TFF Blog

Av Erni & Ola Friholt 18:e juni 2019 Vid upprepade tillfällen de senaste åren hör vi ledande politiker i USA och EU-länder tala om ”Våra intressen”. Märkligt nog gäller intressena inte hemma i USA eller England eller Frankrike. Nej det gäller Libyen, Venezuela, Iran, Irak, Afghanistan, Nordkorea, Syrien, Arabemiraten, Bahrein, Qatar, Kuwait m fl… Ännu tror många människor i vår världsdel att kolonialismens övergrepp mot världens folk upphörde stegvis under 1950- och 60-talen. En massiv desinformation lydigt återgiven i media lär oss att det är våra kristna och humana värderingar som kränks av ociviliserade råa regimer i de forna kolonierna. När kolonialmakterna insåg att det skulle bli kostsamt att behålla kontrollen av kolonierna med direkt militär och administrativ närvaro, gavs kolonierna ”fria” och erbjöds istället lån till sin kommande återuppbyggnad. Snabbt gav dessa lån och tillhörande miljardräntor kontroll över de nya staternas politik, som anpassades till kolonialstaternas ekonomiska behov. I...

Oh yes! It can and it is ready to. And perhaps it even will. To tell you the truth, although NATO is the strongest, it could well fall apart thanks to Russia’s – Putin’s – cunning schemes. See here is how and why – in a video from The Infographics Show – and you’ll understand it all. You fear will increase and you’ll be more to pay more to your national military. Looked at from a professional conflict analytical perspective, one may mention a few problematic aspects of this piece of propaganda: • There is no conflict analysis. Russia is treated as the independent variable (active), the US/NATO the dependent (re-active). • Almost no mention of history (except that Russia was weak before but strong now). No mention, for instance, of NATO’s expansion in spite of promises given to then president Gorbachev. • Security and peace is about military matters...

When I was in Moscow three weeks ago, I was briefing myself for an interview with the Soviet Union’s last president, Mikhail Gorbachev. As it happened he had to cancel it as he went into hospital for tests. One of the American academics I always read is Gordon Hahn, an ex fellow of the highly regarded Centre for Strategic and International  Studies. He wrote that American policy towards Russia is a runaway train without rails, driven by a troubling confluence of hubristic ideological influences and bureaucratized sectorial interests. I would add to that Republican members of the Senate who have allowed President Donald Trump small room to manoeuvre on Russian issues, even though there are some indications that he’d like to make peace with Russia.  I also re-read what President Bill Clinton’s secretary of defence, William Perry, has said on a number of occasions: “The US is as much to...

June 10, 2019 Mr. Amano, IAEA, indeed has good reasons to be worried – also today when the Germain foreign minister, Heiko Maas, visits Tehran and seems to have nothing new to convey to Iran’s foregin minister and president. Iran’s PressTV asked TFF’s director and co-founder, Jan Oberg, to comment on Amano’s statement, together with E. Michael Jones.

Some time ago, I wrote about the flood catastrophe in Iran which a) affects up to 10 million people and b) has gone virtually unmentioned in Western mainstream media: Stop the ongoing US humanitarian terrorism against Iran and help its people! Just in passing, not one of the more than 3000 media recipients of TFF PressInfo did, as far as I have been able to search, mention this issue in general, let alone refer to my analysis. The conspicuous uniformity in perspective of what hits the mainstream media headlines and the uniformity of what does not – omitted news – is today such, that it is hard to believe that it is not orchestrated and that self-censorship isn’t a normal, everyday practice among editors and reporters. So, on April 17, after having written the article, I did what I suggested at the end of it – I sent US$ 5...

Efforts to blame Iran for acts of sabotage went nowhere — but this feels way too much like 2003 all over again Last week a senior Pentagon official accused Iran of having sabotaged four oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on May 12 and of firing a rocket into Baghdad’s Green Zone on May 19. Iran executed these events, he said, either directly or through regional “proxies.”   But instead of creating sensational headlines, the briefing by Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, the director of the Joint Staff, was a flop, because it was clear to reporters covering it that he could not cite a single fact to back it up. The story got only the most cursory coverage in major news outlets, all of which buried Gilday’s accusation deep in stories about the announced deployment of 1,500 more U.S. troops to the Middle East. Relatively few readers would even...

Immediate action is needed to save the future The central problem which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most disastrous effects of climate change, we need to act immediately. But it is difficult to mobilize public opinion behind urgently needed action because the most severe effects of global warming belong to the long-term future. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in their October 2018 report, used strong enough language to wake up at least part of the public: the children whose future is at stake. Here is an excerpt from a speech which 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg made at the Davos Economic Forum in January 2019: “Our house is on fire. I am here to say our house is on fire. According to the IPCC...

I’m on the 250 km/hour train hurtling from Moscow to St Petersburg when it suddenly clicks in my mind. My apologies for being so stupid, but despite regular trips to Russia over many years I have only suddenly got it – I too have been brainwashed about Russia by Western politicians, media and authors, like nearly everyone else. What I noticed in Moscow and what I’ve seen in St Petersburg on previous trips is that, yes, I am, indeed I am, in a normal Western big city environment. Both cities are grand in different ways. St Petersburg, with its museums, palaces, great churches, canals and river, its rich store of art (probably second only to the Louvre) and its musical life (the Marriinsky theatre is the epicenter of world ballet) is arguably the most beautiful and imposing of all the world’s cities. Moscow has the Kremlin, the most majestic seat...

Forsvaret er sandsynligvis ikke det emne, som interesserer dig mest ved folketingsvalget. Det er du heller ikke ene om, for hverken de danske medier eller danske politikere har bidraget til en offentlig debat om Danmarks forhold til forsvar, krig og fred. Ser man på dr.dk, hvor Detektor har lavet en oversigt over partiernes medieomtale og hvilke emner, de har talt om, rammer kategorien, som DR har døbt ”forsvaret,” bunden. Ud af 5252 artikler har en folketingskandidat 52 gange svarende til ca. 1 pct., talt om forsvaret i valgkampens første uge frem til den 11. maj 2019. De populærest emner var EU, hvilket naturligvis hang sammen med valget til Europa-Parlamentet. Udlændinge naturligvis, takket være de danske medier og politiske modstanderes modproduktive kamp mod Stram Kurs. Klimaet som er den nye darling, som breder sig fra Liberal Alliance til Enhedslisten og så velfærd i form af pension, sundhed og daginstitutioner. Men et...

On Monday, 13 May 2019, the New York Times posted an article with the title “White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War”. Besides the aircraft carrier and other naval forces already sent to the Persian Gulf, plans include sending as many as 120,000 US troops to the region. There is a great danger that an attack on Iran might be sparked by a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like false flag incident involving Saudi oil ships. On Sunday, 19 May, Donald Trump tweeted: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”. He did not specify how or when Iran had threatened the US. Why is the possibility of a military attack on Iran especially worrying? Such a war would completely destabilize the already-unstable Middle East. In Pakistan, the unpopularity of the US-Israel-Saudi alliance, as well as the memory of...

Brexit grabs the attention of much of the world, not least because Britain once had an Empire and ruled a great part of the world’s peoples. And it’s the caretaker of the English language, the Empire’s most important legacy. Add to that the BBC, the world’s favourite and most trusted radio and TV station, its top universities, its production of pop music, its numerous top-flight classical orchestras, its permanent membership of the UN Security Council, it being the world’s fifth largest economy and, alas, its possession of nuclear weapons. In terms of its soft non-military power, depending on which measurement is used, Britain is first or second in the world. It remains partly a mystery why something around half the electorate want Britain to leave the European Union. It’s mainly older people who voted that way in the referendum of three years ago. The very old who lived through World...

HE Secretary-General of the United NationsAntónio GuterresUnited NationsNew York NY REGARDING: Request for action in accordance with the UN Charter Article 99 to seek to prevent war between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The relation between the USA and Iran has been tense for many years. After the abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the stifling sanctions imposed by the USA on Iran, the hostility has increased to a dangerous level. The President of the USA has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action, even talking about the total destruction of the country. These threats must be taken seriously. Even if a war is not started intentionally, a misunderstanding could lead to an escalation and finally to war. The situation in the Middle East is very complicated and other parties than Iran and the USA might contribute a sparkle to start the...