The Ukraine war began a year ago this month. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh just published the piece “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline” on Substack.
BRYCE GREENE, greenebj@iu.edu, @
Greene has written a string of pieces for the media watch group FAIR on myths surrounding the Ukraine war. Last fall, he wrote the piece “U.S. Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on U.S. Culpability in Nord Stream Attack.”
He just wrote the piece “Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War.” Greene writes: “Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on January 19 that the company no longer considers Ukraine’s Azov Regiment to be a ‘dangerous organization.’…
“Even the logo of the Regiment is a variant of a popular Nazi symbol. Another Nazi symbol affiliated with Azov was printed on the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter’s jacket as he opened fire on multiple mosques in 2019.
“The founder of the regiment once asserted (Guardian, 3/13/18) that Ukraine’s mission was to ‘lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen.’ Even the U.S. Congress, who was funding the Ukrainian military years before the war, acknowledged the regiment’s neo-Nazi affiliation.
“In 2018, it passed a law restricting those funds from going to Azov fighters (The Hill, 3/27/18). However, officials on the ground acknowledged that there was never any real mechanism preventing the aid from reaching Azov (Daily Beast, 12/8/19). …
“Facebook encouraged even more ethnic hate against Russians by relaxing policies on violent or hateful speech against Russian individuals. Materials reviewed by the Intercept (4/13/22) showed that Facebook and Instagram users were now allowed to call for the ‘explicit removal [of] Russians from Ukraine and Belarus.’ In sharp contrast with its policy against allowing graphic images of the victims of Israel’s attacks on Palestine, the platform began to allow users to post such images from Russia’s invasion (Intercept, 8/27/22).
“All of this has contributed to the normalization, or even embrace of neo-Nazis in the U.S. Early in the war, Western media uncritically promoted an Azov publicity event while making no mention of the group’s Nazi ties (FAIR.org, 2/23/22). In October, the New York Times (10/4/22) wrote a laudatory article about ‘Ukraine’s celebrated Azov Battalion’ that completely ignored the group’s Nazi ties (FAIR.org, 10/6/22). An Azov soldier with a Nazi tattoo was even welcomed to Disney World by liberal icon Jon Stewart (Grayzone, 8/31/22).”
Greene’s past pieces include “Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote U.S. Propaganda Networks,” “Calling Russia’s Attack ‘Unprovoked’ Lets U.S. Off the Hook” and “What You Should Really Know About Ukraine.”