Responses to Ukraine’s Nazi Hit List from Around the World—Part 3

Aug. 20—This is the third installment of EIR’s roundup of response from around the world to the posting, by the U.S.-funded and State Department sponsored Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), of a Black List—essentially a “hit list”—of 72 prominent individuals from many nations, accusing them of being Russian propaganda agents, “information terrorists,” and “war criminals,” due to their failure to submit to the U.S./UK/NATO “narrative” about the military operations in Ukraine. The first 30 people listed were members and friends of the Schiller Institute who had spoken at a Schiller Institute conference during this year. You can find Part 1 of this series here and Part 2 here. It should be noted first that the CCD and its sponsors in the U.S. State Department and U.S. and UK intelligence agencies decided on Aug. 11 to take down from its website the July 14 post targeting these 72 individuals. This was clearly the result of a vigorous, surgical, and rapid international mobilization, primarily catalyzed by the Schiller Institute, but also taken up on their own by like-minded, though politically distinct individuals. This EIR series of articles documents various aspects of this mobilization from India, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Italy, South Africa, Poland, France, New Zealand, and the U.S. The original intention behind the targeting of these individuals has in no way abated, however, and the mobilization is continuing and expanding, as indicated in the first item below.

Sixteen Americans targeted by the Ukraine CCD hit list jointly filed a letter with six Congressional committees demanding that they “exercise your oversight of the use of taxpayer funds by investigating the funding of this foreign government agency and their role in directly threatening Americans’ rights and safety.” The letter is printed together with the names of the sixteen signers elsewhere in this issue of EIR, and can also be seen here.

Diane Sare, the U.S. Senate candidate running against Chuck Schumer in New York State, appeared with Scott Ritter, a former Marine intelligence officer and the UN weapons inspector who exposed that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction, in an interview on “Issues that Matter with Cynthia Pooler” on Aug. 19. Both Sare and Ritter are on the Ukraine hit list, and jointly exposed the fact that it was financed and sponsored by the U.S. State Department, threatening their safety and their free speech. A transcript of the interview appears elsewhere in this issue of EIR.

Although the CCD was forced to take down the posting of the 72 individuals labelled “Russian propaganda” agents from its website, its targeting of new individuals continues. Two new attacks on individuals it labeled “Western Kremlin propagandists” have been posted: American journalist Ben Swann was targetted on Aug. 12, and Italian journalist and foreign affairs editor at La Stampa Dominico Quirico on Aug. 17. In fact, the CCD never bothered to remove the full Black List from its Ukrainian-language Telegram site!

Swann is fingered as an example of “How Propaganda Sows Distrust in Allies …. The Kremlin continues to actively use Western opinion leaders to promote its own ‘truth’.” His alleged falsehoods, according to the CCD, are that Russia did not shoot down the Malaysian MH17 commercial flight; that “the Russian ruble is the most stable currency this year”; and that “the BRICS countries are ready to face the economic warfare of the West.” He even calls on foreign companies to buy Russian fertilizer, they complain! The CCD admonishes: “Let’s remind you that the use of statements by foreign figures is an element of the enemy’s PSYOP, aimed at undermining trust in Ukrainian allies.”

Quirico’s “crime” is that he “expressed concern about the ‘Ukrainian attack’ on Crimea. According to him, the consequences may be catastrophic … for Russia the invasion of Crimea is the equivalent of an offensive on Moscow,” and “might lead to world war.” The CCD calls this an “intimidation tactic … one of the Kremlin’s most common tools for keeping the conquered territories of Ukraine,” ignoring the fact that Crimea’s citizens massively voted to reunite with Russia in early 2014, after the fascist coup in Kiev.

The statement by Prof. Wolfgang Bittner, striking back against the Ukraine July 14 blacklist that included his name, was published in full on Aug. 17 by the German Freidenker (Free Thinkers) organization, following its posting on the NachDenkSeiten on Aug. 8, which was covered in Part 2 of this EIR series. The Freidenker states: “Nationalist arrogance, racism, religious fanaticism and intolerance of dissent have assumed threatening proportions.”

Algeria’s international TV channel (AL24news) on Aug. 16 interviewed Ulf Sandmark, the head of the Schiller Institute in Sweden, on his inclusion on the Ukrainian hit list. TV anchor Rahim, on his political news show, asked Sandmark: “What are you saying about the list of names, including the Schiller Institute, who are considered as war criminals by the Ukraine government?” An article from the Schiller Institute homepage, including a picture of Helga Zepp-LaRouche, was displayed and special mention was made of her. The eight-minute segment drew upon the article, “Responses to Ukraine’s Nazi Hit List from Around the World” (Part 1 of this EIR series) which the show had received just two hours earlier.

Sandmark was given the opportunity to brief the audience about the several Schiller Institute conferences for a new architecture for peace and development, and the policies articulated there by Helga Zepp-LaRouche. He also reported on the international mobilization against the Black List and the retreat made by Kiev’s National Defense and Security Council in pulling the list off of the CCD website, as well as the role of the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office in the sordid affair. The interview is posted here.

Ukrainian-American Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (ret.), a former head of European Affairs at the National Security Council, who was a star witness in Donald Trump’s absurd impeachment trial over a phone call to President Zelensky, proved himself to be a collaborator of the Ukrainian CCD Nazi witch hunt by issuing an enraged tweet Aug. 13 attacking former Congresswoman (and current lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve) Tulsi Gabbard as a “Russian agent.” He was responding to Gabbard’s remarks the previous day when she was guest host for Fox News’ Tucker Carlson show and charged that U.S. sanctions and economic warfare on Russia constitute an attempt at regime change in Moscow. Vindman ranted at Gabbard, a two-time combat veteran, who was included on the CCD hit list: “You lie for notoriety and self-promotion. Worse yet, as an agent of Russian disinformation, you promote Russian aggression and endanger America. You have picked a side. Your side is Russia and authoritarianism.”

Tony Magliano, a Minnesota-based, internationally syndicated Catholic writer for many years, whose article, “I Have Been Blacklisted by Ukrainian Government,” was covered in Part 2 of this EIR series when it was posted in the South African Southern Cross, has subsequently been posted in the U.S. in the Clarion Herald, the official newsletter of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Your Catholic Voice Foundation in California, and most likely other Catholic media. Magliano describes his promotion of peace at the Schiller Institute conference and in all his work internationally, then responds to the Ukrainian accusation that he is a “promoter of Russian propaganda”: “But truth be told, I am a promoter of the nonviolent Gospel of Jesus Christ!”

In New Zealand, the online monthly newsletter, Voice Media, founded by Mykeljon Winckel, reprinted the July 31 EIR article, “Ukraine Labels Schiller Institute Leaders and Others ‘War Criminals’.” The newsletter has a distribution of more than 36,000.