In the immediate aftermath of Estonia’s sinking, relatives began scrambling for news of their loved ones aboard the ship.
One person who understandably receives particular media attention is Estonia’s second in command, Captain Avo Piht.
On the morning of Sept 28th, Captain Moik, a friend of both Estonia’s captains, called Piht’s wife from Rostock to tell her that he and multiple colleagues had seen Piht on a German TV channel as he was being transferred from the ambulance to the hospital.
The 6PM news also reports that Piht is amongst the survivors.
Piht’s name then appears on multiple official lists issued by the Port of Tallinn, the Finnish embassy at Tallinn, Tallinn City Hall, and the Baltic News Service.
However, later that day, his name is not on the list issued by the Turku police. No explanation is given.
Estonian radio station Kuku broadcasts an interview with a Swedish helicopter crew member who says that he saved Piht.
When Spiegel TV's Jutta Rabe later tried to obtain the interview tape, the station manager tells her that Estonian police have already confiscated it.
Additional witnesses involved in the immediate disaster response claim to have seen Piht in person, including a doctor in Turku.
Two days later, Reuters interviews Bengt-Erik Stenmark, safety chief of the SMA, who also says he had been in contact with Piht after the accident. Stenmark is fired shortly after but never retracts his statement. parnu.postimees.ee/2344997/faktid…
On Oct 7, 1994 Interpol issues a message looking for Piht, reiterating that many witnesses had seen him. But Piht is never seen again.
Piht seemingly disappeared after he reached the Turku University Central Hospital. Attempts by family and friends to locate the video tape of the German news report in which Piht was seen were unsuccessful.
Years later, a clip is uncovered appearing to show Piht in an ambulance.
More disturbingly, twin sisters (Hannely & Hanka-Hannika Veide), reportedly rescued from the same raft as Piht, also go missing. On Sept 29th, their brother, having seen on the news that his sisters are alive at Stockholm’s Huddinge hospital, calls his parents.
When the parents arrive at Huddinge to look for their daughters they are told that their daughters have drowned. Inexplicably, one twin’s name was recorded on the survivor list as “Anne” Veide, a nickname she went by that few others knew.
In total, 11 people initially confirmed as survivors turned up drowned days later or were never seen again. Several were listed with full names/DOBs, information other survivors have said was verified multiple times by rescue workers and medical staff before being added to lists.
Even heroic rescue work gets retracted.
Sailor Kenneth Svensson, who descended via helicopter to retrieve 9 survivors from the stormy sea and was awarded a medal for his efforts, eventually has his rescue total whittled down to 1 or 2 in the JAIC’s final report.
But without question, the most disturbing non-surviving survivor story is Kalev Vahtras, the ship’s store assistant.
The ship’s watchman, who was in the same ward in Turku hospital, confirmed that Vahtras had escaped the shipwreck easily, was in perfect condition & high-spirits.
Later in the day, Vahtras’ ward mate returned to find his bed gone and was told that he had been transferred.
His body was later reported washed up on the coast of Finland. When the coffin was opened in Estonia, his body had apparent signs of violence.
As a result of the retractions, families are doubly traumatized, while many more are left bewildered.
Did these surviving crew members pose a threat to the fraudulent bow visor theory and, as a result, become the final victims of one of the biggest cover-ups in recent history?
The flight records following the disaster may hold a clue.
On 28 September 1994 an empty Gulfstream 4 landed at Stockholm’s Arlanda at 22:56 and departed the next day with five passengers at 17:13 to Bangor, Maine.
Could the disappeared Estonians have been on board?
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The rise of Trump and Trumpism cannot be fully explained without first recognizing how, over the last two decades, American politics has been shaped by the rise of China. 🧵
Despite both parties preferring to deemphasize foreign policy in their campaigns, US foreign policy is the engine driving domestic policy. This is because modern US domestic politics is fundamentally a game of dividing up the plunder that foreign policy secures.
This plunder arrives in the form of persistent federal govt budget deficits which are maintained via the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar’s position as global reserve currency, an arrangement forced upon the rest of the globe in the ashes of the world wars of last century.
US-backed attempts at foreign destabilization always try to leverage *real* grievances, not to bring any resolution to the aggrieved. Quite the opposite, they attempt to intensify.
The only correct position for the western left to take is to oppose *ALL* forms of intervention.
Yellen is once again traveling to Beijing, this time to try to get China to curb “overproduction”.
What's the real goal? 🧵
The goal of this pressure campaign is to somehow convince China to self-sabotage the foundation of their budding prosperity—their means of production—thereby eliminating the competition.
Why don't the capitalist countries try to out-compete China on commodity prices instead?
They've tried!
But due to decades of offshoring productive capacity and hoovering up their best and brightest minds into the financial and "tech" sectors, regaining a competitive edge will require a lot more effort than simply throwing money at the problem.
On Monday, Israeli fighter jets bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus killing over a dozen people in an outrageous act of provocation against both Iran and Syria.
It is clear that Israel is intent on instigating a direct confrontation with Iran.
What’s the goal? 🧵
While this attack represents a blatant provocation, it is not without precedent by western powers. Those old enough might recall a similarly atrocious act by the US in the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Iran's increasingly close alignment with Russia and China over the past few years is something Israeli and American foreign policy experts have feared since Brzezinski's warning in 1997.
In America, a "FICO Credit Score™ " is a blacklist administered by an unelected private oligopoly.
Americans are inducted into this capitalist credit initiative from birth, which controls everything from where they can live and which employer they are allowed to work for.
In order to be allowed to live in a house when they're older, Americans must begin taking out loans starting from an early age—even if they don't need a loan.
Americans call this ritual to appease private banks and landlords "building credit".
Before being hired, many employers require Americans to divulge their FICO credit history to assess their trustworthiness.
If deemed insufficiently trustworthy, an applicant will not be hired.