by Tony Cartalucci
Bangkok, Thailand April 20, 2011 - With Libya preparing to face Western troops, and Syria fending off an overtly foreign-backed uprising, other nations long accused of being "rouge" by the global corporate-financier oligarchy are bracing for what is inevitably to come. While earlier assurances were made to the House of Saud, it seems even they are making provisions to secure their kingdom against their own society unhinging, fueled by both years of draconian brutality and now US funded sedition.
The groundwork has been laid for this global upheaval to spread as far as Moscow and Beijing, however a little known republic is getting increasingly more attention from the corporate-financier oligarchy, the Eastern European nation of Belarus. With 9.5 million people and sitting right across the border from Moscow, it serves as the next logical step for NATO's expansion toward the goal of encircling Russia.
After Tunisia fell and protests began brewing in Egypt, Foreign Policy magazine published Freedom House's list of "Who's Next?" On the list was Belarus' Aleksandr Lukashenko. NATO has admitted the reluctance of Belarus to join its now unjustified yet ever expanding organization, and at the Globsec 2011 conference, Belarus was considered a threat to both the EU and NATO, having turned down NATO in favor of closer ties with Moscow. The corporate mainstream media for their part, has berated the Belarusian government for putting down protests launched after the results of recent elections that saw the Western-backed opposition defeated.
Warmonger Joe Lieberman sums up for all who have been paying attention, that the US-funded revolutionary wave is aimed at Belarus next. In a March 2011 speech, Joe Lieberman called for the unconditional release of Belarusian activists as well as the tightening of sanctions against Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Of course, these Belarusian activists have been trained, funded, and equipped by the West along side activists that have participated in the now admittedly US-funded "Arab Spring." Foreign Policy magazine's article "Revolution U," reported that the US funded and supported CANVAS organization has trained activists from 50 different countries including Belarus. Shortly after CANVAS, then called Otpor, overthrew Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, they began clandestinely traveling to Belarus to meet with student activists. Ultimately their network was discovered and shut down. They would later infiltrate Georgian and Ukrainian politics and assist in the Rose and Orange color revolutions respectively.
In 2007, the US International Republican Institute (IRI) openly admitted to funding and supporting activists inside Belarus in an appeal to garner similar support from European Union members. In their appeal they state:
"IRI has been active in furthering democratic processes in Belarus since 2001. Along with our European partners, we work with a coalition of pro-democratic political parties, nongovernmental organizations and activists in Belarus whose goal is to bring true democratic change to a country that has been ruled by a dictator for more than a decade."
More recently, IRI states on their website that, "Pro-democracy reformers require the support of the international community as they stand up to brutal regimes. In Belarus, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe IRI is supporting activists and reformers in their efforts to find and open political space," indicating a myriad of extraterritorial meddling around the world, including in Belarus.
IRI's doppelganger organization, the National Democratic Institution (NDI) states on their website that, "NDI has conducted democracy assistance programs in Belarus since 2000, partnering with citizens who want to build democratic political institutions. The Institute has helped to strengthen nongovernmental organizations and political parties, and has helped citizens learn more about their rights and responsibilities."
Brookings Institute and Council on Foreign Relations "task force" member, and current NDI president Kenneth Wollack gave testimony in January, 2011 regarding the December 2010 elections and the failure of the admittedly US funded and supported Belarusian opposition. In his testimony, Wollack explains in excruciating detail the networks and methods they intend to use to bolster the opposition and fill the "political vacuum when openings occur." Everything from US funded poll monitors to sponsoring political activity conducted by opposition parties is explained. Most importantly perhaps is Wollack's repeating of a desire to bring Belarus into the "trans-Atlantic Community," similar to words parroted by Joe Lieberman in his more recent speech on the Senate floor.
Of course, both IRI and NDI are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), answering the question as to where the Belarusian opposition is getting their money to fund these sponsored events and to rebuild their networks after the December 2010 election. NED itself boasts an array of activities it funds in Belarus including building up NGOs and "civil society," promoting independent media (propaganda), and even training Belarusian activists abroad as were the participants in the recent "Arab Spring."
To get a good idea of what sort of "ideals" the Belarusian opposition embrace, the European Belarus Civil Campaign is a good place to start. Andrei Sannikov, a leading opposition candidate and the "international coordinator" of Charter’97, one of the leading opposition movements in Belarus, is working through the European Belarus Civil Campaign in order to integrate the nation into the globalist European Union.
It is also instructive to consider that the US State Department's Movements.org, which has played an instrumental role in recruiting, training, and supporting activists throughout the "Arab Spring," is also closely following and reporting favorably on the activities of the Belarusian opposition.
Joe Lieberman's outrageous call to further meddle in Belarus' sovereign affairs is but a collective indicator of years of meddling, plotting, funding, and supporting Western aligned opposition to undermine the government in Belarus. The desire to hammer Belarus into the NATO alliance and fully encircle Russia with states as belligerent toward Moscow as Georgia, has all but been openly declared. With the "Arab Spring" turning out to be open subversion and even open war to consolidate regional hegemony across Northern Africa and the Middle East, both Russia and China must brace as the wave of destabilization is purposefully directed toward them and their peripheries.