Soon a daily “Iraq SITREP” on the Saker blog!
Dear friends,
Many of you have probably noticed that one of our regular readers and commentators, Mindfriedo, has been posting very interesting updates about the situation in Iraq. In fact, his posts were so interesting that I have asked him to “upgrade” them to full SITREPs to be posted alongside Juan’s and mine. Mindfriedo has agreed to do so and, God willing, his SITREPs should begin appearing here today or tomorrow.
A huge “thank you!!!” to Mindfriedo for agreeing to keep us all informed.
An apology for being mono-thematic
I want to use this opportunity to apologize to all those who might be frustrated with the fact that this blog, which used to be multi-topic and cover resistance to empire everywhere, has turned into a 99% Ukraine-centered one. I can only offer two explanations for this: first, I do believe that what is happening in the Ukraine is, at the moment, by far the most important flashpoint on the planet and that the outcome of this conflict will decide the future of Russia and, therefore, of the entire “Eurasian project” and, second, I am only one man doing it all on my so-called ‘free’ time i.e., what is left after I am done with my regular job, my family (wife and three kids) and my studies (which I have totally neglected since the conflict began). I am barely able to run this blog as it is now (I am late on replying to emails, I am late on backing up this blog, I am late on getting translations done, etc.) and I end up literally lacking sleep. I simply *cannot* deal with other topics right now. However, I am exhausted, but not blind and I understand that what is happening now in Iraq is absolutely huge. Likewise, there are many other flashpoints and conflicts which would deserve coverage here which are not getting it simply because this is still very much a “one man show”.
So, again, I want to express my immense gratitude to Juan and Mindfriedo for their literally invaluable help because I sure could not do what I do without their help!
Note to Saker Correspondents and Translators:
Guys, I have not contacted you in a while simply because I was too busy and also because the blog is primarily focused on one region right now (Russia/Ukraine). But I appreciate you being on “standby” – thank you.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO RUSSIAN SPEAKERS:
I don’t know if any of you have the time and desire to help with this, but I am badly in need of a “translation coordinator”. Right now, in theory, there are eight of you “Saker Russian-English translators”, but in reality it has been very hard to get you to react or to organize a collaborative effort between you. In fact, the latest translation for this blog has been done by two volunteers (‘G’ and ‘M’) who are not even officially part of the Russian translators team. And yet, if I had to name the one thing which this blog needs most at this point I would say the ability to rapidly translate from Russian into English, especially videos. Ideally, we would need to set up the following capability:
1) a “translations manager/coordinator” to whom I could send out translations requests.
2) a group of Russian->English translators who could split up the work and get it done in a short time (their work being coordinator by the “translations manager”).
3) a person capable of subtitling a video and uploading it to YouTube, DailyMotion or any other media hosting side with embedding capability.
This would make it possible for me to send out a translation request and get back the code needed to embed the translated and subtitled video in the blog.
I want to insist that this is an extremely important job because the current “lukewarm” war between the AngloZionist Empire and Russia is first and foremost an informational war. The US propaganda machine gets away with murder because of the language barrier and because the “other side’s” point of view is simply ignored. The role of the blogosphere is HUGE here. In France, for example, the videos of Alain Soral get more hits than official French TV channels! Now, my modest blog is not quite there, not by a long stretch, but I do get anywhere between 30’000 and 35’000 hits per day which is not bad for a one man blog. And since some of my detractors have accused me of lying about this, here is a recent screenshot to prove this:
click to enlarge |
But the numbers don’t tell the full story. Because I maintain a “Saker’s friends” low-volume mailing list, which I use from time to time to draw the attention to a post or make an announcement, I know for a fact that there are quite a few very well known personalities who read this blog and who would immensely benefit from being able to get some crucial documents/videos translated into English.
Now I am fully aware that this is a job which should be done by well-paid professionals, but what can I do if RT, Regnum, RIA-NOVOSTI and the rest of them do not understand this? Even the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is extremely slow in its translations! These guys clearly don’t “get it”. Yesterday I was trying to find a transcript or a subtitled video of Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller’s very important statement about the Ukrainian issue and I found *nothing*. This is insane: even the multi-billion dollar giant Gazprom does not know how to get its message out! And it’s not only a Russian problem – Hezbollah has still not arranged for a rapid and high quality translation of Hassan Nasrallah’s speeches into English (translations of his speeches and the subtitling of his videos are still made by volunteers!). The sad reality is that the “public information” of the Resistance to the Empire desperately *sucks*. That is sad, but true. Both Russia and Iran are awash with money and yet they don’t seem to be able to organize even a halfway effective professional translation and information service.
Anyway – all this is to say that if we could set up a “translations/subtitling committee” run by a dedicated “translations manager/coordinator” we could really make a difference. However, I personally cannot do it and unless somebody spontaneously decides to make this happen it simply won’t. I wish this was not a “one guy blog” but a well financed group of full-time professionals working together, but so far no philanthropist has offered to finance such an effort so “crowd-sourcing” and relying on idealist volunteers is my only option.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO FRENCH SPEAKERS:
A French lady, Claude, has asked me to pass on the following information to all of you:
Dear Saker,
Several people like me have already translated some of your posts in French and wonder if something more formal could be implemented. The goal would be to avoid spending time translating an article while somebody else is already doing it, or when not knowing what to do with the translation. Personally I have already translated three of your posts and sent them to the site “Comité Valmy”. They published two of them but not the third one, then I stopped translating.
Some time ago you asked for correspondents in various parts of the globe. Several were French/French-speaking and I was the only one to live in France, so I feel I must take some initiative if I want your blog to be more widely known to the French public. I am not particularly eager to do this and I’ll be happy to leave the initiative to whoever wants to take it. But, if nobody wants to do it, I’ll be willing to take the initiative.
What I have in mind is:
* a site named for instance vineyardsaker.fr with a wordpress blog on it. It is easy with wordpress to have several authors.
* a button on your blog with “French” written on it, linked to this blog.
* a minimum of dedicated persons translating your posts, with a well implemented schedule
* an agreement of some of your commentators to write comments, in French or in English on this blog. In English with a few words of French, as for instance what Nora did when she wished you “bonnes vacances”. A blog without comments doens’t inspire a real confidence, and it will take some time to build up a French readership together with commentators.
* may be, if you could give some of your time to this site, a French actualisation of what you wrote in the sidebar. This would be very important and wouldn’t take much of your time.
Things are becoming truly horrible in Novorossia. They are horrible everywhere. As you said, we are already in a “lukewarm war” and this war is been fought not only by arms but also by words. So, if you say “Aux armes, citoyens”, this has to be understood as an appeal to allow people to understand what is really going on. A translation of your blog should be done in every European langage, since the UE is playing an important role and makes all what is possible to hide it.
Thank you for making my proposal available to your readers.
Best wishes,
Claude (contact email: claude.roddier@orange.fr)
Again, Claude has my deepest gratitude and I obviously full support for her idea. Now, as the expression goes, the ball is in “all of y’alls” (as they say in Florida) court.
If any of you are inspired and interested to help with these tasks, please take the initiative and go right ahead with it, just like Mindfriedo did: he did not even bother emailing me about it – he just began posting his SITREPs in the comment section and I ended up emailing him to ask for his permission to “upgrade” his reports to a full “official” status of “post”. This is by far the most effective way to go about these things: just do it :-)
Of course, if I can help in any way (putting you in contact, giving advice on anything, etc.) please feel free to email me as long as you do not expect me to organize things because I simply cannot do so myself due to a lack of time (I estimate that work on this blog already takes anywhere between 4-9 hours per day depending on the events).
Last but not least, thank you all for your understanding and support. They keep me going through the hardest and most discouraging times.
Kind regards to you all, my friends and readers,
The Saker
PS: I have been late in thanking some of you for your donations and I apologize for this. I am still late in catching up with my emails due to my couple of days off last week. I will catch up with that ASAP. Again, my apologies!
I applaud Claude for her initiative. There is a propaganda war going on, and it is our DUTY to speak up and let the truth be known.
Dear Saker
As you say
first, I do believe that what is happening in the Ukraine is, at the moment, by far the most important flashpoint on the planet and that the outcome of this conflict will decide the future of Russia
——————————–
This conflict will decide the future of all world. If Anglo-Zionists win, we will have unipolar world, one master, one boss, one ruler, dictatorship.
In such world people all over the world will pay tax which will go to Washington to finance American occupation.
If Russia wins – we will have multipolar world and there will be place for every nation to grow and develop.
I am from Croatia.
Ja sam Hrvat iz Hrvatske.
Dear Saker,
I would be happy to help you with English-Russian/ Russian-English translations. I can also offer Danish translations, although I know the audience will be very small.
I’m sure you have thought of this already, but I have one suggestion: If a video needs to be translated, it would be extremely useful if someone can transcribe it first. That would make things go a lot faster.
Kind regards,
G
Many times I find the messages coming from the Russian officials and institutions absolutely pathetic, beside the point and empty. They either do it on purpose (in case Russia is actually controlled opposition in this worldwide empire game) to bring their supporters in a state of despair and depression or they are a little bit retarded and really they don’t get it. Can’t they read how news are presented in the western media, can’t they feel the huge impact difference ??? Many times they leave an impression of being childish, naive and clueless. They don’t even protect verbally their own people, so how can other countries think about a serious alliance with Russia ??? Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria are most likely oscillating because of this aspect. The “neutral” way in which RT is presenting news for the last few months is shocking, despite the fact they are one of the who still present some of them. For example, when there was the cluster bomb attack in Lugansk, the entire Russian leadership and massmedia should have been screaming for 2 weeks non-stop. Instead, they only presented some quick news for 2-3 days. Didn’t they learn that URSS collapased mainly because of a strong information war of LIES coming from the western countries ??? They seem to love making the same mistake AGAIN !!!
Respect to you mr Saker! You have to coordinate, write, and moderate everything. Even reading and following up on all the links takes several hours a day!!!
What might relieve some of your work is to find some friends on the opposite site of your world (Europe, Siberia, Hong kong, Hawaii) who can (pre-) moderate the comments posted while you get your necessary sleep.
Salut Claude
Une bravo. A propos des traductions, j’ai deja mis plusieurs sur le blog Le Pont du Dahu. Je serai très ravi d’obtenir des copies de Saker.
Ça sera pas mal si on s’y arrive de faire une collabo et de regrouper les efforts sur un site.
Il y a aussi
http://gaideclin.blogspot.fr/
Le Dahu
i.e. Catherine
I have done this too. The “VERY IMPORTANT” piece translated from Russian by B.M. on Why Russia does not enter Ukraine, I could not have done it on time, so I asked someone to do it for me. He did and I put it on line. Just to see it appear two days later, translated by someone else. The trouble is they never tell if and when they are going to do something.
So, this to Claude :
You may send any translation to me and it will appear on my blog.
http://www.lesgrossesorchadeslesamplesthalameges.skynetblogs.be
You can also send them to :
avic@reseauinternational.net
articles@legrandsoir.info
raphael@cercledesvolontaires.fr
prcf@orange.fr
and to Soral, E&R, I don’t know what their e-mail is.
Could I suggest that, when you start translating, you send a sign to The Saker, to be mentioned at the end of the article in question “Claude translating”. That would make things more simple.
And thanks a lot !
I have contacted some media outlets and suggested that I personally believe that they should send some support your way.
I just read this
MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – The Rossiya Segodnya news agency is launching its ukraina.ru website on June 18, which is to be dedicated to the events surrounding the Ukrainian crisis.
Editor-in-Chief of the Web resource Alyona Berezovskaya is to hold a presentation at the agency at 11:00 a.m. MSK (07:00 a.m. GMT), which viewers will be able to watch on ukraina.ru.
I have contacted some media outlets and suggested that I personally believe that they should send some support your way.
I just read this
MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – The Rossiya Segodnya news agency is launching its ukraina.ru website on June 18, which is to be dedicated to the events surrounding the Ukrainian crisis.
Editor-in-Chief of the Web resource Alyona Berezovskaya is to hold a presentation at the agency at 11:00 a.m. MSK (07:00 a.m. GMT), which viewers will be able to watch on ukraina.ru.
Bob said:
“What might relieve some of your work is to find some friends on the opposite site of your world (Europe, Siberia, Hong kong, Hawaii) who can (pre-) moderate the comments posted while you get your necessary sleep.”
I second that proposal Saker…
what you have brought together here is unique, don’t recall any thing like it ever! It is growing and growing… bring in some help, it’s just waiting for the word I am sure.
It is so gratifying to see folks from all over the planet coming together to save humanity and our planet… and this is really what it amounts to… TPTB want more than money (I have seen the suggestion that that is not the case. That ‘they’ do not want power! Baloney! Pull the other leg, Of course they want POWER, power over the entire planet, to turn it into a plantation, with what’s left of us serfs subjugated to their every whim.
And thanks be to the posters here who call out the trolls who disguise themselves in order to lure us to their propaganda.
I am an American, and so very ashamed of my government… as I have been since December 12, 2000, when Dubya was selected as pResident. It has been downhill for our country since (in my pov, which of course was very shortsighted, as I am coming to realize that this gov’t has always set up to create Empire).
Getting sidetracked…
Again Saker, you bring much Light to our planet, and you have brought together through this site others who have much Light… together we can defeat this evil effort. Namaste
Europe here, Germany
Interested to try & start a type of production office for your blog?
Translations, Video editing etc in Berlin?
Im just suggesting this as an individual with no affiliations to any organizations.
I just respect the quality of your blog and feel that the word must get out to a wider audience to educate.
I am leaving for Berlin end of this month & could explore possibilities
Dear Saker, why don’t you submit your blog as an alternative information project in a crowdfunding site? This way may be you could find not just one but many philanthropists willing to finance your work as a blogger along with a team of full-time translators….
Here in Brasil, your blog is, most of time, translated to portuguese by a group named “Vila Vudu” and published in http://redecastorphoto.blogspot.com.br/
Ciao Saker, sono Claudio Negrioli un Blogger Italiano. Mi piacciono molto le tue analisi che riesco a comprendere con l’uso del traduttore google.. Poi è interessante il fatto che tu scriva dal cuore delll’Impero e che sei un esperto, se ho ben capito ex combattente.Bravo!
Da noi la percezione su quel che sta avvenendo è errata, veicolata dal mainstream compiacente con la giunta assassina di Kiev. Un saluto ate e a tutti i commentatori. Clausneghe alias Claudi Negrioli
Saker, et al:
What is happening in Ukraine and the mid-East certainly is important to the trajectory of the Western Financial Empire. Although these matters may be of principal interest to readers here and now, please do not underestimate the importance of and interest in matters elsewhere.
Claude has identified a need to translate this blog into French. I hope it happens. But I also hope that Claude (and others) recognize that there is a need to translate selected French “works” into English. The same is true for other discussions in other combinations of locations and languages.
What we are struggling against is popular ignorance. I plead guilty to being ignorant, and that is why I have found your blog to be interesting. It is a type of modern journalism that has been made possible by the internet. This kind of activity is very new, and although it may seem to be progressing frustratingly slowly, it actually is rapidly developing.
Essentially, the chaotic nature of the universe is asserting itself over the dark forces of control. This should be nurtured, as it is the hope for peace and prosperity for mankind.
prova
What about simply setting up a semi-hidden WordPress blog (e.g. “Saker Calls”) where “assignments” are posted with brief comments on how urgent they are.
A group of translators checks the blog regularly and whoever wants to do the piece, leaves a note saying simply “I’ll do it!”. The rest will then know the person is doing it. Obviously, we’d have situation when the person doesn’t actually do what they promised, but at least something can be set up immediately.
P.S. The comment board would have to be unmoderated, so maybe the blog would need to be made extra-obscure, not searchable or visible to Google, or simply password-protected.
Dear The Saker,
Thank you very much for all your work and dedication.
Unfortunately I don’t speak Russian or French :(. I however do know a few Russian speakers and will see….
Regards,
Veritas
Translations are indeed the most important tools to counter the criminal silence of the MSM.
Here’s my opinion as a Dutch speaking Belgian (Flemish) living in France, speaking German (German mother), French and English:
the Dutch, Flemish and Germans usually have a quit good knowledge of English, but the info will only reach them if they are ready to search for it, for instance through a link in their own language.
I fear that most Dutch and Flemish people are completely brainwashed by the MSM, there is very few alternative news available there, compared for instance with the French situation.
The French situation is very different as even most academics are very uneasy in other languages (I’m having sons that studied medicine, engineering and law studies here in France: English language is really a problem).
Most people I know from eastern countries have or try to learn English.
I’m less informed about the language skills in Italy, Portugal and Spain, but believe that they are more comfortable with French texts.
So, yes, French translations are the most urgent task for the future.
I’m posting many posts on my Facebook and receive no reaction from my French friends, except if I mention an French website ( for instance lescrises.fr)
I hope to be able to contribute in the future, though, having a family business, I’m might not always be free. Some German comments sometimes give quit interesting links that are worth being summarized and translated, in order to show the feelings of this crucial country that could turn the opinion in the UE in another direction.
Jefke
Hello Saker,
Are you sure “Claude” is a lady? Normally (with a few exceptions), Claude is a man’s name in French. ‘claudine or claudette are feminine’.
Have you confirmed this with him/her?
Hi Saker,
Are you sure that ‘Claude’ is a woman? Normally ‘Claude’ is the name of a man in French (with few exceptions). Feminine versions of Claude include: “Claudette, Claudine, etc”.
Just thought I’d ask. Have you confirmed with him/her?
BTW aren’t you fluent in French?
Translations are indeed the most important tools to counter the criminal silence of the MSM.
Here’s my opinion as a Dutch speaking Belgian (Flemish) living in France, speaking German (German mother), French and English:
the Dutch, Flemish and Germans usually have a quit good knowledge of English, but the info will only reach them if they are ready to search for it, for instance through a link in their own language.
I fear that most Dutch and Flemish people are completely brainwashed by the MSM, there is very few alternative news available there, compared for instance with the French situation.
The French situation is very different as even most academics are very uneasy in other languages (I’m having sons that studied medicine, engineering and law studies here in France: English language is really a problem).
Most people I know from eastern countries have or try to learn English.
I’m less informed about the language skills in Italy, Portugal and Spain, but believe that they are more comfortable with French texts.
So, yes, French translations are the most urgent task for the future.
I’m posting many posts on my Facebook and receive no reaction from my French friends, except if I mention an French website ( for instance lescrises.fr)
I hope to be able to contribute in the future, though, having a family business, I’m might not always be free. Some German comments sometimes give quit interesting links that are worth being summarized and translated, in order to show the feelings of this crucial country that could turn the opinion in the UE in another direction.
Jefke
Translations are indeed the most important tools to counter the criminal silence of the MSM.
Here’s my opinion as a Dutch speaking Belgian (Flemish) living in France, speaking German (German mother), French and English:
the Dutch, Flemish and Germans usually have a quit good knowledge of English, but the info will only reach them if they are ready to search for it, for instance through a link in their own language.
I fear that most Dutch and Flemish people are completely brainwashed by the MSM, there is very few alternative news available there, compared for instance with the French situation.
The French situation is very different as even most academics are very uneasy in other languages (I’m having sons that studied medicine, engineering and law studies here in France: English language is really a problem).
Most people I know from eastern countries have or try to learn English.
I’m less informed about the language skills in Italy, Portugal and Spain, but believe that they are more comfortable with French texts.
So, yes, French translations are the most urgent task for the future.
I’m posting many posts on my Facebook and receive no reaction from my French friends, except if I mention an French website ( for instance lescrises.fr)
I hope to be able to contribute in the future, though, having a family business, I’m might not always be free. Some German comments sometimes give quit interesting links that are worth being summarized and translated, in order to show the feelings of this crucial country that could turn the opinion in the EU in another direction.
Jefke
@Slicer:Are you sure that ‘Claude’ is a woman?
Yes.
BTW aren’t you fluent in French?
Yes.
saker,
please donotspend 5 to 9 hours a day on this work for sake of health .
secondly ” but what can I do if RT, Regnum, RIA-NOVOSTI and the rest of them do not understand this? Even the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is extremely slow in its translations! These guys clearly don’t “get it”.”
what do you expect from a country which has ineffective foreing misnter like lavrov for years without any postive result in all these year?
Thank you Saker, and thank you to all the people here who are doing so much to make this already great site even better. I wish I had a tenth of your skills, but unfortunately for me, I’m only fluent in English (I know a little French, German, Spanish and Russian, but nowhere near enough to be useful). I also wish I had some expertise in geopolitics to match my interest in the subject, but (alas!) I’m just a self-employed legal researcher with a lot of interesting sidelines and hobbies, none of which would be of much use here.
So all I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I’ll just send donations as often as I can.
Dear Saker,
“The sad reality is that the “public information” of the Resistance to the Empire desperately *sucks*.”
You said it yourself: this conflict is first and foremost an information war.
It’s not enough to “get the message out”. The message needs to be on target for its intended audience. This means, it has to meet a set of criteria for plausibility, tone, polish, thoughtfulness, etc. etc.
We need online information sources that we can share with others. Basically, I can’t send links to RT or any other Russian web site to people I know, because they automatically feel the source is somehow “suspect”. I can’t send links to your site, because it says “Russia Stands for Freedom!” loud and proud right at the top of the page. Even if this is true, the people who need to be reading the other side aren’t there yet. They need time to catch up.
To “get the message out”, both the form and content of the public information probably needs to seem a lot more like old-fashioned journalism. I realize that’s a pretty tall order, under the circumstances, and a lot less fun than writing a personal blog, but I’m afraid that’s what it’s really going to take to win the information war.
Best regards,
A reader
I am an American living in the Netherlands, land of my roots. I do post many of your comments on my Facebook politics page (Alternative Politics) that has a few members and one other political analyst from Ireland. Most members are American.
Doing what I can also, for a blog and person whom I admire.
I’m an American living in the Netherlands and often post your page(s) on my small Face Book politics page (Alternative Politics). One member is also an Irish/American political writer and analyst. And he regularly passes on articles from you as well. Doing what we can here.