by João Emanuel Lemos Esteves
The rampant anti-semitism in Portuguese society is growing stronger by the day – this trend has been especially significant since socialist-communist António Costa took over the Portuguese government in a broad coalition with far-left parties (namely, the Portuguese communist party). But António Costa is not only a socialist-communist politician – rather, he is to his core a multi-polarist, more commonly known as an “illiberal politician” (expression that, in my opinion, is not quite rigorous). His political leaning exceeds the left side of the political aisle – António Costa’s political appeal resonates with all the supporters of a post (or anti) American-led world. Do not forget that António Costa is, after all, a disciple of António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General.
It is not surprising, therefore, that even the most right-wing parties in Portugal do not exclude to support António Costa in his bid for a top European Union post, saying that they have nothing “personally or politically, against Costa”. An enemy of the United States-led world is my friend – this is the main motto that is being embraced in Portugal (and Spain, by the way). Let’s not forget that people – and major Portuguese companies, some of them stronger than the Portuguese State, which were described by Professor Luis Nandin de Carvalho as “majestic companies” – associated with António Costa helped funding new political parties (from the far-left to the far-right) to change the partisan system in a way favorable to Costa’s power-grabbing ambition.
Most importantly, however, than discussing individual politicians is to understand the overall power dynamics being played in Portugal – this country has been used as a laboratory by China, Russia and Iran to advance their anti-Freedom, post-America World Order. This “Axis of Tyranny” is – in a very clever way – taking advantage of Portugal’s strategic geopolitical location, history and diplomatic sympathy (especially within International Organizations).
The recent episode involving Portuguese Ambassador António Tânger Correia – now turned into a key politician of Portuguese right-wing party CHEGA, candidate to the European Parliament – is worthy analyzing – not to feed artificial controversies, but to understand what is happening within the Portuguese State with global significance. Portugal is becoming – as it was proclaimed by the Iranian Ambassador to Lisbon (Portuguese capital), Seyed Majid Tafreshi – the center of the “Axis of Resistance”. Let’s start by analyzing Portuguese politician anti-semitic remarks, understanding his political strategy – and, more importantly, grasping the root causes of such regrettable words.
The Attack against the AMERICAN Jews and the Saudi Old Guard/Qatar/IRAN sting operating in Portugal
What did António Tânger Correia say after all? Basically, that the New Yorker Jews had come to know about the attack against the World Trade Center beforehand – that would be why Jews stayed away from the area on 9/11. According to this theory, there is a lower number of Jews dead than non-Jews – precisely, because Israel (“The Mossad”, one may assume) knew about the attack and alerted the Jewish Community living in New York. Of course, the World Trade Center, located right at the heart of New York City, symbol of capitalism, must have been populated “especially with Jews”.
António Tânger Correia was – at the time of the 9/11 attack – the Portuguese Ambassador to Israel; the place where he allegedly had access to the information that the American Jews were perfectly aware of 9/11 attack beforehand. Truth of the matter, these bogus claims are neither original nor particularly creative – in his defense, Tânger Correia presented a softer version of the conspiracy theory that has been circulating in Portuguese national-communist circle (which is infiltrated in every Portuguese political party and within the Portuguese State itself) for longtime .
It should not be forgotten António Tânger Correia’s life background: he is son of a renowned poet and actress, very linked to Portuguese cultural scene. In fact, Tânger Correia’s family is deemed to be close to António Ferro’s family, the responsible for the cultural affairs and propaganda of Portuguese dictator Salazar’s regime. This is, by the way, a common feature of the national-communist Portuguese circle: the continuity of powerful families from the authoritarian regime to the democracy established in 25th April, 1974. The national-communist group aims to influence politics through culture, avoiding taking miscalculated steps in terms of public exposure: this is precisely why this group has become a major center of Portuguese counter-intelligence, promoting its illiberal, anti-America, pro-Russia, predominantly anti-semitic worldview. It comes as no surprise the major infiltration of Russia, China and Iran within the Portuguese State through this national-communist group. Make no mistake: António Tânger Correia might not be an anti-semite (I truly believe he is not); his remarks, however, were objectively anti-semitic. António Tânger Correia is not only a former Portuguese diplomat: rather, he started his career as an intelligence officer, working for DINFO – the Portuguese military intelligence which preceded SIED (the current Portuguese external intel agency).
Thus, he is very well aware of the impact of his words, the fundamentals of information and counter-information, propaganda techniques. There is absolutely no way a seasoned intelligence officer from DINFO was clueless about how implying that American Jews had been informed about 9/11 (keeping the others ignorant about the coming tragedy) would work as a dog whistle to all kind of anti-semites. And that it would be ultimately a perfect fit for Iran and Saudi-Old Guard intel cells operating inside Portugal.
He is not the original scriptwriter of this baseless despicable plot: its original source goes well beyond Portugal or Spain. The first time it was spread in Portugal was rightly after the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York by a well established Islamist espionage sting in greater Lisbon. The leader of this sting (very active up to these days) was born in Mozambique (former Portuguese colony) and developed ties with Salafist clerics from Saudi Arabia. This cleric attracted Portuguese youngsters from both the far-left and the far-right to promote the Islamist agenda (to put it mildly) in Portugal. His main targets were Portuguese journalists, young politicians and book translators/publishers. This Saudi-Old Guard-linked radical cleric (now living in the Portuguese town of Loures, in the outskirts of Lisbon) ended up founding a book publishing house of his own – among its authors one can find the American Neo-Nazi David Duke and writings from Al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin-Laden.
The 9/11 attack is his favorite topic – he wrote a brief essay expounding precisely the ludicrous conspiracy theory that 9/11 was an inside job by the GEORGE W.BUSH Administration under the influence of the Jewish/Zionist lobby. After he had been confronted with the anti-semitic and hateful nature of his remarks, he went as further as to say that his critics were not aimed at Jews – only at AMERICAN Jews. At the time, the Portuguese exerted intense pressure to hide this radical cleric – vey well connected with Portuguese decision-makers and to a Portuguese bank operating In Europe, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking African countries – , especially hiding his ties with the radical Islamists (Salafists) groups. This Salafist group has become an important center in Portugal for Iranian espionage/counter-intelligence operations in Portugal – including to welcome to Portugal “academic researchers” in the area of IT and Artificial Intelligence who come to teach Portuguese digital militias how to execute cyber warfare ops.
For all the reasons above, António Tânger Correia is just a public face of an objectively anti-semitic, multi-polarist world view that runs deep inside the Portuguese state. This pro-Russia, China and Iran bias affects, not just the Iberian country, but all the Free World due to the Portuguese role in international organizations – just think about UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ coziness to Iran, Qatar and China (not to mention his longtime relationship with Vladimir Putin). This is a new strategy of Russia, China and Iran’s axis of chaos and destruction – to use the Jewish People as “bait” to stir up anti-American feelings and further isolate Israel. By undermining the leader of the FREE WORLD, Russia, China and Iran manage to make the Western world weaker, more unstable and with a public opinion more eager to embrace the Kremlin-Beijing- Tehran’s lies.