Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link]. Send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Previous Northbay Uprising News Scripts [link] Archived links are available even if the original is taken down, stored at (archive.org), (archive.today). News links are provided for educational purposes only, and do not constitute an endorsement of political tendencies, or of foreign governments.
* "THE ONE PERCENTERS: HOW A HANDFUL OF CALIFORNIA POWER BROKERS WORK TO FURTHER INEQUALITY" (2015-02-17) [http://capitalandmain.com/inequality/californias-top-policy-powerbrokers] [https://archive.today/rU6BI]
* "Vallejo’s medical marijuana dispensaries turned away from paying Measure C taxes" (2015-02-19) [https://archive.today/DvEKB]
* "The poor economy leaves one in five children needing food stamps" (2015-01-28 by Lynda Carson) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/28/18767697.php] [https://archive.today/NIumu]
* "Corruption is rampant at HUD and affordable housing projects" (2014-12-12 by Lynda Carson) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/12/18768410.php] [https://archive.today/7Pq6a]
* Santa Cruz: "City Attorney John Barisone ignores requests for written ADA accommodation affirmation" by John Cohen-Colby, Ph.D. (2015-01-27) [https://archive.today/NrC2x]:
Santa Cruz City Attorney John Barisone refuses to acknowledge my repeated requests that he comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and affirm my sister Patricia Colby's reasonable disability accommodation request to table in Downtown Santa Cruz without being harassed by the so called "Move Along Law". Barisone committed to accommodating her at the December 18th, 2014 Santa Cruz City Council meeting (under questioning from concerned City Council member Micah Posner), but he refuses to spell it out in writing (with any additional conditions, provisos or clarifications), denying numerous others a written precedent — enforceable in court — to perform, vend, panhandle and assemble in Downtown Santa Cruz without various City ordinances (depending upon their unique disabilities) being enforced against them in violation of the ADA.
Solving 9-11 Ends the War Book Tour in Santa Cruz
Saturday, February 28th, 7 P.M. at Resource Center for Nonviolence
Donation requested $5 - $10 and no one turned away for lack of funds
Sponsored by Santa Cruz Peace and Freedom Party
UCSC Graduate in History, Christopher Bollyn, will present his books on Solving 9-11: The Deception That Changed the World -
In the name of 9-11, “wars have been waged, governments overthrown, and an untold number of lives sacrificed.” Yet 9-11 is an unsolved crime of terrorism and mass murder, with no trial and no serious investigation. This elaborately planned criminal deception was carried out “with the intention that the public would be deceived with a false explanation blaming the atrocity on Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaida....”Christopher Bollyn states he has written “Solving 9-11: the Deception that Changed the World” because he could not remain indifferent and silent...”as the lies about 9-11 were used to wage wars of aggression and transform American into a police state.”
An investigative journalist from Illinois, Bollyn sojourned in Europe and the Middle East before studying languages, history and journalism the UC Davis and Santa Cruz. His degree in history focused on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He has written in-depth articles about the Middle East, electronic vote fraud, the dangers of depleted uranium, and the history and geo-political background of 9-11.
In 2007, Bollyn and his family moved to Sweden when his research into 9-11 brought about his being attacked by undercover police and then charged with assaulting them. He began writing this book and has been touring in the US with the hope of raising the consciousness of the American public and exposing the true culprits.
Readers of his book have said it is “the top-notch work of the 9-11 collection and ...the work of a brave genius...information we can use to reformulate our worldview....gives me hope that truth and liberty can ultimately prevail.”
Still believe the official version or think you know " who done it?” Come find out, it may not be exactly who you think. His books will be available at his talk.
More information at www.bollyn.com.
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SOLANO ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
* Sign onto EPA petition to ban pesticide that harms children’s brains [http://action.ufw.org/page/s/epa215], archived copy [https://archive.today/9Aphd] [begin excerpt]: Home use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos was banned over a decade ago because science showed it harms to children’s developing brains and nervous systems — including reduced IQ and increased risk of autism. Yet use in agricultural fields across the country continues. Residues of this toxic pesticide are found on many fruits and vegetables, including common childhood favorites like grapes, apples and peaches. Children in rural areas are particularly at risk, since the pesticide can also drift from fields into nearby homes and schools — a risk EPA consistently underestimates. The science is now even stronger. Recent studies show the same risks. Yet the EPA is — inexcusably — proposing that use of the chemical continues. [end excerpt]
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* "Chevron and big ag are irrigating crops with oil wastewater; Oil company says the ‘recycled’ waste is perfectly safe. When have we heard that before?" (2015-02-03) [http://48hills.org/2015/02/02/chevron-big-ag-irrigating-crops-oil-wastewater/] [https://archive.today/84sox]
* " ‘A water company that skims oil’ ; Who’s watching to make sure that Chevron oil-field wastewater is safe to use for irrigating crops?" (2015-02-13) [http://48hills.org/2015/02/12/water-company-skims-oil#permanently-moved] [https://archive.today/5Wtms]
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* "New Environmental Health Program Will Focus on Protecting Wildlife, People from Pesticides, Lead and Other Toxic Pollutants" [http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/02/20/new-environmental-health-program-will-focus-protecting-wildlife-people] [https://archive.today/ArwQB]
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* "Regulator let PG&E investigate itself after San Bruno blast" (2015-02-21) [http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Regulator-let-PG-E-investigate-itself-after-San-6094375.php] [https://archive.today/DPQxR] [begin excerpt]: California Public Utilities Commission officials allowed Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to investigate itself after the company revealed in 2012 that it had failed to police its major gas pipelines to the point where trees, buildings and even swimming pools blocked access to them, The Chronicle has learned. A commission official explained in an e-mail to PG&E executives that it would be better for the company to do its own investigation so the state agency could avoid “a lot of ... red tape.” The findings of PG&E’s self-investigation remain secret, more than two years after the company turned them over to the state. What is known is that regulators have yet to levy any fines against PG&E for what one former utilities commission lawyer called a major safety problem. PG&E officials told The Chronicle last week that they had found obstacles along 1,500 miles of transmission pipelines — almost 20 percent of the utility’s 6,750-mile system — and that fixing the problems will cost $500 million in shareholders’ money and take until 2017. [end excerpt]
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Oakland's new Measure FF minimum wage law goes into effect on Monday. Voters passed Measure FF in November with 81% of the vote, raising the minimum wage to $12.25/hour, with cost-of-living increases every year starting in 2016. Next week more than 48,000 workers will receive a raise, and 56,000 workers will get paid sick days.
More info at Lift Up Oakland [http://www.liftupoakland.org/], for better wages, healthy families and a healthy economy sponsored by labor and community organizations. Major funding by Dignity CA SEIU-United Long Term Care Workers Local 6434 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Issues PAC.
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* "SILICON VALLEY’S BRAVE NEW ECONOMIC ORDER" (2015-02-18) [http://capitalandmain.com/inequality-section/silicon-valleys-brave-new-economic-order/] [https://archive.today/A8Ore]:
As Silicon Valley continues to generate extraordinary wealth – it posted the country’s fastest rate of job growth last year, according to a new report from the regional development group Joint Venture Silicon Valley – it is also establishing the blueprint of a new socio-economic order. A recent Princeton University study suggested the United States was starting to resemble an oligarchy more than a democracy. The trend’s cradle is unmistakably Silicon Valley, where the billionaires are most densely concentrated and where the problems of inequality in a powerhouse economy are starkest.
“It is possible to admire individual billionaires but also fear their overall influence in elections, governance and public policy,” Darrell West of the Brookings Institution wrote in his 2014 book Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust. The problem, West elaborated in an interview, is both systemic and profound.
“Billionaires are completely unrepresentative in terms of what they care about,” he said, citing a slew of political science literature showing America’s super-rich to be to significantly to the right of the public on the role of government, taxation and other core issues. “We have to worry about them pushing ideas that benefit themselves as opposed to society as a whole.”
Reading intentions up close, on a case by case basis, can be deceptively tricky. Khosla, for example, may be the bugaboo of the surfing community, but he’s also a signatory to the Giving Pledge, the exclusive group of billionaires founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who have promised to give away 50 per cent of their net worth to charitable causes. Khosla’s passion is the environment.
Are they doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, or for corporate PR? In the absence of a clear answer, it is perhaps easier to note that private interests are, one way or the other, muscling in on territory once occupied exclusively by elected officials.
The advent of super-PACs and unlimited independent expenditures makes it possible for billionaires to play a much longer game and to reap far greater successes as long as they are patient.
The problem comes more clearly into focus with a wider lens: The 30 per cent of Silicon Valley residents who struggle to make ends meet, the homeless encampments in East San Jose and on University Avenue in Palo Alto, the endless commutes for service workers and the lack of many services that cities cannot afford to operate in the shadow of the tech giants, the gross disparities in wealth between men and women, between whites, blacks and Latinos, the way San Francisco has been hollowed out as a city and become the dormitory and playground for the Silicon Valley communities in the outer suburbs.
Billionaires, generally speaking, are only so interested in such dominant social trends, preferring to focus on issues like health or education that speak to their personal passions without thinking as hard about the overarching governmental structures that can promote excellence in those areas. They lobby hard to resist regulation and taxation of their businesses, for example, often to great effect.
Their ideas of reform, however, are often rather different from that envisaged by school district superintendents or education policy think tanks. “Many of them support charter schools. They are not fond of teacher unions,” West said. “They push policy prescriptions that are very pro-market and pro-technology as a way of disrupting the existing system.”
That’s obviously true of Welch and his Students Matter group, which has campaigned against tenure for underperforming teachers, but it is at least partly true of Zuckerberg also. The Facebook founder said his first priority in funding Bay Area schools was “towards initiatives that provide computers and connectivity in schools, as well as teacher training and parent outreach to make these a really valuable addition to the learning experience.”
West described a phenomenon he calls “impact philanthropy” – essentially, billionaires combining what they believe to be a charitable pursuit with their own business interests. Bridging the technology gap between rich and poor is, in some sense, a way of expanding their own market reach.
“Billionaires and wannabe billionaires tend to get disconnected. They don’t see the suffering under their noses,” Vivek Wadhwa said. “When you see beggars on the streets of Palo Alto, it’s not what you’d expect of the technology capital of the world. This could be India, or Bangladesh. Most of the billionaires just look beyond it.”
[end excerpt]
An interesting quote from the article: "According to Darrell West, the emphasis on education can be explained, in part, by the fact that 70 per cent of America’s billionaires are self-made and feel a great debt to the education they received."
So, did they dig around the dirt all alone until they "found" a billion dollars laying around? No.
The myth of the self-made billionaire censors the millions of dollars of government tax subsidies to their businesses, the student grants and scholarships they may have received if they did not have a substantial inheritance, the hundreds of workers they exploited (underpaid) and let go (fired)... the list goes on, and yet nobody is counted in the myth of the "self-made billionaire". The purpose of the mythology is to blame the poor for being of lower-income. After all, even a worker a McDonalds can save money and become a "self-made billionaire", so there should be no laws impeding the success of individuals, even if those laws (like labor law, environmental law, even safety law) protect the 99.9% who never become millionaires or billionaires!
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WORKER'S DEFENSE COMMITTEE
* "Use Recertification to Build Your Union" (2015-02-16) [http://labornotes.org/2015/02/stewards-corner-use-recertification-build-your-union] [https://archive.today/W8RdS]
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* "Workers sickened by pesticides last August still have no justice from Ag Commissioner; Workers will hand in petition to Ag Commissioner during March 6 rally" (2015-05-23) [http://action.ufw.org/page/s/agcomm215]:
“I work picking peaches for Gerawan. In August 2013, Gerawan workers entered a peach orchard to starting picking. They noticed a bad smell, began to feel sick & later found that this field was sprayed with toxic pesticides. It frightens me that no one even told them to keep out of the orchard like the law says. What’s scary is it could have just as easily been me.“It’s been more than a year and a half since this happened and Gerawan still hasn’t been punished for their carelessness. The Ag Commissioner ruled against Gerawan back in November. And still nothing has happened. I don’t understand it. They have been found guilty and should be fined already.
“I and some of my coworkers visited the Ag Commissioner last Friday. They still couldn’t give us answers.
“So we want to do a demonstration in front of their office on March 6 and hand in a petition. We are hoping people from all around the country will sign it. We want the Ag Commissioner and Gerawan to realize people know about this and care. Will you sign our petition?”
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* "Bosses ‘fire’ 300 Local 10 members in Oakland after tentative agreement at West Coast ports" (2015-02-23) [http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/02/23/bosses-fire-300-local-10-members-in-oakland-after-tentative-agreement-at-west-coast-ports/] [https://archive.today/NUlJd] [begin excerpt]:
In Oakland, Calif., once again the bosses caused critically backed-up port work to stop, forcing 300 workers — everyone working that shift — to go home for the day on Feb. 22, while blaming ILWU Local 10 members for the stoppage.
To find out the truth about what was happening in Oakland — which processes 10 percent of the $2 trillion in goods loaded and unloaded on the West Coast each year — Workers World spoke with Trent Willis, former president and business agent of Local 10 with 22 years experience on the docks. Willis is also the originator of the 2004 Million Worker March in Washington, D.C.
Willis made it very clear that ILWU members did not walk off the job on Feb. 22, as was widely reported; in fact, they were “fired” by the Pacific Maritime Association.
Despite a tentative agreement announced Feb. 20, the PMA sacrificed fully three-fourths of Sunday production in Oakland when it “fired” all day shift longshore workers — including Willis. Instead of calling out the PMA for stopping work, an area arbitrator that Willis identified as Terry Lane did just the opposite: He immediately approved the bosses’ action.
Lane, who was formerly a vice-president of the Pacific Maritime Association, is notorious for his pro-boss decisions. He is due to be replaced as an arbitrator in the proposed contract.
KTVU reported, “In a statement the Pacific Maritime Association said ‘an area arbitrator’ ruled the unit breaks, ‘illegal work stoppages,’ resulting in port operations being shut down’ during the day shift.” (https://archive.today/Z7yNb).
Willis explained that Local 10 members also attempted to get back to work after the tentative agreement. “We were told over the radio that if we took a unit break we would all be fired,” explained Willis, “even though that’s what it says to do in our contract.”
[end excerpt]
* "Dock Workers vs Shippers in West Coast Ports" (2015-02-20 by Chris Kinder):
In the midst of the accumulating labor struggles in the US—medical workers, oil refinery workers, etc.—one struggle stands out as a major threat to the capitalist class: longshore workers vs shipping bosses on the West Coast. With the power to shut down international trade with Asia, longshore workers are now being threatened by both the employers and their friends in the Obama government with escalating attacks, as well as by slanderous propaganda in the employer-friendly press.
Despite the double-speak—including an SF Chronicle editorial, “Dispute Threatens US Economy,” 19 February 2015—West Coast dock workers are not to blame for this months-long “slow-down” crisis. The employers are looking to break this union, historically one of the most militant in the country, through sweet-heart deals (as in West Coast grain ports) and rampant automation, while the workers seek to protect their jobs, and their safety on the docks. The “slow-down” has everything to do with employer pressure to capitulate on the issues, and almost nothing to do with workers’ actions.
But why are there no workers’ actions in response to this employer onslaught? The longshore workers are saddled with a weak and subservient union leadership. This leadership, which should have called for a walk out when the contract terminated last July (“no contract no work”), has dilly-dallied. Because of this, the workers are now looking at a possible Taft-Hartley injunction, or other form of government-enforced settlement.
Jack Heyman, a long-time militant maritime worker and longshoreman (now retired) describes the situation in this op-ed piece:
* "Dock workers, shippers face off in West Coast Ports" (2015-02-18, SF Chronicle Op-Ed) by Jack Heyman, a retired ILWU member, has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as a longshoreman and boatman for over 30 years. He chairs the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee. (www.transportworkers.org) -
West Coast ports are badly congested. Ships are backed up, unable to find a berth to unload their cargo. Longshore contract negotiations are deadlocked between the shipowners and terminal operators of the Pacific Maritime Association and dockworkers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. With big retailers and agribusiness screaming, President Obama has sent in Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
The PMA’s tough negotiating ploy has intentionally created a port crisis. The PMA, echoed by the business press, claims greedy workers engaging in work slowdowns are to blame. Yet the employers, after dragging out negotiations for nine months, have closed ports this past holiday weekend. They previously had ended night work to stop paying overtime and shift premiums, thus employers have slashed available work time in one week by 75 percent. In 2002, when PMA locked out longshore workers and shut down West Coast ports, the media conflated it with a workers’ strike. Is this a bad media rerun?
What’s really brewing here is an assault on one of the last bastions of union power left in the United States, the ILWU. In the last five years, the ILWU has faced union-busting attacks by mining titan Rio Tinto and the ABCD grain monopolies (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge Limited, Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Commodities), which control 90 percent of the world’s grain distribution. In both cases, the union conceded key contract provisions, and now maritime monopolies are smelling blood.
Two of the biggest global port employers, Ports America Inc. and Stevedoring Services of America were until recently owned in large part by the insurance monolith AIG and Goldman Sachs, respectively. This is “Wall Street on the waterfront,” and they’re out to gut the power of the ILWU, the union hiring hall, and curtail union action by using arbitrators.
Yet when longshore workers stop work, it’s often because of safety issues in a dangerous industry whose rate of work-related fatalities exceeds that of firefighters.
When Bay Area longshore workers shut down ports to protest Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting activities, that state’s AFL-CIO called the ILWU “the moral compass of the labor movement.” And when Oakland police nearly killed Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen during an Occupy movement protest, 30,000 outraged demonstrators marched into the port, closing it in protest and in solidarity with longshore workers battling the nonunion Export Grain Terminal in Longview, Wash. Shades of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike frightened West Coast port employers.
ILWU longshore jobs pay decent wages and benefits, but far less than employers claim. If a rising tide can lift all boats, then these jobs and benefits will continue to set standards for other workers. But, if Wall Street on the waterfront breaks the ILWU, wages and living standards will be driven down for all.
Don’t forget the lesson of PATCO, the air traffic controllers union destroyed by Ronald Reagan, while other unions sat idly by. The consequences devastated the entire labor movement. And, in 2012, President Obama sent Coast Guard vessels against the ILWU protesting a scab ship at the Export Grain Terminal. Longshore workers need to use their power to stop concessionary contracts, and all working people should have their back.
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* "Illinois governor Bruce Rauner: organized labor's public enemy No 1? Union leaders say Republican who spent $27m of his own money on getting elected may surpass Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in ferocity of his ‘assault on labor’ " (2015-02-17) [http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/17/illinois-governor-bruce-rauner-unions-labor] [https://archive.today/zXFCU]
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* "In 'Slap in Face to Democracy' Wisconsin's Walker Says Ready to Sign Right-to-Work Bill; 'Every worker suffers when states enact anti-worker Right to Work laws' " (2015-02-20) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/20/slap-face-democracy-wisconsins-walker-says-ready-sign-right-work-bill] [https://archive.today/MuuDQ]
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* "Boone County tackles right-to-work issue; Northern Kentucky Labor Council says it will fight the ordinance "tooth and nail," saying it's a state, not a county issue" (2015-02-23) [http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/boone-county/2015/02/17/boone-tackles-right-work-issue/23568387/] [https://archive.today/EqHcb]
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HOMELESS DEFENSE COMMITTEE
* "Escalated Government Attacks on Homeless, Journalism, & Public Criticism: Santa Cruz & San Jose" (2015-01-18) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/18/18767130.php] [https://archive.today/qT4m0]
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* "Taking the Sleepbusters to Court" (2015-02-10) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/10/18768330.php] [https://archive.today/XgGJs]. On the advice of an activist attorney, HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) has begun helping homeless people victimized by the City's Sleeping Ban law to go to Small Claims Court for sleep deprivation damages.
"End the Sleeping Ban or Pay the Victims" speech by Robert Norse to Community and City Council 2-10-15, [begin speech excerpt]: Three homeless people have filed four claims against the City for being awakened at night and given citations for sleeping between the hours of 11 PM to 8:30 AM at night. This in a city where homeless camping is not only effectively illegally but regularly persecuted with seizure of homeless survival gear, tough treatment of homeless sleepers, and a habitual refusal to acknowledge basic human rights for the poor outside without options. Thnere has been a massive expansion of such citations. In two days the city's additional Stay Away penalizations will be intensified against homeless people sleeping where they must—in the many areas overseen by Dannette Shoemaker's Parks and Recreation Department.
Homeless people and their advocates seem to be left with little choice than to take you to court. Since homeless people generally can't afford lawyers, these individuals and many like them (there were hundreds of Sleeping tickets given out last year) will sue you unless you repeal this ordinance.
There is clear medical evidence that sleep deprivation creates physical and psychological harm. This is particularly true if those awakened at midnight are disabled. We'll be presenting such evidence in court per individual defendant in Small Claims Court. The playing field is slightly more level since lawyers are not allowed there. This process may also save the City money since it won't be tempted to squander several hundred thousand dollars defending an indefensible practice as it has done in the past—say with the Council's decorum rules punishing homeless advocates.
It's time to abandon laws and practices that hurt the most vulnerable. In the long run it will not only be more sane, humane, and sensible, but also more cost-effective. We need to acknowledge our poor and addresses those problems with more than waiting lists, pie-in-the-sky studies, token programs, and ever harsher laws. A just state will be cheaper than a police state. That has always been clear.
[end speech excerpt]
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NORTHBAY COPWATCH
* "Canada federal police warn of growing anti-oil threats" (2015-02-18, AFP newswire) [http://www.oilgasdaily.com/reports/Canada_federal_police_warn_of_growing_anti-oil_threats_999.html] [https://archive.today/IqLou] [begin excerpt]: Canadian police warned in a leaked document Wednesday of growing threats to the country's oil industry by militant climate activists opposed to the use of fossil fuels. Greenpeace called the year-old report obtained by AFP "chilling," because of its broad-brush depiction of climate-change activists as potential extremists. In the report, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police describes "a growing, highly organized and well-financed, anti-Canadian petroleum movement" that is largely peaceful but includes "militants and violent extremists who are opposed to society's reliance on fossil fuels." It said this ideologically motivated fringe group is willing to go beyond peaceful actions, and use vandalism and sabotage, or advocate the use of arson, firearms and bombs to force a stoppage in activities that contribute to global warming. In some cases, the RCMP said they have aligned themselves with "violent aboriginal extremists" while attracting hundreds of millions in funding from foundations and wealthy individuals in the United States. [end excerpt]
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* "HOW COVERT AGENTS INFILTRATE THE INTERNET TO MANIPULATE, DECEIVE, AND DESTROY REPUTATIONS" (2014-02-24) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/] [https://archive.today/3ympd]
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FREE 'EM ALL
Send a letter to a political prisoner!
BOWERS, VERONZA
#35316-136
USP Atlanta, P.O. Box 150160, Atlanta, GA 30315
[http://www.veronza.org]
Pick up a pen send in them kites
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* "ERIC MCDAVID: FREE AT LAST!" video from SubMedia.tv [http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2015/01/25/eric-mcdavid-free-last/]
This week we bring you an interview with recently freed anarchist prisoner Eric McDavid [http://supporteric.org/]. Also, news from the NYPD “work to rule” protest, anarchist repression in Madrid, Barcelona and Bristol, an update from the 5E3 and an obituary for Phil Africa, plus a classic tack by Public Enemy.
To support Amelie, Carlos and Fallon click here [http://www.clac-montreal.net/en/donations]. Please include ‘Mexico’ in the memo field.
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SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE, FREEDOM COALITION
Mar. 4-6: Mass Mobilization to Stop Drone Wars! [http://shutdowncreech.blogspot.com] [https://www.facebook.com/events/1525740921010540]. Possibly 200-300 activists from 16+ states will converge at Creech AFB in early march, to unite against this horrendous and unconscionable practice: Executing people remotely from the desert of Nevada, without providing any evidence of guilt. This has got to stop!
Won't you join us to SHUT DOWN CREECH? (Caravan leaving Bay Area Feb. 28)
* Occupy Beale Air Force Base [https://www.facebook.com/OccupyBealeAirForceBase]
* "Ash Wed 2015 Beale action" (posted 2015-02-21) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZRfEW9Ldmw]: Anti-drone activists cross the line onto Beale Air Force Base following an Ash Wednesday service, sprinkling ashes that represent the ashes of children killed by US drones.
* "6 arrested at Drone Protest outside of Beale AFB" (2015-02-19) [http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/02/19/6-arrested-at-drone-protest-outside-of-beale-afb/] [https://archive.today/q9bXG]
* "6 arrested at Beale Air Force Base protesting drone deaths" (2015-02-19) [http://www.kcra.com/news/6-arrested-at-beale-air-force-base-protesting-drone-deaths/31364376] [https://archive.today/61TF9]
* "Clergy, Veterans Among Six Arrested Ash Wednesday at Killer Drone Protest at Beale Air Base; Ashes Spread Memorializing Children Killed by Drones":
Six people – including several clergy members and military veterans – were arrested during an Ash Wednesday service that began about 3 p.m. today at the gate of Beale Air Force Base during an act of "repentance" for the innocent people, including children, killed by the U.S. government's fleet of killer drones. Participants, who were charged with trespassing onto federal land and taken into custody by military police as they spread ashes memorializing those of children killed by U.S. drones overseas. They will still in custody early Wednesday evening.
Beale is the home of the Global Hawk "accomplice" drone, a surveillance drone that helps find targets for the armed Predator and Reaper killer drones. Beale AFB has been the site of numerous protests opposing killer drones, with dozens of people arrested – included five last Ash Wednesday.
The five arrested included: Rev. Sharon Delgado, Nevada City, CA; Barry Binks, Sacramento, CA; Shirley Osgood, Grass Valley, CA; Pamela Osgood, Grass Valley, CA; Marcus Page, Sheep Ranch, CA and Lorraine Reich, Nevada City, CA.
The service was led by United Methodist, United Church of Christ, and Lutheran clergy and a member of Catholic Worker. The service involved songs, prayers, scripture, Holy Communion (open to all), a call to action, and the use of ashes to symbolize repentance and to acknowledge human mortality.
"In addition to focusing on repentance for the harm caused to drone victims, the service will call for repentance for: the harm done to the Indigenous people who used to live where Beale is now, the harm being done to Mother Earth by our building and deploying high-tech weapons and weapons of mass destruction, the harm done to families and communities who suffer cutbacks in public services while billions are spent for the military, the overall harm caused by the global reach of US military power," said Ms Delgado, one of the clergy participants arrested Wednesday.
Here is a video from last year's events: [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202274071945719&l=2929247511351577184]
We should know about laws and treaties:
OPEN LETTER REGARDING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
To Colonel Douglas Lee, Colonel Kevin G. Cavanagh ( 9th Reconnaissance Wing and 940th Reserve Wing, respectively) at Beale AFB, California, and all employees of Beale AFB, as well as President Obama (Commander in Chief, Washington D.C.) ,
The public record clearly shows that the U.S. Military has used drones in foreign countries for targeted killings resulting in the slaughter of nontargeted innocents. Any individual and organization which gives material support to the drone program which attacks noncombatants are illegal uses of force against other nations, felonies in the USA, and totally immoral under all common ethical systems represented by Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism, Humanism and Buddhism. Please note the moral and legal mandates regardless of your faith tradition at this time, Ash Wednesday, 2015. We humbly remind you of two important mandates in the course of your duties, and the important moral task which is dictated by those mandates.
MANDATE 1: The 7 Nuremberg Principles of 1950 apply to all civilians and military personnel who are aware of crimes against humanity inprocess. Everyone is required to interfere with the extrajudicial killing of humans and torturous use of technology against humans. The principle of following human conscience to denounce and nonviolently resist immoral acts of violence are furthermore codified into the Uniform Code of Military Justice, requiring all personnel to disobey any clearly unlawful orders from a superior.
MANDATE 2: Article VI of the U.S. Constitution* (known as the Supremacy Clause, as the Supreme Law of the Land) mandates that you abide by U.S. Treaties currently in effect. Therefore, according to the 1945 Treaty (ratified by a vote of 89 to 2 in the U.S. Senate, subsequently authorized by the President) known as the United Nations Charter you must do what you can to save the current generation of humans on earth “from the scourge of war” and to help our military “refrain from the use of force against another nation”. This applies to all members of the U.S. Armed Forces and all departments of Law Enforcement and civilian staff who have sworn to uphold the Constitution, including Article VI. To knowingly use illegal force against civilians or other nations is a war crime, and to not interfere with such crimes is a crime against humanity.
Everyone reading this OPEN LETTER with any level of access to Beale AFB’s crimes against peace, humanity, and war are hereby reminded to abide by Nuremberg Principles (and oaths to uphold the U.S. Constitution), and therefore help stop drone warfare.
* ARTICLE VI: This Constitution and the Laws of the United States… and all Treaties… shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby…
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* "Villagers and supporters on Jeju Island arrested, injured during government-ordered crackdown and demolition of protest site" (2015-01-31) [http://www.nukeresister.org/2015/01/31/villagers-and-supporters-on-jeju-island-arrested-injured-during-government-ordered-crackdown-and-demolition-of-protest-site/] [https://archive.today/6EDPH]
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* "Kathy Kelly begins 3 month sentence on January 23 at FMC Lexington for drone resistance" (2015-01-22) [http://www.nukeresister.org/2015/01/22/kathy-kelly-begins-3-month-sentence-on-january-23-at-fmc-lexington-for-drone-resistance/] [https://archive.today/5BYO0]
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* "Five activists arrested blocking entrance of world’s #1 war profiteer, honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." (2015-01-20) [http://www.nukeresister.org/2015/01/20/five-activists-arrested-blocking-entrance-of-worlds-1-war-profiteer-honoring-the-legacy-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/] [https://archive.today/RKEBD]
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* "Vigiler handcuffed at Livermore Lab protest" (2015-01-28) [http://www.nukeresister.org/2015/01/18/vigiler-handcuffed-at-livermore-lab-protest/] [https://archive.today/1rkMe] [begin excerpt]: The particular focus of the January vigil was to oppose the planned use of plutonium in the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a big-budget science project long trumpeted to advance research on fusion energy. But in December, the lab made a sudden announcement that plutonium experiments would begin at NIF in January, bringing the project back to its stealth roots as an advanced nuclear weapons engineering enterprise. The lab is preparing to conduct at least ten experiments this year zapping plutonium with lasers in NIF, and vaporizing the radioactive metal. According to documents Tri-Valley CAREs obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, there will be no inner containment vessel to effectively capture the debris. As vigilers began to hand out leaflets drawing attention to the “Bad Idea: Plutonium in the NIF”, Livermore Lab security personnel, backed by the Alameda County Sheriffs Department, opted to close the East Gate and turn away the steady stream of lab employees coming in to work. Police accosted three leafletters on the road just outside the gatehouse. Marcus Page-Collogne and Fr. Louis Vitale were escorted back across the boundary line, while Chelsea Collogne was handcuffed, threatened with prosecution, and then released a short time later without charge. [end excerpt]
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* "US military officers guilty of 'dishonesty and deception' at all levels, finds damning official report" (2015-02-20) [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2961620/US-military-officers-resort-lying-deception-levels-finds-damning-official-report.html] [https://archive.today/ME3IB]
* "Study: 'U.S. Army officers lie' routinely" (2015-02-19) [http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/19/politics/army-ethics-lying-report/index.html] [https://archive.today/rqrfi]
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* "HAILED AS A MODEL FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTION, LIBYA PROVES TO BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE" (2015-02-16) [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/16/hailed-model-successful-intervention-libya-proves-exact-opposite/] [https://archive.today/Io7gx]
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
* "The Corporate Debt to Society: $10,000 Per Household, Per Year" (2015-02-23) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/23/corporate-debt-society-10000-household-year] [https://archive.today/8p9lv]
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* "Austerity in Illinois? Critics Slam 'Morally Reprehensible' Budget Proposal; 'The depth and breadth of the proposed cuts to essential services for our state’s most vulnerable residents are staggering and simply unacceptable' " (2015-02-20) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/20/austerity-illinois-critics-slam-morally-reprehensible-budget-proposal] [https://archive.today/OzOFe]
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* "Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem The Fox News host has said he was in a "war zone" that apparently no American correspondent reached" (2015-02-19) [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/bill-oreilly-brian-williams-falklands-war] [https://archive.today/eo74A] [begin excerpt]: After NBC News suspended anchor Brian Williams for erroneously claiming that he was nearly shot down in a helicopter while covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly went on a tear. On his television show, the top-rated cable news anchor declared that the American press isn't "half as responsible as the men who forged the nation." He bemoaned the supposed culture of deception within the liberal media, and he proclaimed that the Williams controversy should prompt questioning of other "distortions" by left-leaning outlets. Yet for years, O'Reilly has recounted dramatic stories about his own war reporting that don't withstand scrutiny—even claiming he acted heroically in a war zone that he apparently never set foot in. [end excerpt]
* "O’Reilly: Brian Williams Should Get Us Questioning Other News ‘Distortions’ " (2015) [http://www.mediaite.com/tv/oreilly-brian-williams-should-get-us-questioning-other-news-distortions/] [https://archive.today/GHtaW]
* "O’Reilly Responds to Mother Jones Report: ‘Total Bullsh*t’ " (2015-02-19) [http://www.mediaite.com/online/oreilly-responds-to-mother-jones-report-total-bullsht/] [https://archive.today/oeh2O]
* "David Corn hits back at Bill O'Reilly" (2015-02-19) [http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/02/david-corn-hits-back-at-bill-oreilly-202828.html] [https://archive.today/R2guW]
* "These Are the Questions Bill O'Reilly Won't Answer; Why won't the Fox News host address the evidence he mischaracterized his wartime reporting experience?" (2015-02-20) [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/questions-bill-oreilly-falklands-david-corn] [https://archive.today/Jofk2] [begin excerpt]:
- On his television show on April 17, 2013, Mr. O'Reilly said, "I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete. And the army was chasing us. I had to make a decision. And I dragged him off, you know, but at the same time, I'm looking around and trying to do my job, but I figure I had to get this guy out of there because that was more important." When and where did this happen?
- In his book, The No Spin Zone, Mr. O'Reilly describes covering a protest in Buenos Aires when the military junta surrendered in the Falklands war. He wrote, "A major riot ensued and many were killed." News reports of the protest did not report any fatalities, only several injuries. And the CBS News report on the protest for which O’Reilly gathered video footage also did not refer to any deaths. Did Mr. O'Reilly report this accurately in his book. Does he have any comment on why other reports of this protest do not appear to be consistent with his?
- On his radio show on January 13, 2005, Mr. O'Reilly said, "I was in the middle of a couple of firefights in South and Central America." In which countries and when did these firefights occur? Can Mr. O'Reilly describe them?
- In The No Spin Zone, Mr. O'Reilly writes about an assignment he had for CBS News in El Salvador in 1982. He says that he reported from a village called Meanguera that was "leveled to the ground and fires were still smoldering. But even though the carnage was obviously recent, we saw no one live or dead. There was absolutely nobody around who could tell us what happened. I quickly did a stand-up amid the rubble and we got the hell out of there." The CBS News report that he filed and narrated and that was broadcast on the CBS Nightly News showed him in Meanguera, but there were people walking about and only two or so structures burned. Did Mr. O'Reilly report his trip to this village accurately in his book? Does he have any comment on why the CBS report does not appear to be consistent with the description in his book?
- In 2008, Mr. O'Reilly said on his television show that he had been in "in the war zones of [the] Falkland conflict in Argentina, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland." Which war zones was he referring to regarding the Middle East and Northern Ireland? When was he in these war zones? Can he describe his experiences in those locations?
[end excerpt]
* "Did Bill O’Reilly Cover Up a War Crime in El Salvador?" (2015-02-09) [http://www.thenation.com/blog/197401/did-bill-oreilly-cover-war-crime-el-salvador] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210101640/http://www.thenation.com/blog/197401/did-bill-oreilly-cover-war-crime-el-salvador]
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* "Dinesh D’Souza's Buffoonery" (2014-08-11) [http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/11/dinesh-dsouzas-buffoonery] [https://archive.today/beBAf] [begin excerpt]:
D’Souza, an immigrant who was born in India, equates the ideology of “anti-colonialism” with progressives.” “Theft,” says D’Souza, is one of the main indictments that “progressives” make against the United States. In other words, the charge, as he characterizes it, is that “America was founded in an original act of piracy: the early settlers came from abroad and stole the country from the native Indians.” Additionally: “Then America was built by theft: white Americans stole the labor of African Americans by enslaving them for 250 years.” D’Souza evidently envisions himself as something of a savior for the stereotypical history of “America” that has been tarnished by historians such as Howard Zinn, author A People’s History of the United States.” D’Souza claims that “the ‘theft’ indictment of America has never been comprehensively answered,” and he purports to do so.
[end excerpt]
Dinesh D’Souza argues that the American Indian genocide did not happen and that the taking of Indian lands was justified. Such outrageous statements from a right-wing extremist wouldn't much matter, except that D’Souza’s work has received wide and vociferous acclaim and a state senator in Florida has introduced legislation that would make teachers show this pseudo-documentary to every 8th and 11th grader in the state.
D’Souza blames what he calls the “shaming of America” on leftist intellectuals Howard Zinn, Saul Alinsky and Noam Chomsky. He proposes a conspiracy, in which President Barack Obama is a participant, to destroy the American way of life, capitalism and the entrepreneurial spirit. Specifically, D’Souza sets out to answer allegations that America was built on the genocide of American Indians, the theft of half of Mexico and the backs of African American slaves.
“D’Souza concludes that ‘The wealth of America isn't stolen, it’s created.’ So is his history. It’s created from his imagination, of a shallow, homogenized, immature, defensive, and immensely entitled ‘America:’ a fantasy nation so insecure that facing historical and contemporary truths can only result in national suicide. What a sad vision. In whose imagination is this documentary inspirational?”
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* "Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry" (2015-02-21) [http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry] [https://archive.today/OKnJZ] [begin excerpt]: Over the last 14 years Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, received a total of $1.25m from Exxon Mobil, Southern Company, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and a foundation run by the ultra-conservative Koch brothers, the documents obtained by Greenpeace through freedom of information filings show. According to the documents, the biggest single funder was Southern Company, one of the country’s biggest electricity providers that relies heavily on coal. [end excerpt]
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* "Ohio high court rules against local fracking ban, opponents may seek civil rights argument" (2015-02-19) [http://rt.com/usa/233859-ohio-fracking-local-court/] [https://archive.today/5JGZr] [begin excerpt]: The court ruled on Tuesday in a split 4-3 decision that a Munroe Falls ordinance that banned hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the town did not trump state permitting power. Beck Energy had sought to drill on residential property in the town with permission from the owner and with a permit from the state Department of Natural Resources. Writing the lead majority opinion in the Munroe Falls v. Beck Energy case, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith L. French wrote that municipal home rule does not allow a locality "to discriminate against, unfairly impede, or obstruct oil and gas activities and operations that the state has permitted under” a 2004 state law that vested regulation of “all aspects,” including permitting, of oil and gas drilling to an agency within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Dick McGinn, spokesperson for the Athens Bill of Rights Committee and coordinator of the Ohio Community Rights Network in Athens County, said that Munroe Falls, in its challenge to the state’s authority, did not argue that the Ohio Constitution allows for localities to make their own governing decisions.
"That argument would have raised another issue that the majority decision of the court failed to address: How safe is it to allow fracking activity next to our schools, parks and homes," he told The Athens News.
The Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 2 says that "All political power is inherent in the people" and "government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit," he added.
He said the Athens ban addresses the violation of rights posed by the Department of Natural Resources’ "so-called absolute authority.”
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
United States of Mexico
* "Mexican Teachers Resist Their Own Brand of ‘Education Reform’ " (2015-02-17) [http://labornotes.org/2015/02/mexican-teachers-resist-their-own-brand-education-reform] [https://archive.today/mMbDe] [begin excerpt]:
Camping Out a la Occupy
While teacher applicants in the rest of the country all took an entrance exam on the same day last July, Oaxaca teachers blocked the exam site in their capital. Authorities in the states of Guerrero and Michoacán were also forced to call off the test.The National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), the militant movement within the national teachers union (SNTE), says it’s unsuitable to give one national test when conditions differ widely across Mexico. For example, in Oaxaca, one of the poorest and most rural states, students speak indigenous languages from 16 different language families.
CNTE is strong in four poor Southern states and in Mexico City. The movement maintains that all graduates of teachers colleges should continue to be admitted to the profession.
With their escalation, teachers are responding to a change in the Mexican political climate, caused by the September 26 killing in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, of six teachers college students, the wounding of 25, and the disappearance of 43. The government claims the murders were ordered by municipal officials and carried out by their allies in a drug gang.
For months, the killings have caused widespread protests throughout the country. Posters, banners, and graffiti call for punishment of the guilty. A January 26 demonstration in Mexico City drew tens of thousands, including teachers.
That night in Oaxaca’s capital, students from the state teachers college, mostly young women, took over the streets, singing the anthem of Local 22. One chant was, “The system has no solution; let’s push forward the revolution.”
The similarity of “education reform” in the U.S. and in Mexico—and of those who promote it—is striking. As in this country, gutting teachers unions and contracting out education services to private groups are major government priorities.
Ten days after President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, he sent constitutional changes to education to Mexico’s Congress. Ten days later they were ratified—after no discussion with teachers, consultation with education experts, or public debate.
The changes were part of a series of pro-business changes Peña Nieto has passed. Another one makes it easier for energy companies to buy small farmers’ land. Another permits PEMEX, the oil company nationalized in 1938, to contract out—which is seen as a step toward privatization. PEMEX reported 10 months ago that it had already auctioned off to investors, including foreign companies, the right to drill in two-thirds of Mexico’s oil reserves.
The package of education “reforms” was promoted by a group called Mexicanos Primero (Mexicans First), which the teachers say should be called Empresarios (Business Owners) Primero.
The package has business fingerprints all over it. The new constitutional language speaks of “quality” education, which, as María de la Luz Arriaga of the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education points out, is a business buzzword “applied to products or services, not to a social right.”
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
Republic of El Salvador
* "Elections next Sunday: Help the CISPES team answer the call for observers today!; With heated battles around water privatization on the horizon, El Salvador's right-wing will do whatever it takes to win back the legislative assembly" (2015-02-19, UC Santa Cruz Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador):
This is Mattie – one of the coordinators of CISPES’ delegation to observe the upcoming legislative and municipal elections. I just got to San Salvador, where we’re waiting for our observers to arrive, and the atmosphere here is electric! Next Sunday, the Salvadoran people will head to the polls for the first time since the victory of El Salvador’s FIRST popular movement president last March.
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since that exciting day, but we’re glad to report that inspiring advances continue toward guaranteeing access to health care, education, water, and food for all.
With the leftist FMLN party ahead in the polls, you can imagine that the right-wing is scheming to stop this popular momentum. That’s why our Salvadoran allies have called on CISPES to accompany them for this critical election. Despite the FMLN’s lead, it’s far from clear what will happen on Election Day. At the eleventh hour, the Supreme Court made a series of last-minute changes to the voting rules that threw half the process out the window. I’ve seen samples of the new ballots and let me tell you, we could be looking at a possible repeat of the infamous hanging chad debacle of 2000. The voting rules have become so complex (we’re talking fractions here!) that our team will be observing the count with flashlights and calculators late into the night.
CISPES has observed every election since El Salvador’s civil war ended in 1992 – and we’re pretty much ready for anything. A lot is at stake on Election Day, including the ability of the social movement and FMLN to block the right-wing’s legislative push to privatize water (and who knows what else!).
On behalf of our delegation, thanks for your financial and political backing! We’re heartened to know we can count on a dedicated network of solidarity activists to take action if anything goes down on Election Day.
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* "El Salvador Launches New Urban Mass Transit System" (2015-01-28) [http://www.cispes.org/blog/el-salvador-launches-new-urban-mass-transit-system/] [https://archive.today/r08OE]
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* "Congressman Grijalva Speaks Out For Public Control Of Water In El Salvador" (2015-02-10) [http://www.cispes.org/blog/congressman-grijalva-speaks-public-control-water-el-salvador/] [https://archive.today/qYtNX]
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Republic of Honduras
* Sandra Cuffe writes: The third and final piece in a series I wrote for Ricochet a while back
about Canada in Honduras is now online. This one takes a brief look at security cooperation, including concerns regarding Canadian police officers training Honduran forces in wiretapping and surveillance and the funding of Colombian special forces.
[https://ricochet.media/en/333/is-canadian-aid-actually-making-things-worse-in-post-coup-honduras] [https://archive.today/fDGtX]
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* "Garifuna Communities in Iriona reject mining concessions in their territory" (2015-02-18, OFRANEH) original in Spanish [https://ofraneh.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/comunidades-garifunas-en-iriona-rechazan-concesiones-mineras-inconsultas-en-su-territorio/] [https://archive.today/iLFv2]:
During a community assembly held February 2 in Cusuna, the Garifuna communities of the municipality of Iriona categorically rejected the non-metallic Punta Piedra I and II mining concessions. The Honduran State granted them to the Punta Caxina mining company with the goal of exploiting the deposits of iron ore and other minerals in the Payas mountain range.
According to documents obtained by the current community council of Cusuna, the Punta Piedra I mining concession, file number 714, covers 800 hectares of lands belonging to the communities of Punta Piedra and Cusuna. Much of the concessioned land lies within the watershed of the Bambuco River and its tributaries, the same area where the two communities' water source is located.
The mineral rights were granted for a ten-year period to the Caxina corporation on December 4, 2014 via resolution number 105/12/2014.
The Garifuna communities were never consulted about the extraction of minerals from their territories, a situation that violates ILO Covenant 169, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and even the current Mining Law.
The classification of iron ore as non-metallic is nothing more than a legal ruse to facilitate environmental permits and reduce tax payment. The trick lies in the mining company declaring that the iron ore to be exploited will be used in the production of cement.
Since the start of this decade, an illegal road from Cusuna to the Sico River has been built. Despite formal complaints, the road was finished. It was rumored that the goal was to build an access road for the construction of the Los Chorros dams on the Sico River. Coincidentally, the road will be used as an access road by the Caxina corporation.
Over the past few years, there has been an upsurge in iron ore mining in the country. Iron ore is coveted by Chinese companies, which buy a significant amount of the national production. The iron ore in Michoacan, Mexico, is associated with organized crime, which, in its strategy of capital legalization and diversification, has opted to go for mining due to the enormous profits and the opportunity to launder money.
The ecological destruction in the Payas mountain range as a result of illegal road building has been downplayed by officials. The Iriona-Sico road built in 2002 destroyed the water source that supplied water to six Garifuna communities and one other village. The ecocide was committed by the recently murdered National Party narco-Congressman Juan Gomez.
The corridor along the Payas mountain range has been controlled by people associated with organized crime for more than a decade, giving rise to a total absence of the application of the rule of law. Illegal logging and mining have therefore also been part of the strategy of environmental destruction in this area, instigated by the lords and masters of organized crime.
It's worth noting that there is a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights addressing plunder committed to the detriment of the community of Punta Piedra, in whose territory mining concessions have been granted without consultation. The position taken by the Honduran State regarding mining concessions and the fast-track environmental permit transactions planned by the current administration call into question the national legislation and international agreements endorsed by the State.
Sambo Creek, February 18, 2015.
===*===*===
Republic of Cuba
* "Havana’s Second Libertarian Spring" (2015-02-16) [http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=109390] [https://archive.today/sWyxU]
===*===*===
Republic of Haiti
* "MILITANT UNION ORGANIZER ATTACKED IN PORT-AU-PRINCE" (2015-02-08) [http://www.blackrosefed.org/militant-union-organizer-attacked-port-au-prince/] [https://archive.today/KxjV4]
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* " 'Zone of Peace,' and 'Commitment to Democracy' in Haiti? Declaration of Third CELAC Summit Supports Martelly’s Policies Under the Command of MINUSTAH"
[NOTE: The article below is reprinted from Issue No. 761 – February 19 to March 5, 2015-- of O Trabalho, the biweekly newspaper of the O Trabalho current of the Workers Party (PT) of Brazil. CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, was formed in December 2011 at the initiative of the Venezuelan and Cuban governments, in particular, as a means of pursuing Latin American integration as an alternative to the U.S.-initiated Organization of American States (OAS). The First CELAC Summit was held in Venezuela, the Second Summit was held in Cuba. The United States and Canada are not participants in CELAC]
The Third Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held in the town of Belén, Costa Rica, on January 28-29, 2015, "reaffirmed" in its final statement the "Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace" that was adopted exactly one year earlier at the Second CELAC Summit in Havana, Cuba. It also reiterated its “commitment to democracy and respect for human rights.”
How does this apply to Haiti? The answer is simple: It doesn’t.
At a time when the Haitian people have taken to the streets in massive numbers to demand the ouster of fraudulently elected “President” Michel Martelly and an immediate end to the 10-year UN-MINUSTAH occupation of Haiti, the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean -- many with troops in Haiti, under Brazil’s command -- affirmed in the final CELAC Declaration of Belén their "satisfaction with the measures taken in cooperation with the sister Republic of Haiti."
But cooperation with whom?
Special Declaration No. 26 of CELAC (January 29, 2015) "On the Political Situation in Haiti," states the following:
"The political situation in Haiti since 2011 has resulted in the postponement, until now, of the important legislative and municipal elections . . . [which] points to the need to organize without delay free, unbiased, transparent, inclusive and free elections to preserve and strengthen the constitutional order."
And to whom is the CELAC assigning the task of carrying out "free elections" in a country under foreign occupation?
The answer is none other than the Martelly government, which was elected through widespread fraud -- with the backing of UN-MINUSTAH occupation troops and in violation of the 1987 Haitian Constitution.
The Third CELAC statement on Haiti goes on to salute both “the efforts undertaken to overcome the difficulties that have prevented thus far the holding of free elections,” and “the agreements reached between the national executive branch and the major sectors involved in the crisis.”
The statement then notes “the recent encouraging developments in Haiti, especially the formation and swearing-in of a consensus government . . . and the speech before the Plenary Session of the [CELAC Third] Summit by the president of Haiti, His Excellency Michel Joseph Martelly, in which he reiterated his commitment to continue working toward the holding of the afore-mentioned elections in 2015.”
The CELAC statement then concludes as follows:
"The heads of government and State gathered at the Third Summit of CELAC declare their support to the Haitian constitutional authorities and to all the stakeholders concerning their commitment to hold as soon as possible in the course of the coming year free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections to preserve and consolidate the progress made in promoting democracy and improving the living conditions of the people and the sustainable development of the country."
The ones who were simply left out of the picture in this "consensus" so highly praised by the CELAC Summit were the Haitian people.
By supporting Martelly and backing the occupation of Haiti, the Latin American and Caribbean governments gathered in Costa Rica did not require the physical presence of the U.S. government at the Summit; they had already taken it upon themselves to implement U.S. policy!
===*===*===
Pluri-National State of Bolivia (ALBA)
* "Bolivian Economy Grew $34 Billion in 2014" (2015-02-17) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivian-Economy-Grew-34-Billion-in-2014-20150217-0022.html] [https://archive.today/UNSbk]
===*===*===
* "RAPA NUI PEOPLE ATTACKED BY CHILEAN POLICE" (2011-01-16) [https://archive.today/4b0GC]:
Chilean police recently attacked Rapa Nui activists on Easter Island, wounding 24 people in an effort to dislodge indigenous families from a disputed area. According to Indian Country Today, police shot at protestors and beat some with batons on Dec. 3.
The attack follows a long history of disputes over indigenous rights and land issues between the Chilean government and the Rapa Nui people. Easter Island is famous for its giant "Moai" stone statues, which are sacred sites for the Rapa Nui.
After Rapa Nui families started to occupy contested areas last August, other incidents were reported. Then on Dec. 3, Chilean riot police arrived to enforce a court order mandating the removal of people occupying various sites.
Spokespeople for the Rapa Nui, Susana Hito and Santi Hitorangi, reported after the attack that "Leviante Araki, the president of the Rapa Nui Parliament was shot twice about his hip and rib cage and is being air lifted to Santiago for medical care... A young man, Richard Tepano, was shot at short range in his right eye and is now in critical condition in the hospital. Maori Pakarati was shot above his right eye and in his arm, a rubber bullet remains encrusted in his arm. Zita Atan was shot in the head, and Pia Vargas was shot in her right leg. Honu Tepano was shot in his shoulder. As the Chilean troops were charging towards the fleeing Rapa Nui Claudio Tuki was hit in the forehead, and Enrique Tepano was shot in his face."
Documentary filmmaker Hitorangi was shot in his right leg and in his back as he attempted to film the situation. The following day Hitorangi stated that "What happened yesterday is their way of trying to stop any attempt of the Rapa Nui people to reassert their right to the land. All we're asking for is title to the land. It's a rightful claim. We are not asking the government for anything else."
This assault follows a distinct pattern of violence against the indigenous people of the island which was "annexed" by Chile in 1933. The Rapa Nui were first forced off their ancestral lands and confined to a section of the island called Hanga Roa. People who left the designated area were often brutally punished or exiled to a leper colony. These violent evictions enable Chile to lease the island to private enterprises. It was only in 1966 that the Rapa Nui people were allowed to travel throughout the island. More explicit repression of the Rapa Nui began during the Pinochet dictatorship, and continued after the return to democracy. The abuses continued even after government officials created a Rapa Nui Working Group last August. Before the working group finished its deliberations, Chilean police executed a series of evictions. The latest family to be evicted was the Tuko Tuki clan who were violently removed Dec. 3.
In October, a Request for Precautionary Measures was filed before the Inter‑American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of 28 Rapa Nui clans. The Commission has not yet issued a protection order, and the Chilean government has not responded to the Commission's request for information.
"There is nothing on this island that can say or tell us the rights of the Rapa Nui," said Mario Tuki, spokesperson of the Tuki Clan. "This is the struggle of the Rapa Nui today, a struggle of what is ours, what belonged to our grandfathers and grandmothers."
===*===*===
NEW AFRICAN PEACE MOVEMENT
* "Top-secret military warning on Ebola biological weapon terror threat; Porton Down memo marked ‘UK secret UK eyes only’ reveals scientists analysed use of virus by al-Qaida or Isis" (2015-02-21) [http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/21/top-secret-ebola-biological-weapon-terror-warning-al-qaida-isis] [https://archive.today/TPyxG].
The released documents from the UKGB Ministry of War from the collection archived at this link [https://archive.today/r8j2b]:
* "Copy of all assessments in relation to the potential for the Ebola virus being used as a weapon" [https://web.archive.org/web/20150223171537/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/399322/Ebola_within_a_bioterrorism_context.pdf].
* "Attachment: Ebola within a bioterrorism context" [https://web.archive.org/web/20150223171537/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/399328/Attachment_Ebola_within_a_bioterrorism_context.pdf].
---
* "US Effort to Crack Down on Terrorism Funding is Choking Humanitarian Lifeline: NGOs New report outlines devastating blow in Somalia from remittances cutoff" (2015-02-20) [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/20/us-effort-crack-down-terrorism-funding-choking-humanitarian-lifeline-ngos] [https://archive.today/XdPO8]
* "Hanging by a Thread: The ongoing threat to Somalia’s remittance lifeline" introduction [http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/somalia-remittances-hanging-by-thread] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150223221809/http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/somalia-remittances-hanging-by-thread], full report [https://web.archive.org/web/20150223221809/http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bn-hanging-by-thread-somalia-remittances-190215-en.pdf]
===*===*===
WAR AGAINST RUSSIA! This is Nuts!
Using the mutinous Right Sector (and ideologically affiliated) militants embedded in the privately funded Ukraine National Guard battalions, on-duty and activated soldiers of NATO member states (Republic of Poland, Republic of Lithuania) will be present and technically under "siege", incidents to play into further NATO involvement, which, the monopolist news media says is being directed against the non-existent Military of the Federation of Russia supposedly occupying "Eastern Ukraine", a theme to cover-up the massive support among the ethnically-Russian people of Novorossiya for self-defense against the coup-installed process of fascism and austerity.
* "NATO urges Russia to 'withdraw all its forces' from eastern Ukraine" (2015-02-18, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/s12mf]
* "Ukraine calls for peacekeepers after rebels take key town" (2015-02-19, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/JaHkP] [begin excerpt]: Ukrainian President Poroshenko on Wednesday called for European peacekeepers to enforce a shattered ceasefire deal in east Ukraine after a flashpoint strategic town fell to a fierce assault by pro-Russian rebels. Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council approved a decision to invite UN-mandated peacekeepers into the country to monitor the frontline with the rebels and Ukraine's porous border with Russia. "We see the best format would be a police mission from the European Union. We are sure this would be the most effective and best guarantee for security," Poroshenko said, adding that he hoped consultations on the force would start quickly once the decision is approved by parliament. Ukraine and the US have accused Russia of piling troops and weapons in to spearhead the devastating assault on Debaltseve. Moscow denies the claims. British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned Wednesday that NATO should be prepared for "any kind of aggression from Russia" to Baltic members of NATO -- eurozone members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- using the tactics it is accused of employing in Ukraine. Fallon referred to the interception of Russian bombers flying close to British airspace, and Russia's detention of an Estonian policeman that sent tensions soaring between Moscow and Tallinn, describing the threat to the eastern states as a "very real and present danger" in comments to British media. [end excerpt]
* "Donetsk republic considers deployment of peacekeepers in Donbas violation of Minsk deals" (2015-02-19) [http://tass.ru/en/world/778598] [https://archive.today/7BQii]
* "Peace in Ukraine? Poroshenko Ally Predicts NATO Airstrikes Soon" (2015-02-18) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150218/1018419966.html] [https://archive.today/2yMvy]
* "Ukrainian President ratifies joint 4,500-strong military unit with Poland and Lithuania" (2015-02-20) [http://rt.com/news/234223-ukraine-poland-lithuania-brigade/] [https://archive.today/sZy7s]
* "Estonia shows off NATO ties at celebrations on Russian border" (2015-02-24, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/WKHOP] [begin excerpt]: Estonia marked its independence day Tuesday with a military parade featuring NATO hardware and troops on its eastern border with Russia amid heightened east-west tensions over Ukraine.Around 100 British, Dutch, Spanish, Latvian and Lithuanian troops marched in the snow alongside some 1,300 Estonian soldiers to mark the independence of the formerly Soviet-ruled republic, now a member of the European Union and NATO. [end excerpt]
* "Slovakia seeking Black Hawk helos" (2015-02-23, UPI newswire) [https://archive.today/CuAbO]
Every satellite image produced by NATO or USA confirming a "Russian Invasion" has been shown to be false... Proof in the eyes of the clandestine agents is defined as "believing" the evidence, even if manufactured, and everyone is on the same page, on message, that the Federation of Russia has openly sent a military invasion into the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ukraine. Despite the inhumane bombardment of the cities and death-squad operations against the people of the Union of People's Republics of the Novorossiya, the Federation of Russia has not sent a humanitarian peace-keeping force to protect the People...
* "If You Can't Make It Fake It: UK Claims Russian Missiles in Ukraine" (2015-02-19) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150219/1018476918.html] [https://archive.today/9f58O]
* "No Signs of Russian Military Activity Detected on Border With Ukraine" (2015-02-19) [http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150219/1018469061.html] [https://archive.today/QgpJp]
* "OSCE Head Confirms No Russian Troops in Donbas" (2015-02-13) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150213/1018221522.html] [https://archive.today/lZsWc]
* "NATO Unable to Provide Proof of Alleged Russian Troops in Ukraine" (2015-02-12) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150212/1018168758.html] [https://archive.today/hY399]
Examples of falsehood publicized as "official truth" are the following, in context to the USA State Department funding of the fascist coup in the Republic of Ukraine, 2014-02, and the war against the Republic of Iraq, 2003, etc. etc.
* "US on Venezuela Coup Charges: We Don't Support Regime Change" (2015-02-19) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-on-Venezuela-Coup-Charges-We-Dont-Support-Regime-Change-20150219-0035.html] [https://archive.today/FA9SU]
After the Ukraine Coup of February 2014, the ethnically Russian people of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol within the Republic of Ukraine (a special jurisdiction with a modified type of independence, and a Russian Federation military base with over 35,000 soliders since 1954 ) proceeded to support a declaration of independence as the Republic of Crimea, then, with the participation of over 85% of the population, conducted an election for enacting a sovereign government with the intent to join the Russian Federation (this action was on the ballot, alongside the question of not joining), an action which was approved by the Russian Federation parliment. This process was conducted legally according to the "Kosovo Precedent" of democratically enabled acts of national independence, as set forward by the USA State Department.
The Republic of Ukraine (under the coup-installed government) does not recognize the declaration of independence of the Republic of Crimea, and, alongside its strategic partners, considers the act of incorporation into the Federation of Russia as an illegal act, and the current government has officially planned for a re-conquest of the entire Crimea Peninsula, a campaign with support from NATO members who are currently fixated on attacks again the Union of People's Republics of Novorossiya.
* "Poroshenko Vows to 'Regain Control' of Crimea, Gets Rebuke from Crimean PM" (2015-02-23) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150223/1018638207.html] [https://archive.today/ZKJkc]
* "A defeat for U.S./NATO-backed facists in Ukraine" (2015-02-24) [http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/02/24/a-defeat-for-u-s-nato-backed-facists-in-ukraine/] [https://archive.today/rWR4O] [begin excerpt]:
Poroshenko announced the formation of a 4,500-strong Ukraine-Polish-Latvian military division — a possible prelude to NATO intervention by these U.S. client regimes. (RT.com, Feb. 20)
What next for Donbass?
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vadim Pristayko boasted to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Ukraine is preparing for a “full-scale war.” According to him, Kiev is “no longer afraid to enter a conflict with a nuclear country.” (https://archive.today/z8jU8)
Poroshenko ally Vadim Denisenko told Ukraine’s Channel 5 that he hoped for NATO bombing in the next several months. (Sputnik News, Feb. 18)
Poroshenko has also called for Western peacekeepers to be stationed in the conflict zone.
Poroshenko’s own future is now in doubt, however. Many are asking if he will be pushed out by oligarchs further to the right and their neo-Nazi agents like Dmitry Yarosh, head of the infamous Right Sector. Yarosh declared that his fascist gang would keep fighting despite the ceasefire.
[end excerpt]
* "Russia could target Moldova: NATO commander" (2015-02-25, AFP newswire) [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_could_target_Moldova_NATO_commander_999.html] [https://archive.today/2jcvs]
* Information from Dr. Eric Zuesse (2014-05-29) [https://archive.today/YiJbV]:
On 16 March 2014, they published a report from George Eliason, an American who didn’t spend only ten days in Ukraine, but who instead lives in southern Ukraine; and it was titled “The Nazis Even Hitler Was Afraid of" [https://archive.today/LDXH7]. He provided a very different historical context, taken not falsely from Yugoslavian history and culture, but truly from Ukrainian history and culture (which is obviously far more relevant to the actual matter at hand here):
“Even though the German SS had units dedicated to genocide, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) approached this mission [from Hitler’s SS] with a zeal and barbarity that Hitler’s own units could not muster.” Eliason noted that, “The atrocities at Babi Yar [in northern Ukraine], and the accompanying brutality, were left to SS Nachtigall and the polizei. Both were Banderite [north Ukrainian]. The reason was simple. The brutal work of genocide at this level made even hardened German SS uncomfortable.” Eliason documented that the politicians whom the U.S. had placed into power in the February 2014 coup were “Banderite” [https://archive.today/lcXIZ]. He quoted “Dmitri Yarosh (Trizub and Pravy Sektor, and Assistant Secretary of Defense … [in the U.S.-coup-imposed government]): ‘It is better for us to build our own National State! Does that mean knives to the Moskals [Russian-speakers] and ropes to the Jews? Well, not so unsophisticated. There must be a Ukrainian authority in Ukraine; … then forced Ukrainization. Russians do not like it? Well, go back to F#cking Russia! Those that don’t want to go–we can help them. Russians are not even Slavs. … Next we will liberate our lands: Voronezh, Kursk, Belogorod Oblast, and Kuban. These are all Ukrainian lands!'” Eliason noted: “The only problem is all of these Oblasts (regions) are in Russia!” Eliason, who lives in southern Ukraine, reported the reality that the visitor, Judah, didn’t so much as even mention. The intense and aggressive hatred ran in the opposite direction: not northwestward from Russia in the southeast (such as Judah supposed), but instead southeastward against Russian-speaking Ukrainians and against Russia itself.
Lest one get the false impression that Eliason might have been selectively quoting there, this is what Yulia Tymoshenko, Obama’s preferred candidate to win the 25 May 2014 election (she lost; she was too rightwing for most Ukrainians to vote for as President), had said [https://archive.today/jbTDP] in a tapped phone conversation, leaked public on 24 March 2014 [www.youtube.com/watch?v=shG1b8DGnkU]: “We must grab arms and go whack those damn katsaps [a Ukrainian word used to refer to the Russians in a negative tone] together with their leader … I’ll use all my connections, I’ll raise the whole world – as soon as I’m able to – in order to make sure. .. not even scorched earth won’t remain where Russia stands. … They must be killed with nuclear weapons.”
Tymoshenko’s ally, the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyski [https://archive.today/juiFQ], masterminded the 2 May 2014 rounding-up and burning of Odessa’s proponents of independence from the Kiev regime. This incineration was done inside Odessa’s Trade Unions Building, and this roasting of more than 200 civilians there [https://archive.today/t1qgz] was the event that sparked Ukraine’s civil war, because it made unequivocal the hate against them coming from the Obama-installed leaders in the northwest. (Kolomoyski himself lived in Switzerland, with his $6 billion heisted fortune [https://archive.today/LUVjn].)
[end excerpt]
* "Do We Really Need to Re-Start the Cold War?" (2014-06-06) [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/06/really-need-re-start-cold-war.html] [https://archive.today/c1bT9] [begin excerpt]:
In the book To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon’s Secret War Plans, one of the world’s leading physicists – Michio Kaku – reveals declassified plans for the U.S. to launch a first-strike nuclear war against Russia. The forward was written by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clarke.
In Towards a World War III Scenario, Michel Chossudovsky documents that the U.S. is so enamored with nuclear weapons that it has authorized low-level field commanders to use them in the heat of battle in their sole discretion … without any approval from civilian leaders.
Steven Starr has written [https://archive.today/17bEV] about the decades-long view within the U.S. military-strategy establishment, that the Cold War is not, and actually never really was, about ideology, not about capitalism versus communism, but is instead simply about which nation will control the world: basically about national political and economic dominance of our planet. If what Starr says is true, then the end of communism in the U.S.S.R. didn’t terminate the U.S. military’s “Cold War” mission, which is instead actually about global dominance.
[end excerpt]
* "Indications that the U.S. Is Planning a Nuclear Attack Against Russia" (2014-06-13) [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/06/indications-u-s-planning-nuclear-attack-russia.html] [https://archive.today/C0DDV] [begin excerpt]:
As I also documented, the IMF is thoroughly supportive of this plan to remove Russia, and announced on May 1st, just a day prior to our massacre of independence-supporters in the south Ukrainian city of Odessa on May 2nd [https://archive.today/juiFQ], that unless all of the independence supporters in south and eastern Ukraine can be defeated and/or killed, the IMF will pull the plug on Ukraine and force it into receivership.
Obama clearly means business here [https://archive.today/Syjyd], and so the government that we have installed in Kiev is bombing throughout southeastern Ukraine [https://archive.today/T8RgR], in order to convince the residents there that resistance will be futile. Part of the short-term goal here is to get Russia to absorb the losses of all of Ukraine’s unpaid debts to Russia, so that far less of Ukraine’s unpaid debts to the IMF, U.S. and E.U., will remain unpaid. It’s basically an international bankruptcy proceeding, but without an international bankruptcy court, using instead military means. It’s like creditors going to a bankrupt for repayment, and the one with the most gunmen gets paid, while the others do not. This is the reason why the IMF ordered the leaders in Kiev to put down the rebellion in Ukraine’s southeast [https://archive.today/YxYj7]. What’s important to the IMF is not land, it’s the Kiev government’s continued control over the assets in the rebelling part of Ukraine — assets that will be worth something in a privatization or sell-off to repay that debt. However, for Obama, what is even more important than repaid debts is the continued dominance of the U.S. dollar. Wall Street needs that.
Among other indications that the U.S. is now preparing a nuclear attack against Russia is an article on May 23rd, “U.S. Tests Advanced Missile For NATO Interceptor System” [https://archive.today/Tb8sZ], and also a June 10th report from a website [https://archive.today/yXYQH] with good sources in Russian intelligence, which alleges that Ukrainian President Petro “Poroshenko secretly met with … [an] American delegation headed by the Director of … the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, Frank Archibald, which also included former CIA chief in Ukraine Jeffrey Egan, the current – Raymond Mark Davidson, Mark Buggy (CIA, Istanbul), Andrzej Derlatka, a CIA agent in the Polish intelligence Agency, and member of CIA Kevin Duffin who is working as senior Vice President of the insurance company Brower. Poroshenko and Archibald signed a paper entitled an ‘Agreement on Military Cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine’”
Furthermore, barely a month before the CIA and State Department overthrew the previous, the pro-Russian, President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych [https://archive.today/Syjyd], the government of Netherlands decided, after 18 years of “dithering,” to allow the U.S. to arm our F-35 bombers there with nuclear weapons [https://archive.today/HHDMh]. And this was already after Holland’s “Parliament in November signed off on a government plan to purchase 37 F-35As to replace the Dutch air force’s aging fleet of nuclear-capable F-16s. The Netherlands is widely understood to host about two dozen U.S. B-61 gravity bombs at the Volkel air base, as part of NATO’s policy of nuclear burden-sharing” [https://archive.today/mHnQL].
Moreover, Obama isn’t only beefing up our first-strike nuclear capability, but is also building something new, called “Prompt Global Strike” [https://archive.today/SAGkh], to supplement that nuclear force, by means of “a precision conventional weapon strike” that, if launched against Russia from next-door Ukraine, could wipe out Russia’s nuclear weapons within just a minute or so. That might be a fallback position, for Obama, in case the EU’s leaders (other than Netherlands and perhaps one or two others) might happen to decide that they won’t participate in our planned nuclear invasion of Russia.
[end excerpt]
* "Georgia President Who Ate His Tie Advises Ukrainians How to ‘Capture All of Russia’ " (2015-02-16) [http://observer.com/2015/02/georgia-president-who-ate-his-tie-advises-ukrainians-how-to-capture-all-of-russia/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150216205824/http://observer.com/2015/02/georgia-president-who-ate-his-tie-advises-ukrainians-how-to-capture-all-of-russia/] [begin excerpt]: On February 13, Mikheil Saakashvili was appointed chairman of the Consulting International Council for the Reforms for the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in his new homeland—Ukraine. (A disgusted Georgian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and demanded an explanation.)
The newspapers say that his prime responsibility is going to be negotiations on the supply of U.S. arms to Ukraine.
Not long before that happy change of events took place, the ex-Georgian president went on Ukrainian television to give his first nugget of advice. With happy smiles and witty winks, he explained to the gloomy and suspicious talk show host of the TV-24 Channel his vision for the most urgent challenge the Ukrainians believe they are facing—how “Russian aggression against Ukraine” can be stopped.Recalling his own experience as a commander-in-chief of Georgian army, Mr. Saakashvili said that “The only thing that stopped Russians was … that Americans declared that they would put up into the air their aviation, they sent Sixth Fleet to the Georgian shores, they had passed Bosporus and they really said to the Russians: ‘Here is the red line, you will never go into the capital (Tbilisi), you will not only not kill Saakashvili but won’t destroy their state and will not destroy their government.'”
Mr. Saakashvili continued:
“Why do I tell here about this? [John] Kerry yesterday said, and the Americans confirmed, that they would give defensive weapons to Ukraine. (A smile.) This is a gigantic breakthrough and diplomatic triumph of Ukraine. And why is this happening? Hillary Clinton put it right – ‘Ukrainians deserved it because of their heroic resistance.’ The majority [of Americans] was against giving [the weapons]. But you fight so hard … and American people see, this is what democracy is, when American people see that somebody fights for their [American] ideals, fights on their own, ready to stand for themselves, they change their opinion… Unfortunately, America hasn’t taken part in your war until now, well, sanctions and so on, but she was not [part of the conflict] … Now they realized that something needs to be done, it’s time to save this [Ukrainian] nation, right? And at the time, the Soviet Union was destroyed by the prices on oil (a witty smile), and by the Stingers, the rockets that Reagan was giving to the Afghan mujahidin to shoot down Russian, eh… Soviet helicopters and planes. Now the major necessity you have is anti-tank weaponry – you don’t have good ones… Americans have newer advanced weaponry that they use. As soon as they [Americans] will burn down first 50 Russian tanks (a happy smile and a half-laugh) there will be absolutely different situation [on the ground]. And Americans are ready to give, Americans are ready to give the drones, the real ones, not the ones that are made here [in Ukraine] … and they will give you artillery, trucks with artillery. The most important task is the training of your troops (a big smile and touching of the tie). Our [Georgian] officers, that had been trained by the Americans and that now train your troops, they say that the spirit of the Ukrainian troops is the best in the world and that these guys that are fighting now if they are given the proper training and proper weapons they will conquer the entire Russia (a big witty smile). … My friend John McCain talks a lot about this, Chairman of the Arms Committee of the Senate, just three days ago I talked to him by phone and he says that he also hopes that now the chance is appearing [for the US weapons to be sent to Ukraine], and I believe it’s a big signal for Putin … who feels that American weapons could be going into [Ukraine], just put yourself in the position of a Russian officer that is shot by American rocket sent by the American instructor. Not just Putin’s lies about NATO instructors [right now] … but if the NATO weapons really will materialize and NATO instructors – American instructors (a wink), of course, because NATO is just a general term used for ‘American,’ the situation for you [Ukraine] will become absolutely different. You just have to stand your ground militarily [until American weapons and instructors arrive].”
* "The Putin-Did-It Conspiracy Theory" (2015-02-13) [https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/13/the-putin-did-it-conspiracy-theory/] [https://archive.today/slgmy] [begin excerpt]: On Friday, the Times concluded its lead editorial with the assertion that: “What remains incontrovertible is that Ukraine is Mr. Putin’s war.” But the point is anything but “incontrovertible.” Indeed, the crisis was most certainly not instigated by Putin. The actually “incontrovertible” facts about the Ukraine crisis are these: The destabilization of President Viktor Yanukovych’s elected government began in November 2013 when Yanukovych balked at a proposed association agreement promoted by the European Union. He sought more time after the sticker shock of learning from Kiev economic experts that the deal would cost Ukraine $160 billion in lost revenue by cutting trade with Russia. It was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, not Vladimir Putin, who pushed the EU agreement and miscalculated the consequences, as the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel has reported. Putin’s only role in that time frame was to offer a more generous $15 billion aid package to Ukraine, not exactly a war-like act. Yanukovych’s decision to postpone action on the EU association prompted angry demonstrations in Kiev’s Maidan square, largely from western Ukrainians who were hoping for visa-free travel to the EU and other benefits from closer ties. Putin had no role in those protests – and it’s insane to think that he did. In the actual chronology of event, Putin was preoccupied with the Winter Olympics in Sochi when the Ukraine crisis took its turn for the worst a year ago. He was fearful that the Olympics would be marred by Chechen or other terrorism and thus was personally overseeing security. Putin had spent some $40 billion on making the Olympics a glamorous show to introduce the new Russia to the world as a country ready to join the West. I’m told that he was very proud of Russia’s position in the G-8 and felt he had built a constructive relationship with President Barack Obama by helping him resolve crises in Syria and Iran in 2013. The last thing Putin wanted to do was provoke a crisis in Ukraine. Nor is there any intelligence that he had designs on the Baltic States, as the conspiracy theory contends. [end excerpt]
---
Who Broke the Ceasefire?
* "DPR troops withdraw heavy armament according to Minsk agreements" (2015-02-18) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT0iWd7E8vA] [eng subs]
* "NAF Basurin: 'If Ukraine continues to shell our cities we will withdraw from the Minsk agreement' " [http://russian.rt.com/article/75291] [https://archive.today/GDt7s] in Russian.
* "DONBASS-INFORMATION : 16.02.2015" posted 2015-02-15 by Reinhard Lenfant [https://archive.today/7GAiZ], collected from various sources, and adapted here from the source material without hashtags (#):
DNR administration held an urgent meeting at 2AM Moscow time, announced that Minsk CeaseFire at 12AM was broken by Ukrainians. Shelling in Gorlovka, Elenovka, Enakievo, other cities. Just as expected, Ukrainians break their word on CeaseFire and continue to shell Donbass cities, as if they didn't sign any agreements. Ukies start 2 redeploy artillery 2 Debaltsevo and Mariupol areas. Reserves continue to be called up to the front. fighting will continue. Near Lisichansk, arty (howitzer) fire from #Ukraine's positions was heard at 11:05 (MSK). At Debaltsevo - arty fire from 9-9:30. NAF's got specific order no ceasefire in the cauldron. This is how things are there. Zakharxhenko said same. Not only Ukraine forces in Debaltseve have attacked NAF forces w/mortars, but reported are large Ukraine armored columns incoming from Mariupol. LPR Plotnitsky reports the ceasefire was not broken in the Lugansk region. Looks like only loose cannon are the Right Sector attacks in DPR. Fascist Right Sector leader Yarosh confirms his 2 battalions continue attacks near Debaltsevo [https://archive.today/XgM0L]. Ukraine's Right Sector statement on Minsk violation vanishes from website [https://archive.today/eyPkz]. With Kiev's Right Sector & paramilitary battalions defying Minsk2, it is clear Poroshenko has no control of own rabid dogs. NAF must put 'em ALL down.
* "Ukraine ultranationalist leader rejects Minsk peace deal, reserves right 'to continue war' "[https://archive.today/8J38o]
* "Right Sector to Continue Military Operation Regardless of Minsk Deal" (2014-02-13) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150213/1018243253.html] [https://archive.today/GmiTK]
LOGVINOVO - Ukraine MLRS shelled rebel controlled Logvinovo [pic.twitter.com/XlotkAO6jy].
Video shows Highway near Logvinovo is filled with dead bodies, knocked-out Ukrainan armor and a Tochka-U missile. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxAAwHDFXO0]. Recent satellite image shows Logvinovo (on highway) is wiped out by Ukrainian artillery, but under NAF control. Logvinovo is full of destroyed tanks and vehicles, bodies everywhere, artillery firing from Ukr positions. Fucking scary! Journalist is in Logvinovo, site of heavy fighting on the Debaltsevo-Artemovsk road. "It's hell," he writes. "Not exactly a ceasefire."
MARIUPOL - Full-fledged battle unfolding at Shirokino. Azov battalion claim to have taken Shirokino in an assault starting at 5am - 5 hours after start of "ceasefire". NAF volunteers saying Azov has created a youth battalion in Mariupol composed of 14-17 year old [http://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_46846]. Azov troops using artillery & tanks in the offensive. NAF successfully resisting. Azov Battalion tells CNN there was heavy fighting in Shirokino near Mariupol. Several Azov casualties. Fighting continues. Nazi Battalion Azov had to withdraw of Shyrokyne. NAF retake parts of the town. NAF also conclude that fighting will inevitably continue east of #Mariupol after "ceasefire". VIDEO: Battalion AZOV *supposedly* in Shyrokyne *area*, impossible to verify date. [http://youtu.be/iNcmCiKbneo].
"Fighters "Azov" shelled the village Shirokino with tanks and artillery; Ukraine's security forces are in no hurry to respect the silence" (2015-02-15, Life News) [http://lifenews.ru/news/149927] [https://archive.today/buYld]
LUGANSK - "LPR begins pullback of heavy weapons from engagement line - head of parliament"[http://tass.ru/en/world/777646] [https://archive.today/qWhFg]. S.O. tweeted that Ukrofascists respected ceasefire for 10 minutes. That's a record! Usually it's not at all Poroshenko's word is worthless. OSCE monitoring team admits that Lugansk was shelled by Ukrainian artillery after the CeaseFire deadline. Bombed out ambulance near Luhanske on road to Debaltseve. Shelling up ahead. "No ceasefire here" soldiers say. Uragan (?) rocket tube in Luhanske. We hear pretty heavy shelling up ahead toward Debaltseve.
DEBALTSEVO ‘CAULDRON’
Zakharchenko provides stance of Donetsk (DPR) on Minsk agreement: Ukraine simply betrayed the 5,000 military personnel trapped in the Debaltsevo ‘cauldron’. Breaking! Lifenews reporting Ukraine has restarted shelling NAF positions around Debaltsevo [http://lifenews.ru/news/149909] [https://archive.today/rGdBB].
DONETSK AIRPORT - Morning of Feb 15th (already CeaseFire), under cover of fog, Ukrainians tried to attack Donetsk airport, but were repelled by NAF. Givi on repulsing Ukraine's attack on Donetsk airport: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf9z2Gj81-A]. According to Givi, NAF successfully repulsed a Ukraine attack on the airport today, February 15, 2014.
DONETSK - Ukrainians broke CeaseFire by shelling Donetsk with massive intensity. VIDEO showing Donetsk, 1 hour before ceasefire. [http://youtu.be/cEf-fztnKl4]
Also see:
* "DONBASS-INFORMATION : 17.(16.)02.2015" posted 2015-02-16 [https://archive.today/Dcz8o]
===*===*===
Republic of Ukraine
* "Ukrainian Households Face 264% Spike in Utilities Rates on Gas" (2015-02-17) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150217/1018374170.html] [https://archive.today/91EQ8] [begin excerpt] Amid an uneasy ceasefire, a spiraling currency, pension cuts, the re-introduction of the military draft, and faltering public services, now ordinary Ukrainians are likely to see their utility costs skyrocket. [end excerpt]
---
* "Ukrainian crisis news" (2015-02-25) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU7SUTt0BGo]
1) Poroshenko Buys UAE Weapons, Talks about Peace
2) Cameron Commits Troops to Ukraine, NATO Scared by Russian agression
3) Facebook frontline: Kiev calls up 'online army' amid information war
4) Chicago PD Blacksite Is Domestic Guantanamo
---
* "Ukrainian military robbing house" [eng sub] (2015-02-14) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9dLqVfiack]: I always thought that the terrorists are the ones who robbed and beaten, raped and killed. The video - apparently the terrorists. (translated by Olenka de L)
---
* "Ukraine: 'We Target Civilians.' ; Separatists: 'Their Targeting Maps Prove It.' " (2015-02-01) [http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/ukraine-target-civilians-separatists-targeting-maps-prove/] [https://archive.today/S8xhr] [begin excerpt]:
The pro-regime Ukrainian TV station Hromandske TV — which is funded by the U.S. Government, the Dutch Government, and George Soros (via his International Renaissance Foundation or ‘Fund’ [https://web.archive.org/web/20150221002717/http://www.hromadske.tv/files/3/d/3dbe7ea-annual-fin-report---eng.pdf]) — has reported that the Ukrainian Government is specifically targeting civilians to die in the Donbass region in the former Ukraine’s southeast. It’s being done in order “to clean the cities.” This is open acknowledgement that the operation, which the U.S. is financing (and Ukraine is bankrupt so it can never reimburse its donors), is actually an ethnic-cleansing campaign.
Here is how it’s done [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l17KfjtaqpA], video posted 2014-09-09 by Slavyangrad.org, clips shown are taken from pro-Ukrainian-Government telecasts:
Commander of the Ukrainian Government’s volunteer battalion ’Shaktarsk,’ Ruslan Onishchenko [begin interview transcript], “Our mission, being employees of the Ministry of the Interior, is to clean the cities, after the army has ‘worked’ this territory with aircraft, artillery and heavy military equipment. This is a normal tactical approach to warfare.”
Retired Col. General Vladimir Ruban, interviewed on the pro-Ukrainian-Government Hromadske TV, then says: “I want to offer the Ukrainian artillerists medals, to those who shell the city [Donetsk], the houses and the civilian population, … for they [artillerists] have deserved it [medals], both because of the accuracy and inaccuracy. … It’s one thing if attack groups or any mobile mortar troops drive through the city and shoot, … but if the artillery units fired from the airport [i.e., from the distance], then no one can claim that the separatists shoot themselves [i.e., that the people who are being killed in the city are victims of separatist troops mistakenly hitting passers-by when aiming at Government troops. He is saying that artillerists will clearly get the blame, whereas street-fighters can always blame the ‘terrorists.’]. … The shelling there is done as intimidation, … not just object destruction, but intimidation [to get the population to flee to nearby Russia]. The civilian population is intimidated by a chaotic bombardment of different objects. There are many shells that plug directly into the streets or vegetable gardens [and so make the very ground on which these people live terrifying to them].
INTERVIEWER: This refers to those that didn’t explode?
VLADIMIR RUBAN: Yes, … there are many of those, … shells that fail to detonate. But Gorlowka has been fortunate to have not yet been totally eradicated from the face of the earth, along with the civilian population.
INTERVIEWER: You mean that the city is bombarded violently?
VLADIMIR RUBAN: Gorlowka was shelled by our troops, [even] as I went there for the prisoner exchange. Although it was known that I was there, they [our troops] kept up the bombardment of Gorlowka.
[end of interview transcript]
General Ruban might not have known it at the time of his interview, but on February 1st, Life News in Russia bannered “Militia DNR: Ukrainian Army Uses US Missiles” [https://archive.today/B68KR] and reported that in Gorlovka were found “shells that do not belong to Ukrainian artillery, and even more so do not use Soviet or post-Soviet military equipment. According to their hypothesis, the weapons are from NATO. Deputy brigade commander Army DNR [Donetsk People’s Republic] callsign ‘Biker’ showed shells and said that … this is a special projectile 155 caliber self-propelled artillery of the M109 A1 American production, which is used by NATO countries.” Furthermore, “The presence of foreigners in their army and radio intercepts confirms our intelligence when we hear in interceptions, phrases in English and Polish.”
Within just the past few days, further video evidence was uploaded which indicates that the targeting of civilians is a central purpose of the U.S.-funded Ukrainian war campaign:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCcl60gND7g] [29 January 2015] [begin video transcript] The journalists of Ren TV today received the first documentary evidence that residential areas of Donbass are being targeted. Although Kiev may claim that ‘stray shells’ hit a hospital or a kindergarten, we have found on the front line that is being left behind by departing Ukrainian soldiers, artillery maps, where the targets were restaurants, cafeterias and shops.
Here is an exclusive report by our correspondent Valentin Trushin from the former UAF’s (Ukrainian Armed Forces) trenches:
This is a field near the village of Ozeryanovka, from which recently was a Ukrainian battery firing at Gorlovka …
[The rebel soldier says that many of these abandoned tanks and other weapons are undamaged, and ‘They will say tomorrow that Russia supplied them to us, but it’s actually their equipment that will be repaired if necessary but will be used at war against them.’ Views of Government-destroyed Gorlovka are shown.] …
In the [rebel-]destroyed dugouts were found … notebooks of cannon commanders, maps. The documents show that shelling of the city [by the Government] was not random, but deliberate.The coordinates of the targets are shown. For examples, one is a restaurant, another a cafeteria or a market where no militiamen were stationed. … Here are their target-maps, … irrefutable evidence of war crimes.
[end video transcript]
The actual reason why this southeast-Ukrainian ethnic-cleansing campaign is necessary for Obama, who installed the current regime in Ukraine, is that, if it is not done, and, if the people who lived and voted in the Donbass region (Ukraine’s far-east) were still to remain there and allowed to vote there as being citizens of Ukraine, then they would vote at least 90% against the regime’s candidates, and for moderates, because, even before the regime had started to exterminate these people, they had voted 90% for Viktor Yanukovych in the last democratic Ukraine-wide Presidential election (which was back in 2010), and he was the very same man whom Obama overthrew. Now, after this extermination-campaign, the vote there against the Obama stooges would be virtually 100% — not just 90%.
As regards why Obama had wanted their land to begin with, it was because unless the gas and other assets in the ground there can be privatized or sold off by the Ukrainian Government to pay its debts, the Ukrainian Government will go bankrupt and become an enormous drag on everyone who had previously lent to it, including the U.S., IMF, EU, World Bank, and others (ironically including even Russia).
[end excerpt]
* “It’s perfectly simple. You need to kill 1.5 million people in Donbass” transcript translated from Ukrainian by Valentina Lisitsa, posted 2014-08-01 at [https://archive.today/4pNFf], video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9SOVarOFJk] [begin transcript excerpt]:
Bogdan Boutkevitch: Ok, you ask me “How can this be happening?” Well, it happens because Donbass, in general, is not simply a region in a very depressed condition, it has got a whole number of problems, the biggest of which is that it is severely overpopulated with people nobody has any use for. Trust me I know perfectly well what I am saying.
If we take, for example, just the Donetsk oblast, there are approximately 4 million inhabitants, at least 1.5 million of which are superfluous. That’s what I mean: we don’t need to [try to] “understand” Donbass, we need to understand Ukrainian national interests.
Donbass must be exploited as a resource, which it is. I don’t claim to have a quick solution recipe, but the most important thing that must be done – no matter how cruel it may sound – is that there is a certain category of people that must be exterminated.
[end transcript excerpt]
The Hromadske TV Annual Financial Report, 2014 [https://web.archive.org/web/20140702154242/http://www.hromadske.tv/files/0/3/03a3531-1q-2014-fin-report---eng.pdf], showing funding from the US and Dutch embassies and transnational billionaire capitalist George Soros.
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Oleh Lyashko admitted that his own sister is fighting with NAF against Ukraine regime
* "Ukraine's Radical Party Leader's Sister Fights Against Kiev in Donbas" (2015-02-14) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150214/1018257207.html] [https://archive.today/BrIUD]
* "Ljashko admitted that his sister is fighting on the side of the militants "LC" (2015-02-13) [https://archive.today/i0jfB], original in Ukrainian.
* "With Stunts and Vigilante Escapades, a Populist Gains Ground in Ukraine" (2015-10-25) [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/world/europe/with-stunts-and-vigilante-escapades-a-populist-gains-ground-in-ukraine.html?_r=1] [https://archive.today/BBYbm]
* "Thug Politics, Kiev Oleh Lyashko gets into fist fights, kidnaps rebels, and supplies militias (or so he claims). Meet the radical populist who could play kingmaker in post-Maidan Ukraine" (2014-10-09) [http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/09/thug-politics-kiev/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141216192911/http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/09/thug-politics-kiev/]
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* "DNR and LC declared terrorist organizations!" video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqU_sP6_DI], article [https://archive.today/HK5ZA] [begin excerpt]: Order addressed to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. "I ask the Ministry of Justice, together with the Prosecutor General and the Security Service of Ukraine to take measures for the legal recognition in general, such organizations as DNI and LC, terrorist through proper judicial process," - said the prime minister. Yatseniuk called the international community to make a similar move. He also called for something to "take appropriate measures of international legal response to these gangs," adding that the recent "under the guise of the Russian Federation." At the meeting of January 14 according to "RBC-Ukraine» , A resolution on this subject also took the Verkhovna Rada. Turning to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, it called for the inclusion of DNR and LC in the list of terrorist organizations. It is expected that for the recognition of the DNI and LC terrorist organizations deliver the European Parliament (EP). On the eve said President of Ukraine Poroshenko, citing information from the EP President Martin Schulz. [end excerpt]
--
Hey, OSCE, you might want to check out how Ukraine Battalion Donbass treats POWs... [http://youtu.be/i2YmnKNTw8w] ...executions, huh ?!?
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Euromaidan activist Vita Zaveruha, combatant of Ukrainian Forces "Aydar Battalion" and involved in Odessa Massacre 2 May 2014
* "Berlin shocked by the Nazis in Ukraine Direct evidence!" (2015-02-25, News Today Ukraine) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvl2_Xt1yb4]
* "Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh to create parallel Armed Forces of Ukraine" (2015-02-15) [http://rusvesna.su/english/1423990098] [https://archive.today/z76iG]
* "Right Sector militants surrounded the Krasnoarmeisk Ukrainian command headquaters, threatening to storm it" (2015-02-13) [http://fortruss.blogspot.ie/2015/02/right-sector-militants-encircled.html] [https://archive.today/NBKAg]
* "Right Sector Militants Seize Church in Ukraine’s Cherkasy Region" (2015-02-13) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150213/1018213008.html] [https://archive.today/VoLVr]
Image posted 2015-02-14 [https://archive.today/aMqAi]
* "McCain to Sputnik: Ukraine's Use of Cluster Bombs Is US' Fault" (2015-02-05) [http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150205/1017844947.html] [https://archive.today/yHSju] [begin excerpt]: The United States is to be blamed for Ukraine’s use of cluster bombs since it hasn’t provided the country with different weapons, US Senator John McCain, who serves as a Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, told Sputnik on Thursday.
“I think that if we had provided them with the weapons they need, they wouldn’t have felt they had to use cluster bombs. So, it’s partially our fault,” McCain said. [end excerpt]
* Photos showing cluster bombs across Donetsk [https://archive.today/9WXD6].
* "Leading Ukrainian Nazi Will Visit Washington Next Week Seeking Weapons" (2015-02-17) [http://fortruss.blogspot.de/2015/02/leading-ukrainian-nazi-will-visit.html] [https://archive.today/Xy4x5] [begin excerpt]:
Andrey Parubiy, a co-founder of the Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine, which the CIA renamed the “Freedom” Party (“Svoboda”) in order to hide its origin as Ukraine’s nazi party, announced on Sunday February 15th, that he’ll be seeking weapons from the U.S. He had started (but the CIA named) Ukraine’s ‘Anti Terrorist Operation,’ which has been trying to exterminate the residents in Ukraine’s Donbass region, Ukraine’s separatist region. Parubiy’s announcement said, “Next week I'm off to the United States to speak about this very subject,” of getting Washington to supply the weapons necessary to finish that job [https://archive.today/FrskN].
The reason for his visit is: Ukraine is running out of bullets, guns, and other necessary equipment to achieve his goal. It’s a goal he had only begun as the organizer of Ukraine’s ‘Anti Terrorist Operation.’ The ‘ATO’ had commenced soon after the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, and has not been proceeding nearly as quickly as had been planned; it’s way behind schedule.
According to German intelligence sources, no more than 50,000 people have been killed so far in the operation, though more than a million have fled, which also counts as success because the goal is to clear the land there. As a retired Ukrainian general who supports the operation said, “The shelling there is done as intimidation, … not just object destruction, but [also as] intimidation [to get the population to flee to nearby Russia]. The civilian population is intimidated by a chaotic bombardment.” That constant bombardment requires lots of bombs and bullets, which is why Parubiy now needs a big resupply. So, Parubiy was crucial in America’s successful take-over of Ukraine, and he will now be coming to Washington to request from Congress and the U.S. President the military support needed to finish the job that he and they had started, by completing the extermination of the residents in the Donbass region, which is the region whose residents had voted 90% for Yanukovych (it’s dark purple on that map) and have refused to accept the legitimacy of the Obama-coup Government. If those voters aren’t successfully eliminated, then any future Presidential election in Ukraine that would represent all of the land-area of the pre-coup Ukraine would need to include those anti-coup voters, and so would probably end U.S. control over Ukraine.
Ukraine map showing historical boundaries and electoral results for 2010:
[end excerpt]
* Unconfirmed video evidence, USA planned for false-flag attacks using UAF dressed in NAF or Russian Army uniforms [https://archive.today/9c1HL], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-6SSnuLNDw]. The controversial video of interrogation of "a captain of the 3rd regiment of special purpose from Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine"who acknowledges that Ukrainian fascists dressed in the uniform of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and the of Russian armed forces are going to kill civilians and soldiers of DPR and LPR. These attacks were planned by US representatives who also manage it.
===*===*===
Patriotic Anti-Government rally "PEGIDA" in Germany with anti-war banner. Translation: "Peace with Russia! Never again war in Europe!"
Hungarians welcome Mr. Putin in Hungary. (Note the flag of Syria in the background) 2015-02-17
Union of People's Republics of Novorossiya
Hello! My name is Olga, I'm from Russia.
When I don't work, I help refugees from Ukraine (in my native city of Tomsk, in Siberia) and also organize an international team of volunteer translators. We translate a lot of first-hand accounts by people in conflict areas, some of them even by people we know. However, being a small volunteer group, we have no way of showing our translations to a wider audience. I ask you to help us in telling the truth about these tragedies by spreading this video we've translated:
* "The number of civilians killed after the peace plan has been signed" (2015-02-11) [eng sub] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huH-oonX534]
Women of the volunteer Novorossiya Armed Forces (NAF) photo album [https://archive.today/23vDK]
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* "Pancake Week in Lugansk, Novorossiya" (2015-02-19) [https://archive.today/HAPW9]:
Do you know that it’s Maslenitsa (Pancake Week) in the Eastern Orthodox communities? smile emoticon Librarians of the Lugansk scientific library named after Maxim Gorky have arranged the celebration of Maslenitsa in the fresh air. Despite cold weather, residents of Lugansk had fun, participated in competitions, ate blini (Russian pancakes) and drank tea. Skhomorokhs entertained people, they asked riddles, sang and danced in a ring.
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* "DPR authorities plan to begin deliveries of coal to Iran and North Africa through the port of Taganrog - Staff of the Chief of DNR" (2015-01-20, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/1hJpH]:
The DPR authorities intend to supply coal to the countries of North Africa and Middle East, the head of the department for industry development strategy at the DPR head’s office Evgeniy Lavrenov said at the meeting today.
“We have standard clients in North African countries, Iran and Turkey. The plants in these countries were built by the Soviet Union. Donbass coal is used in processing chains in power plants, metallurgical plants there. I think that we will be able to jointly solve the issue with deliveries in the shortest possible time,” – Evgeniy Lavrenov said.
“On the 19th of February, the DPR economic development Minister Evgeniya Samokhina contacted partners in Iran and said that she can demonstrate concrete proposals on cooperation. The Iranian partners are also under an embargo, so it will be easy for us to understand each other, all the more, they need it,” – he added.
According to him, if an agreement is reached, Donbass coal will be delivered to Iran by sea via the Taganrog port in Russia.
“There is understanding from the Russian Federation. We are also negotiating with the North African companies about coal delivery,” – Evgeniy Lavrenov said.
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* "LPR Leader presents certificates of Merit of the Republic to the most distinguished citizens" (2015-02-20, Lugansk Information Center) [https://archive.today/GHsM5]:
The concert dedicated to the Defender of the Motherland Day celebrated on February 23 has taken place at the Lugansk Philharmonic Hall today. The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic Igor Plotnitsky arrived at the concert to congratulate the veterans of the Great Patriotic War and modern defenders of the LPR. Igor Plotnitsky presented certificates of honour not only to the veterans and men of the NAF, but also to the police officers, employees of community services and state institutions, members of the Russian motorcycle club “The Night Wolves”.
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* "Russian football fans have brought humanitarian aid to young athletes" (2015-02-20, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/w0zLK]:
Football fans of the Russian clubs “CSKA”, “Lokomotiv”, “Dynamo” and “Spartak” have brought 300 kg of humanitarian aid for the youth sports school of Snezhnoye, press service of the DPR Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism told the Donetsk News Agency. Humanitarian aid include football and volleyball kits, volleyball nets, futsal and football nets, ropes, balls, pumps, and many other things.
The youth sports school of Snezhnoye and the DPR Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism express sincere gratitude to everyone who participated in collection and delivery of aid!
* (2015-02-14) [https://archive.today/SCyEW]: German politicians of the Left Party arrived in Donbass with 28 tones of humanitarian aid that include vital medicines. 14 tones will be delivered to the children’s hospital of Gorlovka, 7 tones are for Donetsk hospital and other 7 tones are for Lugansk. “We’ve appealed to the German citizens to donate for Gorlovka and Donetsk. Many people responded and sent us money. I was impressed with how many people of Germany were willing to help,” – German politician Wolfgang Gehrcke said. According to him, the idea to organize a humanitarian mission appeared after they’d visited refugee camps in Russia. Donbass refugees told them about the lack of medicines in hospitals and Kiev’s economic blockade against Donbass. Their page “Helft den Kindern von Donezk im Krankenhaus von Gorlovka”: [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Helft-den-Kindern-von-Donezk-im-Krankenhaus-von-Gorlovka/824398740954274]
* "Mortar Shooting of the humanitarian aid’s queue" (+21) [English subtitles] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o21rSnWwaHE]: Donetsk. January 30th, 2015. Mortar Shooting of the humanitarian aid’s queue by the diversionary group of the Ukrainian army.
* "A hospital in Donetsk, destroyed by ukrainian bombing" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SqtKTcHAMM] [eng sub]
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22nd February 2015, city Kharkov, occupied Kharkov republic
URGENT STATEMENT OF THE KHARKOV PARTISANS
Video with English subtitles [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfGCr6mQiI8]
Phillip Ekoz'yants, representative of the Kharkov partisans:
"This is an urgent statement of the Kharkov partisans. We, Kharkov partisans, leading a guerrilla war against the Kiev junta on the territory of Kharkov and Kharkov region, haven’t had hand in an explosion during a march of the ATO supporters on the 22nd of February, 2015. We, Kharkov partisans, didn’t plan and don’t plan to arrange our actions in places crowded with peaceful civilians regardless of their political views. We think that many ordinary Ukrainians are fooled by the mass media of the Kiev junta. And as we’ve stated many times, we will not put their lives at risk. Moreover, we have reliable information that the column of peaceful participants was blown up by order of Avakov [present minister of internal affairs of Kiev junta] in order to launch an anti-terrorist operation in the Kharkov region. Residents of Kharkov! One year ago, monsters, sadists and murderers came to power in Ukraine, which offer ordinary Ukrainian people in sacrifice in order to achieve their aims. And we all are simply like coins to exchange in their dreadful game. We will win. This was the urgent statement of the Kharkov partisans."
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* "DPR Zakharchenko said that it was the work of a Sniper" (2015-02-19, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/dtMSO]: The Head of the DPR Alexander Zakharchaneko told the journalists that the gunshot wound to the leg he received in Debaltsevo on the 17th of February was the work of a sniper. “A gunshot wound to the leg. The sniper was ‘working’ on me from the area near the city hospital,” – Alexander Zakharchenko said. Answering to the question about his state of health, Alexander Zakharchenko said that the wound let him to get enough sleep. “I’ve finally got enough sleep. I hardly slept in Debaltsevo the last three days. Our doctors are good, everything will be fine. They told me that I would waltz soon. I’ll definitely attend the celebration of the Defender of the Motherland Day on the 23rd of February. Perhaps, with a stick, or a crutch, but I’ll come for sure,” – he added.
* (2015-02-14) [https://archive.today/DpQmw]: Less than an hour ago three mines dropped near the residence of the Head of the DPR Aleksandr Zakharchenko. It happened minutes before that start of the press-conference at which the head of the DPR was going to explain the significance of the Minsk agreements for the Republic. The blasts were heard during Zakharchenko's interview to Russian NTV channel. The mines exploded practically in 150 feet distance from the journalists who were waiting for the start of the press-conference. As a result of the explosions three persons died and three were wounded. You can see a fragment of the mine in Zakharchenko's hands.
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* "Energy Diet? Donetsk Switches to Russian Gas After Kiev Cuts Supplies" (2015-02-19) [http://sputniknews.com/business/20150219/1018464810.html] [https://archive.today/mo7bP]
* "'Freeze Them to Death?' Kiev Cuts Off Gas to Donetsk, Luhansk - LPR" (2015-02-19) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150219/1018462633.html] [https://archive.today/a4jRP]
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* NAF musical montage 18+ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73p_87uSkbY]
* Novogrigorovka is liberated by NAF. [http://lifenews.ru/news/150144] [https://archive.today/Xgv0o]
* Uglegorsk got food thanks to NAF! [http://lifenews.ru/news/150142] [https://archive.today/4gp0T]
* This Donbass family, father, mother & son, are all NAF members. Homeland Defence.
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* "Chernukhin residents returned to their homes, which will help to restore the authority of the Republic" (2015-02-19, Lugansk Information Center) [https://archive.today/HBbu0]:
Chernukhino, Novorossiya -
“Despite lots of destructions, refugees of Chernukhino want to go back home. 6 000 people lived in the village before the war. Now around 1000 live here. We’ve been called since the morning, people ask us when they can come back home. Some people phone us in order to take their ill parents. But all those, who are alive and healthy, want to go home. Our main task is to restore gas and electric networks,” – the Chernukhino authorities told the Lugansk information center.When the residents of Chernukhino left their basements, where they'd spent several weeks, and saw the armed forces of Novorossiya, they couldn’t hold back their tears of joy, the chief of staff of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the NAF Vladimir Tsvyakh told the Lugansk journalists.
“We’ve liberated the village from fascists. Residents are very happy, elderly women cried and applauded us. There is a family that was forced to leave their house by Ukrainian soldiers, which said that they would live in the house. We will restore everything that was destroyed. The most important thing is that life cannot be restored. We will liberate our land from fascists step by step,” – Vladimir Tsvyakh said.
* "NAF celebrate capture of Chernukhino" (2015-02-19) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMGkriTeNk]
* "Cossack flag raised over Chernukhino" (2015-02-19) [http://youtu.be/aKMGkriTeNk]
* "Chernukhin residents receive humanitarian aid, tomorrow buses Ministry of Emergency Situations evacuated wishing to Lugansk" (2015-02-19, Lugansk Information Center) [https://archive.today/7mD98]: The number of needy residents of Chernukhino turned out to be more than expected. Many residents of the village have been hiding in basements during the battle actions. People decided to leave them after the village had been liberated by the armed forces of Novorossiya, the LPR Emergencies Ministry told the Lugansk information center. According to estimates of the Lugansk reconstructions management center, there were about 300 people in Chernukhino. When the LPR rescuers arrived in the village, they found out that around 1000 people of the village are in need of humanitarian aid. Distribution of humanitarian aid started at about 10:30. People take mostly food products. Besides, many residents of Chernukhino are filling in a form for evacuation. Tomorrow, on the 20th of February, the LPR authorities will send 4 buses for evacuation of Chernukhino residents. People will be placed in Lugansk.
* "Chernukhin - 'Ukrainian troops very bad - Marauders' " (2015-02-19) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEIwMl8kiiA]. In a village by Debaltsevo freed by NAF, locals tell me: 'Ukrainian soldiers were very bad, they stole everything!'
* "Chernukhino residents say they were violated by Ukraine's soldiers" (2015-02-19)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7m4Fl4S2HU]
---
* "The Tragedy of Uglegorsk: Exodus from the 'City of the Dead' " (2015-02-16) [http://slavyangrad.org/2015/02/16/the-tragedy-of-uglegorsk-exodus-from-the-city-of-the-dead/] [https://archive.today/rrmfA]
* Photos: "Uglegorsk after the Ukrainian nazi occupation" (2015-02-20) [https://archive.today/1wIG7]
---
Photo: International friendship of Novorossiyan volunteers - Алэксис Кастиё Идодэаи (left) from Colombia and Russell Bonner Bentley III (right) from USA became friends in the land of Novorossiya. Here in Novorossiya one from several front lines of fight between Good and Evil, between will of free people and will of transnational corporations. Everyone is welcome as volunteer to fight for a just cause.
* "Donetsk: A heart to heart talk with a militiaman from Texas (USA)" (2015-01-16) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz7FmjIN3g8]:Militiaman "Alfonso" from Spain makes an interview with Militiaman "Texas" from USA. They both are currently in "Vostok" brigade , which is a part of military forces of Donetsk People’s Republic. "Texas" talks about the war in Donbass, antifascism, communism, USA and the future of the world.
The interview was recorded on January 16, 2015. Here are some interesting parts of the interview:
Reporter: Why are you here? What made you come?
“Texas”: I saw everything that happened after the Maidan, that huge crime which they committed together with the CIA and the fascist puppets of the USA. And when they murdered the police and the protesters, both sides, and put the blame for that on the government. When I saw this and the crime in Odessa, when they burned about a hundred innocent people alive, I got furious and said, "Enough!" I sold my motorcycle, sold all my things and used that money to get to Donetsk.
Reporter: Was there something specific after which you thought, "Enough, I'm going there"?
“Texas”: When a [Ukrainian] military plane attacked the center of Lugansk with missiles And I saw the picture of a woman who lost her legs and was bleeding. She was alive for another several minutes. And that very moment someone took a picture. She looked in the camera and it was as if she looked into my soul. After that I said, "That's it, enough!" I took my money, sold my motorcycle, sold all my things and used that money to get to Russia, Novorossiya, Donetsk.
Reporter: How do you evaluate the information that the US provides on what is happening here? Is the media telling the truth?
“Texas”: In the USA? It's bullshit, it's a lie – everything that the media and the government says. And it's not that they lie a bit here and there. They speak lies that are 180 degrees opposite the truth.
Reporter: How do you see the situation with the locals? What do you see and feel?
“Texas”: Oh, yes. The people in Donetsk and Novorossiya are very good, very polite. They show great respect to all the soldiers that defend their rights and their land, their houses. But they also have a special place in the heart for those who have arrived from other countries to help in the antifascist struggle.
Reporter: What would you like to tell to the antifascists of the world, what they could hear and understand?
“Texas”: I want to tell to all the antifascists of the world: Fascism in Novorossiya is the real fascism. It is that snake that must be killed here, before it gets to your house. Which means, if you can help with your blood, with your money, your words spoken to your government and friends - do it. Because the fascists will be doing the same in your house too, if they won't be stopped here. And you know what? This war will be won here. We will win.
---
* "Debaltsevo graced by a Novorossia flag and a new Greek mayor" (2015-02-18) [http://fortruss.blogspot.de/2015/02/debaltsevo-graced-by-novorossia-flag.html] [https://archive.today/Zmi7b], original Russian [https://archive.today/jrPVC].
Flag of Novorossiya raised over Debaltsevo
News Video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeHz7GMVE9c]
Eye witness video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyLB2TqqO5U]
* "LNR flag in Debaltsevo" photo posted 2015-02-19 [https://archive.today/tsE5O]
* "LNR Army raised Victory banner over Debaltsevo" photo posted 2014-02-19 [https://archive.today/Pkrjq], Music: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HUWUtTZvK4]
* "Militias feed "underground" residents in bombed-out Debaltseve" (2015-02-19, Komsomolskaya Pravda) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE07ep2xGwM]. NAF distributes food to #Debaltsevo civilians that endured combats.
* "Summaries of the militia of Novorossiya, February 18, 2015" [https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_47343] [https://archive.today/i4iGW]: During the retreat in Debaltseve punishers kill civilians. Punisher, surrendering its position Debaltseve began in senseless rage violently cracking down on peaceful population: no mercy for elderly or children. Shooting is constantly in the areas that our free and try out the peaceful population, most of the homes people have already been killed. Ukrainian Army was doing cleaning tough. Right in the homes of people killed, corporate headshots in almost all civilians found in dilapidated houses and apartments. The evacuation of civilians from Debaltseve was planned for February 18 and partly carried on, but remove the civilian population is extremely difficult and dangerous because of the continuing fighting.
* "Fear and Loathing in Debaltsevo" report by Steshin & Kots [eng subs] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdDFSE9Qf-Y]
* "Debaltsevsky outcome" (2015-02-19, Novorossia News) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8LctgziJy8]
* "Novorossiya Armed Forces fighting in Debaltsevo - battle footage"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7ewCuIB4s]
* "The war for Debaltsevo.Vzglyad from heaven" (2015-02-18) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBCq8Qok6sA], high-definition drone footage.
* "Stripping Debaltseve of NVF is complete, APU in the boiler lost 3-3.5 thousand people - Zaharchenko" (2015-02-19, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/xQCQm]: Cleaning-up of Debaltsevo from the Ukrainian soldiers has finished, Alexander Zakharchenko told the journalists today. “We’ve completed the clean-up operation of Debaltsevo from illegal armed groups. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian authorities have failed to listen to reason and lay down arms. The losses of the Ukrainian army trapped in the Debaltsevo cauldron estimated at around 3000-3500 killed people,” – Alexander Zakharchenko said. According to him, they will begin to hand over the bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers today. “Let Kiev take its killed soldiers. We’d invited parents of Ukrainian soldiers to take their sons home, they were alive at that time. Now we’re also going to hand over a lot of captured soldiers,” – he added.
* Captured & left behind wounded Ukraine soldier says he has been forced to fight [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crjaeUEkvOg]
* "Surrendering UA soldiers attacked by UAF barrier squad. NAF cover the evacuation of POWs" [eng subs] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ZNcrTVNl8]. Watch Novorossiya forces protect surrendering Ukraine troops from murder by UAF barrier squad (Kiev troops)
* "Kiev's 'Barrier Squads' shoot own troops to prevent their retreat" (2015-01-29) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi_9kk_e1Zg]
* "Kiev used barrier squads to prevent troops from retreating – E. Ukraine militia" (2015-01-27) [http://rt.com/news/226831-ukraine-barrier-troops-donetsk/] [https://archive.today/uMqoS]
Worth watching! He told about the presence of foreign mercenaries in the Azov battalion.
* "Captive "Azov" regiment trooper press conference Donetsk" (2015-02-19)[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BOv_KSWRRc] [eng subs]
* American sniper—US citizen—captured today in Debaltsevo. [https://vk.com/strelkov_info]
* "Fascist helmet found in Debaltsevo after Kiev forces retreated" (2015-02-20) [http://rusvesna.su/english/1424395155] [https://archive.today/28DB6]
* "Militias have released all the settlements around 'Debaltsevskogo Cauldron' " (2015-02-20, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/Vuhbt], translated from the original Russian:
The armed forces of Novorossiya have liberated all the settlements near the Debaltsevo cauldron, the DPR Defense Ministry spokesperson Eduard Basurin told a briefing at the Donetsk News Agency press center today. “The NAF continued to block separate subversive groups of the Ukrainian army remaining on the outskirts of Debaltsevo,” – Eduard Basurin added.
During the day the Ukrainian army shelled the areas near the villages of Vidnoye and Opytnoye with artillery fire. The NAF units in the Donetsk and Mariupol directions haven’t fallen for provocations from the Ukrainian army and haven’t conducted any offensive actions.
The NAF have found 57 bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers in the areas left by the Ukrainian army. The DPR Defense Ministry is ready to hand over the bodies to Ukrainian families or Ukrainian state organs. “On the whole, the situation along the contact line is gradually stabilizing. The NAF strictly abide by a ceasefire and do not respond to sporadic provocations from the Ukrainian troops,” – Eduard Basurin said.
* (2015-02-20) [https://archive.today/HLqLJ]: Military correspondents of the Novorossiya TV channel have visited the liberated village of Maloorlovka. Ukrainian soldiers left their positions 2 days ago. The well-equipped dug-out shelters, aircraft protective shelters and depots with a large number of ammunition remain in the village after their desertion.
* "NAF: Thank you to Canadians and Ukrainians for supplies! (Video)" (2015-02-19) [http://fortruss.blogspot.de/2015/02/naf-thank-you-to-canadians-and.html] [https://archive.today/Guq9w]
NAF fighters estimate that at least two new tank battalions can be formed from trophies obtained in Debaltsevo.
* "In 'Debaltsevskom Cauldron' militia seized 265 pieces of military equipment, including 28 tanks" (2015-02-19, Donetsk News Agency) [https://archive.today/W6CRM], translated from the original Russian: The armed forces of Novorossiya have captured 265 pieces of military equipment in the area of Debaltsevo, the DPR Defense Ministry spokesperson Eduard Basurin told a briefing at the Donetsk News Agency press center today. “28 tanks, 63 IFVs and APCs, 145 cars, 16 anti-aircraft mounts ZU-23-2, 13 artillery mounts and mortars were found in a good condition. The NAF have also taken about 1000 small arms, 39 ammunitions depots and 2 wagons of armament left by the Ukrainian army,” Eduard Basurin said.
* "Novorossia acquires a treasure trove of UAF equipment abandoned at Debaltsevo" (2015-02-19) [http://fortruss.blogspot.de/2015/02/novorossia-acquires-treasure-trove-of.html] [https://archive.today/rIVI5]
* "LPR forces captured armor of Ukrainian army" photos (2015-02-19) [https://archive.today/mwh1v]
The first seconds of the video you can see a house that unit of Ukrainian fascists seized from some family and lived there. They left the house dust and dirt, as there are property stolen from the neighboring houses. A little further you can see the position of that unit of Kiev junta, they ran out leaving dead comrades. They also left a large amount of ammunition and equipment. On a pile of garbage you will see the new hand-held rocket launchers, grenades to different types of grenade launchers, anti-tank hand grenades and ammunition boxes. Thus Ukrainian troops each time supplying troops of Donetsk and Lugansk republics. In the video you can see tank of Kiev junta without significant damage, it will probably be renovated and will become part of the army of Novorossiya. Also in the video shows a first aid kit with bandages and medicines, it was all thrown by unknown unit of Kiev junta. This video was shot on the outskirts of Debaltsevo yesterday on 18 February.
* "Novorossiya Armed Forces in Debaltsevo, NAF found military equipment and of NATO" video (2015-02-19, Novorossia News) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JltLyc5KBD8]
* video (2015-02-19) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjf95WiAo3g]. Huge amounts of vehicles & stockpiles of ammo, western satellite communication stations, Polish rations were captured from escaping Ukraine army near Debaltsevo.
* video (2015-02-19) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo2ZLpmWnDc]. Abandoned Ukraine position outside Debaltsevo with tons of ammunition & left behind tanks, artillery, including a Self Propelled Howitzer Battery which seems in acceptable condition.
* "NAF thanks the United States for the new LCMR (Lightweight Counter-Mortar Radar)" (2015-02-20) [https://archive.today/OunaY], translated from the original Russian by Kristina Rus:
Judging by the "LifeNews" report on February 19, 2015 about Novorossia fighters collecting trophies after Ukrainian troops withdrew from Debaltsevo, among other finds, NAF received one whole complex of LCMR (Lightweight Counter-Mortar Radar), supplied by the United States as part of military assistance to Ukraine.The U.S. has decided to send to the armed forces of Ukraine 20 LCMR radars, the first three of which were delivered in November 2014. According to the information, received by our blog from the most serious sources, soon after the transfer one of the stations was damaged during transportation, and then another station was damaged by artillery fire of the enemy at the first attempt of its combat use by the Ukrainians. We can assume that the LCMR radar, abandoned by the Ukrainian troops in Debaltsevo is the third of this ill-fated first batch of the three stations.
* Presidential Drawdown Determination Letter of Notification to provide twenty LCMR (2014-11-14) [https://archive.today/kHIKD], matching serial number [https://archive.today/U4olh]
Among the equipment captured are "American-style" humvees!
* "NAF captured Humvee in Debaltsevo" photo [https://archive.today/Ec4Eu], [http://russian.rt.com/article/75246] [https://archive.today/S3wWm].
* "Novorossiya captured its 1st American-supplied Humvee from Kiev forces" (2015-02-20) [https://archive.today/MACr6]
* "US-supplied armored Humvee captured by Novorossia militia" (2015-02-19) [http://fortruss.blogspot.de/2015/02/us-supplied-armored-humvee-captured-by.html] [https://archive.today/dRBvI]
* "Before Debaltsevo and after Debaltsevo" (2015-02-19) [https://archive.today/g45NP]:
Novorossiya Armes Forces with Humvee captured in Debaltsevo with Republic of Poland markings.
Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61yP8qlgSjk]
* (2015-02-20) [https://archive.today/G3ao2]: Kiev junta possibly prepared an offensive in the spring of 2015 from the cities Debaltsevo and Uglegorsk. In these cities units from Donetsk and Lugansk republics still finding a large ammunition depots. One of these depots you can see in this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYC-p-JVSm4].
In the city Uglegorsk after fleeing of troops Kiev junta units Donetsk republic finding a large ammunition depots. Most often, Ukrainian fascists did warehouses for ammunition and base for relaxation in the social facilities: kindergartens, schools, boarding schools. In the basement of one of the boarding schools of the city Uglegorsk was made depot of Ukrainian fascists.There was classroom, where the orphans were taught factory profession. Ukrainian fascists took out the industrial machines and brought boxes of ammunition for tanks, howitzers, heavy mortars. After fleeing the Nazis left 200 boxes with shells in this room. Upstairs in the gym of boarding school lived Ukrainian fascists, they fled leaving goods and turned the gym into a landfill. In the boarding school continued to live orphans, they had nowhere to go and they were a human shield for the Ukrainian fascists. This is what you can see in the video and what the reporter says, this report was made at 17th February.
The commander of one of the intelligence units of the army of the Donetsk republic said that Kiev junta was preparing for major offensive this spring and accumulated weapons and ammunition in Uglegorsk. This warehouse in the basement of a boarding school is one of many warehouses that troops Kiev junta created in the city Uglegorsk. Now these weapons will help troops of Donetsk and Lugansk republics to liberate its territories from the fascists and western mercenaries of Kiev junta.
Also, large amounts of weapons and ammunition still finding in the city Debaltsevo and villages around cities Debaltsevo and Uglegorsk.
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Kingdom of Spain
* "SPANISH STATE: Meaning and Scope of the New 'Anti-Terrorist Pacts' "
(2015-02-13, ILC International Newsletter) [First published in Información Obrera, Open Forum of class struggle (excerpts)]:
“On January 30th, a pact 'against djihad terrorism' between the government and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Labour Party) was announced; on February 2nd, it was solemnly signed by Rajoy (P.P. Popular Party) and Pedro Sanchez (PSOE) at La Moncloa (Official headquarters of the president of the government – Ed.N). The pact entails a radical modification of the political struggle in our country.
It is the result of the agreement imposed by Obama's emissary at the January 11th meeting in Paris of the European governments, after the terrorist attack on the editorial board of the weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Two days later in Madrid and without any apparent reason, the government filled the streets with masses of automatic-gun-toting policemen, and the interior and justice ministers made the following announcement:
'The government and the main opposition party have regained the spirit of the anti-terrorist pact signed at the time against the ETA, to commit themselves to decide joint measures to counter the djihadist offensive.'
'In the coming weeks (February), the PP and PSOE parliamentary groups will jointly present a fast-track, organic draft law providing the needed legislative reforms to avert Islamist terrorism and to fight it better '.
[After enumerating the positions of the different 'left' parties which, all of them, one way or another, simply accompany this attempted attack on essential rights under pretext of 'fighting terrorism', the article in Información Obrera adds]:
A resistance movement seeking a different path.
“No media could present the slightest instance that people were embracing this feeling of urgency which seems to be preying on the leaders and compels them to stick to the orientation outlined by Obama and Rajoy 'against terrorism'. And to this day, pressures have not succeeded in making trade union federations join their chorus.
Rather, one can hear dignified voices from the labour movement especially from the PSOE itself. Thus, Mario Salvatierra, a deputy from Madrid of the Socialist Left, published an article in which he noted that, at its congress, the PSOE denounced the institution of life prison sentence and pledged it would do whatever it could to prevent the decision. 'What was the need to accept that? (.) The PSOE cannot be satisfied with the promise that the sentence will be nullified when they come into power. Are they so sure they will be in government that soon and that things will change that fast?'
This 'Socialist Left' official shares the feelings of most socialist activists and members which are undoubtedly voiced in internal meetings (.) The alleged anti-terrorist drive goes hand in hand with the “zero deficit and debt payment” agenda which serves as topmost values threatening democracy and the will of the majority to defend their rights and liberties. Zapatero-Rajoy's article 135 subordinates every single right to paying the debt to bankers. Everything is done to fight terrorism whose outlines are growingly blurred as now it is defined as 'what causes a feeling of terror among the population', 'any form of violent radicalism including expressions of racism, xenophobia or discrimination, motivated by intolerance to diverging opinions'.
Those who today bring 300 strikers to court for alleged attack against workers' rights, may, in the future, brand and jail just anybody as ' a terrorist' to enable capital to continue and drain the life-blood of people and over-exploit them at will.
War within and abroad....
These days, the European Union has announced that it will form crack troops that can be detailed to any place within two days. The excuse is Ukraine and the Islamic State just like Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction were excuses for Bush sr and jr.
Rajoy has offered 4,000 troops to be put in the front line in Eastern Europe. Just as he made Morón the focus of Africom, the US-driven mechanism against the peoples in Maghreb and all over Africa.
The main frontline of this war is domestic: fighting 'terrorism' and fighting 'deficits', fighting democratic liberties and the labour movement.
The objective of the pact is now clear: supporting Rajoy, propping up the collapsing regime, trying to contain and to shatter the workers' and peoples' movements. Never has it been more necessary to defend the independence of the working class's organisations, trade unions and parties, tooth and nail.”
===*===*===
Republic of Romania
* "ROMANIA: Miners and energy workers in the streets of Târgu Jiu" (2015-02-13, ILC International Newsletter)
About a thousand miners and energy workers assembled the 28th and 29th of January 2015 in front of the second headquarters of the Oltenia Energy Complex (CEO) in Târgu Jiu, during the protest meeting organised by the National Mines and Energy Federation (FNME) against CEO management 's intention of lowering wages by about 40%, through getting rid of many bonuses as well as against planned dismissals that are going to take place at the energy complex. These reductions would result in the following:
- Transforming the holiday bonus of 3 860 Lei on average per employee in 2014 (almost 880 Euros) into a holiday coupon of 1 050 Lei per employee (i.e. about 240 Euros);
- Reducing occasional bonuses of 700 Lei to 300 Lei per employee and per event;
- Reducing the fidelity bonus and the career advancement equivalent;
- Cutting by half the transport expenses for employees to and back from the work site;
- Reducing compensatory payment from 16 gross average wages to 10 gross average wages;
- Cutting personnel down to 2 000 employees;
- Eliminating expenses related to combustion quotas;
These measures are going to affect, in different degrees, the 17 000 (about) CEO employees.
Workers demands could also be read on the banners shown during the meeting: among others there were: “No dismissals at CEO !”; “Stop pressure on employees!”; “Stop administration interfering in Unions!”. At the same time they raised these demands the protesters were also asking for the resignation of CEO management especially that of the private Director Laurent Ciurel, resignation of the Ponta government which had named him Director at the Troika's bidding and that of the President of the Gorj County Council, Ion Calinoui. This latter accused protesters of taking to the streets for political reasons.
On another banner the following slogan was written: “ANRE = sabotaging the Rumanian economy”. The ANRE (National Agency for Regulating Energy) is the agency that imposed the buying of these “Green Certificates”, with which the Rumanian State forces “polluting” energy producers, as well as consumers to pay enormous sums to producers of renewable energy sources. In fact, companies and the population are forced to finance the private businesses of certain “ clever fellows”.
In their speeches, union leaders showed that the CEO is close to bankruptcy because of bad administration and of pillaging done under Laurent Ciurel's direction.
The head of the FNME (National Federation of Mines and Energy)) stated to a local newspaper Pandurul: “Laurent Ciurel has changed a model company into a ruin …. We are not going to leave here, next week we are holding a big meeting as long as Ciurel does not leave. That adventurer has satisfied none of the criteria but he has syphoned off money in favour of parties and certain people in Gorj county. We are asking for the resignation of the managing director and management. Otherwise we are going to come out on a general strike”.
He also asked the miners and, energy workers, members of the yellow (scab) Union SMEO (Oltenia Union of Mines and Energy) to quit this union and to rejoin the protesters because that is the only way they will be able to defend their rights and jobs. Following the decisions planned that are going to be taken by the CEO management employees who are going to remain will have a revenue of only 1 000 Lei (about 225 Euros) i.e. the minimum wage.
A worker stated to the same daily: “We have no trailers, no screws, no material in the quarry. We are not safe. They want to get rid of transport to the work site but they do not even ensure our transport within the quarry. We have to walk for hours on end. Or we have weeks with a machine one day, the rest of the time we are on foot”.
The conditions in which mining activity goes on in CEO quarries are difficult to imagine in the 21st century. Transport within the coal quarries is done on foot or with rudimentary means behind tractors or complete traction engines. Once you get to the work site, often after walking hours on end miners are forced to work in mud that is often over their knees. And if that were not enough they have to carry with bare hands, without protection, electric cables that are often high tension. If they refuse or protest they are threatened with dismissal or sometimes with the intervention of vigils.
That is how, during the month of January 2015 alone, because of these work conditions three CEO workers lost their lives. At the end of the meeting their work companions observed a moment of silent homage in their memory.
Without trying to absolve the Ponta government it has to be said that what is happening today within the CEO is a direct result of the anti-labour policies promoted by the Troika (European Commission-IMF-ECB) for whom the Ponat government serves as a lackey. It is along these lines that Constantin Cretan, Union leader affiliated to the “Universe” Federation, to which the yellow SMEO also belongs, made the following statement, insisting on being present at all the meetings. Cretan declared to the newspaper Pandurul: “ It is perhaps the most difficult situation since the Revolution. The guilty ones are the IMF, the World Bank, the EU, the Rumanian government the administration and the political class. Cuts have ben imposed to our rights, won at the price of sacrifices over the years and. We demand a correct collective employment contract where the rights of miners and energy workers are respected”.
The protest continued too the 5th of February with 6 000 trade unionists taking part in the rally.
Even if Rumanian laws forbid labour conflicts during periods of collective bargaining negotiations on employment contracts and even if the same laws impose a minimum functioning of 30% of strategic companies, including energy companies, unions have not excluded the possibility of launching a general strike if the drastic measures wanted by the CEO administration, the Rumanian government, the IMF and the EU are not withdrawn.
Even if, given the history of the FNME, with its roots in the old yellow union headed by Marin Condescu, we can suspect certain union leaders of politician sympathies, workers' problems are real and urgent. The fact that leaders yellow at a given moment, are talking today of a general strike, is a sign that the union movement is still alive even if it is near collapsing. You will say that a flower does not mean Spring, especially if it has not yet flowered. That is true. But it is a sign of ice melting. However what these leaders, with the exception of Constantin Cretan have not yet understood or, what's more serious, are hiding, is Troika implication in the destruction of the Rumanian mining sector. I say that, because the leaders who took to the floor in the rally asked for the intervention of the President Klaus Iohannis, i.e. another of the Troika puppets. The union movement, the labour movement in general have to break with the partisan interests of bourgeois parties which have subjugated employees all over Europe, getting them to pay for the bailing out of the capitalist system inexorably destined to bankruptcy.
So, as it was shouted in the Prefecture Square in Târgu Jiu, UNITY must be achieved on a class basis principle, UNITY against those who sow hunger, war and discord between workers all over the world!
===*===*===
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
February 27th is the day of independence
The Green Charter Committee of the Northbay MDS invites you to learn more about the Sahrawi People: [http://sahrawisolidarity.blogspot.com/]
===*===*===
Republic of Greece
* "Greece and Europe agree to a compromise, avoiding financial catastrophe" (2015-02-20) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/20/greece-and-europe-agree-to-a-compromise-avoiding-financial-catastrophe/] [https://archive.today/3Y0SB]
* "The ECB is preparing for Grexit" (2015-02-20) [http://www.businessinsider.com/ecb-preparation-for-greek-exit-euro-eurozone-grexit-2015-2] [https://archive.today/hQk5Y]
* "Exit from the Monetary Union - A Free Choice by Greece" text [https://archive.today/OMiAb], source [https://archive.today/YiJt3]
===*===*===
Arab Republic of Syria
* "US and Turkey agree to train, equip Syrian rebels against ISIS" (2015-02-20) [http://rt.com/news/233927-us-turkey-train-equip-rebels/] [https://archive.today/X96jk]
===*===*===
Rojava (Western Kurdistan)
* "ANARCHY IN ROJAVA: A LIBERTARIAN REVOLUTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST" [http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2015/02/21/anarchy-rojava-libertarian-revolution-middle-east/]:
In this sedition, we look at the fierce men and women, who have been fighting the head chopping Islamists of I.S.I.S. to create libertarian commune along the border between Syria, Iraq and Turkey [https://archive.today/7Csgg]. On the music break we have Kurdish rapper Rezan with “Em Kurdin” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWwqeBLhdBI]. State of Israel
* "AIPAC: Netanyahu’s Silent Partner" (2015-02-19) [http://www.newsweek.com/aipac-netanyahu-obama-308030] [https://archive.today/9ux5t] [begin excerpt]: Challenging Obama’s Iran policy has been a familiar theme for AIPAC. For several years now, the lobby has emphasized the dangers of those talks at its meetings with lawmakers, annual conferences and fund-raising campaigns, faithfully echoing the views of Netanyahu and other hawkish Israeli officials. But as the Israeli leader prepares to ask Congress to tighten sanctions against Iran despite Obama’s pleas to give his diplomacy a chance, AIPAC finds itself caught in a difficult position. Republicans want the lobby to use its clout on Capitol Hill to defend Netanyahu, but the White House is pressuring the group not to put Israel’s interests ahead of America’s. [end excerpt]
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Monetary contributions to members of the USA Federal Congress, as of 2015-02-23 [https://archive.today/Dl5dC], and the foreign policy measures those members receiving monetary contributions voted for [https://archive.today/RdpqZ]
---
* "(Democrat Party National Chair) Wasserman Schultz Reportedly Wanted to Paint Obama as ‘Anti-Woman,’ ‘Anti-Semitic’ If Ousted" (2015-02-22) [http://www.mediaite.com/online/report-dws-wanted-to-paint-obama-as-anti-woman-and-anti-semitic-if-ousted-as-dnc-chair/] [https://archive.today/SBXay] [begin excerpt]: Buried inside a Politico report about Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz‘s (D-FL) future aspirations was an interesting revelation: “When [Wasserman Schultz] sensed Obama was considering replacing her as chair in 2013, she began to line up supporters to suggest the move was both anti-woman and anti-Semitic.” [end excerpt]
* "Senate bid could be solution for Wasserman Schultz" (2015-02-20) [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/senate-bid-could-be-solution-for-wasserman-schultz-115373.html] [https://archive.today/2cZn0]
* "DNC’s Wasserman-Schultz Blasts MSNBC for Biased Israel Coverage in Leaked Audio" (2015-01-31) [http://www.mediaite.com/online/dncs-wasserman-schultz-blasts-msnbc-for-biased-israel-coverage-in-leaked-audio] [https://archive.today/IRJ3L] [begin excerpt]:
Wasserman-Schultz spoke to the group about the important of organizations like the Jewish Federation, especially with the “rise of anti-Semitism and global intolerance,” citing the terror attacks in Paris as a recent example.She went on to say that before she arrived at the event, she was watching a segment on MSNBC that presented a “panoramic view of the results of the war in Gaza” from a “Palestinian perspective.” “Clearly they were highlighting what is Israel had done to Gaza and the plight to Palestinians, and my first thought was, ‘Where is the balance? Where is the spotlight on what Jewish children in Israel go through from being victims of rocket attacks?’” she continued. Wasserman-Schultz lamented a bias that she’s seen not just on MSNBC but also on CNN and the broadcast networks as well.
[end excerpt]
---
Roseanne Barr openly advocates for the bombing of UC Davis because their student council passed a resolution to divest from investments in the State of Israel in protest of systematic human-rights abuse by that government even against their own Citizens. The resolution has since been rescinded, see "UC Davis Divestment overturned" (2015-01-19) [https://archive.today/hj9CJ], and [https://archive.today/pq6OD]. Barr was scheduled to speak Feb 17th at the ''Israel and me'' forum at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley [https://archive.today/nSQLf]. According to the website titled "Pro Israel Bay Bloggers", her major theme was to be denouncing groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (whose Jewish members have been attacked numerous times in the USA by terrorists aligned with Israel). However, according to various news reports, Barr's appearance was canceled. While Barr claimed she was canceled because of unspecified "threats", it turned out that the Magnes Museum's management (where she was scheduled to speak) was presented with a Petition calling to cancel the event because of Barr's advocacy for the bombing of UC Davis!
===*===*===
Islamic Republic of Iran
* "Iran nuclear talks: US accuses Israel of 'leaks' " (2015-02-19) [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31538531] [https://archive.today/RT8fa]
* "CIA-planted ‘evidence’ may force IAEA review of Iran’s alleged nuke arms program – report" (2015-02-21) [http://rt.com/news/234271-cia-nuclear-evidence-iran-iaea/] [https://archive.today/bHwNE]
===*===*===
Republic of Nepal
* "NEPAL’S DIRTY LITTLE WAR: COUNTERINSURGENCY AND THE FALL OF A HINDU KING" (2015-02-23) [http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/nepals-dirty-little-war-counterinsurgency-and-the-fall-of-a-hindu-king/?singlepage=1] [https://archive.today/Rj8Pm]
* "Maoists revive YCL" (2015-02-24) [http://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/02/24/maoists-revive-ycl/] [https://archive.today/HkJAp]
* "22-party alliance to form new Nepal government" (2009-05-17) [https://archive.today/wmcgX]
===*===*===
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* "China: The Suppression of the Left, End of the Revolutionary Mao Era" (1977) book cover [https://archive.today/QhOiG], book text [https://archive.today/5C0oJ]
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What is happening in Ukraine has happened before. This video describes how and why it all happened back then, and its relation to what is happening now in Donbas, needs to be seen i think.
* "Truth About NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia 1999" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XJL5x-Xq6c], A retired Brigadier-General Pierre Marie Gallois of French army testifies in the front of a camera of his involvment in a secret meetings held in Germany.
---
Historical context from Dr Eric Zeusse (2014-06-07) [https://archive.today/D9Fri]:
The only thing that’s additionally needed, in order for a reader to be able to understand the origin of Cold War II, is a 12-page article by Mary Elise Sarotte, published in the January 2010 journal of The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Diplomatic History, which is titled, “Not One Inch Eastward? Bush, Baker, Kohl, Genscher, Gorbachev, and the Origin of Russian Resentment toward NATO Enlargement in February 1990" [http://www.scribd.com/doc/166123009/Not-One-Inch-Eastward#download].
Sarotte describes there how the then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, desperate to end the Cold War so that his nation could begin recovering from 70 years of Marxism that had followed upon centuries of feudalism, tried his best to get U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush to not take advantage of the economic and increasingly also military weakness of Russia — not to expand NATO and U.S. missile-bases into the formerly Soviet nations bordering Russia: Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. He also didn’t want missiles in nearby-but-not-adjoining Norway, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Germany.
However, he was especially urgently concerned about Germany, because the Berlin Wall had just fallen, on the evening of 9 November 1989; so, Russia was certainly going to be losing its former control of Eastern Germany. Since Gorbachev was the supplicant here, he left only till the very end of the negotiations the broader, less-urgent, issue of non-expansion of NATO and of NATO missiles into other former-Soviet states adjoining the ones adjoining Russia.
Almost the entirety of the negotiations until the very end concerned Germany, because the immediate crisis was that. At first, West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl was sympathetic to Gorbachev’s broader security concern; but, “in the course of the Camp David meeting at the end of February he came to agree with the Bush position: simply a special military status for the GDR [German Democratic Republic — East Germany — no missiles there, but] not general assurances about NATO’s territory [her euphemism for NATO’s enlargement to Russia’s doorstep]. The chancellor agreed with the president despite the fact that this was not what he had discussed with Gorbachev two weeks earlier [her euphemism for the probability that Kohl switched his position on that issue after further consultations with his American master].” Kohl was directly dependent upon assistance from the U.S. aristocracy (to be paid for by the U.S. taxpaying public, not by the aristocrats who actually control the government), in order for West Germany to be able to absorb the wrecked economy of East Germany without enserfing the East Germans to such an extreme extent that a German civil war would be the ultimate outcome. The senior Bush, apparently, demanded that Kohl comply with his aim to expand NATO, up to Russia’s doorstep. [end excerpt]
* "How and Why the U.S. Has Re-Started the Cold War (The Backstory that Precipitated Ukraine’s Civil War)" (2014-06-03) [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/06/u-s-re-started-cold-war-backstory-precipitated-ukraines-civil-war.html] [https://archive.today/rmLHI] [begin excerpt]:
When the Cold War ended, in 1990, Russia was in a very weak position, no real threat at all (except for nuclear weapons, but the nuclear rivalry had been greatly reduced via arms-control agreements). Communism was proven to have failed as an economic system, and this failure of communism had left a former U.S.S.R. that was decayed and unproductive. The Russian people were in misery. Alcoholism, which was historically a huge problem among Russian men, and which kept Russia’s overall life-expectancy figures remarkably low, was rampant [https://archive.today/4mkYp]. Here, courtesy of Trading Economics [https://archive.today/ZSXRh], is a chart showing the longevity of Russian men (the main victims of alcoholism), during the period from 1980 to 2010 (Russia’s transition out of communism, and into capitalism):
As you can see, there was a burst of progress at the end, right before 1986, when the fading regime merely relaxed controls (while it started a campaign against alcohol-consumption [https://archive.today/0kaJg]) and didn’t go into capitalism, but this progress mildly reversed during the reign of the liberal Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985-1991, and it sharply plunged during 1991-1994, which was the period of the libertarian Boris Yeltsin’s privatization of Russian industries. Russia’s climb-back, after that libertarian surge, was brief, ending in 1998, and Russia still hasn’t yet improved itself beyond the Soviet era. Communism had certainly failed there, but capitalism also failed there — or at least the capitalism that Russia tried did, and this capitalism was designed for them by the Harvard economics department, the capitalist world’s dominant economics department: it was mainstream economic theory being put into practice in a non-capitalist economy, capitalist theory being introduced where there had been no capitalism before. The same economic theory that a decade later would produce the 2008 global economic crash was being applied in Russia during 1991-1998, and it did not get Russia out of the doldrums. Though the 70-year Marxist experiment had definitely failed, Russia is still crippled by what Harvard designed and largely implemented in Russia to replace it. Since 2004 at the latest, Russia has been recovering from that form of “capitalism,” Harvard-economics capitalism, mainstream-economics capitalism.
If you want to understand why Russia was hobbled during 1990-1998, that’s explained in two excellent articles, one (brief) from Mark Ames in November 2008 titled variously “The Summers Conundrum” [https://archive.today/rrm1i] and “Larry Summers: A Suicidal Choice” [https://archive.today/vB034] (that latter referring to Obama’s committing his Administration to suicide by appointing Summers to lead Obama’s economic team), and the other (very lengthy) from David McClintick in February 2006, titled “How Harvard lost Russia” [https://archive.today/hTaEk]. Basically, it’s the story of how Harvard’s leading economists engineered the creation of Russia’s kleptocracy, or fascism, and how it hurt Russia. Russia’s switch to fascist or “crony” capitalism (the thing that Mark Ames feared then from Obama) was planned and masterminded first by Jeffrey Sachs in 1990-1991 [https://archive.today/FSnUh], then by the Russian-born Harvardian Andrei Shleifer in 1991-1997 [https://archive.today/Bo0M9], who was the protégé of Lawrence Summers, who had been the protégé of Martin Feldstein, who had been the Chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors, at the time (the 1980s) when “Greed is good” first became publicly and proudly the Republican Party’s ideology (subsequently to be championed with such phrases as, “Drill, baby, drill!”). Feldstein-clone Summers sent his man Shleifer, a native Russian-speaker, into Russia, during 1991, to take over the process from his previous man Jeffrey Sachs, who had introduced economic “shock therapy” in Poland the prior year, in 1990, and then run it for a year in Russia. Sachs and then Shleifer applied to Russia the “greed-is-good” economic theory that’s taught worldwide under the aegis of Adam Smith’s beneficent “invisible hand,” and that in the U.S. dominates the Republican Party, both ideologically and in practice, and that dominates the Democratic Party only at its very top. [end excerpt]
Historical context from Dr Eric Zeusse (2014-06-07) [https://archive.today/D9Fri]:
The only thing that’s additionally needed, in order for a reader to be able to understand the origin of Cold War II, is a 12-page article by Mary Elise Sarotte, published in the January 2010 journal of The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Diplomatic History, which is titled, “Not One Inch Eastward? Bush, Baker, Kohl, Genscher, Gorbachev, and the Origin of Russian Resentment toward NATO Enlargement in February 1990" [http://www.scribd.com/doc/166123009/Not-One-Inch-Eastward#download].
Sarotte describes there how the then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, desperate to end the Cold War so that his nation could begin recovering from 70 years of Marxism that had followed upon centuries of feudalism, tried his best to get U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush to not take advantage of the economic and increasingly also military weakness of Russia — not to expand NATO and U.S. missile-bases into the formerly Soviet nations bordering Russia: Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. He also didn’t want missiles in nearby-but-not-adjoining Norway, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Germany.
However, he was especially urgently concerned about Germany, because the Berlin Wall had just fallen, on the evening of 9 November 1989; so, Russia was certainly going to be losing its former control of Eastern Germany. Since Gorbachev was the supplicant here, he left only till the very end of the negotiations the broader, less-urgent, issue of non-expansion of NATO and of NATO missiles into other former-Soviet states adjoining the ones adjoining Russia.
Almost the entirety of the negotiations until the very end concerned Germany, because the immediate crisis was that. At first, West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl was sympathetic to Gorbachev’s broader security concern; but, “in the course of the Camp David meeting at the end of February he came to agree with the Bush position: simply a special military status for the GDR [German Democratic Republic — East Germany — no missiles there, but] not general assurances about NATO’s territory [her euphemism for NATO’s enlargement to Russia’s doorstep]. The chancellor agreed with the president despite the fact that this was not what he had discussed with Gorbachev two weeks earlier [her euphemism for the probability that Kohl switched his position on that issue after further consultations with his American master].” Kohl was directly dependent upon assistance from the U.S. aristocracy (to be paid for by the U.S. taxpaying public, not by the aristocrats who actually control the government), in order for West Germany to be able to absorb the wrecked economy of East Germany without enserfing the East Germans to such an extreme extent that a German civil war would be the ultimate outcome. The senior Bush, apparently, demanded that Kohl comply with his aim to expand NATO, up to Russia’s doorstep. [end excerpt]
* "How and Why the U.S. Has Re-Started the Cold War (The Backstory that Precipitated Ukraine’s Civil War)" (2014-06-03) [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/06/u-s-re-started-cold-war-backstory-precipitated-ukraines-civil-war.html] [https://archive.today/rmLHI] [begin excerpt]:
When the Cold War ended, in 1990, Russia was in a very weak position, no real threat at all (except for nuclear weapons, but the nuclear rivalry had been greatly reduced via arms-control agreements). Communism was proven to have failed as an economic system, and this failure of communism had left a former U.S.S.R. that was decayed and unproductive. The Russian people were in misery. Alcoholism, which was historically a huge problem among Russian men, and which kept Russia’s overall life-expectancy figures remarkably low, was rampant [https://archive.today/4mkYp]. Here, courtesy of Trading Economics [https://archive.today/ZSXRh], is a chart showing the longevity of Russian men (the main victims of alcoholism), during the period from 1980 to 2010 (Russia’s transition out of communism, and into capitalism):
As you can see, there was a burst of progress at the end, right before 1986, when the fading regime merely relaxed controls (while it started a campaign against alcohol-consumption [https://archive.today/0kaJg]) and didn’t go into capitalism, but this progress mildly reversed during the reign of the liberal Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985-1991, and it sharply plunged during 1991-1994, which was the period of the libertarian Boris Yeltsin’s privatization of Russian industries. Russia’s climb-back, after that libertarian surge, was brief, ending in 1998, and Russia still hasn’t yet improved itself beyond the Soviet era. Communism had certainly failed there, but capitalism also failed there — or at least the capitalism that Russia tried did, and this capitalism was designed for them by the Harvard economics department, the capitalist world’s dominant economics department: it was mainstream economic theory being put into practice in a non-capitalist economy, capitalist theory being introduced where there had been no capitalism before. The same economic theory that a decade later would produce the 2008 global economic crash was being applied in Russia during 1991-1998, and it did not get Russia out of the doldrums. Though the 70-year Marxist experiment had definitely failed, Russia is still crippled by what Harvard designed and largely implemented in Russia to replace it. Since 2004 at the latest, Russia has been recovering from that form of “capitalism,” Harvard-economics capitalism, mainstream-economics capitalism.
If you want to understand why Russia was hobbled during 1990-1998, that’s explained in two excellent articles, one (brief) from Mark Ames in November 2008 titled variously “The Summers Conundrum” [https://archive.today/rrm1i] and “Larry Summers: A Suicidal Choice” [https://archive.today/vB034] (that latter referring to Obama’s committing his Administration to suicide by appointing Summers to lead Obama’s economic team), and the other (very lengthy) from David McClintick in February 2006, titled “How Harvard lost Russia” [https://archive.today/hTaEk]. Basically, it’s the story of how Harvard’s leading economists engineered the creation of Russia’s kleptocracy, or fascism, and how it hurt Russia. Russia’s switch to fascist or “crony” capitalism (the thing that Mark Ames feared then from Obama) was planned and masterminded first by Jeffrey Sachs in 1990-1991 [https://archive.today/FSnUh], then by the Russian-born Harvardian Andrei Shleifer in 1991-1997 [https://archive.today/Bo0M9], who was the protégé of Lawrence Summers, who had been the protégé of Martin Feldstein, who had been the Chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors, at the time (the 1980s) when “Greed is good” first became publicly and proudly the Republican Party’s ideology (subsequently to be championed with such phrases as, “Drill, baby, drill!”). Feldstein-clone Summers sent his man Shleifer, a native Russian-speaker, into Russia, during 1991, to take over the process from his previous man Jeffrey Sachs, who had introduced economic “shock therapy” in Poland the prior year, in 1990, and then run it for a year in Russia. Sachs and then Shleifer applied to Russia the “greed-is-good” economic theory that’s taught worldwide under the aegis of Adam Smith’s beneficent “invisible hand,” and that in the U.S. dominates the Republican Party, both ideologically and in practice, and that dominates the Democratic Party only at its very top. [end excerpt]
