Articles and Interviews by John Robles From July 03, 2013 to August 31, 2013
3 Saudi Prince Bandar delivered Israeli chemicals to Syrian terrorists - official
© Collage: «Voice of Russia» Download audio file http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Secret_Libyan_Source.html That was the end on an interview in progress. For the continuation of this interview, please, visit our website at voiceofrussia.com Details of Prince Bandar and his threat of a terrorist attack on Sochi Olympics Israel, US, Syria, Saudi Arabia, chemical weapons, terrorism, Syria. Elimination of chemical weapons, Syrian conflict, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · This is interesting.... · So why has Prince Bandar not been arrested and questioned over his involvement with supplying chemical weapons to the Syrian rebels? Perhaps he has some sort of protective shield around him - because he is doing the dirty work of the USA? The bad guy always gets away with the crime, at this level of criminality - because he is protected by the USA's political intent. Undercover operations by the USA will always be denied. · I wrote a book (in English) which relate what could happen, independently of human action for giving to Humanity a chance to survive our actual sad worldwide governance. Call or click the edition: Edilivre.com and ask in the science-fiction roman: 2039 A Preventive Fiction 30 August, 10:44 1 Attack on Syria is an attack against Russia – Libyan military official
Syria.
In an interview with the Voice of Russia, a high-level anonymous official with direct working knowledge of the United States missile defense system stated that the system allows 30-40 percent of all missiles to get through and is highly ineffective against small missiles. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, when asked if he could verify admissions by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan that he controlled the terrorists groups in Syria, including Chechen terrorist formations, stated that this was true. The official then stated that there were rumors in the Libyan Defense Ministry that it was actually Bandar who delivered the chemical weapons from Israel to the Syrian insurgents and that it was Israel who was pushing the United States for a military attack on Syria. The official stated that all countries in the Middle East were controlled by the United States except Syria, Iran and for the most part Lebanon, with US representatives normally present at all meetings between the leaders and heads of the Middle East states. The source also stated that it the ambition of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to become the King of Saudi Arabia, that drives him to do whatever the US asks of him as he needs their support to make him the king. His mother is not of royal lineage so he is ineligible to be the king. The official explained the urgency of the United States and US President Barrack Hussein Obama to invade Syria as being due a drive to diminish growing Russian influence in the Middle East and surprisingly as revenge for Russia’s refusal to hand over Edward Snowden. He stated that Russia’s growing and prospering economy and the US’s ever weakening economic condition is causing countries in the region to look towards Russia and this is unacceptable to the US administration. When asked about the Muslim Brotherhood, he stated that since its creation by MI6 in the 1940s it had been under the control of the West and was in fact in no way a religious organization. Under several dictators over the decades the Muslim Brotherhood has become a radical armed force. When asked if the Saudis in fact really controlled Chechen terrorist formations the official revealed that even during the Bosnian War the Bosnian Muslims were controlled and funded by the Saudis, who are controlled by the US and that the Bosnian War was also staged to weaken Russian influence in the region. The source said he had met with Osama Bin Laden’s brother and that the Bin Laden family were still operating in Saudi Arabia. He added that Osama Bin Laden was never questioned or impeded in Saudi Arabia. As in Iraq and other post-US-invasion countries such as Afghanistan and Serbia, the United States through its surrogates in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who said is also sponsoring Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups operating in Syria and the Middle East, attempted to instruct the regulate the reformation of the Libyan Army. Qatar attempted to persuade Libya to forego plans for tanks divisions and air-force formations and insisted that Libya merely maintain a small fractured army so it would not pose a threat. When asked about Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad the official said that he was a very peaceful and intelligent man who limited his own role to dealing with the social circumstances and well being of his people. He said the West’s attempt to portray President Assad as some sort of mad dictator were ridiculous and that there was no way he would ever have launched a chemical attack on his own people in an area that was completely under the control of the Syrian forces. Especially since President Assad is winning. The urgency of the US attacking is also due to the fact that, as he said, the Syrian insurgents and terrorist forces cannot hold out anymore than 3 or 4 months, they have effectively been almost beaten. The fact that the West has spent millions funding and arming and training these groups makes their urgency that much more pressing. Full transcript of interview to be available soon on the Voice of Russia. Russia, World, Syria, strike, Syrian opposition, Syrian rebels, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · No war in Syria, no real evidence, no public support, no international support except from France. But do we really want France as a war ally. I don't think so, barrettes and scooters aren't going to intimidate the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese. World War 3 with us and France against the world not a good.
The West will benefit from WWIII – David Shayler The whistleblower who outed an MI6 plan to assassinate late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi spoke to the Voice of Russia about what is going on behind the scenes in Syria. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad would never use chemical weapons as he knows the whole world is watching and he is winning the war. Former MI5 officer Michael Shayler also said the British foreign intelligence service MI6, is a law to itself and does not have to be held accountable to the British people. This is part 2 of a larger interview.
30 August, 09:25
29 August, 03:43 7 Bandar Bush threatens President Putin with Sochi terrorist attack
© Flickr.com/savethedave/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0 Warning: What you are about to read will destroy any illusions you may have left as to who is really controlling the world and who is really using terror to bring about their own ends. It will also bring into question everything that has occurred in the world since 9-10-2001 and shed new light as to the intricacies of the relationships between the power elites in the United States and those who are funding and controlling them. The truth goes to oil and it has its roots in the relationship between former CIA director George Bush Senior’s family and Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan also named “Bandar Bush” by the Bush clan. This story has implications on the events 9-11, Bush and his being placed into power, the entire War on Terror paradigm and the acts of aggressive war by the United States and its allies on Iraq and Afghanistan. It also affects everything from the entire Middle East upheaval, Sunni/Shia strife, the death of Hugo Chavez, the attack on the Boston Marathon, the death of Litvinenko, Princess Diana, terrorist attacks by Chechens and the true nature of al-Qaeda. If this story takes off and is given the attention it deserves it may end the entire “War on Terror” and finally see an end to the wanton illegality being perpetuated by the West and it all boils down to a single conversation between Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. The conversation between President Putin and the “Bushie” was apparently released to the Russian press and then made its rounds worldwide and gives a rare glimpse into the real conversations that take place between world leaders before the handshakes, smiles and photo opportunities. This one is particularly chilling and it is clear why it was released to press. What is almost unbelievable is that it clearly shows, apart from what I mentioned above, who has been benefitting and working with the United States to destabilize the Middle East, who is assisting in controlling the terrorists that the United States is arming, funding and giving asylum to and why Israel has nothing to fear from the chaos around it. In this short snippet of conversation, everything has become clearer, almost crystal. It is also important to note that Bandar Bush spoke with the full backing of the United States. So what is the bombshell? Well there are three main ones actually. The first is an admission by the Bandar to Saudia Arabia’s and the United States support and knowledge of the true nature of the Muslim Brotherhood and the screaming hypocrisy with which they operate: “There are many common values and goals that bring us together, most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting and consolidating international peace and security. The terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring.” Here we must note it was the West which drove the Arab Spring. He continued: “We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya.” The second and most shocking is this: ”As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.” So Chechen terrorists, who supposedly carried out the attack in Boston and have killed hundreds of Russians including Russian police officers, are being controlled by the US and the Saudis? And what is more the Saudis and the US are admittedly controlling terrorists in Syria? And lastly this arrogant “Prince” has the audacity to threaten the president of the largest country in the world with terrorist attacks if he does not do his bidding? Not only is this an admission that the United States and Saudi Arabia are state sponsors of terrorism, but they are actually using the terrorists themselves to do their bidding and as instruments to terrorize leaders into submission! This means they have become nothing more than terrorists themselves! Bandar attempted at first to bribe President Putin with promises of oil and gas deals, arms purchases and more, to pull Russian support for Syria. He then moved on to the threats of attacks on the Olympics by the Saudi and US' terrorists. President Putin responded by saying: “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles. Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters.” The Bushie, after failing in all attempts to get President Putin to pull his support for Assad then responded by saying:“… there is no escape from the military option (in Syria), because it is the only currently available choice given that the political settlement ended in stalemate. We believe that the Geneva II Conference will be very difficult in light of this raging situation.” And today we are on the eve of an invasion because a terrorist Saudi Prince wants to protect the petro dollar and kill all Muslims who are not Sunnis. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Russia, US, CIA, Syria, Saudi Arabia, terrorism, Al-Qaeda, 9/11 terrorist attacks, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 7 · That is unbelievable! Thats how our world works!? Thank you Russians for being strong and not getting scaried by terrorists! Greating from Germany. · Russia STAY STRONG NEVER GIVE UP! · It is wrong to say that Saudis want to kill all Muslims who are not Sunnis. Saudis paid Egypt huge amount of money to finish Muslim Brotherhood govt. & then for killing them who are 100% Sunni. · Lol. What a dumb goat-herder! Imagine showing up at Putin's place admitting that the Saudis control the Chechen terrorists that Putin vehemently HATES and who have given him nothing but trouble. As if Putin is going to sit there and just pussyfoot around with that mob of idiots. As if Putin wouldn't record the conversation, with evidence that the Arabs are funding terrorists, and GIVE the recording to the press. Now he has PROOF to legally bomb a country that is funding terrorism against Russia. No wonder today's papers are full of threats by Putin to nuke Arabia with a US strike on Syria, which in the Saudis' words is unavoidable. Catholic prophecies say that Arabia will burn, and that was before anybody knew there was oil beneath the sands. Those dumb Arabs should stick to goat-herding. · ... and not to mention what that losing Arabian oil imports would do to the USA - send it into the stone age. lol. · This article shows the true nature of the link between the USA and Saudi inspired terrorism. It always seemed likely that the US was behind the Islamic terrorist attacks around the world. This story fits in well with the principle that the US needs a constant enemy, that they can use to frighten the public - the bogey man that can be used to justify any attack on foreign countries. A perfect let-out clause in any US constitution. · I think you might be confusing the US with Israel. They take part in killing Americans in order for us to think this country or that did it to put us into wars against their enemies. They bombed our USS Liberty to make us nuke Egypt and we almost did. Then they planed bombs throughout Egypt where Americans were, but it failed when they accidently blew a bomb too soon and during 9-11 they were caught there too, but they were released. We can't bomb Israel either because there are good people, (Jewish, Christian, Muslim,) there too. 28 August, 21:23 US attack on Syria may cause WWIII - Rick Rozoff
Photo: EPA If the West is allowed to launch military aggression in Syria, using any pretext, Iran, Russia and China and the few remaining countries in the world who possess independent foreign policies will be left with no remaining buffer between themselves and the US – NATO war machine. Voice of Russia contributor Rick Rozoff spoke about this and more in the second part of an interview covering the current crisis involving US aggression against Syria.
This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Mr. Rick Rozoff – the manager and owner of the stop NATO website and mailing list. Robles: There was a statement from China that there is a threat, that this could culminate into beginning of World War III. Can you comment on that? Rozoff: People are using this language and I think not without justification. If the parallel we established a few minutes ago about events in Asia and Europe from 1931 to 1941, and we should mention, by the way, that at the end of that decade there was Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union with the largest invasion force in human history and, in the end, the deadliest war in human history. But if at that time World War was grounded in a series of unprovoked and, unfortunately, unopposed acts of military aggression, then the parallel certainly could be extended to include that. A comment today by a leading Prelate, a leading church official in Syria Antoine Audo, who is the head of what is called the Chaldean Catholic Church in Syria, he made precisely that statement. He said that: “If there is outside” – which is to say Western and allied – “military intervention inside the country, it could lead to World War III”. Those are exactly his terms. And this is what he said in an interview with Vatican Radio. Robles: What can you tell us about the region? I mean, in your opinion, for example Israel. I keep thinking that if they are going to destabilize the entire Middle East, right in the middle of it you’ve got Israel. You’ve got all these Islamic fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists and none of them are much in love with the Jewish state. How is Israel going to deal with this? Or is this part of the plan? Rozoff: It appears to be counterintuitive but we have to recollect that the US’s second closest ally in the entire Middle Eastern region is of course Saudi Arabia, which is theocratic, it is Wahabist at root, you know, a severe form of theocratic government, it is medieval in many respects and particularly brutal. But the US has no problem and Israel has no problem. You know, reconciling support for the Jewish secular state of Israel on the one hand, and for the medieval hereditary despotism in Saudi Arabia on the other. And the Obama Administration, which now is once again invoking humanitarianism as an excuse for a war, has no problem at all having just completed the largest bilateral arms deal in history with Saudi Arabia. So, I suppose the average citizen of the US and of the world is not supposed to make comparisons and see just how egregiously contradictory those policies are. And then you claim to be fighting religious extremism, and on the other hand you are arming to the teeth the bastion of religious extremism in the Islamic world. Robles: You mentioned Obama, you mentioned Egypt and the hypocrisy, and the double dealing that is going on. Have you heard anything about the fact that Obama was connected with Morsi, with the Egyptians, to the attack on the CIA installation in Benghazi where the CIA long-term agent Christopher Stevens was killed? Apparently, he was working on transferring Stinger Missiles to Al Qaeda elements in Syria and Libya. Rozoff: Yes, that’s the interpretation I’m familiar with too without being able to substantiate it of course. But nevertheless, the US was simply going from strength to strength, it slipped from one massive bombing campaign on behalf of foreign mercenaries and domestic religious extremists in Libya to spreading the Washington- as well as the Saudi-backed Jihad, if you will, from Libya to Syria. And then, of course, that Stevens who incidentally was ensconced in Benghazi in the opening days of the attack against Libya in March 2011, basically, running weapons and Jihadi fighters into Libya for the war against the established Government of Muammar Gaddafi. So, if the line in the Gospels about “he, who lives by the sword will perish by the sword” has any meaning, I think in the case of Mr. Stevens it is pretty obvious that what he put out in the world, is what came back to get him. Robles: What about Obama now? Some people are saying that the fact that he was actively funding Al Qaeda and they ended up killing four Americans, is it possible that even with all these illegal aggressive wars and millions of people that have been killed by Bush and Obama – is it possible that these four Americans, including Stevens, might lead to the downfall of this regime, and Obama in particular? Is that realistic? Rozoff: I don’t think it is realistic, I think it is possible. But I believe that nobody looks too closely into matters like that. And the so-called other side, the Republican Party, on foreign policy issues the political differences end at the shoreline, as has been remarked, and they are not going to look too closely at anything like that. In fact, even during the two impeachment trials of Nixon in the early 1970s and Clinton at the end of the 1990s, and for that matter the Iran Contra Affair, you know, whenever one party can make some political capital out of embarrassing the other during congressional hearings, they’ll bring them right to the edge of the abyss and then pull them back out of the fear of really exposing what is going on. I wouldn’t anticipate anything in that respect. I think, if I were a family member of one of those four killed in Benghazi, and I had strong feelings about it, I would be willing to dedicate the rest of my life to investigating what actually happened and who was ultimately responsible for that. But I wouldn’t expect anyone in our suborned and corrupt, and arrogant, and aloof political system to really care about the four people who were killed. And they’ll make points demagogically trying to blame somebody, but I don’t believe anyone has lost any sleep over the demise of Mr. Stevens and his three colleagues. Robles: One more question. We’ve been going over this for years literally now and it looks like an invasion is just maybe hours away. Any other things you want to say about Bashar Assad and Syria? Rozoff: I won’t characterize it as an invasion at this point any more than, say, the six-month war against Libya two years ago, it is technically speaking an invasion. And it is a very common modality now. It is one that we saw I think, first of all, in 1999 with the 78-day air war against Yugoslavia, and then saw it with Libya two and a half years ago. But what we are seeing is that on the ground a heterogeneous grouping of the so-called opposition figures, some domestic extremists, some foreign, and mercenaries are used to be the spotters on the ground and those that attack government installations, and, if possible, bring about retaliation that can then be construed as a massacre, a crime against humanity, which then provides the West – the US and its NATO allies – with the justification for a military intervention, such as the Račak events in early 1999 in Kosovo which were characterized as a massacre by the US and its allies and that led to the air war. We saw something very similar in Libya and of course that scenario is being played out again in Syria currently. And that permits the US and its allies with the overwhelming superiority and firepower, particularly in terms of missiles and aircraft, to just bombard an essentially defenseless nation which is much smaller than any of the major NATO members of course, and surely the US, with outdated and for the most part ineffective air defenses, to bomb that country into submission on behalf of the rebel forces that have been trained and armed from outside by the US and its allies. So, we are seeing that scenario played out to perfection. And the only thing missing up until now of course was the sort of Račak massacre pretext. And now we have it. Robles: So, your final assessment on this supposed chemical attack? Rozoff: Considering that a year ago the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces Barack Obama stated specifically, tipping the hand of the West in terms of what they would use as the alleged reason for military aggression against Syria, that the use of chemical weapons was crossing a red line, and knowing that the Government of Syria would commit political suicide by doing such a thing – it is more than I think any sensible person would expect or could understand. And in fact, I think whatever the details are… and let’s be honest about it, it doesn’t matter what the details are. If Washington wants war, Washington is going to have war. And if it not this pretext, it is going to be another one. Robles: I think for most sane and intelligent, and peace-loving civilized people in the world the details do matter. But when you have people and all they want is bloodshed, I guess you are right, the details don’t matter. Rozoff: I mean they do not matter in that. We could spend the few remaining hours we may have left before Damascus is in flames arguing about whether the US lies can be disproven or not, or we can try at the 11th hour to try to marshal international outrage to get this stopped before it begins. That’s my plea. Robles: What would you tell the international community? Rozoff: Stop it here, or it is coming to your home! After Syria Lebanon, after Lebanon Iran, after Iran who knows who. Robles: Last year it was what? Venezuela, China and Russia. Rozoff: And two years ago it was both Libya and Ivory Coast, let’s not forget. And at this point, honestly, as we’ve talked about before, I sincerely doubt there are a dozen nations in the world, out of 194 members of the United Nations currently, that dare pursue any independent foreign policy and including explicitly in an expressly in military manner, are not tied to the Pentagon’s evolving and expanding international military nexus. And having one of those dozen picked off today or tomorrow, or any time in the near future, means there are fewer and fewer left. And it is only a matter of time, seriously, before Iran, Russia and China are going to find there are no buffers left, there is nothing between them and the US-NATO war machine. Robles: Rick, thank you very much. I’ll be speaking to you as this develops, if possible. You were listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff – the manager and owner of the stop NATO website and mailing list.
28 August, 18:25 23 Attack on Syria may cause massive damage to the US
© Collage: Voice of Russia The United States of America and their leader Barrack Hussein Obama have spent billions of dollars in Syria, at a time when US taxpayers are suffering, attempting to bring about a change of regime. The money has been spent funding al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorists to destabilize the country, groups that they have parroted time and time again as being the number one enemies of the American people. Their strategy was failing, like all of their strategies are bound to fail because they lack vision and true understanding of the world and its people. They created a red line, most likely launched a black operation to make that red line a reality and now with extreme desperate irrational urgency, they want to carry out their plan to attack Syria. That is their goal, they set it, and no matter what happens they will obtusely carry it out without regard for the consequences and without forward planning. I would put forward that the goal of the United States is not to remove President Bashar Al-Assad, just as it is not to protect the Syrian people. As for Al-Assad he offered to step down multiple times in the past and if the true goal was simply removing him, they could have assassinated him years ago. Unless the CIA has grown completely incompetent that is. As for the Syrian people, it is clear that all of the bloodshed and loss of life in the country has been caused because of, and almost exclusively by, the terrorist elements that the United States has been training, funding, arming and importing. So if they do not want to remove Assad what do they want? Now this is part of the secret geopolitical agenda they seek for the Middle East. I would put forward that the real goal is to destabilize and destroy the country and the people and throw Syria into anarchy. This will create yet another weak and broken country from which they can steal resources and which they can manipulate as they wish. Look at the record: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and all of the other countries in the Middle East that they have destabilized and destroyed through other means. Ala Zbigniew Brzeznski and his plans to destabilize Russia into sixty-some-odd autonomous republics, the plans for the Middle East are almost identical, and the people of all of these countries just get in the way. Why else attack countries that pose no threat? Iraq never threatened America, nor did Afghanistan or Libya. Neither has Syria. These states did possess independent foreign policies and that has been their only crime. Other than of course, in the case of Iraq and Libya, the fact that hours before the attacks on their countries, the leaders changed the trade in oil from the dollar to the euro. Something that would completely destroy the United States if all of the countries of the world followed suit. Hence they need to destabilize the economy of Europe and all of the instruments that have been implemented to carry that out. The US cannot allow the euro to grow as an alternative currency, because the US economy will be destroyed. The United States has technically long been economically bankrupt. As for moral, well that is also obvious. It is interesting to note, from a militarily strategic viewpoint, that by intentionally telegraphing that they are planning to attack, and even setting the date, they are guaranteeing that President Al-Assad will be protected and they are contributing to the massive civilian losses that will occur. There will be no chance of a “surgical strike” because all of the important targets will already be moved or protected. So in order to achieve whatever military objectives there are this will require even more fire power and more missiles, something which of course will be very profitable and beneficial for Raytheon and all of the other US war contractors. Telegraphing will also allow for Syria to set up defenses, if it has not already, to knock all of the US’s million dollar missiles out of the sky. Something it has every right to do. The plan to strike Syria is not only one of cowardice and an admission of utter and complete failure by the United States on the diplomatic front but it is also illegal without a United Nations resolution and an imminent threat to America itself. It is obviously cowardly because launching missiles while fearfully hiding behind a shield where there is no threat to yourself is not something that an honorable soldier on a battlefield would do. It is the tactic of a coward. This tactic however is necessary for Obama because when the massive loss of American lives begins, the American people will rise up and no longer support all of the callous unthinking military adventures. Hence what some view as the illogical funding of Al-Qaeda and terrorists to carry out the dirty work. What will happen when these terrorist elements begin to realize that they have been merely disposable pawns for the US and that they have been killing their own brothers and mothers and sisters? Of course the US has not thought of that. The backlash when Al-Qaeda and all of the motley groups of terrorists realize they have been killing their brethren for the enemy will be monumental and Americans will finally see what real terrorism is all about, I believe that is a given. But that is okay for Washington too, they have all of the plans in place and this will allow the military industrial complex to expand and invade even more countries. What are a few American lives? What about Israel? As I have said in the past, in reality the United States does not care about Israel. The maelstrom that will occur if the US strikes Syria will be monumental and right in the middle of it will be the Jewish state. Washington, thousands of miles away, behind a missile shield, with all of its leaders protected and hiding in bunkers, will be safe. Of course the US has convinced Israel that they are safe, but I beg to differ. Let this be a warning then to reactionary proponents of an attack on Syria: the results will be monumental and may lead to the self-destruction of America both economically and politically. Why? For one it will further bankrupt an already decimated economy. Two, it will also polarize enemies and cause countries around the world to strike back, meaning the world community may in fact realize that it is time to reign in and end the continual invasions and aggressive wars being waged by the US This will be particularly true when it is revealed that the chemical attack in Syria was a black operation to give Obama his pretext to carry out another Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning-act-of-aggression. If the world wakes up that is. This last point will no doubt fall on deaf ears, or in this case “on blind eyes”, but in reality the US is missing a very important opportunity in Syria, and that is a chance to rebuild its reputation and become a respected intelligent and grown up member and leader of the world community by simply promoting a peaceful resolution. The world is truly tired of US bombs and bellicose rhetoric and the actions of an arrogant one-world-power wantonly bashing and bullying its way across the globe. My thoughts are with the Syrian people and my hope is that someone, somewhere, with the power to stop this madness will listen. How about it President of the United States of America Barrack Hussein Obama? Maybe it is time to use diplomacy and work for peace and to finally put the weapons down? You have a Nobel Peace Prize after all. Or does that mean nothing? US, Syria, Syria-U.S. relations, attack, Syria. Elimination of chemical weapons, Syrian conflict, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 23 · He is a Wall Street kind face `Hope' after all, Ha, I doubt he even remembers what that means except the fact that as a DC insider, just as the Clintons before him and Bush Family Inc. ... it is an exclusive club to be a member and he is part of it! Along with Saudi ties and Prince Bandar Bush hopping around the globe with threats of Jihadi/Salafist fervor if they don't go along with the grand plan! · We in America, do not want this. We do not want another meaningless war. But we are screaming at our "leaders" from behind a soundproof window. · As an American, I have no clue what we're doing over there. News came out today that it was Assad's brother that ordered the attack, not Assad. If true, let's see how Assad deals with it. Come on, President Obama, please don't attack Syria. I struggle to find work here as it is, we really don't need more war at the moment. Let's focus on fixing home. · We only go after countries that do not follow our political agenda or subvert the one that our government wants on the home front. A war or conflict that advances the agenda 21 proposition of the UN or the reductions of our personal rights in the US is all that is on the minds of those in power and I do not mean our Congress. They are nothing but people on strings that are pulled from above. We are not in control of our lives and all we can do is run and hide and pray that there is a God that hears and will protect us in some way. Our government lives to us in manor of things from WMD to the food and air we breathe,so why not on chemical weapons used. Watch your backs and prepare for the worst we are heading for our own mass destruction and not by our own hands. · Dear John, you spoiled a rather good analysis by writing that the US does not care about Israel. Rather naive donchya think, given that Israel provided the so-called 'intel' on the Syrian government's use of CWs and has trained and harbored some of the al-Qadea rebels sent there. They also furnished the yellow cake 'intel' that destroyed Iraq and the disinfo that destroyed Libya. After destabilising Egypt, their dual-national neo-cons are busy suckering the US into spending their treasure and blood to remove their arch-enemy Syria. In fact all the 'Wars of Terror' have only benefited Israel so you don't need to feel sorry for the illegal terror state. · If you will please take note, that in fact the defacto United States/NATO wanton aggression against any nation that does not buckle under to their domination has nothing what so ever to do with who is in control of the White House (unless of course their is a radical change in the political and economic elite). The United States is not ruled by a government of the people and for the people or by law, but by a group of international thugs and criminals and like the thugs and criminals that came before them believe in a manifest destiny for themselves to rule the world. "American Exceptionalism" is how it is referred to, very akin to the "Aryan" doctrine of the Nazi's. According to the US elite, they and only they have the correct political, social and economic model that must be crammed down the worlds throat even by force for their own good. Now, everyone knows there is only one way to deal with this type fanatical ideology, that there is only one language fascists understand and that is force, period. Every time the international community turns a blind eye to their aggression it is only asking for more and greater aggression and bloodshed. The sacrifice as painful as it may be must be undertaken by those who wish to rid the world of those elements that wish to enslave us all. · That is not true Trinity, that is pure fraud and Mossad propaganda provided by Israeli intel, which is unrefutable, provided by secret sources, fabricated evidence ( just like Iraq WMD was provided by Mossad and Israel intel - which as we know were all lies). This lie has been spread by Mossad news site DebkaFILE. ALL BOGUS. · Russia and China need to put our rouge American government in check. The American people are being held hostage by our government. I would love a moral leader like Putin in the white house. · War is a needed distraction for their failure to fix the economy. It is also justification for ever increased spying on our own citizens. Peace is impossible as the American military industrial complex is too big. War unfortunately is a highly profitable form of wealth distribution. All members of the government own shares in all these companies. It could be said that world peace would actually bankrupt America. There would be no need for a massive military force if there were no wars or even the threat of war. Peace and stability would also cause the price of oil and other commodities to plummet. Millions of jobs related to the military and energy sectors would be lost. There would be no need for massive spy and security agencies. The goal of washington is to continue conflict. They create, arm and train the very enemies they need to continue the vicious circle. The final goal is no doubt to control most if not all the worlds resources. Washington cares nothing of the lives lost. Not even those of our own soldiers. can anyone stop washington? russia could if it wanted to, but it also benefits from the other side of arms sales to its allies. Also it is pretty much a given that and direct conflict between Russia and America would likely rapidly escalate to a nuclear conflict. That type of escalation is not profitable as the very industries relied upon to wage war would themselves be targeted and destroyed. Also Russia fears America is now capable of a highly successful first strike or is at least capable of severely limiting a Russian one while dealing an annihilating retalliation. · Americans dont want this insane ,constant war business...Our represenatives do nothing but give "lip service"...The white house phones and mails ,I know are going crazy with people calling and saying NO.....but noone listens...We in America are also being pushed to the edge and want Obama impeached ..You are right in that he is no leader , he is a power hungry coward...along with all his "good ol boys" in DC..MY heart hurts for our own service men and woman..as well as the people of Syria... and all the other countries we have devestated...for the greed of a few. People dont matter to war mongers..they are expendable. · We don't want a war and actually only 6% of the American people support a war in Syria. There is no clear objective in the Middle East. But let me tell you clairvoyant Russians this. Syria isn't the archenemy of Israel and it isn't even the prime concern of Israel. They have chemical weapons which are pretty devastating but Assad would know it is the end of his regime and life if he were to use them on Israel. The prime concern is Iran and their nuclear capability. Syria is a sideshow that is just delaying Iran and their capability. You will cry that they should have nuclear technology but you are ignoring the fact that a cultic maniac has controlled them for the better part of 40 years now. It is a medieval religious psychology with the ability to use modern weapons. Not such a great combination, when their leader and faithful muhammed, the so called prophet of peace had his author write such violent verses in the Koran to kill Jews and Christians. You even have your own Islamic problem on your southwest border of Chechnya. You can't continue supporting an evil regime for economic reasons forever, eventually iron will have to come hither for Ayatollah and his sadistic control of Iran. · Our own black ops murdered 1400 Syrians this past week with Sarin gas? So we can swoop into Syria and further siphon off more of our own money to dump it into muslim coffers to what possible good end for any of us back here in the US- that is a pretty foolish strategy, even from the vantage point of a bloodstained hawk like myself. Seriously, we would all really rather see the UN security council deal with Assad's crimes against humanity for a change and leave us out of it, as long as the Russians and the Chinese and oh yeah, the Iranians play nice without nukes that is, and without endangering our access to cheaper oil. (Playing nice is not your Russsian forte, in case you have forgotten- a lot lot lot of dead folks in your paths to independence and in your choice of national leaders there, for some reason we don't have the same history of atrocities on the same scale that I can recall... not even in Afghanistan, go figure.) Maybe that is why everyone else in the civilized western world is actually waiting for the US to give Assad an illegal spanking for gassing his own people instead of functioning like they ought to through the UN. It certainly costs everyone less money for us to pay to punish I mean play on the world stage but then again maybe that is the actual cost of hegemony even on its way out. · Israel and America are the same country. · i think that it is the right time for Russia to come out of hesitation and show their reliability as a friend, (show is deliberate here as the Russians always had stepped back from supporting their allies when needed). But this time his only Arabian friend is in dire need of support apart for the support of world masses, Iran, Africa, and Hezbollah. I thin that if Russians now rush to supply Syria and/or Iran with all weapon systems having strategic strike capability immediately on lease, small/midsize conventional Subs with missile launch capability (7-12) Strategic Iskandar Missiles(3000) to destroy Israeli, Jordanian and Turkish Strategic Assets like Air Bases, NATO radar system, Nuclear Reactors/ Power generation and other infrastructure. Drones with Deep Strike capability (1500) and Nuclear cover in case of any unconventional attack on Syria. like Nuclear,chemical etccc atleast 200 SU30 with all strategic capabilities for All resistance allies. and S300 for iran and syria on lease . this whole package will cost around 10billion dollars and the resistance block will be more than happy to buy this if not able to pay immediately then give them on lease. by this Russia will not only benefit from this crises to settle pending contracts as a dependable partner but will also gain economically and politically. This deal can be financed by 4billion Iran, 3 Billion by latin American Allies. and the rest by Lending from russia. and will add up strategic capabilities ti the resistance fire power against which enemies will not succeed without paying bloody price. · all a part of the new world order...the bigger the deception, the easier it is for people to believe... · All of the countries of the world have a common enemy--- THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Fight accordingly. · A small rock jutting just microns above the water level can sink a huge ship. Libya, with few million people, was the first of these "small rocks." Thus, Benghazi. Syria is also a small rock, but will prove bow ripping in a major way. · Here is the thing, a false flag attack has been staged in Damascus to try and put the Russian Federation in a bind during their hosting of the G20 in St. Pete on Sept. 5. It is better for the Duma, the Federation Council and inner workings of the Kremlin and Presidential staff to work very quietly with the leadership to move assets ... conventional and strategic in position in the Med and near the Syrian ports and bases they have control of like Tartus and Latakia like they already are currently doing and wait, let the NATO fleets come and be prepared to wage regional conflict basically with Russia itself! · Of course · The analyses and comments of that topic are good. They describe relatively well what is going on in this sad World community. If we do nothing to change such a mediocre World governance, the ultimate apocalypse will soon extinguish the human specie. Let us be objective and face the facts: One country has been since 1945 and still is the initiator and first user of all weapons of mass destruction actually available for humans. That same nation has at her disposal the greatest war-machine seen during the whole humanity history. Each year between 800 and a 1000 billions $ are used for that purpose. Why! Simply because America believe (like the Romans used to do) that they must govern the whole planet and impose their way of life. Not all Americans think likewise, most are decent people but a tiny minority has betrayed the US Constitution and the country's funding fathers'dreams...Repairing, peacefully the whole situation is not impossible. Telling that Obama is a partner, that harmony between Kerry: the greatest liar on Earth, implicated in the bombing of Vietnamese with agent-orange and Mister Lavrov is perfect; receiving war-criminal: Mc Cain on Russian TV and binding over to so many bad peoples'wishes is not the way to do. Moreover, we must also deal with all the corrupt citizen of other countries (including Russians) who are plain US collabos...Then what to do! Simply, what Americans do so well when they are mad at someone: BOYCOTT of everything being made in USA (including, peoples and mos of all: the dollars). You will see how quickly the American society will react and put all the creeps who caused so much damages in jail. For the success of such a project which almost mean saving mankind, well known, honest and respectable persons like Mister Putin must talk and expose the truth facts... · What makes things happen in the USA, and outside is about profit. It has been this way for many years. Only the people that are seen have changed, and it is not just the USA but many other countries as well. Profit is the biggest motivator, and that is why we have the most people in prison out of all the countries in the world. It is the reason for our military, they are there to secure resources for the country and our allies, and other countries do the same thing. Even the Romans did this centuries ago. Attacking the USA will change nothing, as the people that profit from the actions here are all around the world. During WWII the people backing the USA also backed Germany, and many other countries so that regardless of who came out a winner they would come out ahead. Also it makes little sense to think of boycotting our products, as it will harm the majority of countries around the world. At one time this may have made a difference, but now days there are very few products made in the USA, and I can attest to this because I work in manufacturing, and there really are not that many places that have jobs for people that are skilled with experience in programming, electronics, robotics, PLCs, and everything else that is used in manufacturing. I have only seen my take home go down and down, while expences go up. If there really was a recovery and a demand for engineering I would easily be earning twice as much after deductions. However there are jobs that pay far more and have better benefits such as a prison guard, and many in California earn twice or more what many engineers do here. The talk about new world order scares me because I know what it will mean, it basically will mean that if someone owes debts those debts, or any other thing that can be held against someone, people will never be able to escape. The main part of the American dream has always been a place for people to change their lives for the better not just of themselves but for the better of those around them as well. A chance to start over from bad decisions of the past, and help others in the process. Sure there are some very evil people here in high places, but the same can be said for about any country. It is just easier for the most motivated people here to rise to the top, and there is not much in the way of a safety net for people either. If you are not motivated to get ahead there is a good chance you will either die on the streets or in prison. The way to get ahead is to have hopes and dreams of a better future, find others that share those dreams, and work to make the dreams happen. This applies to all things in life, be it business, personal, religious, or anything else. · HI JOHN YOU SIT IN YOUR ARMCHAIR IN USA AND PHILOSOPHISE ABOUT SYRIA. WHEREAS WE ARE IN THE S.. SINCE 47 YEARS WITH THIS BLOODY HANDED , COWARD , CRIMINAL BUNKER RAT AND HIS DICIPLES. TO RATIONALISE YOUR PHILOSOPHY COME OVER TO SYRIA , JUST TRY TO FIGHT WITH YOUNG LEGENDIC HEROS AGAINST THE NERON OF DAMASCUS AND THEN LET US READ YOUR PROPHECIES. " iF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE YOU SHOULD BE READY FOR THE WAR " J.F,DULLES. TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS USA GENIUS AND LET OBAMA PERFORM HIS STRATEGY THAT WE FULLY SUPPORT IN MIDDLE EAST . ( ASSOCIATION BOARD MEMBERS ) · I really don't care what happens to those imposters posing as the American Government. Just remember if you go past Washington there will be a gun behind every blade of grass. 28 August, 08:45 Attack on Syria will cause regional conflagration – Rick Rozoff
Photo: Flickr.com/familymwr/cc-by With what appears to an imminent western military adventure and yet another act of aggression against a small country on the other side of the world, meaning what appears to be the upcoming unprovoked attack on the sovereign nation of Syria by the United States, Rick Rozoff spoke about the military buildup and the reasons for the West’s continued meddling in the Middle East.
Robles: Hello. This is John Robles. I’m speaking with Mr. Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop Nato website and mailing list. Hello, Sir. Rozoff: Hello, John. How are you? Robles: Not too good in light of the events that are currently taking place. As I’m sure you’re aware… Rozoff: I think it is a very dramatic and I fear a tragic moment that we are speaking. Robles: And it seems like there is very little we can do or that anybody can do to influence what has apparently been in the works and a plan by those geopolitical… Rozoff: Mad men Robles: Mad men Rozoff: … or geniuses that constitutes the foreign policy elite of the United States and other western nations to complete your thought, John. Robles: Thank you. Rozoff: Yes. That’s exactly what I fear is the case. Robles: Can you tell us a little bit on the military hardware aspect of this. There is not too many reports out there on that. Rozoff: We have to keep in mind that, you know, until the people of the Mediterranean basin demand that the US pick up and leave its military, the US is always… the Pentagon is always in position to strike any nation in or near the Mediterranean Sea. But what we do know is that currently assigned to the SixthFleet, permanently stationed in the Mediterranean, are no fewer than four guided missile destroyers that are in the eastern part of the Mediterranean even as wespeak, including one which played an instrumental role in the opening salvo ofcruise missile attacks against Libya in March of 2011. These are what are referred to in US military parlance as Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. In other words they are the type that will be equipped to carry interceptor missiles, standard missile three, interceptors of the sort that are part of the US missile shield that has been deployed in and around Europe and in the middle East. We know for a fact there are four of those. There are reports that at least one and possibly two US submarines, and these are the USS Florida and USS Georgia, are deployed off the eastern Mediterranean,each of which … by the way, the Arleigh Burke destroyers I mentioned, the 4 of them, are capable of carrying 70 missiles each. These include cruise as well as other missiles, but the submarines are far more deadly, far more lethal. Each of them is equipped to carry 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles. One of these two I mention- USS Florida- was, you know, fired something in the neighborhood of a 100 missiles in the attack against Libya, you know also in the Mediterranean, of course, two and a half years ago. So this is what the US has in play. Robles: Sir, they’re planning to use Tomahawks on Syria, is that correct? Rozoff: This is what they used of course against Libya two and a half years ago, what they used against Yugoslavia in 1999, it was used against Iraq in 2003. You know, again, it’s a coward’s way of waging warfare. You don’t endanger pilots or fixed wing aircraft by flying strikes into the country. You simply fire a cruise missile. It has devastating effect, of course. And you don’t endanger the life of any US service men, which in a waywe have to hark back to the war against Libya again - 2011 - and the fact that after 60 days of waging war, unprovoked war, against a defenseless nation of some six million people. According to the War Power Resolution, introduced in the US Congress in the early 1970s, President Barack Obama was obligated to come before Congress and present his case for a continuation of the war. He arrogantly refused to do so,stating in his estimate it was not a war because US military personnel were not in harm’s way. So you can wreakas much devastation, material and human, as one wants to against a smaller defenseless country, but if US service men aren’t danger themselves and it doesn’t constitute a war then the President of the United States (Commander-in-Chief, US Armed Forces), in his opinion, doesn’t feel obligated even to explain to the US Congress what he is doing. So this is what we are talking about with Syria right now. We also have to remember that Syria and Lebanon, really now, are the only countries in the entire Mediterranean region that have not become US military partners and US military stooges for the most part. And that each new country that falls into the orbit of the Pentagon becomes a military base for attacks on other countries. I’ve read reports today that the British military bases in Cyprus are being … you know are seeingwarplanes coming in. We know the Soudanaval base in Crete in Greececould be used for any attack against Syria. With a change in government in Cyprus at the beginning of this year we can see an even more compliant client regime willing to do the US’s dirty work. Robles: What have you heard about Iraq, there were some statements by Iraqi officials that they were against the use of their airspace for an invasion of Syria? And then I’d like you to get into what your views on the aftereffects of what this invasion is going to cause. Rozoff: It’s standard operating procedure, if you will, for countries you know not to openly acknowledge that they’re granting the US and its allies the right to use their airspace to launch attacks. When we’re talking about the cruise missile attacks, in large part depending on where the vessel, whether a surface vessel, or a submarine is firing them, of necessity Syria has a fairly short coast line compared to Libya and to other countries. And we could count on the fact that a goodly number of the cruise missiles, you know, being fired inside Syria would have to pass over the territory of other countries: Jordan, Iraq, come most immediately to mind. But of course, if there was plausible deniability, and they simply don’t acknowledge that … Saudi Arabia is another … that the US is firing missiles over their territory then no one is the wiser I suppose. But, in the long run, the regime that was put into power and is beholden to the United States and Baghdad says publicly and what it does in fact I think are two different things. And until there’s a larger community of nations in the world ready to stand up for peace and against armed barbarism, then no one country is going to say no to Washington for fear if nothing else it will be the next target. And I think if you want a parallel with what’s going on right now, you’ll look at that decade that began say with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China in 1931. It included attack after attack on country after country by the Axis Powers, by imperial Japan, by fascist Italy andby Nazi Germany, which culminated in 1940 with nations like Norway and Denmark, and Greece, and Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France overrun by these hordes of militarists. For ten years the world saw this naked aggression going on, and the League of Nations could not or would not do anything about it. Robles: That’s what the United States is doing right now and the United Nations which was organized and formed to stop that from happening ever again has done nothing. Rozoff: It is worse than has done nothing; it is in fact a complicit partner in the arrangement. The Russian government amongst others has been warning over the last 24 hours that any exacerbation of the conflict in Syria by internationalizing it, that is by having major western military powers and their Persian Gulf allies launch military attacks inside Syria is only going to inflame, exacerbate and worsen. The situation is going to cause a massive conflagration not only in Syria but in the surrounding area. Countries like Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and others are going to be pulled into this maelstrom, into this vortex, inevitably. And what we are seeing now is maybe a culmination of the decades long so-called broader Middle-East initiative of the United States which is simply to remake the political map from the nation of Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Kazakhstan on the Chinese border and the US is going to throw this entire area into turmoil in furtherance of its own selfish and for the most part undisclosed geopolitical objective.
There is no way Assad would use chemical weapons _ DAVID SHAYLER 28 August, 07:17 The war on whistleblowers and the illegality that they have exposed as well as the pretext to war in Syria were discussed with the Voice of Russia’s John Robles by Former MI5 officer David Shayler, the whistleblower who exposed the organization of an assassination plot on Muammar Gaddafi by MI6. Mr. Shayler discussed the situation in Syria as well and gave his opinion on the current Syrian crisis.
28 August, 06:38 2 The US policy of terror and the invasion of Syria
© Collage: «Voice of Russia» The Russian Federation had no evidence of a chemical attack in Syria, but it does have evidence that one may have been staged and that those who did so were the so-called “rebels”, who we know are US backed, armed and funded. The Syrian regular army and President Bashar al-Assad have been winning the war so the urgency with which the United States is calling for an armed intervention is alarming but obvious. They have spent billions and they cannot see their plans for the destruction of the Syria state fail. A great man once said, “the pen is mightier than the sword” and in this age of information technology and global information warfare this phrase still rings true and is even more topical in fact today than when it was first coined. With this in mind it is of utmost important that the war that is currently being fought with words, one that if lost will have the United States launching missiles into Syria, be fought with the utmost urgency and efforts by all who cherish peace. You cannot trust the statements of a country, state, body or individual when they already have an agenda and a set and concrete goal and the statements that they make only go to back up that goal. In this case we have to consider the United States and their clear and unwavering plans for a military adventure in Syria which will forcibly remove the president Bashar al-Assad from power. A goal that has been repeated over and over again by the United States and its minions. Fear is a powerful tool and one that the US uses better than anyone. If you agree with that statement, “that fear is an effective tool”, then it must be logically acceptable and reasonable to say that terror, fear taken to its extreme, must be an even more effective tool. I say the US uses fear as a tool because it is a fact. They have used fear since time immemorial to control and subjugate their own populace, other countries and the world. This is a very broad statement and a serious assessment that requires in depth study but as my space, time and resources are limited, I can only provide a few examples or I risk turning my piece on Syria into a treatise on American terror. Please bear with me dear reader, the terror propagated by the “American” state is not a side issue when it comes to Syria, it is part of their modus operandi. From the first stages of life Americans use fear to control and dominate, starting with the belt, the corner, the ruler across the knuckles, the father coming home, the monster under the bed, the principal and the police, fear is used in almost every stage of childhood development in America. This does not stop with adulthood but continues and is expanded to include police, the greatest tool of American fear, the courts, the boss, death, sickness and the like. Tools of fear for mass control include: the water, secret experiments, the Ku Klux Klan (to control and terrorize blacks), the government and all of its bodies and power, imprisonment, mass destruction and death, terrorism, epidemics and war. Since 9-11 the government has also used and promoted ideas of mass secret arrest, FEMA camps for millions, starvation, surveillance, droning, torture, Guantanamo, a terrorist behind every street post and other tools to instill terror into the hearts of Americans so that they are cowed and pliant and completely under control. Why is this important and related to Syria? Because they are about to launch another “War on Terror”. This is not another war “against” terror, but another war using terror as a pretext and a justification. Hence for native speakers the simplistic beauty of the use of the preposition “on” to show the reasoning and/or engine behind something, has been cleverly implemented to honestly yet deceptively state the whole paradigm of today and the last several decades. The “War on Drugs” was a war being funded by and supposedly waged against drugs, as was the war on crime etc. It is simplistic but effective, and one last point before I return to Syria. The use of the wording “War on” be it drugs, crime or terror, allows for the US Government to take advantage of a plethora of secret and all encompassing tools and funding that were reserved in American law in the case of a real war. Back to Syria. For the informed and even partially informed masses the ridiculousness and the transparent self-serving nature of the entire US effort may seem ludicrous. They have used the same old playbook of lies and fear to launch wars of aggression for too long and to devastate country after country to gain control of resources, that this time the world community is not so eager to jump on the US bomb launching wagon. The White House really believes that if you create a lie and run with it, repeating it endlessly, the world will eventually take it to be the truth, and this is usually the case. They decided long ago, when it became clear that funding, arming and importing terrorists and waging an information war inside Syria to foment a color revolution would not work that they would launch another “humanitarian” invasion using the pretext of “chemical weapons”. Imagine a country that uses depleted uranium shells and white phosphorous could actually care about some Syrian people be killed by chemical agents. They do not care. And that is the illusion that must be shattered. They do not care about you American citizen, or your (what for them are) “little” lives and they sure do not care for the lives of anyone in the Middle East and I would even say this includes Israeli lives. Why I am saying this is because when you understand that it is a fallacy that the United States Government cares about “humanitarian” issues, you may be able to accept the reality that they are capable of importing chemical weapons and killing massive numbers of children to bring about their pretext to justify another murderous and bloody “humanitarian” intervention. The only way to devastate the country, remap the political landscape and control the resources. The credibility issues that the United States has at this point should be reason enough to set off massive warning bells every time they make any statement regarding launching yet another act of military aggression. Any country that has shown the massive level of illegality that the United States has during the last several decades I have argued, must be disarmed completely, especially one that wantonly commits war crimes, violates the Geneva Conventions and launches aggressive war no matter what the pretext. Statements by the White House through their spokes-tool Jay Carney and Secretary of State John Kerry are disingenuous at best and bald-faced lies at worst when it comes to Syria and the supposed chemical weapons attacks. Their constantly repeated assertions, statements as facts and comments about the Syrian government defy credibility and seem even more circus-like when they say they have intelligence that they will release sometime later. The argument is: “President Bashar al-Assad is evil, he gassed his own people, we will go to war, trust us on this and you are too stupid to see the real intelligence.” Invading a country is a serious matter and in this case not one the United States has shown it is capable of carrying out justifiably. If they have the intelligence, present it to the United Nations and let the United Nations launch a peace-keeping mission. That is the only way. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s assessments should be listened to very carefully. Russia has no vested interest in bringing about bloodshed in Syria. Russia has had one position on Syria since day one and Russian President Vladimir Putin is not one to make “light” statements not based on the undeniable facts. Unlike his American counterpart who has shown recently that he has grown imbalanced in his war against whistleblowers and is drowning in his own illegality and illegitimacy. President Putin said there is no evidence that a chemical attack took place. For me that is enough. Foreign Minister Lavrov said the symptoms of the victims do not coincide with a chemical attack, the fact that all of the children were rounded up in one location is strange, and that there are several other discrepancies as well, including the fact that chemical agents were delivered to Washington’s “rebels”. Listening to Kerry and Carney on Syria is nauseating, despite their hard language and the repetition of their orchestrated lies, every time they make a statement I am half-waiting for them to add “You believe me don’t you?” Any country with the record of destabilizing the Middle-East, launching wars of aggression, backing terrorists, removing leaders, stealing resources, violating international law and the rules of war should not be allowed to continue attacking country after country, no matter the pretext. If the United Nations is truly an independent body, let them carry out the investigation in Syria, and then let the United Nations and all members countries launch a peacekeeping mission if one is needed to stop the armed insurgents causing the bloodshed and to restore peace. The world has had enough war and any country that so enthusiastically and on the slightest pretext would launch missiles on other countries who are not its “friends” must not be allowed to be a member of any sort of intervention. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Please visit my column athttp://voiceofrussia.com/by_author/62493347/ and thank you all for your letters and words of support. Russia, Barack Obama, US, Syria, chemical weapons, Bashar Assad, Syrian conflict, invasion, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · marx stated, that it is possible for gb and usa to reach the socialism by peaceful means. but already stalin stated, that this thesis is false since usa and gb started imperialist policy in the 19th century, therefore only violent change is possible in the united states and great britain. obviously and unfortunately this is true still today. · The UN stopped being an 'independent body' long time ago. Another toothless lap dog in the American kennel.
26 August, 18:53 3 Global Drone Ban Treaty drafted in Sweden
Photo: en.wikipedia.org The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has drafted and submitted to the global populace a draft Drone Ban Treaty. The decision came as a result of the organization’s recent Global Network annual space organizing conference in Kiruna, Sweden. The Global Network states that the Drone Ban Treaty is a way to begin to create conversation about taking steps to ban the immoral and illegal killing weapons. The organization is accepting comments, revisions and letters regarding the treaty, a document that would be of interest to policy makers, government officials, international organizations interested in peace and rule of law, legal experts and members of international bodies such as the United Nations. Text of first draft: Agreement on banning the use of unmanned armed aerial vehicles against civilians, living and official quarters, transport, communication, energy and industrial infrastructure. The High Contracting Parties to this Agreement, hereinafter called as Parties to the Agreement, being alarmed by the use of unmanned armed aerial vehicles against civilians, living and official quarters, transport, communication, energy and industrial infrastructure, noting with regret that the number of unmanned armed aerial vehicles is increasing, expressing concern that the use of such vehicles sometimes have indiscriminate effects and collateral damage inflicted upon civilians, living and official quarters, transport, communication, energy and industrial infrastructure, understanding the negative psychological effects in a form of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among unmanned armed aerial vehicles’ operators stemming from using unmanned combat aerial vehicles against civilians, living and official quarters, transport, communication, energy and industrial infrastructure, realizing that the use of such vehicles is a violation of humanitarian and the basic international law, including the inviolability of interstate borders and respecting sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the states that became targets of such vehicles, have agreed as follows: 1. Parties to the Agreement have agreed to freeze the number of unmanned armed aerial vehicles as it stands for the 1st September 2013. 2. Parties to the Agreement have agreed to exercise the total ban on the use of unmanned armed aerial vehicles against civilians, living and official quarters, transport, communication, energy and industrial infrastructure beginning from the 1st September 2013. 3. Parties to the Agreement have agreed not use unmanned armed aerial vehicles to carry nuclear and missile defense weapons on board and pledge not to use such vehicles for conducting nuclear strikes and fulfilling missile defense missions. 4. Parties to the Agreement have agreed to close from the 1st September 2013 all military bases and installations, including command and control centers that have been earlier constructed or leased on the territories of foreign states for the purpose of storing or using unmanned armed aerial vehicles that have been used to conduct remotely controlled operations. 5. Parties to the Agreement have agreed to cease all research, testing, training or manufacturer of such vehicles from the 1st September 2013. 6. Parties to the Agreement have agreed to offer its territory to conduct international inspections for the purpose of verification of implementation of this Agreement. 7. This Agreement enters in force on the date of signature of at least of five independent and sovereign states. The treaty is an important step in bring the issue to the international community and in laying out a legal basis for the elimination of one of the most illegal weapons that have been created thanks to new technologies which could have better been used to create peaceful tools for the betterment of mankind. Long time peace activist Bruce Gagnon, the coordinator for the global network has appeared on the Voice of Russia several times in the past and can be reached for comments and information regarding the treaty at: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME, USA 04011, and you can reach him at globalnet@mindspring.com. Sweden, army, US drones, law, military hardware, drone, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · Good intentions but those countries, like the US, will continue to do as they please. The US is not about to adhere to any convention not suiting it. · Agreed with this view that there are many things in black and white but the basic question is how to make states to adhere and comply with these. Like arms control and disarmament, there is arms race because there is no force to make states comply and adhere. Good to have counter drone attacks document but important is to make the states compliance and adherence to it. · Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the balance of power in the world has disappeared and as they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thanks for commenting
26 August, 05:48 3 Obama, Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood linked to Benghazi attack
Photo: EPA The attack on the CIA base in Benghazi, Libya which killed four American nationals has once again come into the spotlight in many media outlets all over the world, but not because of events that have occurred in Libya but due to the collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the fall of Mohamed Morsi and the ensuing arrest of many of the “Brotherhoods” leaders. What were initially dismissed as conspiracy theories linking Morsi to the attack on the Benghazi facility have over time, as more and more evidence comes out, begun to not only seem plausible but have almost become accepted as the most likely true scenario of what was going on behind the scenes before and after the attacks. The revelations may be startling in and of themselves, but the true nature and the seriousness of the events, some are saying, may actually open up the possibility for US President Barack Hussein Obama to go to prison. Of course this is unlikely to happen as we have seen time and time again, when US Presidents commit crimes, even acts of aggressive war and violations of the Geneva Conventions, they are never forced to account for their crimes. This was brought home by the presidency of George Bush, an administration guilty of everything from war crimes to torture to indefinite detention. And one who many believed orchestrated the cold blooded murder of almost 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. What is different with Benghazi, if everything that the reports are saying is true, is that Obama could possibly be tried for treason because he apparently funded and had a hand in the attack on the CIA installation in Benghazi, and that funding and involvement caused the deaths of American nationals. According to sources in Libyan intelligence, members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and other independent sources, Mohamed Morsi the US educated and backed puppet leader, whose children all have American citizenship and who was supported in his rise to power and is now under arrest in Egypt on charges of treason, was up to his neck in secret deals with the United States and may even have made a deal with Obama to kidnap Stevens and exchange him for the “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel Rahman. Morsi was the missing link and until recently reports that gunmen at the scene of the attack in Benghazi spoke with Egyptian dialects and that they apparently said “Don’t shoot Dr. Morsi sent us!” seemed far-fetched. However a recently released report on the attack that was produced by Libyan Intelligence after their investigation of the incident connects Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to the attack. Journalist Raymond Ibrahim who translated the Libyan Intelligence reportfirst released by the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al Ra’I, states that according to the Libyan Intelligence services the Muslim Brotherhood and former Egyptian President Morsi, were involved in the September 11, 2012 attack. The findings were based largely on statements and confessions from 6 members of an “Egyptian cell” which was involved in the consulate attack. All of those arrested were Egyptians connected to the jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia (“Supporters of Islamic Law). A further problem for the United States was that they were apparently paying an Al-Qaeda linked group called the “February 17 Martyrs Brigade” for security of the four-building compound to provide security at the consulate, and Mr. Stevens who was a long-time CIA operative was instrumental in providing Al-Qaeda linked groups with advanced weapons including stinger missiles. Another report in the Voice of Russia cites a Turkish News Agency report and states that: "In an interview with the Anatolia News Agency, Saad Al-Shater, the son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, the detained Khairat Al-Shater, said that his father had in his hands evidence that will land the head of United States of America, President Obama, in prison.” “Such documents, he says, were placed in the hands of people who were entrusted inside and outside Egypt, and that the release of his father is the only way for them to prevent a great catastrophe.” The Voice of Russia also reported that Tahani al-Gebali, Vice President of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Egypt, said “… the time was nearing when all the conspiracies against Egypt would be exposed—conspiracies explaining why the Obama administration is so vehemently supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Longtime support by the United States and the West for the Muslim Brotherhood and even the CIA’s hand in the creation of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are not news but matters of historical fact, but for many Americans they are facts that they are not aware of. So the death of four Americans due to involvement with Al-Qaeda and extremist Islamic elements seems shocking and may be in fact the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to the illegality of the US' policies and activities in destabilizing and invading foreign countries, particularly in the Middle East. These facts are even more topical and alarming as the United States continues to beat the drums of war and prepare for an invasion of Syria. Another example of an aggressive invasion of a country in the Middle East that the United States has destabilized using Al-Qaeda affiliated groups as well as every kind of mercenary and terrorist they could find. There have been reports that the US may have even provided and organized chemical weapons and attacks to serve as the pretext it needs to carry out its aggression, install a puppet government and gain control of the resources. Will Obama go to prison for treason as Morsi has? Not likely. Those with absolute power almost never have to account for their crimes. Especially in the United States of America. Barack Obama, US, CIA, Syria, Al-Qaeda, Libya, Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, US Embassy, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · Good article. The truth is spreading. · Imagine that the German Nazi (DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED) party was outlawed and party members arrested because their ideology in 1934. 50 million lives and unprecedented destruction could be avoided. -- After their WW2 experience people worldwide should know that: ** Democracy without boundaries may lead to power taking by extreme dangerous ideologies with the agenda of imposing by force antidemocratic violent and oppressing ideology worldwide. ** Pls verify the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Examples: 1:" The beginnings of all of the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the MB ideology" Kuweit Minister, Al-Ruba'I in an article "A Bit of Shame in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat 2: “Their work in America is a grand Jihad in eliminating,destroying Western civilization from within" Federal court documents on the trial of the Holy Land Foundation of the MB. 3:" Ben Laden was a Muslim martyr" MB leaders declaration. 4:" A Muslim can come closer to Allah by jihad against all non-Muslims,Christians,Jews, atheists, in every possible manner"" Ahmad 'Abd MB leader in his publications "Al-Walaa Wa'l-Bar" 5: the mastermind of the 9/ was Khalid Muhammad a MB member 6: "jihad is our path; martyrdom is our aspiration" MB publication in London, Risalat al-Ikhwan, on the top of its cover carries the MB motto 7:" Waging jihad against infidels is a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded" Said by MB head leader Mohammed Badie 8:"Hitler didn’t finish the job- The Muslims will finish the Job" MB leader speech in Cairo before 1 million people, broadcasted by BBC. 9:Russia Court banned MB in Russia in 2003,describing it as a terrorist organization 10: Egypt President Sadat was murdered by Islamist nationalists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood under the name of Islamic Jihad. · Thank you for the great comments
25 August, 21:30 1 Obama a Bush clone in drive for Syrian invasion - Pushkov
Barack Obama and George W. Bush © Photo: Flickr.com/Ethan Hein/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0 The United States of America, under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winning President Barack Hussein Obama, is on the verge of invading the sovereign nation of Syria and beginning yet another war. The pretext for the unilaterally led invasion is one that the U.S. has been attempting to get the world to believe for approximately a year now, namely the supposed use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Army. On Sunday the Russian Federation issued a warning to the United States using some of its strongest language yet. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in an official statement: “We strongly urge those who, by attempting to impose their own results on the UN experts, are raising the possibility of a military operation in Syria to use their common sense and refrain from committing a tragic mistake". Mr. Lukashevich was referring to the expected results of a mission by United Nations investigators, which has been welcomed and approved by the Syrian Government, to ascertain the usage of chemical weapons in Syria in light of a massive attack on August 21st which killed hundreds. Russia has also welcomed Damascus' decision to allow the UN inspectors to fulfill their mission and has repeatedly stated that the Syrian Government and President Bashar al-Assad’s approach has been constructive and positive. Russia has also noted on numerous occasions the lack of similar cooperation by the so-called armed “opposition” forces. On Friday Mr. Lukashevich stated that the chemical weapons attack was pre-planned and that there is mounting evidence that it was organized as a provocation. “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature. In particular, there are reports that the materials used in the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action”. The Damascus chemical attack accusations indicate the launch of “another anti-Syrian propaganda wave” and, in this context, calls on the UN Security Council to immediately use force in Syria “heard from some EU capitals” are“unacceptable”, Lukashevich said. The United States has planned a Syrian invasion and that is their goal. The use of chemical weapons, just like Sadam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction, is the pretext that the U.S. has determined they will use to invade the country and remove the elected leader of a secular country from power despite the fact that such an invasion will throw the entire Middle East into chaos and provoke armed conflict. The United States has blindly refused to deal diplomatically with the Syrian Government instead following its own preconceived plan for the country. Not only has the U.S. refused to seek a diplomatic resolution to the internal conflict in the country, but the United States has imported, trained, funded, armed and otherwise supported every kind of extremist mercenary and radical element in a bid to force President Bashar al-Assad from power. Evidence has shown that groups such as the U.S. backed terrorist group, the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, have been orchestrating attacks with (and stockpiling) chemical weapons against regular Syrian Army forces and civilians. On Sunday Al-Nusra pledged to attack Syria’s Alawites and President al-Assad. It is important to note that not only would the Alawites be in danger if U.S. backed Islamic terrorists succeed in Syria but all minorities including Jews, Christians, other Muslim denominations, as well as ethnic minorities would also face what could become massive genocide and ethnic cleansing. A witness on the ground, Journalist Yara Saleh of the Al-Ihbariya Syrian information channel, recently provided The Voice of Russia with details of a chemical weapons stash discovered near Damascus. She said: “The rebels launched two missiles filled with poisonous gas in the Jobar neighbourhood which caused Syrian soldiers’ nausea and asphyxia”. “Some time later, when the Syrian army managed to take that suburb by storm, they found the warehouse and laboratory where shells were stored and stuffed with poisonous agents. Boxes with new gas masks were also found, they carried labels ‘Made in US’. The fact that the rebels did not use those gas masks proves that they had not been attacked with any poisonous gases”. “Two glass vessels with labels ‘Made in Saudi Arabia’ were also found there. Weapons and explosives made in Saudi Arabia were found in Syria in the past as well. Experts will determine the contents of those vessels”. “In addition, they found plastic vessels containing unidentified chemicals, some strange white powder and a lot of various explosives and munitions.” “The Syrian government is concerned that the rebels might have more stocks of such chemical agents that they could use against civilians.” These are not the first such reports but the United States has refused to listen to or consider any information that does not fit its preconceived invasion scenario. The U.S. also refuses, either due to ignorance or by design, to consider the fact that an armed invasion of Syria will throw the entire region into utter chaos and even place its staunch ally Israel in the worst danger it may ever have been in. It would appear that the U.S. and Israeli military intelligence bodies believe they can contain the ensuing massive bloodshed, or at least they claim so to their respective populaces, but it is unlikely that they will escape unscathed. Obama has stated that there will be no U.S. troops in Syria, which means that the U.S. will attempt to fight its war by proxy or using air strikes and other means. Another senior Russian official, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament’s International Affairs Committee, lashed out at U.S. Nobel Peace Prize winning President Obama, calling him a “clone” of George W. Bush in his drive for war. “Obama is restlessly heading towards war in Syria as Bush was heading towards war in Iraq. Like in Iraq, this war would be illegitimate and Obama will become Bush’s clone,” said Pushkov. Syria’s information minister, Omran Zoabi, said on Saturday that any US-led military action against Syria would be“no picnic”. “US military intervention will create a very serious fallout and a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East”, Syria’s official SANA news agency quoted him as saying. United Nations inspectors are set to begin their work on Monday, hopefully Washington will await the results of those inspections before launching another near-sighted self-serving aggressive invasion of yet another small country. Russia, Israel, European Union, Russian Foreign Ministry, Barack Obama, US, Syria, chemical weapons, terrorism, Saddam Hussein,Al-Qaeda, George W. Bush, Bashar Assad, Syrian opposition, US foreign policy, Syria-U.S. relations, Syrian rebels, Syria. Elimination of chemical weapons, Syrian conflict, Al-Nusra, Syrian government, Alawites, Alexei Pushkov, Alexander Lukashevich, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Only sane voice remains Russia's.
25 August, 07:25 1 Google’s agenda inextricable from US Government’s – Julian Assange
© Collage: Voice of Russia The latest revelation being credited to Edward Snowden concerning top-secret U.S. Government documents that he leaked to the Guardian, is that the U.S. Government paid millions of dollars to certain tech companies participating in the PRISM program to make them compliant. This fact further brings into question the true “independence” of the known PRISM program participants and may have a resoundingly chilling effect on the World Wide Web. Initial claims by all companies involved that they had never heard of PRISM and/or never provided the U.S. Government with their users' private data now ring hollow but, it also shows an even higher level of involvement than may have previously been suspected or provable. It also shows that U.S. taxpayers were footing the bill and subsidizing the huge corporations while education, healthcare and social programs were being cut. According to the NSA’s own documents the companies currently known to be involved in PRISM, and subsidized “to bring them into compliance” with FISA decisions are: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype and AOL. Documents released to the Guardian and hence by the U.S. White House claim that the millions of dollars in costs were incurred as a result of the companies being forced to comply with “program” requirements and restrictions set out in an October 2011 U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling which clearly stated that: “… the NSA’s inability to separate the communications of U.S. based American nationals from those of foreign individuals violated the U.S. fourth amendment rights of U.S. citizens”. Although the collection methods were deemed to be unconstitutional, the companies and the NSA continue to operate under temporary authority as they seek to bring the programs into compliance with the law. While the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is supposed to guarantee U.S. citizens the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures this in no way does anything to protect the rest of the world’s population from U.S. spying. In an article by Julian Assange, published in the independent news source, The Stringer, Mr. Assange recalls a meeting he had in 2011 with the then chairman of Google Eric Schmidt. In summarizing the meeting Mr. Assange concludes that Google’s true agenda was: “… inextricable from that of the US State Department”. Mr. Assange recalls that the meeting, a transcript of which can be found on WikiLeaks, was arranged under the pretext of a book that was “pre-endorsed” by the likes of “Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Michael Hayden (former head of the CIA and NSA) and Tony Blair”. Using the book as an example, and the related meeting, Mr. Assange reveals the role that Jared Cohen, advisor to both Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice and its co-writer, played. In effect Cohen, the director of Google Ideas, is the bridge between the U.S. State Department and Google. Regarding the book Mr. Assange says “… the book is a mechanism by which Google seeks to project itself into Washington. It shows Washington that Google can be its partner, its geopolitical visionary, who will help Washington see further about America’s interests. And by tying itself to the US state, Google thereby cements its own security, at the expense of all competitors”. He then goes on to cite Stratfor e-mails, published by WikiLeaks in which Fred Burton, the Vice President for Intelligence and a former senior State Department official describes Google: “Google is getting WH [White House] and State Dept support and air cover. In reality they are doing things the CIA cannot do…[Cohen] is going to get himself kidnapped or killed. Might be the best thing to happen to expose Google’s covert role in foaming up-risings, to be blunt. The US Gov’t can then disavow knowledge and Google is left holding the shit-bag” Mr. Assange also wrote that: “WikiLeaks cables also reveal that previously Cohen, when working for the State Department, was in Afghanistan trying to convince the four major Afghan mobile phone companies to move their antennas onto US military bases. In Lebanon he covertly worked to establish, on behalf of the State Department, an anti-Hezbollah Shia think tank.” and ”Cohen is effectively Google’s director of regime change. He is the State Department channeling Silicon Valley”. Assange concludes: “That Google was taking NSA money in exchange for handing over people’s data comes as no surprise.” So Google, which is now into everything from satellite navigation systems to instant messaging, is in effect just another tool of the U.S. Government. Which explains its monopolistic rise to global dominance and why it has more lobbyists than most major weapons contractors in Washington. If all of these companies are taking millions of U.S. taxpayer’s dollars to bring them into compliance with FISA requirements so that they can continue to spy on the world’s populace then all of the aforementioned companies; Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. can also be assumed to be just such tools. Which leaves most of the world’s populace with what may no doubt be the uncomfortable realization, and here it is important to recall, the NSA and the U.S. intelligence community can “legally” target you if you are not a U.S. citizen so even disingenuous claims and the discomfort they may have with admitting they are spying on Americans do not apply to you. If Google is a U.S. “tool”, then Microsoft, a company which produces nothing tangible, other than a few peripherals, is as well. One might step back and wonder about all of the secret code in Windows and why the founder of Microsoft is the richest man in the world. With all of the super advanced technology of the NSA it would not be a stretch to assume that they have access to all of the data on all the computers worldwide which are connected to the internet. Including those being operated by the world’s governments. In article in the New York Times in 1983 the boundless scope of the NSA’s activities is taken to task. David Burnham wrote regarding the investigation of the Church Committee: “Senator Frank Church stressed that the equipment used to watch the Russians could just as easily ''monitor the private communications of Americans.'' If such forces were ever turned against the country's communications system, Senator Church said, ''no American would have any privacy left. ... There would be no place to hide.'' Remember he wrote this in 1983, before the internet: “No laws define the limits of the N.S.A.'s power. No Congressional committee subjects the agency's budget to a systematic, informed and skeptical review. With unknown billions of Federal dollars, the agency purchases the most sophisticated communications and computer equipment in the world. But truly to comprehend the growing reach of this formidable organization, it is necessary to recall once again how the computers that power the N.S.A. are also gradually changing lives of Americans - the way they bank, obtain benefits from the Government and communicate with family and friends. Every day, in almost every area of culture and commerce, systems and procedures are being adopted by private companies and organizations as well as by the nation's security leaders that make it easier for the N.S.A. to dominate American society should it ever decide such action is necessary.” With all of the revelations by Snowden it may be time to do what the Russian FSB has done. Go back to typewriters and pens and paper. Can we live without Google and the internet giants when they are tied into everything? Sure we can, but it might be hard. We will all have to get smart again. As one of my favorite anecdotes go: “You have to respect your elders, they finished their education before the internet, when you had to actually remember things.” If we are over dependent on devices and the internet and we cannot extricate them from our lives, the reality appears to be, we are in the hands of the U.S. Government. And that is just the way they want it. Time to get smart. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. US, CIA, internet, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, surveillance, PRISM, NSA, Total electronic surveillance scandal, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Risking being virused, this has yet to bring up the question of whether internet security companies, have been or always were compromised by said PRISM government players et al? I know from my own experiences in dealing with some of them that they have been willing players in such as PRISM, and lesser monitoring, to the point of having "agency" operatives chatting to me, as company "chat" employees. Snowden spoke the obvious. Good on him. He is one of the Best for it! But the internet [and telcomms generally] has never been secure, and I doubt will ever be, for yer average 95% of users. As for Google? HA! One of my ongoing jokes....!
21 August, 18:37 Manning conviction: a line the US should not have crossed
Photo: EPA The government of the United States of America has crossed a red-line in the sentencing of US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison. The government has proven that it has ceased to be legitimate and does not uphold the rule of law. By failing to prosecute those guilty of the war crimes exposed by Mr. Manning the US Government continues to flaunt international laws and norms, as war crimes are a crime against humanity, and it continues to selectively and prejudicially prosecute those who expose egregious illegality while protecting criminals who have committed crimes against all of humanity. The record has shown that the United States of America has become a rogue authoritarian police state. The global military expansion of NATO, massive economic and political manipulation, the control and manipulation of information (in particular through its operations on the World Wide Web), illegal wars of aggression, all of the illegal actions associated with its “War on Terror” and its wanton disregard for international law and democratically accepted norms point to a state corrupted by absolute power and attempting to annex the entire planet and force all countries to be pliant surrogates. This is also underlined by its war against whistleblowers and journalists. Mr. Manning is just one individual, but his persecution and unjust torture and confinement, for revealing war crimes, is beyond the pale and must not be allowed to stand. His sentencing proves that the United States Government has become a government unto itself, which refuses to listen to the voice of its own people, and egregiously prosecutes the innocent while protecting the worst kind of criminal known to mankind, namely those who commit crimes during a time of war under the color of their respective flags. This is a call to the international community, to legal scholars, policy makers, the heads of international bodies, the leaders of all countries the world over (even those who have forsaken their own sovereignty to sheepishly comply with all U.S. demands) and in particular to all countries which are members of the United Nations. This global call is necessary because the U.S. Government refuses to abide by international laws, as well as its own constitution, and has failed to be an instrument of its own people. It has shown itself to be unable to monitor and control itself and is dangerously and alarmingly growing more and more out of control. Declaration: I would propose that the international community demand that the United States of America cease the following practices and form a truly independent body to ascertain that these practices are stopped or are in the process of being remedied and that those responsible are being brought to justice. Until such is thus I propose sanctions to be implemented which are listed later. The United States of America must immediately cease: 1. The illegal profiling, suppression, arrest, detention, repression and brutality against peaceful protestors and the stifling of dissent in all forms. This would include freeing all political prisoners and the payment of restitution. 2. All questionable police, military and security service actions under the color of the “War on Terror” against innocent civilians, journalists and anyone else the state deems to be a threat. As well, the payment of restitution to all parties who have been falsely imprisoned, detained or harassed under terrorism statutes. This would not apply to real terrorists of course. 3. The highly illegal practice of extra judicial execution by drone or in special operations or by any other means that they are being carried out regularly by order of the U.S. president and his agents. 4. The practice of using drones for illegal surveillance, military operations where there is not an equal theater of operations, and for carrying out extra-judicial executions. This would include paying reparations to all of those who have suffered or been adversely affected as a result of the wanton killing of innocents that the U.S. drone war has brought about. 5. The practice of aggressive war under any guise, be it preventive, humanitarian or otherwise. This would include an end to the ability to go to war unilaterally or with the agreement of “allies” and would only allow the United States to go to war in a situation where there is a full United Nations mandate. This includes “secretly” funding, supporting or training warring parties on either side of any international or internal conflict. These practices must be ceased immediately. 6. The internal and now international practice of racial or other profiling by police, military, special services and other government bodies and compensation to those who have been unjustly victimized by such. 7. The practices of racial and other discrimination in, housing, health care, education, politics, banking, freedom of movement and freedom of residence within the United States and its territories. 8. The abolition of corporate donations to political parties and widespread reforms to make elections transparent and democratic. This includes an abolition of the two-party system, fair and equal opportunities for third parties, an end to harassment and even illegal detention of third party candidates and equal access for third parties to election resources including media and government funds. 9. Collecting, storing and using information on the world’s citizens, international bodies, sovereign countries and international organizations and entities through the internet and by other illegal and secret means. 10. The practice of state sponsored executions and the death penalty, in keeping in line with the highest international norms and standards. 11. Discrimination against and pay repatriations to native American Indians and the ancestors of slaves. 12. All operations at the illegal offshore extra-judicial Guantanamo Bay Cuba detention facility and the freeing and repatriation of all of those held there. 13. The practice of pre-arrest or preventive arrest and detention. 14. The practice of secret arrest and detention and the denial of Habeas Corpus rights to all persons regardless of who they may be. 15. State sponsored racism. This includes segregation, grants, education and all forms of exclusion where race plays a factor. These practices must no longer be decided or regulated by the white minority or the power elites. 16. All practices that unfairly limit or infringe on worker’s rights, pensions, health care, education, housing and all social spheres. 17. All wars and occupations on invaded lands. This includes paying reparations and rebuilding infrastructure in invaded countries. This would go back to the invasion of Yugoslavia. 18. Promoting and attempting to coerce states and peoples to accept and adopt what for them are foreign and unacceptable concepts, such as equating homosexual relations to marriage, and other religious, cultural or social concepts that are endemic to the United States. 19. All war profiteering in countries that have been invaded by the United States or its surrogates. This includes charging countries to rebuild infrastructure which has been destroyed by U.S. aggression. Thus the United States must rebuild what they have destroyed at their own cost. This would also prohibit private U.S. bodies from profiteering in such rebuilding. 20. All operations and actions to subvert and over-throw the government of Syria and to depose its elected head of state. 21. Funding and supporting terrorists and all such destabilizing operations including fomenting revolutions, funding insurgents and overthrowing governments. 22. All persecution of journalists, whistleblowers and truth seekers including Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Edward Snowden hacktivists, and all individuals, organizations and countries that have in any way supported them. This includes their immediate release. 23. The practice of illegally kidnapping and renditioning to the United States the citizens of third countries. This would include the freeing of such victims as Victor Bout and Constantin Yaroshenko. 24. Meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations and attempting to pressure foreign governments and organizations through any and all means. This includes compensation to all who have suffered because of overzealous U.S. persecution of individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. 25. Manipulating, stealing and otherwise unfairly obtaining the resources of sovereign nations, including “all” resources from human to energy. 26. Torture and illegal detention in any way shape or form and in any location in, or outside of U.S. territory, by the U.S. Government and/or its agents be they public, private or foreign. 27. Monopolizing and controlling all international and extra-U.S. segments of the World Wide Web and committing spying and espionage through public worldwide channels. 28. The global expansion of NATO and all unilateral military formations on a worldwide level. 29. Protecting those guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, aggressive war, illegal detention and extra-judicial executions. This would include their immediate arrest. 30. All practices which lead to the continued imprisonment of native Americans and which contribute to genocide. This includes reparations to native Americans. 31. Obfuscating the events of 9-11. This includes a true and independent international investigation of the events of 9-11-2001. 32. Cease the detention of all persons being held under secret arrest and indefinitely since 9-11. Reports say almost 9,000 people are currently being held. 33. Using terrorism as a pretext to get away with everything under the sun. 34. An immediate closure of the U.S./NATO military base on the territory of Kosovo, Serbia. I am not a legal scholar nor an official and the aforementioned and consequent suggestions are in no way connected to the Russian Government. They are my views and recommendations as a fair minded and concerned citizen of the world and a journalist who has been documenting and attempting to bring to light all of the aforementioned crimes for years now. You may take the above points as food for thought. They are chiefly directed at those able to affect policy or bring about change but if you agree with them I would ask you to spread this document around. Sanctions: Until the previous points are remedied or steps are taken by the U.S. to remedy them I propose the following sanctions: The prohibition by all states to allow U.S. military bases to be based in, or military operations to be carried out of, their countries. This includes allied countries and surrogates including those who are NATO members or members of other military alliances. A prohibition on all U.S. corporations, persons and entities both public and private from profiteering or taking advantage of resources, rebuilding operations or any other area in which they may obtain gains in any war zone, conflict zone or area that has been the subject to U.S. invasion or internal meddling. Including Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iran and all other countries in which the U.S. has had a hand in destabilizing or in destroying the country or its government. Economic, travel, trade, political, communications and military sanctions as determined by international bodies to be applied justly and fairly against those guilt of the aforementioned affronts to humanity. Given all of the previous points and the current climate in the United States I would also call on all independent and just countries of the world to change their stance and policies on allowing U.S. citizens to obtain asylum and protection in their countries. Asylum should be granted to all of those seeking rule of law and who are exposing the illegality of the U.S. Government. It should also be granted to any member of the U.S. Government, military, or even special services who refuses to participate in illegality or attempts to expose it or stop it. Journalists, citizens, activists and all others who have suffered at the hands of the U.S. Government or due to the actions of its agents or surrogates should also be protected, including victims of racial, religious and other discrimination. Those whose conscience also leads the to cease to be willing to support the U.S. Government in any way shape or form should also be eligible for asylum if they wish to leave the United States. The sentencing of Bradley Manning is a sign to all who would dare to expose illegality, it is designed to terrorize anyone who would speak out. I propose we make it a Red Line they have crossed, one which will force us (the world community) to end their illegality. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached robles@ruvr.ru
20 August, 06:17 Associate of Glen Greenwald labeled a terrorist in UK
Photo: RIA Novosti The United States was given a 'heads up' by the United Kingdom before they recently detained an associate of Glen Greenwald at Heathrow Airport under the pretext of being suspected of being involved in terrorism. The 'officials' held the individual, David Miranda, under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for the maximum allowable 9 hours and confiscated his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles, according to reports. According to statements by Mr. Miranda he was detained by Heathrow officials, reportedly Metropolitan Police but more likely than not members of Special Branch, while in the transit area. Note from John Hello dear reader. Technically I am on vacation, a fact you might be aware of if you caught my last newscast or follow me on Twitter or Facebook, unfortunate places I have to provide the NSA with information in order to keep up with the Joneses, but if you are not then let that little fact answer any questions you may or may not have had as to where I have been and what I have been up to. Spent a few days in the hospital as well but that is another story. Would have liked to have been in some undisclosed location by a sea but hey, can’t have everything right? I count myself very fortunate that I do not have to travel out of Russia because sitting over here in Moscow it would appear that the entire western world (and not only) has gone completely mad. I am not making some broad unsourced opinionated statement but will explain why in detail in a minute. Bear with me please dear reader. Do you remember those old science fiction movies where some brutal Orwellian police state was burning books and brainwashing the masses, liquidating those who were a threat to the state, showed emotion, valued literature, were fond of classical music or showed kindness, love or mercy, well it seems we are in just such a universe. The endless war and the threat to “Oceania” is the phantom menace of an imminent “terrorist” threat and it is now being used in the U.K. in much the same manner that it has been used in the United States since 9-11. Namely to arbitrarily go after anyone and everyone that the “Big Brother” deems to be a threat or undesirable for whatever reason they may have concocted. Less than 15 years ago who would have thought that we would be living in a world where acquaintances of journalists who exposed government criminality would be stopped as terrorists in an internationally protected transit zone? Or that soldiers who exposed war crimes would be given life sentences? Who could have imagined that a government (the U.S.) which committed acts of aggressive war, torture, extra judicial executions, trampled and all but flushed international law and the U.S. Constitution down the toilet, renditioned people, held them indefinitely without charge, arrested the citizens of other states in third countries, spied on absolutely everyone and perpetually meddled in the affairs of sovereign nations while expanding militarily even into space, would be allowed to continue its criminality with impunity and even have its head, a president named Barack Hussein Obama, who is responsible for mass murder and extra-judicial executions, receive the Nobel Peace Prize? And to finally turn all logic on its head to have gay lovers being given the title of husband and having this somehow viewed as normal? We are living in such a world, well at least those in the west are. Somewhere a wrong turn was taken and they entered into some weird sick Orwellian parallel universe, and to be quite frank, this was not the kind of world that I wanted for our kids to live in dear reader. Fortunately the encroachment on the sovereignty of most nations that the United States has been successful in achieving across most of the planet has not yet been allowed to infect Russia, but clearly attempts have been made, as we saw with the USAID scandal and the attempts by U.S. agents to bring about a color revolution in Russia. War on truth We know that the U.S. is currently engaged in a war against journalists and whistleblowers and attempting to paint them as somehow being terrorists or involved in espionage. The Edward Snowden affair has proven since it began that the U.S. has gone completely insane with its own power and its attempts to hide its own criminality. Of course the latest incident, the detention of the associate of a reporter whose source exposed a massive illegal worldwide spying operation being run by the United States, did not take place in the United States, and is not as egregious as the incident with the presidential airliner of Bolivian President Evo Morales, it does show how the United States has successful annexed yet another nation into following it down a road that most sane countries would rather not go down. United Kingdom’s participation in “War on Terror” The United Kingdom was once the moral beacon of the world but due to its kowtowing to the U.S. has become just another egregious violator of human rights, and this under the pretext of a war on terror. Here it is important to note that the U.K. never had a problem with Islamic terrorism until it joined the United States in meddling in, and launching acts of aggression against, Islamic countries. The only reason that the United States has ever had a problem with Islamic terrorism, and this is also important to note, is because of its intentional meddling in Islamic countries. David Miranda: violation of international law and human rights According to the Guardian: “Unable immediately to find a flight for him back to Rio, Miranda says the Heathrow police then escorted him to passport control so he could enter Britain and wait there.” "It was ridiculous," Miranda told the Guardian. "First they treat me like a terrorist suspect. Then they are ready to release me in the UK." Violation of international law Thus it would appear that Mr. Miranda was actually detained by the London special services in the transit zone of Heathrow International Airport, which would be a violation of international law. This is a fact that I am still investigating as it has not been mentioned in the western press but is very important to note. Moscow / London contrast In contrast Edward Snowden who was “trapped” in the transit zone at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, was never taken to a room by security personnel and threatened, or interrogated, or had his possessions stolen. Unlike Mr. Snowden whose human rights and dignity were respected, Mr. Miranda had no rights. He could not make a phone call, have an interpreter present, or have a lawyer. He was not even allowed the protections that an enemy soldier would have on a field of war. He was coerced, threatened and subjected to Gestapo like tactics under a law that is used to question people regarding terrorism. Security sources told the U.K.s Independent that among the 7 agents that interrogated Mr. Miranda MI-6 officers may have been involved. Terrorism as a pretext to strip away rights In the whole post 9-11 “War on Terror” paradigm basic things that those of us old enough to remember used to take for granted no longer exist: freedom of speech, dissent, accountability, rule of law, human rights, freedom of travel, personal privacy, freedom from arbitrary detention, what exists is now is a criminal U.S. state and in the homogenous American world created by the PNAC the citizens of the world are literally slaves to that state and anyone who attempts to expose the criminality of the rogue state, or is even remotely associated with anyone who does so, is branded a terrorist. Terrorism hype According to the BBC: 61,145 were detained between 2012 and 2013 under Schedule 7 of Terrorism Act 2000. This figure is 12,000 less than the previous one year period and 30% lower than the 2009-2010 period. The BBC says that there were only 24 terrorism related arrests during the 2011-2012 period after being questioned under Schedule 7. 24 arrests represents 0.03% of all of those examined. There are no reports of even a single terrorist act being averted due to the implementation of this legislation in the U.K. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached in a week when I am back from vacation at robles@ruvr.ru.
15 August, 10:14 Britain joining aggressive capitalist American model – Tim Summers
London. Photo: Piero Sierra/flickr.com The economic situation in the United Kingdom continues to worsen and the prospects for the future are looking bleaker and bleaker. The Voice of Russia recently interviewed Tim Summers on the worsening social situation in the U.K.. Amid heightened surveillance, rampant xenophobia, the resurgence of nationalist parties, increased police brutality, rising unemployment, cuts in welfare and benefits, and what appears to be a complete breakdown of the social system, the right wing forces are retaking power and what was once a fair and free society is closely beginning to resemble that of the “decrepit” United States model, according to Mr. Summers.
15 August, 08:10 The Fourth Estate “abdicated their role” in the US –EDWARD GREENBERG ALL LIES
Photo: RIA Novosti
In an interview with Peter Maass published for the New York Times Edward Snowden answered questions regarding the reasons he went public with the information he had amassed and explained why he chose Laura Poitras and Glen Greenwald as the people to whom he would leak information to, a deed that continues to cause shockwaves around the world.
Judging from the content of the questions and the general tone of the interview it would appear that the interview was conducted sometime in the early days of the entire Snowden affair. There is no mention of Russia or any of the loud events that have occurred since June. All of the questions are regarding the initial disclosure and Mr. Snowden’s reasons for doing what he did.
It is also doubtful that Mr. Snowden would have given an interview to the New York Times after being given asylum in Russia, especially knowing as he must that, the mainstream U.S. media has become nothing more than a tool which parrots the talking points of Washington and does not dare to stray too far from the official government line.
Regarding the U.S. media Mr. Snowden stated: “After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism.”
Mr. Snowden was absolutely correct in his choice of Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the American media not only fails to fulfill the responsibilities of the Fourth Estate in holding the government to task but papers like the Washington Post have shown time and time again that they are merely instruments of the power elite in Washington.
Papers such as the Washington Post have no qualms about outing spies, as Robert Novak and the Washington Post did in the case of Valerie Plame, for mere political expediency and they (the U.S. media) are even now under such intense pressure from the government it would be dangerous and in fact insane for a whistleblower to approach U.S. media.
Not only do whistleblowers risk being exposed and persecuted but the reporters and media outlets also risk being prosecuted and having the full weight of the U.S. Government falling on them like a ton a bricks. This should be crystal clear to anyone who has followed the stories of Julian Assange, Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden.
The hypocrisy is mind boggling. The Washington Post outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and in effect caused the deaths of what were reported to be as many as 210 agents and assets that had been under Valerie Plame’s control or associated with her or the cover companies where she had worked. The damage to “national security” could not have been greater but the Washington Post and Robert Novak suffered little.
My own experience with the Washington Post, in which they used me without my permission in an attempt to write a piece bashing Russia and portraying life as hard for anyone who flees the west and makes their home here, literally brought it home to me that the U.S. media is nothing but a tool for the U.S. Government which uses it to manipulate the masses and go after those it deems as enemies.
So these outlets, which continuously show their obedience to the government are truly not to be trusted when it comes to exposing government illegality or the corruption and excesses of those in power. The western media has been rather kind to Mr. Snowden, compared with the way they demonized Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, but they have still not taken President Obama or the power elite to task for their criminal behavior. And this includes the most heinous crimes of aggressive wars and extra-judicial executions.
Back to Mr. Snowden, for those who wondered why he decided to out himself he made it clear in the interview. Mr. Snowden: “Had I intended to skulk away anonymously, I think it would have been far harder to work with Laura, but we all knew what was at stake. The weight of the situation actually made it easier to focus on what was in the public interest rather than our own.”
Apparently it was decided that the world would listen to the revelations and take them more seriously if they knew the source, I would argue that perhaps the opposite has happened and the fact that I am reporting and commenting on Mr. Snowden right now is exactly why. Rather than reporting on the egregious illegality and criminality running rampant in Washington and like a cancer through the U.S. Government, and the U.S. president running roughshod over international law and the world’s populace and countries, I am focused on comments by the brave and honorable Mr. Snowden.
I believe he would not want it this way and that we in the media and you the readers and the consumers of information should begin to focus on what Mr. Snowden has revealed. Namely that everything you do and everything you are is being used against you to manipulate you and advance the interests of the United States and their agents.
The New York Times must be commended for publishing the interview with Mr. Snowden but can we the trust the paper? This is the very same publication that habitually demonizes Russia and is one of the premier distributors of Russophobic mindless propaganda.
For example in yesterday’s op-ed the New York Times wrote: “Considering the breadth of reforms that President Obama is now proposing to prevent privacy abuses in intelligence gathering, in the wake of Snowden’s disclosures, Snowden deserves a chance to make a second impression — that he truly is a whistle-blower, not a traitor.”
The paper does not and has not taken Obama to task for his allowing the program to exist in the first place (and for much worse) nor for his nonchalant way of telling the American public that they will just have to eat it.
They also write: “The fact is, he dumped his data and fled to countries that are hostile to us and to the very principles he espoused. To make a second impression, Snowden would need to come home, make his case and face his accusers. It would mean risking a lengthy jail term, but also trusting the fair-mindedness of the American people, who, I believe, will not allow an authentic whistle-blower to be unfairly punished.”
Again we see Russia and other countries labeled as enemies and as somehow opposed to openness and rule of law. Here it is important to note that Mr. Snowden was not handed to the United States because the President of the Russian Federation followed the rule of law, international and domestic, and the protections outlined in the Russian Constitution. It is also important to note that, especially in light of the Bradley Manning case (where a young man faces life in prison for exposing war crimes), that there is no way on earth that Mr. Snowden would have a snowball’s chance in a U.S. court being accused of crimes against the very government controlling the court. Any fool would know that.
And this: “Dealing with Putin always involved a certain trade-off for America: accepting a degree of Putin authoritarianism in return for cooperation on global issues that mattered to us, as long as Putin “sort of” kept Russia moving toward a more open, consensual society.”
Always the Putin bashing! The “trade off” means that in “dealing” with President Putin the United States is forced to treat Russia as an equal and respect its sovereignty. This is something the United States is not used to. They are used to dictating to the world what to do, when to do it and who to do it with.
This is why Obama and the entire U.S. Government has gone completely off the reservation in their pursuit of Mr. Snowden. Russia stood up to the goliath-run-rampant and did so in that it followed the rule of law, despite the fact that it had nothing to gain in doing so and much to lose with regard to relations.
So in closing I think we should all applaud president Putin and the Russian Government for their independent, grown up, forward thinking and intelligent decisions, ones based on international laws and norms, with regard to Mr. Snowden.
We should also say thank you to Mr. Snowden for his heroic sacrifice and focus on what he has allowed us to know.
Lastly I would also like to take this chance to ask Mr. Snowden to perhaps grant me an interview, if he reads this of course.
As I am the first U.S. citizen to have been granted asylum in Russia, a fact my regular readers are aware of as well as many Chinese television viewers and my Serbian friends, it might be an interesting discussion. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.
14 August, 20:00 2 Facebook: largest database of bio-metric facial coordinates – Katherine Albrecht
Photo: Flickr.com “Facebook went public and they made so much money not because people were so excited about the ability to share information with their friends, but because the recognized the value of being able to identify individuals specifically and know all of their interests,” say Dr. Katherine Albrecht. Shock waves have travelled across the globe with the recent revelations by Edward Snowden about the NSA and U.S. spying on private law-abiding citizens the world over. As a result people are beginning to shy away from internet giants and looking for more secure ways to go about their business on-line and avoid US prying, some US companies have even closed down completely to avoid a knock on their doors by “Big Brother” with a FISA order. We spoke to privacy rights advocate and the co-founder of a much needed internet privacy provider, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, about the current paradigm.
http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Katherine_Albrecht.html The websites are Startpage.com, and Ixquick.com. If you would like to sign up for an early access to Startmail, our upcoming e-mail program, go to Startmail.com. My personal website is kmashow.com. That was the end of a two part interview with Dr. Katherine Albrecht facebook, technology, espionage, surveillance, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · From day one I've been suspicious of Facebook and all the other 'social' networks and never joined any one of them. There are other ways I can communicate with family and friends. · You are right Vera 14 August, 19:54 UK suffers from wave of xenophobic intolerance – Tim Summers
Photo: EPA Things are getting worse in the United Kingdom as the economic situation worsens, social programs are being gutted and the job market is going down the tubes. All of these social ills have led to the classic move to the right and authoritarianism as those who wish to exploit the masses use xenophobic fears and blame immigrants for the country’s ills. The UK has been subjected to an American social model as well. Tim Summers gave an update to Voice of Russia on the worsening situation in the UK.
14 August, 08:42 1 Lavrov never loses his cool, Obama infantile – Rick Rozoff
Sergey Lavrov Photo: RIA Novosti http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Rick_Rozoff.html You were listening to an interview with Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list. Russia, Sergei Lavrov, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, US, Russian-US relations, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Sergei Lavrov... Well he is a real statesman and many won't even learn what he's forgotten already! Trouble with the US gov is, their out and out arrogance. They think they own the planet and as such is so powerful, that they can say what they like & treat all other countries as US serfs. Obama is famous for his petulant remarks or on occasion, his "deer in the headlights" stuttering. Most countries' leaders will benefit their people if they follow the example set by Russian politicians. Sergei Lavrov, similar to Pres Putin and so many other members of the Russian gov, have become well known not only for their perfect civility, but their compassion, sensitivity and understanding of World issues today. When Russian politicians speak, they have done their homework and then divulging the unadulterated truth, this forthright & positive approach is very much in touch with and has a great impact in today's world of vicious propaganda and blatantly covered up lies. Thank you for sharing this lovely conversation on VOR!
14 August, 07:40 Presidents Putin and Aliyev hold successful talks in Azerbaijan
Photo: RIA Novosti The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has completed an official visit to Azerbaijan during which he met with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. According to the Kremlin press service the main focus of the talks between the two leaders was the area of humanitarian cooperation, although a very broad range of issues were discussed and numerous documents signed covering matters from energy cooperation to intergovernmental agreements on search and rescue operations.
1 Obama is as spineless as they come – William Blum Download audio file
Barack Obama, US, CIA, Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, NSA, Manning trial: traitor or hero?, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Who is calling the shots? The psychopaths, that is who.
14 August, 04:16 1 US "embarrassed" by their crimes against humanity – Michael John Smith
Photo: EPA Something is very, very wrong in the world when part of a civilized intelligent debate includes the following sentences: “It’s hugely embarrassing to people like George Bush or Barack Obama – they don’t want to be seen and labelled war criminals. You would expect a war criminal to be executed but it seems in modern times, if a Government like the US does a war crime, it’s sort of brushed under the carpet, and it’s the person who exposes it, the whistle blower, who spends time in prison for it.” Michael John Smith spoke to the Voice of Russia and discussed those issues and more.
Hello! This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Mr. Michael John Smith. He is the last person convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in the UK. He is also an intelligence specialist and a regular contributor to the Voice of Russia. Smith: The US decided that they were going to listen in and snoop on what those countries were doing, and what possibilities there were to swing those countries into that camp of attacking Iraq. Now that was illegal, and at that time, it may not have been obvious, but I think that was an early indication of what the US was up to. The US was snooping on its allies and on other countries, and maybe it wasn’t to the extent that what Snowden has now exposed, but back in those days that was the same thing. They were snooping on these countries. They were using their intelligence of what these countries were planning to swing them in favor of a pro-war stance, which would have led; well it did lead to a loss of civilian life. Katharine Gun at the time, she stood up, and she said “no, I don’t agree with this”, and she exposed it and she publicised it. I think people have forgotten this - at that time she was like a Snowden of that age. She stood up and said: “this is wrong, that the US shouldn’t be snooping on other United Nations offices in New York”. And the effect was that she faced trial under the Official Secrets Act in the UK and could have gone to prison for some time. But there was such an outcry about it,because people thought “well no she’s done a good thing”, that they actually dropped the case; she was never prosecuted. So, that shows that at that time - because obviously there was so much else going on over the Iraq War - that it was in her favor to expose it and to be a whistle blower in thatenvironment, and it was difficult for the Government to really do anything about it. Now it’s different, because Snowden, he’s caused enormous embarrassment, and although he is a whistle blower and a hero, he stands now to spend many years in prison and it’s very strange that Katharine Gun, really she got away with it. Robles: Where do you think whistle blowers fit into things, and why are they going after whistle blowers like Snowden and Manning the way they are? It seems like no matter what the world says or the US public says, Obama and the US Government they’re just obsessed with Snowden. Smith: When whistle blowers are saying what is in the public interest, and the public agree with that, then it’s very hard to prosecute because a whistle blower will then, he’s got to face a trial by jury possibly, and the jury might support him. There was a very important case back in the 80’s, a man named Clive Ponting. I don’t know if you remember that case when they sunk that battleship in the Falklands War, and Clive Ponting said that it was sailing away from the Falklands at the time, and that was very embarrassing. He exposed that, and again he was breaking his agreement under the Official Secrets Act – he shouldn’t say that, he shouldn’t tell the public that. Again this is classified information that is being given to the public, but it’s in the public interest. He also faced a trial but the jury found him innocent because he was again seen as being a hero. Robles: Come on Mike! I mean, like Snowden, he broke his oath and Manning broke their oaths, they are traitors to the Government. They are traitors to the country; they must die! Smith: That’s the way the Government, and especially the US Government, would like to see it, but what these people are exposing is really lies, wrongdoing, even war crimes. Robles: Yes, but according to the Government, these are the Government’s war crimes, these are their lies, these are their crimes. They must be protected. Smith: Well, it’s obviously the embarrassment, the embarrassment of being found out to be a war criminal. It’s hugely embarrassing to people like George Bush or Barak Obama – they don’t want to be seen and labelled war criminals. And the information that people like Bradley Manning have put in the public domain show that it’s Government policy to create war crimes in countries like Iraq, and that’sjust completely unacceptable. Robles: So you think they’re so confident ... I mean normally, aren’t war criminals supposed to be executed? And you’re trying out they’re embarrassed? Smith: You would expect a war criminal to be executed but it seems in modern times, if a Government like the US does a war crime, it’s sort of brushed under the carpet, and it’s the person who exposes it, the whistle blower, who spends time in prison for it. Robles: Unbelievable. Smith: I also I think if you look at war crimes. I mean, one of the biggest war crimes of all time was what Adolf Hitler did in theSecond World War: the genocide of the Jews, putting people in concentration camps like Auschwitz. People didn’t know about that at the time, it was brushed under the carpet, again it was hushed up. Those people who did know didn’t really talk about it too much. It was only after the war that we discovered the full horror of how many people had died and what suffering there was. But then we’ve got this modern Auschwitz in Guantanamo Bay. People aren’t being exterminated; it’s not the same thing at all, but … Robles: That we know about. Smith: … these people are going to prison endlessly. They don’t know if they’ll ever get out of prison. They’re stuck there in Guantanamo Bay, they’re being force fed, they are being put through water-boarding and all sorts of psychological torture, and the US is making this a public thing, it’s actually bragging about it, “look what we are doing to these people - these horrible so-called terrorists - we are doing these things to these people and this will be a lesson to anybody who comes up against us, we’ll lock you away indefinitely and we’ll force you to go through this treatment that we’ll give you.” And I think in many ways that’s worse than Auschwitz. Robles: In what ways? Smith:Well, because it’s a psychological fear that anybody who is arrested and possibly extradited to the US or to Guantanamo Bay – this extraordinary rendition that they put people through – they could suddenly disappear off their street in somewhere like Pakistan, end up in Guantanamo Bay and maybe spend the rest of their life being tortured and force fed. I mean, it's not a very pleasant thing at all is it to look forward to, and so that in a way it’s a sort of a fear factor. The US can say “we can do this to you, we have the power to control anybody, really anybody in the world, we can take you and put you in this place.” Robles: They go around like they have the right to break every international rule and law and standard and convention at left and right. Sure these are war crimes, they admit them, right? They torture, you say maybe they’re a little embarrassed? Smith:People like Snowden have hugely embarrassed the US. Robles: He should be causing people to be thrown into prison... Smith: Exactly. Robles: … not to be embarrassed. I mean, where’s the rule of law in the world? Smith:That’s what should be happening John. Robles: I mean, George Bush and Richard Cheney and their torture memos, and Obama and his extra-judicial executions. I mean, these people should be put away to protect humanity. Smith: But they get away with it because the Government system is the way it is. Now this is where intelligence and spying is so important to the US, because it gives it the information that it knows where to find the people who are opposed to the US Government, it can find them, it has agents all over the world, and it is a huge spy network that the US has. And it uses the Internet as one of those means to get hold of information that it can use in its favor. Robles: What do you think about the collection of information about average people? What’s the purpose of all that? Smith: On the surface it appears to mean almost nothing, doesn’t it? Because why would you want to know about the guy who lives down the street? I mean, does it really bother anybody? But at some point in a year or maybe two years, some bit of information about that guy might become very important. You might need to put pressure on that man, maybe because you know something about his sexual orientation or he’s got some friends who have got suspicious tendencies towards terrorism maybe. You can use anything you know about somebody, you can use potentially to blackmail them or to control them in some way to do what you want, and that’s a very powerful weapon. If you can control all of the people through your knowledge of their weaknesses, their indiscretions, you can control the world, I think. Intelligence is key to this. Robles: Now in your opinion what can we do to protect ourselves from false prosecution, from misrepresented information that might be gathered? What can people do to protect themselves? Smith: Well, I think we can only protect ourselves by electing the Governments which will do what the people want, and electing a Government that will ban the keeping of personal information about people is the only way forward I think, because the US Government at the moment have free rein, they can do what they like. And while the people allow them to get away with that, and it seems they have, if you listen to what’s been said about the recent exposures about Prism and the fact all these US people are having their data read, you would expect in any normal society there would be a complete outcry, and people demanding that their Government change the law. But you don’t see that, it seems almost like people have got accustomed, that this is normal, this is a normal thing for a Government to do to spy on its population. Robles: Well apparently Americans think that. I mean everybody’s “Oh, it’s going to keep us safe. You know, these terrorists are going to get us. We know they’re going to get us because we are free, and we’re Americans, so we have to be watched and everything we do has to be surveilled, because we’re free”. Right? Smith: Well, it’s a very distorted view of life if you start going down that road where the Government can virtually do anything and get away with it. We’re in a 1984 situation then, where you’ve got Big Brother looking at you in every room you go into, through some camera. Already we have that in the UK. There’s camera on every street corner. You can’t go down the street without being watched and followed. The Government can see where you are, everything you’re doing. Do we want to go down that road? I don’t know. And while the US is getting away with this mass trawling through our Internet communications, all that’s doing is empowering it to do yet more. You were listening to an interview with Michael John Smith, an intelligence specialist and the last person convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in the world. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at English.ruvr.ru Barack Obama, US, foreign policy, secret services, crimes against humanity, Manning trial: traitor or hero?, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Perhaps fluoride in the water systems is responsible for the apathy of Americans ? I read this is used in the prison population to keeep them calm.
1 Bashar al-Assad is engaged in self-defense – Libyan military official Collage: Voice Of Russia Download audio file
Robles: Hello. This is John Robles. I am speaking with an anonymous member of the Libyan Defense Ministry. Syria, Libya, Bashar Assad, Syrian opposition, Syrian rebels, Syrian conflict, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Most interesting conversation, Mr Robles. Though I am a little doubtful of the opinions expressed by this unnamed individual. He does seem to be very well informed. Libya is politically and economically disturbed.
Snowden found the safest place on the planet in Russia - Jiang Xiaofeng
© Photo: Vesti.Ru Edward Snowden has finally left the transit area of Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, finding freedom again after approximately a month. Snowden has been the focus of an unprecedented manhunt by the US and has had the world's media watching and recording his every move. Finally, maybe he will find peace after making revelations that have focused the world's attention once again on the illegal actions of the US. The manhunt that the US launched against Mr. Snowden was unprecedented in scale having threatened countries, even interfered with the flight of a president of a sovereign nation and even more intense than anything the US ever did to capture or find Osama bin Laden. The US are still after Mr. Snowden, even though he's been granted political asylum. When it was reported that Mr. Snowden went to Cuba, Russian journalists and journalists from around the world also went to Cuba. When he left Hong Kong journalists flew to Moscow to try to record the fate of this historic whistleblower. I spoke with one such journalist from Hong Kong.
I’m speaking with Mr. Xiaofeng Jiang, a correspondent for Phoenix television in Hong Kong. Robles: I’m happy to see that Hong Kong stood up to the United States, I think China did. It was wonderful to see that they were independent, that Hong Kong followed the rule of law which is something the United States did not want them to do. Do you feel proud for Hong Kong and China that they were able to stand up like this? Jiang: Being a citizen of Hong Kong which reverted to the Chinese rule in the year of 1997 and it retains an independent legal system and its own extradition laws and it treated him in a way that many Hong Kong citizens are proud of, as you correctly mention. Robles: How would you characterize the Russian reaction and the Russian treatment of Mr. Snowden compared to the treatment he received in Hong Kong? Jiang: Well, Hong Kong, as I said, is a semi-autonomous region. When the Snowden case exploded many foreign affairs got involved. But according to the current system Beijing still controls the foreign affairs and that’s different from what we see here in Russia, where the Russian Federation Government can control everything by itself. I personally think Mr. Snowden has found the best place, maybe on this planet, to provide himself with a safe place. As we see, Russia is probably one of the very few countries in this world to withstand US pressure. Robles: I’m very proud of Russia myself. Can I ask you a question, because this came up, you know, we’ve been watching, you’ve been reporting on this, I’ve been reporting on this, everybody wondered: why didn’t he just go to China? Can you comment on that? I think he could have had some sort of a good life there. Jiang: Probably yes. Why China, why Hong Kong? It’s a good question. Mr. Snowden started from Hawaii right? Yeah. If we draw a circle we could find out that Hong Kong was probably the nearest place Mr. Snowden could find himself a safe place in that atmosphere. You might ask why not Japan, South Korea or the Philippines. Robles: No, that’s a moot point, I wouldn’t even ask. That’s an obvious. They would just hand him right over. Jiang: Exactly. Robles: Do you think he considered going to the People’s Republic of China? Jiang: I wouldn’t think he would go to Beijing or the People’s Republic of China for that. That might make things more complicated. And China’s way of handling Snowden’s case is trying not to get too many things involved, I think. Robles: I see. Really Russia didn’t ask for this, he wasn’t a Russian agent, he wasn’t helping Russia, he didn’t provide this information to Russia but he just showed up. How would you characterize the Russian government’s response? Jiang: I think Russia’s way of handling the Snowden case is… I would personally give applause. As we see, the highest-ranking Russian officials are saying not making a mountain out of a molehill over Snowden’s case. They have more important issues to deal with, either the United States or other countries. In reality Snowden’s case is important for Russia’s foreign affairs. I think Russia-US relations are affected to some extent but not out of control. So it’s like a card or a tool played by both sides. I think the Russian Federation has gained the upper hand. Robles: I see. Do you think the US response is… you said the words “out of control” I think? Doesn’t it seem that the US is out of control on the Snowden affair. They are like going crazy trying to get him back. I mean, stopping Evo Morales’ aircraft, and all the letters and threats they’ve made to other countries around the world. Jiang: Sometimes it’s self-contradictory, as I see, when President Obama said that he wouldn’t suggest catching Mr. Snowden but they are using every legal way to catch him or extradite him. It’s lucky for Mr. Snowden to hide in Sheremetyevo airport which is relatively safe. Although we do not see him personally but I can feel that he is safe here in the Russian Federation. Robles: Well. He is not going to be given back! Jiang: No. Robles: Now, can we finish up with: what are your impressions about Moscow? You’ve been here, how long now? Jiang: Three or four days. It’s a short visit but very impressive. As a journalist I would hope to cover Russia issue more and even if Mr. Snowden is not in Moscow, I hope Chinese people can know more about Russia and Moscow, just like my father’s generation. Robles: That would be great. What’s the best thing you’ve seen here? What’s your best experience here in Moscow? Jiang: My best experience journalistically speaking, when I was covering Mr. Snowden’s case at the airport, I can work in a very free way, not bothered by certain authorities. Journalists can work, (Russia) provides a very good environment for journalists! Robles: Really? You feel as a journalist that you are very free to move around? Jiang: Yes, at least it was like this today. Maybe if I stay here longer I will feel some difficulties. Robles: I doubt it. It’s nice to hear. Have you tried Russian food? Jiang: Oh, yes I have. We have Moscow restaurants in Beijing. They have been operating for decades. I used to try that and they are still popular and they help people to relate back to the days when China and the Soviet Union shared the same ideology. It’s food, memory, it’s history- very interesting. Robles: What’s your favorite Russian dish? Jiang: For many Chinese people and for me as well it is red soup! Robles: Borsch! Jiang: Yes, Borsch! Robles: What has been your favorite place in Moscow? Jiang: I didn’t have a chance to see many places but I am always moving around. Many interesting places, I wouldn’t say which is my favorite place, but the whole city is very interesting to me. Robles: Thanks a lot. You were listening to an interview with Xiaofeng Jiang, he's a correspondent with Phoenix Television in Hong Kong. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru
12 August, 20:31 Syria is a toe-to-toe conflict between Russia and US - Rozoff
Collage: Voice of Russia Reactions to recent statements by the outgoing Deputy Director of the CIA recently regarding the supposed threat to US security from the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, have caused and precipitated reactions and debate far and wide. The seeming 360 degree complete about face, after more than two years of known US efforts to topple the government of Bashar Al-Assad has many wondering as to the mental fortitude of Washington’s Geopolitical Architect’s.
http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Rick_Rozoff.html You were listening to an interview with Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO.
3 Fighting PRISM: Privacy is a human right – Katherine Albrecht Collage: Voice of Russia Download audio file
US, espionage, info leak, surveillance, PRISM, NSA, Edward Snowden, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · It used to be that talk of SmartPage, personal cloud devices that store your files at home like Cloudlocker or email encryption services like TOR would be considered paranoia. These days though, I fully expect this market to continue to grow. · It's great to see new tools like startpage and ixquick come about. We need help to protect us from the people supposed to protect us. I think you also have to get your stuff off the cloud where it's a sitting duck for NSA, not to mention Google, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox or whoever is hosting it for you. They're ALL looking at your stuff, either to find reasons to get you or find ways to get your money. Still want to get to your files over the Internet? Then put them in something like a Cloudlocker (cloudlocker.it), which stays in your house where no one can get to it without a warrant issued on probable cause you're a bad guy. That's the way it's supposed to work. Hopefully, we'll see more products like these to help us ordinary folks protect what little of our privacy we have left. I think it's a sad commentary on our nation that we need such things, but I guess that's life in the Internet age. · Thanks for this very informative piece Mr. Robles.
2 The US only cares about expanding the empire and Israel - William Blum
Photo: EPA Download audio file
Please return to our site in the near future for the rest of this interview with William Blum. If you are interested in Mr. Blum's work visit his website at: http://williamblum.org/ Israel, US, Syria, Al-Qaeda, foreign policy, invasion, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · America acts without vision or purpose. It is in effect a lunatic state. · I am from Turkey. We have around two million refugees in Turkey. But We don t want them. Because they are fighting against to their govenment, and our government support them, teach them how to fight, gives them weapon, and they killed many innocent people. US and Europe gave Turkey weapons and Turkey gave the terrorist groups the weapons then terrorist groups killed many people in Syria even in Turkey. our prime minister ( Erdogan) and Asad used to have a good relationship just before two years ago, you can see their happily photographs on intnernet. and suddenly something happened and Erdogan said Asad is a terrorist. actually he is terrorist.
What is happening in Syria is an international conspiracy - Official
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This is John Robles. You were listening to an interview with a member of the Libyan Defense Ministry.
9 August, 18:31 CIA repackages Syrian intervention
Collage: Voice of Russia On the surface, recent comments by the Deputy Director of the US Central Intelligence Michael Morrel seem to point to a shift in U.S. policy towards Syria and an admission to the failure of the United States in their War on Terror and against al-Qaeda and their funding, supporting and arming of extremist elements in Syria who have been fighting to overthrow the elected president of the country. But in reality yet another reason has been created for yet another military intervention. The world wants to co-exist in peace, but for those who profit from war, this is something that must never be allowed to happen. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru
8 August, 00:04 6 Moscow disappointed once again by Washington
Photo: EPA US President Barrack Obama has decided to cancel what were hoped by the Russian side to have been productive and constructive one to one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, both here in Moscow and in Saint Petersburg on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit. Official Moscow is disappointed by the decision by Washington to cancel Obama’s visit said Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov. Of course this is not the first time that Moscow has been disappointed by the largely unilateral self-serving decisions of Washington. Such snubs have been almost par-for-the-course since the end of the Cold War with such moves by Washington on almost every level. Snubs from US have been hundreds including such loud events as the denial to Russia of allowing it to play the peacekeeping role it was promised in Kosovo, the support of Georgia and ensuing demonization of Russia with regard to South Ossetia, real cooperation on missile defense as the United States surrounds Russia with missiles that could be turned into first strike weapons with the flick of a switch, cases of Russian nationals renditioned to the United States from third countries to stand show trials, denial of protections for Russian orphans, the fabricated reasons for making a "Magnitsky List" to replace Jackson Vannick, the granting of asylum and the support of Chechen terrorists and police killers, the funding of, and attempted subversion of the Russian state and the creation of a "Color Revolution", the use of NGO to interfere with the political internal political processes of Russia, the aggressive attempted and continuing attempts at the recruitment of members of the special services and the law enforcement bodies, the constant demonization of Russia in the western media and the non-stop degrading statements and threats by American politicians and officials, and sadly the list goes on and on. "We are disappointed with the decision of the US administration to cancel President Obama's visit to Moscow, which was planned for early September," Ushakov said speaking to reporters on Wednesday. The Kremlin has characterized the cancellation of Obama's visit as an indication that the US is unprepared to build a relationship with Russia on an equal footing. "This problem testifies to the remaining unpreparedness of the United States to build an equal relationship," he stated adding that Obama's decision relates to the situation surrounding the situation of Edward Snowden, which he underlined is not Russia's fault. Of course the United States does not want to build partnerships with nations on an equal basis, this is and has been obvious to anyone who has observed the behavior of the United States for the last several decades and this more clear than ever with Russia. A country which is much larger and for all intents and purposes is in far better economic and social condition than the United States of America. This is a fact that is becoming clearer by the day as Russia shakes off the instability and historic changes that occurred after the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet State. Russia has been forging alliances and increasing cooperation worldwide, with countries of all political and ideological leanings, in particular with those who are fed up with U.S. imperialist dictatorial polices and the way it snubs its nose at international law and conventions and shows complete disregard for the sovereignty of nations. The United States, unlike Russia which approaches all countries, great and small with respect and dignity, is the undisputed world champion is treading over the rights and the sovereignty of all nations and people’s the world over, perpetually dictating to the world on how it should behave and who it should befriend and what it should provide to the world’s sole self-declared "super power". The Kremlin aide also stressed that the invitation for Obama to visit Moscow remains open. Once again underlining the fact Russia has steadfastly maintained an open door to the United States and has always been open for partnership and good relations on an equal level. "The president of the United States was and remains invited to make a visit to Russia," Ushakov said, and "Russia is ready to work with American partners on all items of our bilateral and multilateral agendas." Leaving the door open has been the Russian stance on everything from Syria to the American’s ABM system, but surely there will have to come a day when that door will have to be closed securely, that is my own opinion, but there is a point when disregard and disrespect will reach and unforgiveable level, as was the case with the recent treatment of the Russian flag by some idiot American rock group in Ukraine. Some American politicians are now questioning the mental state of the Obama, even calling his behavior schizophrenic with regard to al-Qaeda and the supposed credible threats of al-Qaeda attacking somewhere in the world in the next few weeks. I could tell you the same thing, al-Qaeda will attack somewhere in the world in the next few days, that is now a given like the sun coming up and going down. The claim, according to many is a distraction from the fact that Edward Snowden has revealed the true depth of the American Government’s complete disregard for the rights of the American populace and the world community and it seems that for Obama, the case of Edward Snowden has become a sick and twisted obsession. Russia was operating under international laws and conventions and following its own laws and its own Constitution when it came to giving Edward Snowden asylum and it was in fact the US’s own idiocy that let him get away in the first place and caused him to be trapped in Sheremetyevo and left stateless in the second. The insanity with which Obama has gone after Snowden and even caused the interference of the flight of the president of a sovereign nation, points to a leader that has gone beyond reason and been corrupted beyond any acceptable scope. Perhaps the Imperial Presidency of Obama and his self delegated right to order extra-judicial executions as well as the now almost uncontested "right" of the United States to expand militarily and commit acts of aggressive war and detain and execute whoever they wish at will has truly begun to cause the collapse of the Western Civilization and its leaders to have lost all touch with reality? Like the school house bully being confronted by a kid who refuses to give up his lunch money and then becoming completely obsessed, the United States has threatened Russia in any way it can to get Russia to ignore international law and its own Constitution and to just hand Edward Snowden over, not extradite as the US Ambassador tried to tell the Russian Government. Of course for the President of the Russian Federation and other leaders to abide by international law and their own Constitutions is something the US has difficulty understanding but it is what makes the world a civilized place and what sets us apart from anarchy. Attempts by the United States to pressure Russia into compliance with their policies through the use of economic instruments and measures would not receive any significant level of international support either and even if the US decides to cut off all trade between Russia and the US the insignificant trade turnover of approximately 40 billion dollars a year would have little effect on Russia’s economy as the country is currently maintaining a global trade turnover with positive trends at a level approaching 900 billion dollars per annum. The US needs Russia more than Russia needs the US in Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, Syria, North Korea and in other areas and countries and Russia has always been willing to cooperate, but I would dare say that there has to be a point when that willingness will dry up. Obama’s recent comments about Russia behaving in a Cold War manner seems ludicrous to anyone who has been following world events even casually for the last decade or so, as did the recent hollow guarantees by Eric Holder that Edward Snowden would not be tortured, but it shows the complete arrogance and disconnect with reality that Obama is living with and the complete lack of regard the US has for the intelligence of the world’s populace. Perhaps Americans live in a Mickey Mouse fantasy world where everything that happens around the world is dictated to them to them by the Ministry of Truth, that Russia is a Cold War menace and that there is an al-Qaeda terrorist behind every street post, and such comments as Obama made, not to a respected intellectual forum, but to a comedy show, are actually believed. However such comments as portraying Russia as maintaining a Cold War mentality could be nowhere further from the truth. It is in fact the US and the West that has maintained the Cold War stance evidenced by the expansion and the continued existence of NATO and it is the United States who has mounted a war to hide their own illegitimacy and illegality against journalists and whistleblowers and has forced the world to protect these individuals the best they can. For me it is the height of insanity to have such a country preach to the world on "Democracy and Freedom" and in all honesty Obama should have been grateful at the graciousness and respect and intelligence and forward thinking of President Vladimir Putin in agreeing to speak with him at all, especially after the recent insults to Russia by the United States due to the Snowden affair. That the respected and intelligent leader of the largest country in the world would grant an audience to the leader of the country in the world with the biggest guns and who continues to run roughshod over the international community is something that they in the US should be grateful for. But of course they are living in their Mickey Mouse, Faux News, Guantanamo is good, Ministry of Truth fantasy world and do not see the reality of US policy. The opinions and views expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Russia, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, US, Russian-US relations, G-20, Edward Snowden, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 6 · I read this and just pictured Mr. Putin receiving the news, smiling dryly, shrugging his shoulders, and kind of laughing on the inside. · Who cares if a puppet would visit- just makes a bunch of traffic and nonsense anyway. I am certain that millions of Americans agree with your displeasure. Just not millions enough yet. · Let's keep this in perspective. Russia, being disappointed in our government's requesting the return of the described traitor, is what is paramount here -- not cold war history. Any disappointment expressed should be expressed by the United States. It is the traitor that should have been immediately returned to the U.S. Is that clear enough? Russia has something of ours and continues to smack its lips over it. Understand that Russia, under the devil named Putin, will never be a friend to our requests or needs. As such it remains what it has always been -- an arch enemy. Deception is the deck of cards being dealt by Putin. We should never doubt that fact. We should never let our guard down. We should better protect our digital files from his hackers who are given hero status when they get into our sensitive data files. Beware of Russia or be consumed by it. · correct if I'm wrong,but since when Russia stopped being America's Main Enemy? because surely is not Iran,North Korea and much less China.after all the whole missile affair is for one country in mind,right? · I think Mr.moat frog rejected that this person is crazy. I have a question? If someone like Mr.Snowden from Russia or any other country which came to America. Whether America was running back to his country? No, never send him back, did not. I think President Obama should not have to make this decision was taken. Mr. snowden was not a big deal. · Dear Moat Frog. I think you know that you have been fed lies and are looking for the truth. Please continue visiting the Voice of Russia, since you have happened on this you are probably looking for the truth. Snowden told you that you are being spied on by your government. He exposed illegality that is not treason by any twisted stretch of the word. Your president's continued violations of your US Constitution and international law, now that is another matter. Have a nice day. 7 August, 18:20 1 'Obama has given himself the power of extra-judicial executions' - Debra Sweet
Photo: Flickr.com For many people of the world the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his persecution by the US Government something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the US government is afraid of, he was a soldier with a conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by US forces. The way the US has turned logic upside down by going after one who exposed crimes while protecting those who commit crimes should have the world up in arms. Only an illegal and illegitimate government would protect criminals while persecuting and even torturing a moral and upstanding brave individual who had the courage to stand up and blow the whistle on what he saw. Rather than being rewarded and seen as a hero, hose protecting the criminals have decided to make Mr. Manning an example in order to throw fear into the hearts of anyone who would dare to expose their illegality.
Part 2 This is John Robles, you were listening to an interview with Debra Sweet, the director of The World Can’t Wait dot net. You can find the previous part to this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru. Thanks for listening and I wish you the best. US, human rights, US drones, law, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, torture, trial, drone, Manning trial: traitor or hero?,World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Obama must return his Nobel prize! He didn't deserve it then and he most certainly doesn't deserve it now. Someone who states that 'war is peace' shouldn't even be in the White House. 7 August, 16:32 Microdots and dead letter drops have given way to hacking – Mike Smith
Photo: Flickr.com With the revelations by Edward Snowden and moves by certain western governments to classify whistleblowers and journalists as being involved in espionage, it appears that the world of spying and real espionage has changed. Is it proper for governments to invade the privacy of their citizens just to make sure that their own security is obtained. It would seem that in the west the populace whom the government is supposed to serve has become the adversary of those in power.
Hello. This is John Robles. I’m speaking with Mr Michael John Smith. He was the last person convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in the UK. He is also an intelligence specialist and a regular contributor to the Voice of Russia. Hello, Mike, how are you? Smith: Hi, John. Yes, I’m fine. Robles: It’s nice to be speaking with you again. Smith: Good to speak to you too. Robles: Now, I’d like to ask your opinion about spying currently, with all these revelations by Edward Snowden and accusations that he is involved in some sort of espionage. Before, back in the old days you’ve been exposed to a lot of this through your trial and your efforts and how you were forced to defend yourself. Spies used to meet in dark alleys. They would meet their agents in the dead of night. They had number stations, secret code words, dead drops. Now it seems that they are running around with wigs in their backpacks and unencrypted messages on how to open Gmail accounts in Internet cafés and collecting information on everybody under the sun with the help of Facebook and other Internet sites. In your opinion, how has espionage changed? What is the difference between now and how it used to be? Smith: Back in the days when I was facing trial on espionage, back in 1992-1993, about that time, it was very much based on human resources. The idea was to try to find somebody who was in a place of useful access to secrets or classified information, and to try to use that person to gain information. And in many ways this was part of that era, the old Soviet Union and the USA were obviously in a very Cold war situation at the time, which was putting a lot of pressure on society, I think, at the time. And so there was an ideological aspect to this as well because people would either fall on one side or the other. And this tended to, sort of, mean that people would do things for ideological reasons, as they still do. Back in those days, I mean, technology was a bit different and things like Minox cameras and the use of microdots, dead letter drops, all that sort of thing came into play because things were very much… It was as you say - meeting in a dark corner, in a place where people wouldn’t be overheard and passing secrets. It could be paperwork or possibly microfilm of some sort, and those sort of things used to go on in the past. Nowadays, it’s very much different I think, because of the Internet and new technology. They don’t need to perhaps do so much of that sort of thing because they can gain access to people’s computers through hacking, through checking what’s going on on the Internet, because almost everything that is going on in the world is going through the Internet in some form. So those who have access to that, and obviously this comes to the recent revelations that the USA - because the Internet was largely set up as a military operation – that the USA has huge resources there to gain access to all the information that is going through the Internet, and to see what connections are being made between various countries and various individuals. And they can virtually gain anything they want now from just tapping into that connection. Robles: The real secrets are not going to be out there on the Internet. So why collect all this social and networking data and personal information on common Internet users? Smith: In times gone by, and it still applies now, military information was very important and countries wanted to know what the other side was doing: what sort of weaponry they were developing, what their policies were on maybe expansionism or their views on various world events. So a lot of intelligence that was being gathered in the past was very much to do with keeping abreast and not falling behind in the race. And the same is going on today, but now, because so much is going on on the Internet, a lot of things are being planned through the Internet like we saw in the recent developments in Libya, in Syria, in Egypt now. A lot of this is being planned and developed through Internet, through electronic communications, and so those who can detect what is being said, what connections are being made between individuals, those people will now be in a much better position to plan how to counteract that, because as we saw in the occupation movement in the USA, an awful lot of this was being discussed on things like Facebook and Twitter. So I’m sure the authorities would be following all those sort of moves that people are making, where they are planning to go next. And that gives them a great start in planning how to thwart the activities of any group who threatens the government. Robles: That’s not real espionage, is it? I mean, that’s not about the military or other countries, I mean, this is like totalitarian surveillance on their own citizens. Smith: Well, surveillance, intelligence, I think it all comes down to the same thing – it’s about information. Governments want to know information on their inhabitants. What the groups are, who are plotting to overthrow the government, or to… even things like strikes and public unrest, I mean, anything that could be a stepping stone to something bigger. Because very often these movements, they start very small and they develop into some massive sort of public campaign which could damage governments, overthrow governments. So that intelligence, I think, is very important to any government in the world and I think all governments do look very much at what is going on in their country, and how better to find that out than to see what is going on on the Internet and on the electronic means of media. Robles: So, I mean, are you saying this blanket spying on everybody under the sun is ok? Smith: Oh no, no, I don’t think it’s ok at all. I think it’s a very negative thing from the point of view of free speech and civil rights. But I can understand how it has developed the way it has. It’s been a long slow process and you can see how over the centuries, well, over the decades recently, but over centuries governments have always been very keen to find out what is going on. And even back in Elizabethan times, in the 16th century, spying was going on in the UK then, and it’s still taking place today, obviously it just uses the new technology. Robles: During the Cold war would you have heard of like the US spying on UK citizens, for example, the US spying on all of its allies and on their citizens? Smith: I think this always went on. Allies are only allies as far as they are useful to other countries, I think. And I’m sure the US always has an idea of what say the UK is doing, and however that best suits its own policies. I mean, you saw this very much so in the time of the Iraq war back in 2003 when it was said in the UK that Tony Blair was just like George Bush’s poodle, because he was doing what George Bush wanted, and backing the move to attack and invade Iraq. If you go back to that time - I mentioned to you before - that there was a woman called Katharine Gun who opened up a big can of worms because she found out, because she worked at GCHQ, she found out that there was a plan to try and swing the United Nations at the time to back the US’s aim to attack Iraq. Because if you remember, back in 2003, there were six countries who were not really sure if they wanted to back this or not. And those countries were being influenced by the US. You were listening to an interview with Michael John Smith, an intelligence specialist and the last person convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in the world. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru
6 August, 19:23 2 Bradley Manning cared about humanity – Debra Sweet
Photo: EPA For many people of the world the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his persecution by the US Government something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the US government is afraid of, he was a soldier with a conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by US forces. The way the US has turned logic upside down by going after one who exposed crimes while protecting those who commit crimes should have the world up in arms. Only an illegal and illegitimate government would protect criminals while persecuting and even torturing a moral and upstanding brave individual who had the courage to stand up and blow the whistle on what he saw, rather than being rewarded and seen as a hero. Those protecting the criminals have decided to make Mr. Manning an example in order to throw fear into the hearts of anyone who would dare to expose their illegality.
Sweet: Thank you, John. Bye. This is John Rubles, you were listening to an interview with Debra Sweet, the director of World Can’t Wait dot net. Thank you very much for listening and I wish you the best wherever you may be. US, Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, espionage, info leak, whistleblower, Manning trial: traitor or hero?, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · Isn't it always this way, unfortunately? The little fish is made to pay while the big fish swim happily ever after. Where is justice? · This is a very good interview and Ms. Sweet in my opinion is right on the mark with her analysis. However, when Ms. Sweet refers to the "liberal Democrats" as if this group of corporate flunkies are any different from the other corporate facists of either party I would take exception with that point. The American people are constantly lead to believe that there is some plurality or political chasim between the two ruling elitist parties. This is a falsehood, Oh there are minor differences but on major issues the two elitist parties are corporate shills and represent not the American people but the economic and financial elite only. The two party system myth needs to be destroyed, so the American people can see the reality of the political situation in the United States.
5 August, 21:44 NATO will make sure Russia is an enemy – Rick Rozoff
Collage: Voice of Russia Upcoming NATO military exercises envisage an attack on Poland and an Article 5 NATO intervention against A4 in power. To the dismay of Russia, these exercises continue the outdated Cold War thinking of the West, which refuses to let go of such stereotypes and continues to assure peace and understanding between the nations. NATO and the West have an agenda, and that agenda is complete and total military domination of the world. Operation Steadfast Jazz 2013 underlines the real intentions of the alliance and further serves to destabilize the world in a region where countries should be working for peace. It is clear that the West is being controlled by the military industrial complex and that peace is not something they envision. NATO, as an organization, should have been disbanded after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. But they have done quite the opposite and have continued with a global expansion that has made NATO the single largest military power in the history of the world. T
4 August, 22:27 The PNAC, 9-11, "shadow government" and FEMA: Connecting the dots and the big picture
© Photo: en.wikipedia.org/upstateNYer/cc-by-sa 3.0 The recent resurgence of information on the existence of FEMA internment camps, revelations of total surveillance by Edward Snowden, and several instruments of total power passed into law by US President Obama, have forced many denizens of the internet and seekers of truth, to take yet another look at what the world is becoming. Although there is still time to fight it appears that there is little we can do to stop the United States and its attempts to turn the world into a complete and total Orwellian security state. For Americans the time to rise up may have passed as plans for a mass uprising are already in place and include prisons that will be able to house millions. Post 9-11 takeover by the “shadow government” The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be droned at robles@ruvr.ru.
FEMA building camps to house millions - Ken Adachi Download audio file End of Part 1 of the interview
3 August, 13:37 3 Regarding Snowden and Russia, the US is Kafkaesque – WikiLeaks’ Hrafnsson
Photo: EPA For many people of the world over the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his persecution by the US Government something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the US Government is afraid of. He was the soldier with a conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by the US forces. The way the US has turned the logic upside down by going after one who exposed crimes, while protecting those who commit crimes, should have the world up in arms. Only an illegal and illegitimate government would protect criminals, while persecuting and even torturing a moral and upstanding, brave individual who have the courage to stand up and blow the whistle on what he saw. Rather than being rewarded and seen as a hero, those protecting the criminals have decided to make Mr. Manning an example in order to throw fear into the hearts of anyone who would dare to expose their illegality. Robles: What would you characterize the goal of a whistleblower is? Why publish this information? What was the goal of Bradley Manning? Why did Edward Snowden publish the information that he published and allowed that into the public domain? Hrafnsson: Well, I think Edward Snowden in his own words, by his declaration and the interviews that he has given, has given a very clear example of a whistleblower that acts upon higher ideals. Edward Snowden was acting upon values that are totally forgotten by the current administration and the political system. Bradley Manning, we see a glimpse of his ideals through the chat log that has been published. And it was obvious that he was simply a man acting upon conscience seeing the abuse of power, seeing war crimes, seeing things that should be revealed to spark a public debate and hopefully lead to some changes. And that has happened. That has happened as a result of what Bradley Manning did. It has happened as a result of what Snowden has revealed, not just in the U.S. but mainly in other countries around the world. So, we see a public awakening and that underscores the importance of information that should be out there. That is the fundamental element of a healthy society, to bring about changes with a weapon of information. Robles: Very well said! There’s been a huge focus now in the world media on Edward Snowden, on the price he is paying, and we know that Julian Assange has been trapped in that Ecuadorian Embassy in the U.K. for over a year now, we see the huge price that Bradley Manning is going to pay, probably, I would say spend the rest of his life in prison. What are some of the sacrifices that whistleblowers make? Hrafnsson: Well, the history of the most important whistleblowers we have in recent times, including of course Snowden and Manning, simply exempy how much sacrifice these individuals are making. I can name other names. From the U.S. for example Thomas Drake and William Binney both from the NSA, John Kiriakou from the CIA and many others that have stepped forward and blown the whistle on wrongdoing and had to pay an extremely high price. They are made outcasts from their society, often unemployable, they have to spend all their savings on defense costs, and the list goes on. It is a tremendous sacrifice. Therefore, there is a need for an awakening among the public in every country to create some shield law for whistleblowers and to understand the importance of whistleblowers and their work. Because I do agree with what President Obama said in 2008 that whistleblowers are essential, what they do often can save people’s lives and it can save taxpayers’ dollars – those were the exact words of the Obama Campaign in 2008. I believe in those words, even though the Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama has totally forgotten his promises. Robles: He has actually launched the biggest, most aggressive and most unbelievable war against whistleblowers, I think in the history of the United States. Why do you think he did such an about-face? Hrafnsson: Well, that is a good question. And he is obviously under pressure from those in power, those who are corrupting power. And we saw a little glimpse of how that comes forth in the Senate vote just recently in the U.S. where a motion to limit the scope of the NSA spying on the general public was voted down narrowly. There was a split basically in both the Democrats and the Republicans were on either side. However, there was one very important distinction that was revealed by the journalists who went and investigated it. Those were supporting the NSA and its spying practices were getting far more money from the military industrial complex than the others. So, that should be an indication of the system that is in place. It is a huge industry and it is outsourced. Just one example. The company that Edward Snowden was working for – Booz Allen Hamilton – has a turnover of $5 billion, mostly through government contracts. So, you can see what kind of interests are at stake. And apparently, money in the coffers of politicians do obviously swing votes. Robles: Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel? Hrafnsson: Absolutely! I’m extremely optimistic because I believe that what began in earnest with these massive releases of information in 2010, it started a precedent, it started a trend, it created an understanding and hope to people that you can bypass even, the inerty of the mainstream media, you can get information to the public and an inform the public is of course the basic and fundamental element that you need to found social change. So, I believe we are seeing a start of a new era which will of course create confident acts and desperate measures that we are now seeing on the part of the Obama Administration and by other governments. But it is a positive reflection because they see the power of information, they see the power of information on the Internet and through the new technological means. And that should be a focus of hope. We need to protect the freedom of the Internet and through that we have a hope to change the world. Robles: The reaction from Obama, from the U.S. Government to Mr. Snowden has been so extreme. Do you think they are losing a grip on their power and striking out in desperation? Would you characterize that maybe in that manner? Hrafnsson: I think it is obvious that the extreme reaction to Edward Snowden is an act of desperation. Everything is being done to try to silence and force this individual because the administration and those who are corrupting power understand what kind of precedent he is setting. There will be other Snowdens, I’m certain. Robles: How much more information does Mr. Snowden have, in your opinion? Do you think it was just the tip of the iceberg? Hrafnsson: Well, I can only cite the journalists that have been working with him. I read somewhere that Glenn Greenwald had stated that he has material to work on for months to come. Robles: I’d like to ask you a little bit about Julian Assange and how he is doing, and how the Senate campaign is going, if we could get away from the topic of Manning and Snowden for a minute. Hrafnsson: Julian has kicked off his campaign in Australia which of course is an exciting new period and he has a real chance of winning a seat in the Senate in Australia. He is of course working on that, but as well on our WikiLeaks work. It is pretty optimist that he has a good chance to win the seat there and it will create a new challenge for the situation that he is in, the more pressure to find a solution to this ridiculous standoff and the situation he is finding himself under for more than a year now. Robles: Yes, it is unbelievable that this has gone on this long. Can I also ask you, what’s your opinion, honestly, about the way that the Russian Government has handled Edward Snowden’s case? Hrafnsson: I think it was not a correct thing to place any restriction upon his admission for an asylum. But now we are getting into geopolitics. I am not a big fan of very few governments around the world. They seem to be having negative elements wherever you look around the world. But it is important to keep in mind, when you look at the criticism from the U.S. pointing at Russia and Putin, that it is their idiotic work that actually left Snowden stranded in Moscow. So, it is quite absurd and Kafkaesque for them to turn around and criticize Snowden for being in Russia, where they have made it totally impossible for him to carry on onward. And even that absurd and serious measure of forcing down the airplane of President Morales with the help of the allies, and the puppet regimes in Europe, which they now have apologized for in shame, but it shows the extent of what is now the manhunt and pursuit for Edward Snowden. Robles: I wanted to talk to you when that happened. For me that was unprecedented and unbelievable, I mean this was the president of a sovereign nation. You don’t do that with presidential aircraft, I mean I couldn’t believe it when that happened. Now, the US has been pressuring the world, they’ve been pressuring Russia every way they possibly can. And they were pressuring Hong Kong and China, I mean they are threatening everybody left and right. What would you say about the independence of the Russian Government in not just handing him over? Hrafnsson: Of course, there are governments around the world that are not subjects to pressure and have the strength to take an independent decision. We have seen a few good examples that in Latin America and in Russia. I was hoping to see more spine in the European mainland, especially after the criticism by the French and the German governments based on the revelations of Snowden. Of course, the logical thing would have been to offer him an asylum immediately. But they showed to be spineless and subservient to U.S. interests. But it is comforting though, that even though the governments are behaving in this manner, we see in the European countries, the people being on the opposite side and fully supporting Snowden and recognizing his right to a political asylum, and recognizing him as an important whistleblower who has done a great service to everybody in the world. Robles: Would you like to talk about Iceland, because Mr. Snowden was planning to go to Iceland as well? Hrafnsson: I, of course, was disappointed that my own government and my home country did not welcome the words of Snowden where he specifically mentioned Iceland as a place that he could imagine he would get an asylum. The Icelandic Government hid behind a technicality saying that they couldn’t offer him an asylum unless he was on the Icelandic soil. That of course was the technical reaction from many countries. We are disappointed but I can assure you that the majority of the people in my home country support Snowden and they support Bradley Manning and Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. We see a growing support all over the world to these individuals, to the organization and to the ideals that connect all these elements. And it is in line with what I said earlier, this is giving people hope and a belief that things can change. And that is a possibility. Robles: Take care! Thanks a lot Kristinn, I appreciate it. Hrafnsson: You’re welcome. Bye bye. You were listening to an interview with Kristinn Hrafnsson – the official spokesperson and a number two at the WikiLeaks organization. Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, trial, info leak, whistleblower, Edward Snowden, Manning trial: traitor or hero?, Politics · Share: · · · · · · Very interesting interview. Thank you · "The way the US has turned the logic upside down by going after one who exposed crimes, while protecting those who commit crimes, should have the world up in arms. " this US Citizen agrees · true 3 August, 02:06 Mysterious man told Snowden to flee from Hong-Kong – Jiang Xiaofeng
Photo: RIA Novosti Edward Snowden has finally left the transit area of Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, finding freedom again after approximately a month. Snowden has been the focus of an unprecedented man hunt by the U.S. and has had the world's media watching and recording his every move. Finally, he maybe will find peace after making revelations that have focused the world's attention once again on the illegality of the U.S. The manhunt that the U.S. launched against Mr. Snowden was unprecedented in scale having threatened countries, even interfered with the flight of a president of a sovereign nation and even more intense than anything the U.S. ever did to capture or find Osama bin Laden. The U.S. are still after Mr. Snowden, even though he's been granted political asylum. When it was reported that Mr. Snowden went to Cuba, Russian journalists and journalists from around the world also went to Cuba. When he left Hong Kong journalists flew to Moscow to try to record the fate of this historic whistleblower. I spoke with one such journalist from Hong Kong.
Hello, this is John Robles. I'm speaking with Mr. Xiaofeng Jiang, he's a correspondent for Phoenix Television in Hong Kong. Robles: Hello, Xiaofeng how are you? Jiang: Hey, John, how are you doing? Robles: I'm very well, thank you! You came to Moscow, I believe, with Edward Snowden, or right after he did. Can you tell us a little bit about your impression, about the case and about Moscow and Russia? Jiang: As you rightly pointed, I'm here to see how Mr. Snowden's case is going and in related service I also want to observe what U.S.-Russian relations are affected by this and of course I'm here to experience Russia's progress and the changes. Because it's my first time to visit Russia, so I'm very personally interested in Russian history. Probably you know that. I guess, younger generation in China are more interested in America than Russia. They're sort of westernized, but the older generation, like my mom and dad, although they had no opportunity to visit Russia, but they grew up with Communist system and all Soviet related memories, like Soviet movies and Soviet songs. Sometimes Moscow means as much as Beijing to them. And them seeing my picture sent from here would make them excited to some extent. As a journalist I feel that news coverage of Russia is not as much as of the United States and so I really hope we can know more about Russia in the future through media outlets, even when Mr. Snowden is not here. Robles: So, even in Hong Kong there's not much news from Russia there? Is there some sort of Western control of the media in Hong Kong? Jiang: No, Hong Kong is a society where we enjoy free expression and media is not controlled by the government. Interestingly enough I see that Hong Kong is the place where Mr. Snowden started to blow his whistle and here, Russia, is where Snowden had to face the consequence of whistleblowing. Hong Kong and Moscow are two dots on maps, but they are connected in this regard. Robles: You've seen the situation in both places with Mr. Snowden. What was the reaction in Hong Kong? What have you seen of the reaction of Russia and how would you compare the two? Jiang: Well, in Hong Kong people are more interested in how Hong Kong treated Snowden's case, but when the United States asked Hong Kong for Snowden's provisionary arrest, the official response was: “Who exactly do you mean?” Probably there was a technical mistake involved at that time. The Hong Kong Justice Secretary said that they were not sure who the United States were looking for, because the U.S. government got Snowden's middle name wrong in the documents filed to back its arrest request. The Secretary said Hong Kong immigration record listed his middle name as Joseph, but the U.S. government used name James in some documents and referred to him only as Edward J Snowden in others. So there were names exactly, and Hong Kong officials did believe that there was a need to clarify. And U.S. authorities also failed to provide Snowden's passport number. So there were mistakes involved or miscommunication involved in that. As for Hong Kong’s attitude to Snowden's case, people were sort of pro-Snowden at that time. As we know Hong Kong is society where people enjoy free expression and they love to see people like Snowden to blow whistle and let people know what exactly was going on inside the government. Robles: I see. Do you think that Hong Kong would have sent him or extradited him back to the U.S. if it was for the documents? And do you think that document story was a real story? Maybe they were just coming up with an excuse? Do you think they would have sent him back? Jiang: In Hong Kong there was a legal system and at that time there was no legal basis for the requested provisional arrest warrant. In absence of such a warrant Hong Kong government has no legal basis for restricting or prohibiting Snowden leaving Hong Kong. But later we found out that the U.S. officials didn't buy Hong Kong’s explanation and neither do some experts, the decision to let Snowden go has raised tensions, between the U.S. and Hong Kong. And U.S. officials suggested that Beijing might have a hand in letting Snowden leave Hong Kong, which is a former British colony, and now a semi-autonomous region with its own legal system. But the Hong Kong leaders, I mean, the Executive Chief of Hong Kong said they were following the city's rule of law in processing the U.S. request. As I have personally observed, Hong Kong courts always looked at things very closely and they do not take short cuts. So I believe Hong Kong was treating in a normal way, in a legal way. Robles: Sure, they followed the Hong Kong laws, right? Even if he had requested asylum, they would have to look at his case, I don't think they could have sent him back anyway. How do you feel about that U.S. arrogance? Apparently Hong Kong they believe supposed to abide by what Washington says and if, for some reason, if Beijing says something, it's something evil. Doesn't that seem ridiculous to you? Jiang: Personally, I think that Mr. Snowden has exposed anything that people were thinking of, but they had no concrete proof. But all of a sudden, they see what they were suspicious of was true. And we later found out the United States expressed strong objection to authorities both in Hong Kong and in Beijing at their decision to let Snowden flee. And I can tell you that a lawyer for Snowden that was in Hong Kong said that he was told to flee Hong Kong by a middle man, claiming to represent the local government, but actually who was probably acting on behalf of Beijing. And some analysts believe the move was orchestrated by China to avoid a long diplomatic tussle with the United States over his extradition. And later China compromised by deciding to neither grant Snowden protection, nor hand him over, as the U.S. requested. It's not difficult to imagine handing Snowden over would have been an unpopular move within China. Robles: Yeah, I think so. You were listening to an interview with Xiaofeng Jiang, he's a correspondent with Phoenix Television in Hong Kong. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru Thanks for listening! And as always I wish you the best.
31 July, 21:45 2 Bradley Manning must not spend another minute in prison – Debra Sweet
Photo: AFP For many people of the world the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his persecution by the US Government something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the US Government is afraid of. He was the soldier with the conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by the US forces. For many people of the world the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his persecution by the US Government something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the US Government is afraid of. He was the soldier with the conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by the US forces. O
Rob US, Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, trial, info leak, whistleblower, Manning trial: traitor or hero?, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · Weren't Hitler's goons prosecuted at Nuremberg for blindly following Nazi orders? So Manning is being punished for showing he has a conscience? Morals and ethics don't seem to count any longer. Yanks...stop preaching to the world and take a very close look at yourselves. · "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act"....George Orwell.
31 July, 16:07 Manning verdict shows we’re entering a dark era – WikiLeaks’ Hrafnsson
Photo: AFP For many people the world over the Bradley Manning case seems absurd and his prosecution by the U.S. government - something difficult to comprehend. He was something that the U.S. government is afraid of, he was a soldier with a conscience who exposed war crimes being committed by U.S. forces. The way the U.S. has turned logic upside down by going after one who exposed crimes while protecting those who commit crimes should have the world up in arms. Only an illegal and illegitimate government would protect criminals while prosecuting and even torturing a moral and upstanding, brave individual who had the courage to stand up and blow the whistle on what he saw. Rather than being rewarded and seen as a hero those protecting the criminals have decided to make Mr. Manning an example in order to throw fear into the hearts of anyone who would dare to expose their illegality.
Robles: Hello, Kristinn! Hrafnsson: Hello, John! Robles: Nice to be speaking with you again. I wish it was under better circumstances, but... We're getting a lot of commentary: WikiLeaks said this, WikiLeaks said that, about Bradley Manning's verdict today. What's your position? What's WikiLeaks' position? And what statement can you make on this? Hrafnsson: Well, there's a lot of emphasis now today on the fact that Bradley Manning was not convicted on the more serious charge of aiding the enemy, and that seems to be creating a lot of joy and of course it is a relief for not only supporters of Bradley Manning, but supporters of journalism all around the world, because if that would have been a base for conviction, it'd mean the most serious blow to journalism in recent times. So it was an outrageous charge and it should have been thrown out of court much earlier, but keep in mind that Bradley Manning is found guilty of, on the basis of 19 offences and he could face a maximum prison sentence of 136 years. Of course, the sentencing hearing will start tomorrow and I'm extremely pessimistic about the outcome of that. This case has been extremely reluctant to take into account anything that explains the higher ideals and the motives behind what Bradley Manning did. He has been stripped of the opportunity to be portrayed as truly a whistleblower which of course he is. There are of course a lot of abnormalities in the trial. It was closed off partly, limited journalists could attend, the journalists who did attend were reporting that they were intimidated, the prosecution was allowed to alter the charges on the last day of the trial and on top of all of that, the judge in the hearing for some strange reason got promoted to a higher court in the middle of the trial. So it doesn't leave any room for big optimism for the outcome of the sentencing hearing and I'm pessimistic when I'm looking forward of that, looking to that. I think that Bradley Manning will get a very-very high sentence. And keep in mind that this is a historic dark day for whistleblowers and journalists, because never before, except in one minor case, has a whistleblower been charged and then convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917. This is of course, I think, is a dangerous precedent, and of course is in line with the ongoing persecution of whistleblowers by the Obama administration, persecution that extends over to the journalistic community, not just against WikiLeaks, but against the mainstream media journalism, now with the apprehension of phone records from journalists and an attempt to brand journalists like James Rosen at the Fox News, from the New York Times as a co-conspirator in a similar case, involving a leak of information. So we're entering a dark era and there's no room for great joy, even though this aiding the enemy charge was thrown out. Robles: Right. A quote we have from WikiLeaks says that the verdict is “dangerous national security extremism”. Would you like to elaborate? Hrafnsson: It is totally in line, I mentioned earlier the Obama's war on whistleblowers which is of course totally contrary to what he promised when he was fighting to become president in 2008. He promised to protect the whistleblowers and said that whistleblowers should be encouraged, not stifled and he's now and while he is in office has done exactly the opposite and gone after whistleblowers in an extreme fashion that has no precedent in the history of the country. This is of course at the same time when we see an absurd escalation in the secrecy of the state. The numbers of documents being classified in a year has eight-folded now in the last decade. All this put together, we see an extremely dark period for journalists and for whistleblowers. The interesting thing is though that even though this has been known for some time, it is not stopping whistleblowers. It is simply the fact that we see courage being contagious and I'm quite certain that this fight, this conviction and sentencing of Bradley Manning and the way he was treated, more whistleblowers will step forward. We saw the example of Edward Snowden, extremely important whistleblower, and I'm convinced that there are enough honest courageous people with conscience who have beliefs in higher ideals and who will step forward revealing information about wrongdoing to the public. Robles: You commented on a court case and I think many of the things you mentioned in a normal system would have been reasons for at least a retrial, if not to have the case completely thrown out. How would you characterize the court proceedings in the Manning case? Would say it's a legitimate process? Hrafnsson: In my mind, after having read through the transcripts from the trials and read the reports from journalists who have been sitting in in the proceedings. It is an absolutely show trial. It has nothing to do with justice at all. There are so many abnormalities there that should raise an eyebrow of any individual that is interested in a healthy legal system. And anything that happened in that trial, including the outcome, is still another example why Edward Snowden did the right thing, not to place his trust in the U.S. justice system. Robles: I agree 100% with you. You mentioned the word justice. I'd like to get your views on the fact that no one, as far as I know, to this date has been prosecuted for the crimes that Bradley Manning exposed. Yet he has been prosecuted as a criminal since day 1. How can the U.S. government continue to pretend it's a legitimate and legal entity if it will not prosecute people for things like war crimes? Hrafnsson: Well, that's a good question. And we see an example of many war crimes that were exposed in the WikiLeaks, material that was released in 2010 and 2011. It is worrying that people committing those crimes have not been held accountable for it. It undermines, of course, the entire façade by the U.S. government in trying to maintain a position that there are some higher ideals embroiled in their community, and it makes it quite hypocritical to try to teach other nations anything about justice, human rights and freedom of speech. Robles: And rule of law, I think. You were listening to the first part of an interview with Kristinn Hrafnsson, the official spokesperson for the WikiLeaks organization. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru Thanks for listening! And, as always, I wish you the best wherever you may be! Stay with us.
30 July, 22:59 Obama is completely useless to black America – Glen Ford
People demonstrate in suppport of slained teen Trayvon Martin Photo: AFP The shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin and the ensuing acquittal of George Zimmerman was not just a tragedy, not just a crime, but a gross insult to the dignity of black people. With people who have been in solitary confinement for up to 40 years and one in eight prison inmates in the world being a black American, the United States attempts to fulfill the imperative of making the country a white country, by banishing and burying blacks in the prison system. More and more African Americans are realizing that for them, Obama is absolutely useless, and yet he's the president. Glen Ford spoke to the VoR’s John Robles about these matters and more in the third part of an almost one hour interview he was gracious enough to give the VoR. This is John Robles. You're listening to an interview with Glen Ford, the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report. You can find the previous parts to this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru
Robles: In Europe, in Russia people can't believe the extreme sentences people get for… like the Three Strikes Law you get in California, if you steal a Snickers bar three times in a row, you get life in prison. People can't believe that. What is with that? Ford: Of course, it makes no sense. It makes no sense in terms of sociology or criminology. It only makes sense if you understand what the intent of the system is and the white public that supports the system. Mass black incarceration is designed to purge the country to the extent possible of black people. There is this imperative to make this a white men's country, as it was conceived of by the white settlers. And that imperative remains. So it's not about rehabilitation, it's not even about punishment. It's about removing these black folks from the country or from society and putting them as far away as possible for as long as possible. And it is such an evil imperative! It is what explains the fact that on any given day in the United States 80,000 people, prison-inmates, are in solitary confinement. That's the population of a small city! And many of these people have been in solitary confinement for 10 years, some 20 years! There are people who have been in solitary confinement for almost 40 years. The barbarity of that I'm sure is unthinkable everywhere. Robles: That's considered torture. Ford: It's considered torture, if it's more than 15 days. When we're talking about 10, 20, 30 and 40 years, we're talking about a system and society that wants to bury, banish and bury forever these types of people, because you can't apply that kind of punishment to any individual with justification. There has to be some kind of type that you're trying to eliminate. And we know what that type is. It's the type that Trayvon Martin represented to George Zimmerman. Robles: President Obama, he got his wish to indefinitely detain US citizens anywhere in the world in military prisons. Do you see that transferring in the not so distant future onto the civilian population? Ford: This regime has declared war against the world. And you can't declare war against the world and somehow leave your own large population out of the war. After all, they're the closest ones to you. The federal courts upholding preventive detention and preventive detention by the military, the judges went through this farce, in that they acted as if they believed the president's and Eric Holder's promise that he would not enforce the law in ways that violated Posse Comitatus Statutes. Robles: No, come on! I know you don't believe that. Ford: Who should believe it? If you did not have the intention of having the option of using the military as police force, you could easily have written the legislation in ways that prohibited it. Robles: Sure, he could have vetoed it! Ford: But this bill was written by a Democratic Senator, Levin – who says himself that he was working under orders from the White House – and by John McCain, the Republican. So it's a bipartisan bill speaking for both parties, purposely worded, so that if the president chooses he can use the military. He simply promises, and has signed a paper that is --- Robles: A signing statement. Ford: A signing statement, which doesn't even make him, that he's not even beholden to because he can sign another statement that lets him --- Robles: It means nothing, it's just --- Ford: that negates the first one, it means nothing legally. But what's important here is that they put it into law, so that they could use it when they see fit, so they certainly see it as a possibility that they would use the military as a police force. Robles: What would you say to young black men that look like Trayvon Martin? Ford: Young black men were challenged and confronted that reality back in the 1960s and they formed what were essentially cop watches. People today are proposing that in black communities across the nation, that cop watches be formed, kind of like real community watches, like Zimmerman's community watch which was designed to surveil black people, but community watches that are designed to make sure that people do not abuse members of the community. Well, that's what the Black Panther Party started off as in 1966. It was a cop watch and it was a logical response to a police force in Oakland, California which acted just like all the other police forces, that were violating the rights and taking the lives of the same demographic that Trayvon Martin was a part of. If it was correct then, and I believe it was and that is why I was a member of the party, it is correct now. Robles: I'd like to share with you a little incident just to highlight the racism in the United States and also some of my Russian friends, they don't believe this could have happened, but I was 17 years old, I was working in a fast food restaurant. I was riding my motorbike home and the headlight burned out. And it was dusk, my friends were in their car and I was following them home. And these cops stopped me, all of a sudden there were three cop cars, we had to drive through like this little white suburb section to get to my place. And this policeman pulls out like this 3.57 long barrel Magnum and he points it at my head and he tells me if I even look the wrong way, he'll blow my hardware off. Ford: Effing head off. That's rather routine and it is considered to be reasonable conduct, if you are a member of that inherently dangerous class. We have this whole mythology in the United States that the police are putting their lives on the line every day because they patrol in black communities. White people seem to think that proximity to black people, whether voluntary or involuntary, is taking your life into your hands. That is the common worldview of most people in this country. So that cop pulled out that weapon and brandished it and threatened you with it, as happens thousands of times a night in the United States, because not only could he get away with it, but his community would applaud him for doing so. These people are not thought of as being ogres and bullies and folks who should be drummed out of the force. They are romanticized for their brutality in popular television shows. Robles: Sure, sure. Ford: You see them, I'm sure, in Russia. Robles: Do you see any hope for the future here and what do we need to do to or is there anything we can do to set things right? Ford: Only if black folks organize, only if they build a mass movement. What we have seen in the last several decades of really political passivity in black America, is that the more passive we become, the less organized we are, the more aggressive the racist forces are. So we see a multiplication of these racist laws, like Stand-Your-Ground. We see that even as crime has diminished something like 50% over the last 18 years,it hasn't made a dent in the prison population. So obviously the dynamic for police activity and the incarceration of black folks has nothing to do with crime either, it has to do with the hostility of the white population and their armed representatives, including armed civilians like George Zimmerman. Robles: Do you think part of that has to do with what their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers did to black people? Ford: We have conversations about that. I tend to think that most people in the United States having such a poor understanding of history don't really feel a guilt about slavery, because they don't even know when slavery was and who fought in the civil war. I believe that they have so imbibed race hatred that it is part of the national personality. That is the white American personality. And being a mass psychosis, it reinforces itself. It doesn't need any historical reference or association. Robles: And theyhave to maintain that mass psychosis to keep the system going the way it is going, otherwise, I mean, any same person would see that there's something inherently wrong here. Ford: The same mentality that makes it alright to kill Trayvon Martin makes it alright to bomb countries into the Stone Age. It is the same political personality and worldview. Robles: We can't let the death of Trayvon Martin just be forgotten. I mean, what can people do? Is this going to galvanize people into actually starting some movement or doing something? Ford: Oh yes, I believe so. I think that more and more people, and especially young people - I was in demonstrations on Sunday in New York, about 5,000. And for the first time in a very-very long time most of the people who were marching were young people. And they were in defiant mood. And if a leadership develops and it will come from these young people themselves, that wants to confront the society and fight for black humanity by any means necessary, I think we will see a resurgence of something that looks like the movement that we had in the 60s. These are different times, it will employ somewhat different language, but I believe that folks are understanding that a mass movement is the only answer, that petitions and electing black officials and even a black president won't do anything to dent the endemic racism of American society. Robles: Right. In many places the actual ruling white population…. I mean it's like apartheid South Africa, I think in California under 40% or 30%. Can you give us some numbers? Ford: New York City has been a majority non-white city for a long time. Chicago - the same way. California, as you know, is rapidly, if it's not already become a majority non-white state. Texas is on the way. However, it's more complicated than that. You know, we have a South Africa that supposedly was liberated from white rule in 1994, but white folks still control the land and the money, even though they are only something like one out of every 6 people. I don't see the attainment of a non-white majority, sometime in the 20-40s in the United States, as automatically ending white domination. There'll be lots of Latinos who will identify white at that point. Robles: Then it makes the racism that much more egregious and ridiculous. You can't have one group ruling so totally over another group. That's what I'm saying. Ford: If the group that rules actually is insane enough to believe that these other people are out to get them, the closer they become to a minority, the more vicious they may become in defense of their privileges. I think we may be seeing that. Robles: Things are going to get worse, you think, in America? Ford: Certainly. We know that economically they are going to get worse. That means that white people who already think that they are the most discriminated against group in the country, will become even more insecure, they still control all the tools of political power and can be expected to become more repressive in their wielding of those tools. Robles: Ok. Ford: I think that one of the things that we're observing – and it's happening very quickly and I think the Trayvon Martin situation, the verdict. has speeded this process up, is that black folks seem to be far less enthralled of this black president than even a year ago. It's clear that even in the face of this not just a tragedy, not just a crime, but this gross insult to the dignity of black people, that this man is of no use to us, is absolutely useless, and yet he's the president. And certainly it follows that the mere election of more black faces to high places is not going to solve such fundamental problems, as endemic racism in this country, that it requires a social movement that confronts racism in all of its aspects, in all of the places in which it operates – and that means everywhere in the country, in order to delegitimize the kind of worldview that gives a pass and even a commendation to a George Zimmerman. Robles: Glen, I really appreciate you speaking with me. Ford: Thank you! You were listening to an interview in progress with Glen Ford, the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report. You can find the previous parts to this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru Thanks for listening and I wish you the best!
29 July, 18:49 3 'Eric Holder is bad news for African Americans' – Glen Ford
Eric Holder Photo: AFP In the aftermath of the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a white vigilante who shot and killed an unarmed black teen because he was “walking while black”, the subject of endemic American racism has once again become the subject of debate. Racism in America has grown worse, especially since the reign of Barack Hussein Obama. Glen Ford, the Editor of Black Agenda Report, spoke about this and other matters with the Voice of Russia’s John Robles. For black Americans the Barack Obama Administration speaks the language of an endemic racist white America and is only about placating white people. Sadly in America even though the president is black and so is his attorney general, this has made no difference in the quality of their lives and in their equal rights. Eric Holder is bad news for black people and is the last thing from a savior or an ally for black Americans, when it comes to criminal justice matters. This is John Robles, you're listening to an interview with Glen Ford, the Editor of Black Agenda Report. You can find the previous parts to this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru Robles: What's the reaction inside the United States? Ford: Three weeks after Trayvon Martin was killed, Obama was still instructing his press-secretary to say that the president doesn't wade into local law enforcement matters. But the outrage across black America, like nothing we've seen for a very long time, kept on building. And this was, remember, this was 2012, this was an election year. And so he had to respond in some kind of way that would not offend white people. And so he came up with this perfect phrase that was simply a statement of physical fact, that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon. And I guess he would, if Obama had a son, he'd be brown-skinned and tall and skinny like Trayvon. But what does that have to do with justice? Robles: It's just window dressing. It's just politics. It's just like everything else Obama said, I mean, to everybody. Ford: Now, after this verdict, what we have in black America is the rage of the impotent, because black folks understand that we don't have any levers that we can pull in the arsenal that we have now since we do not have a mass movement, there are no buttons that we can push. It doesn't do any good to ask this administration which is only about placating white people, which speaks the language of an endemic racist white America, even though the president is black and so is his attorney general. It doesn't do any good at all and most black people know it. To talk about the Justice Department having an investigation and contemplating civil rights charges against Zimmerman! No jury in the U.S. - and this is the hard rock that black folks have to contemplate and the one we've always been up against - that no white jury is going to think that it is unreasonable for a Zimmerman and certainly a cop to not follow, not profile, not suspect, a 17-year-old black kid of being up to no good, because that is the prevailing white assumption. We're not profiled not just by cops, but by the white society as a whole. And that's why housing values, if there are black people in the neighborhood, go down. It's not because black people do anything to the property. It is because white people do not want to share space with black people and therefore will not invest in properties that are in or near black areas. And so you see, in terms of market activity, the crazy situation in which black communities with very good housing stock across the city line from white communities with inferior housing stock. The white housing goes for, or sells for much higher, than the superior housing stock in the black community. Race distorts the actual market in the United States! And it distorts the legal system as well. And it distorts the educational system. It's been about 60 years, almost 60 years now, since the Supreme Court declared segregation to be inherently unequal. And yet the schools in many ways are more segregated than before, in that northern schools are more segregated than they were, and the southern schools that would be desegregated, are rapidly returning to their segregated condition. And there's absolutely no movement to break that slide back into the deepest residential segregation. Robles: In what ways do you encounter racism and in what ways do dark-skinned people encounter racism in the United States on the daily basis? Ford: Any area of life that you wanted to bring up I could comment about how racism impacts it, in terms of dealings with police one is automatically suspect. One is suspect in terms of going into a store. White people browse and shop, black people are considered to be casing the joint. Study after study after study has shown that black folks are followed, surveilled as they shop far far more intensely than white people. That means white thieves get away with murder. Study after study has shown that young white people do more drugs, more illegal drugs than black people. And yet, black people are arrested for drug possession at four and five times the rate of young white people, because the police are not looking for drugs among their children. They surveil constantly black communities for drugs and that is where we get - a situation in which one out of every eight prisoners on planet Earth are African-American. It all begins with the surveillance, I really want to emphasize that. The same surveillance that wound up not too many minutes later after it began with Trayvon Martin lying dead on the grass. That is the kind of surveillance that black people of all sexes and all ages are constantly subjected to in every arena of life in the U.S. Robles: In the workplace how does racism raise its head - trying to get a job, trying to keep a job, trying to get ahead in your job? Ford: Well, we know that the black unemployment rate for the last 40 years has consistently been double that of white. And it doesn't matter what the job market looks like, if it's a bullish or a bearish economy. It remains the same. It is a constant that we have double unemployment and it's at least that, because black uncounted unemployment is a lot greater than white uncounted unemployment, studies show that. But it remains consistent there that the only variable that can account for that is a pervasive racism. It becomes even more intense as the mass black incarceration regime, which is also about 40 years old, continues. Because huge proportions and especially of men, huge proportions of black men now have felony convictions. And that automatically bars them from all kinds of employment, some of it by law, but certainly by tradition. It relegates them to the lowest and most menial jobs if they can get that. And this, of course, then undermines the coherence of the entire community. Robles: Now I just wanted to ask you, because I tell this to some of my Russian friends. I'd apply for a job, I talk to somebody on phone, they'd get my resume, they'd say “Oh, you can start next week. We just have to work out some details”. I show up at the office. They say, “Oh, sorry, that position is filled”. I was dealing with it all the time. Ford: That is the oldest and most prevalent story in the book and, in fact, 30 years ago organizations learned to send out teams of folks white people to apply for jobs or to apply as renters or buyers of housing. And black folks with exactly the same credentials always consistent, like clockwork, you'd find that the white respondents got the job or got the lease or got the loan for the house and the black folks did not - they've done studies that show that people who send in resumes with black-sounding names, you might as well not send that resume in. We n ow have a counter current in black culture of parents giving their children names that do not sound culturally black, so that they won’t be burdened with that, when they get a job. Robles: Back to Eric Holder, interesting anecdote here. I called his home, I wanted to interview him about Trayvon Martin and as soon as I said the name of Trayvon Martin, the response from the woman that answered was almost outrage. Ford: Yeah, that would be the last name they want to hear. Robles: Eric Holder, I mean, he's African-American individual, I guess. Ford: Yeah, he's an African-American individual who when he was a high legal official with authority over the city of Washington D.C., District of Columbia, was so militantly in favor of sweeping the streets of people smoking marijuana, he was considered a fiend, it seemed to be his obsession. And, of course, that's part of the huge intake mechanism for the mass black incarceration system. Even as a lawman, he's bad news for black people. He's the last thing from a savior or an ally, when we talk about criminal justice matters. When the Crack Cocaine Laws were amended so that they weren't, didn’t carry 100 times the penalty for powdered cocaine, understand that powdered cocaine is used more by whites, and crack cocaine proportionately more by black, when the penalty was reduced to only 18 times as severe, this Holder, Attorney General, opposed for almost two years allowing it to apply retroactively, so that tens and tens of thousands of people who, if the law were applied retroactively, would have been released, were forced to languish in prison. The Congress had already acted, but Eric Holder was acting on his own prejudices which is to keep people convicted of any kind of drug charge, not just cocaine, but marijuana as well, in jail for as long as possible. This is a law and order man. You were listening to an interview in progress with Glen Ford, the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report. You can find Part III of this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru Thanks for listening! And I wish you the best! Barack Obama, US, minority rights, justice, ethnic minorities, racism, ethnic discrimination, Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman,Eric Holder, society, drugs, Zimmerman verdict: mass protests in US, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · And so is Obama! Only those belonging to the elite '1%' club are not affected - black or white. · Standard US policy is divide and conquer, active now in the middle-east and Africa ... coming to america soon. · I will say Hawaii being the 50th state, absolutely despise white people. They have the come to Hawaii and visit, spend your dollars as Hawaii depends on tourism and they attitude of the locals have always been come to Hawaii and visit, spend your $$$$ but make sure you leave. I was born and raised in Hawaii and just because I have lighter skin yet not white people have taunted me my whole life. I detest racism but it isn't only blavks affected, white people get racism in certain places as well and just as badly. Blacks are welcome in Hawaii a lot more than the white people. Racism, no matter the color of skin is just appalling and I will never live in Hawaii again after the life I went through there growing up. Took me 38 yrs to leave the island and only for family do I go home and then I get harrassed by the people in the neighborhood. Racism sucks, for everybody. For a country with so many liberties racism is yet to be stopped, we need to criminally go after the racism as hate crimes and hate speech. 28 July, 20:54 11 Holder’s desperate letter proves Mr. Snowden is in grave danger
Eric Holder Photo: EPA The Attorney General of the United States of America Eric Holder has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the Russian Federation essentially making promises that United States will do nothing unusual or in any way against U.S. law if the Russian Federation will just put aside its own norms, the Russian Constitution, international law and conventions and just, as the U.S. Ambassador put it, “return” Mr. Edward Snowden to the United States. The Attorney General begins his letter by listing the “crimes” that Mr. Snowden is charged with ignoring the fact that the laws that Mr. Snowden is said to have broken are not crimes in the Russian Federation, or perhaps Mr. General is under the assumption that U.S. law somehow is something that the rest of the world must abide by and follow. Judging from the real and documented history of the United States, the country possesses a total lack of respect or regard for international law and the laws of other sovereign nations, especially the Russian Federation. This is evident from the illegal invasions of sovereign nations, illegal torture programs, extra-judicial executions by drone and other means and with regard to Russia, the continuous illegal kidnapping and rendition of Russian citizens back to the United States. I have been documenting these crimes for over a decade and have been the victim of similar U.S. ‘retribution”, so hearing the Attorney General preach to Russia about U.S. law as it is engaging in asking Russia to also set aside its Constitution, as the U.S. does, and engage in double standards and hypocrisy, is something nauseating to say the least. The sheer hypocrisy that is evident in the U.S. actions surrounding Mr. Snowden and the level of desperation that the U.S. has shown are simply mind boggling in their breadth and scope. Mr. Holder writes: “Mr. Snowden believes that he is unable to travel out of Russia and must therefore take steps to legalize his status. That is not accurate; he is able to travel. Despite the revocation of his passport on June 22, 2013, Mr. Snowden remains a U.S. citizen. He is eligible for a limited validity passport good for direct return to the United States. The United States is willing to immediately issue such a passport to Mr. Snowden.” The whole point, in case Mr. Holder has missed it, which it is obvious he has, is that Mr. Snowden has been granted political asylum in several countries and had wanted to travel to those countries. Not face death or torture at the hands of a government that has secret torture prisons, launches wars of aggression at every political whim, has off-shore indefinite detention facilities and engages in regular extra-judicial executions, just to name a few of the continuing violations of international norms that the U.S. is guilty of. Such a government can and must never be trusted and that is a fact that can in no way be known better than by someone like Mr. Snowden who worked for the CIA and the NSA. So a one way ticket to America is not an option Mr. Holder. No one in their right mind would trust any of the assurances given by Holder, and Mr. Snowden is right, and moreover, has the right, to seek asylum and be protected. Holder: “We also understand from press reports that Mr. Snowden has filed papers seeking temporary asylum in Russia on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty. These claims are entirely without merit.” Again are we supposed to forget the last several decades of world history? Are we supposed to forget Manning who has been tortured, are we to forget Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo and even ex Vice President Richard Chaney signing off on such torture techniques as “puncturing an eye” and “slicing a testicle”? Are we to forget case after case after case and report after report of other instances of torture, extra-judicial executions and even innocent men and women being executed when there was evidence that exonerated them? Mr. Holder insults our intelligence. “Second, Mr. Snowden will not be tortured. Torture is unlawful in the United States…” It is interesting to note that he says “unlawful” and not “illegal” and this whole argument is absurd regardless of the wording because we know the U.S. renditions people all the time to countries where torture is legal and we know the U.S. has its own special off-shore torture prison at Guantanamo. Simply unbelievable. The rest of the letter goes on to say that Mr. Snowden would be granted a fair trial blah blah blah… Yeah good one Mr. Holder, just like the NATO 5, Jeremy Hammond, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, everyone who has ever been droned, the hundreds of men at Guantanamo and let’s not forget how Trayvon Martin’s family got justice, etc. ad-nauseum. The United States has become a rogue illegal nation and the continued persecution of Mr. Edward Snowden, a young man who exposed that rogue nation’s illegality against the world and its own citizens and more importantly Mr. Holder, against the very Constitution you are sworn to uphold, prove beyond all doubt that Mr. Snowden is in very grave and imminent danger. Please don’t insult the intelligence of the world and the Russian Government by engaging in such ridiculous letter writing Mr. Holder. We all know that once Mr. Snowden is in your hands, and I pray for him that never happens, he will be interrogated using your “enhanced interrogation techniques” until he goes insane or kills himself and if he does survive he will be locked in solitary confinement under special observation until the day he dies, that is of course if he is not executed, as nothing will stop you from executing him once he is in your hands. Will a letter from the Russian Government saying execution is illegal stop you if there comes a day when the switch is about to be pulled on Mr. Snowden? No. So why should your false guarantees force Russia to violate its own Constitution? By the way Mr. Holder, how are Mr. Bout and Mr. Yaroshenko faring after you illegally renditioned them from third countries? Rule of law? Only when it is convenient for you and those in power. Mr. Snowden exposed your illegality, as did I and we know what happens to those who expose the illegality of the Imperial United States of America. Just ask Julian Assange. And lastly, just in case Mr. Holder was not aware: The Russian Government knows what you are up to better than you think Mr. Holder, Russian officials and the Russian Government are not fools, after all Mr. Snowden won’t be the first American who has received asylum in Russia due to the illegality of the American state. He won’t be the first, because actually, I was. The opinions and views expressed here are my own I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Russia, NATO, US, Russian-US relations, Guantanamo prison, justice, intelligence, spy scandal, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning,info leak, whistleblower, political asylum, surveillance, PRISM, NSA, Edward Snowden, Snowden: ‘Catch Me If You Can’, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 11 · With regard to the somewhat redundant letter of understanding, from Eric--Fast-and-Furious--Holder: The US is a UN member and a Permanent Security Council member, and is thus automatically excluded, as per the agreements of accession/membership, from conducting torture, extraordinary renditions and/or politically motivated executions. · I think it is the US showing signs of desperation as nations are sick and tired of being mistreated any which way. · This is a very well written and accurate assessment of the state of things in the US today - as it always has been...even to the extent of the broken promises made to the indigenous indian tribes so many years ago. It's well remembering the old indian saying here..."White man speaks with forked tongue." · And all (of the above mentioned in your article) is without the US requesting that EU countries close off their air space to a sovereign head of states jet - granting him safe passage on his journey. because the US authorities thought Snowden just might be aboard President Morales plane. Also, in complete violation of current international laws of air travel. · Very good article, well documented. Now let us prey that Mister Putin do not fall in his partner's trick. Never forget that Uncle-Tom Obama is just in the White-House to serve America's real masters... · The letter is simply a means to excuse Russia to play dumb as Snowden is tortured and potentially executed (if he is lucky). I don't know how Putin is thinking. I don't think he cares for Snowden. But I don't think he would want to be seen as a lackey of USA gov. I believe he has the interests of Russia in hand. And want to show that it is not to be messed with by pressure or insults like this letter. · a very passionate letter, Mr. Robles...and I agree w/your point of view... · This is a very good article and well-explained. Now, I only hope that Putin, and other Russian officials are not fooled by Eric Holder's false promises into sending Snowden back. He is no longer safe in the US. It is a disgrace what the Obama administration is doing. · Since when has the US adhered to international laws it doesn't like??? · i'm sure holder would be just as good on his word in this case as all the others. Russian sending this guy back would be a one way ticket to hell. · The biggest CRIME is the USA spied every people.. yes this is a BIG CRIME AGAINST THE WORLD..Attorney General of the United States of America Eric Holder must SPEAK about this CRIMES from NSA, GOOGLE, FACEBBOK, Phones, Computers, spie people and companies to solen every secret document and bla bla bla.. 27 July, 19:48 NATO and the “phantom menace”: a pretext for global expansion
Photo: EPA Upcoming NATO military exercises envisage an attack on Poland and an Article 5 NATO intervention against a foreign power, to the dismay of Russia, these exercises continue the outdated “Cold War” thinking of the West, which refuses to let go of such stereotypes and continues to eschew peace and understanding between nations. The opinions and views expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.
26 July, 06:10 WikiLeaks Party announces candidates: interview with Greg Barns
Photo: Flickr.com/Nils Geylen/cc-by-sa 3.0 The WikiLeaks Party has announced their candidates for the upcoming elections to the Australian Senate, the Upper House of the Australian Parliament, and the team that they have assembled consists of leaders in the areas of human rights, foreign policy, and ethics. Their chances to win seats are excellent and such a team is what will be needed to bring accountability to the government of Australia. Julian Assange remains the number one candidate and is running in Victoria. Greg Barns, the head of the Australian WikiLeaks Party spoke to the Voice of Russia moments after making the announcement.
http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Greg_Barns.html
23 July, 03:04 2 Military buildup around Syria points to another invasion - Rozoff
Photo: EPA The dressing down and attempted humiliation of General Martin Dempsey, the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by superannuated life-time bureaucrat John McCain, was another in a long series of attempts to push the U.S. military into another act of aggressive war by those controlling Washington. With the amassed U.S. and NATO military forces and hardware around Syria and the advancements made by the Syria Army, the likelihood that the U.S. will invade and commit another act of aggressive war against yet another country they have helped to destabilize and tear apart seems very likely. Regular Voice of Russia contributor Rick Rozoff spoke to the VOR about these matters and more.
PART 1 Th You were listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff, the Owner and Manager of the Stop NATO website and international mailing list. Visit our site in the near future for the conclusion of this interview. World, NATO, US, Syria, Syria-U.S. relations, US Army, war, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · Rozoff being a drama queen, US will not get involved - McCain and Graham may be confined to section B belonging to the idiot corner, but the military establishment is not. If any trend is visible, it is increasing US withdrawal from the conflict and abandoning the rebels. · @Jose...I hear it myself that D.C. has qualms about the future for the US in Syria. Two good points to make are also Assad's popularity and the high capabilities of the Syrian Army...who, from my screen, are very effective and this hasn't been the case in ANY of US shenanigans in that neighborhood...can't pretend to walk over people like that...that's for Disney World... 20 July, 19:24 3 McCain harangues Dempsy, Obama wants invasion plans for Syria
Collage: Voice of Russia Despite apparent overtures by the new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, pointing to U.S. willingness to seek a peaceful solution to the internal conflict in Syria, the U.S. continues to seek a pretext and prepare for a military intervention in yet another Middle East country and another country that cannot properly defend itself against U.S. aggression. Recently John McCain has revealed the blood lust driving American politics and the subservient role that the U.S. military plays to politicians whose only interest is their own well-being. The opinions and views expressed in this article are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Middle East, Barack Obama, US, Syria, John McCain, Bashar Assad, US foreign policy, Syria-U.S. relations, Martin Dempsey, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · Proxy war by western sponsored terrorists = plan A Iraq/Egypt style invasion under pretexts = plan B [fill in the blanks] = plan C · Many of us in the west urge Russia and China to stand firm. Like all bullies america will only stand down when someone stands up for the victim. · How embarrassed and outraged I am over my govt. here in the U.S. It is a shameless bully that has bludgeoned millions. I pray regularly that the U.S. and CHina will demand no military intervention by the U.S. The U.S. would have already invated Syria had it not been for Russia's strong stance on behalf of Syria. 20 July, 01:02 American racism: an endemic and mass-psychosis – Glen Ford
Photo: EPA Every 28 hours in the United States of America a black person is the victim of an extrajudicial execution. Segregation continues and is getting worse and the endemic of racism in America, a country built by slaves and founded on genocide and extermination, while denied by those guilty of it, continues unabated. Racism turns morality upside down and in the words of Glen Ford is a mass-psychosis. The death of young Trayvon Martin at the hands of a racist vigilante who literally got away with murder because Trayvon was black has shown us again what the reality is of life in America. PART 1 Hello this is John Robles I am speaking with Mr. Glen Ford, he’s the Executive Editor at Black Agenda Report.
Robles: Hello sir. How are you? Ford: How are you? And thanks for inviting me. Robles: And thanks for agreeing to speak to us. This is a very sensitive topic, it is one that people around the world don’t understand. We are speaking about George Zimmerman and the late Trayvon Martin. How is it possible that someone who was armed, followed someone else and just shot them dead and got off with no criminal penalty at all, in your opinion? Ford: Oh, it happens every day. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, for the last year or so, has been keeping track of extrajudicial executions of black people. They found that one occurs about every 28 hours in the United States, most are carried out by police, but about 28 last year were conducted by white vigilantes and that’s what George Zimmerman was, or security guards and such, in other words, by civilians. So, this is not a rare occurrence in the United States and it historically is not rare at all, it is part of the environment, the historical environment and the contemporary environment of the United States, because black people, especially young black men are considered, this is not just police, most white people assume that young black men are inherently dangerous and that is a general assumption, and it follows from that assumption that even a 17-year-old who has no police record, who’s actually an outstanding student, who is walking through a neighborhood in which his father lives and he has every right to be and is bothering nobody, that that person is still a danger to the community and it is not just that George Zimmerman decided that he had the right to think so, he shares that same assumption with most white people and white people see, “their” cops performing “their” duties. Duties that they approve of, operating under that assumption as well. Now, once you accept the assumption, the premise, that young black males are dangerous, then of course it is commonsensical to profile them, you’ve already profiled them by identifying them as coming from this dangerous group and to stalk them, and if you confront them, since you’ve already designated them as dangerous, you are correct in fearing for your life in that confrontation. So, therefore, if you are armed and not just in Florida, not just under “stand your ground” laws, but in the minds of the white public, the potential jurors, you are acting reasonably if you use deadly force against this inherently dangerous person. That is the reality of life in America. Robles: Now you just said that as a matter of “fact”, “the right to be in a neighborhood”, for example for Russians, they can go in any neighborhood they want. Can you explain how neighborhoods are racially segregated in the United States and why someone may not have the “right” to be in some neighborhood? Ford: Neighborhoods are quite segregated in the United States, that is still the norm, however, the neighborhood where this shooting occurred is in fact integrated. The development where George Zimmerman lives, was also the development where Trayvon Martin’s farther lived. It was predominantly white, but there were black people there, the city, Sanford Florida is 30% black, it’s a rather small city, and the smaller the city, usually, the less rigidly segregated they are. It appears that in the minds of people like Zimmerman and a young black male carries the danger around with him, whether the neighborhood is a black neighborhood, or a mostly white neighborhood, or an integrated neighborhood, “he” is the walking danger. That is why we refer to the “crime” of “walking while black”, and of course “driving while black”, and sometimes “sleeping while black”. Robles: Can you tell us about the composition of the jury? Ford: It was a jury of 6 women, 5 of them were white, 1 was a Latina, many Latinas believe that they are white, but an overwhelmingly white and totally female jury. Robles: I see. The Zimmerman person here, he was part Peruvian, I think. Ford: Yeah, part Peruvian, of mixed race, but again, many Latinos consider themselves to be white. Here is a little factoid that you are probably aware of, that lots of people aren’t, in many states in the United States people with Hispanic surnames, when they are born are automatically noted, registered in hospitals as “being” white and historically there has been little protest among Latinos for being so designated. It is a matter of which group you identify with, and Hispanics can be of any race. It is up to them to identify whichever race they chose. Clearly Zimmerman identified as being white, was certainly not being black. His father is a local judge in Virginia, a racist to the core, he actually wrote an e-book, in which he described the NAACP and every black organization that he could think of as being totally racist. He said it is not American society that is racist but these black activist organizations that are creating a scare of racism for their own political self-service. So, he is a “race problem denier” and I would assume that he has had an influence on the politics of his son. His other son is even more overtly racist than Zimmerman. Robles: So, the family has a whole large and long racist background, and here again it is a problem in the United States and maybe you could explain that to the world audience? Ford: We are talking about Florida. And the Miami Police Department is now overwhelmingly Latino, heavily Cuban, and they have one of the worst records for shooting unarmed blacks in the country. So, we should not assume solidarity among those who are not considered Anglo-white in America. Robles: Explain a little bit about this problem: you got the racists and they say well, anyone who alls them out on it is racist themselves. They come up with that they are being discriminated against. Ford: Well, you know that’s why I included in the piece, this recent study by Harvard and Tuft University, that found that a majority of white Americans believe that whites suffer the most racial discrimination in America. Now you have to be absolutely insane to believe that. To believe that somehow the people who make up about 12% of the country, whose unemployment rate is historically, for the last 40 years, double that of white, whose incarceration rate is many, many multiples that of white people, who have in terms of median family wealth, 1/20 the wealth of white people, are somehow creating a situation in which white people are more discriminated against than black people. This is sheer insanity and it is relevant to the killing of Trayvon Martin and even more relevant to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, that people who think that black folks are so malicious, that they are the bad guys in this and represent a danger to the well-being, and the social status of white people as a whole, people who can feel that way, that that majority of white folks is certainly capable of justifying any kind of murder of the group that they most resent, and that is young black males like Trayvon Martin. Robles: No, let’s call this a psychosis that they have. Right? Ford: Yeah! Mass-psychosis! Robles: Right! Now, less than 200 years ago they were buying and killing and treating black people like slaves, do you think this all stems from that? I mean I am part of American Indian, almost half, and unfortunately my people, we were treated… We were animals, because the Indians couldn’t be slaves, they would die under those conditions. The black folks were bought and sold like property, so they got a little better of a deal. That wasn’t that long ago historically, and we’re talking about the ancestors a couple of generations ago, I mean their parents were just killing these people. Ford: Native Americans were exterminated. You cannot exterminate a people, and it’s not in one fell swoop. You do it over a period of actually hundreds of years. You can’t do that, you can’t justify that to your children, without characterizing your victims as somehow being at fault. And so the term “savage Indian” became one word. You kill them and to justify it you say that they are savages. With black folks: “lazy black person”. That comes from the fact that black people were slaves and white folks made their riches, their wealth from working these slaves for free, and were constantly trying to squeeze more labor out of them to justify treating them like animals. They had to claim that these were “lazy” people who had to be forced to work or else they would just lay there and do nothing. This justified the whip, and the lash, and the mutilation of those who didn’t work hard enough. Robles: Who really wasn’t working? Ford: The guy drinking the mint julep, sitting on the porch telling his white overseer to whip that lazy black man. Robles: Yeah, but who lazy here? Ford: Oh yeah! That is the case! But you see racism, and racism came from that exploitation, extermination, as a justification for that. Racism turns morality upside-down and totally warps the world view on those who are afflicted with it and the United States was born in extermination and slavery, racism is absolutely endemic to this country and always has been and yet we have a black president, who in 2008 gave his famous Philadelphia speech, in which he claimed that not only was racism not endemic to the United States today, but never had been. So, he is speaking with “forked tongue” as the “television Indians” say. Robles: Yeah, well I could quote Malcolm X about him, but I won’t, because it is not a pretty quote, about the kind of person “he” is. You were listening to an interview with Mr. Glen Ford, the Executive Editor at Black Agenda dot com. This is part one of a much longer discussion on the matter of racism in America. Please visit our site in the near future for a continuation of this interview. The Black Agenda Report www.blackagendareport.com
18 July, 21:43 1 Obama wins back "right" to indefinitely hold Americans, anywhere
Photo: EPA An NDAA provision allowing for imprisoning Americans forever without trial was deemed to be unconstitutional last year by one federal court but the White House appealed and won back the right in another. America is in a perilous and delicate place, Jesselyn Radack recently told the Voice of Russia in an interview, and things just continue to get worse. The non-stop assault on the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Americans continues unabated and this time with Obama winning back the right to indefinitely detain and even torture American citizens, it looks like there is no turning back. The right for Obama and all future presidents to indefinitely imprison Americans, something they can already do to non-US nationals, was cleverly snuck into a defense spending authorization bill called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and was signed by Obama, the first time with the indefinite detention provision in 2012, and then again in 2013. In 2012 Section 1021, the provision which allows for indefinite detention, was fought in the courts and a federal judge issued an injunction against that part of the legislation, however the White House filed an appeal and Wednesday a New York US Federal Court granted that appeal and gave the Executive Branch the right to indefinitely detain anyone they deem to be an enemy of the United States, or even anyone who provides such “enemies” with support. The provision does away with Habeas Corpus rights once and for all and allows for the detention of US and other nationals in military prisons even inside the US which is against the US constitution. The NDAA detention provisions signed by Obama are also in violation of international law because they allow for the military detention, by order of the president, of anyone captured who is not a party to an actual armed conflict or on a battlefield as required by the international laws of war and the rules regarding enemy combatants. The NDAA detention provisions signed by Obama are also in violation of international law because they allow for the military detention, by order of the president, of anyone captured who is not a party to an actual armed conflict or on a battlefield as required by the international laws of war and the rules regarding enemy combatants. The provision will also allow for the detention of Americans in prisons outside the United States, and all of this without the right to due process, without the right to know what a person is charged with and even without the right to contact an attorney or even relatives if one is detained, effectively allowing the president the right to secretly hold anyone, anywhere in the world for as long as he wants and do whatever he wants to them, including torture (enhanced interrogation). Coupled with the authority to target Americans for drone extermination, this would also allow for the quiet, secret, extra-judicial execution of anyone the president wants, as long as they are determined to be an enemy of the United States. This includes journalists, whistleblowers, truth-seekers and anyone with a conscience. Obama had claimed that he was against such powers and has promised to not abuse the power in a signing statement which actually means nothing. In reality the White House’s appeal against the federal ruling that said such powers are illegal, as well as White House statements that have said the president needs such powers to effectively battle terrorism, show that the White House and Obama fully endorse and want such unconstitutional authority. The ruling allowing for the authority to pass to future presidents and will effectively cement what has been called the “Imperial Presidency” giving the US President powers that even the worst dictators in history could not have imagined in their wildest dreams. By cleverly attaching the provision in a National Defense Authorization Act, something no “Strong-on-Defense” American politician could go against, the White House has circumvented the law and debate on the provision. It is obvious that if such “rights” were promoted as an independent stand-alone bill, they would not have a snowball’s chance of passing. Call it Orwellian, fascist or tyrannical, the US President and Government have gone down, and continue to go down, a road that should scare the American populace to death. Unfortunately it seems it is too late to do anything. With the passing of the NDAA and the allowing of the injunction against indefinite detention to be overturned, now the Judiciary, the last hope for the American people, has also chosen to ignore the US Constitution and the rule of law. Through the NSA programs such as PRISM, they have total surveillance. Through drone related “legal” interpretations and findings they now have the power to extra-judicially execute anyone, anywhere in the world. With Guantanamo they have the “right” to detain and hold anyone, anywhere in the world until the end of time, and even force them to continue living after they have decided to kill themselves through starvation. And lastly through the recent modifications of the Smith-Mundt Act, which I wrote about yesterday, the United States Government and the US President have the right to control and fabricate the information that they allow the US population to have access to. No dictatorship or tyrannical power in the history of the world has ever had such broad and total powers as Obama has amassed. No dictatorship or tyrannical power in the history of the world has ever had such broad and total powers as Obama has amassed. His elections promises of “Change You Can Believe In” now ring as a warning. He never did specify that the “Change” would be for the better, and the record has shown that “Change” has been, and continues to be for the worse. We were all fooled. The opinions and views expressed above are my own. I can be droned at robles@ruvr.ru. US, civil rights, human rights, detention, new laws, fight against terrorism, U.S. anti-terrorism strategy, World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · And what if someone accuses you and fabricates evidence against you for some reason, then how do you defend yourself? Got a feeling there is more behind this that meets the eye or should we say someone. 17 July, 16:54 The Fourth Estate in the US is not working – Jesselyn Radack
Photo: en.wikipedia.org/UpstateNYer/cc-by-sa Download audio file The United States is in a delicate perilous place right now after Obama’s reelection, but the people reelected him because the options were worse. What can Americans do? The only way to bring about change in the US is to convene a new “Church Committee” and keep talking, writing and dissenting, on international media because in the U.S. the Fourth Estate is broken and the media only repeats government talking points. This and more was underlined in an interview for the VoR with Jessylyn Radack, probably the very first whistleblower to suffer at the hands of the US Government in the post 9-11 world.
That was the end of an interview with Jesselyn Radack, the National Security Human and Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project. Thank you very much for listening, and as always, I wish you the best, wherever in the world you may be. Stay with us.
17 July, 16:16 Broadcasting Board of Governors to be US “Ministry of Truth”, next step in information war
US Congress Photo: EPA In what looks like a desperate move by the US Government to manipulate and misinform the US populace due to the waning popularity of Congress, the Intelligence Community, the “War” Department and the President, on July 2nd the US Government quietly lifted a prohibition on allowing US Government manufactured propaganda to be directed at Americans inside the United States. With the new “modifications” to the Smith-Mundt Act, propaganda produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the propaganda arm of the US Government that broadcasts the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, will now be allowed to be fed to and directed at the American populace. Or in their words “they will provide access” to their “material” so Americans can see what is being broadcast abroad. If you are reading this then you are one of a growing number of the world’s English reading population that has sought news and information from non-US corporate or government controlled entities. Whether you are interested in hearing unbiased reporting, seeking the truth, attempting to get the whole story or trying to get an opposing view, you have come to the right place. Thanks to the internet it is possible for people, both in the US as well as the world, to access non-US based independent and alternative media in order to get a real perspective about events that do not go through American filters and may be biased or censored. An example of such bias might be calling Muammar Gaddafi a dictator rather than a leader, foreign imported terrorists and cannibals in Syria “rebels”, or calling Edward Snowden a traitor rather than a whistleblower. Examples of censorship and blackouts are even more numerous and insidious, some examples include the complete media blackout that exists in the UK with regard to Julian Assange, the limited reporting in the US on Edward Snowden or the complete and almost total blackout and manipulation that exists in Serbia and in any news coming out of that country. A couple years back Hillary Clinton indignantly complained that the US was losing the global media war. Apparently the US Government thought that the internet would be a US controlled propaganda dissemination and spying tool but unfortunately for Washington this has not been the case and the internet has allowed Americans to access alternative media and alternative views. This latest step in the US media mind control battle is chilling for many reasons. The extreme and violent reaction by the US Government to the recent revelations of it own illegality by WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, and now Edward Snowden, to name a few, has shown just how truly terrified and obsessed the US Government is, that its own illegality is being revealed. The Obama Administration and the US Government’s war on journalists, whistleblowers, and truth seekers and their continuing attempts to control, muzzle and censor the internet and the US mass media have not been enough apparently. Now the US wants to transmit propaganda to the US populace, in effect filling the information vacuum they are creating, with their own “manufactured” content and nullifying the mission and the purpose of the Fourth Estate. This latest move makes it appear even more as if the US Government is using George Orwell’s Oceania as a blueprint for the new “Amerika” and the “Homogenous American World” planned out by the Project for a New American Century. A plan which needed an event such as 9-11 to serve as a catalyst. 9-11 allowed for the total global military expansion of the US and its surrogate NATO, in order to force the world into submission if it decides it does not want to be part of a Homogenous American World. We have seen the endless state of war that the citizens of Oceania had to live with brought to reality with the endless global “War on Terror”, with endless threats and fabricated battles against “evil” leaders such as Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, CIA asset Osama Bin Laden and countries destabilized and invaded by the US as examples of how terrible the world is and how “honorable and “just” Big Brother is in “protecting American lives” and spreading democracy. We have also seen the complete and total surveillance state that the Oceanians had to live under realized though the internet and the NSA’s PRISM and related programs, with the help of “Internet Giants” the American populace has become one glued to their monitors and their narcissistic social media pages ready to accept that everything they do on-line in recorded and watched by “Big Brother” in order to guarantee their own safety. Microsoft even has a patent, taken out in 2011, for something almost exactly like the Oceanian telescreen surveillance system. Even Oceania’s Ministry of Love and the constant fear of torture or secret indefinite arrest have been realized with the knowledge that the United States tortures and renditions and maintains a “Ministry of Love” type installation in Guantanamo or at Super Max. Moreover the US Government can now drone and indefinitely detain Americans without charge or trial or contact with the outside world. The only thing that was lacking, as if the corporate controlled American mass media, which almost never goes against the government line, was not enough, was an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. Orwell wrote, ““He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” With the allowing of US Government manufactured propaganda to be directed at Americans, the US now has their own internal Ministry of Truth. The wording of the legislation and the ease by which it will be manipulated will soon make Americans the subject of Ministry of Truth type propaganda. Not only will your news be filtered Americans, as it is now, but now it will also be cleverly manufactured. The only hope for Americans at this point is that the US State Department which controls the BBG is as inept as “winning the hearts and minds” of Americans as they are at winning the hearts and minds of the rest of the world. There was probably a good reason why it was illegal for the US State Department to broadcast “internally-authored news stories” that are broadcast around the world by US Government controlled and financed broadcasters. But in the name of “security” and “terror” Americans have been connived into letting another right fall to the wayside and the passing of the new law. In an extreme scenario, this could be viewed as the death of the Fourth Estate. The bill to change the Smith-Mundt Act was introduced by US Representative Mac Thornberry, a Republican from Texas and Washington Democrat Adam Smith. They pushed the entire security and terror reasoning to the extreme with Smith saying in 2012: “Effective strategic communication and public diplomacy should be front-and-center as we work to roll back al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence among disaffected populations. An essential part of our efforts must be a coordinated, comprehensive, adequately resourced plan to counter their radical messages and undermine their recruitment abilities. To do this, Smith-Mundt must be updated to bolster our strategic communications and public diplomacy capacity on all fronts and mediums, especially online.” We know that the US already censors, blocks and shuts down Al-Qaeda and extremist sites worldwide and the internal United States internet is almost under a complete and total lock down. So what is the real reason for allowing government manufactured propaganda to be directed at the American masses? Big Brother needs a voice to maintain his power and legitimacy, this change to the Smith-Mundt Act gives it that. The Ministry of Truth, coming soon, in subtle ways, to the American populace. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru
17 July, 11:32 Pre-fascist America: We’re losing the Republic - Jesselyn Radack
Photo: EPA When Obama came in to office he said he was not going to look at all the crime that had been committed during the past four years. It was like a “Pact with the Devil”. Yet Obama did look back, at the people who exposed the crimes, not at the lawbreakers themselves. In part two of an interview with the VoR Jesselyn Radack, the National Security and Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, spoke about those matters and discussed the case of Edward Snowden. She said it’s of no import that the U.S. government has said he is not a whistleblower. The criminals cannot classify the person who has uncovered them. Regarding the unprecedented way the U.S. has gone after Snowden Jesselyn said: “Under international law it’s definitely illegal, for the persecuting country, in this case the U.S., to be pressuring the countries of refuge to deny or expel the person to whom asylum has been granted. The world sees how silly and ridiculous it is that President Obama continues to launch a worldwide manhunt for someone who has already been granted asylum by five countries!” You are listening to an interview in progress with Jesselyn Radack, the National Security and Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project. You can find the previous parts to this interview on our website at english.ruvr.ru.
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14 July, 22:44 1 Citing Putin, Australian PM’s sister says what many are afraid to
© Flickr.com/ laverrue/cc-by A brave woman in Australia has had the courage to speak out against something that very few are willing to speak out against and which is a threat to the very fundamental and key building block of all societies worldwide, that building block being the family. The brave woman is Ms. Loree Rudd, the sister of the new Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, and her recent comments about homosexuality have spread throughout the English speaking world not because what she said was so shocking or extreme but because she has voiced what many people have been terrorized into self-censoring themselves about, namely calling such relations marriage. According to news.com.au in an exclusive interview with them upon returning from a trip to Russia Ms. Rudd said: “It's like he (Putin) can see the problem ahead..” and, “I think that there should be a law (in Australia) protecting children from the propaganda of homosexuality as normal. They're trying to build their family life and structure in Russia and people in the West don't seem to understand our family life and structures are breaking down. I guess the bottom line, if there's one thing I can say that can't be challenged, it's that society needs to protect its children as best they can." For those in the West it has become a forbidden topic and everyone who dares to speak out against it is portrayed as being hate filled or somehow discriminatory or backward. People in the West are so terrified of talking about “it” because they risk losing their jobs or even worse being guilty of some sort of hate crime or promoting hate speech. The hypocrisy of the whole debate is mind-boggling, on the one hand they have gays who are asking the world to accept their sexual deviation and the world is supposed to somehow accept what amounts to s****y on the same level as the holy union between a man and a woman in marriage, yet on the other hand perfectly normal law abiding citizens of the world must not dare to speak out against it or counter the self-serving arguments of those promoting this diversion. President Putin is right, we have to protect the children. Period. End of discussion. Bravo. Give the President a cigar, better yet a cigar factory. No counter arguments possible, we have to protect the children. Children are impressionable, if little Billy hears every day how it is normal to engage in relations with Todd and how this is acceptable and even more importantly defended as some sort of right, Billy may be inclined to experiment whereas if he had never heard of the practice he might say “yuck” like most normal kids would. Furthermore removing the social stigma will only make such deviant behavior spread further. This is wrong. I know I am going to get a lot of hate mail for writing what I think here but I don’t care. I have had to deal with almost every kind of discrimination in my life, I’ll be damned if I have to be ashamed or somehow self-censor because I like women and think marriage is one of the highest institutions known to humans and the family unit must be protected to guarantee the propagation of the human race. Yes, I believe that marriage, in its best form should produce little humans and is an honorable institution. The entire debate “for” homosexual marriage is a disingenuous one for many more reasons than I care to go into or that I have space for in this column. They also have the entire Western media at their disposal to promote their arguments. In my opinion what it boils down to is individuals with deviant behavior who seek public affirmation for something they know deep down is wrong. The entire debate itself and forcing normal people to put aside their own values and equate the whole deviation to marriage is far more damaging to society in general than was the quiet acceptance that existed before. Have your “unions” live together, love each other, but don’t make my kids know about it and don’t make me call it marriage, that degrades me, my wife and my children and the whole concept of family. I recently asked a friend in America about the whole homosexual “marriage” debate, he is someone who is very vocal and willing to express an opinion about everything under the sun, he is not afraid to take on the CIA or call Hillary Clinton psychotic, but when it came to this he said “No way! Can’t talk about it!” we can lose our jobs here if we say anything bad about “it”. I asked him why, if so called “Conservatives” and Evangelicals are in power in the U.S. this has been allowed to get to the point it has, this was after the British Embassy flew a LGBT flag in Paris (Meaning they have taken over a sovereign nation no doubt?) and his answer was one I can’t forget. He said the breakdown of the family unit is the goal. For several reasons this makes sense. For one, a strong family means a strong support unit and if you want to destroy a society you start by breaking down the family. Isolated weak individuals with no safety net are easier to control and manipulate. For most countries outside of America family is the most important thing for most societies, if that can be delegitimized and destroyed, all of those societies become weaker. Plus breaking down the family makes great economic sense from a corporate capitalist perspective. A family needs one refrigerator, one TV, one car and one home. If you break up the family then each fragment still needs one refrigerator, one TV and one car, thus by destroying the family unit, you have just doubled or tripled or quadrupled your sales. In my opinion marriage is a union between a man and a woman which should lead to the creation of children, their education and a continuation of their bloodlines and the human race. That is a noble thing. Marriage for gays produces nothing except egotistical narcissistic “pleasure” between two people of the same sex, and I dare say again, gays themselves know what they do is wrong, they are merely seeking external; encouragement and validation that what they are doing is okay and acceptable. In January I spoke to Dr. Robert Gagnon, a respected Theologian, on the matter, he said: “And at every level – anatomically, physiologically, psychologically – the appropriate counterpart or complement to a man is a woman and a woman to a man. It is why male-female marriages worked reasonably well, obviously with problems, but reasonably well over the centuries is that the extremes of a given sex are moderated in a union with a true sexual compliment or counterpart, a man with a woman, a woman with a man. And not only the extremes of a given sex are moderated but the gaps in the sexual self are filled appropriately. If a man has sexual contact with another man it is not natural, just like having sexual contact with an animal, a parent, a sibling or a child, and it is definitely not what you could call a marriage. No matter how you try to twist it. Children must be protected from being taught such behavior is acceptable because the survival and continuation of a healthy society depends on it. Tolerance is one thing, degrading and delegitimizing family and marriage is another. I have no problems with homosexuals, nor with people with foot fetishes and the like. Just please, that is your personal business, don’t throw it in my face and don’t make me call it a marriage, what you do in your bedroom is your business, let’s keep it that way. All of the opinions expressed above are fully my own. Please send all hate mail to robles@ruvr.ru. Have a great day! Russia, Australia, “same-sex” marriage, homosexuality, Society · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Amen!!!!!!! 14 July, 20:03 The tyranny of “security”, “likes” and Germans displeased with PRISM
© Photo: Flickr.com/goulao/cc-by As the world continues to learn more about the level of U.S. spying, knowledge made available thanks to the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, few countries have seen the level of displeasure and public outcry as has the Federal Republic of Germany. What is perhaps a little surprising is the level of non-response from other countries that we know have been targeted by the NSA’s PRISM program and which were supposed to have been U.S. allies and thus believed themselves not to be the target of such broad and prying surveillance. Many countries such as Russia and China have known about the existence of such mechanisms being used by the NSA since their inception, as such a large data flow as that going back to the CIA and the NSA is impossible to not detect, so the reaction has been rather muted, but for German citizens in particular, who believed in the West and trusted Washington, the existence of such a program seems like a betrayal. Germany, a country recently reunited and one which was literally on the front line of the cold war and was the subject of one of the most massive and sustained western propaganda campaigns in the history of mankind, one that sought to win the minds of East Germans and demonized the Soviet Union and the East German security structures such as the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), has every reason to react with outrage as they learn that their American “liberators” are even worse than the Stasi ever were. Kim Dotcom recently made the point clear by projecting the words “The United Stasi of America” onto the American Embassy in Berlin. Mr. Dotcom is just another in a long (much too long) list of victims of the hyper U.S. security state and another victim of the internet being used as a tool by the U.S. Government to surveil, entrap and imprison thousands upon thousands of innocent people and anyone who goes against the official line. We can see by the encircling of Russia by U.S. missiles, the global spread of NATO and the all encompassing global surveillance system that the U.S. has cleverly unleashed on the world under the guise of “the Internet” and our precious “devices”, that the United States of America never stopped their activities once they won the cold war. Winning that victory has called for another, and that new front is complete and total global domination until the end of time. The world’s population has been manipulated into believing that they cannot live without their devices and the internet, and for many it has become an essential tool for securing their livelihood, here it is important to note that our much beloved internet started out as a military intelligence communications network. So dear reader. Surprise, surprise! There was no end to the entire cold war military industrial global domination machine that the United States of America built to destroy the idea of Communism, all the resources were just expanded to engulf everyone with the goal of complete and total global domination, or as the Project for a New American Century called it a “Homogenous American World”. Germans are right to be upset but getting the rest of the world to react may be an impossible task for many reasons. One being that the new generation of citizenry have little memory of the world during the cold war, there is no clear option to “Amerika” like there once was. The social justice and equality that were the precepts of Communism have been so distorted and demonized by the Western propaganda machine for so long, and with the collapse and demonization of the USSR it is no longer seen as a viable option. So today there is no option for the young. The West has been so successful in its “War on Terror” fear mongering and its crackdowns on everyone who has dissented that many people the world over, who are more concerned with keeping their I-Phones and getting “friends” on social media, care little that they are being spied upon or are too afraid to speak out or act. Just like the people who looked the other way as the Nazis began their rise to power, many people the world over want to hear nothing of the true plight or message of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Bradley Manning, Max Cleland, Richard Grove, Barry Jennings, Sibel Edmonds, John Kirakou, Thomas Drake, William Binney William Blum, Aaron Swartz, Jeselyn Raddack and even yours truly. For Germany the story may have some blowback and may result in some changes because the people still remember what tyranny means, but there is reason to be doubtful. Just like in Serbia, it appears that German politicians have been bought off, or who knows, even blackmailed into silence or inactivity by Washington. On Friday Hans Peter Friedrich, the German Minister of Internal Affairs, met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. National Security Advisor Lisa Monaco and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to PRISM spying against German citizens. He came back empty handed with more empty assurances by Washington to the ire of many Germans. According to the site NEWSEUROPE a representative of the German “Left Party) PDS), one Steffen Bokhann said: “A Minister of Internal Affairs, who does nothing against that data collection, against violations of rights, simply does not understand his tasks. It looks like Friedrich has caught a thief in a store, and thanks him for having confessed the theft, not thinking about criminal prosecution.” The reaction from others has been similar, according to the site EN.HABLER.COM “Neither of Germany's main opposition parties was satisfied with the assurances Friedrich received during his meetings in Washington. Thomas Oppermann the parliamentary floor leader of the Social Democrats said Friedrich's trip had not achieved much. Konstantin von Notz, the Green Party's interior affairs spokesman described Friedrich's trip as a complete flop.” Citizens of the world, if your officials and leaders cannot or will not do anything to stop the U.S. from spying on you, take measures to protect yourselves, even better just turn everything off. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@rvur.ru.
14 July, 09:15 3 From probable cause to a hunch: illegal American surveillance – Jesselyn Radack
© Collage: «Voice of Russia» As the United States Government and its leader Obama bring out the sledgehammer and go after Edward Snowden for exposing even more illegal activities and crimes being committed by the government, shedding light on illegality which has raged like a wildfire destroying and infecting every institution of the American Government like a caner since 9-11, Jesselyn Radack, one of the first truth-seekers who was a victim of the criminal cabal that has taken over Washington, spoke to John Robles about the Snowden case, whistleblowers and the entire illegal surveillance state, one that would make George Orwell weep.
You were listening to an interview with Jesselyn Radack, the National Security and Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, you can find part 2 on our website at english.ruvr.ru. Thanks for listening and I wish you the best! US, intelligence, espionage, info leak, whistleblower, surveillance, PRISM, NSA, Edward Snowden, Snowden: ‘Catch Me If You Can’,World · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · As I wrote many times Obama is nothing but an Uncle-Tom set at the presidency to cover-up the huge american financial fiasco and bluff the whole world. This worked admirably well, because he is as good a comedian as Reagan was. Soon the Americans will realize that Obama is the worst president of their country's history (a typically phony person). With the mafia initiated in the 1980s, all the founding-fathers'dreams and the US wonderful Constitution have been betrayed. This must end. Peoples like Manning and Snowden are heros Who thought simply that they could do something to make America the wonderful country that she was supposed to be. They could not guess how badly she had become and how powerful their enemies were... · I forgot: We have identical problems to solve in France; and here most French deserve that idiotic system... · The US government is being caught 'with the pants down' and don't like it one bit. I still am of the opinion that Obama should return the ill-deserved Nobel prize. 12 July, 08:32 The US operates behind the backs of the world’s governments - Rick Rozoff
Photo: EPA The recent overthrow of Mohamed Morsi underlined and brought to the forefront once again, the duplicitous, short-sighted and self-serving way that the United States interferes with the internal politics and policies of sovereign nations and has no loyalty to anyone that they support when such and individual is longer in a position of power or susceptible to manipulation. Voice of Russia regular contributor Rick Rozoff shared his views on the situation in Egypt and the one year presidency of Mohamed Morsi. Previous part: Part 1 You are listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list. You can find part 1 of this interview on our website at English.ruvr.ru. Robles: Is there anyone in the Egyptian political landscape that is not US backed or connected, that you know about? Rozoff: I sincerely hope so, but the question is who? And we hope that legitimate political organizations around the world, political parties and genuine non-governmental organizations, not the ones that are pretending to be, while being funded by the U.S. State Department or worse, that such groups do have general security checks where they able to weed out provocateurs and infiltrators and such like. One incident or one anecdote I like to share if I may and this is 25 years ago, I recall listening to the local affiliate of National Public Radio in Chicago. There was a minor incident – the US Ambassador to Cairo, Egypt (This was roughly 25 years ago) was called to the foreign ministry office in Cairo to account for having secretly met with officials of the Muslim Brotherhood behind the back of the then Hosni Mubarak government and the statement I can recall is the US Ambassador said something to the effect that “we try to maintain dialogue with all actors on the political scene in Egypt”. In other words, they will operate behind the back, (they do this in every place of course). I mean the current U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, is a sterling example, he had no sooner unpacked his bags, if he had even done that, in the Russian capital, than he is meeting with any number of alleged opposition groups, which is something that I can assure you would not be tolerated should the situation be reversed and an Ambassador to the United States from any other country were to attempt to do something like that. Moreover, to meet with a group that would have been considered illegal, perhaps seditious, the way the US Ambassador a quarter of a century ago talked openly and unapologetically about meeting secretly with the leaders of Muslim Brotherhood behind the back of the US client’s regime in Cairo. It is a very unpleasant topic. We’re going to have to take some anti-nausea medication I think. Robles: What can you tell us about the fact that Morsi now, he’s being tried for high treason? Before he became president somebody let all the prisoners out of their special prison there, near Cairo and Morsi came out of his cell with many of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda fanatics etc., he was charged for treason at that point. Do you know anything about that? Rozoff: The current charge of high-treason, which would have to be a capital crime, I am certain, in any state but certainly in Egypt, meaning that if convicted of such a crime, he is likely to be executed. So, whoever wants to dispose of him and it is quite likely his former puppet-masters want to cut the strings and disavow any association with him, if indeed the US is that puppet master. And the fact that such a severe, I am sure it will be phrased a little more delicately; under treason of the Constitution of the Egyptian Republic, or something to that effect, but treason is treason and capital punishment is capital punishment and if you are executed, I guess the legal technicalities of what sort of treason you are accused of, are going to pale in comparison to the severity of the punishment that is meted out to you. Robles: You don’t think it has anything to do with his US connections? Rozoff: It is quite possible it does. We talked about it before. I don’t think it is too strained an analogy but it is not unusual. I can remember vividly in my youth seeing somebody pull off… a photographer pull off a mob killing in Philadelphia and within seconds he himself had been shot dead. The very people, I am sure, who had hired him to commit the crime got rid of him almost instantaneously. I could speculate but that is a possibility in the case of Morsi. We should also remember that Morsi recently had come out pretty forcefully in calling for support to the religious led mercenaries and extremists in Syria to overthrow the government of Bashar Assad in Damascus, so I think it is ironic again, just as you had mentioned that Morsi is charged with treason, released, in a kind of storming the Bastille scenario 2 years ago only to become the head of state himself and then to be charged with treason again and moreover high-treason. Just as there is an irony there. I think there is certainly one that Egypt… Morsi attempting to overthrow his brother, Arab head of state, Assad in Damascus himself is overthrown, and we also know of the particularly close ideological links between Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the ruling party the AKP in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party, which are very clearly ideologically connected. And it was clear that Turkey and Egypt had in some ways affected some kind of a pincer movement against the government in Syria. A couple of this worth recollecting, Egypt is of course the most populace Arab country, far and away, and it controls the Suez Canal, which is one of the major chokes points in the world, it is a bonafide military partner of NATO under the Mediterranean Dialogue Partnership and in 2007 it became the only the second country to be granted individual cooperation program with NATO, Israel having been the first. Robles: Hey, What happened with Colombia, can we jump off topic for a minute? Rozoff:The case where you were very alert and you anticipated developments, we talked several weeks ago about NATO beginning military partnership for the first time ever with the country in Latin America, and that was Colombia and not too terribly long after our interview John, on the NATO website, to be exact on June 25th, NATO's Deputy Secretary of State, Alexander Vershbow, and you know he was former US Ambassador to Russia, met with Colombia's Defense Master Juan Carlos Pinzon Bueno, and that began on June 25th that assigned what was called an agreement on the security of information, which is even of itself not a major military document but it's the foot in the door, it's you know the first formal agreement signed between the 2 countries, and the first to be made of in any country South of the Rio Grande, you know with the United States and Canada of course being founding members of NATO. So this now is, we were talking about the last ... Robles: Well that was your prediction I think, you predicted this. Rozoff:It would mark the expansion of NATO into the ... every inhabited continent in the world. Up until now ther've been multi-partied, we've just talked about Egypt and Africa for example, and there are numerous partners in Asia and of course Australia is a major NATO partner, but the only continent up until now that, excluding Antarctica, that had not been roped into the NATO international nexus was South America, and here we go. Now in the case of Columbia ... Robles: Do you think there is going to be strong reaction from more independent thinking Latin American countries towards Colombia? Rozoff:Yeah there were statements immediately after the first rumor. It wasn’t merely a rumor, it was somebody if you recall we talked about it in your program, a Member of the State Department was talking about a military partnership with Colombia, that was maybe 6 weeks ago and there were statements made by several of Colombia’s neighbors particularly: to Columbia’s east – Venezuela - and to its South Ecuador, both of which have suffered armed aggression from Colombia in the last few years, not full on invasions but attacks on their territory by Colombian military personnel who were trained and armed by the United States under Plan Colombia. Colombia is the 3rd largest recipient of US military aid in the world next to Israel and Egypt. Robles: You were listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff, the Owner and Manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list. You can find the continuation and part one of this interview on our website atenglish.ruvr.ru. Thanks for listening and stay with us.
12 July, 06:28 2 Securing your privacy in a post PRISM world, back to basics
© Collage: Voice of Russia With the knowledge that the NSA, the CIA and all of the major worldwide internet giants have entered into an evil alliance to spy on every single thing you do, people the world over have begun to think about their on-line security and in protecting their privacy. Even if all you are doing is sending your sister a birthday card, or checking into your favorite news site, you deserve and have the right to maintain your privacy. There are many methods and means to do this, from the extreme to the simple, and while some of them may be frowned upon as being some sort of “hacker” exploit or even go into legal gray areas, there are a host of things you can do to protect yourself. To clarify, a hacker is merely someone who knows more than the average user and/or is capable of taking things apart and putting them back together so they work. So the term hacker is a positive term, see the net for terms such as cracker, phreak, spook and others terms if you are interested. The methods and tactics that I am about to present to you are not recommended by me nor are they in any way connected to myself or the Voice of Russia, some may be outdated or already rendered ineffective by new counter technology and they are merely ways to be aware of or protect your privacy. This work can thus be considered academic in nature and a journalistic endeavor and not a how-to-way to beat a system. I am not an expert on the matter nor do I claim to be. As this is merely a short article and to approach this subject properly would take hundreds of pages I will just go briefly into certain areas and mention one or two examples of tools etc, that you can use to protect your privacy. If you are worried about PRISM it is a military grade surveillance system and military grade spying is too technical for the average user to combat. However the following tips might help to slow them done or make them work for their money. This article is only dealing with some privacy issues for the common user, this is in no way a systems security white paper. Computers and the internet Would you buy a car with an engine compartment you can never open? Well if you have a Windows based computer that is exactly what you have. If you want to be secure and know no one is accessing your data, your web camera, your PC speaker as a microphone or more, do not install Windows. That is until Microsoft finally reveals the code of their massive platform, but since that will never happen, the only option is stay away from it and install open source software platforms like Linux. If you can’t, or are too used to your Windows read on. Isolate If you have work you do that is sensitive, proprietary or for any reason you do not want it accessed by anyone, one of the simplest solutions is physically isolate the computer that such work is done on. That means do not connect it to the internet in any way shape or form or to a LAN. You must also be aware of who has physically access to your computers and all your devices and you must maintain system security through strong passwords, BIOS level security, case locks and the like. Operating system When installing your operating system for the first time do not use your real name or personally identifiable information, if that is legal and possible in your area. That means everything from registration to naming your computer on the network, John’s secret PC on the Robles workgroup is not the most intelligent option. Secure your system by doing such things as: renaming the administrator account; disabling remote desktop, pipe shares, the server service, fast user switching and automatic updates; using ctrl+alt+delete to log on and using passwords that are more than 23 characters in length. Now that we know Microsoft is also in bed with the NSA: disable Windows defender and the firewall; secure your ports; use your computer with limited privileges; research current security recommendations and use a vigorous security template. The NSA’s own Windows security templates were available on the net several years ago, they were used to secure U.S. government computers, if you can find them use them. Why not? Once you install your operating system and everything is up and running and you have not done anything that can personally identify you on the computer you want to go online with it is time to connect to the web. If you hook up through any single dedicated internet provider keep in mind they will always be able to identify you. Make sure you are behind a firewall, that your IP address is not exposed if possible and that your real MAC address is protected. A MAC address is the physical address of your computer and/or network card. While MAC spoofing may be illegal in some areas this is the most fundamental way by which you will be identified. Some routers allow you to change your MAC, for example CISCO routers, and there are various tools on the internet but they are also questionable. You can change your Windows MAC on a wireless adapter for example by modifying the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}\, search for “NetworkAddress” and change the value to what you want. Keep in mind banking services and some sites use this to identify you as do most routers. Browser The only browser today that comes anywhere close to protecting your privacy is the browser put out by the TOR Project, the only problem is you have to log on to their network to use it and as always you can never 100% certain who is behind everything and who is running the cloud. When you log onto any server where a website is located, an amazing amount of information is passed along, including details about: your operating system, browser, who is logged on, your IP address, even your MAC and if you enable cookies even more information can be had. If you cannot use TOR do other things, Disable cookies, empty your internet cache after every session, never save passwords or form fields and the like. Never install 3rd party plug-ins or toolbars. For some reason it has become harder to delete such items as well. Never press okay in a dialogue Window unless you know exactly what you are agreeing to. Never store your passwords, history of favorites on a remote machine. Try to use a memory stick based browser. TOR works on a portable memory device for example and stores almost everything on the portable device. Always us strong passwords and anonymous login information. Processes Be aware and know your processes. This will prevent spyware and trojans from compromising your system. How many processes do you have running? You can press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and go to task manager for that. Simply write down how many processes your computer has at rest and periodically check for new ones. With today’s super powerful PCs it is very easy to hide a keyboard logger and other such spying programs. Back in the 486/28.8 modem days these types of programs were easier to detect and notice as they took up resources. Encryption Encrypt your messages, but keep in mind this will almost guarantee the attention of the security services and can also be cracked unless you know what you are doing. PGP 6.5.8 was said to be virtually uncrackable and became a headache for the U.S. Government but shortly afterwards it was bought out by a big corporation and was compromised. I would recommend it if you can find it, however there are issues with running PGP 6.5.8 and earlier on Windows 7 and 8, operating systems which are so full “secrets” that I would never keep anything sensitive on such a platform. Passwords Due to the technical nature of the password architecture in Windows, passwords longer than 23 characters are virtually unbreakable. Always use upper and lower case letters, characters and numbers in your passwords. Cell phones and GPS devices You finally get away from your computer and you think you are safe from snooping for the time being, sorry. One of your most trusted and beloved gadgets, your cell phone, may also be the spy in your pocket. If you are running and Apple or Windows based phone then it has been documented that they collect and send information about your location and can be used to physically track you as you switch between cell towers and wind your way home. When you leave the office just turn it off. Simple, otherwise assume you are being tracked and listened to. Like all devices with a MAC cell phones have what is called an IMEI which can be used to identify you. The only way to get around this is but a “clean” phone every time you make a phone call and throw it away after every call. Not practical. Encryption? Possible but expensive. Portable devices Any device including media players and GPS devices which connect in any way to the internet are suspect. Although GPS devices are said to not be trackable, once you connect to the internet for traffic jam information for example, they are the perfect tracking device and offer the NSA a real time tracking tool to know exactly where you are. Check the traffic on the internet “before” you leave the office and turn of the device. Landlines and phones Assume that any phone call you make and anything you say is recorded and subject to interception. Satellite phones are not an option, they give the NSA even more options to surveil you. Even super expensive encrypted ones. The only option is military or intelligence grade encrypted phone system. If you want to have a private conversation you will have to meet face to face or send smoke signals. Surveillance cameras With facial recognition software this is the latest tool available to the spooks and one they are spending billions on. This was one of the key technologies used to shut down the Occupy Movement and surveil protestors and is effective for mass crowd scenarios and real-time street surveillance and identification. Assume that any CCTV system anywhere in the world is accessible to the NSA. Wear an Anonymous mask or a scarf everywhere you go (half-joking) and keep your eyes open for cameras. TVs and appliances Do you really want the spooks to know what your eating habits are? Don’t order food on the internet. Don’t buy a refrigerator with an internet connection or any appliance for that matter. Credit and bank cards Assume any financial transaction you make that is not in cash and/or involves any kind of card, even a discount card, is recorded and subject to surveillance. Withdraw all your money immediately from your card or in person from the bank and make all your transactions in cash. Files Want to send your vacation photos or documents over the internet and don’t want the spooks to be eyeing your half-nude bikini photos? Zip and encrypt everything. It may not stop them but it will make them work for their money. Social media, Skype, instant messaging If you want to maintain your privacy stay away from them. Period. The fact that they have sold you out to PRISM should anger you. Use IRC chat through a secure client. Conclusion There is no way to absolutely be sure that you are not being spied on and that your data is not being used for any number of nefarious purposes from racial profiling to marketing so the only way to really protect yourself is just turn everything off. Use a pay phone, drive a car without all of the connectivity gadgets and rather than spending half your life on the internet. Read a book. Recommended reading: Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0764537105 TOR project https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en Exiting the Matrix http://billstclair.com/matrix/index.html Anonymous Security http://zinelibrary.info/files/anonsec.pdf Five ways to stop the NSA from spying on you http://anonymousnews.blogs.ru/2013/06/11/five-ways-to-stop-the-nsa-from-spying-on-you/ Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy US, internet, cyber security, privacy, surveillance, NSA, Total electronic surveillance scandal, Society · Share: · · · · · Сomments 2 · What can one do when very sophisticated electronics eavesdropping instruments are used to prize open your e - mail accounts and listen to your phone calls. Mr. George Orwell's predictions have come true. "THE BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." · Decrease your internet footprint, eschew electronic communications, obfuscate, encrypt, misinform, assume they are in everything. "THE BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" since when did we allow the United States to become the "Big Brother" to every country in the world. 10 July, 07:20 Snowden explains his motivations in part two of interview
© Collage: «Voice of Russia» The second part of Glen Greenwald’s interview with Edward Snowden has been making the rounds on the internet and some of the comments that he made are startling and shed light on what drove him to make the revelations that he did. However it is his idealism that is most surprising. Mr. Snowden’ statements paint a picture of a slightly naïve but idealistic and well-intentioned young man who found himself being tasked with creating a monster he did not want to unleash on the world. The site mashable.com published the transcript of the interview between Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Snowden and quotes Mr. Snowden as saying: "I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity, or love, or friendship is recorded, and that's not something I'm willing to support, it's not something I'm willing to build, and it's not something I'm willing to live under." His statements are a reflection of the thinking that many young idealistic people have of a world where things are just and in particular a reflection of the brainwashing and the programming that Americans receive, programming which makes them believe that their government is fair and just and wants the best for all of the people’s of the world. Mr. Snowden, like the character in the story of Jason Bourne who believed his cold blooded assassinations would be “… helping to save American lives”, believed his own actions would be helping “… to free oppressed people overseas.” And just like Jason Bourne he realized he was just a tool being used to advance something entirely different. When asked why he joined the intelligence community Mr. Snowden answered: “I joined the intelligence community when I was very young… I enlisted in the army shortly after the invasion of Iraq. And I believed in the goodness of what we were doing, I believed in the nobility of our intentions to free oppressed people overseas. But overtime, over the length of my career, as I watched the news and I increasingly was exposed to true information that had not been propagandized in the media, that we were actually involved in misleading the public, and misleading all publics, not just the American public, in order to create a sort of mindset in the global consciousness, and I was actually a victim of that.” “… the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.” So Mr. Snowden learned what many independent thinking people and most of us outside of the U.S. already know and have been living with for decades. So although his revelations may be surprising for Americans who have lived inside the propaganda bubble all of their lives, these “evil” intentions behind U.S. Government policy and actions are not really surprising to most of the world’s population. What has gotten Mr. Snowden in trouble is that he has given weight to and proven what most of the world has suspected all along, that the U.S. Government is spying on everything and everyone. Mr. Snowden states regarding the Verizon document and the U.S. Government that they are: “… basically subverting a corporate partnership through major telecommunication providers and they're getting everyone's calls, everyone's call records, and everyone's Internet traffic as well.” In part two of the interview Mr. Snowden mentions what appears to be the mother program of PRISM and the Verizon spying infrastructure, something which is revealing in and of itself and troubling as it is just passed over, Snowden: “On top of that you got Boundless Informant, which is sort of a global auditing system for the NSA's intercept and collection system that lets us track how much we're collecting, where we're collecting, by which authorities, and so forth.” Mr. Snowden also portrays the way that Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and others work with the NSA as being due to the fact that they are afraid of being liable hence they have allowed the NSA complete and total access, making it appear that the U.S. Government has literally blackmailed these companies into allowing them to access what should be private data: “… they all get together with the NSA and provide the NSA direct access to the back ends of all the systems you use to communicate, to store data, to put things in the cloud, and even just to send birthday wishes and keep a record of your life. And they give NSA direct access that they don't need to oversee so they can't be held liable for it.” According to Mr. Snowden the NSA and the U.S. Government have over stepped their bounds and are manipulating information to serve their own ends, this is not surprising, an knowing this in no way damages U.S. national security. Unless of course knowing there are criminal s running the U.S. Government is something the world did not already know.
9 July, 08:00 1 President Putin and diplomacy: an example the West could follow
Photo: RIA Novosti Despite the fact that Edward Snowden had no connection to Russia and arrived in the country on his own will and has been treated well, the West has still jumped on the occasion to demonize and start parroting their usual talking points against Russia and President Vladimir Putin. The media bias in the West has once again reared its ugly head warranting another media-bias counter piece. This time the attack is in the Canadian media with the help of a young British writer attempting to make money by demonizing Russia. I am always hopeful when a new book comes out in the West about Russia or Russian President Vladimir Putin, or a new expert on Russia makes the headlines, that there will be a balanced unbiased approach by an independent mind who really knows the nuances and the history of Russia, its politics and its President Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately I have had those hopes dashed every time and the latest book on the topic and its author are no exception, which although at first appearing more balanced than previous efforts at defaming the President is nothing more than another, albeit more thinly disguised, effort to deride and criticize a leader who few in the West understand let alone have any true knowledge about. The spin in an article by cbc.ca is evident right from the beginning when the writer attempts to portray statements regarding Edward Snowden by President Putin as somehow being an attempt to assure the world rather than the message that it quite literally was for Edward Snowden and those who are interested in making a loud yet for the most part empty sensation of the whistleblower and his revelations. I say loud sensation because that is what it is and empty because unfortunately for all of the good intentions that Mr. Snowden and his supporters might have, and I would count myself among them, there is little his revelations have done, or quite predictably will do, in the U.S. with regard to changing policy or bringing about accountability or adherence to the rule of law or respect for the U.S. Constitution. When the power structure from the president on down all support the NSA and the illegal spying there can be no hope for change. Although trying to present a credible argument about President Putin’s comments on Snowden there was no mention of Russian law or the Russian Constitution, under which Mr. Snowden is being allowed to remain in Russia, albeit in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo. Nor is it mentioned that Russia and the U.S. have no extradition treaty, and although the law is something U.S. President Obama may scoff at and bypass at his convenience, especially when it comes to the laws of other countries or at the international level, and this was no clearer than in U.S. requests to extradite Mr. Snowden or in the forced landing of the official aircraft of the President of Bolivia in Austria, there are actually leaders who respect the law, both internationally and inside their own countries and who bide by the constitutions they are sworn to protect. That is just for starters. Another point that is glaringly missed is that President Putin has handled the whole Snowden affair, not with “assurances” or somehow bowing to the will of Washington, but with diplomacy, true honorable old fashioned diplomacy, something the West has all but forgotten even existed with their gun-in-your-face-sanction-slapping-methods of forcing the world to comply and bow to their will. Things President Putin has never even come remotely close to doing and for which he must be endlessly applauded. The writer then attempts to imply that the deterioration of U.S. – Russian relations is somehow the fault of the Russian side of the equation and that the “reset” was something that was solely launched by Obama and has been “scuttled” by a different “approach” to the conflict in Syria and of course the “crackdown” on the opposition. The spin in the article is mostly attempted by omission and the stating of fallacies as fact, so I will add some of the facts that the CBC left out. With regards to Syria: the Russian Federation’s position has always been, since day one, for a peaceful internal resolution to their internal conflict which respects the sovereignty of Syria. “Sovereignty” yet another concept forgotten by the West and their endless meddling in countries worldwide. In Syria this is manipulation from without is characterized by the funding and arming of terrorists, the importing of the most violent elements, including mercenaries and cannibals and the continual search for a “Casus Belli” that the world will actually believe. The articles mentions a “crackdown on the opposition” which must mean the requirement for foreign funded NGOs to be transparent and the few arrests on the West’s agent provocateurs that have been made and continue to receive endless exaggerated media attention as tools to demonize Russia. Unfortunately for the CBC they do not live in a country that is being targeted by everything the CIA and the nefarious Washington geopolitical planners can throw at it on every front. If they did they might change their tune. The article also makes no mention of NATO global expansion or the fact that the U.S. and NATO are attempting to neutralize Russia and surround it with missiles and their ABM shield. But of course when you are on the safe end of the barrel it is hard to comprehend what it is like to be on the business end. Almost laughable is the way the writer attempts to convince his readers that the 25 year-old-author he is using to back up his straw man arguments is a real expert by saying that: “Though only 25, Judah knows what he's talking about. The son of British correspondent Tim Judah, Ben Judah spent part of his childhood living in the Balkans in the 1990s.” If that makes him an expert then what am I? I am almost 50 and have lived in Russia for almost 20 years and… Okay… Whatever, never mind. I will not bore you with the rest of the article but it takes no issue with the U.S. invasion of Libya or the brutal murder of its leader Muammar Gaddafi, calling it an intervention, nor with the fact that the Russian “opposition” was funded and promoted and directed right out of the U.S. Embassy. Nor does it take issue with the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia and the cold blooded slaughter of Russians that Russia was forced to stop. The author who is questioned says that President Putin is somehow “harsh’ and “cruel” because he does not believe the lies of the West or that the West somehow has good intentions. President Putin has not invaded a single country, ordered a single extra-judicial execution nor is he involved in multiple aggressive wars or invasions, and lastly he is not spying on the world and maintaining an illegal offshore prison where he is holding hundreds of innocent men. If those are not true cruel and harsh things then what are? I do thank the authors for the chance to set the record straight, perhaps having NATO missiles aimed at my neighbors, and U.S. paid agents on every corner makes me a little sensitive to Western bias but then again I guess it all depends on what end of the gun you are on. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Russia, Vladimir Putin, US, mass media, Edward Snowden, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 1 · Great Article. 9 July, 06:14 The U.S. has a role with every faction or group in Egypt - Rozoff
Photo: EPA Leaders of the “Outpor!” movement which helped destroy the former Yugoslavia are active in Egypt training radical youth of the CANVAS movement. Both groups are funded by NGOs, the U.S. State Department and the CIA and their sole purpose is to overthrow and topple governments. After what can be called a military coup d’etat in Egypt, the U.S. has been quiet because they are also supporters of the Egyptian military. Voice of Russia regular contributor Rick Rozoff spoke about these issues and more in this exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia’s John Robles.
This is John Robles speaking to Mr Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop Nato website and international mailing list. Robles: Hello, Sir, how are you this afternoon? Rozoff: I’m very good, John, thanks again for the invitation to be with you. Robles: Nice to be speaking with you again. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s going on, in your opinion, in Egypt and about some of the U.S. links to some of the candidates, former candidates, etc? Rozoff: It’s still a situation in progress, and we are talking about a series of events that really culminated and can only be characterized as a military coup d’etat two days ago, at least our time here, which would’ve been independence day in the United States, aptly enough I suppose, right? July fourth. What we do know for a fact is that the government elected roughly a year ago in a runoff election headed by the Freedom and Justice Party, which is the political front of the Muslim Brotherhood and their candidate, Mohamed Morsi, was removed and that in its stead an interim government administered by the military is in control again as it was the case two years ago. Robles: He was backed by the U.S., but he was a fundamentalist Islamist which I think was a problem he had in more or less secular Egypt. What’s your opinion on that angle? Rozoff: That’s correct that Egypt has been a secular parliamentary democracy since Abdel Nasser came to power in the early 1950s, and not only secular but tolerant of religious minorities, including a fairly substantial Coptic Christian minority, as well as non-believers. The government up until fairly recently at least passed the litmus test for being a secular parliamentary democracy, even if they violated the basic tenet of that democracy, with leaders for life, Hosni Mubarak for 30 years, for example. Nevertheless compared to the attempt to install a government two years ago or a year ago rather, that in many ways took on the aspects of a theocracy, of a religious tinge, given the fact that the political party in control until Thursday, was the electoral manifestation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Certainly as you are suggesting that those sectors of Egyptian society that were accustomed to secular rule would certainly be upset, I am certain, to see what they may have seen as the beginning of the process of an increased religious restructuring in society, including possibly laws modeled after religious requirements and such like. Unquestionably that was a factor in the protest that led up to the coup on Thursday. However we do have to recall the original Tahrir Square activities of early 2011 and recall the color revolution technique that the United States and its allies, with the United States in the first place, has employed over the last 13 years or so, starting in Yugoslavia in 2000 and later in Ukraine, Georgia, Kirgizstan, Lebanon successfully and in Moldova arguably, and unsuccessfully in a number of other countries. And what that includes, I mean we’ve talked about this a bit before John, is the whole political technology of generating so-called flash mobs that congregate in large numbers instantaneously without government detection in city squares, organized through so-called “social media”, like Facebook and Twitter, with a host (really an army) of US-funded so-called non-governmental organizations that seem to have unlimited financial assets “largess” that they can distribute amongst maybe thrill-seeking or fun-loving young people, including handing out $200 and $300 smart phones, and have them set up. This is something that now recently retired Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, boasted about, we’ve talked about before on your program, which is that the State Department was going to batter down firewalls and spread the voice of freedom to Russia, China, India, Iran and other countries, using the very social media we’re talking about, Facebook and Twitter in the first place. Robles: According to the U.S. that is what happened in Egypt! Rozoff: Yes! We do have to recall with the overthrow of Mubarak two years ago, that for over a year there was a military junta again and that during that period that something in the neighborhood of 3,600 people had been arrested under security laws, that is more than over the entire 30 years of the Mubarak administration, and that was quite alright with the United States, the champion of human rights around the world, had no problem whatsoever with the military junta in Cairo at that time as it evidently doesn’t have now. The very fact that the U.S. ambassador in Cairo has refused to characterize what is clearly a military takeover as a military takeover, because to do so would run afoul of American law that disallows the continuation of military support to any country where there has been a coup d’état, even though the African Union has suspended Egypt’s membership in the African Union because of the extra-constitutional nature of the events of two days ago. Robles: Don’t you think that stopped a massive amount of bloodshed? Rozoff: There is a line by the Irish writer, poet, dramatist Oscar Wilde which says: “… because one side is wrong doesn’t necessarily mean the other side is right.” And I think frequently in a situation like this, we have to also keep in mind that the government of Morsi had expelled a good number of so-called NGO figures, Americans, which were instrumental in the overthrow of Mubarak and then quite clearly it could be - and this is something we could only speculate about as we don’t eavesdrop on Langley, Virginia, the Central Intelligence headquarters, the way they eavesdrop, or the National Security Agency eavesdrops on everything else and everyone else - but I think we are safe in assuming that the US wants a finger in every pie and a whole lot of pokers in the fire, and that they’ve got contacts inside government and opposition, and the new generation of opposition, and they can generate, or exploit, or assist opposition groups at will. Now another thing that one has to recall is when the so-called Arab Spring began in Tunisia at the very beginning of 2011 and quickly spread to Egypt, and thereafter, led to NATO and US Africa Command’s assault against Libya and the overthrowing of the government after almost 30,000 air flights over the nation by NATO. One of the groups involved in the opposition inside Egypt, is something called the April 6th Youth Movement, which is quite openly (I invite your listeners to go to YouTube and type it in, it has the word revolution in it) it is a documentary put out by what is now know by the acronym of “CANVAS” but what was formerly known as “Otpor!” in Serbia, in Belgrade. These are people funded by the US State Department, unquestionably by the CIA, by a number of NGOs, to overthrow the government in Yugoslavia in the autumn of 2000, that is the government of President Slobodan Milošević. It became the prototype for training the youth brigades for the so-called Orange revolution in Ukraine, and earlier the Rose revolution in Georgia, and all the subsequent ones. In this documentary you’ll see Popovic and Marovic, two leaders with CANVAS, openly bragging and showing videos of themselves instructing the Egyptian youth on how to overthrow a government, with these training sessions occurring both in Belgrade and in Cairo. So we know that the US has a role in almost every faction, or every group active in Egypt. You were listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list. You can find part 2 on our website at English.ruvr.ru. Thanks for listening and we wish you the best.
9 July, 02:10 U.S. will not stop force feeding Guantanamo “detainees” during Ramadan
Photo: EPA Wednesday marks the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and with it there have been worldwide calls for the U.S. to stop the inhumane force feeding of detainees who are on a hunger strike at the illegal prison in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Further underlining the helplessness and hopelessness which has brought a majority of the inmates to decide to take their own lives the U.S., as usual, will not listen. For followers of the Muslim faith the month of Ramadan, begins with the appearance of a crescent moon which marks the beginning of the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and thus the start of Ramadan. The determination is made by the Muslim Darul Ifta or Dar Al-Ifta (House of Opinion) which is the highest body responsible for making such decisions. This year, according Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta, Ramadan will begin on Wednesday July 10th. During the month, which is one of the holiest for Muslims and is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, fasting is mandatory for all adult Muslims with the exception of those who suffer physically debilitating or limiting conditions. Those who are excepted however must make up for not fasting at a later date when they are able to. The fasting consists of no food or liquid intake during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk, as well as refraining from smoking, sexual relations and other types of more “base” behavior. Muslims also pray more and engage in other religious practices more intensely during the month of Ramadan than they do during other times of the year. For the inmates at the illegal U.S. torture prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba who are assumed to all be Muslims, this may be incorrect but given the nature of the “War on Terror” and U.S. obfuscation on the identities and details of the reported 759 men who have been or continue to be held there this would probably be an accurate assumption, the month of Ramadan is of particular importance. During this holiest month many of the world’s Muslims are focusing more attention than normal on their “brothers” being held illegally at the U.S. extra judicial facility and given the ongoing hunger strike by the inmates, almost all of whom continue to be illegally held without charge or trial, calls are being issued to stop the illegal and brutal practice of force feeding. Lawyers for the inmates at Guantanamo, 120 of whom are currently on a prolonged hunger strike with 45 being force fed, have filed legal motions in Washington calling for the practice to stop during the month of Ramadan. Not only will it be almost impossible to keep to the nighttime regime of food intake called for by Ramadan due to time restraints, but the fact that the inmates are undergoing two force feedings a day, each requiring from one to two hours of force feeding and two to four hours of observation in a dry room where they are not allowed to drink any fluids in order to prevent them from throwing up, if the forced feeding occurs at night and the detainees are not able to drink during the day they will suffer from extreme dehydration which may even lead to death. The U.S. has refused to suspend the practice of force feeding calling it “humane” and has stated it would “try” to conduct the brutal practice during the night hours but has left open the option of conducting daytime force feeding if they deem it necessary. According to the Guardian four inmates have filed suit in Washington calling for the practice to stop as it is prolonging their indefinite detention. Shaker Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha, Nabil Hadjarab and Abu Wa'el say that not only is their indefinite detention a human rights violation but so is the brutal practice of force feeding. A well known rapper recently underwent the “procedure” which appears to amount to torture. They are not alone in calling the practice inhumane and illegal in an earlier report on the matter I reported that 20 organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights and NYU School of Law's Global Justice Clinic, as well as other human rights activists, pressure groups and law bodies have issued calls to end the practice. Several groups wrote a letter to the U.S. government saying: “We urgently request that you order the immediate and permanent cessation of all force-feeding of Guantánamo prisoners who are competent and capable of forming a rational judgment as to the consequences of refusing food, force-feeding of competent prisoners constitutes "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". And “International medical bodies have come out against the force-feeding of detainees. Moreover, as practiced at Guantánamo Bay, it violates the Geneva Conventions, the signatories claim.” In interview I conducted with Michael Ratner he also stated; “… under medical ethics it’s illegal to force feed people. If someone is making a decision, and it’s a conscious decision, and they’re sane when they make it; they are allowed to not eat and force themselves to die if that’s where it goes. They don’t have a right medically, to force feed someone. It’s just like if you are in the hospital and you say-take me off the machines; you have that right to do it. But Obama has insisted on force-feeding people.” Will the U.S. Government stop the practice of force feeding during Ramadan? It is seriously doubtful that a government which detains people for decades with trial or charge, engages in torture and extra-judicial executions would really be concerned about the religious beliefs of people who are trying to end their own lives to escape the very conditions the U.S. has forced them to live under. The opinions and views here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.
6 July, 08:34 9-11: advanced knowledge, MOSSAD, CIA and the PNAC
© Photo: en.wikipedia.org/upstateNYer/cc-by-sa 3.0 The world’s mass media have recently publicized the case of Susan Lindauer, a former CIA operative who was arrested under the Patriot Act after she attempted to testify about 9-11 and U.S. Government foreknowledge and involvement in the attacks of 9-11-2001. The U.S. Government sent 5 FBI agents to her home and arrested her and then attempted to administer psychotropic drugs to her and hold her without trial or hearing. Since 9-11 the mass media, in particular in the U.S. has almost never publicized the plights of the thousands of voices who have had evidence which runs contrary to the official version of 9-11. The voices which have come out against the official narrative of 9-11 have included structural engineers, respected scientists, military personnel, professors, eyewitnesses, reporters, bloggers and countless in what can be loosely termed the 9-11 truth movement. For the most part anyone who has had anything to say against the official narrative, no matter how well-founded or researched or provable, has been marginalized, ignored, threatened or even disappeared. Why the mass media is finally running with the story of a CIA operative who was arrested on false grounds is a little odd at this late date but it has thrown the cover up of the events of 9-11 back on the front page. According to various data and open source intelligence there were perhaps upwards of 9,000 people secretly arrested, detained or disappeared after 9-11 bring the toll on human lives and the number of those affected adversely by the events into the tens of thousands. This does not include those killed maimed or affected by the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan and in the entire “War on Terror”. Some say the events of 9-11 were planned as a catalyst for the entire post 9-11 environment and the War on Terror paradigm, with its accompanying global militarization and the spread of the surveillance state, as well as what has been effectively a war on Islam. 1Susan Lindauer claims that the events of 9-11 were planned by Mossad, something that has been echoed by others, claiming that the events of 9-11 allowed for the planned disintegration of Israel’s enemies in the Middle East and the guaranteed U.S. military presence in the region. For the U.S. this has allowed them to effectively take control of the resources in the oil rich region one country after the other and served as a pretext for the military takeover of the world. For many years the timeline of the events leading up to and subsequent to 9-11 have been one of the most clear and unarguable pieces of evidence pointing to something terribly wrong with the official U.S. narrative, coupled with scientific evidence and the controlled demolition of building 7, an event which Larry Silverstein himself admitted to ordering in an interview on the record. Some of the key events related to 9-11 that have been documented and proven are as follows: 1. August 1997 FEMA's Emergency Response to Terrorism handbook depicts the World Trade center in crosshairs. 2. In 1999 NORAD conducted hijacking exercises where planes were flown into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. 3. June 2000 DOJ releases a terrorism manual with the World Trade Center in crosshairs again. 4. September 2000 the Project for a New American Century releases a report called Rebuilding America's Defenses in which they state that without an event such as a new Pearl Harbor the process of transformation is likely to be a long one. 5. October 24, 2000 the Pentagon conducts the first in a series of training exercises called MASCAL the pretext of which is a passenger airliner, a Boeing 757, crashing into the Pentagon. Charles Burlingame an ex Navy F-4 pilot who worked in the Pentagon participated in the exercise before retiring to take a job with American Airlines, less than a year later the American Airlines plane, a Boeing 757, that he was the Captain of supposedly crashed into the Pentagon. 6. April 2001 NORAD plans an exercise in which a plane is flown into the Pentagon but it is rejected as too unrealistic. 7. June 2001 new instructions are implemented to deal with intervention in the case of a hijacking, part of it reads: " For all non-immediate responses the DOD must get permission directly from the SOD. Donald Rumsfeld. Attorney General John Ashcroft begins flying only on charter jets due to a threat assessment by the FBI. 8. July 4, 2001 Osama Bin Laden receives medical help at the American Hospital in Dubai. While he is there he is visited by the local chief of the CIA. 9. July 24, 2001 Larry A Silverstein signs a 3.2 billion dollar 99 year lease on the entire World Trade Center complex, this was six weeks before 9-11, part of the lease included a 3.5 billion dollar insurance policy that specifically covered acts of terrorism. 10. September 6, 2001 suspicious trading of American Airlines stock takes place. Bomb sniffing dogs were pulled off the World Trade Center and security guards were pulled of the twelve hour shifts that they had been working. 11. September 7, 2001 More excessive trading of American Airline stock involving PUT options which means that people were betting that the stock would fall. 12. September 10, 2001 more of the same. Newsweek reported that a number of top Pentagon officials cancelled their flight plans for the next morning. Willie Brown the Mayor of San Francisco receives a phone call from Condi Rice warning him not to fly the next day. In Pakistan at a military hospital all of the urologists are replaced by a special team in order to host Osama Bin Laden, who was well cared for and looked after. 13. September 11, 2001 with most of the intercept aircraft on training exercises in Canada and in the far North or sent far from Washington and New York on training exercises, there were only 14 aircraft left to guard the entire United States. September 11, 2001 eyewitnesses claimed that the aircraft had no windows and sported a round blue emblem on the nose. Others reported seeing missiles and the presence of missile like mounting on the wings and the underside of the planes. 9:38 Hani Hanjoor, a very unskilled pilot, executes a 330 degree turn at 530 mph descending 7,000 feet in 2.5 minutes to crash American Airlines flight 77 into the ground floor of the Pentagon. Experts said it could not have flown at those speeds without going into a high speed stall and that at such high Gs the plane would have just fallen out of the sky. All of the experienced air traffic controllers who watched the plane that was supposed to be flight 77 maneuvering and turning believed that it was a military fighter plane. All of the lights poles that flight 77 was supposed to have sheered of seemed to have just popped out of the ground, under normal circumstances they would have ripped the wings right off of the planes. If you look at the photos and listen to the eyewitness accounts it is clear that a commercial airliner did not hit the pentagon the damage was consistent with a missile strike. Although the plane was supposed to have melted upon impact all of the bodies on board were identified by the same forensic laboratory that identified the non casualties in Pennsylvania. You get the idea. The only piece of wreckage was part of a J3-8D turbojet engine from a US Air force A-3 Sky Warrior. The few A-3s left are stored by Ratheon in Van Nuys California. A diffuser case was also found not belonging to a 757. Through analysis it is clear that a missile such as a Tomahawk was used to create the damage. 9:59 The South Tower collapses in about ten seconds, 29 minutes later the North Tower collapses in about ten seconds as well. 5:20 World Trade Center 7, a 47 story office building 300 feet away from the World Trade Center collapses in under 6 seconds into a neat little pile, while all of the buildings surrounding it were undamaged. These are the first three building in history to collapse because of a fire. The buildings came down in almost free fall speed, witnesses, video-tapes and expert testimony make it clear the World Trade Center was demolished using controlled explosions that had been placed in the buildings in strategic locations earlier and then detonated in order to cause the buildings to collapse, some witnesses reported up to six simultaneous explosions concurrent with the six support structures of the buildings. 10:00 Cleveland Hopkins Airport was evacuated amidst fears that a hijacked plane was about to land 10:06 Flight 93 was supposedly headed for the White House and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania witnesses said there was nothing to be seen at the crash scene and nothing that resembled an airline crash. The debris that was found was able to be carried away by hand in several plastic bags. 10:10 The sixty nine people on flight 1989, the first plane that landed in Cleveland, were evacuated to the FAA HQ in two hours and twenty minutes and later released. 10:45 The two hundred people on board flight 93 were evacuated to a special NASA building in under thirty minutes and never heard from again. 11:43 Cleveland WCPO a local television station in Cincinnati Ohio reported that two planes landed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport due to a bomb threat, United identified the plane as flight 93. October 12, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld, in an interview with Parade Magazine, mentions a missile that damaged the World Trade Center even though officially one was never mentioned. Bin Laden's original statement: "The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every attack. I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons. I have been living in the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan and following its leaders' rules. The current leader does not allow me to exercise such operations." April 10, 2003 Chicago O'Hare: flight 93 is spotted its tail number N591UA is spotted on flight 1111. According to the FAA N612UA the Pentagon plane and N591UA, the Pennsylvania plane, are still valid numbers. 9 of the 19 hijackers are still alive and well. Silverstein demanded 7.2 billion dollars from his insurers. Received 2.2b There is suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the time of the crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million. $160 billion dollars in gold vanished but only $200 million was found in an empty ten wheeled truck with an empty escort of cars which had been abandoned just before the south tower. With the current PRISM and other revelations, will people begin to question? The truth is so disturbing that the average person does not want to accept it, but the truth is something that can not be hidden forever and when the truth does finally come out it will shake the world, or perhaps it may be too late. Susan Lindauer, the former CIA operative, knows that Bush and Cheney had advanced knowledge of 9-11 and the world is now beginning to listen, perhaps this one clue will be enough to begin to bring down the house of cards. The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.
6 July, 05:09 Canada is a corporation stealing Indian resources – Mohawk Elder
http://www.jar2.com/Interviews/Kahntineta_Bear.html © Flcikr.com/RobinJP/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0
Part 2 Canada is in fact a corporation – Mohawk Indian elder You were listening to an interview with Kahentinetha Horn, a Mohawk Indian an a member of a Bear Clan, and an owner and publisher of the Mohawknationnews.com. Part 1 The Mohawk: Keepers of the Eastern Door of Great Turtle Island - interview
You were listening to an interview with Kahentinetha Horn – she is a member of the Mohawk Nation, the Bear Clan, and the owner and publisher of mohawknationnews.com. Part one of this interview, the Mohawks Keepers of the Eastern Door of Great Turtle Island.
5 July, 14:30 Surveillance continues on candidate Assange in the embassy
Ecuadorian embassy in London Photo: EPA The bug that was recently discovered in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London was found by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Patino in the Ecuadorian Ambassador’s office and now there are concerns as to how many other bugs are in the embassy. The fact that an Australian senatorial candidate is being surveilled is outrageous stated the head of Julian Assange’s senatorial campaign Greg Barns to the Voice of Russia. Hello, this is John Robles. I'm speaking with Mr. Greg Barns, he's the head of the WikiLeaks Party and he's heading up Julian Assange’s Senate campaign. Robles: Your party was officially registered yesterday. That, I think, is a really big important step and a victory I think. Can you tell us about that? Barns: The WikiLeaks Party went through a registration process with the electoral authorities in Australia and this week has been registered. This means that we can run as a political party in the election campaign, which is sometime in August, September, October this year. It also means that the party candidates can be announced and we'll be announcing candidates for Senate, Australia's Upper House, within the next couple of weeks. We'll also be announcing some policy initiatives over the next couple of weeks, as well. Robles: Well, we'll be waiting for that. Can you tell us a little bit about the bug that was found in Ecuadorian Embassy? Barns: My understanding is that the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Patino, when he was in the embassy seeing Julian Assange in June, found the bug in the ambassador's office. I understand that the bug belongs to a British security firm. What's disturbing about it is that you have an Australian political candidate who's being surveilled by security and one would assume that it's the U.K. or the United States that's surveilling. It should be disturbing to the Australian government in the sense that no candidate for office should be put under surveillance but this is another example of where, Julian Assange has been subjected to, in our view, appaling interference by the authorities, even whilst he's inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. Robles: There were reports that Ricardo Patino's e-mails, between him and Julian were also hacked. Is that true? Barns: Certainly. You can be assured that the level of surveillance on Julian Assange has not diminished, despite the fact that he’s sought asylum in Ecuador. And, as I say, it's really extraordinary that a political candidate in a democracy, like Australia, should find himself being surveilled. Robles: No Australian officials have mentioned anything about that, have they? Barns: No, and it's not being suggested at this stage that Australia has anything to do with it. It's much more likely that it is the United States or the United Kingdom that has had the bug in the embassy. Robles: I am just talking about: has anybody expressed any comments or outrage or anything about this? Barns: No, because the story has really just broken over the past 12 hours in Australia. But certainly it's concerning to the WikiLeaks Party that one of its candidates should be subject to surveillance. Robles: How much in danger could that put Julian? Is there any idea how long that bug has been in place? Barns: There’s not, but certainly I was over in the embassy in June of this year, I will be going over again in July and the conversations that I had with Julian about political strategy and the election campaign are not conversations that ought to be recorded or listened to by third parties or other countries. As I Said I think it's a great concern that there is this bug that's been discovered in the embassy and furthermore, that it is in the ambassador's office. Robles: So this is right in the ambassador's office! Can you give us some details how it was discovered? What kind of bug it was? Where it was and things like that? Maybe, if you know anything. Barns: All I know is that it was discovered by Mr. Patino, when he was in the ambassador’s office, that’s all I know about it. I have been told that the bug has been traced to a British security firm. That’s probably not unusual, given the fact that the embassy is in London. And as I say you just have a look at the countries that are interested in Julian Assange, respectable to the United States and it proxies like the U.K. and what is concerning about it is there was that bug. Are there other bugs placed inside the embassy? If there are again, we’ve raised great concerns that there’s an Australian political candidates whose election campaign is being surveilled a by third party. Robles: Twenty years ago this would have caused an international scandal. How scandalous, do you think, this is going to get? Barns: I mean it ought to be a matter of scandal, because the security state, which has emerged since 9-11 in particular, is no longer big news, except when it's completely outrageous. And certainly, from our perspective, this is a matter of grave concern. As I say, our concern is, from the perspective of the WikiLeaks Party election campaign that one of its candidates is being surveilled and furthermore, that any discussions that he might have with campaign advisors, including myself, are being recorded. And certainly it is, as I say of grave concern that there’s actually a bug was inside ambassador's office. Robles: And no idea as to how long it was there, right? Barns: No reason, the bugging was carried out, the Ecuadorians say by a company called the Surveillance Group Ltd. which is a private investigation and covert surveillance company in the United Kingdom but I don't have any further information on how long it has been there. Robles: I see. So it can be anybody and probably the United States. I wouldn’t doubt that. Barns: It could be the U.K. which is effectively acting as a proxy to the United States. Robles: Oh sure, of course they are. If they weren't Julian could have left there a long time ago. Barns: Exactly! Yeah! Robles: Do you think this is a warning to other European countries? Barns: What we’re finding in the revelations from Ed Snowden, and revelations from WikiLeaks itself over the past few years, is the way in which the surveillance state post 9/11 environment, has infiltrated so much of the world and there is so much in terms of surveillance that ordinary people haven't been told about and I think that's of grave concern. That should be of grave concern to peoples and nations all around the world. Robles: The fact that the U.S. has been spying on allies and their “supposed” friends; isn't that outrageous? Barns: Absolutely. And that’s the view the European Union takes. And what is also scandalous is the fact the Australian government hasn't been jumping up and down on behalf of its own citizens asking for explanations from the U.S. as to whether or not there has been surveillance of Australian citizens, particularly those Australian citizens who have a lot of dealings with the United States. Robles: Would you take that as a given? I think I would at this point. Barns: The problem in Australia is: and one of the points we are going to be making in the election campaign, is that the Australian governments have been far too trusting of the United States over a long period of time, and in particular, in the post 9-11 environments. And what guarantees can be given to Australian citizens that their privacy hasn’t been invaded by Australian security agencies operating alongside the U.S.! Robles: What's your opening strategy going to be? Can you tell us? Barns: I think the campaign is going to be very much about saying to the Australian people that here's a party that's got a track record, through its broader movements, in transparency and accountability and standing up for the individuals. And we're going to take that into the election campaign. The Senate, Australia's Upper House, which where Julian is running, that is a house of review. It's meant to be a check on the government and it’s become just a deal-making chamber in recent years and the government simply uses it to rubber stamp legislation, or sometimes it just bypasses the Senate. All we want to see is a Senate that is an effective check-and-balance, that's ensuring that we don’t have secrets, that government is accountable, that all documentation in relation to policy is put on the table and, in particular, that security agencies, the federal police and those, are held accountable for their decisions by forcing them to reveal to the Senate on a twice yearly basis what are the collection activities they've been up to. Robles: Anything else you want to enlighten our listeners about? Barns: No. We’re alright John! Robles: Thanks a lot, Greg! I really appreciate it! Barns: Alright mate! I’ll talk to you next week. Robles: Okay, I’ll talk to you next week and maybe you will tell us who the candidates are.
5 July, 02:46 Russia and Latin America united in response to Bolivian presidential aircraft grounding
Photo: EPA The reaction from the authorities of the Russian Federation to the interference of the flight of the President of Bolivia Evo Morales from Moscow to La Paz, by the United States and what are now undoubtedly its proxies, has been extremely sharp and united with Russia’s South American allies and partners. Official Moscow has blasted the countries which prevented the official presidential aircraft of Bolivia from entering their airspace, an unprecedented move that placed the lives of the president, the official delegation and everyone on board at risk. Those countries now include not only France and Portugal but also Spain and Italy. After being allowed to land in Austria, a delay of almost 13 hours, and meeting the president of Austria the Bolivian presidential aircraft, FAB-001, left Austria and has arrived in Bolivia. The Bolivian authorities agreed to a voluntary search of the plane which produced no Edward Snowden. A conversation between president Morales’ pilots and Austrian air traffic controllers indicates that the landing was required as a precaution because the Bolivian plane may have been running out of fuel. After identifying the aircraft Austrian controllers immediately offered the plane assistance and then initiated a landing procedure for the aircraft. Austrian President Heinz Fischer met with President Morales at Vienna’s airport and stated the following: “On a flight from Moscow to his home country, the president of Bolivia, who is also a good friend of Austria, made a stopover in Vienna – had to make a stopover in Vienna. I first made contact with him on the phone and then I came to visit him here. I satisfied myself that all procedures here in Austria and in Vienna were absolutely correct and that President Evo Morales was treated very well and correctly. We took the opportunity to discuss a few other issues as well. The president will shortly resume his trip to his country and I wish him a good flight and a good return,” Russia The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation released a statement Thursday putting the Russian position on the egregious violation of the rights of presidents and diplomats to travel freely into very clear yet diplomatic terms:“The actions of the French, Spanish and Portuguese authorities could hardly be seen as friendly towards Bolivia and towards Russia, from which the Bolivian President Evo Morales was leaving upon completion of his Moscow visit. The refusal to grant the aircraft the right to overfly could create a threat to the security of its passengers, including the head of a sovereign state.” "The president of a country is a person who enjoys international protection. In it actions at the United Nations, Russia will push for the strict compliance with international law guaranteeing the inviolability of such persons, and will not allow attacks on their persons, freedom or dignity," said the Foreign Ministry. Russian diplomats have also said that they will continue to press for unconditional observation of international rules that guarantee the personal immunity of heads of state that prevent any attempts on their life, freedom and dignity according to various official sources. Bolivia Bolivia called the grounding an act of aggression and accused the U.S. of being behind the move and promised to file a complaint with the UN. “We're talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped,” Sacha Llorenti Soliz, Bolivia's Ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday. “We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House, by no means should a diplomatic plane with the president be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country.” President Evo Morales has demanded an explanation from the governments which refused his aircraft to enter their airspace, saying he was not a criminal and the world was no longer in the colonial period. An emergency UNASUR meeting is currently in progress on the matter with the leaders of the member countries already having issued a denunciation of the "unfriendly and unjustifiable acts." The UNASUR said the presidents of Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay and Surinam had agreed to attend a summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Thursday. The Vice President of Bolivia, Álvaro García Linera, denied that a voluntary search had taken place saying: “We haven't allowed a search inside the presidential plane 001 and no special force went into the plane because it is not right. This plane has immunity and by international law, it can't be submitted to a search.” Argentina In a speech Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner stated: "(These are) vestiges of a colonialism that we thought were long over. We believe this constitutes not only the humiliation of a sister nation but of all South America!" In tweets the Argentine president was more vocal saying: “They are definitely all crazy. A Head of State and his plane have complete immunity. I can't believe this level of impunity.” Ecuador Rafael Correa stated on Twitter: “Decisive hours for UNASUR: either we graduate as colonies or we revindicate our independence, sovereignty and dignity. We are all Bolivia!” Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro stated that he was in contact with President Evo Morales: “I am in touch with Evo, all international immunities that protect Heads of State have been violated due to the Imperial obsession.” and then: “I ratify my complete solidarity with Evo and from Venezuela, with dignity, we will respond to this dangerous, disproportionate and unacceptable aggression.” Brazil The President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff stated that: “The Brazilian government expresses its indignation and condemnation of the situation imposed on President Evo Morales by some European countries, who impeded the flight path of the presidential plane. That ‘unacceptable attitude’ was taken under the ‘fantastical pretext’ of Edward Snowden's presence on the President's plane, which, apart from being a ‘serious lack of respect for the law and international protocol ... put [Morales'] life in risk.’ She has also warned that the incident: "… compromises dialogue between the two continents and possible negotiations between them." In an official statement she also said: "… the posture of certain European governments causes surprise and concern, at the time that some of those governments are complaining of espionage from the United States." Cuba Shortly after the incident official Havana issued the following statement: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba is following with serious concern events of the last few weeks related to the significant denunciation of U.S. citizen Edward Snowden, confirming the operation of a global espionage system on the part of the government of the United States, in violation of the sovereignty of states and the rights of persons.” Official Havana also states: “Cuba calls on the international community to mobilize against these violations of international law and human rights.” United Nations The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon Ban stated that he is "relieved that this unfortunate incident did not lead to consequences for the safety of President Morales and his entourage," and said he hopes the parties will discuss the matter with "full respect for the legitimate interests involved." United States Obama and his U.S. State Department are being unusually quiet. Europe France is currently the only country that has apologized, stating that they did not know the Bolivian leader was on board. For the European countries to complain about the United States spying on their countries and their citizens in light of the revelations by Mr. Snowden and then to conduct an unprecedented interference with the protected operations of the official aircraft of a head of state strangely echoes American hypocrisy on the international stage. This is another glaring example of the United States behaving as if they are the sole rulers of the world and have the right to force the world to bend to their will regardless of the illegality of their own actions. Europeans appear to not value their own sovereignty and by their egregious actions against the President of Bolivia the countries involved have shown that they are merely proxies for their U.S. masters. The international blowback may be extreme this time.
3 July, 06:48 3 Unprecedented interference in presidential flight as U.S. hunts Snowden
© Collage: «Voice of Russia» After attending an energy conference in Moscow Bolivian President Evo Morales, who had recently said he would give asylum to Edward Snowden, and the official Bolivian government delegation left the territory of the Russian Federation on the official presidential airliner of the Bolivian president and entered European airspace en-route to South America and the Bolivian capital La Paz. The preliminary reports say that the United States, suspicious that the young Mr. Snowden was on board, applied pressure to European countries behind the scenes to not allow the aircraft to enter their airspace in an attempt to force the country to land in a country where the plane could be boarded and Snowden detained and renditioned back to America. Reports say that Portugal and France abruptly revoked permission for the official aircraft of the Bolivian president to enter their airspace causing an emergency change in the president’s flight plane and placing the president and the entire delegation’s lives at risk due to concerns over fuel. It is unprecedented that any country would not allow the president of a non-adversarial country to land on their territory to refuel while en-route to another location and the forced re-routing has rightfully sparked an international scandal at the highest levels. The aircraft was supposed to refuel in France before making the long jump across the Atlantic and was eventually forced to reroute to Austria which had earlier refused to grant Mr. Snowden asylum and where there are unconfirmed suspicions that had he been on board he would have been handed over to the Americans. Although there have been no official admissions by any of the countries involved regarding U.S. pressure, that is the most accepted preliminary version and the most logical. There are also reports that France and Portugal simply did not want to deal with Mr. Snowden if he were to land in their countries and request asylum and took the egregious actions unilaterally. There are growing indications that time is running out for Edward Snowden. The latest twist in the story shows just how desperate and to what lengths the United States will go to get Mr. Snowden the former CIA employee and NSA contractor who exposed the illegal global spying network PRISM. According to media reports Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, speaking to reporters said that the Portuguese and French authorities wouldn't let the plane land in their territories dispelling concerns amidst reports that the plane had been forced down. Such scandalous behavior against the head of state of a non-adversarial nation is unprecedented and an egregious violation of the rights held by world leaders to travel freely. Bolivia is of course justifiably upset by the incident as are many other countries as the international responses begin to come in. Ecuador has suggested an emergency meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) be held in order to formulate an appropriate and proper international response. Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca also told reporters: "We are told that there were some unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on the plane but we do not know who has invented this lie. It was someone who wants to harm our country. This information that has been circulated is malicious information to harm this country. Portugal owes us an explanation. France owes us an explanation. The president's life was put at risk," he said but did not elaborate. According to the Voice of Russia Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra told CNN: “This is a lie, a falsehood. It was generated by the US government. It t is an outrage. It is an abuse. It is a violation of the conventions and agreements of international air transportation.” Official Moscow has not responded to the incident but I expect that the Russian authorities will be extremely displeased by the latest developments concerning the violation of the rights of one of its allies amid the tensions that the entire Snowden affair has already placed on Moscow. We have seen and documented thousands of cases of the United States interfering with foreign countries and violating international laws and conventions in the last decade and Washington is continuing to show its own illegitimacy in continuing to go after those who expose illegality and violating international conventions and norms. The United States is currently running rampant violating the rights and privacy of the governments and peoples of even its closest allies and there are beginning to be calls from varying corners for the implementation of international sanctions against the United States which has delegated to itself the role of the single ruler of the world and the world’s policeman, enforcer and sole military super power. The hyper damage control mode that the United States is currently in over Mr. Snowden leads one to the conclusion that whatever the further revelations that may be unveiled may be even more damaging that was already been revealed. Currently Snowden remains in the transit area at Sheremetyevo after filing asylum requests with approximately 20 different countries who are responding negatively one after the other. After filing a request with Russia, a move I personally feel was his wisest Mr. Snowden cancelled it because he did not want to adhere to the one condition put forth the by President Vladimir Putin, namely that he cease and desist in attempting to damage the U.S. Intelligence Community. President Putin said that coming from him such a condition may seem odd but he repeated that Russia will never hand Mr. Snowden over to Washington, even though Mr. Snowden has no connection with Russian Intelligence, was never an agent of the Russian Federation and was not invited onto Russian territory. The current move to not allow a presidential aircraft to follow its flight plan should be a loud indicator to Mr. Snowden as to just how far the U.S. will go to get him and that his options are very quickly running out. Experts around the world have said that the best two countries, of a very quickly dwindling few, where he should seek refuge are the People’s Democratic Republic of China and the Russian Federation. My advice for Mr. Snowden, something I might add the BBC asked me for yesterday: “If you have not burned your bridges in Russia and the government is still gracious enough and willing to take you in, do it. Or try to go back to China. Your options are running out. Let others publish more leaks, you have done enough for now. Maybe an apology to President Putin might be in order after you refused his more than generous offer? After all, in reality, taking you and placing you on a U.S. bound flight does not take an extradition treaty, in reality it would be amazingly easy.” In addition, according to RT, President Evo Morales put it this way: “If Snowden stays alone, he will be destroyed. But what kind of crimes did he commit? What kind of bombs did he explode or what kind of missiles did he launch? He tries to fight against controlling weak countries. This is why we say that we share what this young man says and that protecting Snowden will protect peace.” Time appears to be running out for Mr. Snowden and so do his options. The opinions and views expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. World, Evo Morales, Bolivia, espionage, info leak, whistleblower, political asylum, PRISM, NSA, Edward Snowden, Snowden: ‘Catch Me If You Can’, Politics · Share: · · · · · Сomments 3 · "...one condition put forth the by President Vladimir Putin, namely that he cease and desist in attempting to damage the U.S. Intelligence Community. President Putin said that coming from him such a condition may seem odd..." On the surface it does seem odd. Mr. Robles, could you offer an opinion as to why Mr. Putin would impose such a condition? (I thought he actually referred to "our American partners") Viktor Bout, some other concession? · That's because the United States is an economic and military powerhouse and Putin may not like it but he neds it. He doesn't want to start another cold war with a country that is "drunk with power". · @Milovan - I'll quibble with the "economic powerhouse" aspect, I'd say they've long been eclipsed by India and China, their economy revolves around the arms industry as far as production goes. Militarily, it remains to be seen how they'd do against anything other than a second or third rate power. Serbia, Libya, Iraq were doable, Afghans are showing them the exit "Saigon style". Let's hope we never find out. Not that I disagree out of hand, but why does Putin "need it"? As far as I can tell the Cold War is alive and well, what with NATO surrounding Russia, missile defense system and all.
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