Blogging the democratic revolution
And here is Hersh’s entire piece along with the Pentagon press release.
Bush announced just a day after a reports of espionage in Iran by Seymour Hersh that he will not rule out action. Awesome. “The Iranian regime’s apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled “The Coming Wars,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement. Hersh sounds more like a phony — well, loser is a better word — the more I read about him. A much more extended response about him here. And here. Very…
Abbas, under huge pressure from Israel, finally made a declaration for militants to halt their attacks against Israel. But Hamas rejected this call just a few hours after it was made, launching rockets into a nearby settlement. According to the articles, Abbas will be spending a few days in Gaza to have talks with the militants, but that is likely to lead nowhere. Terrorist organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah are self-interested and have no desire to bring the Palestinians a free, thriving society. They know that if that ever happens, they’ll be out of business. Let’s see if…
Via Instapundit, the New York Times reports on the actions behind the scenes of the Orange Revolution. It is an extremely detailed, seven page account of the story about how intelligence officials blocked the suppression of the opposition by the government. For a news story, it was a very exciting read… the kind of thing you would only expect in war novels. Update: But it looks like Daniel Drezner already predicted this!
David McDuff over at A Step At A Time came out with some great content today that I found very unique. He posted a translation of a post on a message board by a Russian man describing how he feels about the pensioner protests. Very, very profound. He also posts his translation of an interview done for a Russian newspaper with Vil Mirzayanov, who gives his expert opinion into the dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko. But again, McDuff is an expert in his own right, having done translations of many Russian works, making a very unique addition to the blogosphere with…
INBB has an article posted about aid from the U.S. and development of democracy in those countries. Even though I could just link to the article itself, I’d rather plug him because he has many interesting articles posted — some even from differing opinions than my own — that I had never seen before. I will say that the man needs trackback though!
Say it isn’t so. The main points are that its welfare systems, restrictive labor laws, and immigration policies with majority Muslim countries are what will eventually split it apart. Unless, of course, they take the time to do some hard reform. Read it all, as it summarizes the global power situation fairly well. But I’d have to give it an overall rating of “Duh.”
Lawrence DiRita of the Pentagon issued a two-page statement rejecting claims of operations in Iran and other countries. There were four specific refutations named. Among these, and let me pat myself on the back, were quotes made by a “government consultant” and a “high-level intelligence officer.” You see, this is why anonymous quotes don’t work. And he was called on it, so he better hope he can prove himself.
After Prince Harry’s little stunt, it seems that the EU is considering an all out ban on synbols Nazi-related. Now that’s just stupid. In a free, open society, people should be able to both wear offensive things, and be berated for being idiots. That, apparently, isn’t a label I would like to give to an organization like the EU. This seems to me, on a large scale, like an attempt to forget European submission and compliance to the Holocaust. But banning an integral part, albeit a poor one, of European history is in no way going to help heal the…
Putin says Israel funded Yushchenko victory. I think Bloggledygook said it perfectly: Notable here is the implication that Putin doesn’t consider Russian aid and support to be foreign per se. Indeed. And I’m not sure how anti-semitic Russians are, but this might be aimed at mobilizing people against Yushchenko on the basis of distaste for Jews or Israel. It has been a mighty political tool in the past. Can anyone comment on this?
Discoshaman has got an update on Ukraine news for January 17th.
Reported here. As much as people are going to complain that Israel is not even giving Abbas a chance, after some rethinking over the past few days, I am going to have to side with Sharon on this. The Palestinian Authority simply cannot act against the militants because they do not have the capabilities to do so. Sharon is actually making a clear-cut distinction here between the terrorists and the Palestinians. The huge division between the Palestinian Authority, organizations like Hamas an Islamic Jihad, and the people is so great that the hyperplurality of it won’t permit the necessary conditions…
This article could have been written any time since the summer of 2003. Of course they’re going to try their hardest to screw with the elections. This isn’t anything new. And they make this foreign fighter issue seem like it’s new as well.
After going through the Human Rights Watch Report for South America, I turned to the section about Abu Ghraib. The article is called The Twisted Logic of Torture. How enticing. I begin to read… A warped and dangerous logic lies behind the Bush administration????????s refusal to reject coercive interrogation. Many American security officials seem to believe that coercive interrogation is necessary to protect Americans and their allies from a catastrophic terrorist attack. Torture and inhumane treatment may be wrong, they contend, but mass murder is worse, so the lesser evil must be tolerated to prevent the greater one. Yet, aware…
Eurasianet has published an article regarding the Human Rights Watch: 2005 World Report, and they sum up the situation in one well-written sentence: According to the rights advocacy group, all of Russia is effectively controlled from Moscow, elections in Belarus are laughable, abuse of prisoners is the norm in Uzbekistan, while Armenia and Azerbaijan are run by authoritarian regimes as the two countries continue their standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh. True. And this article focuses a lot on Russia especially, given that it is the main political body attempting to maintain control in the region. I’m going to go ahead and read…
Seymour Hersh from The New Yorker has reported that the U.S. is conducting secret operations in Iran. They are scouting for potential military and nuclear facilities; very necessary information for a future bombing run. The story makes extensive use of anonymous quotes, and as a journalist, that doesn’t bode too well with me. Like I said, I have no doubt that the U.S. is conducting covert operations, but anonymous quotes make me feel very skeptical. Let’s not forget about Jason Blair. Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, “The civilians in the Pentagon want…
The Kyiv Post has an editorial that makes a case against Tymoshenko and makes sthe case for its endorsement of Poroshenko. An interesting read with very good points, and definitely fair. They outline what Poroshenko has to do in order to be an effective Prime Minister, such as his business transparency and selling off Channel 5.
She’s a fiesty Nobel Laureate defying one of the cruelest totalitarian regimes of our day. But no, I won’t be adding her to the “Babes of Politics” section. Not that her doing this will mean too much. I can imagine it will infuriate the student resistance movement if she is imprisoned, but more importantly, it garners attention from the outside world toward Iran. The more human rights abuses getting focus in the U.S., the better the Iranian peoples’ chances at getting help.
I have been rather reluctant to cover this, given that it is being organized by the Communist Party. The real reason I’m more interested now, however, is because Veronica Khokhlova from Neeka’s Backlog is right in the middle of St. Pete with her digital camera. She spent some time at the rally and has written up a report from what she saw. Did I mention she took 55 photos? First, all those Nazi/Soviet/Communist/Che Guevarish trash – it’s repulsive, and dangerous, and if bringing down Putin means giving power to these people, I’d rather stay with Putin. Really, I don’t understand…
Picked up an interview between Jamie Glazov and Natan Sharansky, co-author of “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror” via A Step At A Time If I remember correctly, this was the most recent book on President Bush’s reading list. This book is getting quite a bit of good press, and its right on the subject I like the most. I definitely have to get it. As for the interview, read it all.
Discoshaman has posted his Ukraine news roundup for January 16th. – Katerinchuk, from Yushchenko’s HQ, spoke today about the unprofessioanl nature of Yanukovych’s Supreme Court complaint. Remember, that this is coming from a partisan source. Here’s what he had to say: 1. The majority of the complaints are identical, regardless of their ostensible city of origin. They’re also mostly photocopies. 2. The “Tomes” of the complaint aren’t as Tome-ish as one might think — Tome #10 consists of 1 page, #3 – 9 pages, #6- 8 pages. . . 3. Most of the complaints center on alleged election-day “agitations.” One…
The shirts for my newspaper staff just came in this week. And they’re orange!
It is the fourth anniversary of the ZUBR Belarus opposition movement on the 14th. Complete with pictures. On, and on the 10th, the Georgian Parliament voted in support of Mikhail Marynich, an opposition leader who has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment. I love it when democratic movements support each other, even if it’s just spiritually.
Just yesterday, there were only 18 tents erected. That has grown to 50 tents and 8000 people. Of course, that’s nothing. This comes on the heels of the Supreme Court agreeing to investigate to Yanukovich’s complaints today. In response, Maidan is collecting evidence of falsification of complaint allegations by Yanukovich.
It seems there is some rumblings over secrecy in Georgian privatization. And for good reason, because when this happens in third world countries, there tends to be large-scale embezzlement. Well, it happens at the UN too, but that’s another story… Some independent analysts disagree. The lack of public information–and public knowledge–about the sales underway can only complicate attempts to evaluate the government????????s performance, warned Dato Narmania, a privatization expert at The Association of Young Economists of Georgia. Yes. Transparency in government is very, very important, because it allows the people to not only make better decisions, but to give more…