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The West has more to do with the Hong Kong protest movement than it would like us to know. It’s the ugly face of Washington’s long-standing foreign policy directed at destabilizing one of its long-standing economic foes: China.

It’s been a summer of unrest in Hong Kong, and the Western mainstream press has been in uproar providing non-stop coverage of what they’ve described as a “pro-democracy movement fighting for freedom” against the repressive Chinese government. 

Since March, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets each week, clashing with police and security forces, escalating into a fight over who should control Hong Kong’s future.

The protests erupted over a proposed amendment to an extradition treaty between Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan. 

Hong Kongers feared that the new treaty would allow the Chinese government to arrest and imprison dissidents or whomever from Hong Kong the government deems a threat, effectively ending freedom of expression. Hong Kong has been a haven for many anti-Beijing dissidents and political figures and many felt the proposed law would dilute the island city’s already limited independence.

Protest leader Joshua Wong conveyed the movement’s five core demands, which include: 

Joshua Wong | Twitter

Just this week, Hong Kong Leader Carrie Lam withdrew the extradition bill that ignited the protests to begin with. But it seems now that the demonstrators are just getting started. 

And if you’ve been following the mainstream corporate media coverage, it seems like the media are just getting started too. 

We’re talking about the same media that have gone silent on the hundreds of thousands of non-violent Yellow Vest protesters in France who have been demonstrating against corruption, inequality and neoliberalism for almost a year. This same media have rushed to cover andeven applaud the demonstrations in Hong Kong. 

Indeed, much of the protest appears to be geared towards a Western audience.

Protesters are openly calling on the United States to intervene and liberate Hong Kong as they wave the stars and stripes of the American flag. Meanwhile, others broke into the Hong Kong state legislature and hung the colonial United Kingdom flag — a reference to the era before 1997 when the British directly controlled the island as a colony. 

Perhaps what’s more bizarre is that protesters have been seen waving Pepe the Frog flags, a symbol of the Alt-Right. 

This message is getting right to the heart of America’s regime-change hawks, receiving the blessings of none other than Marco Rubio, John Bolton, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and even President Donald Trump — the same bloodthirsty avatars of war under the current administration that have been openly destabilizing Venezuela by pouring in millions to prop up a right-wing insurgency.

And what’s already taking place in Hong Kong is looking all too familiar, which begs the question: Does Washington have any influence over the protest movement in Hong Kong, whether directly or indirectly? 

A closer look actually gives us a clear answer — that the West has more to do with this movement than it would like us to know. It’s the ugly face of Washington’s long-standing foreign policy directed at destabilizing one of its long-standing economic foes: China.

Gone are the days where the CIA would directly overthrow foreign governments it didn’t like, such as Iran in 1953 or Brazil in 1964. 

Today regime change is achieved through front organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, that influences thought and culture through covert means. 

Washington uses the NED as a “soft power” tool to influence and interfere in the politics and society of foreign countries in order to bring about governments that are conducive to the interests of big business. The NED does this under the guise of being a charitable organization promoting democracy and human rights. 

The idea is to create a buffer, 3rd-party organization to distance the U.S. government from funding political parties and groups and organizing regime-change operations. 

The NED was founded in 1983, following a series of scandals that exposed the CIA’s blood-soaked covert actions against foreign governments that resisted U.S. economic and political bullying. 

In 1986, NED President Carl Gershman told the New York Times, “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the Sixties, and that’s why it has been discontinued.” 

One of the NED’s founders, Allen Weinstein, was more blunt. He told the Washington Post, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” 

In recent years, the NED has trained, supported and funded demonstrations and regime-change ops in Venezuela, Ukraine and Nicaragua, designed to look like grassroots uprisings. 

It’s not surprising considering the NED’s board of directors includes two infamous war criminals: Elliott Abrams, who helped funnel weapons and funds to right-wing contras in Nicaragua that terrorized civilians through torture, rape and murder, then tried to cover up these war crimes; and Victoria Nuland, who directed the U.S. policy in Ukraine to fund and arm a right-wing insurgency that engineered the overthrow the democratically elected government — an insurgency that has committed countless war crimes against civilians. 

Destabilizing China carries forward this global mission. 

A U.S. Consulate representative receives a letter from protesters that marched to the US consulate in Hong Kong, Sept. 8, 2019. Kin Cheung | AP

Before the Hong Kong protests erupted, NED President Gershman called China a “resurgent despotic regime tightening repression internally and expanding its power globally,” claiming that “democracy is under threat” and we must “come to its defense.” 

Since 2014, the year of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Protests, the NED has (officially) poured over $29 million into the island city or the mainland in order to “identify new avenues for democracy and political reform.” That’s according to the NED’s website. 

But as the organization has already formally identified the Chinese government as despotic and a threat to democracy, this means that the money is, de facto, supporting groups to undermine that government. And as MintPress has reported, much of the money went to the very groups that organized the latest protests.

The man described in the media as the “face of the Hong Kong protests” is Joshua Wong, a young activist who came to attention during the 2014 Umbrella Revolution demonstrations against the Chinese government. 

Wong is almost universally described in corporate media as a “pro-democracy leader” or “freedom campaigner.” But if Wong loves democracy so much, why does he continually meetwith Florida Senator Marco Rubio, one of the chief architects of regime change against Latin American countries? And why does the political party he founded maintain such a close relationship with the NED?

Another leader of the movement is media mogul Jimmy Lai, whom the New York Times andWall Street Journal called “the Rupert Murdoch of Asia.” A devotee and close friend of late American libertarian economist Milton Friedman, Lai funded the 2014 Umbrella Revolution and has used his media empire to push a strong anti-China message that promotes disturbing xenophobia. 

Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper depicted mainland Chinese people as an invasion of locustsinfecting Hong Kong. 

Lai has met with senior White House officials, including notorious warmonger and coup-plotter John Bolton, who organized regime-change attempts in Venezuela, pushes for nuclear war with Iran, and has been called a chief “architect of the Iraq War.” 

Meanwhile, American diplomat Julie Eadeh was recently photographed in a meeting with other leaders of the Hong Kong protests.

Imagine for a second if a Russian or Iranian diplomat or politician had been seen meeting with the Standing Rock or Occupy Wall Street protesters! The movement’s credibility would have been finished and it would have been international news.

But unlike at Standing Rock or Occupy Wall Street, Hong Kong protesters have resorted to violent tactics where they’re seen on camera attacking and detaining journalists and medical staff. They even intentionally tried to provoke security services into responding with violence — though unlike in the Yellow Vests protests, nobody among the protesters has been killed — by throwing Molotov cocktails, shutting down streets and attacking drivers, in what the New York Times describes as “aggressive non-violence.” 

All of this is strongly reminiscent of the tactics used by other NED-backed protest groups in Venezuela, Ukraine and Nicaragua. 

It is hard not to root for any people embracing activism and taking to the streets to assert or protect democratic rights — in fact, it’s inspiring. It’s even harder not to support protests when the target is a powerful nation with a traditional anti-democratic bent.

Indeed, this view and the halo bestowed by the corporate media have many in the U.S. asking why the people here, outraged at the depravity and authoritarian behavior of Donald Trump and his regime, haven’t emulated the Hong Kong protesters and taken to the streets of America.

That is the danger of a reductionist and simplistic media lens. The Hong Kong situation is far from black and white and not exactly David and Goliath.

As in other indirect global confrontations — whether in Venezuela, Libya, Ukraine, Syria or any country that doesn’t kowtow to Western economic interests — there are powerful forces behind the lines, geopolitical agendas at play, plenty of unwitting pawns, and a very manipulative corporate media that will do whatever it can to pull at the heartstrings to get you onboard the “humanitarian intervention” war machine that could make any peacenik end up supporting a war agenda.

So before that happens to the best of us, we have to ask: Can people like Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai really be trusted to lead a democratic uprising? 

Thousands of Hong Kong residents, many motivated by genuine grievances, are being led by actors with their own agendas and affiliations, actors who are closely connected with foreign governments and intelligence services. 

This reality warrants, at the least, a careful parsing, caution about a rush to judgment, and more than a grain of salt.

Feature photo | United States flags are reflected on glasses of a protester during a protest in Hong Kong, Sept. 8, 2019. Kin Cheung | AP

Mnar Muhawesh is founder, CEO and editor in chief of MintPress News, and is also a regular speaker on responsible journalism, sexism, neoconservativism within the media and journalism start-ups.

A CENTENARIAN who has just celebrated her 107th birthday says staying clear of fellas and marriage is the key to her long life. 

Louise Signore, from the Bronx in New York City, also credits her good health to a balanced diet and regular exercise.

Amazingly she walks without a mobility aid, still does her own shopping and is not on any medication. 

Asked about her secret, she told WCBS: “I think the secret of 107: I never got married. 

“I think that’s the secret.

“My sister says, ‘I wish I never got married’”.

But then again Louise’s sister is 102 years-old, so marriage can’t be all that bad and clearly longevity runs in the family.”

Louise celebrated her latest big birthday at the Barlow Community Center in Coop City.

More than 100 friends and family members attended.

She quipped: “I said I’ve had enough of parties.”

Louise, who was born in 1912 – three months after the Titanic sank – but she has suffered setbacks recently.

She is legally blind, recently battled pneumonia. She survived an assault and robbery aged 103. 

Asked for health advice, Louise added: “If they have exercise, I do the exercise. 

“If they have dancing, I dance. 

“I still do a little dancing. After my lunch, I will play bingo, so I had a full day.

“Italian food. Italian food is very good for you.

 “I was brought up with very good food. No soda, no cake.” 

Alelia Murphy, 114, is currently America’s oldest woman. 

Coincidentally she lives in Harlem, where Louise was born.

Emergency services surround the plane at Tegel airport.

Eight people were hospitalized for a range of issues including head wounds, fractures, and cervical injuries as a Eurowings flight was battered by turbulence as it prepared to land in Berlin’s Tegel Airport.

The Eurowings Airbus A319 was about 20 minutes away from the airport in the German capital when it was walloped by powerful air currents on Monday. 

It was travelling from from Lamezia Terme, Italy, when the pilot spotted a thick cloud formation, reportedly switched on the ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign and warned passengers of incoming rough conditions.

“During the announcement there was indeed turbulence, which unfortunately injured passengers who had not yet fastened their seat belts,” a Eurowings spokesperson told the German Press Agency (DPA). The turbulence “never compromised the safety of the aircraft,” according to the spokesperson.

When the plane finally completed a bumpy landing, emergency services, including the fire brigade and ambulances, rushed to the scene. 

A total of 13 people were injured with eight of those, including two crew members, requiring hospitalization. One female passenger was seriously injured but her injuries are not believed to be life threatening. 

The injured parties suffered from head wounds, finger fractures, deep cuts, and cervical injuries. The remaining passengers were taken to the terminal. 

Eurowings said the aircraft will now be inspected thoroughly before being used again in regular flight operations.

A comprehensive study conducted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in association with Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth found that fire was not the cause of the collapse of the Building 7 of the World Trade Center (WTC).

The official theory established that the 47-story colossus collapsed on its base after the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at 5:20 p.m., when it was affected by the fire coming from the Twin Towers—Buildings 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center. The building was completely destroyed in just seven seconds.

However, after investing four years in computer simulations, the FAU scientists published a draft report that concludes that the collapse of the third WTC skyscraper on Sept.11, 2001 was not due to any fire, but “the almost simultaneous failure of every column in the building.”

“Despite calls for the evidence to be preserved, New York City officials had the building’s debris removed and destroyed in the ensuing weeks and months, preventing a proper forensic investigation from ever taking place,” Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth explained on its website.

“Seven years later, federal investigators concluded that WTC 7 was the first steel-framed high-rise ever to have collapsed solely as a result of normal office fires,” the specialists emphasized, noting that new evidence invalidates that hypothesis.

Request to reopen the investigation

Some time ago, more than 3,000 active and retired architects and engineers called on the US Congress to conduct a new investigation into the three WTC skyscrapers that were destroyed on Sept. 11.

Under the name ‘Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth,’ they said there was “sufficient doubt about the official story to justify reopening the 9/11 investigation.”

“The new investigation must include a full inquiry into the possible use of explosives that might have been the actual cause of the destruction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7,” they said.

‘Possible use of explosives’

In 2009, independent research conducted by a team of international scientists discovered, after analyzing some dust samples from the debris in the area where the skyscrapers collapsed, that they all contained a red layer of active thermitic material, incorporating nanotechnology.

The study conducted by Niels H. Harrit, a chemist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, determined that it was a high energetic explosive material that would explain the remains of molten metal, and why the fires lasted under the rubble for months.

Professor David Ray Griffin, author of a reference work in which he details up to 115 omissions and distortions in his work, “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions,” which aims to dismantle the official version of the attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon and the White House, which occurred on the same fateful day, collaborated in the investigation.

The following is a summary of some of the most important points that Griffin mentions in his book alleging a possible complicity of some elements of the government in the attack:

• The omission of evidence that at least six of the alleged hijackers—including Waleed al-Shehri, said by the Commission probably to have stabbed a flight attendant on Flight 11 before it crashed into the North Tower of the WTC—are still alive (pages 19-20).
• The omission of the fact that President Bush’s brother Marvin and his cousin Wirt Walker III were both principals in the company in charge of security for the WTC (pages 31-32).
• The omission of the fact that The Project for the New American Century, many members of which became key figures in the Bush administration, published a document in 2000 saying that “a new Pearl Harbor” would aid its goal of obtaining funding for a rapid technological transformation of the US military (pages 117-18).
• The omission of the report that at a meeting in July 2001, US representatives said that because the Taliban refused to agree to a US proposal that would allow the pipeline project to go forward, a war against them would begin by October (pages 125-26).
• The failure to probe the issue of how the “war games” scheduled for that day were related to the military’s failure to intercept the hijacked airliners (pages 268-69).
• The failure to discuss the possible relevance of Operation Northwoods to the attacks of 9/11 (pages 269-71).
• The failure to point out that the Commission’s claimed “independence” was fatally compromised by the fact that its executive director, Philip Zelikow, was virtually a member of the Bush administration (pages 7-9, 11-12, 282-84).

In this context, former CIA analyst George Beebee recently alleged in his new work that Russian leader Vladimir Putin personally warned President George W. Bush two days in advance to prevent the 9/11 attacks. (Source: thebl.com)

Stocks are completing the upside breakout I’ve been telling Private Wealth Advisory clients about for the last three weeks. Breadth always leads price and breadth tells us stocks will clear 3,000 and probably hit new all time highs.

This would bring stocks  to the final upside target of the expanding pattern we’ve been tracking for the last four months.

After that comes the big breakdown. We’ve triggered more crash signals than at any time in the last 10 years. These were the same signals that went off right at the end of 2007 before the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

The below chart should serve as a warning to everyone. This rally is MASSIVE TRAP, because once a bull market trendline is broken, it’s GAME OVER.

They’re already up based on the market drop last week … and once things really start getting nasty I expect all five of them to EXPLODE higher. 

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