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June 12, 2024 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
26:06
Desperation! US Lifts Ban On Arming Extremist Ukrainian Brigade

As Ukraine continues to run out of soldiers, the US government has just announced that it will lift the US ban on sending arms to a Ukrainian military unit notorious for its embrace of symbols from Nazi era Germany. The State Department claims that the group is reformed and thus acceptable for the US to support. Does this smack of desperation? Also today: follow up from the TEXTY "enemies list" in Ukraine.

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Time Text
Lift Ban, War Looms 00:07:45
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today we have Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you this morning.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
We got some weather.
So yeah, it's raining a little bit out here.
I think we've had enough.
Because you and I complain about we need more waters.
We have green grass.
That's right.
But not in the last month.
Yeah, we've been okay.
I wish that's the only thing we had to sort of worry about.
But we don't have to look very far to find things to worry about.
We have to look for the results of policies from D.C.
And you will find something to worry about.
But if you will learn to handle the philosophy of why it's happening and what you could do about it, you get a little bit of relief from the anxiety.
But today, something's happening.
Yesterday, to create a little bit more anxiety over Ukraine, this whole mess, the current mess, started in 2014.
And I complain a lot about that's when the Russians invaded Ukraine.
And we don't like that.
The Russians are involved, and they've been fighting and fuming with the Ukrainians for a long time.
But it's also in 2014, it wasn't the Russians that invaded that precipitated the current events.
It happened to be, you know, NATO.
And I think we belong to NATO, and I think we have a vote there.
We totally control it because it's always our money, almost.
So they weren't quite concerned.
And now problems are getting worse, and there's a fight in our Congress.
It's splitting our Congress, just as the needless war in Palestine.
There's a fight among Congress now on spending, which is good, I think.
Should we spend more money in these various places?
And I think overall, the policy of intervention and spending, having an empire and spending money we don't have in creating all this inflation, you know, it's here and it's here to stay.
But right now, you know, there's still a determination that the world wants us there and a lot of people, but they're fussing over whether we should.
So the bills, the money isn't being passed quite as easily as it used to be.
But the incident that happened yesterday is very, very important because we try to look for some type of policy that might lure us into a bigger war.
Well, we've been lured into a constant war, you know, ever since we've had internationalism take over.
And that's been a long time ago.
You could go all the way back to World War I.
We became the internationalists.
Of course, after World War II, we became the empire and the ruler through the monetary system and the reserve currency.
But yesterday, there was a lifting of a ban that prevented arming and training of Ukraine's neo-Nazi Aslov brigade.
We were fussing with them and helping them.
Now we have to cancel it.
Oh yeah, it was banned, and they're going to lift the ban.
Well, does that mean that the military-industrial complex was looking for more customers?
Probably not exactly that.
But it's part of the idea that who are the beneficiaries of constant war.
And of course, I don't think there's a lot of argument about the lobbyists.
They come from the military-industrial complex and they like activity and they like to make profits.
So this is a big issue because there is a group which is usually referred to as neo-Nazi.
And there were supporters of that position all the way back to World War II.
But right now, this looks like this more radical fascist group is being melded into Zelensky's government.
And it remains to be seen what's going to happen there.
But it used to be that they were strange and different, but it looks like they're coming together.
And there has to be a thought, I wonder why the United States is doing this right now.
What is the reason for this?
I mean, we can spend the money and get involved and have all the weapons and all that we want to do.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the position that Ukraine is in now and militarily they're not doing so well.
And maybe they figure this is going to help them out some way.
But that remains to be seen.
Yeah, and you mentioned in your opening discussion how this whole thing started.
What we're facing now started in 2014 when Victoria Newland and John McCain and Lindsey Graham and all of these other U.S. officials went over to Ukraine and helped push the coup.
Well, of course, the neocons and the neo-lib neocons reject this because they refuse to admit that there are any consequences to U.S. foreign policy.
There can never be negative consequences to interventionist U.S. foreign policy.
And it was just like the famous Giuliani moment when you blurted out, well, why did they come over here?
Because we're over there.
And people looked as if they had seen a ghost because they just never conceptualized that stuff we do overseas does have the effect.
They can't see it.
But anyway, so here's, I put on this first clip.
Dave DeCamp wrote it up on antiwar.com yesterday, I think it was.
U.S. Lyft's ban on arming, as you mentioned, Dr. Paul, and training Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Brigade.
They have been ineligible for any U.S. assistance since 2018 when a law was passed forbidding the assistance of participation or arming of any group that espouses extremist ideology.
Well, they're going to lift that.
Let's go to the next one.
Now, here are the Azov Brigade members.
The military unit's former founder, Andrei Biletzky, is known for his neo-Nazi and white supremacist rhetoric.
In 2014, he was the leader of an ultra-national organization known as the Social National Assembly, which dissolved in 2015.
And you can see here the flags that are representing that brigade are identical, nearly identical to the Wolfs Angel, which was a Nazi symbol used in World War II.
And the irony, Dr. Paul, or I should say the hypocrisy of the U.S. media.
Now, they're screaming about white supremacy and neo-Nazis and far-right everywhere else, but when they actually see it, they pretend it's not there.
But it wasn't always that way.
I found this on Twitter X, and it's a great representation of how the media portrayed this group before 2022.
Put this next one on.
You can see all these headlines put together.
Far-right fighters from Europe fight for Ukraine.
Ukraine celebrates Nazi collaborator.
Britain's joined neo-Nazi militia.
Far-right groups, the neo-Nazis and far-right are on the march.
So over and over, Dr. Paul, in all these headlines, you could see concern in the Western media.
And then when they got their war, when Russia went in, of course, all of a sudden, the Azov Brigade, the Azov Battalion, they were perfectly fine.
Well, now, officially, they're fine, and we're going to send them weapons.
Media Double Standards 00:10:05
There you go.
And you know, this is a big deal.
We ban weapons to certain groups, and then we lift bans, and we go back and forth.
Some people get banned, some people not, because in the management of an empire, you've got to be not just cold-blooded, you have to think and do the best thing for the world and for the empire.
But what gets to me is all of a sudden they decide that it's okay to lift the ban and do business with this group.
And they're making a conscious decision on the pros and cons of the group.
And obviously, the question is being raised right now is: do we really want to do this?
You know, should we be lifting this and doing dealing?
And I get to thinking, you know, all the time that we get involved in all the countries, you know, militarily and humanitarian efforts and all these things that we do, that sometimes it might be difficult for those who are using their wisdom out of Washington, D.C., to know exactly who are the best friends that we have and what will be the best thing that we can do for world peace.
I don't think that's, I don't think that's the goal of the people that do it.
And then they say you don't have other choices.
They're doing it.
So they come to us and ask, well, help us pick these groups out.
And I say, you can't do that.
You can't pick out a good group because you're not talking about who you're punishing to do this.
You have to punish the American people, which means you take their money and their liberties away from them in order to pick and choose which group we're going to solve.
So this is the reason why our position is not only, we believe, morally correct, but it's also much easier to manage.
Just stay out of the business of getting involved in these groups and don't pretend.
It's sort of like pretending like the Federal Reserve knows exactly what the interest rate should be where they don't.
It's always a game.
So in foreign policy, oh, we can pretend that we know who the good guys are.
And so the best thing to do is get us out of the business of this.
But right now, there's a few more people now thinking that way.
And I think that's good.
And we want to encourage that because they give the non-interventionists a bad rap and say, oh, you guys are the isolationists.
Well, it seems to me like this world is becoming more isolated than ever.
And we've been following this policy of intervention for 100 years.
And so I would say they're completely wrong on saying that, you know, non-interventionist foreign policy means we don't want to deal with the problems of the world.
We just say, why don't we set a standard for them and encourage other countries to emulate what we do.
It used to be to say, emulate our judicial system.
I don't think we should say that anymore because we have a few problems there.
So I think it's a problem.
It's over-management, whether it's domestic social policy or whether it's foreign military problems.
It's over-management and the principle of voluntarism and getting along with people and having a moral principle of what liberty is all about is the only thing that we can work for.
We can't have it overnight.
But that is what we have to do, is working in the direction for those policies.
Well, here's how Zero Hedge put it up today.
And they used an infamous old photo of the Azov Brigade.
And this imagery, I find it shocking, but apparently they don't.
And it's, you know, it's put up that next clip.
Zero Heads used this as their headline.
This is a famous photo of the Azov.
They don't seem too ashamed of either the swastika or the NATO symbol as well.
And the Azov is in the middle.
So there you have it.
Now let's go to the next one.
Now this is back to Dave DuCamp's article.
And Dave gives us the background that the assistance was banned by an amendment to the 2018 NDAA.
Quote, white supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world, Representative Roe Connor said in 2018 when the bill became law.
I'm very pleased the recently passed omnibus prevents the U.S. from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.
This is Representative Roe Conner back in 2018.
But Dr. Paul, the State Department came out on Monday and they claimed that Azov has passed vetting under the Leahy law, which prohibits military aid to units that have committed human rights abuses.
They have been vetted, Dr. Paul.
They are now just the regular guys next door.
No more swastikas.
They've covered up all of their swastika tattoos and they're just good wholesome lads.
Well, you know, the ban was put in because they did justify it on their terms and they believe they can sort it out and always defend and help the good guys.
But we, the states banned support and weapons for these individuals because they were abusive of human rights.
And that's a term that annoys me at times because what other kind of rights do you have?
You know, this sort of thing.
But humans' rights, everybody knows what they're talking about.
It's an excuse to do whatever you want.
So they were abusing the rights.
But all of a sudden, they're not abusing human rights, and they won't ever do it again.
And, you know, like I mentioned just a minute ago, the whole process of being interventionist and to run an empire is abusing their human rights issue and the privileges and liberties of not only Americans.
How about the innocent people we have to kill to do good?
You know, if we're going to try to release some prisoners, you know, there's a lot of pay.
There's a lot of pain and suffering that comes from that.
And they just don't look at it that pictures.
Some people are good guys and bad guys, and sometimes the good guys get bad and the bad guys get good.
Oh, well, we can adapt to that.
That's what we have the Department of Defense and the State Department about.
They know all this and they're professionals at it and they'll work it out so that all human rights will be protected.
Except sometimes when you look at our borders, sometimes it's the American human rights that they ignore.
Yeah.
Well, you started out by saying, I wonder why they're doing this now.
And I think the answer is that Ukraine is running out of people.
They're running out of the military.
We've seen, or I've seen many videos of them stopping people on the streets and grabbing him and putting him into a van.
This forced conscription is going on throughout Ukraine.
Ukrainians are dying in the Tisa River, trying to cross over into Hungary and Romania because they don't want to be recruited.
But here's another example of the fact that the Ukrainian army is at the very end of its rope.
Let's look at these pictures.
These are shocking pictures from the Andalou Press Agency.
Earlier this year, the Sunday Times wrote that the average age of Ukrainian soldiers on the front is 43 years old.
These middle-aged recruits of the 43rd Infantry Brigade in the Kharkov region, they look much older than 50.
I am not an expert on how people look when they get older, but this gentleman, sadly and shockingly, looks over 50.
Go to the next one.
Here's another example of the 43rd Infantry Brigade.
These guys are broken up, broken and beat up.
Here is some more troops.
Go to the next one from that brigade.
These guys are being slaughtered out there, and they're doing it.
Lindsey Graham, remember, he said he wants us to be in there to the last Ukrainian.
So this is what the American policy is.
It's chewing up.
the entire country and destroying it.
So it's terrible.
So that's why they're banning, that's why they're going to start arming Nazis because they're about the only groups that are left.
Ultimately, it has to be the Ukrainian people.
You know, that's who's supposed to take care of their countries, and they shouldn't have Russia doing one thing and NATO doing the other.
The people of that country should be allowed to design what kind of a system they want.
And it is something that they allow, they make this effort, but I think what's going to happen now they bring the mixtures together, they bring this group in that they were willing to take Americans' opinion.
Well, we don't want to deal with them.
I think as they try to get their forces together and bring people together to fight this war and avoid what they see as a tragedy coming, I think you will see more, even though they already have it, people who become unhappy with Zelensky.
And then it's when that system breaks up, then there will be talk of a much better peace conference.
And I think they've already started talking about it.
They're hinting that, oh, maybe we ought to have another peace conference and talk about quit the fighting for a while and have a conference and talk about what can the results be.
Right now, all I can see is no good is going to come from this.
I don't think it's going to reduce our involvement.
It's going to get more involved.
I don't think it's going to help the Ukrainian people who I'm sure there are plenty of Ukrainian people that would like to see a better life than all this.
Two international groups fighting over Ukraine, you know.
Talk of Peace Conferences 00:03:43
And then all done in the name of human rights, you know.
And unfortunately, in many ways, we're leading that charge and also making enemies.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, the last thing we want to talk about today is an update on something we discussed Monday, which is this group, Data Journalism Agency Texty, which put out this enemies list.
Ukrainian group receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars, receiving aid from USAID and the State Department, putting out a list of 300 and some Americans who they consider enemies of Ukraine.
Now, put up, skip a clip and go to that letter if you can on Congressional Letterhead.
Tim Poole, remember, Tim's our friend from, we visited him in Austin and you watched the show.
Great guy, very, very popular show.
Well, he put up on Twitter X yesterday a letter that he received, and apparently other people from Jim Banks' district in Indiana received the same letter who appeared on this list.
And I'm going to read you just a little bit, just leave it up there, of what Representative Banks wrote to Tim Poole.
He said, Dear Mr. Poole, I'm writing to inform you that your name appears on a list of individuals and groups in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine, quote unquote, published by a Ukrainian NGO called the Data Journalism Agency, Texty, which has worked with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
As you may be aware, other Ukrainian NGOs have published similar lists, which have published the personal information of those named in apparent attempts to intimidate him.
Representative Banks goes on to say, I have enclosed a copy of a letter that I sent to the Appropriations Committee, Chairman Cole, as well as State and Foreign Ops Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Bollart, urging them to stop the State Department and USAID from partnering with any actors overseas who encourage the harassment of Americans.
The Appropriations Committee's markup of its bill to fund the State Department and USAID during fiscal year 25 is scheduled to take place tomorrow, and that would be today.
So Banks is saying when we mark up this bill, we've got to put something in there to stop funding organizations that harass Americans.
You know, and it's kind of a no-brainer.
And he did have a copy of the letter.
And good for Banks.
But literally, as we were getting ready to roll the tape on our show today, I got an email from our good friend Eric Garris at antiwar.com, and he actually is kind of breaking news.
If you can do that bonus clip, some more stuff is, this is starting to bring.
Remember on Monday, we were both saying some members of Congress need to stand up and say, what the heck is going on with this?
Well, some are, and Banks is first.
And go to that bonus one.
Here's a press release that just came out.
Congressman Gates and Senator Vance probed State Department's role in Ukraine's enemy list.
It says, today, U.S. Congressman Matt Gates and Senator JD Vance sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken requesting information about a State Department-linked Ukrainian NGO that published a list of Americans labeled as Trumpists to communists, including 116 Republican representatives and 21 Republican senators.
So Gates and Vance, JD Vance, are also demanding answers.
So I think this is starting to blow up quite nicely.
Yes, and I think that's very important.
And the details are very important.
But they also have to look and consider how do we get into here.
Congressman Gates Demands Answers 00:04:16
And I think there's a moral issue to this.
Why are we there?
Why are we doing these kind of things?
And the Constitution should enter into the discussion once in a while.
But here we are managing our empire.
And it's just it was on and on.
And this is good.
I'm not complaining that this is coming up.
I'm delighted that the mismanagement is exposed.
But we have to say, well, how could we avoid it?
And that's what they usually don't want to talk about because it's sort of, how do you, you know, when they talk about the budget deficits, you know, everybody's against the deficit spending and I don't want this and this.
But they never say, well, this is what we want cut from this district.
But that also represents what the people are saying.
But in this case, I think it's a little bit harder.
People at home, you know, when you're looking at your constituents that you see when you go back home, is a little bit different because you might get exposed to it.
On some of this, this is a little bit harder to understand what's going on.
And unfortunately, due to our educational system and our political system, most people say that, well, Ron, you sound unpatriotic.
You know, that sort of argument.
You're unpatriotic.
And yet it is a big issue of liberty.
It's a big issue of finances and monetary policy.
The whole works.
And that's why, once again, non-interventionism and sound money go a long way to solve some of these problems.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I'm going to close out.
I know that's a mess back there, but if you can dig up our logo for our conference, I just want to remind everyone, ticket sales are doing pretty well.
We haven't even announced a speaker, and that actually makes me feel happy because it feels like people have confidence in us that we're going to put on a good event.
The ticket sales are better than I expected at this point, but you can go and I'll put a link in.
I didn't do it before the show, I usually do.
I'll put a link in here at the description, the Liberty platform, August 31st, 2024, in the DC area in Dulles, Virginia, near the Dulles Airport.
Get your tickets, get your early bird discount, come see us in August.
We'll be announcing some speakers very soon, but I'm pretty happy that people are buying tickets and trusting us that we're going to put on a good proposal.
Now, you say we haven't announced the speakers yet, but isn't it okay to say that you and I'll be there?
Are you afraid of it?
Yeah, the mystery speakers.
We have announced that Ron Paul will be there.
Absolutely.
Wonderful.
Yes.
I wouldn't miss it for any of you.
That's all.
Yeah, absolutely.
No, I don't want to recognize our listening audience because we have so many loyal supporters that encourage us.
And, of course, it's the supporters that really help us spread the message because, yes, we reach a lot of people, but I know our viewers reach a lot of people too.
I'm always impressed with how many different groups are out there that have established on their own, and they get really no credit for it.
You know, and sometimes I feel short.
I feel like I'm short-changing people because people have helped us so much.
And sometimes I think, boy, I really need to thank people for this.
But all of us are in it for it together.
Yes, we should thank each other and work with each other, but the goal ought to be crystal clear on what we're working for.
And it has nothing to do with better management of the empire or better management of the economy or better management of how people should live.
It's to understand what true liberty is about, the invitation we had to this understanding with our Constitution.
And up to this point, it hasn't been totally successful.
Matter of fact, it has been weakened over the year.
If you measure that by, say, the judicial system and the financial system.
So this is the reason we really believe in it.
And we really enjoy meeting with people.
So we do look forward to our conferences.
And hopefully, we'll see you all there.
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