💭 Before and during World War II, Germany’s Nazi Party condemned drug use. But the book, “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich,” claims German soldiers were often high on methamphetamine issued by their commanders to enhance their endurance. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler himself was a substance abuser. Author Norman Ohler joins “CBS This Morning: Saturday” to discuss his book.
In 1944, World War II was dragging on and the Nazi forces seemed to be faltering. Yet, in military briefings, Adolf Hitler’s optimism did not wane. His generals wondered if he had a secret weapon up his sleeve, something that would change the war around in the last second.
Author Norman Ohler tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that Hitler did have a secret, but it wasn’t a weapon. Instead, it was a mix of cocaine and opioids that he had become increasingly dependent upon. “Hitler needed those highs to substitute [for] his natural charisma, which … he had lost in the course of the war,” Ohler says.
Ohler’s new book, Blitzed, which is based in part on the papers of Hitler’s private physician, describes the role of drugs within the Third Reich. He cites three different phases of the Fuhrer’s drug use.
“The first one are the vitamins given in high doses intravenously. The second phase starts in the fall of 1941 with the first opiate, but especially with the first hormone injections,” Ohler says. “Then in ’43 the third phase starts, which is the heavy opiate phase.”
Hitler met a doctor called Theo Morell in 1936. Morell was famous for giving vitamin injections, and Hitler, with his healthy diet, immediately believed in this doctor and got daily vitamin injections.
But then as the war turned difficult for Germany in 1941 against Russia in the fall, Hitler got sick for the first time. He couldn’t go to the military briefing, which was unheard of before, and Morell gave him something different that day. He gave him an opiate that day, and he also gave him a hormone injection.
Hitler, who had suffered from high fever, immediately felt well again and was able to go to the meeting and tell the generals how the war should continue, how the daily operations should continue. And he was really struck by this immediate recovery from this opiate, which was called Dolantin. From that moment on, he asked Morell to give him stronger stuff than just vitamins. We can see from the fall of 1941 to the winter of 1944 Hitler’s drug abuse increases significantly.
👮 Police in Peru Seized Over 50 Bricks of Cocaine That Were Wrapped in Nazi Swastikas
🛑 Anti-drug police in Peru have seized packages of cocaine with a picture of the Nazi flag on the outside and the name Hitler printed in low relief. The discovery was made on Thursday in the port of Paita, on Peru’s northern Pacific coast close to its border with Ecuador. (May 25)
🔥 Cars set on fire in Cardiff as UK police face ‘large scale disorder’ after road crash
A riot broke out in Cardiff on Monday night at the scene of an earlier vehicle crash.
Several dozen youths pelted police with objects and set cars and trash bins ablaze in Cardiff in local unrest that erupted after two teenagers died in a road accident, officials said Tuesday.
Police said “large scale disorder” broke out after officers were called to the scene of a crash in the Ely district of the Welsh capital on Monday evening.
“First and foremost our thoughts are with families of the two boys who have died following the collision in Ely and with those affected by the disorder which followed,” said Assistant Chief Constable Mark Travis of South Wales Police.
“These are scenes we do not expect to see in our communities, particularly a close-knit community such as Ely.”
Scenes livestreamed on YouTube showed dozens of people, many wearing hoods or ski masks, milling around while others threw objects and shot off fireworks at a line of police officers with riot shields blocking one end of the street.
A fire was burning and a helicopter could be heard hovering overhead. Shortly before midnight, a car was set on fire and burned fiercely, while a second vehicle was overturned and set ablaze.
The mayhem continued into the early hours of Tuesday, and at one point police officers were stationed outside Ely Police Station after suggestions it could be targeted.
Police said officers had made arrests, but did not say how many.
South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael said a dozen police officers were injured. None was in a life-threatening condition.
Michael told the BBC that the violence started after a fatal accident involving “two teenagers on an off-road bike or scooter.” He said false rumors swept the area that the accident followed a police chase.
Police said the crash “had already occurred when officers arrived.”
Resident John Urquhart said tensions rose in the area when police failed to tell local people what had happened.
“There was no attempt to communicate with the crowd and they showed nothing but disdain for the community and acted like we didn’t deserve to know what happened on our own doorstep,” he said.
“There was nobody going through the crowd. Crucially, I think the police really needed people to be out talking to the community and putting their minds at ease.”
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak outBecause I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me”.
Rishi Sunak’s beefed-up police escort is compared to a scene from NORTH KOREA as officers are seen jogging along next to a motorcade and others ride ahead on push bikes amid London Marathon road closures and eco-protests
Footage shows police jogging ahead of blacked-out Range Rovers
Police officers were seen jogging alongside Rishi Sunak’s motorcade in apparent footage of him returning to Downing Street over the weekend.
In scenes compared to the security detail afforded to North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, about 20 officers ran on foot ahead of police motorbike outriders.
Footage posted online showed them jogging in front of four blacked-out Range Rovers and a people carrier.
This was then followed by a Metropolitan Police vehicle and more jogging officers.
And, if the scene wasn’t bizarre enough, around 10 police officers on bicycles were seen at the very front of the unusual convoy.
One policewoman was filmed confirming it was ‘the Prime Minister’ after being asked by an onlooker who was being escorted down Whitehall.
Another officer, riding a bicycle, was shown pushing a man out of the way of the oncoming motorcade.
💭 Chicago Police Respond to Large Groups of Teenagers Downtown for 2nd Night in a Row.
A large gathering took place at Millennium Park Saturday one day after a similar gathering at 31st Street Beach ended with violence.
Video taken Saturday night showed a massive presence at the park, along with large groups of people in the area. A similar gathering took place Friday night near 31st Street Beach and eventually came to an end after a teenager was shot.
One witness, who asked not to be identified, said he saw a chaotic scene unfold.
“It’s heartbreaking, kids fighting, chasing each other, some of them got guns,” he said. “It’s really heartbreaking when one of them actually gets hurt, and that’s unfortunate, happened last night.”
Hundreds of teenagers, possibly even thousands, gathered at the beach after seeing flyers posted on social media for a meetup of teens.
“It was a lot of cops here, but they were still outnumbered,” the witness added. “There were so many teenagers that showed up, and they tried to keep the peace and keep them under control.”
The gathering ended after a 14-year-old boy was shot in the thigh just before 9 p.m. The gunshots sent hundreds of teens running and sparked panic across the beach.
😈The Gala-Oromos have committed a crime against Ethiopians that has not yet been heard or talked about.
Even after all this heinous crime, you may still deceive this weak and lazy generation. But you can never deceive The Almighty Egziabher God. Because He videotaped the whole thing, all the time.
The bastardized Emperor Menlik the 2nd , who has the identity and essence of the flesh, reigned after overthrowing the great Christian emperor Emperor Yohannes lV in Ethiopia – with the help of the Europeans – the dark and evil witchcraft, blood-Sucking spirit of ‘Waqeyo-Allah-Lucifer’ thrived in Ethiopia.
In the last hundred and thirty years, the Gala-Oromos and their allies managed to kill up to sixty million Orthodox Christian Zionists of Ethiopia by the sword and gun, by starvation and disease. Let’s remember this.
Even today, the Gala-Oromos and their descendants are making The Almighty Egziabher God very angry again. The times show us that even the modern-day Amalekites, who came to Ethiopia with the spirit of death and slavery, are beasts who should not even be present in East Africa, not to mention rule Ethiopia and reign over its people.
The “Ethiopian” who fails to realize this may as surely go down to the bottomless pit vía the gateway of Hell; Woe! Woe! Woe, to them!.
💭 The West Is Ignoring the Nightmarish War in Ethiopia
The war in Ethiopia has largely been ignored by the outside world, and information has been hard to come by. But what we know about the conflict is horrific: at least 500,000 civilians have been killed, and 5 million have been displaced.
The miserably bloody war in Ethiopia has been going on for the last couple of years, largely out of view of the outside world. It’s the latest chapter in decades of factional and ethnic conflict in that country.
In this latest round, which began in November 2020
The West should pay attention to the Horn of Africa. We should be compelled to fear for this kind of starvation, unspeakable violence, rape, torture, and displacement that the war has brought.
It’s a real tragedy to me that the Western media on the whole has not at least attempted to witness the atrocities there.
“ይህን ዓይነት ጠንካራ ሁከት ባለፉት አመታት አይተን አናውቀውም ነበር።” / „Diese Intensität kannten wir kannten wir aus den Vorjahren nicht.„/ „We didn’t know this intensity from previous years„
💭 In Berlin and Leipzig serious accidents and crimes involving fireworks have overshadowed the return of the big New Year’s Eve firecrackers in Germany. In Berlin Police officers and firefighters were “massively attacked with firecrackers” while extinguishing a burning car, the police tweeted.
According to the police, 60 to 80 people tried to light a vehicle with fireworks in the Lichtenrade district. Also in Berlin, the windows of a shop were “blown away”. Colleagues were “literally under fire,” the police tweeted, and one officer sustained injuries.
On the eve of New Year’s Eve, young people in Schöneberg threw firecrackers on the street and at police officers. Five people involved were temporarily arrested. A police officer was slightly injured but remained on duty, a spokeswoman said. As early as Thursday evening, around 150 people in the district had illegally detonated firecrackers and rockets and triggered a police operation.
The fire brigade in the capital reported a total of more than 1700 missions, almost 700 more than a year ago during the corona restrictions. According to this, 22 people were injured by firecrackers and rockets. In 38 cases, emergency services were attacked, one of the injured rescuers had to go to the hospital.
Ethiopia Obtains Phone-hacking Tech From Israeli Firm Cellebrite
😈 The fascist Oromo Regime of Abiy Ahmed – whom last week President Joe Biden welcomed to the White House – has committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide
💭 As many other repressive regimes, the Ethiopian federal police have been using Cellebrite’s technology at the height of a civil war that caused tens of thousands of casualties and the prosecution of ‘unauthorized’ news outlets
The Ethiopian police, who according to reports, are responsible for mass detention of minorities and persecution of opposition forces and journalists, have purchased technology from the Israeli digital intelligence company Cellebrite to hack into the cellphones of detainees.
The Ethiopian federal police have been using Cellebrite’s systems since 2021, at the height of the civil war between the country’s prime minister’s forces and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Force.
The flagship product of Cellebrite – a public company traded on NASDAQ – is a technology called UFED, which is used by authorities to hack into seized phones which are password-protected. This in turn allows Cellebrite’s clients to download all the information stored on those devices, including media files and text messages, call histories, contacts and more.
In a letter sent by Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack to Israel’s Defense Ministry and Cellebrite, a number of human rights activists call for cessation of sales of the technology and support services to Ethiopia’s repressive regime.
The letter follows a harsh report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, that details how Ethiopia has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes during the last round of fighting.
The report states that since November 2020, security and civilian forces have been responsible for “extrajudicial executions, rape and other acts of sexual violence. The widespread pillage of crops and livestock, and the looting and occupation of Tigrayan homes, destroyed sources of livelihood. Tigrayans have faced mass arrests and prolonged arbitrary detentions in formal and informal detention sites where detainees were killed, tortured, and ill-treated.”
A joint investigative commission by the UN and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission found that both sides have committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious infractions of human rights including intentional artillery fire against civilians, executions, torture and rape. Some 2.6 million people have been uprooted from their homes.
On November 2, a peace treaty was signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, but conditions in the northern state (one of nine that make up Ethiopia), are still harsh. Government forces have retreated, but the Eritrean Army and militias of the state of Amhara, which are assisting Ethiopia, are still active in Tigray. Meanwhile, the TPLF has not yet disarmed.
Ethiopia’s federal police, which is under the direct aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office, posted on its Facebook page that it had purchased UFED systems and ancillary equipment for its Crime Investigation Bureau. Accompanying photos show police officials exhibiting new Cellebrite systems, out of the box.
According to Mack, the Crime Investigation Bureau serves Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to persecute minorities, opponents of the regime and journalists. Ahmed has taken advantage of the civil war against the Tigrayan minority to declare a state of emergency in the country and arrest tens of thousands of people.
“The detainees are held for long periods without trial, are severely tortured and some are murdered. In June 2021, mainly in Addis Ababa, security forces, especially the federal police, began searching homes, arresting and disappearing civilians based on their Tigrayan ethnicity,” Mack wrote in the letter to the Defense Ministry and Cellebrite.
Since the beginning of the civil war, 63 journalists have been arrested, most of them Tigrayan. In August, the federal police indicted 111 “unauthorized” digital media outlets claiming incitement to violence, hate-mongering and harming the government. Over the past year, a number of independent media outlets have had to cease operations due to persecution by Ahmed’s regime.
The journalist Tamerat Negara, who returned to Ethiopia after years in exile and founded the website Terara Network, was arrested, released without charges and fled the country. Negara told the BBC that he had to leave out of fear for his life and the lives of his family. He said he had stayed in the country for seven months in the hope that things would change, but they had only worsened, and that he did not believe that one could tell the truth in Ethiopia.
Last week, Meskerem Abera, a lecturer and journalist with a pro-Amharic position on the conflict in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest state and home to the Oroma people, was once again arrested. According to her husband, Abera was arrested by the Crime Investigation Bureau, which is now in possession of Cellebrite hacking equipment. Abera, the mother of a one-year-old baby, was first arrested in May, together with more than 10 journalists and thousands of civilians, according to the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists.
No evidence of the use of Cellebrite equipment has been found so far in reports from Ethiopia. However, some reports mention similar technology. For example, the federal police sought to extend the detention of the journalist Solomon Shumeye, and told the court that they had sent “electronic equipment taken from the suspect” to the “relevant investigative body.”
A woman by the name of Meron Tedele said that she had been arrested in the middle of the night by plainclothes’ police, who covered her head with a mask, opened her telephone and looked for information about her Facebook posts, her contacts and her political affiliation. Tedele, who spoke to the Ethiopian Reporter stressed that she is not a political activist.
“And so it happened that in another country, Cellebrite is assisting and/or might assist in serious infractions of the human rights of citizens of certain ethnic groups, protesters, journalists, opposition and democracy activists, as well as their contacts, friends and family,” Mack wrote in the letter.
“The repercussions of the hacking of mobile phones in Ethiopia could be abduction, blackmail, torture and extrajudicial execution, disappearance and deprivation of right without due process of the citizens who own these phones, as well as their friends and relatives,” Mack added.
Cellebrite didn’t deny that it sold its products to Ethiopia. The company said in a statement that it is “committed to its mission of creating a safer world by giving solutions to law enforcement bodies and strictly legal and ethical use of its products. To this end, we have developed stringent means of monitoring that will ensure proper use of our technology in the framework of investigations carried out legally.”
The company stated that “As a global leader in digital intelligence, Cellebrite’s solutions help thousands of law enforcement agencies to convict those who endanger public security and to bring justice to crime victims.”
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