Obviously, it is just a matter of time before a dirty bomb explodes in the West.
Nuclear weapons
The US/UK/EU/NATO alliance of evil is pushing for this. We might as well know what will happen to us.
The large presence of North Korean fighters and bombers prompted South Korea to mobilise 80 military aircraft.
North Korea had warned Seoul and Washington that their decision this week to hold the “Vigilant Storm” joint military air drills would receive a response.
North Korea had warned Seoul and Washington that their decision this week to hold the “Vigilant Storm” joint military air drills would receive a response. When South Korea and the US announced on Thursday they were extending the Vigilant Storm exercises by a day in response to North Korea’s earlier missile launches, an official in Pyongyang warned that the situation had entered a dangerous phase.
Nov 4, 2022

South Korea scrambled 80 military aircraft, including advanced F-35 fighter jets, after detecting 180 North Korean warplanes flying within North Korean territory – the latest defiant show of military strength by the nuclear-armed country.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Friday the North Korean warplanes were detected in various areas inland and along the country’s eastern and western coasts, but they did not come particularly close to the inter-Korean border.
None of those planes breached the South Korean military’s virtual “tactical action” line, which is designated to be located 20-50km (12-31 miles) north of the two countries’ land and sea boundaries. The action line is for monitoring purposes to give the South enough time to respond to provocations or attacks.
The South scrambled 80 of its warplanes, including an unspecified number of F35 fighters, but there were no immediate reports of incidents involving the two air forces.
The JCS said South Korean forces were “maintaining a firm readiness posture for further provocations” and monitoring the situation in coordination with the United States.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the South Korean capital, Seoul, said some of the North Korean aircraft movements had been close enough to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas to trigger the scrambling of South Korean jets in response.
“The South Korean military has announced that during the day – from late morning local time through to mid-afternoon here – they have been detecting flight by around 180 military aircraft of different types in North Korea – right across the breadth of the North Korean part of the peninsula,” he said.
![The Korean People's Airforce holding a military drill in an undisclosed location in this photo released in 2013 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) [File: KCNA/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/000_Hkg8369110-1.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C509)
Months of tension between North Korea and allies South Korea and the US appear to be reaching a new level as Pyongyang moves to demonstrate its opposition to ongoing military exercises south of its borders, while also showcasing its new military firepower.
‘Uncontrollable phase’
North Korea had warned Seoul and Washington that their decision this week to hold the “Vigilant Storm” joint military air drills would receive a response.
When South Korea and the US announced on Thursday they were extending the Vigilant Storm exercises by a day in response to North Korea’s earlier missile launches, an official in Pyongyang warned that the situation had entered a dangerous phase.
“It is a very dangerous and false choice,” Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said of the decision to extend the drills.
“The irresponsible decision of the US and South Korea is shoving the present situation, caused by provocative military acts of the allied forces, to an uncontrollable phase,” he said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The Vigilant Storm drills – which began on Monday and are now scheduled to end on Saturday – involve some 240 fighter jets and other military aircraft conducting about 1,600 joint missions. The air drills followed after the South Korean military wrapped up the 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, in which an undisclosed number of US military personnel had participated.
North Korea is vehemently opposed to such training exercises, saying the military drills are preparing for an eventual attack on its territory.
In a visit described as “highly choreographed” amid the tension on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s Minister of Defence Lee Jong-sup toured a US airbase on Thursday with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Yonhap reported.
![US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and South Korea's Minister of National Defence Lee Jong-sup talk in front of a B-1 bomber during a visit to Andrews Air Force Base on November 3, 2022 [Mandel Ngan/pool/AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AP22307716579595.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514)
The tour by the defence chiefs of the US Air Force’s Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which is home to nuclear-capable B-1B and B-52 bombers, was an opportunity to “highlight America’s military might amid evolving North Korean threats”, Yonhap reported.
During the visit, the US defence secretary “underscored Washington’s ‘ironclad’ security commitment to the defence of the South”, Yonhap said.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Oh good, obviously Israel will listen to reason and abandon its doomsday weaponry. For sure.
“Many signs” show Ukraine is winding down its program amid Moscow’s revelations, a senior diplomat claimed
https://www.rt.com/russia/565338-exposure-ukraine-dirty-bomb/
Oct 25, 2022

© Getty Images / D-Keine
Kiev might be shelving its alleged ‘dirty bomb’ program after Russia exposed it, Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, claimed on Tuesday. He added that Ukraine may well have time to do this before the upcoming nuclear inspection.
Over the last few days, Russian officials, including Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, have been accusing Kiev of preparing a false-flag attack with the use of a ‘dirty bomb’, a device combining conventional explosives with radioactive material. Ukraine has categorically denied Moscow’s claims.
“If you read the Ukrainian Telegram channels, you would see that there is a lot of fuss in the Ukrainian ruling circles now because of the campaign that we have started to launch, and there are many signs that they are trying to sort of wind down this program,” Polyansky said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
In his opinion, Ukraine has enough time to scale back the ‘dirty bomb’ plans before the upcoming visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
“They can come, but I am telling you that a ‘dirty bomb’ is not a very complex device,” Polyansky explained, adding that there is no guarantee that Kiev will not resume its alleged activity after the inspectors depart.
READ MORE: Kiev denies Moscow’s ‘dirty bomb’ allegations
At the same time, the official claimed that the danger of Kiev using a ‘dirty bomb’ remains “very high,” and that Ukraine “has the opportunity” and “has every reason to use it.”
Earlier on Tuesday, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Russian mission’s head, Vassily Nebenzia, said that Moscow would consider the use of a ‘dirty bomb’ by Ukraine “an act of nuclear terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba earlier called the Russian allegations “as absurd as they are dangerous.” He also noted that “Russians often accuse others of what they plan themselves.”
On Tuesday, the minister revealed that Ukraine had invited IAEA inspectors to come and to “prove that Ukraine has neither any dirty bombs nor plans to develop them.”
“Good cooperation with IAEA and partners allows us to foil Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ disinfo campaign,” Kuleba said.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, commenting on the matter, said that “all parties should avoid any actions that could lead to miscalculation and escalation of what’s already a devastating conflict.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon claimed that Russia’s allegations against Ukraine were “transparently false.” NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said that the allies “reject the allegation” and believe that Russia “must not use it as a pretext” for further escalation.
NATO Plans To Hold Annual ‘Nuclear Deterrence’ Exercises
https://www.newsweek.com/finland-will-allow-nato-place-nuclear-weapons-border-russia-1754925
10/26/22
In a move that could risk infuriating Russia, nuclear weapons could possibly be positioned in Finland if the country’s application to join NATO is approved, according to a report from a Finnish newspaper.
Both Finland and Sweden submitted applications to join NATO in May, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Helsinki-based newspaper Iltalehti, the bill regarding potential NATO membership the Finnish government will put before parliament doesn’t include any opt-outs for nuclear weapons.
Speaking to the paper, defense sources said Finland’s foreign and defense ministers, Pekka Haavisto and Antti Kaikkonen, gave a “commitment” to NATO in July that they wouldn’t seek “restrictions or national reservations” if Helsinki’s application is accepted.
Foreign policy insiders told Iltalehti this means NATO nuclear weapons could transit through, or be based on, Finnish territory. Additionally, there are no restrictions on establishing NATO bases in the country.
The U.S. already has around 100 nuclear weapons in Europe, positioned in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Britain and France, both NATO members, also maintain their own independent nuclear arsenals.
Earlier this month, the Polish government said it had held discussions with the U.S. government about hosting U.S. nuclear weapons, though this hasn’t been confirmed by Washington.

Continue: https://www.newsweek.com/finland-will-allow-nato-place-nuclear-weapons-border-russia-1754925
If, at the end of the day, the appropriate phone calls are made by the West, and Ukraine backs down, then Russia will have succeeded. And if it turns out that the Russian information is wrong, there was no harm from the effort. However, if Russia is correct, and Ukraine not only is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, but detonates one, and the West did nothing to prevent it, then Russia is on the record for having provided the West with due warning.
Consortiumnews.com
By Scott Ritter
Special to Consortium News
Russia appears to be legitimately concerned about the possibility of Ukraine building and using a “dirty bomb,” so much so that it has taken the unprecedented step of reaching out to multiple senior Western defense authorities.

In the span of a few hours on Sunday, the senior-most Russian defense authorities — Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and General Gennady Gerasimov — called their counterparts in the U.S., U.K., France, and Turkey, with the same message — Ukraine is preparing to detonate a so-called “dirty bomb”— high explosive-wrapped radiological material, designed to contaminate large areas with deadly radioactive isotopes.
Russia is not only concerned about the immediate impact of Ukraine detonating such a device in terms of the harm that would be done to people and the environment, but also about the potential for such an event to be used by Ukraine’s western allies to directly intervene militarily in the ongoing conflict, similar to what occurred in Syria when allegations about the use of Sarin nerve agent by the Syrian government against civilians were used by the U.S., U.K., and France to justify an attack on Syrian military and infrastructure targets. (It turned out that the allegations of Sarin use were false; the jury is still out about the use of commercial chlorine as a weapon.)
President of Russia Vladimir Putin with Defense Minister of Russia Sergey Shoigu after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Russia is to raise the matter at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
In return, Western governments on Monday accused Russia of plans to deploy a dirty bomb. “We’ve been very clear with the Russians … about the severe consequences that would result from nuclear use,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price. “There would be consequences for Russia whether it uses a dirty bomb or a nuclear bomb.”
Ukraine is requesting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) send a team to Ukraine to investigate.
A Dud
For all the press attention that has been given to the possibility of a “dirty bomb” being used in Ukraine, history shows that despite the hype, a “dirty bomb” is not a weapon that is either easily produced or procured or causes the kind of mass casualties its proponents hope for.
The current “dirty bomb” scare isn’t Russia’s first encounter with the concept. In November 1995 a “dirty bomb” comprised of high explosives and cesium was uncovered in Moscow’s Ismailovsky Park, and in December 1998 another cache of radioactive material was found attached to an explosive charge near a railroad track in Chechnya. Both devices were disarmed by Russian security forces.
In May 2002 F.B.I. agents arrested Jose Padilla, an American citizen who converted to Islam, as he returned to the United States from a trip that took him to Egypt, Pakistan, and eventually Afghanistan, where, sometime in 1999-2000, he allegedly met with Abu Zubaydah, Osama Bin Laden’s operations chief. According to Zubaydeh, he and Padilla discussed the possibility of Padilla building and detonating a “dirty bomb” inside the U.S.
While Al Qaeda had apparently drafted plans for such a weapon — and in fact had accumulated radioactive medical isotopes for use in a “dirty bomb” (these materials were seized by the U.N. in 2002) — none of this information was shared with Padilla, who arrived in the U.S. with neither a weapon design nor means to accomplish the task. He was tried and convicted, nonetheless.
The closest the world has come to the actual production and employment of an actual “dirty bomb” came in 1987 when Iraq built and tested four devices designed to spread a cloud of radioactive dust for the express purpose of killing humans — in this case, Iranian soldiers (Iraq was, at that time, engaged in a long and bloody conflict with Iran.)
The device in question — an air-dropped bomb measuring 12 feet in length and weighing more than a ton — was, according to documents turned over by Iraq to United Nations inspectors, intended to be dropped on troop areas, industrial centers, airports, railroad stations, bridges and “any other areas the command decrees.”
According to the document, the bomb was intended to induce radiation sickness which would “weaken enemy units from the standpoint of health and inflict losses that would be difficult to explain, possibly producing a psychological effect.” Death, the document noted, would occur “within two to six weeks.”
The Iraqis chose zirconium as their radioactive source. The Iraqis had zirconium in quantities due to its use in incendiary weapons. By irradiating zirconium flakes in the Iraqi nuclear reactor located in Tuwaitha, the Iraqis produced the radioactive isotope Zirconium 95, which had a half-life of 75.5 days, meaning the bomb would have to be used soon after it was manufactured.
The weapon was tested three times in 1987, including a final test involving two actual “dirty bombs” dropped by aircraft. The weapons were a bust, losing their radioactive properties shortly after detonation. In fact, one would need to stand within ten feet of the point of detonation of the bomb to absorb a lethal dose of radiation, something the high explosive charge of the bomb itself made moot. The project was abandoned.
The Iraqi results were replicated by Israel which, between 2010 and 2014 carried out 20 explosive tests of actual “dirty bombs” in the Negev desert. The research found that the radiation was dispersed in a manner that the danger posed to humans was not substantial, concluding that “the main impact of such an attack would be psychological.”
False Flag, or False Alert?
The Russians are serious about the threat posed by the possibility of a Ukrainian “dirty bomb.” While the history of “dirty bombs” does not point to a threat on the scale or scope of an actual nuclear weapon, one can “worst case” a scenario which provides the potential for the significant loss of life and property from the radioactive fallout such a weapon could produce. Such an outcome would be a disaster which Russia and, presumably, the Western allies of Ukraine would like to prevent.
So far, the Russian allegations appear to have fallen on deaf ears, with Ukraine dismissing the claims as absurd, and non-government affiliated western analysts flipping the script, accusing Russia of actually planning a false flag attack on Ukraine using a “dirty bomb” of its own construction.
But the reality is that Russia takes its senior military-to-military connections with its western counterparts very seriously, given the role such contacts play in the kind of deconfliction cooperation that keeps small-scale incidents from exploding into war. The possibility that Russia would deliberately corrupt this communication channel with disinformation is highly unlikely. Russia appears to be legitimately concerned about the possibility of Ukraine building and using a “dirty bomb”, so much so that it has taken the unprecedented step of reaching out to multiple senior Western defense authorities to prevent such an occurrence from happening.
If, at the end of the day, the appropriate phone calls are made by the West, and Ukraine backs down, then Russia will have succeeded. And if it turns out that the Russian information is wrong, there was no harm from the effort. However, if Russia is correct, and Ukraine not only is preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, but detonates one, and the West did nothing to prevent it, then Russia is on the record for having provided the West with due warning.
Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
According to her, Kiev was planning to turn the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant into a dirty bomb.
Two Ukrainain firms are in the final stages of producing a “dirty bomb,” Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov told journalists on Monday.
“According to the information we have available, two Ukrainian organizations have concrete instructions to create a so-called dirty bomb. Work is at the final stage,” Kirillov declared.
Tass.com reports: The Russian Defense Ministry has data on contacts of the Ukrainian presidential office with the UK on the issue of potentially obtaining these nuclear technologies, Kirillov told a news briefing.
The Kiev regime has sufficient research and production potential to make a dirty bomb, including three active nuclear power plants and large amounts of spent nuclear fuel, he went on to say.
“Thus, Ukraine has nuclear industry enterprises with stockpiles of radioactive substances that can be used to make a dirty bomb. They are three active nuclear power plants: Yuzhno-Ukrainskaya, Khmelnitskaya and Rovnenskaya, which have nine spent fuel pools that contain up to 1,500 tons of uranium oxide enriched to the level of 1.5%,” Kirillov said.
In addition, according to Kirillov, there are 22,000 spent fuel assemblies containing uranium-238 at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It also contains products related to operation: uranium-235 and plutonium-239, which are the main components of the nuclear charge, the lieutenant general stressed.
On Sunday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu held telephone conversations with his British, French, and Turkish counterparts, as well as with the Pentagon chief. Shoigu conveyed to his colleagues’ concerns about Ukraine’s possible use of a dirty bomb. For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova spotlighted Ukraine’s nuclear blackmail. According to her, Kiev was planning to turn the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant into a dirty bomb.
Russia Formally Declares Detonation of “Dirty Bomb” By Ukraine will Be Viewed as “Nuclear Terrorism”
HAL TURNER
25 OCTOBER 2022
The Russian Permanent Representative to the UN has formally notified the UN Secretary-General, in writing, that Ukraine’s plan to detonate a “Dirty Bomb” will be viewed by Moscow as “Nuclear Terrorism.”
Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia penned a letter to the UN Secretary-General, outlining Ukraine’s plan to detonate a radiological “dirty bomb” so as to create an excuse for NATO forces to enter the fight on the side of Ukraine. We have a portion of that letter, shown below.
In it, he states “The authorities in Kiev and their Western backers will bear full responsibility for all consequences of such irresponsible action” and goes on to bluntly warn “We will regard the use of the dirty bomb as an act of nuclear terrorism.”
It should be pointed out to readers of this story that under Russia’s public nuclear doctrine, the Russian Federation makes clear the explosion of a dirty bomb is viewed as the equivalent to a first nuclear strike against Russia; they can and will respond to nuclear terrorism with the use of their own nuclear weapons.
Here is part of Nebenzia’s letter to the UN Secretary General:


Yesterday, the Hal Turner Radio Show reported that The Russian Defense Minister had four separate telephone conversations with his counterparts in the US, UK, France, and Turkey over the past few days, in which he alerted his counterparts that Russia has VERIFIED Intelligence that Ukraine is in the final stages of constructing a radiological “dirty Bomb. Worse, he told his counterparts Ukraine also has military plans to bomb all six nuclear reactors at the Zaporoahye Nuclear Power plant to cause a massive radiation incident. In addition, that story reported the secretive head of Russia’s FSB, publicly warned that Kiev is planning to use a “dirty Bomb.” (Story Here)
Continue:
Russia has doubled down on the allegation that Kiev plans to detonate a radioactive weapon
https://www.rt.com/russia/565319-russia-ukraine-bomb-claim/
Oct 26, 2022

FILE PHOTO: © EyeEm / Getty Images.
The West is wrong to ignore Russia’s warning that Ukraine plans to detonate a so-called dirty bomb, a conventional munition with radioactive elements, the Kremlin has said.
Russia has been insisting that Kiev wants to use a weapon of mass destruction to frame Moscow. However, the US and other Western countries have dismissed the claim.
“This attitude, far from being serious, is unacceptable given the seriousness of the danger that we are talking about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
“Once again, we are emphasizing the grave danger that stems from the implementation of the plans the Ukrainians have,” he said.
Russia has requested to convene the UN Security Council to discuss Kiev’s alleged plans. Moscow previously briefed the council members and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the matter.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu relayed Moscow’s concerns to his British, French, and Turkish counterparts on Sunday, and also spoke over the phone to US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin. The next day, Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s top general, raised the issue during phone calls with US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and with his British counterpart, Admiral Tony Radakin.
READ MORE: US doubles down on ‘dirty bomb’ denial
Ukraine has rejected the allegation, with Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba saying that Russia’s claims “are as absurd, as they are dangerous.” The minister insisted that Ukraine does not have such a bomb, nor does it intend to make one.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin dismissed Russia’s allegations against Ukraine again on Monday, saying that they are “false.”
With tensions growing in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, a new generation of nuclear weapons technology is making nuclear warfare a very real prospect. And with very little fanfare, the US is embarking on the privatization of nuclear war under a first-strike doctrine. This is the GRTV Backgrounder with our guest, Professor Michel Chossudovsky.
25 Jun 2015
GRTV Report Produced by James Corbett, Featuring Michel Chossudovsky
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-privatization-of-nuclear-war/5458265
By James Corbett and Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, September 25, 2022
Region: Russia and FSU, USA
Theme: Militarization and WMD
In-depth Report: Nuclear War

First published in June 2015.
With tensions growing in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, a new generation of nuclear weapons technology is making nuclear warfare a very real prospect. And with very little fanfare, the US is embarking on the privatization of nuclear war under a first-strike doctrine.
“On August 6, 2003, on Hiroshima Day, commemorating when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (August 6 1945), a secret meeting was held behind closed doors at Strategic Command Headquarters at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Senior executives from the nuclear industry and the military-industrial complex were in attendance. This mingling of defense contractors, scientists and policy-makers was not intended to commemorate Hiroshima. The meeting was intended to set the stage for the development of a new generation of “smaller”, “safer” and “more usable” nuclear weapons, to be used in the “in-theater nuclear wars” of the 21st Century.”
“Nuclear war has become a multibillion-dollar undertaking, which fills the pockets of US defense contractors. What is at stake is the outright “privatization of nuclear war”.
Video: James Corbett and Michel Chossudovsky
***
US-NATO weapons of mass destruction are portrayed as instruments of peace. Mini-nukes are said to be “harmless to the surrounding civilian population”. Pre-emptive nuclear war is portrayed as a “humanitarian undertaking”.
US nuclear doctrine is intimately related to “America’s War on Terrorism” and the alleged threat of Al Qaeda, which in a bitter irony is con- sidered as an upcoming nuclear power.
Click here to order Michel Chossudovsky’s book
Under the Obama administration, Islamic terrorists are said to be preparing to attack US cities. Proliferation is tacitly equated with “nuclear terrorism”. Obama’s nuclear doctrine puts particular emphasis on “nuclear terrorism” and on the alleged plans by Al Qaeda to develop and use nuclear weapons.
…
“While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using “new technologies” and advanced weapons, until it occurs and becomes a reality. The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of world peace. “Making the world safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.”
(Excerpts from Michel Chossudovsky, Towards a World War III Scenario, The Dangers of Nuclear War, Global Research Montreal, 2011.
***
Order directly from Global Research (also available in pdf and kindle)
“Towards a World War III Scenario” by Michel Chossudovsky
.
Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War
Michel Chossudovsky
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © James Corbett and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2022
Constant artillery fire has prompted fears of a radiation disaster the International Red Cross says would cause a major humanitarian catastrophe.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/4/afraid-for-our-lives-ukraine-nuclear-plant-loses-power
Sept 4, 2022

The nuclear power plant on the front line of the war in Ukraine has lost external power again, fuelling fears of a radiation disaster as fighting continues in the area.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest, had its last remaining main external power line cut off, although a reserve line continued supplying electricity to the grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday.
Only one of the station’s six reactors remained in operation, the agency said in a statement.
The plant, seized by Russian troops shortly after their February 24 invasion, has become a focal point of the conflict, with each side blaming the other for nearby shelling.
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of storing heavy weapons at the site to discourage Ukraine from firing on it. Russia, which denies the presence of any such weapons there, has resisted international calls to relocate troops and demilitarise the area.
Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday accused Ukrainian forces of mounting a failed attempt to capture the plant. Turkey has offered to facilitate the situation.
Constant artillery fire prompted fears of a radiation disaster that the International Red Cross has said would cause a major humanitarian catastrophe.
Shelling continued nearby in Kherson on Sunday as Ukrainian forces attempt to retake the city occupied by Russian troops for months. Ukraine forces destroyed a recreation facility where Russian soldiers were staying, local residents said.
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the capital Kyiv, said Kherson is a critical city in the battle for Ukraine, highlighting that a major counteroffensive was launched last week.
“The Ukrainians feel now they have to retake Kherson and what they are trying to do is basically trap the tens of thousands of Russian soldiers there,” he said.
“On this counteroffensive, they are not storming directly into the city. They are trying to encircle the Russians slowly and methodically and cut off supply lines, and as one military analyst said, ‘pinch the Russians off’.”
‘A battlefield’
According to the daily update by the Ukrainian military, more than 24 air strikes by the Russian army were registered within 24 hours. Both military and civilian sites were hit, the report said, without giving further details.
“Due to the lack of high-precision weapons, the enemy began to use outdated S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles more often,” it said, adding more than 500 such missiles have been fired at targets in Ukraine during the course of the war.
People living alongside the Dnieper River near the besieged nuclear plant have been spending nights in tents or in cars, scared of the intensive shelling near their homes.
Nikopol, about 10km (six miles) downstream from the Zaporizhzhia plant, has been under attack for nearly two months.
Intensified artillery attacks that were usually at night are now taking place during the day, said Maiia Chernysh, 59, a mathematics professor and resident of Nikopol while assembling a tent together with her husband.
As many others do, the couple goes back to Nikopol every morning to check on their house. They leave the city to spend the night in a safer area in the Dnipropetrovsk region, not far from their hometown.
“We left just when Nikopol became a battlefield,” said Olena Kovalova, 32. “We are afraid for our lives.”

Gas wars
A standoff over Russian gas and oil exports ramped up last week as Moscow vowed to keep its main gas pipeline to Germany closed and G7 countries announced a planned price cap on Russian oil exports.
The energy fight is fallout from President Vladimir Putin’s six-month invasion of Ukraine, underscoring the deep rift between Moscow and Western nations as Europe steels itself for the cold months ahead.
“Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow on all Europeans for this winter,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday, citing the Nord Stream 1 pipeline’s continued closure.
Zelenskyy has blamed Russian shelling for an August 25 cutoff, the first time Zaporizhzhia was severed from the national grid, which narrowly avoided a radiation leak. That shutdown prompted power cuts across Ukraine, although emergency generators kicked in for vital cooling processes.
Moscow has cited Western sanctions and technical issues for energy disruptions, while European countries have accused Russia of weaponising supplies as part of its military invasion.
Announcing it would not make a planned restart of gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, one of Russia’s main supply lines to Europe, state-controlled energy giant Gazprom blamed a technical fault.
Gazprom said on Saturday that Germany’s Siemens Energy was ready to help repair broken equipment but that there was nowhere available to carry out the work. Siemens said it has not been commissioned to carry out maintenance work for the pipeline but it is available.
‘War of aggression’
The indefinite delay in restarting Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic Sea to supply Germany and others, deepens Europe’s problems securing fuel for winter as energy prices lead a surge in living costs.
Finance ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – said on Friday the cap on the price of Russian oil aimed to reduce “Russia’s ability to fund its war of aggression whilst limiting the impact of Russia’s war on global energy prices.”
The Kremlin said it would stop selling oil to any countries that implemented the cap.
Russia calls its invasion of its neighbour “a special military operation“. Kyiv and the West say it is an unprovoked aggressive war against a former part of the Soviet Union.
The United States and other countries have pledged military aid for Kyiv to fight an invasion that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Too cool, is he hinting where he will send that nuke?
He is trying the gangster look.
by: JD Heyes
Sunday, March 06, 2022
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

While most Americans watching the conflict unfold in Ukraine following the invasion of more than 100,000 Russian troops last week, most no doubt believe they are doing so in the comfort of believing they are aloof from the consequences.
But that’s not necessarily true, according to the head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), the division of the U.S. military responsible for America’s nuclear deterrence and response.
STRATCOM head Adm. Charles Richard noted this week that it has become vitally important for the U.S. to develop the capacity to defend itself against both Russia and China at the same time in what appears to be a revival of the Cold War-era ‘two-front strategy’ of fighting and winning two major wars at the same time.
“Today, we face two nuclear-capable near-peers who have the capability to unilaterally escalate a conflict to any level of violence in any domain worldwide, with any instrument of national power, and that is historically significant,” Richard told the House Armed Services Committee on March 1, The Epoch Times reported.
He went on to highlight the fact that while the need to deter both countries simultaneously had only risen to the level of a major concern by April 2021, today it “has now become a reality.”
“That need is now an imperative,” Richard said in a dire tone.
The outlet reported further:
In April 2021, he told lawmakers at another congressional hearing that the United States for the first time in history was “on a trajectory to face two nuclear-capable, strategic peer adversaries at the same time.”
Months later, he said the United States was “witnessing a strategic breakout by China,” adding that the Chinese regime’s “explosive growth and modernization of its nuclear and conventional forces” was “breathtaking.”
“Last fall, I formally reported to the secretary of defense, the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] strategic breakout,” Richard said. “Their expansion and modernization in 2021 alone is breathtaking.”
“Make no mistake; China’s strategic breakout is cause for action,” he said during a speech at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Alabama in August.
“What matters is they are building the capability to execute any plausible nuclear employment strategy, the last brick in the wall of a military capable of coercion,” Richard said, going on to reference China’s rapidly advancing hypersonic capability, which is developing to a point where current U.S. missile defenses “may not be sufficient to detect and track them.”
“In 2019, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] test-launched more ballistic missiles than the rest of the world combined,” he said.
“China has an active nuclear weapons testing program,” Richard continued, citing a new tunnel being built at China’s nuclear testing site known as Lop Nur.
“You add all this up and what you get is something that is inconsistent with a minimum deterrence posture,” said Richard, noting that for decades China’s strategy was only to maintain a nuclear stockpile sufficient enough to deter an attack.
The four-star admiral also said what Chinese officials say in denying their programs is meaningless.
“You’ve got to look at what they do, not what they say,” he said. “The breathtaking growth in strategic nuclear capability enables China to change their posture and their strategy.”
In November, the Pentagon warned that China could deploy as many as 1,000 deliverable nuclear missiles by 2030.
And thus far, Beijing’s military has not toned down in its pursuit of hypersonic weapons, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of the U.S. Northern Command, said.
“They’re aggressively pursuing hypersonic capability, tenfold to what we have done as far as testing within the last year or so, significantly outpacing us with their capabilities,” he said at the hearing this week.
As for current U.S. military capabilities, Richard expressed optimism.
“I am satisfied with the posture of my forces. I have made no recommendations to make any changes,” he said. “The nation’s nuclear command and control is in its most defended, most resilient lineup that it’s ever been in its history.”
The world is getting more dangerous, and having a doddering, demented old man as our president is contributing.
Sources include:
“It is not only ironic, but also a huge real risk, that a group of people in the only country in the world that was bombed by atomic bombs would call for an invitation to the culprit to deploy nuclear weapons in their own territory.”
https://www.rt.com/news/551005-china-japan-nuclear-weapons/
Beijing urges Tokyo to ‘deeply reflect on its history’ after former PM suggests hosting American nuclear arms

Shinzo Abe, then Japan’s prime minister, is shown speaking at a May 2018 state dinner with Chinese officials in Tokyo. © David Mareuil /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Chinese officials have rebuked Japan over former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s call to ease the country’s non-nuclear principles and consider hosting strategic US weapons to boost security amid rising geopolitical tensions.
“Japanese politicians have frequently spread fallacies related to Taiwan and even blatantly made false remarks that violate the nation’s three non-nuclear principles,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday.
Those principles include bans on possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear arms. Japan, the only country ever to be attacked with nuclear weapons, adopted a pacifist constitution after its crushing defeat in World War II.
However, Abe said in a television interview on Sunday that Japan should no longer consider it “taboo” to consider having nuclear weapons on its soil. He noted that multiple NATO members host US strategic weapons under nuclear-sharing agreements with Washington, adding, “We need to understand how security is maintained around the world.”
Abe has also called for the US to commit to intervening militarily if Taiwan is attacked by China, ending its strategy of “ambiguity” on the issue. A military conflict between China and Taiwan would constitute a security emergency for Japan.
Wang said Japan’s leaders must be “cautious in words and deeds on the Taiwan issue to stop provoking trouble.” He added, “We strongly ask Japan to deeply reflect on its history.”
As many as 20 million Chinese were killed during World War II. Many of those deaths occurred in massacres of civilians by Japanese troops.
“Japan launched a war of aggression against China and colonized Taiwan for half a century, committing unspeakable crimes,” Wang said. He suggested that some Japanese factions “are not reconciled to their defeat and are still coveting Taiwan.”
READ MORE: Japan responds to nuke-sharing idea
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper opined in an editorial on Monday that combining Japan’s “right-wing madness” with the country’s weapons-manufacturing potential would lead to devastating consequences, including “an escape of militarism from the cage that has trapped it for nearly 80 years.” The outlet added, “It is not only ironic, but also a huge real risk, that a group of people in the only country in the world that was bombed by atomic bombs would call for an invitation to the culprit to deploy nuclear weapons in their own territory.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told lawmakers on Monday that the country won’t consider violating its non-nuclear principles. He called the idea of a nuclear-sharing agreement with the US “unacceptable.”
March 1, 2022

© Photo : RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
Lavrov also warned that Russia does everything it can to prevent Ukraine from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has declared that the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe is simply unacceptable for Moscow.
In the current situation, Lavrov argued, it is important to prevent a new round of the arms race, and said that Russia calls upon the United States and its allies to join a moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
“It is unacceptable for us that, contrary to the fundamental principles of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, US nuclear weapons are still present on the territory of some European countries,” he said while addressing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva via a video call.
Lavrov also criticised the practice of the so-called “joint nuclear missions” that involve non-nuclear NATO members, and which he said include scenarios where nuclear weapons are used against Russia.
“It is high time the US nuclear weapons are return home, and the infrastructure in Europe related to them be completely dismantled,” he said.
Lavrov also warned that Russia is doing everything it can to prevent Ukraine from acquiring nuclear weapons.
He argued that Kiev’s statements about procuring nuclear weapons are not just empty bravado as Ukraine has Soviet nuclear technology and delivery systems.
Also, Lavrov suggested that Western powers should refrain from creating military installations in former Soviet states that are not members of NATO.
He also expressed hope that Ukraine will realise the seriousness of the current situation, and that it needs to show independence during the negotiations with Russia.
The Russian foreign minister did remark, however, that the “neo-Nazi government” in Kiev currently does not represent the entirety of Ukraine’s people.
Pepe Escobar reports on a searing account by Iran’s foreign minister of his country’s relations with the U.S.
Just in time to shine a light on what’s behind the latest sanctions from Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a speech at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, delivered a searing account of Iran-U.S. relations to a select audience of high-ranking diplomats, former presidents and analysts.
Zarif was the main speaker in a panel titled “The New Concept of Nuclear Disarmament.” Keeping to a frantic schedule, he rushed in and out of the round table to squeeze in a private conversation with Kazakh First President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
During the panel, moderator Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, managed to keep a Pentagon analyst’s questioning of Zafir from turning into a shouting match.
Previously, I had extensively discussed with Syed Rasoul Mousavi, minister for West Asia at the Iran Foreign Ministry, myriad details on Iran’s stance everywhere from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan. I was at the James Bond-ish round table of the Astana Club, as I moderated two other panels, one on multipolar Eurasia and the post-INF environment and another on Central Asia (the subject of further columns).
Zarif’s intervention was extremely forceful. He stressed how Iran “complied with every agreement and it got nothing;” how “our people believe we have not gained from being part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; how inflation is out of control; how the value of the rial dropped 70 percent “because of ‘coercive measures’ – not sanctions because they are illegal.”
He spoke without notes, exhibiting absolute mastery of the inextricable swamp that is U.S.-Iran relations. It turned out, in the end, to be a bombshell. Here are highlights.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, earlier this month. (Asia Times/Pepe Escobar)
Zarif’s story began back during 1968 negotiations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with the stance of the “Non-Aligned Movement to accept its provisions only if at a later date” – which happened to be 2020 – “there would be nuclear disarmament.” Out of 180 non-aligned countries, “90 countries co-sponsored the indefinite extension of the NPT.”
Moving to the state of play now, he mentioned how the United States and France are “relying on nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence, which is disastrous for the entire world.” Iran on the other hand “is a country that believes nuclear weapons should never be owned by any country,” due to “strategic calculations based on our religious beliefs.”
Zarif stressed how “from 2003 to 2012 Iran was under the most severe UN sanctions that have ever be imposed on any country that did not have nuclear weapons. The sanctions that were imposed on Iran from 2009 to 2012 were greater than the sanctions that were imposed on North Korea, which had nuclear weapons.”
Discussing the negotiations for the JCPOA that started in 2012, Zarif noted that Iran had started from the premise that “we should be able to develop as much nuclear energy as we wanted” while the U.S. had started with the premise that Iran should never have any centrifuges.” That was the “zero-enrichment” option.
Zarif, in public, always comes back to the point that “in every zero-sum game everybody loses.” He admits the JCPOA is “a difficult agreement. It’s not a perfect agreement. It has elements I don’t like and it has elements the United States does not like.” In the end, “we reached the semblance of a balance.”
Zarif offered a quite enlightening parallel between the NPT and the JCPOA: “The NPT was based on three pillars: non-proliferation, disarmament and access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Basically, the disarmament part of NPT is all but dead, non-proliferation is barely surviving and peaceful use of nuclear energy is under serious threat,” he observed.
Meanwhile, “JCPOA was based on two pillars: economic normalization of Iran, which is reflected in Security Council resolution 2231, and – at the same time – Iran observing certain limits on nuclear development.”
Crucially, Zarif stressed there is nothing “sunset” about these limits, as Washington argues: “We will be committed to not producing nuclear weapons forever.”
All About Distrust
Then came Trump’s fateful May 2018 decision: “When President Trump decided to withdraw from the JCPOA, we triggered the dispute resolution mechanism.” Referring to a common narrative that describes him and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as obsessed with sacrificing everything to get a deal, Zarif said: “We negotiated this deal based on distrust. That’s why you have a mechanism for disputes.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, July 14, 2015. (State Department)
Still, “the commitments of the EU and the commitments of the United States are independent. Unfortunately, the EU believed they could procrastinate. Now we are at a situation where Iran is receiving no benefit, nobody is implementing their part of the bargain, only Russia and China are fulfilling partially their commitments, because the United States even prevents them from fully fulfilling their commitments. France proposed last year to provide $15 billion to Iran for the oil we could sell from August to December. The United States prevented the European Union even from addressing this.”
The bottom line, then, is that “other members of the JCPOA are in fact not implementing their commitments.” The solution “is very easy. Go back to the non-zero sum. Go back to implementing your commitments. Iran agreed that it would negotiate from Day One.”
Zarif made the prediction that “if the Europeans still believe that they can take us to the Security Council and snap back resolutions they’re dead wrong. Because that is a remedy if there was a violation of the JCPOA. There was no violation of the JCPOA. We took these actions in response to European and American non-compliance. This is one of the few diplomatic achievements of the last many decades. We simply need to make sure that the two pillars exist: that there is a semblance of balance.”
This led him to a possible ray of light among so much doom and gloom: “If what was promised to Iran in terms of economic normalization is delivered, even partially, we are prepared to show good faith and come back to the implementation of the JCPOA. If it’s not, then unfortunately we will continue this path, which is a path of zero-sum, a path leading to a loss for everybody, but a path that we have no other choice but to follow.”
Time for HOPE
Zarif identifies three major problems in our current geopolitical madness: a “zero-sum mentality on international relations that doesn’t work anymore;” winning by excluding others (“We need to establish dialogue, we need to establish cooperation”); and “the belief that the more arms we purchase, the more security we can bring to our people.”
He was adamant that there’s a possibility of implementing “a new paradigm of cooperation in our region,” referring to Nazarbayev’s efforts: a real Eurasian model of security. But that, Zarif explained, “requires a neighborhood policy. We need to look at our neighbors as our friends, as our partners, as people without whom we cannot have security. We cannot have security in Iran if Afghanistan is in turmoil. We cannot have security in Iran if Iraq is in turmoil. We cannot have security in Iran if Syria is in turmoil. You cannot have security in Kazakhstan if the Persian Gulf region is in turmoil.”
He noted that, based on just such thinking, “President Rouhani this year, in the UN General Assembly, offered a new approach to security in the Persian Gulf region, called HOPE, which is the acronym for Hormuz Peace Initiative – or Hormuz Peace Endeavor so we can have the HOPE abbreviation.”
HOPE, explained Zarif, “is based on international law, respect of territorial integrity; based on accepting a series of principles and a series of confidence building measures; and we can build on it as you [addressing Nazarbayev] built on it in Eurasia and Central Asia. We are proud to be a part of the Eurasia Economic Union, we are neighbors in the Caspian, we have concluded last year, with your leadership, the legal convention of the Caspian Sea, these are important development that happened on the northern part of Iran. We need to repeat them in the southern part of Iran, with the same mentality that we can’t exclude our neighbors. We are either doomed or privileged to live together for the rest of our lives. We are bound by geography. We are bound by tradition, culture, religion and history.” To succeed, “we need to change our mindset.”
Age of Hegemony Gone
Tea Party Rally against the Iran Nuclear Agreement with Donald Trump as main speaker, Sept. 9, 2015. (YouTube)
It all comes down to the main reason U.S. foreign policy just can’t get enough of Iran demonization. Zarif has no doubts: “There is still an arms embargo against Iran on the way. But we are capable of shooting down a U.S. drone spying in our territory. We are trying simply to be independent. We never said we will annihilate Israel. Somebody said Israel will be annihilated. We never said we will do it.”
It was, Zarif said, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who took ownership of that threat, saying,
“I was the only one against the JCPOA.” Netanyahu “managed to destroy the JCPOA. What is the problem? The problem is we decided not to fold. That is our only crime. We had a revolution against a government that was supported by the United States, imposed on our country by the United States, [that] tortured our people with the help of the United States, and never received a single human rights condemnation, and now people are worried why they say ‘Death to America?’ We say death to these policies, because they have brought nothing but this farce. What did they bring to us? If somebody came to the United States, removed your president, imposed a dictator who killed your people, wouldn’t you say death to that country?”
Zarif inevitably had to evoke Mike Pompeo: “Today the secretary of state of the United States says publicly: ‘If Iran wants to eat, it has to obey the United States.’ This is a war crime. Starvation is a crime against humanity. It’s a newspeak headline. If Iran wants its people to eat, it has to follow what he said. He says, ‘Death to the entire Iranian people.’”
By then the atmosphere across the huge round table was electric. One could hear a pin drop – or, rather, the mini sonic booms coming from high up in the shallow dome via the system devised by star architect Norman Foster, heating the high-performance glass to melt the snow.
Zarif went all in: “What did we do the United States? What did we do to Israel? Did we make their people starve? Who is making our people starve? Just tell me. Who is violating the nuclear agreement? Because they did not like Obama? Is that a reason to destroy the world, just because you don’t like a president?”
Iran’s only crime, he said, “is that we decided to be our own boss. And that crime – we are proud of it. And we will continue to be. Because we have seven millennia of civilization. We had an empire that ruled the world, and the life of that empire was probably seven times the entire life of the United States. So – with all due respect to the United States empire; I owe my education to the United States – we don’t believe that the United States is an empire that will last. The age of empires is long gone. The age of hegemony is long gone. We now have to live in a world without hegemony – regional hegemony or global hegemony.”
Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is “2030.” Follow him on Facebook.
This article is from The Asia Times.
© Photo : TECH
Aliens have been turning our nuclear weapons on and off to demonstrate how “useless” they are against them, claims an activist seeking to end the “government ET truth embargo”, reports Daily Star Online.
Stephen Bassett is the founder of Paradigm Research Group (PRG), which has been engaged in a tireless effort to shed light on the “truth” about extraterrestrials and UFOs.
Bassett claims that several witnesses have observed Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, as he calls them, in line with the US Navy’s official definition, manipulating our own nuclear weapons with ease and even “turning them off”.
However, the expert is quick to downplay any fears that this constitutes a threat to humanity, saying this actually shows us that ETs and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) support nuclear disarmament.
“They turned off our nuclear weapons repeatedly; does that mean they are bad? The witnesses to the events, and there are many, generally believe that it is not an ominous thing but rather a message.”
Bassett continues:
“It wasn’t a threat but a message that these things are useless. [As if they’re saying] “they certainly are useless against us, all you are going to do is kill yourselves and we can’t turn them off at will, why don’t you just get rid of them?” That’s how the witnesses, by and large the majority, have interpreted this.””
This is by far not the first time it has been claimed that aliens have been shutting down nukes and showing an interest in military bases.

Former US Air Force lieutenant Bob Jacobs was one of a group of former Air Force officers, that also included Robert Salas, who appeared back in 2008 on CNN’s Larry King Live to make the claim that UFOs activated missile systems at five Air Force Bases in five different states, but the United States government had reportedly covered up the information.
Bob Salas, a former US Air Force captain, and Bob Jamison, a former US Air Force officer, made the sensational claim that during a missile test, an object “shot a beam of light at the warhead” in what has been called the 1967 Malmstrom AFB UFO incident, when missiles in the middle of Montana were reportedly rendered temporarily inoperable.
“The Air Force investigated this secretly, I believe through 1972. I think this thing was not of this Earth. I’m convinced it was not built here, because it was able to send signals to each of our missiles separately. The guidance and control equipment was upset in each one,” said Salas.
He was asked, he says, by commanders to sign a non-disclosure document in which he pledged to never talk about the incident.
Bob Jacobs, former US Air Force photographic instrumentation officer, claimed a UFO showed up on film that he shot in 1954 at Vandenberg Air Force Base and that was later confiscated by CIA agents.
Stephen Bassett previously told Daily Star Online that NASA is forced by the US government to shut down the ISS live feed when aliens put in an appearance.

Bassett, who has long campaigned for the government to end its alleged embargo on the truth about extraterrestrial life, recently claimed that NASA essentially has its “hands tied” when it comes to concealing UFO appearances.
The executive director of Paradigm Research Group, founded in 1996, Bassett has been working to end what he claims is a government-imposed embargo on the truth behind the so-called “UFO” phenomenon.