https://expose-news.com/2023/07/03/us-officials-benefitting-from-ukraine-war/US officials benefitting from the Ukraine war are named at UN Security Council
Max Blumenthal, founder and editor-in-chief of The Grayzone,
addressed the UN Security Council on the role of US military aid to
Ukraine in escalating the conflict with Russia and the real motives
behind Washington’s support for Kiev’s proxy war.
The Biden Administration knows
that “it is escalating a proxy war against the world’s largest nuclear
Power,” Blumenthal said. “Why are we tempting nuclear annihilation by
flooding Ukraine with advanced weapons and sabotaging negotiations at
every turn?” For those US officials who personally benefit financially,
“a negotiated settlement to this territorial dispute means an end to
the cash cow of close to $150 billion in US aid to Ukraine.”
Last Thursday, Blumenthal gave a
presentation to the UN Security Council. The presentation was prepared
with the help of Wyatt Reed, Alex Rubinstein and Anya Parampil.
Wyatt has first-hand experience with
the subject of the presentation, Blumenthal explained, “as a journalist
whose hotel in Donetsk was targeted with a US-made howitzer by the
Ukrainian military in October 2022. He was 100 meters away when the
strike hit, and was nearly killed.”
On 28 June, the US Pentagon announced
plans to send an additional $500 million worth of military aid to
Ukraine. A little over two weeks earlier, on 12 June, Kiev “lost” 16
US-made armoured vehicles. “So, what did the Pentagon do? It simply
passed that bill down to average US taxpayers like myself, charging us
another $325 million to replace Ukraine’s squandered military stock,”
Blumenthal said.
“The US policy [ ] – which sees
Washington prioritise unrestrained funding for a proxy war with a
nuclear power in a foreign land while our own domestic infrastructure
falls apart before our eyes – exposes a disturbing dynamic at the heart
of the Ukraine conflict: an international Ponzi scheme that enables
Western elites to seize hard-earned wealth out of the hands of average
US citizens and funnel it into the coffers of a foreign government that
even the Western-sponsored Transparency International ranks as one of the most corrupt in Europe.”
Last week, The Grayzone published an independent audit of US tax dollar allocation to Ukraine during the fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Their investigation revealed, amongst others:
- $4.5 billion worth of payments to pay off Ukraine’s sovereign debt,
much of which is owned by the global investment firm BlackRock.
- Tax dollars earmarked for Ukraine padding the budgets of a
television station in Toronto, a pro-NATO think tank in Poland, and,
believe it or not, rural farmers in Kenya.
- Tens of millions of dollars went to private equity firms, including
one in the Republic of Georgia, as well as a million-dollar payment to a
single private entrepreneur in Kiev.
- $4.5 million Pentagon contract with a notoriously corrupt company
called Atlantic Diving Supply to provide Ukraine with unspecified
explosives equipment.
“Yet once again, Congress has failed
to ensure these shady payments and massive arms deals are properly
tracked,” Blumenthal said. “In fact, much of the military and
humanitarian aid shipped to Ukraine has simply vanished.”
“The embezzlement of funds and
supplies is at least as troubling as the potential consequences of the
illicit transfer and sales of military-grade weapons. Last June, the
head of Interpol warned that the massive transfers of arms into Ukraine
means ‘we can expect an influx of weapons in Europe and beyond’, and
that ‘criminals are even now, as we speak, focusing on them’.
“The Biden administration not only
knows that it cannot track the weapons it is shipping to Ukraine, it
knows it is escalating a proxy war against the world’s largest nuclear
power, and is daring it to respond in kind.”
Blumenthal noted that Ukraine was well
on its way to fulfilling Senator Lindsey Graham’s ghoulish fantasies
about the US fighting “this war to the last Ukrainian.”
“As a Ukrainian soldier complained this month to Vice News, we don’t know what Zelensky’s ‘plans are, but it looks like extermination of its own population – like of the combat-ready and working-age population. That’s it’.
“Indeed, military cemeteries in
Ukraine are expanding almost as rapidly as the Northern Virginia
McMansions and beachfront estates of executives from Lockheed Martin,
Raytheon and assorted Beltway contractors benefitting from the second
highest level of military spending since World War Two.”
The real winners of the Ukraine proxy war, Blumenthal said, were people like:
- Secretary of State Tony Blinken launched a consulting firm called WestExec advisors which secured lucrative government contracts for intelligence firms and the arms industry.
- Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is a former and possibly future board
member of Raytheon and ex-partner of the Pine Island Capital investment
firm that collaborates with WestExec and which Blinken has advised.
- US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, is listed as a
senior counsel at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a self-described
“commercial diplomacy firm” that also finesses contracts for the
intelligence sector and arms industry.
“For them, a negotiated settlement to
this territorial dispute means an end to the cash cow of close to $150
billion in US aid to Ukraine,” Blumenthal said.
“When the United States, a
permanent member of this council, has fallen under the control of a
government … whose leadership subverts negotiations in order to pursue
profit … when both Zelensky and members of the US Congress are calling
for pre-emptive strikes on Russia … this council must take action to
enforce [the UN] Charter.
“[That] Charter [is] clear that
the security council must use its authority to guarantee a pacific
settlement of dispute, particularly when it threatens international
security. That should not only apply to Russia and Ukraine. This council
has an obligation to strictly monitor and restrain the US and the
illegal military formation known as NATO.”
You can watch Blumenthal’s speech at the UN Security Council below and read a transcript HERE and the UN press release HERE.
The Grayzone: Max Blumenthal addresses UN Security Council on Ukraine aid, 29 June 2023 (14 mins)
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