SI Seminars Inspire Mobilization Against Syrian Sanctions and NATO’s War in Ukraine

Two events sponsored by the Schiller Institute (SI) last week provided a powerful dose of truth aimed at breaking the wall of containment constructed by the U.S./NATO hybrid warriors. Coming as large cracks in the official “narrative” are opening, these dialogues are fueling the building of an anti-war movement which can defeat the plans to engage in permanent warfare against Russia and China, and any nation which defies their “Rules-Based Order”.

The first seminar occurred Feb. 21, titled “The Syrian Sanctions Must Be Lifted.” Speakers described the destruction by NATO powers of Syrian sovereignty, prosperity and territorial integrity since 2007, providing details about how, despite last month’s devastating earthquakes, the United States, Great Britain and the European Union continue to enforce unilateral economic and financial sanctions on Syria to block not only reconstruction aid, but even humanitarian relief. All speakers insisted that the criminal sanctions must immediately be lifted, and the U.S. illegal occupation of Syria ended.

Retired Col. Richard Black, who served as the former director of the Criminal Law Division of the U.S. Army at the Pentagon, stated that if the American people were informed of the horror created by the U.S. government enforcement of sanctions, with malice aforethought, “this government would fall.”

In addition to Black and Helga Zepp-LaRouche, speakers included journalist Vanessa Beeley, who reported that an illegal occupation of Syria continues, with “three of its four borders controlled by hostile powers”; Malaysian activist Chandra Muzaffar, who described Syria as “a victim of U.S. hegemony”; and Lebanese author Marwa Osman, who called on viewers to demand of their Congressmen why the killer sanctions have not been suspended.

Two days later, an online seminar titled “Investigate Nord Stream Revelations: Stop Nuclear World War III” took up the broader implications of Seymour Hersh’s exposé on the Biden administration’s responsibility for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines (cf. SAS 7, 8/23). Speakers included two retired military officials from Europe, Col. Ralph Bosshard of Switzerland and General Dominique Delawarde from France; as well as law professor Francis Boyle from the University of Illinois; Graham Fuller, an author and former CIA official; Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA official and peace activist. The keynote was given by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who ended by saying that “if the Hersh allegations are confirmed, Germany has only one possible answer. It must leave NATO.”

As in the case of the Syria seminar, the presentations were powerful, full of insights and real intelligence, which cannot adequately be summarized here, and they should be viewed in their entirety. Highlights included Boyle’s discussion of how the Nord Stream sabotage represents a war crime under international law, and his recommendation that bringing a bill of impeachment against Biden might tie his hands to prevent him from launching a full scale war against Russia.

Ray McGovern proposed that Chancellor Scholz be asked what he knew of the U.S. involvement in sabotaging Germany’s access to cheap and plentiful energy. Just two days before the SI seminar, McGovern had addressed the U.N. Security Council on the Hersh revelations.