Introduction – Feb 28, 2022

The western mainstream media has long had ties to the intelligence community. It is a relationship of reciprocal benefit: journalists frame this organisation, individual or nation in a favourable or unfavourable light, depending on whatever the intelligence asset wants. In return they feed the journalist in question some insider info that is not public knowledge.

The end result being that the mainstream media has become an effective means with which to shape and guide public opinion, often without the public or the journalist even realising.

The following article may be a case in point. From what we can gather much of the information in it was obtained from Bellingcat, which the Guardian describes as an “investigative website”.

That’s one way of putting it. Others, however, have suggested that Bellingcat is far from neutral or independent. According to Alan Macleod:

Bellingcat…”is funded by Western governments, staffed with former military and state intelligence officers, repeats official narratives against enemy states, and serves as a key part in what could be called a “spook to Bellingcat to corporate media propaganda pipeline,” presenting Western government narratives as independent research.” (How Bellingcat launders National Security State talking points … )

In other words, Bellingcat is used to feed sanitised intelligence to the public to help reinforce the official narrative.

In this particular case, the Guardian reports that Russia is deploying all sorts of formidable weapons into Ukraine, with the implicit suggestion that they will be used against civilians. Up until now that has not been the case. That may soon change however, as more recent reports claim that the Russians have been urging Ukrainian civilians to leave Kyiv.

From this we conclude that the Russians are trying to minimise civilian casualties.

In essence, intelligence contractors pass on sanitised information to journalists who, to further their career prospects, present that information in accordance with the prevailing narrative. Twenty years ago it was the evil Saddam Hussein, his torture chambers and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

We now know that they were phantoms created by government spokesmen and journalists. But today we have a new personification of evil incarnate and now we are supposed to believe that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We can only wonder if we are heading down the same path to conflict? After all, the Covid pandemic appears to have failed. Is war with Russia (and China and probably Iran too) now on the agenda instead? Ed.

Analysis: what weapons is Russia deploying in Ukraine invasion?

Peter Beaumont – The Guardian Feb 27, 2022

Footage captured by a CNN crew of the deployment of a T0S-1 heavy flame thrower system which was filmed being transported towards the Ukrainian border on Saturday has focused increased attention on what weapons Russia is beginning to deploy and how indiscriminate they are.

The TOS-1, nicknamed the “Buratino” – the Russian version of Pinocchio – for its big nose, is one of the most feared weapons systems in Russia’s conventional armoury, a multiple launch rocket system mounted on the chassis of a T-72 tank capable of firing thermobaric rockets which use oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion.

First deployed by the Soviet military in Afghanistan, the TOS-1 was used most recently in Syria. The deployment of the TOS-1 comes as Russian forces and separatist allies have already used the indiscriminate BM-21 “Grad” multiple launch rocket system during the course of their invasion of Ukraine including in the country’s east and in the country’s south. They appear to have been deployed around Kharkiv where images of a destroyed BM-21 and a dead Russian serviceman have circulated.

The Bellingcat investigative website has also been collecting evidence of the suspected use of Uragan and Smerch cluster rockets and their submunitions from the current fighting in Ukraine.

The use of both multiple launch rocket systems and cruise missiles against civilian areas during the invasion has already been condemned. “The Russian military has shown a blatant disregard for civilian lives by using ballistic missiles and other explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general.

She warned: “Some of these attacks may be war crimes. The Russian government, which falsely claims to use only precision-guided weapons, should take responsibility for these acts.”

While many of the weapons systems so far used during the Russian invasion have been largely conventional – including versions of the T-72 tank and BMP3 armoured fighting vehicles – and Mi8 and Ka-52 helicopters, concern has been raised over the Russian use of Kalibr cruise missiles, particularly against built up areas.

There have been reports of Kalibrs – which can be fired from ships, aircraft and submarines – being used against Kyiv and also against the southern port city of Odessa.

Source