Ukraine Crisis Version Of Iraq WMD: Putin To Send “LGBTQI+ Persons” To “Camps”

Washington has seriously ramped up its media demonization campaign targeting Vladimir Putin and Russia amid the intensifying conflict in Donbas. At this point it’s reaching levels not seen since before the US wars waged to overthrow Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. 

On Monday morning US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC that Putin is planning an “extremely violent” invasion of Ukraine. He cited intelligence – though without providing details – which “suggests” Russia will unleash “an even greater form of brutality” against Ukrainians in order “to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.”

This follows on the heels of a Sunday report in The Washington Post that the Biden administration is warning international allies the Kremlin has compiled compiled a list of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation.”

The allegations were spelled out in a letter the US sent to the United Nations authored by Ambassador Bathsheba Crocker. It included highly sensational claims that Russia will round up “LGBTQI+ persons” to be put in camps or persecuted by other means: 

“I would like to bring to your attention disturbing information recently obtained by the United States that indicates that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned,” Crocker wrote. “These acts, which in past Russian operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture, would likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”

These “minorities” and “LGBTQI+” individuals will be “killed or sent to camps following a military occupation,” Crocker warned in the letter. 

The letter included talk of a “kill or capture” list. But the fresh claims should invoke the same level of skepticism which the prior “imminent” Russian invasion claims did. The tactic the White House has long relied on is to smear anyone expressing doubts or demanding evidence of the typical “anonymous officials say..” assertions as a Kremlin stooge, or as “amplifying” Russian propaganda. 

BREAKING: America has told the United Nations that Russia has created a “kill or capture” list of Ukrainians who will be hunted down post-invasion.

It claims that “LGBTQI+ persons” and others may be put in concentration camps. pic.twitter.com/1p31JF3m3n

— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) February 21, 2022

Crocker’s letter addressing the UN continued, “Specifically, we have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation,” she wrote. “We also have credible information that Russian forces will likely use lethal measures to disperse peaceful protests or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations.”

We are now firmly in that phase of an “information war” where any and all maximalist claims and allegations are made against a foreign leader to depict them as a cartoon villain. Evidence then vanishes, as the most outlandish claims such as “Gaddafi Viagra mass rape” or “Saddam al-Qaeda links” or “incubator babies” are made and spread in the mainstream media – all without evidence of course. As one online commentator noted, these new Russian “capture or kill” explosive allegations against Russia are but the “Latest and improved version of WMD!!”

Do the journalists who are recipients of these constant “intel” leaks ever even bother to ask for independent corroboration? Or do they just say “Gee, thanks mister” and fire off a tweet https://t.co/u3ajPjk5AZ

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 20, 2022

Recent analysis in the online journal Passage points out that this is typically the precursor to US military action against a foreign leader that’s been simplistically vilified as a “demon” and blood-thirsty “monster” carrying out purposeless and random atrocities. “These leaders aren’t treated as rational actors that, in turn with other members of their government, act based on strategy. They are portrayed as being motivated merely by destruction,” the report emphasizes. And more:

Today, the media portrays the good hegemons as democratic actors that solve their problems with level-headed strategy. Their enemies, meanwhile, are portrayed as erratic, hostile and rogue figures that will unexpectedly unleash violence simply because they can. As such, they can be portrayed as animals that need to be “tamed” or put down.

This of course leads to flawed analysis, disastrous foreign policy “mistakes”, and military interventions based on lies. It serves the purpose of propagandizing the domestic masses, as new regime change foreign adventures are cooked up in Washington.