August 2007 Archives
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Arrests in the Politkovskaya Case
Filed under: Russia
Nearly a year after her killing, the Kremlin has claimed to have identified some of the assassins who participated in the cowardly murder of Russian hero journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The case is already starting to fall apart as prosecutors have brought actual charges against only a tiny fraction of the group they arrested, and the upshot is that the Kremlin is trying to blame the murder once again on dissident exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky -- just as it did with Alexander Litvinenko. In fact, it's even tried to bring other dissident murders into the mix as well, such as that of crusading regulator Andrei Kozlov and Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov. So basically what we are seeing is Kremlin foes dropping like ducks at a shooting gallery, and it turns out that, according to the Kremlin, they were all killed . . . by another Kremlin foe, the one the Kremlin can't reach by any other means than convincing the world he's a mass murderer and getting him deported from England on that basis, where he's now being protected as a refugee. Isn't that just a little bit too convenient? Is it even remotely sane to suggest that Berezovsky could be so powerful as to control an army of KGB assassins, get his hands on Russian nuclear material, elude Russian security forces and yet think of no better way of undermining the Kremlin than to kill off his own allies at the risk of being deported back to Russia from his safe haven in Britain? Is it really possible that the Kremlin can be so isolated and disconnected from reality that it might think it could get the world -- or even the people of Russia -- to swallow such a story? Apparently so. And perhaps, next to an event like Putin joking about rape in front of a diplomatic delegation or Khrushchev taking off his shoe at the UN, it's not even all that extreme by Russian standards.
Read a full briefing on the details at La Russophobe (including an outing of several treacherous bloggers who are making common cause with the Kremlin by spewing outrageous propaganda). Click here to read our extended coverage of Vladimir Putin's long history of political murder since he arrived in Moscow (we discuss Politkovskaya, Kozlov, Klebnikov, Litvinenko and many others).
One bit of good news is that Anna's newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is now available online in English (the photo above is from their site). The quality of their translations is still a bit clunky (those with an interest in Russia and good English skills are encouraged to contact the paper and volunteer their editing services), but their coverage of Russia is required reading.
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redditRussia Sought to Provoke Syria Against Israel
Filed under: Middle East ~ Russia
The Daily Star of Israel reports:
A senior Israeli defense official accused Russia on Thursday of stoking tensions between the Jewish state and Syria. "During a certain period, the Russians acted in such a manner that the Syrians thought Israel wanted to engage in a war against their country," Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's political department, told Army Radio. "The Russians then stopped their incitement following explanations that were communicated to them, according to which Syria had no intention of attacking Israel, and Israel did not aim to take the initiative in a war against Syria. This allowed a calming of tensions." Citing anonymous sources, the Maariv tabloid reported that Russian officials had told the Syrian leadership that Israel was preparing for a war.
Kommersant reports that this explains a recent mobilization effort between the two countries:
The Israeli media reported at the beginning of the summer that the Syrian Army was taking exceptional measures that could only be interpreted as urgent preparations for war. Those were purchases of larges lots of weapons, massive military exercises, engineering work to strengthen fortifications in the areas of the Golan Heights bordering on Israel and the placement of short-range missile installations there. The Israeli Army took responsive measures, fortifying its positions on its side of the border and conducting military exercises based on a scenario of war with Syria. Both sides set themselves of the goal of full preparedness for war by July.
It's far from unprecedented for Russia to stir up trouble in the Middle East. By doing so, Russia creates the conditions necessary to continue the spike in world oil prices, insuring its only source of significant revenue, and simultaneously pokes a finger in the eye of its hated rival, the U.S. Russia has provided massive quantities of weapons to Syria, nuclear technology (and missiles to defend it) to Iran and large chunks of cash to the terrorists regimes of Hamas and Hezbollah. But this new development is a clear escalation, showing that Russia is willing to foment actual armed conflict between rival nation states in order to secure its own ends.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Hammer and the Sickle
Filed under: Cuba
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPostcards from Russia: No Explanation Necessary
Filed under: Russia
If you are a driver, you are probably familiar with the situation when a traffic officer stops you and offers to settle the issue by paying the official fine (that is, according to the law), or by paying a somewhat lower amount, which is unofficial -- meaning, of course, that it ends up in the officer's pocket. Many drivers agree to the unofficial fine not so much to save money but to save time. To resolve an ordinary traffic violation officially, a driver has to spend at the very least half a workday at the traffic police station.
--Ivan Novitsky, a deputy in the Moscow City Duma, in the Moscow Times, Thursday August 30th
Official statistics show the number of children [in Russia] has fallen from 36 million to 29 million over the past eight years [i.e., the Putin administration], part of an overall fall resulting from low birth rates, an antiquated public health care system, poverty, alcoholism and crime. Child's Right, a Moscow-based advocacy group, says that every year about 2,000 of the country's 29 million children aged up to 17 are killed by their parents or other relatives -- a rate of about 6.9 per 100,000. By rough comparison, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2005, the overall homicide rate for children 13 and under -- regardless of the perpetrator -- was 1.4 per 100,000. The overall U.S. rate for children aged 14 to 17 was 4.8 per 100,000.
-- The Associated Press, August 30th
On August 29, 2007 police raided the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Promote Tolerance, the successor to the Russian Chechen Friendship Society, with an order to seize the organization's computers to investigate alleged "computer related crimes." The police also said that they were carrying out an investigation into the organization's finances. The raid has resulted in further disruption of the legitimate activities of a non-violent independent human rights organization that has now been the target of sustained repression for over two years. In that time, the organization's leaders have received threats; RCFS director Stanislav Dmitrievsky has been prosecuted and convicted under laws supposedly intended to curb racist violence but increasingly used by the authorities to penalize peaceful dissent, including the legitimate work of human rights defenders; the organization has been ordered to close, forcing it to re-register under a new name, and to create a base of operations outside of Russia; and on August 17, 2007, a court in Nizhny Novgorod imposed further restrictions on the activities of Stanislav Dmitrievsky. Human Rights First regards all of these measures as unwarranted official interference in the legitimate activities of a human rights organization.-- Human Rights First, August 30th
Private Sergei Sinkonen was beaten by two drunken superiors, then thrown into a kennel with guard dogs, officials say. He was found in a coma the next day and underwent an emergency operation, but died of his head wounds. Bullying incidents are frequent in the Russian armed forces, sometimes resulting in the deaths of soldiers, either by killing or by suicide.-- The BBC, August 28th
A Chilean graduate student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis has been detained in Russia for more than two months after customs officials found several Soviet medals and currency she bought from a street vendor. Roxana Contreras, 29, faces up to seven years in prison, her supporters say. She "acquired USSR state honors illegally" and attempted to export them, according to Russian court documents. Supporters in the United States say the physics student was visiting friends in the southern city of Voronezh and probably did not realize she was doing anything wrong when she bought the six military medals, currency and coins for $66 and tried to bring them on the plane home with her.
--The International Herald Tribune, August 20th
A Moscow court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev, amid speculation that the former Russneft president had fled the country to avoid what he last month called a politically motivated campaign against him. Gutseriyev explained the reasons behind his departure in a letter published in Russneft's internal magazine in late July. "I was invited to leave the oil business 'on good terms.' I refused. Then, to make me more compliant, the company was subjected to unprecedented hounding," Gutseriyev wrote. "I am handing control of the holding to a new owner whose appearance, I am sure, will ensure that all Russneft's problems will be resolved in time," he wrote. The letter appeared to provide insight into the workings of a sector coming under increasing state control, with a boldness unseen since former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his arrest to wrest the company from him.
--The Moscow Times, August 30th
Russian prosecutors have announced a breakthrough in the hunt for the killers of Anna Politkovskaya, the crusading journalist and prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, who was murdered last year. Conveniently for the Kremlin, the finger of suspicion points directly at President Vladimir Putin's main enemy, the exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Experts and former colleagues of the assassinated journalist expressed satisfaction that arrests had been made, but scepticism at Mr Chaika's conclusions. "It's good that there has been progress in the case," said Igor Yakovenko, secretary-general of the Russian Union of Journalists. "If we believe everything that Chaika says then this is the end of the sad tradition of the murders of journalists in Russia going unsolved." But, he said, there were several doubts about the allegations. "It's worrying that, even before the investigation has been officially completed, they are pointing the finger at people abroad," he said. Dmitry Muratov, the editor of Novaya Gazeta, the opposition newspaper where Politkovskaya published her hard-hitting reports on Russian politics and the conflict in Chechnya, expressed similar doubts. "We have known about this for a while. We've worked together with their investigation and we trust their professionalism," said Mr Muratov. "But we are absolutely amazed that they have openly stated they know who ordered the crime before the investigation has even been completed."
-- The Independent, August 29th
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDictatorship Goes Better with Coke . . . if You Prefer Freedom, You Might Want to Consider Pepsi
Filed under: Russia
I think that the progress that has been made by Russia has been absolutely magnificent. People don't understand how fundamentally changed Russia is, however, and we're working on this within the foreign investment advisory council and the U.S.-Russia Business Council.
Those were the words of Coca-Cola Chairman & CEO E. Neville Isdell, speaking in Davos, Switzerland last month at the so-called "World Economic Form." Isdell was seated on a stage next to a bunch of Kremlin sycophants all singing the praises of Vladimir Putin's Russia. He goes on to vow to assist Russia in undertaking a propaganda blitz to convince the world of how wonderful things really are over there in Zaire with permafrost. You can watch the whole disgusting mess for yourself on YouTube if you have the stomach for it. Even a casual reader of this blog will know how bizarre, how utterly detached from reality, this statement really is. It goes without saying that Mr. Isdell hasn't spent a single day of his life living real life on the streets of Russia. His words have the horrifying echo of Neville Chamberlain, or those hopeless idiots who remarked on how "different" from Tsarist Russia were the Bolsheviks and therefore allowed them to grow into the most abusive totalitarian regime the world has ever known.
It seems that Coke is not satisfied peddling liquid candy to the world's children, but wants in addition to ingratiate itself with the malignant dictatorship ensconced in the Kremlin, perhaps with the ultimate goal of actually forcing every man, woman and child in the world to imbibe their vacuous brew at gunpoint. At the very least, it's certainly willing to sell the institution of democracy down the river in exchange for a quick buck as a participant in the Kremlin's mob-like protection racket.
Not that a nasty, treacherous little slug like Mr. Isdell would be likely to care, but for those interested in facts Russia's "progress" in governmental development has been repeatedly measured by numerous international experts and it has received failing grades every single time. It's more than a little ironic, of course, that Mr. Isdell chose to make his remarks in Switzerland, since as we've just reported the Supreme Court of Switzerland has just made an official ruling that Russia's prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky was politically motivated, corrupt and illegal.
Just there were certain companies only to happy to do business with Adolf Hitler, so too some of our own firms will betray us as we confront the new cold war with Russia. Indeed, Russia certainly has made "magnificent" progress in funneling arms to dictator Hugo Chavez, money to terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and nuclear technology (and missiles to defend it) to Iran. Also magnificent progress in menacing the U.S. and Britain with nuclear bombers, obliterating the media, crushing opposition parties and abolishing local governance. Of course, you have to define "magnificent" to mean tending to destroy the United States and its value system, but apparently Coke has no problem doing that (nor does it care that the average Russian man works for $3/hour and doesn't live to reach the age of 60).
As a result, it's our responsibility to identify those companies who support our goals and values and those that don't, and to reward and punish accordingly. If we don't, we'll be walking right down the road trodden by our forefathers, the road that lead to global apocalypse.
Did somebody say Pepsi . . . for those who think young (and free)?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditCastro and Clinton Sitting in a Tree . . .
Filed under: Cuba
In case you are a at a loss to decide how to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, you may want to follow the sage advice of internationally beloved world leader Fidel Castro. Reuters reports:
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is tipping Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to team up and win the U.S. presidential election. "The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.Castro said former President Bill Clinton was "really kind" when he bumped into him and the two men shook hands at a U.N. summit meeting in 2000. He also praised Clinton for sending elite police to "rescue" shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives in 2000 to end an international custody battle. He said his favorite U.S. president since 1959 was Jimmy Carter, another Democrat, because he was not an "accomplice" to efforts to violently overthrow the Cuban government.
If it's good enough for Fidel . . .
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditHizbAllah to sue Israel
Filed under:
Ibrahim Awada head of HizbAllah's legal department, revealed the plan last week on a Syrian television program devoted to "Zionist crimes against Lebanon." He said that each plaintiff will hire a lawyer in the country where he files suit, and HizbAllah will pay the lawyers fees.
So, let me get this straight, HizbAllah kidnaps Israeli soldiers yet HizbAllah is the victim. Instead of playing silly games the party should apologize to its fellow citizens that it brought war upon Lebanon. Shame on them!
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAbd al Bari Atwan: I will dance if Iran hits Israel
Filed under: Middle East
Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper told a Lebanese TV station that "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight." Finally an honest Arab Muslim! It should not be a secret anymore that (some) Muslims use religion as a shield to justify murder especially when those targeted are Jews. Their real oppressor is not Israel. Palestinians should look at their own government (s) and the 'elite' that keeps them in misery and hide behind religion to achieve power&money.
"If Iran is able to retaliate, it will burn the oil wells, block the Strait of Hormuz, attack the American bases in the Gulf and, Allah willing, it will attack Israel, as well."
Bari Atwan founded the pan-Arab daily in London in 1989, and today the paper has a circulation of around 50,000. He is also a regular commentator on Sky News and BBC News 24.
As soon as we accept that terrorism is nihilistic rage unconnected with, and not a reaction to, any actions or policies on Jews/American part the better.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditEU way: Talk to Hamas
Filed under: Middle East
Representatives of three EU intelligence services have met with top Hamas leaders JPost reports. Why try to defeat Hamas (which is Muslim Brotherhood armed wing in Palestine) when you can talk to them?! EU is more and more like UN. And that's not a compliment. EU failed to convince Iran in three years to give up the nuclear project so how is this any different? It isn't. The fact that EU is willing to talk&negotiate with Hamas can only reinforce Islamists belief that all they have to do is scare us shitless and we'll beg (read: bribe) them to be nice again with us. The problem with EU strategy is that terrorists never abandon their goals. They might slow down for a while but not relinquish.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGul is Turkey's new President
Filed under: Europe
Abdullah Gul is elected as Turkey's 11th President amid warnings from the military over undermining country's secular constitution. In the third round of the election Gul received his own party AKP's 339 votes out of the 448 MPs present. The main opposition party CHP did not participate. Gul will take over the presidency tonight in Cankaya (the presidential palace) from Ahmet Necdet Sezer with a modest ceremony.
While massive celebrations are planned in Abdullah Gul's hometown Kayseri and other places, not all Turks are happy.
Read more about it here and here
update: Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit said that "our nation has been watching the behavior of centers of evil who systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic". That means the army is not happy at all with Gul as President. We did not expect any less from the guardians of secular Turkey. "The military will, just as it has so far, keep its determination to guard social, democratic and secular Turkey." Glad to see the army is not about to surrender.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditLife in UK is unbearable for some
Filed under: Europe
England is Vanishing says Cal Thomas.
"Between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 British citizens chose to leave the country for a new life elsewhere. During the same period, at least 574,000 immigrants came to Britain. This number does not include the people who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the government."
Why the exodus?
"They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of Britishness, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation to the next generation. What it means to be British has been watered down in a plague of political correctness that has swept the country faster than hoof-and-mouth disease. Officials say they do not wish to "offend" others."
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditKhodorkovsky Whips Putin in Switzerland
Filed under: Russia
Why is this man smiling? He's jailed Russian "oligarch" Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and he's happy because his brilliant, courageous legal team led by Robert Amsterdam has just won a major legal victory in a Swiss courtroom. As the Times of London reported:
Switzerland's highest court said that Russian legal proceedings against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former chief executive of Yukos, were politically motivated and blocked the release to the Russian authorities of bank documents relating to the bankrupt oil company. The Swiss federal tribunal, in a landmark ruling, found that Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, his associate, were victims of political persecution and it rejected a request for assistance by Russian authorities in their pursuit of tax claims against Yukos.
Russia's reaction? "We consider this decision politically motivated. This is a move of nonrespect toward our country and an attack on its sovereignty," Yury Chaika, Russia's prosecutor general, told a news conference.
So get this: the Kremlin rules out any possibility that the prosecution of Khodorkovsky, its chief rival for power, was in any way political, yet it has no problem in instantly proclaiming that the considered judgment of the highest legal institution in the world's most famous neutral country was motivated solely by political animus.
And the Kremlin never asks itself, assuming it is correct, what it might have done to engender such animus.
In other words, we see the neo-Soviet Union before us, fully realized, in all its horror -- utterly detached from reality and heedless of the consequences, formally so adjudicated by a major European tribunal.
The Swiss are "nonrespecting" Putin in exactly the same way that the British "nonrespected" Hitler and Martin Luther King "nonrespected" the KKK. In other words, they're showing maximum respect for the people of Russia, and of the world, whilst Putin digs their early grave.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditBanned in the USA
Filed under: Middle East
Michelle Malkin writes about a cartoon lampooning Islamic fundamentalism by Berkeley Breathed in the "Opus" series that was banned by a host of American newspapers out of fear of radical Islamacist retaliation. Malkin also writes about how some Islamic crazies are attacking America for daring to give Afghan kids some soccer balls with images of the Saudi flag on them, and an America university student facing jail time for flushing a copy of the Koran.
See the cartoon here, at Salon magazine.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditChina vs. Russia: A New Angle to Consider
Filed under: Russia
The New York Times reports:
Just as the speed and scale of China's rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut. Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China's leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country's 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
View images of Chinese pollution-related horror here.
One reason that Russia could a face an expansive China gobbling up its far eastern regions is the population explosion in China. China has ten times more people than Russia, stuffed into a country with close to one-third Russia's land area. Russia's population is falling annually at the rate of 0.5% or more, whilst China's is growing at an even faster rate.
But now it becomes apparent that it is not merely China's size that will push its population outward; China is also toxifying its environment at an extremely rapid rate, perhaps rendering large chunks of its territory uninhabitable or certainly less than desirable. That means a triple whammy for Russia: Not only are Chinese motivated to seize its territory by growth, but also by pollution -- and on top of that, Russia is one of the countries that will most directly receive the spillover of Chinese pollution in the near term.
In response, Russia seems to be pursuing a policy of appeasement with China, even going so far as to conduct a recent round of joint war games. Can Russia really be so insular and ignorant that it thinks the Chinese won't notice Russia's virulent, pandemic racism and adopt Russia as a bosom friend? Does Russia really think it can talk its way out of Chinese territorial designs, matters of basic demographics? Didn't Russia learn anything from Stalin's deal with Hitler?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Ukrainian Economy, Surging Forward
Filed under: Ukraine
Business Week reports that despite being constantly harassed by Russia's imperialist abuse and lacking Russia's energy resources, Viktor Yushchenko's pro-West Ukrainian economy is roaring forward at an enviable pace:
Gross domestic product powered ahead by an impressive 8% during the first half of 2007, and economists expect the strength to continue, boosted by a surprisingly diverse economy of services, manufacturing, and raw materials. Metals, mainly steel, account for 40% of exports, but most of the growth is coming from manufacturing and services. Production of heavy equipment rose 22% in 2006. And Ukraine's software houses saw their exports jump by 50% last year, to some $250 million. Investors see promise in the growth. The Kiev stock exchange has more than doubled in size this year, and now boasts a market capitalization of $76 billion -- a sixfold increase since late 2004. And a real estate boom has pushed up housing prices by 60% in 12 months.Stroll around downtown Kiev these days, and it's hard to miss the signs of growing prosperity. The Ukrainian capital's golden-domed cathedrals share the skyline with towering cranes and snazzy apartment complexes.
Ukraine is showing that it is able to work wonders under the worst of circumstances, and Georgia the same. We owe it to these two former Russian slaves states to bring them within the NATO fold and give them the opportunity to show what they can do in the best of times, sending a strong message to imperial Russia that their days of slavery are permanently over -- as are our own.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditWhat's That Up in the Sky?
Filed under: Russia ~ Venezuela
Reuters reports:
A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an airshow near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday. The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said. An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million if it were to be sold on the spot. "That is no problem. It is such a cool machine," the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.
Reuters also tells us:
Russia has signed a deal to sell 98 Ilyushin civilian aircraft to Venezuela, Russian newspapers reported on Friday. Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, signed the deal for the Ilyushin-114 planes, which can be used as passenger and cargo planes, the Vremya-Novostei newspaper said. The deal could be worth several billion U.S. dollars, the Izvestia newspaper reported. Russia said last year it had sold 24 Sukhoi jets and 53 helicopters to Venezuela as part of a long-term package of arms contracts worth over $3 billion. Details were not disclosed.
Granted, sending creaking Russian aircraft made by clueless Russians (who can't even show them properly, much less make them safely -- such that the oligarch wants to buy American) to Venezuela may be one way to undermine the Chavez dictatorship by killing off its pilots. But one has to wonder why Chavez needs so much cargo space. What does he want to send, and to whom?
Speaking of Russian planes, Georgia says that they have once again overflown Georgian territory without permission, and this time Georgia has fired at them. Cold war? Perhaps not. Seems to be getting pretty hot in Putin's kitchen.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran shuts "Western" barber shops
Filed under: Iran
Iranian police closed more than 20 barbers shops in the capital Tehran. At least 700 barber shops were inspected during the two-week crackdown, according to BBC. I'll be damned! The mullahs now see men coiffure as anti-Islamic and pro-West!! Mullahs acts are getting stranger, repressive (demented actually) by the day.
If you want to read&see how women are treated by the mad Mullahs check here. And here you can see how a woman is dragged into the police car by men of Allah.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDr Rice to visit Libya in October
Filed under: Africa
For the first time since 1953, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Libya. Dr Rice is to visit the country in October. The last US Secretary of State to visit Libya was John Foster Dulles.
US State Department sources explained that the visit, which had been planned for an earlier date, had been postponed for reasons connected to the progress of political reform in Libya.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) the Asian NATO?
Filed under: Asia
"The Iranian weekly Sobh-e Sadeq, the mouthpiece of Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei circulated among the Revolutionary Guards, called on Shanghai Alliance member countries to accept Iran as a member. Iran's membership, the paper said, would create a new regional strategic axis, to include Iran, Russia, and China - and this could reduce the West's political, security, and economic maneuvering ability in the region as well as in Asia." Trapped in the Middle East (basically America had a poor understanding of the tribal/feudal/religious type of conducting business of the Arab Muslims) the United States lost its stamina and to a certain extent lost direction. The result is that the Russian bear roars, Iran and Syria adopts the well known expression: "We must, indeed, all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately" (Benjamin Franklin ); Venezuela and China will most likely take any opportunity to prove the United States that they too have the capacity of leading and changing the world. Which side will India and Pakistan eventually choose?
If you have the time I recommend an exceptional piece by Tony Corn, The Revolution in Transatlantic Affairs
More on SCO
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPrague Summer, Part II
Filed under: Russia
From blogger Robert Amsterdam, attorney for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, comes this shocking observation:
Yesterday, when Putin's chief of staff General Yuri Baluyevsky issued his frightening warning to the Czech Republic that the installation of a U.S. missile shield would be "a mistake," many of us failed to notice the ominous anniversary that coincided. Thirty-nine years before on that exact date, citizens awoke to learn that their dreams of liberty were crushed as Warsaw Pact troops under orders from the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to destroy the Prague Spring, killing about 79 people, wounding hundreds, and forcing Alexander Dubcek to sign the Moscow Protocols allowing for the occupation of the country. I was first made aware of this historically charged coincidence by the Italian newspaper Correire della Sera. So we can be sure that when the Russians talk tough of "mistakes" and urging what they believe to be Prague's best interests, it is not difficult to see where the skepticism comes from - even if they are backing the highly respected former Czech PM Josef Tosovsky for the top job at the International Monetary Fund.
We are in a new cold war. Are we going to fight it now or . . .
. . . wait until this happens?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditSuffering from thirst in Egypt
Filed under: Egypt
Life in Egypt is hard for most people. Lower middle class families have to live on $50, $70 per month. They cannot afford Evian! Egypt's economy seems to be on the right track (rising exports, real estate investors) but the beneficiary of this boom is the elite. The rich get richer and the poor poorer. There are few things that best describe Mubarak's government: martial law since 1967, institutionalized corruption, repressive security forces, poverty, unemployment and the restless run to jail the MB (Muslim Brotherhood) members&supporters. Accountability, social responsibility, political openness are not of interest for the current leadership.
Add to thirst hunger. People that get out of prison ask to be jailed again; not because they love to be tortured and imprisoned but because they cannot provide for themselves and their families.
In an interview with Al Arabiya.net Dr Najeh Ibrahim, a member of the Islamic Group Shura Council explained the situation as:"Some came out of detention forty or fifty years old. They hold high degrees but found life to be very difficult and discovered they had no job opportunities. None in the private sector agreed to higher them and some jobs require bribes. This has reached a point where it would cost 10, 000 Egyptian pounds (approx $1, 800) to get a job as a janitor in a mosque." Excuse me?? One needs to bribe to be a janitor?! What a great country Egypt is!
Five out of 26 governorates are currently suffering from thirst. For the first time in the history of Egypt people have taken to the streets to ask for water and have protested in front of the state's main directorates.
Read more about the water problems here, here and here.
Update: Mahdi Akef, General Guide of the MB told the Lebanese As Safir this week that the number of the MB detainees reached 550 people
P.S. I stand corrected (thanks Cynic) - Mubarak come to power in 1981. But since 1967 the emergency laws have been in effect almost continuously. After Saddat was assassinated (October 1981) the martial law took again effect in Egypt.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPutin Can't Have his Yellowcake and Eat it too: We Must Stop Russia from Getting its Hands on Australian Uranium
Filed under: Russia
Although Russia is a land of vast mineral resources, it doesn't have sufficient uranium deposits to power its nuclear industry. Therefore, it must import uranium from abroad, and this gives the world a significant point of leverage over the course of Russia's political development, offsetting any influence Russia has based on its oil and gas resources.
Next month, Russian "President" Vladimir Putin will travel to Australia in order to lobby for a huge new deal to purchase "yellowcake" uranium (like that pictured above) down under. Opposition politician Garry Kasparov, investigative journalist Grigory Pasko and attorney Robert Amsterdam are already there, sounding the warning call to Australian politicians that they should not go forward with the deal unless serious conditions and restrictions are imposed.
As Kasparov states: "Should Australian uranium end up in the wrong hands - and it's not too far-fetched to suggest that Russia under Putin is already in the wrong hands - Australia will not be able to act innocent or to claim ignorance." Kasparov warns that the Kremlin cannot be trusted to use Australian uranium purely for domestic peaceful purposes, as is Australia's requirement, and it's equally clear that Russia is unable to safeguard the material it receives from falling into the hands of terrorists. Kasparov warns: "You can only be confident that the Kremlin will look out for itself, that they have zero obedience to the rule of law and that all sales are final."
The U.S. must take immediate and dramatic action to prevent Russia from obtaining any source of ready supply of uranium in the Western world without making radical changes in its system of governance. If we don't seize the initiative, we'll suffer the consequences of an ever-expanding Russian nuclear threat. It's very plain that Russia intends to renew the cold war, and can't field a credible conventional military. Nukes are its only option, and we control its ability to get them. History is watching our leaders and will judge them severely if they fail us.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditShe Ain't No Holla Back Girl . . . More's the Pity
Filed under: Asia
Can you imagine rocker Gwen Stefani showing up at an American university and the student association demanding that she NOT show any skin during her concert? Well, that's what happened when she appeared in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recently and faced the oppressive strictures of radical Islam. The Associated Press reports: "Under government guidelines, a female artist must be covered from the top of her chest, including shoulders, to her knees. No jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience is allowed. Performers also cannot hug or kiss, and their clothes must not have obscene or drug-related images or messages."
And guess how she responded. She complied!
Too bad the Dixie Chicks were not so accommodating of George Bush.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditHow Bill Clinton Dropped the Ball on Bin Laden
Filed under: Middle East
A newly released, previously classified report written by the CIA's internal ombudsman highlights the fact that it was former President Bill Clinton's gross negligence that led to the 9/11 assault on the United States.
Clinton appointed George Tenet to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in July 1997. As summarized by the Associated press, the report emphasizes that:
U.S. spy agencies, which were overseen by Tenet, lacked a comprehensive strategic plan to counter Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11. The inspector general concluded that Tenet "by virtue of his position, bears ultimate responsibility for the fact that no such strategic plan was ever created." The CIA's analysis of al-Qaida before Sept. 2001 was lacking. No comprehensive report focusing on bin Laden was written after 1993, and no comprehensive report laying out the threats of 2001 was assembled. "A number of important issues were covered insufficiently or not at all," the report found.
In other words, Bill Clinton and his DCI ignored the al-Qaida problem throughout his presidency, and escaped blame only because it burst into flames just after Clinton left office, only a few months after George Bush had taken power. Al Gore should consider himself lucky he lost the election he claims he won; had he become president, Clinton's chickens would have come home to roost. It's to Bush's credit that he did not seek to make political hay with this report, but suppressed it for more than two years.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAmerican Protest Babes
Filed under: US Elections
Let it never be said that Americans don't protest themselves. Where does the world get this crazy idea? Obviously, from never visiting. These satirical music videos are simply irresistible, full of full-on American protest babes!
(Line to remember: "I know you're not gay, but I'm hoping for BI!")
(Lines to remember: "Giuliani Girl Just stop your fussin,
at least Obama didn't marry his cousin.")
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditFool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me
Filed under: Palestine
EU decided to cease payment ($8.5 million/month) for fuel for Gaza's electricity supply, until Hamas confirms that funds will not be diverted to its administration in Gaza. There has been no electricity generated by the Gaza power station since Sunday. Of course we can trust Hamas because thus far it has been completely honest with the EU. The European Union realized that while Hamas did collect the money for the electricity instead of paying it, Hamas used the money for other purposes. After all why providing the community with electricity and not weapons?! Where is the outrage of the Gazans? They rejected Fatah because of its institutionalized corruption, then why not reject Hamas because of its ineptitude to deliver?
Hurrying to get to the maximum level of EU stupidity, the United States "will begin training Palestinian guards to protect officials visiting the Palestinian territories. As part of an $80 million American effort to improve security services in the Palestinian Authority, the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security will train members of Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Presidential