia integration, symbolized by the now converging China-led New Silk Roads – or One Belt, One Road (OBOR), in its official terminology – and Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union (EEU).
This implies that Hybrid War sooner rather than later will hit Central Asia; Kyrgysztan, a prime lab for Exceptionalistan experiments of the color revolution kind, is the ideal candidate.
As it stands, Hybrid War is very much active in Russia’s western borderlands (Ukraine) but still embryonic in Xinjiang, China’s Far West, which Beijing micromanages like a hawk. Hybrid War is already being applied to prevent a crucial Pipelineistan gambit; the construction of Turkish Stream. And will also be fully applied to interrupt the Balkan Silk Road – essential for China’s integrated trade/commerce with Eastern Europe.
As the BRICS are the only, real counter power to Exceptionalistan, a strategy had to be developed for each of the major players. Everything was thrown at Russia – from sanctions to full demonization, from a raid on its currency to an oil price war, even including (pathetic) attempts to start a color revolution in the streets of Moscow. For a weaker BRICS node, a more subtle strategy would have to be developed. Which brings us to the complexity of Hybrid War as applied to the current, massive political/economic destabilization of Brazil.
In the UW manual, swaying the perceptions of a vast “uncommitted middle population” is essential in the road to success, so these uncommitted eventually turn against their political leaders. The process encompasses everything from “supporting insurgency” (as in Syria) to “wider discontent through propaganda and political and psychological efforts to discredit the government” (as in Brazil). And as an insurrection escalates, so should the “intensification of propaganda; psychological preparation of the population for rebellion.” That, in a nutshell, has been the Brazilian case.
We need our own Saddam
Exceptionalistan’s utmost strategic objective is usually to have a merger of color revolution and UW. But Brazil’s civil society and vibrant democracy were too sophisticated for hardcore UW steps such as sanctions or R2P (“responsibility to protect”).
It’s no wonder that Sao Paulo was turned into the epicenter of the Hybrid War against Brazil. Sao Paulo, the wealthiest Brazilian state, also housing the economic/financial capital of Latin America, is the key node in an interlinked national/international power structure.
The Wall Street-centered global financial system – which rules over virtually the whole West – simply could not allow national sovereignty in full expression in a major regional actor such as Brazil.
The Brazilian Spring, in the beginning, was virtually invisible, an exclusive social media phenomenon – just as Syria in early 2011.
Then, in June 2013, Edward Snowden leaked those notorious NSA spying practices. In Brazil, the NSA was all over Petrobras. And suddenly, out of the blue, a regional judge, Sergio Moro, based on a single source – a currency exchange operator in the black market – had access to a major Petrobras document dump. Up to now, the two-year Car Wash corruption investigation has not revealed how they got to know so much about what they dub the “criminal cell” acting inside Petrobras.
What matters is that the color revolution modus operandi – a fight against corruption and “in defense of democracy” – was already in place. That was the first step of Hybrid War.
As Exceptionalistan coined “good” and “bad” terrorists wreaking havoc across “Syraq”, in Brazil surged the figure of the “good” and the “bad” corrupt.
Wikileaks also unveiled how Exceptionalistan doubted Brazil could design a nuclear submarine – a matter of national security. How construction company Odebrecht was going global. How Petrobras by itself developed the technology to explore the pre-salt deposits – the largest oil discovery of the young 21st century, of which Big Oil was excluded by none other than Lula.
Then, as a result of Snowden’s revelations, the Rousseff administration required all government agencies to use state-owned companies for their technology services. This would mean that US companies could lose as much as $35 billion in revenue over two years as they would be deprived of business in the 7th largest economy in the world – as research group Information Technology & Innovation Foundation discovered.
The future is happening now
The march towards Hybrid War in Brazil had little do to with the political left or right. It was basically about mobilizing a few wealthy families that actually run the country; buy large swathes of Congress; control mainstream media; behave like 19th century slave plantation owners (slavery still permeates all social relations in Brazil); and legitimize it all via a hefty, yet bogus, intellectual tradition.
They would give the signal for the mobilization of the middle class.
Sociologist Jesse de Souza identified a Freudian “substitutive gratification” phenomenon under which the Brazilian middle class – with large swathes now clamoring for regime change – imitates the wealthy few as much as it’s ruthlessly exploited by them, via mountains of taxes and sky-high interest rates.
The wealthy 0,0001% and the middle classes needed an Other to demonize – Exceptionalistan style. And what could be more perfect for the judicial-police-media-old comprador elite complex than the figure of a tropical Saddam Hussein: former President Lula.
Ultra right-wing “movements” financed by the nefarious Koch Brothers suddenly popped up on social networks and street protests. The Brazilian attorney general visited the Empire of Chaos leading a Car Wash team to hand out Petrobras information that could prop up possible Department of Justice indictments.
Car Wash and the – immensely corrupt – Brazilian Congress, which will now deliberate over the possible impeachment of President Rousseff, revealed themselves as indistinguishable.
By then, the scriptwriters were sure that a regime change social infrastructure was already built into a critical anti-government mass, thus allowing the color revolution’s full bloom. The way to a soft coup was paved – without even having to resort to lethal urban terrorism (as in Ukraine). The problem was that if the soft coup failed – as it now seems at least possible – it would be very hard to unleash a hard coup, Pinochet-style, via UW, against the beleaguered Rousseff administration; that is, finally accomplishing Full Hybrid War.
On a socioeconomic level, Car Wash would only be fully “successful” if mirrored by a softening up of Brazilian laws regulating oil exploration, opening it up for US Big Oil. And in parallel, all social spending programs would have to be smashed.
Instead, what’s happening now is the progressive mobilization of Brazilian civil society against a white coup/soft coup/regime change scenario. Crucial actors in Brazilian society are now firmly positioned against the impeachment of President Rousseff, from the Catholic church to evangelicals; first tier university professors; at least 15 state governors; masses of union workers and “informal economy” workers; artists; leading intellectuals; jurists; the overwhelming majority of lawyers; and last but not least, the “deep Brazil” that legally elected Rousseff with 54.5 million votes.
It ain’t over till some fat man in the Brazilian Supreme Court sings. What’s certain is that independent Brazilian academics are already laying down the theoretical bases to study Car Wash not as a mere, massive anti-corruption drive; but as the ultimate case study of Exceptionalistan’s geopolitical strategy applied to a sophisticated globalized environment dominated by infotech and social networks. The whole developing world should be fully alert – and learn the relevant lessons, as Brazil is bound to be analyzed as the ultimate case of Soft Hybrid War.
“politics is the continuation of war by linguistic means” – of course, how naive of me not to have understood this. Russia of course fights back from a better and more noble version of this understanding, and with great success in building peace, as opposed to fomenting war.
Sharmine Narwani has an excellent 2012 summary analysis of this US war document, very readable, with a couple of key diagrams of the stages of attack and their escalation path: Going Rogue: America’s Unconventional Warfare in the Mideast.
She also has a very recent piece at RT on the roots of the current Syrian conflict in 2011 as the practices and killings of this manual were applied to the unsuspecting Syrian nation. She illustrates the inevitable change in narrative, and also shows how to fight back against this now: How narratives killed the Syrian people.
I don’t mean to distract away from Pepe Escobar, who is deep in Brazilian politics and seems to be the very best source for what’s going on there. I wanted to offer a way to see the absolute, pure linkage between what we’ve seen in Syria and what we’re seeing in Brazil. Pepe is right – Brazil is the one to watch to understand the entire playbook.
I read the Going Rogue article not long ago. The link to the UW manual was interesting.
Page 1-4 shows a chart – an active minority for the cause, a passive majority, and an active minority against the cause.
Watching the passive majority in Syria, it seems most have sided with the Syrian government, and some have left the country – 4-5 million refugees, leaving just the active minority backed by the US, Saudi, Turkey ect, fighting the Syrian government and the large section of the passive majority who have sided with the Syrian government.
A ‘awakening’ seems to be happening in Brazil. . the large majority is gradually understanding what is going on and taking position against the attempt coup d’état. A recent poll suggests that more people now are against the coup than voted for the President.
A few hours ago, the larger party (PMDB) in the coalition that forms the government (PT + PMDB) has opted out of the coalition. Some say this is a fatal blow to the government. So, the coup attempt is going on…
But, in the alternative media, the messages have slowly changed to stronger calls for resistance, for struggle, for war if needed. Some are saying that this will only be solved by guns!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCwqsReYkEs
I am wondering about the mind battle terrain in terms of the Rio Olympics preparation now and its commencement this August. This must be in the Hegemon’s calculations.
What can be learned from the Sochi Winter Olympics? What was done by each side by way of moves in that corner of the Grand Chessboard? And today, in Brazil? A rallying point for Brazilian patriots, or a vulnerability which the Empire may exploit to the hilt?
as Astrologer under the northern sky I’m not prepared to tell more to someone in the south of our two halves than I did in german mundanes Tagebuch
what an aeon he is dwelling on different from our northern one
shure enough a brazilian essentially is living his southern halves fate, if he realizes it or not
and how these two halves should relate – conscious I bet – I’ m dearly awaiting my southern astrology brothers
go get into the picture
but so far and anyhow Pepe is a (non-astrological) answer
selfcomment: I said
“as Astrologer under the northern sky I’m not prepared to tell more to someone in the south of our two halves than I did in german mundanes Tagebuch”
so on that the link:
https://www.google.de/search?q=mundanes+Tagebuch,+s%C3%BCdhalbkugel&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=pNv6VpfMDMiwsAGNqoiABw
@ mundanomaniac
Was ist das??? Bist du nicht gesund?…
sehr gesund sogar
wer einmal Gott hinter dem Tierkreis
gefunden hat dem gehts sehr gut
quite healthy even
who once found God behind the zodiac
keeps quite well
Mmaniac, I see that besides Brazil, going east along the equator Gabon, F Rep Congo (whatever that is……) Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, southernmost tip of Somalia, Indonesia, and finally Ecuador (Equator…been at the monument a bit north of Quito that is in both Northern and Southern hemispheres, pictured here: http://www.roughguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/42-34639463-660×420.jpg) are on both sides of the Equator.
Peru also claims to have a tiny bit of its northern tip north of the equator, but Ecuador, disputes that territory: http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-3130,00.html
My question is: How does this affect your arcane knowledge as applied to these lands? Does it turn things topsy turvy for the affected lucky (or unlucky?) lands?
I recently read where the symbol of the cross has minimally a triple meaning:
1.) The wooden one Christ died on.
2.) The cross of the Zodiac that his astrotheological brothers (many were also “born” 3 days after the winter solstice, Dec 25th,and travelled the heavens centuries or millenia before him, dividing the constellations of the northern hemisphere into 4 groups of 3 constellations in each of Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall in a quadrant of seasons symbolized by a circle quartered by a cross, and finally, with an added degree of esoterica,
3.) The light of this world (sun or son, as you would have it) dipping below the equator at the Fall equinox and the coming into sight of the Southern Cross constellation for that Son, for the duration of he dark half of the Northern year, but the light half of the southern hemisphere year.
And there may be more meanings than that, for all I know.
All I DO know is that astrology is related to astronomy which is related to ancient mystery religions, which is related to ALL religions, especially strongly so, in terms of the 3 religions of “the desert sky” : Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And therefore something which I always scoffed at in the past, I now regard differently, neither naively taking it in, nor rigidly rejecting it, but rather curiously weighing it for what is wheat, and what is chaff. Any pointers?
Hi brother,
as to the civilizations around the equator, I confess, I have no answer except by the pure Geo-mathematical one, meaning, 0,1° south =south, 0,1° north=north. One thing is clear, there is only one Sun, Moon etc. for both hemispheres, but spring equinox is 20/21. in March in the north and 22/23. in September in the south.
The zone near the equator lacks our kind of seasons but has periods of wet – and dryness, also the day-/night-length doesn’t change significantly over the year.
In my opinion it’s up to the equatorial civilizations to emerge by themselves
relation to the gods of time. By the way, it’s known, that tribes still living the old natural ways (mostly in tropical zones) have quite little interest in the very often cloudy sky and the shining wanderers up there, as was similar with our forbears in the often cloudy tempered zones.
In my opinion astrology is a very old and very young discipline and I opened only one tiny door of that box of miracles. So I have no problem with having no answer to a lot of questions, being reserved for hundreds and thousands of coming generations.
But I realize it’s up to one, born under a Sun in Aquarius, to ask the remote questions.
Cheers
Mundanomaniac
History reveals a tendency to symmetry in hostile methods…how, one might ask, is hybrid war not applicable to the hostile state as well as to the targets of said hostile state?
Or is it a one-way function? I see no evidence that it is, and plenty of evidence that it works against any modern state – and works best against morally weak modern states – can you name one?
By allowing entrenched corruption to flourish the Rousseff govt. has called into question its legitimacy and opened itself up to vulnerabilities the U.S-Central bankers can exploit. The only recourse is to route corruption out, and be very public about it,which will in the long run enable Brazil to honour its own people. If this means Rousseff must hand off power to a firebrand of justice so be it if they truly wish to continue with a central bankers independent stance and ideology. No one should be bigger than the people’s needs. This is a all order that must be done….
Does this imply that the Great Leader of the “indispensable nation” will also have to eliminate corruption? If so, then what would remain? Just asking…
I have to correct you, BRF… The government of the Workers Party DID NOT ALLOW corruption, as you stated. On the contrary; it instituted a thorough process of investigation against corruption since 2003. Many corrupt politicians of all parties have been put in jail, and many have been accused of corruption, with investigation against them still going on.
This is actually one of the reasons why this attempt at a coup is happening – the corrupt politicians organized against the government, hijacked the process of investigation against corruption by infiltration, and started instead of accusing only the party in government of corruption. This is also where the MSM unashamedly displayed its partisan nature.
These corrupt politicians are now accusing the President of committing a crime she did not commit, and asking for her impeachment – since if she stays they will probably end up in jail.
The whole political conflict in Brazil is so absurd, and has been going on for so many years, that if a foreign interest is involved they must be not only very skilled, but also very patient…
let’s try this modified quote: “By allowing entrenched corruption to flourish the Oh-Bummer govt. has called into question its legitimacy and opened itself up to vulnerabilities the Russian and Chinesel bankers can exploit. The only recourse is to route corruption out, and be very public about it,which will in the long run enable Ah Murka to honour its own people. If this means Oh-Bummer must hand off power to a firebrand of justice so be it if they truly wish to continue with a central bankers independent stance and ideology. No one should be bigger than the people’s needs. This is a all order that must be done….”
Question: does the Ah Murka situation invite HW?
If so, will Ivan and his partners use the strategies pioneered by Ah-Murka?
Just asking….
Dear Saker and other guys.
This is a perfect example how does NOT rule a respectable nation. Pepe Escobar aim in the bullseye when he talk about the Brazilian politcs.
The two biggest mistakes of Lula and Dilma is:
1 – Keep feeding the Brazilian “presstitute” with almost US$ 3 billion per year in official advertising. Money used always in blatant lies and distortion of the facts. The height of ridiculousness was in 2008, when the country’s largest TV station called ” rede globo” put in the air a 20-minute story, totally biased and lying about Petrobras – the Brazilian Big Oil – and after, in the commercial break, a long advertisement about the huge discoveries of oil in 21th century of … YES! Petrobras!!!
2 – Not do a much needed political and justice system makeover.
Political: In Brazil, the politics parties system is a absolutelly mess! Nowadays, exists more than 30 parties, figthing in “all against all mode” for power and specialy positions in the government structure like ministries and state enterprises. This fact, de per si make the contry UNGOVERNABLE.
Justice system: Is a authoritarian and completely filled by people of the same ideology politics, and what is worse: Controlled by external powerfull interests.
So . . . how does Russia, China, India, etc fight against this? It seems to me that the only way to dethrone and defang the neocons is to neutralize their ability to create endless digital dollars that finance all their endless wars and corruption. The dollar must go as the reserve currency, otherwise it will continue to be used to set the world on fire.
Wayne Madsen suggests some steps to counter the Color Revolution threat, particularly as it is embodied by US billionaire George Soros:
“To combat Soros International and its American and Western European and Israeli sponsors, the answer is to create units that will 1) identify the threats; 2) employ active measures, including raids on Soros-financed offices and arrests of troublemaking ringleaders; 3) widely publicize the nature of the Soros operations and the organizations and individuals who are behind them; 4) permanently neutralize the threats under the guise of national security, anti-racketeering and anti-money laundering laws currently on the books, and conspiracy to commit street violence. Any measures that are less daunting will turn out to be quite useless.”
The Need for «CSO» Teams in Russia, Serbia, China, and Elsewhere
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/08/the-need-for-cso-teams-in-russia-serbia-china-and-elsewhere.html
Great analysis of destabilization in action in Brazil. The hijacking of emotions to supplant logic is key to all this. A compliant media and paid congressman are all key to this application of chaos.
It’s unfortunate world development is managed in a zero-sum competition, with the established elite bloodying whole societies to maintain uni-polarity. There can be no doubt, now, who the terrorists are and who are the victims.
What’s interesting to think about for me to think about, as an American… What’s stopping this Hybrid War from being applied to US population? Indeed, if there is a desire to maintain a status quo or uni-polar state of affairs.. then this would be an appropriate tool. And I can only imagine if the CIA/NSA find it a successful method abroad, then certainly it’s use here would be tested.
As debt levels increase, available jobs decrease (due to robotic modernization, offshoring, etc, to uphold profits) and general dissatisfaction rises – how would our leaders maintain control?
The list of factors exploited in this hybrid war, from Andrew Korybko, with my own US examples:
*ethnicity (Hispanic/African vs. European white, Native vs. Arabs fear mongering via concocted false terror; Black lives matter)
*religion (Christian vs. Muslim, Atheism vs. Religion)
*history (New-found racism of historic figureheads like Jefferson, old dead white guys, etc);
*administrative boundaries (Government land grabs via BLM; unilateral Federal actions against state’s individual interpretation and laws (e.g. gay marriage legalization; stealth-annulment of second amendment);
*socio-economic disparity (Class warfare in the US – 99% vs. 1%; Obamacare for the poor vs. taxes on the upper class)
*physical geography (Liberal Coast vs. “Uneducated South”)
Which leads me to the Presidential election season. If the overall goal is denying significant change in the way things are run, either via control of the debt level, auditing of the FED, unilateral military action against other nations…then election is likely a major event in that regard.
Since the media in the US is complicit and runs common narratives, then the only conclusion is the election is a tool of chaos and no change can be expected.
@Pepe…Brilliant. Again.
@Nils…I believe you are absolutely correct on all counts–excellent logical thinking–hat tip to you!
I see this ‘new’ type of warfare as being the latest iteration of a continuously-evolving warfare scheme that has been in the making for a long time–I believe for decades and in some cases for generations–almost like a family business or enterprise run ‘in the dark’, with no transparency at all.
Snowden’s revelations were more of an exercise in finally proving long-held allegations and beliefs than ones of discovery, at least to me. I believe the most important fact he revealed is also among the least discussed–the $52 billion budget for black ops alone in the 2014 US budget, an amount so enormous, most of us can’t begin to comprehend its likely destructive magnitude, and ‘no one’ really knows, because it is supposed to be a highly-compartmentalized secret. Though admittedly I do not know the actual-factual amounts, perhaps with ‘guesstimates’ I can try to add my perspective and hopefully help to make some sense of it: (figures in US $)
2014 black operations budget was documented at $52 billion US dollars, rounded down to 51 billion to make it easier.
I speculate that one third is lost, stolen, wasted and used for other “administrative” costs; ($17 billion dollars), one third used for R & D, and people and equipment to wage war on targeted nations; and one third to bribe and subvert significant ‘others’ in each and every nation around the world. Regardless of exactly how–$52 billion was spent on black ops that year.
Divide that ($17 billion) amount by the approximate number of nations (~200) resulting in ~$85 million dollars per each-and-every-nation, just for subversion/corrupting/bribes. Friends or foes. In times of conflict or not. A floating slush fund to control whomever one chooses–many nations at a time–and it has been going on since the inception of the CIA back in the late forties, growing with the times and as circumstances (and the empire) dictate. More or less. Even under Carter.
Understand that average incomes around the world (in 2014) vary from averaging less than $1000 (>2 doz.)per year to Switzerland’s ~$85,000 per year, and everywhere (USA $54,600/yr) in-between. Also, think of how little it takes for some people to become corrupted–even (or especially?) those prominent so-called upper-crust people. Understand also that one has only to be corrupted once to be corrupted forever, especially if the act was professionally well-documented (as it will be). (Funny thing–most people don’t seem to like traitors, and/or those who would dis-serve their nation for any reason, and the threat of revealing past corruption to the remaining opposition press or administrations can be quite ‘compelling’ to those corrupted, and their families as well.)
Think of having a long-term continually-active campaign to subversively ‘enlist’ prominent movers and shakers of contentious issues in each country, and include people of all (or both) sides.
Think that if positions held were hereditary in nature, that families being multi-generationally corrupted is not beyond the pale, but likely–especially the owners/leaders–the elite of all stripes.
Think that the mechanisms for such manipulations are in motion in any nation that matters to the empire for whatever reason is believed to be important to that empire. In reality, the whole notion of the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) is a huge ironic joke on the world.
Think also of other empire-driven entities known as non-governmental-organizations that are often funded by government(s) to fulfill secret government directives surreptitiously, in lieu of direct-but-illegal means. (USAID now doing what the CIA normally used to do before USAID.)
Think of the support for subservient media that can then economically destroy their competition, and the resultant effect upon peoples thoughts and beliefs through covert propaganda.
Pepe uses Brazil as his prime example, which is entirely appropriate. Let me add to that neighboring Bolivia, that has recently experienced soft coup attempts resulting in the defeat of a referendum constitutionally-allowing the possible extension of Pres. Morales for an additional five years, if re-elected by the people in an ordinary election cycle. Also in Honduras, when then Sec.of State Clinton oversaw the soft-coup of the democratically-elected Zalaya. And the short-lived coup of Pres. Chavez of Venezuela. And now his successor Madura, using the same M.O. And the on-going attempted soft-coup of Ecuadorean Pres. Correa. And Haiti again/yet/still/often with Marines–after the French were expelled. And it goes on and on like that, especially south of the border–with constantly-updated hypothetical plans soft and/or hard and individually-designed per each and every nation, all over the world. John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” suggests that he was only one of many in the CIA doing that kind of work.
The US is an empire in aspiration, progress or fact–no matter how one might wish it to be otherwise.
Others’ helpful-insightful thoughts are greatly appreciated–I live to learn.
locoto
Hybrid War is merely one component of American’s Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine–which is to say permanent American dominance of the world.
The Americans are Machiavellian in the extreme and will manipulate EVERY tool in order to subvert, destablilize, and ultimtately subjugate any nation that is an obstacle to America’s lust for global dominance.
This is what the Americans really mean when they spout their propaganda about (snicker) “championing democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.”
America-style democracy is a weasel word phrase for American global dictatorship.
In the case of Brazil, America is playing the Corruption Card in order to undermine the Brazilian government. Needless to say, America’s agents of influence have infested Brazil at the level of the courts, big business, media, and even some of the military.
“Langley’s Latest Themed Revolution: the Yellow Duck Revolution in Brazil”
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/24/langleys-latest-themed-revolution-the-yellow-duck-revolution-brazil.html
The Americans have been waging “hybrid war” against the BRICS nations for years, and the USA has been laying the ground work for this particular attack against Brazil.
“Obama prepares to smash BRICS during his last few years in office”
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/05/obama-prepares-smash-brics-during-his-last-few-years-office.html
In addition to being part of BRICS, another reason why the Americans are eager to “regime change” Brazil is that it has been planning to build an underwater cable to carry internet trafftic from Brazil to Europe and the rest of the world–a cable that will bypass the United States and thus be harder for US spook agencies like the Nazi … sorry, National Security Agency to penetrate and hack.
And if there is anything that sends the USA into a rug-chewing fit is any nation that declares its independence from the claws of the American Empire of Chaos.
“Brazil to bypass US-centric internet amid spy revelations” http://217.218.67.229/detail/2013/09/17/324520/brazil-to-bypass-uscentric-internet/#sthash.OiMFPAQ8.dpuf
“Brazil plans to go offline from US-centric internet”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/brazil-plans-to-go-offline-from-uscentric-internet/article5137689.ece
Awesome post,,,I totally concur.
Also, I appreciate your urls.
Couldn’t have said it better.
locoto
But there´s a catch. This corruption war is an endless war, much like the wars in ME. The goal of the ultimate perpetrators of this “white coup” is not to take out the current government, but to make the country freeze. Both the gov and the opposition have corruption charges. The outsiders (the usual suspects), cited recently by Russia (“destructive external meddling”), are using the old divide and conquer strategy with the civil population in Brazil, this time targeting the class struggle. The wealth gap, as you all know, is huge in this country and there´s a hate factor (some in the middle class even calling for a fascist dictatorship) between rich and the poor.
Being South African I’m always very interested in BRICS, the potential is huge and it is the only possibility for economic recovery in my generation, i think. We have a kleptocracy that would make the british blush, and i have no doubt we are still firmly pawns of the empire.
It’s so bad that we laugh at CIA interference, because the ruling ANC couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery, excuse the expression. If you don’t believe me, google the sign language translator at mandela’s funeral. An idiot who couldn’t even do sign language stood 2 meters behind obama.
I could tell you about the white genocide, families tortured and murdered daily in their homes, babies and grannies raped and hacked to death. truth is everyone is being murdered, black and white. 45 murders per day for a population of 50 million, work it out. Our traffic death toll is higher.
A personal belief is that somehow we’re a template for Europe, flood a country with dispossessed foreigners and soon you have Orwell’s future. Zimbabwe next door is a cesspit, saved only by the amazing people who live there. Yet Mugabe who is 92 (?) shook Abe Shinzo’s hand yesterday.
WTF?
Zuma has spent more time with Putin than with any other leader, bringing back “signed” multi-trillion rand contracts for nuclear power stations. Zuma has been called corrupt by the high courts, but still laughs in parliment while opposition members are forcefully ejected from the house which is an illegal act.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Help me here, what’s the bigger picture for South Africa?
Thanks Saker for another great article.
Wow – just wow. Are you for real?
Pepe writes another good article and you decide to ask about South Africa – but wait – not the way one would think – no – you use this to show your true colours. Walk a mile in any indigenous South African’s shoes during Aparthied. The theft of all their land and resources by Europeans – who then made them 3rd class citizens in their own country. Denied them education, homes, property etc. Forced them to live in shanty towns. Shall we talk about the genocide during all those years before Aparthied and during?
Just look at the US and Europe if you want to see corruption.
Your racism is very tangible.You try to cover it up with follow on sentences – but it is very clear. It is a shame you have used this comment to vent your own spleen rather than really caring about the BRICS.
Hi Veritas, A very naive comment. You could say the same for ISIS and al Qaeda and any of those groups. Poor downtrodden people.
Distinguish criminals from those fighting for a cause. Though perhaps the likes of ISIS could be said to be fighting for a cause – to convert everyone to their warped form of religion.
A few years ago when my father was 86 he was beaten into a coma. A neighbor saw a man walk into his back yard, knock him down and then started jumping on his head. Took off when the neighbour ran over.
It turns out this man had been released on bail only 2 hours before hand for a vicious assault on a sixty year old woman. As his criminal background was covered by a gag order, I managed to contact the woman that had been assaulted. She had answered a knock at the door and was knocked down as soon as she opened the door. Suffered broken bones in here face.
I spent some time trying to track this mans past. His history seemed to start at age 18 when he was arrested for a machete attack in which the victim suffered machete wounds to the head.
A couple of similar incidents appeared in the news around that time for violent assault until he was arrested for sexual assault of a young girl and all details of his criminal activities from that time onwards was suppressed by a gag order.
Every time he was arrested he was released on bail for the simple reason he was part aboriginal and the presiding Judge that he usually appeared before believed that sending young aboriginals to jail only made them worse.
On this occasion he was not released again and received 4 years jail. He is somebody who will not change and will do the same again once he is released.
David pointed out that it is both blacks and whites being murdered in South Africa and I have also read this elsewhere.
Veritas is spot on in regards to the commenter from South Africa.
Being born and raised in South Africa, I can tell you that there are many white South Africans that are patriotic and do their bit for their country. Many others are very bitter that they have to share even a token of wealth with ‘the blacks’, to put it politely. And let us not speak of those oh-so-oppressed white Zimbabweans, I know them well. They did enjoy their genocide over the native population from time of their great leader Cecil Rhodes – both they and British cannot forgive Mugabe for beating them in the war.
By the way, it is absolutely clear that the same forces that have let in all sorts of dregs and criminals into the EU over the last several decades did so in South Africa. To blame the change from apartheid to democratic governing structure for the deteriorating security situation after the 1994 elections is absolutely disengenuous. Anyboy who has any analytical capacity should consider the true reasons why the situation has been able to get this bad.
And by the way, the main structures of the South African economy are still firmly in the hands of the old white ruling elite – many of whom who manage their businesses from abroad. Mandela made a deal – this deal is such public knowledge that it was even acknowledged on Australian TV channel SBS during a documentary about Mandela just before the 2010 football world cup kicked off.
I say to any white South Africans, or black South Africans, or any other type, look at what is happening closely and remember that you have more in common with your fellow working class or middle class folk than those that rule and manipulate from above.
The commenter is correct in that there has been alot of violence directed towards certain vulnerables sections of the white community in South Africa, as well as other communities, and this absolutely unacceptable. But the route cause is not Zuma or the ANC. The cause is who is pushing them behind the scenes.
Also, thank goodness for Pepe Escobar and the other honest and truthful Brazilians that are getting the truth out about what is really going on there. I saw that Chinese CCTV had a segment on their show ‘The Heat’ regarding the Brazil soft coup and Don Debar and Eric Draitsler discussed Brazil – and to some extent South Africa – in great and interesting detail.
BRICS Under Attack: Soft Coup in Brazil, US Proxies Move Against ANC in South Africa
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiuFj5Z7keQ
You will get some interesting goodies about who is behind the ‘young leaders’ in both Brazil and South Africa.
“To blame the change from apartheid to democratic governing structure for the deteriorating security situation after the 1994 elections is absolutely disingenuous”
Nowhere did david say that. There seems to be a very naive notion that a people that have been oppressed will become perfect citizens when oppression is removed.
Working in the Kimberly region of Australia for several years I saw a lot of racism. It was so bad that it was very difficult to get some workers as they did not trust whites at all. It was a slow process. First an old man that was sick of sitting around in the community asked if he could come and work for me. He couldn’t do much, drive a vehicle from place to place if I needed a vehicle moved and that sort of thing. I supplied his smokes a couple of beers each night at camp and some pocket money to go to town. His middle aged friend contacted him to see what I was like to work for and then he also came and worked for me. After some time, a young man that I had asked if he wanted a job (I was keen to get him as he was very switched on and a lot of natural ability) talked with his uncles, the two that were already working for me, and asked if he come and work for me. after the end of the first season most of the younger men from the two nearby communities were asking for a job.
Apart from what I had actually seen that was an eye opener for me as to just how bad racism was in that part of Australia. White owned properties were trying to get workers from as far away as New Zealand as the locals would not work for them.
White racism? The middle aged man when he introduced himself, told me he was an alcoholic. It was never an issue. we had a couple of beers after work each night and he never asked for more.
When we went to town for a long weekend, the elders at the community told me I would never get him back out of town once he got on the booze. Come Monday morning I pull up at the servo to fuel up the truck before loading up with supplies.and D turns up beside me before I even had the fuel cap off asking when I was leaving. He was already well tanked and took a bit of convincing that I still had to load up with supplies and would not leave him behind. He was out of money so I give him a bit more, so to fill in time he heads off and gets another flask of wine. Mid afternoon I’m loaded up and ready to go, so I drive round town looking for both D and the old bloke. (the young bloke had not come into town) They were easy to find as they were both keeping an eye out for me as well. Finding D walking down the street I pull over to pick him up.
A police car pulls up beside me. In it was an aboriginal policeman. He abused me for consorting with a drunk abo and wanted to cart D away. It took awhile to convince him that D worked for me and we were heading back out to the job.
In that area there was a body called the Aboriginal land Council. It was composed entirely of aboriginal people and all government funding for various community projects was given to them to disperse as they saw fit.
Most of the funding went to personal real estate projects of the aboriginal; officials of the ALC. They were corrupt as they come and screwing there own people.
The aboriginal people who wished to be out in the communities away from the drugs and booze were being screwed by their own people.
You think those that were screwing their own people were doing it because of racism by whites?
Same thing will be happening in South Africa to a lesser or greater degree.
@Peter AU on March 30, 2016 · at 6:11 am UTC
“To blame the change from apartheid to democratic governing structure for the deteriorating security situation after the 1994 elections is absolutely disingenuous”
Nowhere did david say that.
***
On the contrary, that is David’s entire position. No matter how many anecdotes you give about events in Australia, they have no relevance to the way events played out and continue to unwind in South Africa.
***
@Peter AU on March 30, 2016 · at 6:11 am UTC
“There seems to be a very naive notion that a people that have been oppressed will become perfect citizens when oppression is removed.”
There is no such notion, not in what I wrote above. I am sorry to say, but you clearly have a pre-conception and are trying to shoehorn South Africa into that pre-conception.
I think the main reason for your misconception is that you do not have a clear understanding of several things. Firstly, the history of Boer-African and British-Boer-African relations. That is step one. Step two is understanding the necessity for the Cape to Cairo system of control. Thirdly, understanding of the broader context of colonial exploitation in its myriad forms in South Africa. Fourth, the nature of the ANC, the reason Mandela was not executed and the repercussions of his eventual release and rise to power ahead of then current ANC powerbrokers – this includes the ‘Free Mandela’ propaganda campaign. Fifth, the repercussions of the Mandela policy to leave the status quo as is, in terms of big business. Sixth, the difference between a South African black bourgeois class and working class black people. There are many other points you would have to study to understand South Africa and what is going on now, because there is a lot of context to consider.
Please consider research of these details and I am sure you will find a better understanding of the situation then and now.
What is the cause of the extremely high rate of murders in South Africa if the majority are not purely criminal activity. Links?
Thanks Student and Peter AU for being constructive. I will try get to that video asap :)
Since calling me racist is both incorrect and irrelevant, I have to wonder why it’s the only thing i hear lately. It’s a very particular form of censorship which is intended to create an obligation on my part, one which i recognise and should immediately try and atone for. This obligation requires no proofs, explanations or anything actually, other than an accuser, usually someone practicing historical & racial misappropriation, like veritas above.
Sometimes i feel that the singular goal of the ANC is and always has been, the complete destruction of South Africa’s mineral and human potential. The entire topic is covered by some invisible thought crime rules, apartheid was not the Vietnam war, Russian purges, Chinese cultural revolutions, South American mass killings, or any other one of the 20th centuries most horrific incidents. The ANC bombed civilian targets the same as what daesh is doing in europe today, and one day when these migrants vote the Europeans will have SharEU law.
I’ll stop now, certainly don’t want any more cries of racism against me, and i also have to admit writing this after reading The Saker’s EU rant, maybe this is in the wrong thread. With such excellent articles on other BRICS countries, i am still unable to unravel my home countries global threads.
Is it possible, using the timing of the US coup in Ukraine – February 2014, the closing of the Sochi Olympics – the US would be planning some action this summer, as Brazil is occupied with the summer Olympics? Just asking.
I don’t expect the action to take place in Brazil. Southwest Asia is still the hot spot, and anything that happens there will shake the entire world. Rouseff will be holding the bag when the global economy goes down the toilet.
The link to the Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual does not work. The link below it , on the word “interpreted” also does not work. Dead links.
Here’s the link to the UW manual
http://www.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/Special_Forces_Report.pdf
I only hope Pepe’s optimism about the future of Brazil is justified. I have just read the following, from 29 March 2019 RT News, https://www.rt.com/news/line/ :
19:10 GMT
Brazil’s President Roussef’s main partner quits coalition govt
The Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) party has quit President Dilma Rousseff’s coalition government. PMDB has announced late on Tuesday that it would no longer participate in the current government. The decision was made during a leadership meeting, where it was agreed that the six remaining PMDB ministers in Rousseff’s cabinet must resign or face ethics proceedings. The move could deepen the country’s political crisis and push the embattled left-wing leader into impeachment. Impeachment proceedings against Rousseff are based on a government watchdog’s rejection of her administration’s financial books and on a report suggesting that violations of Brazil’s fiscal laws had taken place. The widening corruption probe surrounding state-run oil company Petrobras has turned many against Rousseff. A recent poll by Brazil’s Datafolha institute showed that 68 percent of Brazilians favor Rousseff’s impeachment, but only 11 percent believe they would be better off under her main rival, Michel Temer.
One thing that the Brazilian case has underlined for me is the extreme importance, if you’re going to be a government (leftist or not) that resists the Empire, of doing something about the media. Highly centralized media owned by big time billionaires who are aligned with global elites are perhaps the core component of all the color revolution/Unconventional war efforts, both foreign and by the local comprador elites.
At an absolute minimum, any government that wants to run policies oriented towards national goals needs to create and enforce stringent media concentration rules, breaking up the big media empires. Even that probably isn’t enough.
If it’s a leftist government like the Bolivarians in Venezuela, I would advocate
1. Break up media concentration into bite-sized chunks
2. Expropriate the chunks, whether all at once or one by one
3. Radically flatten the management structures (in the process, sack the elite parasites at the top)
4. Spin off most of them as co-operatives, handed over to the people who work at them. Maybe nationalize a few if the government lacks communication channels of its own.
5. This is the most unusual: Set up a public funding policy of rough advertising-replacement. That is, figure some calculations of how much advertising revenue media companies normally take in for a given amount of circulation (with some nuances for different formats, whether paper, web-based or what) and set up a public option: For any given media outlet, it can choose to forgo advertising revenue in favour of roughly equivalent public funding. Or it can stick to ads.
Why such a policy? Because for nearly all media, their model is not really to sell content to readers/viewers, it is to sell readers/viewers to advertisers. Even a co-operative in our economy is captive to their advertisers and cannot displease them and still make a profit. For media with different points of view to genuinely flourish, for anything to be able to challenge the corporate media model with any success, some alternative to advertising as the main source of revenue is necessary. I can think of other possible models, but the point is to get a result where advertising is not the only or even the primary game in town.
Not only MSM but “social media” For any of these countries resisting “empire” having control of the internet is essential. Similar to the so called great firewall of China. I don’t like that thought, but that is what has to be done.
target….br_cs
*It should come as no surprise that major moves have been taken in the last 12 to 24 months to undermine each BRICS member nation and destabilize them through political and economic means. And it is no coincidence that those leaders shown smiling and shaking hands at recent BRICS summits are now either the targets of destabilization efforts and subversion – as in the cases of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa [aka br_cs] or are a target of a military and political charm offensive, as in the case of India. In each case, the United States and its allies benefit significantly from the latest developments.
………………………….
The next article in this series will examine the destabilizing forces reaching into South Africa. Future pieces will examine the growing military relationship between the U.S. and India, as well as the multi-faceted strategies to contain, isolate, and destabilize Russia and China.*
http://www.globalresearch.ca/brics-under-attack-the-empire-strikes-back-in-brazil/5516634
I wonder about South Africa. Near as I can figure it, South Africa’s elites are owned by transnational capital lock, stock, and barrel. Any destabilization is likely if anything to help the generally leftist organizations fighting for change from below, if only by loosening the existing elites’ grip on the controls.
im not familiar with sa development.
may be u want to write a critique of the sa piece when it
come out ?
Good article Pepe.
You quote the 2010 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual.
“The intent of US [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish US strategic objectives…”
As we’ve seen over the decades, the role of the military, security and intelligence agencies have been crucial when it comes to overthrowing popular governments. Chile 1973 is a good example. In Venezuela, 2002, when Chavez was detained during a coup attempt, it wasn’t just the popular mobilization that saved him and the Bolivarian revolution, but if I recall correctly, military units came to his aid.
So an important question is this. Where do the military, the police, and the intelligence agencies stand? Who are the officers allegiance with? The people or the oligarchs? For in the past they have always sided with the oligarchs.
What will Russia, China and the BRICS do about this. What if they apply the same pressure on the US and western political systems. Theses systems are totally corrupt, unjust, dysfunctional, therefore
So why not a color revolution in US, why not some separatism in US, why not a revolt, why should the poor get robbed and killed in wars to enrich the ultra rich, how many of the bankers kids have died for their country in the last two hundred years?
Russia and China could in retaliation destabilise US allies like Turkey and Israel, by heavily arming Kurds, Palestinians and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and by financing right wing opposition parties in Europe, and who can in turn start their own media. The heavy cost of countering this will be borne by the US. Another destabiliser would be to arm to the teeth South American nations like Brazil and the other leftist govts; arm and station nuclear missiles in Cuba..again.
Pepe, leio sempre teus textos e, em sua maioria acho-os explanativos e muito bem fundamentados. Mas desta vez, discordo. Não importa como se deu a descoberta do Petrolão. Importa que ele existe e de uma maneira nunca vista (isso sem contar BNDES, Eletrobrás, Fundos de Pensão, etc…). Importa que o governo atual está enfiado até as tampas no processo de corrupção. Claro que sabemos que corrupção sempre existe. Mas não na magnitude e tão espraiada como atualmente.Está em todos os níveis e em todos os atores (não só do PT). Infelizmente, não acredito que irá desvendar tudo e punir todos. Não sou ingênuo a esse ponto. Porém, se ao menos conseguirmos uma diminuição e deixar a sensação que não será mais tão fácil meter a mão no bolso dos meus impostos, já terá valido a pena.
Abraços
Translation from Portuguese:
epe, always read your texts and mostly I find them explanativos and well founded. But this time, I disagree. No matter how was the discovery of Petrolão. It is important that it exists and in a way never seen (not counting BNDES, Eletrobrás, pension funds, etc …). It is important that the current government is stuck to the covers in the corruption process. Of course we know that there is always corruption. But not in magnitude and as sprawling as atualmente.Está at all levels and all stakeholders (not only the PT). Unfortunately, I do not think that will unravel everything and punish everyone. I’m not naive to that. However, if at least we get a decrease and let the feeling is not so easy to put the hand in the pocket of my taxes will have been worth it.
Hugs
It´s good that the corrupt people are getting their deserved jail time. But it´s terrible If some use this momentum to imprison people that are not even investigated for corruption, like the president Dilma. Now that´s a coup.
Exactly! Despite, it is wrong to say that corruption has never been worse in Brazil. It has been the same or worse – We do not know because there were no investigations. The Workers Party is doing a great job, although under the rage of the opposition after they lost the elections. They want to break the democratic ‘social pact’. They will have war instead, if they succeed. The people will not accept it quietly…
Brazilian patriots should mobilise to march on the capital in their millions and evict both the Congress and the Supreme court, institutions that have been auctioned by gangsters to the highest bidder – the predatory US Govt. It is up to Brazilians to reclaim and defend their democracy and independence, or end up becoming slaves forever. Outsiders will only help you if you show that you can help yourselves.
Off topic, but still worth printing, imho. This is a comment on Escobar’s FB page, on his view of China:
You can call China WalMartistan, they’re as brutally neoliberal as the US and have been the main accomplice’s to the attack on labor by outsourcing, in many countries. I generally like Escobar’s articles but on China he lacks perspective in a big way. Despite all their bullshit about ‘plans’ and far-seeing wisdom,their economy is based on what it has always been based on: selling out to multi-national corporations as their slave labor, stealing technology, pirating everything under the sun, dumping goods in other countries and the MASSIVE theft of national industries and finance under Dung’s inner circle, who still control most everything. Escobar’s China writing reads like the stereotype of the hard-working, inscrutable Asian, and his depictions of the fascist kleptocratic leaders reads like some cheesy description of Kung Fu masters, or fairy tale heroes. Fascism is essentially the state at the service of it’s corporations and China is more in service than the US, not to mention it is INFINITELY more repressive. Domestically, Americans can say and do whatever they want to – we are free, no matter what anyone tries to say. So what is this giddy cheerleading about? Unless of course someone is making money as an PR agent to write this stuff. Most Chinese are forced to work sixteen hour shifts, live in factory slums, and cheerfully submit to ‘morning exercises’ led by the foreman, and they’re transferring this model to Africa! This is of course, approved by the multinationals who would do it(and have done it) in their own countries if they could still get away with it. All that, while a few rich Chinese flaunt their wealth with the most vulgar consumption imaginable, even by western standards, stashing all of their money and investments in the West. Did all that cement go to build those vast empty cities? Why not write something about that? The ONLY reason to be satisfied with China’s growth is that a multi-polar world with many powerful countries is a safer world, and better for general economics. Aside from that, please try to get some perspective when writing about China, and remember: VIVA WALMARTISTAN! VIVA IPHONEISTAN! VIVA PHONYGUCCIBAGISTAN
That comment sounds like the typical exceptionalist delusions of American supremacist, albeit one disguised as a US “progressive” who pays lip service to multipolarism–perhaps a Demorat Party/Bernie Sanders supporter.
So-called “neoliberalism” is what America is preeminently guilty of inflicting on the world.
And it’s more popularly known by the propaganda phrase “American freedom and democracy”–or in more technical terms, the Washington Consensus.
Even former NSA spook John Perkins has documented how the United States has pushed these rapacious policies on the world for decades in his book _CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONMIC HITMAN_.
And the American “freedom” that this guy congratulates himself about is essentially based upon subjugating and exploiting other nations–including the workers of countries like China.
That is what enables the American Way of Life to exist–without which, the United States would economically degenerate back to its true repressive state, such as symbolized by the era of American chattel slavery upon which the self-styled (snicker) “Land of the Free” was founded.
For instance, Americans instinctively engage in nationalist whining about outsourcing because they want to spindoctor this topic as a question of “foreigners stealing Amurikan jobs” instead of the real issue: America’s capitalist system exploiting foreign workers.
After all, who makes the I-Phones, electronics, and other goods that parasitic American consumers use?
Vladimir Putin best described America’s relationship to the rest of the world when he called the United States a parasite on the global economy (which is one more reason why America vilifies Putin so much and is desperate to get him).
U.S. is a ‘parasite’ on the world economy and a threat to financial markets, says Putin
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021494/U-S-debt-crisis-America-parasite-world-economy-says-Vladimir-Putin.html
Yankeestan ain’t nothing more than a bloodsucking parasite disguised as a democracy.
Another possible trigger of the attacks on Roussef:
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/brazil-rejects-israeli-appointed-ambassador.74705/
Indeed. 4 bank accounts of Cunha’s were frozen in Switzerland, but another one of his was discovered in Israel and was said to be the one used for the bribes at Petrobras.