June 04, 2020
If
Americans need impetus and justification for a final American Revolution,
this
outrageous treason by their own government would seem to qualify.
Masks and Medical Supplies
First, let's accept that the
need in March, April and May of 2020 for face masks, respirators and
ventilators was urgent and real in every nation, so much so that the US was
experiencing enormous blowback from the medical community. There were too many
media reports to list, of health care workers refusing to accept shifts without
Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), and of many being fired for doing so.
Health care workers staged multiple strikes and protests, many after-hours so
as to not affect patient care. On May 1, nearly 100,000 nurses staged a protest
at nearly 150 hospitals, (1) and this was only one of many such events in
response to health care workers being denied compensation or safety leave,
being refused protection equipment, and even being forced to work after testing
positive for COVID-19. NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo said "Nurses
signed up to care for their patients. They did not sign up to sacrifice their
lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic." In reality, the needs
for medical supplies, especially in poorer countries, were so desperate that
young girls in Afghanistan were scrounging pieces from junk yards, attempting
to make ventilators from used car parts, the girls saying "If we even save
one life with our device, we will be proud." (2)
On April 20, ABC ran a story
titled, "How did the US come up so short on PPE?", (3) claiming
experts blamed "the supply chain", but there were literally hundreds
of media reports across the US stating that the government simply "wasted
two months", waiting until the medical system was breaking before thinking
of ordering the supplies that would become so necessary. Of course, much of
blame fell on China because factories couldn't manufacture during the outbreak
(although they could, and were). And the blame that didn't fall onto China was
ladled onto "history", since SARS didn't migrate well to the US and,
by extension, COVID-19 should also have stayed in China where it belonged.
Politico published an excellent summary titled "Trump called PPE shortages
"fake news" (4), that demands reading.
We had President Trump
opening his news briefings by dismissing mask and equipment shortages because
"Now we’re loaded up. And we also loaded up these hospitals." This,
in spite of the fact that by April, the CDC reported nearly 10,000 medical
workers ill and scores of deaths that were certainly an undercount. (5) Trump
also dismissed NY Governor Cuomo (on Twitter, of all places), saying "I
don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators". According to Mr.
Trump, hospitals normally have only a few that are not being used, and suddenly
they want 30,000. (6) In this same report (and in many others) Mr. Trump also
exemplified the astonishing lack of leadership that today appears endemic to
the US, saying the US government is "the second line of attack. The first
line of attack is supposed to be the hospitals and the local government and the
states, the states themselves." In other words, do it yourself.
There was something surreal
about the claims being made of "millions of pieces" of medical
equipment supplies being distributed, or about to be distributed, or having
already been distributed, with absolutely no evidence of such distribution ever
actually having taken place. Mr. Trump, Jared Kushner, Mike Pompeo, FEMA and
others stated dozens of times in so many press conferences and media reports
that many millions of everything were being delivered to hospitals but with no
public confirmation ever emerging from the supposed recipients. (7)
It was a surprise to the
world that Mr. Trump placed FEMA in charge of supply procurement and
distribution, the same FEMA that, when confronted with handling the disaster of
Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, eventually did more damage to Louisiana from
its incompetence than did the hurricane itself. Peter Gaynor, the Emergency
Manager at FEMA, "a Marine who has never stopped serving our
country", when asked specifically about supplies, said "I mean, it is
hundreds of thousands of millions of things that we're shipping from the
stockpile. I can't give you the details about what every single state or what
every single city is doing, but I'm telling you that we are shipping from our
national stockpile, we're shipping from vendors, we're shipping from donations.
It is happening." (8) (9)
Hundreds of thousands of
millions? President Trump was also riding this wagon, literally dozens of times
stating that "millions" of masks or test kits or respirators were
being shipped or had already been distributed, but with no later evidence of
any such shipments having occurred. The epicenter of this vast but seemingly
imaginary trove of supplies was something called "Project Airbridge",
(10) the point man being Mr. Trump's son-in-law Kushner, supported by FEMA's
(non-existent) air force and the State Department, with no indication why the
State Department would be involved in transportation of supplies, although this
may become more clear as we read on. Nevertheless, Mr. Kushner effused that
"At President Trump's direction we formed an unprecedented historic
public-private partnership to ensure that massive amounts of masks, gear and
other PPE will be brought to the United States." (11)
This was much more curious
than first appeared. According to ABC News, (12) "FEMA says it has worked
to secure PPE from wherever it can find it, both domestically and abroad . . .
nearly 70 Project Air Bridge flights have landed, transporting 760,000 N-95
respirators, 44 million surgical masks, and 7 million gowns from multiple
overseas origins. Another 50 flights are scheduled in the coming month."
According to this report, FEMA arranged for a shipment of nearly 6 million
surgical masks that "had just traveled the 7,000-mile journey from
Shanghai, the masks offloaded from the aircraft and "allocated to FEMA
designated hot-spots" or "infused back into the U.S. supply
chain", FEMA declining to say exactly where the supplies were actually
"infused", and no actual evidence they were infused anywhere, at
least not in the US. In fact, the only real evidence was of some states
receiving - within 24 hours - small shipments of supplies apparently only
"when the request has been made publicly from his political allies."
Colorado Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette said she was "totally outraged"
by the political way the federal government was prioritising requests. (13)
Bidding
In this context, it becomes
difficult to fathom how one might categorise American society, and the
relationship of the federal government (if any) to its people. President Trump
dismissed the process of the procurement of vital medical supplies, saying the
States "should have been building their stockpiles" that saving lives
was "their problem, and they have to work that out" by offering
competing bids for medical equipment against each other - but also against FEMA
- competing with their own federal government for medical supplies. (14) It
seems that FEMA's supplies, wherever obtained, were not being directly
delivered to hospitals or the states but instead inserted into "commercial
channels" (i.e. friends of the Administration) where individual hospitals
or states would have to bid on them. Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, leader of the
coronavirus Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force, said "that's normally
how things work", strongly defending the federal government's decision to
send medical supplies needed in coronavirus relief efforts to the private
sector, saying he was "not here to disrupt a supply chain." (15) (16)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
repeatedly criticised the system used to procure PPE, calling it
"eBay" with all the states, "and then FEMA gets involved and
FEMA starts bidding." Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told the president
in a video conference on March 19 that he tried to place "three big orders"
for PPE, but lost to the federal government. FEMA's response was to say
"if a company decides to cancel on a state contract in favor of [a]
federal one, FEMA will work with the company and the state to resolve the
matter in a way that best serves their people." But they didn't. There
were many such tales reported in local American media, with cities and states
bitterly complaining they were all being forced to bid against each other and
against their own federal government for vitally-needed medical supplies - and
losing. (17) (18) (19) (20)
Cuomo said his efforts to
stem the virus hadn't worked because of the federal government. Cuomo said FEMA
offered to send 400 ventilators to NYC when he needed 30,000, saying in a press
briefing, "What am I going to do with 400 ventilators? When I need 30,000.
You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400
ventilators." (21) President Trump responded to Cuomo's criticism by
saying the governor should have ordered the ventilators himself, five years
ago. Mr. Trump then claimed Cuomo "had a chance to buy, in 2015, 16,000
ventilators at a very low price and he turned it down", a claim that
proved to be untrue.
Seizures
There was another medical
sourcing issue, this being the matter of widespread seizures of medical equipment
and supplies from state warehouses and directly from hospitals, by FEMA or some
other agency of the federal government.
Gov. Charlie Baker of
Massachusetts said a shipment of 3 million masks was confiscated by FEMA at the
Port of New York. Facing that kind of brutal competition from his own federal
government, Baker made a complicated arrangement with the New England Patriots
owner Robert Kraft and Chinese Ambassador Huang Ping to bring a 'donation' of
masks directly from China to Mass., using the Patriot's private 767 for
transport. This shipment couldn't be confiscated by FEMA because the aircraft
was met at the airport by the Massachusetts National Guard and transported to
safety. (22) (23) (24) A state representative said, "They take whatever we
order."
In early April, the LA Times
ran a story revealing that a great many hospitals were claiming "feds are
seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word". (25)
According to the Times, "the federal government is quietly seizing orders,
leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the
material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the
coronavirus pandemic." The article reported on interviews with hospital
officials in seven states, describing the seizures, FEMA apparently not
publicly reporting the seizures nor where it reroutes them. Hospitals claim
they received neither information about the disposition of their medical
supplies nor whether they would have later access to them.
In Florida, a large medical
system saw an order for thermometers taken away. And officials at a system in
Massachusetts were unable to determine where its order of masks went. A
California hospital official said, "We can’t get any answers". "Are
they stockpiling this stuff? Are they distributing it? We don’t know." A
hospital system in three states prepared an elaborate virus testing program
only to have FEMA seize their entire shipment of testing supplies. Mr. Trump's
son-in-law Jared Kushner insisted he was using "a data-driven approach to
procure supplies and direct them where they are most needed". FEMA claimed
the agency had "developed a system for identifying needed supplies from
vendors and distributing them equitably", but refused to provide any details
about the seizures or their disposition. (25)
At the end of April, a
shipment of 1 million face masks for Florida firemen was confiscated by the
federal government. (26) WLRN in Florida reported that many other shipments of
masks meant for municipalities were also confiscated by the federal government.
FEMA's inexplicable response was that "bringing too much personal
protective equipment into coronavirus hotspots can have the "unintended
consequence" of disrupting supply chains deliveries to other areas of the
country. Officials say they don't know what happened to the order or where the
masks went.
Also near the end of April,
a Delaware supplier said FEMA seized 400,000 N95 respirator masks without
reimbursing him, leaving him with a 4 million dollar loss and no idea about the
eventual disposition. A company executive claims two shipments were simply
seized by FEMA without a word of explanation, and it was only after he hired
lawyers to pursue the matter, did the agency respond with an after-the-fact
demand, a written order from FEMA, directing him to turn over to the federal
government "all filtering facepiece respirators, including the N95
respirators contained within shipment number 8994645378 that arrived at JFK
Airport" on April 6. FEMA issued a kind of blanket denial, stating that
seized supplies were being distributed internally and therefore not 'seized',
FEMA's Peter Gaynor saying the agency needed to "bust myths" about
seizures of medical equipment, an effort which would appear to have poor chances
of success. FEMA refused to respond further. (27)
Hijacking
In contrast to China’s
assistance of medical experts and equipment to more than 100 countries, along
with assistance given by Russia and Cuba to a smaller number, the United States
spent much of its time stealing medical shipments bound for other countries.
(28) Germany, France, Canada, Cuba, Brazil, and other nations complained
bitterly about "American piracy". The US even went so far as to
confiscate charitable donations of medical supplies destined for other
countries that were passing through the US. As one example, a planeload of
crucial medical equipment donated by the Jack Ma Foundation was cancelled by
its carrier at the last minute due to barbaric US sanctions against Cuba. (29) (30)
(31)
On April 3, 2020, Germany
accused the US of seizing several hundred thousand face masks that Berlin had
already paid for, calling it "an act of modern piracy". Deutsche
Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, reported that the masks were made
in China but the Americans intercepted the shipment in Bangkok and confiscated
it. Berlin's parliamentary chairman called the act "illegal" and
demanded the German Federal Government investigate. (32)
French politicians similarly
accused the US of buying up medical protective gear including face masks in
China that had been meant for France. According to AFP, a French government
official said a shipment of protective masks was snatched at the last minute at
the airport by "Americans who made a higher bid". "The Americans
pay cash sight unseen, which obviously can be more tempting for people just
looking to make money off the entire world’s distress". (33) Several
French regional officials related similar stories, of Americans paying cash on
airport tarmacs for masks meant to be shipped to France from China. "On
the tarmac, the Americans arrive, take out cash, and pay three or four times
more for the orders we have made, so we really have to fight," Grand Est
president Jean Rottner told RTL, a French radio broadcaster. (34) In France
they are calling it the "guerre des masques" - the war of the masks -
with one French official saying the Americans were on a "global treasure
hunt", and many governments have said the prices being offered are
exorbitant. (35)
The French Publication Le
Figaro wrote, "In crises as in wars, when masks fall, arises the true face
of states and individuals . . . the knife in the back is planted by neighbors
or friends. This week, the stabbing was by the Americans, who hijacked orders
of masks for France by buying them, for much more money, on the tarmac of a
Chinese airport." (36) It appears that in total, France lost 60 million
masks from China, had been hijacked by Americans with cash on the tarmac of a
Chinese airport. (37) US media were well aware of the multiple similar
circumstances, but few reports. The French edition of the Huffington Post
published a story, (38) in the US as well as in France. (39)
Neither the French nor the
Germans will soon forget America's "every man for himself" approach.
Of course, President Trump dismissed all the reports as "fake news",
and a State Department spokesperson told ABC News the U.S. is "working in
solidarity with our partners and allies" and blamed "unsourced,
unattributed disinformation campaigns" for "pervasive attempts to
divide international efforts." (40) Another State Department spokesman
said the US was "working through appropriate channels to purchase
"excess supplies" from other nations to meet our needs", and
denied any US knowledge of shipments to Germany or France.
The Brazilian government
also claimed that US cash was vacuuming up available supplies. Health Minister
Luiz Henrique Mandetta said, "Our purchases [of respirator masks], that we
expected to complete so that we could re-supply, a lot of them fell
through." He added that the US was sending large cargo planes to China to
bring Brazil's protective medical equipment to the US. "The same thing
happened with respirators," Mandetta said. "We had bought them, they
delivered the first part. The second, even with a contract, everything signed,
with the money ready to pay, they said they no longer had them: 'We can't make
that delivery'." (41) Brazil had other problems too. In early April, a
shipment of ventilators destined for Bahia State through an American dealer was
intercepted by FEMA at the Miami airport, Brazil being told the shipment had
been "diverted". (42) Some Brazilians blamed China, but a New York
buyer offered higher prices than Brazil, then resold the machines in the US.
Canada
Then, there were strange
reports of empty Canadian planes flying back from China without their expected
load of medical supplies. The Canadian CBC, always ready to forgive the US at
China's expense, attributed these empty flights to "ground congestion at
Shanghai Pudong International Airport", (43) a nonsense statement if ever
one existed since departing flights can always remain on the tarmac until
loaded. My contacts informed me that the hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies
intended for Canada were purchased by the Americans on the airport tarmac,
leaving the Canadian planes to return home empty. The Canadians, thanks in
large part to their child-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, appear now as dirty
and dishonest as do the Americans. The Chinese government was very angry about
these claims, stating firmly that the aircraft could have parked indefinitely
at the Pudong airport if supplies were not ready. The reason the aircraft
returned home empty is because the Americans and Israelis had hijacked the
shipments.
Readers may recall the event
in May of 2019 when US-based FedEx was exposed in intelligence-gathering
efforts for the NSA by diverting Huawei shipments. (44) Two such shipments -
these of Huawei confidential corporate documents - were being sent by FedEx from
Vietnam to Huawei's head office in Shenzhen, China. A Huawei manager happened
to check the shipment tracking and discovered the documents had been rerouted
to the US - and not to Huawei in the US but to FedEx's head office in Memphis.
He was able to retrieve them in time. FedEx said the packages "were
misrouted accidentally", by "a sorting error", but it was
apparent from the bills of lading that the shipments had been physically pulled
from the chain and re-labeled, actions that could not possibly have been
accidental. Huawei had two identical incidents with FedEx in Japan. The
internet strangely seems to contain no Chinese media references on these
incidents, but only US media whitewashing reports.
I mention this because it
appears that DHL would appear to be as much in the thrall of US authority as is
FedEx, in this case with shipments of medical supplies. In early April of 2020,
a shipment of 10 million KN95 masks ordered by the Quebec government from China
arrived at the DHL center in St. Lambert, Quebec, but then was suddenly
reloaded and diverted to the DHL center in Cincinnati. (45) The health
authorities apparently tried in vain to get an explanation from DHL, claiming
"Communication with DHL failed twice today."
In Canada, Dr. Elaine Chin
and Manny Kapur wanted to buy masks from China for Canadian doctors and
patients. An importer said he could obtain the masks but the minimum order was
high - 5 million. Chin and Kapur borrowed money from friends, tapped their
personal lines of credit, and paid a deposit of US$500,000 for five million
N95-equivalent masks. Their order was confirmed and delivered to Shanghai's
Pudong airport for loading on a flight to Canada. That was the last they saw of
it. Their shipment was once again hijacked on the tarmac by the usual suspects
willing to pay four times the price. "It was all working out just fine.
Then it all blew up in the ether. It turns out we were suddenly outbid. It was
heartbreaking. It’s like somebody pulled up with a truck, picked up our pallets
and put them on a different plane and it disappeared and nobody will know
because it was just cash changing hands." (46)
In another instance,
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau felt "concerned" when a mask
order arrived "smaller than expected" (90% smaller) the majority of
it having been hijacked by "a higher bidder". (47) Trudeau lamely
said, "We understand that the needs in the US are very extensive, but it’s
the same in Canada". It's not easy dealing with the neighborhood bully.
In another instance, a
Canadian government order for three million masks from 3M was confiscated at
the border, with Prime Minister Trudeau equally lamely saying, "It would
be a mistake to create blockages or reduce the amount of back-and-forth trade
of essential goods and services, including medical goods, across our border,
and that is the point we're making very clearly to the American administration
right now." (48) For all the good that would do. But happily, a
"compromise" was reached between Mike Pompeo and Canada's Foreign
Minister, Canada accepting a token of 500,000 masks, but describing the
transaction as "productive and positive."
Turkey
It wasn't widely known, but
Turkey was one of the main suppliers of some kinds of protective medical
equipment and also a main manufacturer of the blown mesh needed for masks and
respirators. And, with the political pressure from the US, the Turkish
government seemed to have been involved in disputes with many countries about
the release of medical equipment from April onward.
In early April, Spanish
Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said an order for ventilators that had
already been paid for had been impounded in Turkey. (49) The suggestion was
that the country needed the supplies for itself, but the disposition was by no
means clear, and with a vague commitment to perhaps provide some supplies to
Spain within some weeks. CNN requested comment from the Turkish government, but
apparently without response. Then there was a very curious episode on April 4,
2020, involving nearly 100 tonnes of medical supplies destined for the UK, (50)
(51) which was suddenly impounded by the Turkish government. In this case, the shipment was
released but then turned into a farce. According to the Telegraph, "Every
one of the 400,000 gowns brought back from Turkey last month has been impounded
in a warehouse outside Heathrow Airport after inspectors found the gear was
“useless” and fell short of UK standards." (52)
By the end of April, the
subterfuge was disappearing with evidence Turkey had finally capitulated in
fear of further and more ominous US sanctions, with the media reporting that
Turkey was rerouting multiple shipments of medical supplies to the US. On April
28, the US Embassy in Ankara tweeted happily on its official Twitter account,
"Wheels up! We are deeply grateful" for a widely-publicised
"donation" of a planeload of medical supplies to the US. (53)
Ambassador David Satterfield said, "As this delivery indicates, the
US-Turkey relationship is strong and one of our most important alliances, NATO
solidarity during this pandemic highlights the strength of our transatlantic
bond. According to Satterfield, the supplies would be "received and
managed" (and disappeared) by FEMA. (54) And Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the US
ambassador to NATO, tweeted "A very big thank you people of Turkey".
Not all nations were equally grateful. Until early April, Turkey had sent
medical shipments to more than 50 countries, these drying up in favor of the
new "transatlantic bond" with the US, presumably the same 'bond' that
convinced Turkey to place its new Russian S-400 anti-US-aircraft missiles into
storage rather than deployment.
Israel
As noted earlier, the LA
Times reported that the US government had been "quietly seizing orders,
leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the
material is going . . ." There had been much speculation (in the
non-Western media) that large amounts of American medical supplies were going
to Israel. OpEd News wrote an article titled "Did the Face Masks the Feds Stole
from US Hospitals Go To Israel?", (55) a question justified by a few
interesting events.
"When US healthcare
workers are risking their lives without proper protective gear to try to save
patients with COVID-19, and Americans are being asked to fashion masks out of
scarves, coffee filters and old t-shirts, why would the US send precious
supplies to the Israeli military? Any US role in supplying the masks to Israel
would be all the more notable given that the US has blocked the export of
protective equipment to other countries, including Canada." On April 5,
Newsweek reported that the US military had told its personnel to make their own
masks from T-shirts or other material, an article Newsweek has since removed,
but MSN reported on this (56) as did the Army Times. (57)
On April 8, 2020, the
Jerusalem Post ran a story with the headline "US Department of Defense
gives 1 million masks to IDF for coronavirus use", stating further "A
plane carrying over a million surgical masks for the IDF landed in Ben Gurion
airport Tuesday night, in an operation run by the US Department of Defense’s
Delegation of Procurement Authority." The article definitely suggested the
US was diverting seized medical supplies from American hospitals to the
Israelis. It was also tweeted by Israeli army radio journalist Tsahi Dabush,
saying "Credit to US Department of Defense procurement delegates,"
and an Israeli military reporter posted images on his Twitter page of the
shipment of masks as they arrived. (58) Iranian Press TV covered the story at
the time, stating further that "The Pentagon has confirmed the shipment
saying it had purchased and flown to Israel tens of thousands of swabs, masks
and protective suits in the past two weeks."(59)
After the story received a
small storm of outrage, including by Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah (60),
the Jerusalem Post altered their headline and content, erasing all mention of
US involvement. (61) The revised article headline: "Israel brings 1
million masks from China for IDF soldiers", stating "The masks were
procured from China and shipped to Israel in order that the IDF can begin using
them within days." No explanation was given by the JPost for the change,
but the original headline is still visible in the article's hyperlink (read the
words in note 2) and on Twitter posts, and Tsahi Dabush's tweet remains,
suggesting the original story was accurate. One group later claimed the
original story's reference to the US was merely "an erroneous
translation", suggesting the JPost staff mistranslated their own Hebrew,
and carelessly inserted English references to the US DoD where no reference
whatever to Americans existed in the original.
The same article quoted
Limor Kolishevsky, head of the Israeli's New York Purchasing and Logistics
Division, as saying, "In the past two weeks, we have purchased and flown
to Israel tens of thousands of swabs, masks, protective suits for medical staff
and more", claiming other supplies having been "procured in China
[and] quickly flown to Israel". All this was occurring during the spate of
US hijackings referred to above. These facts, apparently disconnected at first
glance, raise questions about the US hijacking of medical supplies on airport
tarmacs in China and other countries, as well as the disposition of seizures
occurring in the US, especially considering FEMA's extreme secrecy as to the
disposition of said seizures. Even more disturbing is the lack of what should
be voluminous documented evidence of deliveries to thousands of hospitals
across the US, but instead we have only claims of this, while voluminous
documented evidence of supplies being seized from hospitals across the US.
There was another related
matter. Global Security stated (62) that the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad, had been "running clandestine operations to sneak the medical
supplies ordered by countries fighting the coronavirus outbreak into the
occupied territories", the head of Mossad's technology department saying
Tel Aviv had ordered Mossad to procure up to 130,000 objects related to fight
the COVID-19 outbreak in Israel, ranging from protective gear to test kits,
medicine, and ventilators. He said, "I have overseen many operations in my
life, and I've never dealt with such a complex operation", claiming
"countries are locked in a covert battle to take control of a limited
supply of ventilators needed amid the coronavirus pandemic".
Following on this, the
Jerusalem Post published an article on March 30, 2020, (63) stating that Mossad
obtained another 10 million protective masks for Israel, in addition to
ventilators and test kits, and expected to produce much more. The JPost said,
"Due to the sensitivity of the information, the Post could not report it
until they arrived in Israel on Monday. But it did note . . . that significant
new acquisitions were on the way." According to the article, Mossad
director Yossi Cohen was tasked by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to taking
over the country’s efforts "to purchase medical equipment from
abroad". More curiously, the JPost said "The kits were obtained from
countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations", and
quoted an al Jazeera report that these countries "were in the Persian
Gulf", claims that make no sense whatever. For one, Israel has no friends
in the Persian Gulf and, with school girls in Afghanistan attempting to make
functioning ventilators from used auto parts, no regional country would
sacrifice the lives of their own citizens by selling their pitiful quantities
of desperately-needed medical supplies to Israel. Wherever Mossad and the IDF
obtained those medical supplies, it wasn't in the Persian Gulf. It is difficult
to draw firm conclusions without documented links, but the only theory that
fits all the known facts would connect the Americans and Mossad to all the
medical equipment airport hijackings as well as to FEMA's secretive hospital
seizures. It would seem that America, thanks to the devoted loyalty of Kushner,
the blind instrumentation of the marionette Pompeo, and the narcissist
stupidity of Donald Trump, is an "Israel-first" country in more ways
than one.
Epilogue
Let's return for a moment to
Kushner, FEMA, and our hundreds of thousands of millions of medical supplies
that apparently arrived on at least 150 flights, mostly from Shanghai, then
somehow evaporated. In an ABC News report on how the "shortage of
PPE" happened, (64) we're told FEMA relied on inexperienced volunteers to
find this protective equipment. "A federal effort to obtain protective
gear for health care workers has relied in part on volunteers from private
equity and consulting firms who [had] little to no experience in health care,
government or procurement . . ." Additionally, "volunteers [were]
told to prioritise procurement leads from "conservative media
personalities identified as part of a VIP list". Whose "leads"
apparently were mostly a waste of time, at least according to the Washington
Post (65) (who may well have been included in the 'VIP list of conservative
media personalities'). Does this make any sense? Of course not.
First of all, the Project
Airbridge spearheaded by Kushner was intended to use taxpayer dollars to fly
medical supplies from overseas on behalf of industry who would resell to the
highest bidders - a kind of welfare program for medical supply companies, (66)
Kushner stating, "This is an effort where the government is doing things
that the government doesn't normally do . . ." Good thing, too, but that
doesn't explain the continued shortages. Sens. Warren and Blumenthal wrote in a
letter, "We are concerned by the Trump Administration's process which
appears to be . . . driven by politics rather than public health, and delegates
decisions about distribution to private companies with little to no
transparency about how distribution . . . decisions are made."
ABC ran another story
wondering why Kushner's program of chartering perhaps hundreds of flights at
government expense left "hospitals still facing shortages", and the
so-called national stockpile still with only 1% of the supplies it needed. (67)
It seems that while the government was paying around $800,000 per flight, the
cargo was delivered not to hospitals but to Medline, the largest medical supply
company, who alone decided on the eventual distribution. (68) Kushner said his
mandate was to "break down barriers for FEMA", without specifying
what were those barriers or the results of their removal, and the commercial
invoices for all flights remain classified and secret, even from the US
Congress.
Then, in the first week of
May, 2020, ABC and the NYT reported that the White House was winding down the
coronavirus task force (69) even as the numbers of new cases were still rising
by about 30,000 per day, though, due to a huge outcry, this was later partly
walked back to "not dismantling, just refocusing". (70) This was not
an apparent loss since the task force's only visible act was its daily press
briefings complimenting Trump, Kushner and Pompeo while discrediting others.
What wasn't mentioned was that Project Airbridge had also been disbanded -
again, while the nation was still experiencing shortages of such magnitude that
exports were forbidden even to friends like Canada, General Motors threatened
with eternal damnation for lack of ventilator production, and most hospitals
crying for help.
How do we explain all of
this? How do we account for the hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies either
purchased or hijacked by Mossad and FEMA, the additional apparent hundreds of
tonnes seized by FEMA from hospitals throughout the US, yet extreme shortages
of the same throughout the country and an apparently empty national stockpile?
How do we explain the JPost's boasting of huge volumes of supplies arriving
courtesy of the US government? Perhaps Mr. Trump cannot be personally blamed
for some of this since, while he was certainly aware of the events, it is
reasonable to assume he was taking direction from Messrs. Pompeo and Kushner,
who were in turn receiving their instructions from the powers behind the
throne.
These events, apparently
disconnected when considered in isolation, make complete sense when placed in
context, and raise questions about the US hijacking of medical supplies on
airport tarmacs in China and other countries, as well as the disposition of
seizures occurring in the US, especially considering the extreme secrecy of
every portion of this adventure. If Americans need impetus and justification
for a final American Revolution, this outrageous treason by their own
government would seem to qualify.
Notes
(8) https://abcnews.go.com/Health/fema-chief-prepared-covid-19-challenge-colleagues/story?id=69761673
(25) https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies
(26) https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/feds-confiscate-masks-meant-for-miami-dade-firefighters/2223847/
(33) https://dnyuz.com/2020/04/03/us-accused-of-seizing-face-mask-shipments-bound-for-europe-canada/
(37) https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/coronavirus-l-amerique-relance-la-guerre-des-masques-20200402
(47) https://dnyuz.com/2020/04/03/us-accused-of-seizing-face-mask-shipments-bound-for-europe-canada/
(50) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/19/flight-carrying-vital-ppe-supplies-nhs-delayed-turkey/
(60) While American health workers beg for PPE, Trump
just shipped a million masks to the Israeli army. https://t.co/2sVFLMteo9 — Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) April 8, 2020
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Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
The original source of this article is Moon of Shanghai
