Graham Phillips

Graham Phillips vs Baltic Waffen SS

March 16, 2016 by Phil Butler 5 Comments

My good friend, Brit journalist Graham Phillips, he’s behind bars in Riga today. His crime, as far as I can tell, was asking questions of Latvian Nazis. A yearly commemoration for fallen Latvian Legionnaires of the 15th Waffen-SS Division who fought alongside Hitler’s most notorious divisions.

In complete fairness to the valiant Latvians who were either conscripted or chose to defend against Bolshevism, the latter of two evils, the 15th and the 19th Waffen-SS divisions were not made up the war criminals the world came to know after Nurenbourg. The killers and extreme right wing of Hitler’s ilk were in these divisions, it is true, but not the majority. This, and only this, justifies the division members still living, their families and neighbors, in honoring their sacrifice and heroism. That said, what transpires in Riga today is 10% tribute to the brave, and 90% Neo-nazi radicalism.

The battle along the shores of the Velikaya River for a Hill designated “93,4” is eons in time, and idealistically light years from what Graham Phillips ventured to Riga to report on. The parade that marks this controversial tribute in Latvia is not only made up of Latvian soldiers from World War II and their families, but the extreme right factions of All For Latvia!, and the so called National Power Unity (NSS), best known for honoring the birthday of war criminal, Herberts Cukurs, who was assassinated by Israeli Massad in Uruguay for his part in the mass murder of Latvian Jews.

In the video below you will see Graham approaching one the Estonian politician, Jaak Madison to ask him questions about his involvement in this event. And here’s the thing, if you watch closely you will denote, at no time does Graham touch this individual. Sure, Graham is not a timid soul, not ever, but he is very careful to only film and ask questions. Madison on the other hand, repeatedly slaps at Graham, whacks his camera, and act for more “smartass” and aggressive than Phillips does. All the man had to do was turn and walk away, he wanted the confrontation, obviously.

As a mini profile of Madison, the reader will be interested to know, Madison is the vice chairman of the European Union Affairs Committee of the Estonian parliament, as well as being in the Estonian Riigikogu (Parliament). But his forward political itinerary is not what is relevent here, it’s what’s behind that speaks to Graham Phillips’ reason for being in Riga in the first place. Madison, who has been criticized as Nazi policy sympathizer, and associated with Neo-Nazis from Austria to Brussels and back to Riga, is exactly the breed of extremist we saw tear Ukraine apart.

Phillips has witness first hand, the carnage heaped upon Russian speakers in the Donbass, so naturally the new Nazis are a sore spot for him. Returning to Madison for a moment, he is careful about who he is photographed with, but is most often seen in the company of right wing youth upstarts like Ruuben Kaalep (as above), a collaborator in the “Blue Alarm”, an ultra nationalist new Estonian national awakening. Without delving too far into these people’s lives, it’s not too difficult to frame their sentiments. Kaalep’s Twitter shares lead inextricably to the rationale some Waffen SS were “good guys”. I will reserve further analysis of these rightists for later, but the video below from DELFI, which has more stories and pictures of Madison than of world celebrities, shows the confrontation between he and Graham.

Madison and those surrounding him at these Riga events are devout Russian haters. After all, the fascist support for this event honoring the Waffen SS is about the “struggle” for Nazism, versus the Soviet ideal, is it not? Furthermore, life and honor always come down to choices, now don’t they? Certainly heroism is to be prized, but ultimately one chooses between God and his Nemesis, unless me and a few billion other people are wrong. If Hitler and the Holocaust were the darkness, then whoever fought with them had dark intentions. This excludes those who are forced to fight, but dead over resistance is the same as dead in the service of Satan. Sorry, but King Solomon himself would say likewise.

Graham Phillips is a decent, kind, and courageous human being. No, he is not the Mother Theresa of diplomacy, nor is he a soft sell either. But we are talking about the hard core here people. These fascists would burn the world to purify their ideal. Hating Russians for being Russian, skirting the edges of white supremacy and ethnic cleansing, laughing it up like evil college fraternity pricks, this is what Phillips and the decent human beings of planet Earth are up against. Look at the people surrounding this parliamentarian. The dude might as well be at a KKK picnic.

That’s what I have to say about Riga. And I hope my friend is unharmed.

MH17 to Mariupol: War Weirdness gets Weirder

February 3, 2015 by Phil Butler 3 Comments

Just a short update for today. News Netherlands officials have collected more human remains from the crash site of Malaysian flight MH17 prompts note here. Along those lines, news freelance journalists Graham Phillips and his cameraman Patrick Lancaster (Below) are headed to Holland to offer up evidence to the inquiry there, this also bears watching.

It’s been almost 7 months since a Malaysian airliner flying over eastern Ukraine was shot down, and since the US State Department trumpeted the cry, “it was Russia!” Well, at least the headline “Putin’s Missile” caught on as the frenzy began. Let’s face it, ever since Putin convinced Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych not to join the EU in favor of a new Eurasian Economic Union, the US, NATO, and the EU have been spoiled sports. First Senator John McCain became the first ever US coup d’é·tat champion, while Heavyweight Boxing champ Wladimir Klitschko exiting the ring to punch European peace in the guts.

Patrick John Lancaster via his Facebook (Max Clarke)

Hell, throw in a Edward Snowden dropping dime on a conspiracy to destroy the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution, and a Radio Flyer red wagon load of international law violations, and it’s probably small wonder we’re not all dead or glowing bright green from nuclear fallout by now. Mainstream media first leaped on the best Olympics held in decades, tried to trash Sochi before it ever began, and the shit storm has not let up since.

Stepping back into the voodoo world of present day politics and news, and I’m even having trouble staying focused. The Super Bowl, Katy Perry and some idiots in shark suits? An interception that somehow turned into the greatest NFL football play in history? We’re in a swirling rabbit hole of bullshit.

Graham Phillips and his courageous sidekick Patrick, not many people realize they’ve been there in the carnage in Ukraine since the start. While BBC reporters tweet their stories from far off Kiev, Phillips and Lancaster have been in the thick of it, shot at and missed, shit at and hit by the Kiev junta and others, the dynamic duo just happen to have the most extensive collection of MH17 stills and video that exists. Right here it makes good sense to think about what this means. In the first place, why did it take the authorities in Netherlands so long to ask to see it? Why was their testimony not sought early on? I can think of several reasons.

I think something changed recently, both at the OSCE and at the Dutch Safety Board. From my perspective, the once semi-cooperative OSCE has almost totally clammed up since the morning of the Mariopol rocket attack. They refused to even acknowledge my requests for information half a dozen times in the last two weeks. Their hasty judgement call on the Mariupol incident, it was concemned by the Russians and me. Now, the final determination on that is still up in the air, this after the team there said Pro-Russian separatists were at fault, just a couple hours after the incident.

As for the Dutch Safety Board, calling Phillips and Lancaster in, it just feels wrong to me. If my suspicions are correct, what’s going on there is a fact finding to protect a cover up. Or at least this seems logical. If you were about to release a bullshit report on an international incident, wouldn’t you first make sure there was not footage of another truth? Any criminal would. And here is where I’d encourage my friends to pay very close attention to what goes on there in the land of wooden shoes.

I’ll leave off here, it’s a bit busy today. I want to ask you one question though. “Is it just me or is ever-single-solitary-event the US State Department, Obama, NATO, and the so-called west take part in the same?” What I mean is; “Isn’t it strange how little evidence of things there is, and how the initial outcry prompts grievous consequences?” Osama Bin Laden Killed! Sochi DOGS! Putin’s Missile! Rebels Guilty! Je Suis Charlie! BLAH, blah, blech. It seems our leaders don’t even have the decency to lie effectively now.

Stay focused Graham and Patrick, what you’ve got on drives is probably more valuable than you think. 7 months and nothing? One shell fragment should have settled this guys.

Additional image credit: Graham inside Donetsk Airport – courtesy Graham Phillips

Breaking: Reuters ghost battalions conquer Russia!

January 19, 2015 by Phil Butler 16 Comments

For a few hundred million people, Petro Poroshenko’s latest offensive in the east of Ukraine crushed the separatist defenders at Donetsk airport. Reuters readers now fully expect, all of Mother Russia to fall beneath the Ukrainian onslaught.

For those who may not believe it, we have no less than five Reuters correspondents to testify. Surely, the hundreds of stories being read in America and Britain today, are ample proof Putin’s Russia and the Donbass rebels are on the run now. Well, all except for one detail, that is. Sergey Prokofiev International Airport is fully in the hands of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Mis-reporting of wartime events is not so uncommon, and this Reuters story would not be so bad if someone in charge cared enough about accurate information to amend it. But no one does. It took 5 people to make the story, all 691 words of it, but not one writer or editor took the time to verify facts. Natalia Zinets and Lina Kushch apparently penned the news bit for Yahoo News and a few hundred others to pick up. They’re apparently on the ground in Kiev someplace, and their collaboration with Jason Bush in Moscow, along with and Pavel Polityuk, and with something (I know not what) added by Alessandra Prentice, if sheer numbers ever impress for such stories. And too, all that reporting expertise for this the latest “story” in a series edited by Ukraine bureau chief Richard Balmforth and Reuters’ regional editor Tom Heneghan from Paris, it’s astounding for a writer who types 700 words in 20 minutes with more accuracy.

When I saw this story yesterday, I had no idea who these people even where. I was certainly astounded by the news Donetsk airport had fallen, especially since my friend and colleague Graham Phillips was almost simultaneously streaming images and video asking; “Where are the Ukrainians?” Graham, you see, he’s been imprisoned, shot at, captured, tossed around, and banned and banished from Kiev, all since he began reporting the wrong story. Excuse me, but there’s no way to remain without snideness or cynicism, not given all the bullshit from Reuters and the like. But misinforming, like I said, is not so unusual. What is unusual is when reporters or news outlets are told there is evidence and reporting to suggest inaccuracy, and no one does anything about it. This is the case so far with Reuters, and with Bloomberg. Both outlets ran with this version of reality, and I contacted both to offer up imagery (neither had) and testimony, neither media outlet took the time to gather.

As I write this, Alexander Zakharchenko has spoken directly with Graham Phillips about the “attempts” by Kiev forces to retake the airport. Phillips, who had been walking unmolested all yesterday about the airport, shared dozens of photos and video showing exactly the opposite of what the Reuters story suggested. What’s most important here though, is the fact Phillips was not even contacted by ANY of the media I tweeted or messaged, or any of those tagged. This can only mean one of two things in my opinion. Either the mainstream western media is so sure of ANY story line that supports Kiev, that they are immune to dissenting views or other evidence. Or, journalism in general relies only on the broadcasting of the same story, over and over, in propaganda form, period. Maybe both of these are true.

Introduced to the sheer obtuse character or abject arrogance of these entities, I looked up who these reporters are. At least three of them, are interestingly associated with such a story. You see FIVE people, this sticks in my mind like a splinter. What is more sticky for me though, are the roles of the people.

Richard Balmforth – He’s the Chief Correspondent in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova for Reuters, and the former Information Officer for NATO.

Tom Heneghan – He’s the Regional Editor stationed in Paris, and in charge of religious news. (You probably caught that, so I will leave off asking the logical question.)

Jason Bush – He’s the Chief Economic Correspondent for Reuters in Moscow. Again, the logic of economics meet world conquest escapes me, as I am sure it does you.

Pavel Polityuk – Now he’s an interesting one among the platoon of authors on this one. He usually reports from Ukraine on such things as commodities and energy, agricultural commodities, oil, gas, etc. An IT guy according to his LinkedIn profile, I am not sure why he is involved, maybe they’ll finally explain.

Anyway, the other authors, and these, they are part of a bigger team that has covered many stories about Ukraine since the unrest began. If I pointed out that almost all of these lean toward Kiev and Washington, and in the general direction of NATO, I don’t guess anybody would be amazed. Here’s one telling of Russian misdeeds and not a lot more. That example only took two major editors and one writer though. What’s crucial to understand here though, is not the singular effect of one bad story. It’s the downhill slide of misinformation that trickles from the fingertips of these authors.

Correspondent Graham Phillips virtually alone at Donetsk Airport Sunday - Courtesy Graham's Facebook — Correspondent Graham Phillips virtually alone at Donetsk Airport Sunday – Courtesy Graham’s Facebook

Reuters reporting ends up at places like the London Free Press, with some of the same writers. Stories like these, spread far and wide from London to Washington, New York City, Paris, worldwide really, so imagine the overall impact. Yahoo News pics up these stories, and hundreds upon hundreds of other newsrooms. I know the astute reader grasps the implications. Once it’s said, at least by Reuters or BBC, it’s done and over. You cannot really take back the implication and the social sense of these kinds of information fumbles. Of course Reuters is not even treating this one as a fumble, now are they?

Has the media become so immune to the public view, as to ignore even the possibility of being wrong? What kind of people are behind media with such immense power and so little scrutiny? Whether these reports are outright lies and propaganda, or lazy and mediocre incompetence, the end result is the same. Did Kiev’s forces attack? No one has denied this. Is the airport in their hands now? No one has provided imagery or video to that effect yet.

Headline goof of the century - Courtesy The Harry S. Truman — Headline goof of the century – Courtesy The Harry S. Truman Museum

What we have seen are images of, as Reuters puts it; the “Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Azov battalion line up before they depart to the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, in central Kiev January 17, 2015.” Now what’s significant in that for me is, “who had the foresight to snap images of recruits headed to a front nobody else knew about? The time stamp on this is the day before yesterday folks. Was this story being crafted BEFORE the airport was “taken over?” Or, did the FIVE authors craft, re-craft, edit with two different editors, all on European time, as the battle was going on?

It’s a bit like when the press announced Dewey had beat Harry Truman. Or you tell me.

Additional image credit: Feature image of Patrick Lancaster in Ukraine with Graham Phillips – Courtesy the reporters.

When will “we the people” stop the killing in Donbass?

January 11, 2015 by Phil Butler 112 Comments

Someone explain to me so I can understand. How is it that Russia is somehow negligent in influencing pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine, when the Kiev junta’s forces are the ones shelling civilians daily? Does Germany’s Angela Merkel see something the world cannot? God only knows.

A headline this morning from the Sydney Morning Herald reads; “Angela Merkel tells Vladimir Putin: No Ukraine summit without progress on Minsk peace plan.” Excuse me? Using the Minsk peace plan agreed upon in September as an excuse, the German Chancellor has turned logic on its ear pointing the crooked finger at Putin once again. To quote the Herald story on Ukraine summit suggested by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko; Dr Merkel’s spokesman told reporters:

“the Chancellor told Mr Putin that all sides needed to make their contribution to implement the peace plan. That includes that Russia uses its influence on the separatists in order to reach consensual solutions.”

Donbass displaced persons — Hundreds of thousands have fled to Russia or have been displaced by the Kiev assault on Donbass – Courtesy European Commission DG ECHO

This is disturbing on several levels. First and foremost, the people of Donbass are the ones being shelled to death, not the citizens west of Mariupol and Donetsk. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands displaced by this war, they did not flee to Kiev. Donbass people have fled to Russia. Please understand me, the fundamental problem in Ukraine today is not one of Russian or separatist aggression. If it were, there would be reports of dead babies and grandmothers from artillery shelling in places like Shevchenko (Шевченко), Novopavlivka (Новопавлівка), and to the North in Kharkiv. If Vladimir Putin were not trying to effect a peace in the east of Ukraine, my associates in Kharkiv would surely be reporting hundreds of Russian tanks in town. What Mrs. Merkel’s statements imply, it’s preposterous at the extreme.

The skeptical reader here is going to point to 5,000 western media stories that parrot and support the idea Putin is the aggressor here. Headlines in my country, and all over the west, they echo like some Swiss yodel over the artillery fire coming from the west. Point of fact here, British journalist Graham Phillips from Donbass shares every day the real story of east Ukraine. Why are you not listening and watching?

The BBC does not have a “Graham Phillips” on the ground in Ukraine. Neither does the New York Times or the Sydney Morning Herald. Phillips, for those unaware, has been the impromptu eyes and ears of the world in east Ukraine since the beginning. Threatened, held captive by Kiev, shot at, expelled into the Polish badlands, and having had a bounty placed on his head, the Brit reporter captures daily the strife that is speaking Russian in fascist held Ukraine. The image above is all that need be said for Frau Merkel’s dillusion, and the one below of poor Misha is an utter condemnation for anyone who supports Petro Poroshenko.

Graham Phillips Was with shelling victim Misha. When a local woman heard of his plight, she donated $3000 for him. Courtesy Graham Phillips’ Facebook

If Russia is attacking the Washington backed Kiev regime, where are the BBC reports? Why is The New York Times not showing us the effects of the horror? If Washington and the west were not responsible, we’d see a Graham Phillips in western Ukraine getting donations for limbless citizens there. I hope I made my point, and if I did…

I’ve made it my job to report on what you’re not being told. Every day I scour the internet and social media to ferret out the other side of our world story. God knows why I do it, but I know the unfairness and propaganda of mainstream media compelled me since years ago. When I read reports like the ones railing Putin, the Palestinians, anybody suffering at the hands of others, my concern turns to our humaneness, and to our future. I’m appalled that more people are not incensed by the fascism rampaging on our world, and by the fascists playing the good guy. Germany has utterly used all the nations of the EU for gain. So has the United States and Britain. And the moment Russia puts a stop to NATO expansion dead innocents mark the territory. This is the ungodly truth. Everyone reading this who is not incensed, not undertaking a solution, you’re the real problem.

U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Arseniy Yatsenyuk — Obama talks with Arseniy Yatsenyuk in March of 2014. Now who is responsible for the war, tell me again? Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

This conflict marks the worst crisis we’ve faced since World War II, and once trusted news media only evangelize the Obama administration, the Brit side, Berlin’s socialist “yes” agenda by order of almighty Washington. I wonder at last, what must the NSA have discovered for Obama, to be able to leverage Germany, France, and the rest so effectively? But I wonder when you will stand up and defend the innocents people of Earth, I wonder that on more sleepless nights. Another thing that moves me deeply is how the deaths of a dozen media people in Paris garners worldwide sympathy, when the coup in Ukraine that caused worlds to war gets only State Department press? As utterly gut wrenching as the terror at Charlie Hebdo is, babies blown to bits in east Ukraine bear a darker stain. Of course we knew from the onset the killers in Paris would end up being dead Al-Qaida operatives, but putting the bad guy label on Putin in Ukraine proves it’s tough to brand live targets.

Putin Christmas — Vladimir Putin at Christmas mass at the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the Otradnoye on the outskirts of Voronezh. For his part, considering the Russian speakers being slaughtered just outside Russia’S border, Putin has been ultimately calm and collected. (Kremlin)

Sorry, but since the shift in US-Russia detentes occurred, we’ve been set back 5 decades to a time when nuclear war was a common talking point. We had our Angela Merkels in Germany back then too. For anyone interested, look up something called the “Christian Occident” and the America interjection of supranational framework into West Germany, the so-called “Free West” mechanism. Merkel, not unlike her predecessors, is “tasked” with maintaining, as the American cultural attache to the Bonn government proclaimed:

“The America Houses represent the visible symbols of our determination to weld Germany irrevocably to the free world.”

Indeed, not only have Americans been brainwashed to fear and despise Russians, the Germans have been conditioned for decades to blindly follow anything Washington demands. Where once the German people made and extraordinary pack of warlike wolves, today they’re mostly mewing sheep who only mutter obscenities when the food supply gets low. In essence, Americans with Lidl and Aldi, instead of Walmart. Politically, you can throw in a hefty resurgence of that “Christian Occident” in the form of the Pegida movement, and controlling what Deutschland says and does is fairly easy. Back during the Cold War Germany had Chancellor Konrad Adenauer worrying over Algeria and the communist grip on all Europe. Funny how North Africa played back then, as it does now.

Je Suis Charlie — Je suis Charlie 10 janvier 2015 – akunamatata

I know the reader is having a hard time understanding the parallel in between Chancellor Merkel’s recent statements, and free world strategies of the past. But, today is not unlike the day when West German Chancellor Ludwig Erharddeclared that; “there was no country on Earth more closely attached to Vietnam than Germany.” Utterly preposterous to conceive of, isn’t it. That a European nation’s leadership could so vehemently suggest the Vietnam War was theirs? It’s as hard to understand as the demonstrations over Je Suis Charlie, and the lack of outrage over either Donbass or Gaza…

Here we are though. Germany, in all her ultra-conservatism and sheepishness,can feel threatened while threatening Russia in east Ukraine. It’s in a way, worse than national socialism, what’s happened to Germany. To illuminate further,the U.S. National Security Advisor back then, McGeorge Bundy, offered this for the people to gobble up about the Vietnam conflict for Germany:

“The defense of Berlin, right now, is in Vietnam”

So, the salvation of the Frankfurt banks, the solvency of the EU and the euro, is under attack in Donbass! Only Washington and Berlin started it! Frau Merkel, please go for a double doctorate, only this time in political history instead of chemistry. For the rest of us, if we are to have peace anytime soon, we have to educate ourselves beyond BBC and CNN programming.

More later…

Graham Phillips Reports from Novorossiya: Ukraine Abandons its Dead Soldiers

September 27, 2014 by Phil Butler Leave a Comment

Scanning the web today for various information I ran across this video from the twitter feed of RT reporter Graham Phillips in Ukraine. The honesty of the piece, the bitter truth it entails, it tells me who is honorable and who is not in the east vs. west tug of war that has gone on there.

Full English subs on all the Russian parts now, for Novorossiya News #3, as Ukraine abandons its dead soldiers – https://t.co/rAFHEN9TUJ

— Graham Phillips (@GrahamWP_UK) September 27, 2014

In the video you see Pro-Russian separatists honoring the dead of their enemies. Watch the video with English subtitles and see if you can detect a certain humility and matter of fact honesty too. What’s more compelling for me as a former soldier are the faces and attitudes of the Novorossiya soldiers. It’s poignant to note, these men are defending the place they were born.

Graham Phillips, for those who do not know, has been reporting on the Ukraine situation since the onset of the violence there. Captured by the Kiev forces, detained and summarily thrown out of the country, Phillips has persisted in trying to bring the real story of the carnage there to the world. Some of the most relevant and up close coverage of this situation has been reported by the sheer determination of this courageous reporter.

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