Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.
From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.
One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.
MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.
Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.
Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.
Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.
He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml
Iran offers to train and equip Sudan's army
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article19840
Iran offers to train and equip Sudan's army
Saturday 20 January 2007 04:30.
Jan 19, 2007 (NICOSIA) --- Teheran has discussed weapons sales to and
training for Khartoum's military and security forces. They said Sudan
has sought to bolster its military to quell rebellion in Darfour.
"There is strong interest in acquiring Iranian missiles, RPGs, UAVs and
other equipment," an Iranian source said, referring to rocket-propelled
grenades and unmanned aerial vehicles.
On Jan. 17, Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Hussein concluded a
visit to Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. Hussein met his Iranian
counterpart, Mustafa Najar and discussed arms procurement.
"I have visited Iran's defense industry and facilities, and I have
noticed that Iran has gained advanced levels of technology which made
me
glad," Hussein said.
Since 2005, Iran has been marketing defense products to Africa and
other
regions. Iranian defense exports were reported as exceeding $100
million
in 2006 and delivered to clients in 52 countries.
For his part, Najar said Iran and Sudan plan to bolster defense
cooperation. He did not elaborate.
http://us.f532.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?Idx=74&Search=&YY=31492&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=1
Nigerian media boss faces terror charges
http://www.afrol.com/articles/23891
Nigerian media boss faces terror charges
afrol News, 17 January - The director of Media Trust Limited, Alhaji
Bello Damagum, has been charged with receiving funds from al-Qaeda to
bankroll terror activities in Nigeria. Mr Damagum was accused of
receiving US$ 300,000 from an al-Qaeda branch in Sudan, principally to
fund the operations of Nigerian terrorists.
He was also accused of sponsoring Nigerians' stay in alleged terror
camps in Mauritania. The Abuja court was told that Mr Damagum had
deposited al-Qaeda funds in a UK bank.
State prosecutors said prior to his arrest and detention, the media
chief had donated a minibus and a public address system to Islamists so
that they spread extremism in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno State.
Mr Damagum denied all the charges brought against him at the Abuja High
Court. But the court ordered that his international travel documents be
seized so that he does escape jurisdiction.
Alhaji Damagum was arrested by the agents of the State Security Service
(SSS) at his Yobe State residence on 24 December 2006. He spent 12 days
in custody before finally being released on bail.
"Since I was arrested I was not taken to court, there were no charges
against me and they questioned me only for about three hours," Mr
Damagum said after his release, adding, "I was only asked about my bank
account and company."
He said he was denied contact with his family and also refused access
to
his special foods. "I am an ulcer patient," Mr Damagum added.
His friend, Mallam Kasimu Abdullahi, said 15 SSS officers stormed the
house of Mr Damagum while he was reciting the Quran. "They searched his
house for close to an hour and later called me to witness what they
were
taking with them," he said.
"They went away with his personal diary, tabletop computer, laptop
computer, some videocassettes and some of his documents."
Mr Damagum had previously been arrested in 2004 in connection with
terrorism charges. He was arrested after what has been described as a
"Taleban clash" in Yobe. On 21 June, Mr Damagum was arrested for
offering scholarships to Nigerian students in Mauritania.
Mauritanian government officials have several times denied the
existence
of al-Qaeda groups or camps in their country. No terror acts have so
far
occurred in Mauritania.
The Damagum family had sued the federal government over "unlawful
detention of Alhaji Damagum and unlawful search of his residence."
© afrol News
Google Alert - explosion
Arrests made in Scugog Township house explosion
CTV.ca - Scarborough,ON,Canada
Police have charged three men and are looking for a fourth in their
investigation of a home that exploded in Scugog Township north of Port Perry, Ont. ...
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20070119/scugog_house_explosion_070119/20070119?hub=TorontoHome
Inspector Killed in Claymore Mine Explosion
Sri Lanka Army - Colombo,Sri Lanka
Due to the explosion one inspector was killed and there others were
injured
including a home guard. The injured were airlifted to the AMPARA
hospital.
...
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=3977
Explosion, fire rip shop; owner dies
Chicago Tribune - Chicago,IL,USA
Kipnis, 40, of Lake Zurich was killed in the fire, which followed an
explosion at the shop, 502 E. Northwest Highway, according to one of
the
men, ...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearnorthwest/chi-0701190219jan19,1,725506.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearnorthwest-hed
Service honours those lost in mine explosion
Stuff.co.nz - Wellington,New Zealand
Ellen Hardie was sitting in a Greymouth cafe 40 years ago when she
heard an
explosion had ripped through the Strongman Mine, where her father
Ernest
Smith ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/3934048a11.html
BP failed to emphasize safety at US plants before deadly explosion ...
Leesville Daily Leader - Leesville,LA,USA
HOUSTON (AP) - British oil company BP failed to emphasize safety at its
US
refineries before the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15,
according
to a ...
http://www.leesvilledailyleader.com/articles/2007/01/19/news/news6.txt
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&hl=en&client=google&ncl=1112701928
Oilfield company guilty in explosion (11:45 am)
Edmonton Journal (subscription) - Edmonton,Alberta,Canada
An Edmonton oilfield service company has been found guilty of a charge
of
failing to ensure the safety of its employees in a March 16, 2003,
explosion near ...
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=96788d0b-6b16-4644-964a-b14779e34a26&k=0
A true grenade with an explosion of scarlet
Telegraph.co.uk - London,England,UK
It was a pomegranate that tempted Persephone in the Underworld, and by
eating just four seeds she condemned herself to spending four months a
year
in hell. ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2007/01/20/edxanthe120.xml
2 people injured in an explosion in India's NE Assam
Islamic Republic News Agency - Tehran,Iran
Two people were injured Friday in an explosion at a market in India's
restive northeastern state of Assam, the second blast in two days,
officials said. ...
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0701197701183821.htm
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&hl=en&client=google&ncl=1112838812
Explosion at hostel
Cheshunt Mercury - UK
A HUGE explosion ripped through a hostel in a residential Cheshunt
street
on Wednesday evening, scattering debris as bay windows blew out and
flames
leapt ...
http://www.hertsessexnews.co.uk/news/mercury/cheshunt_mercury/2007/01/19/explosion%20at%20hostel.lpf
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&hl=en&client=google&ncl=1112825308
Creating a Planet Shockwave Explosion in Space
This tutorial will teach you how to create an animation of of a planet
shockwave
explosion in outer space.
http://www.totaltutorial.com/show-tutorial/3727/creating-a-planet-shockwave-explosion-in-space/
Latest Tutorials
http://www.totaltutorial.com/
Claymore mine explosion kills one and injure four others -Ampara
A Special Task Force IP(Inspector of Police) was killed while, four
others received
injuries in a LTTE triggered claymore mine explosion at Rathnelum
Pokuna area,
Ampara, on Friday the 19th of January at 11.00am.
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070119_10
Ministry of Defence - Sri Lanka (MOD)
http://www.defence.lk
Campbell River Family Survives Explosion
But lose everything in fire.
http://www.achannel.ca/victoria/news_39710.aspx
A-Channel News Victoria
http://www.achannel.ca/victoria/
Birdbrains: Finch explosion, decline a cautionary tale
Birbrains is a weekly update of bird-watching news from the around
Vermont,
compiled by the staff of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070119/LIVING/701190303/-1/rss
.com -
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com
water explosion
By Laures
water explosionMovement of water is frozen by means of flash.
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2715520&source=rsslatestimages
iStockphoto.com - Newest Uploads
http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php?view=full
Pentagon Details Rules For Terror Trials
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/18/terror/main2371840.shtml
Pentagon Details Rules For Terror Trials
Manual Says Detainees Can Be Convicted And Executed Based On Hearsay
And
Coerced Testimony
(CBS/AP) The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials
that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay
evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.
According to a copy of the manual obtained by The Associated Press, a
terror suspect's defense lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence in
the
person's defense until the government has a chance to review it.
The manual, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday and scheduled to be
released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last
fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special
military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had
been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.
The Pentagon manual could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush
administration and Congress --- now led by Democrats --- over the
treatment
of the nation's terrorism suspects.
Last September, Congress --- then led by Republicans --- sent Mr. Bush
a
bill granting wide latitude in interrogating and detaining captured
enemy combatants. The legislation also prohibited some of the worst
abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but granted the president
leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible.
Passage of the bill, which was backed by the White House, followed more
than three months of debate that included angry rebukes by Democrats of
the administration's interrogation policies, and a short-lived
rebellion
by some Republican senators.
The Detainee Treatment Act, separate legislation championed in 2005 by
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., prohibited the use of cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment of military and CIA prisoners. It was approved
overwhelmingly by Congress despite a veto threat by Mr. Bush, who
eventually signed it into law.
The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants --- the
Bush administration's term for many of the terrorism suspects captured
on the battlefield --- "are prosecuted before regularly constituted
courts
affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized
people," according to the document.
As required by law, the manual prohibits statements obtained by torture
and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as prohibited by the
Constitution.
However, the law does allow statements obtained through coercive
interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed
reliable by a judge.
"None of this is automatic," cautions CBS News legal analyst Andrew
Cohen. "A military judge subject to appeal by civilian courts has to
determine in advance that the hearsay or coerced testimony is reliable
enough to be used. And in some cases no doubt it will not be used. And
in some cases even if it is used it may not result in a capital
sentence. And the whole plan could be scuttled by the new Congress or
the Supreme Court."
Nearly 400 detainees suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban are
still being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
while about 380 others have been transferred or released. The Defense
Department is currently planning trials for at least 10 suspects.
Democrats have said they would like to revisit detainee legislation and
address concerns that the bill gives the president too much latitude
interpreting standards set by the Geneva Conventions on prisoner
treatment --- and may deny detainees legal rights.
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee,
said he planned to scrutinize the manual to ensure that it does not
"run
afoul" of the Constitution.
"I have not yet seen evidence that the process by which these rules
were
built or their substance addresses all the questions left open by the
legislation. This committee will fulfill its oversight responsibility
to
make sure this is the case," Skelton said in a written statement.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and some Democrats have said the legislation
will be shot down by the courts as unconstitutional because it bars
detainees from protesting their detentions. Under the law, only
individuals selected for military trial are given access to a lawyer
and
judge; other military detainees can be held until hostilities cease.
Concern over China's missile test
China is facing international criticism over a weapons test it reportedly carried out in space last week.
Japan has expressed concern, as have the US and Australia.
It is thought that the Chinese used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite that had been launched in 1999.
Correspondents say this is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years. China's foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.
While the technology is not new, it does underline the growing capabilities of China's armed forces, according to the BBC's Dan Griffiths in Beijing.
Space arms race?
Late on Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe confirmed an article in the magazine American Aviation Week and Space Technology, which reported that the test had taken place.
What we don't want to see is some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space
Alexander Downer
Australian Foreign Minister
The report said that a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite was destroyed by an anti-satellite system launched from or near China's Xichang Space Centre on 11 January.
The test is thought to have occurred at more than 537 miles (865km) above the Earth.
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: "I can't say anything about the reports. I really don't know."
But he added: "China advocates the peaceful use of space and opposes the weaponisation of space, and also opposes any form of arms race."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had asked China for an explanation and said nations "must use space peacefully".
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Beijing should have given Tokyo advance notice.
CHINA IN SPACE
China first launched a manned space mission in 2003 - the third nation to do so after the US and Russia
Chinese astronauts aim to perform a spacewalk as early as next year
Until now, the US and Russia have been the only nations to shoot down space objects
China insists its space programme is of no threat, but other nations are wary
China says it spends $500m on space projects. NASA is due to spend $17bn in 2007
Mr Johndroe said the US "believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area".
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia did not want to see "some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space".
There are already growing international concerns about China's rising military power.
While Beijing keeps its defence spending a closely-guarded secret, analysts suggest that it has grown rapidly in recent years.
Space debris
The test, if confirmed, would mean that China could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.
It would be the first such test since the 1980s, when both the US and the Soviet Union destroyed satellites in space.
These tests were halted over concerns that the debris they produced could harm civilian and military satellite operations.
The same concerns have been raised about this latest reported test.
American Aviation Week and Space Technology said the move could have left "considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites".
While the US may be unhappy about China's actions, the Washington administration has recently opposed international calls to end such tests.
It revised US space policy last October to state that Washington had the right to freedom of action in space, and the US is known to be researching such "satellite-killing" weapons itself.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6276543.stm
Published: 2007/01/19 15:12:27 GMT
© BBC MMVII
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=26509
Symposium: From Russia With Death
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 19, 2007
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As the British investigation ensues into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, fingers of blame point at President Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko himself accused Putin of killing him before he died. The Russian President, meanwhile, is casting blame on Russian London exiles, including billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky, for Litvinenko’s murder.
These horrid events were preceded by the murder of Russian journalist and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya. Meanwhile, the doctors who are treating Yegor Gaidar, former Russian prime minister and Putin critic, believe he was poisoned.
While Putin remains the primary suspect behind the Litvinenko murder, there is talk of a larger conspiracy that aims to discredit the Russian President.
How do we make sense out of all these disturbing and mysterious events? Who killed Litvinenko? What danger did he pose to Putin? Who profits most from this former spy’s murder? And how nasty has the Putin government become? How far is it willing to go to resuscitate Stalinist tactics? And if Putin turns out to have murdered Litvinenko, a British citizen, on British soil, what must Britain -- and all Western governments -- do?
To discuss all of these events with us, Frontpage Symposium has assembled a distinguished panel. Our guests are:
Oleg Kalugin, a retired Major General of the Soviet KGB.
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Richard Pipes, a Professor Emeritus at Harvard who is one of the world's leading authorities on Soviet history. He is the author of 19 books, the most recent being his new autobiography Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger.
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Vladimir Bukovsky, a former leading Soviet dissident who spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals for his fight for freedom. His works include To Build a Castle and Judgement in Moscow.
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Jim Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993-95 and a former Navy undersecretary and arms-control negotiator.
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Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former acting chief of Communist Romania’s espionage service. He is the highest ranking official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc. He is author of Red Horizons, republished in 27 countries. In 1989, Ceausescu and his wife were executed at the end of a trial where most of the accusations had come word-for-word out of Pacepa's book.
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David Satter, a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is the author of Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State.
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Yuri Yarim-Agaev, a former leading Russian dissident and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Upon arriving in the United States after his forced exile from the Soviet Union, he headed the New York-based Center for Democracy in the USSR.
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and
Andrei Piontkovsky, a member of International PEN-club, currently a Hudson Institute Visiting Fellow and author of Another Look into Putin’s Soul (Hudson.2006).
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FP: Oleg Kalugin, Richard Pipes, Vladimir Bukovsky, Jim Woolsey, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, David Satter, Yuri Yarim-Agaev and Andrei Piontkovsky, welcome to Frontpage Symposium.
Before we begin, I would like to dedicate this symposium to Alexander Litvinenko and to his family.
Let’s have a moment of silence for Alexander Litvinenko and his loved ones.
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(moment of silence)
Thank you gentlemen.
Oleg Kalugin, let’s begin with you.
What do you make of Litvinenko’s murder and its fallout?
Kalugin: Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated by the Russian security service, and president Putin bears full responsibility for this crime, irrespective of whether he ordered the execution or simply let his subordinate thugs to do the job.
Ever since Mr. Putin took over as chief of the federal security service in 1998 and later moved to the Kremlin as president of the country, scores of his prominent critics in Russian legislature, business and the media were killed or jailed. The civilized world is facing a growing power of the authoritarian state which, if unchecked, may degenerate into a fascist dictatorship and pose threat to all freedom loving nations and peace on earth.
FP: Thank you Mr. Kalugin. Well, if I ever received an unambiguous answer to one of my questions, this is definitely one of them.
Vladimir Bukovsky, are you on the same page with Mr. Kalugin?
Bukovsky: Yes, I agree with Gen. Kalugin.
I am an analyst, not a policeman, so I don't follow the current lines of Scotland Yard's investigation, and, frankly, I don't believe they will catch any murderer. But the general picture is pretty clear to me.
Consider this: in July of this year, the Russian Duma passed a law authorizing the Russian President to use secret services as "death squads" in order to eliminate "extremists" -- even on the foreign territory (Federal Law of 27 July 2006 N 153-F3).
At the same time, the Duma amended another law, expanding the definition of "extremism" to include anyone "libellously" critical of the current Russian regime (Federal Law of 27 July 2006 N 148-F3).
Thus, as we warned in a letter to the Times on July 11 (together with Oleg Gordievsky):
"a stage is set for any critic of Putin's regime here, especially those campaigning against Russian genocide in Chechnya, to have an appointment with a poison-tipped umbrella. According to the statement by the RF Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, the black list of potential targets is already composed."
Then followed the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko. The question is: why would the Russian authorities rush through these laws if they had no intention of implementing them? The ball, therefore, is now in the Russian court: they have to prove to us that they did not do it.
FP: Sergei Kirov’s murder, Trotsky’s murder . . .the current events appear to be an eerie rendezvous with history, almost as if the Soviet purges are being resuscitated. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but the ghosts of the Stalinist terror are definitely lurking in the shadows.
Dr. Pipes?
Pipes: The affair is very murky but all indications are that Moscow ordered the murder of Litvinenko as it did that of Politkovskaya. They fit a pattern. If it were true, as Moscow claims, that the murder was committed by its enemies in order to discredit Russia, we would have seen far more activity on Russia's part to discover the culprit or culprits.
In reality, Moscow treats the killing (by its alleged enemies) rather nonchalantly. At this stage all I can say with certainty is that if it turns out that the order for the killing of Litvinenko emanated from the Kremlin, then Russia and the rest of the world face an appalling prospect of this vast country turning once again to gangster methods of dealing with its opposition.
FP: I fear that the Putin regime is searching for the killers like O.J. Simpson has been trying to track down the murderers of his wife.
David Satter, what’s your take on the Litvinenko murder and its significance? And kindly also shed some light for us on who exactly Litvinenko was and to whom he posed a danger. Who profits most from his death? Why? What knowledge did he have, what behaviour was he engaged in that posed a threat to Putin – or to someone else?
Satter: I also am convinced that Litvinenko was murdered by the Russian intelligence service. No one else had both the motive and the means. Litvinenko was not only murdered. He was tortured to death. This is a message to his colleagues in the FSB about the cost of defecting.
Litvinenko was highly unusual because he not only refused to participate in the planned murder of Boris Berezovsky but took the risk of announcing the plot publicly. He represented some danger to the FSB although not a great one because his former colleagues could bring him information.
I think the reason he was killed is either that the regime wanted to get rid of him and now thinks it can ignore the West totally or there is a power struggle going on and the more fascistic faction in the leadership is using these murders as part of its bid for power.
FP: Thank you David Satter.
While I would like the rest of the panel to also offer their perspective on the how and why here, I would also like to expand the discussion into the realm of why these fascistic and Stalinist strains continue to dominate Russian politics even despite the fall of communism. Is it because communism actually never even fell? After all, there was never a de-communization process in the same sense that there was a de-Nazification process in Germany after the Second World War. There were no Nuremberg-style trials in the former Soviet Union. In many ways, the same ideology and the same criminals remain in power, but just under another name.
Or is there also something larger than the continuation of Soviet communism here? Is it Russia’s traditional inability to embrace democracy and individual liberty, and its addiction to firm and brutal despotism? If so, how come the country can’t shake off this dreadful ghost?
And when David Satter raises the possibility that Putin might now be able to “ignore the West totally” what does it mean? Have we become helpless in being able to apply pressure on Russia? Why? Why does Putin feel he can do whatever he wants without a fear of the West -- if this is the case?
I apologize if there are too many loaded questions here. Just provoking a bit of discussion to give the Litvinenko murder some context.
Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa?
Pacepa: Assassinating anyone who stood in their way is indeed a tradition that Russia’s tsars passed on to the Communist rulers--and beyond. The custom goes back to Ivan the Terrible, whose political police, the Oprichnina, killed tens of thousands of boyars who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to his eldest son, an infant at the time.
Under Communism, these arbitrary assassinations became a state policy. During Stalin’s purges alone, some nine million people lost their lives. Nikita Khrushchev condemned Stalin for aiming the cutting edge of his political police against his own people, and he shifted the killing abroad. The “Western bourgeoisie” and “our own traitors” became the Kremlin’s main enemies. Khrushchev ordered the KGB to develop a new generation of weapons that would kill without leaving detectable traces in the victim’s body, and he created units for assassination abroad in all Eastern European foreign intelligence services. I was present when Khrushchev told Romania’s dictator, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, that killings abroad should be approved only by the country’s ruler, that they should be kept forever a secret, and that after each assassination abroad “we” should surreptitiously spread “evidence” accusing the CIA or other convenient “enemies” of having done the deed, thereby killing two birds with one stone.
It seems that Vladimir Putin is continuing Khrushchev’s tradition. Yury Andropov, the other KGB officer who was enthroned in the Kremlin, used to tell me that every society reflected its own past. The Communist party was a foreign organism introduced into the Russian body, and sooner or later it would be rejected. But “our gosbezopasnost”—the Kremlin’s political police—would remain unchanged for as long as the Russian motherland still existed. "Our gosbezopasnost" had kept Russia alive for the past five hundred years, and "our gosbezopasnost" would steer her helm for the next five hundred years. Andropov has proved to be a dependable prophet: Communism is history; but the gosbezopasnost has taken over the Kremlin itself, and a gang of over 6,000 former KGB officers are now running the country. It is as though today’s Germany were being run by Gestapo officers.
The assassination of Litvinenko looks like a modernized version of Khrushchev’s attempt to kill Nikolay Khokhlov, another KGB defector who dared to expose assassinations abroad and display the latest weapon created by the gosbezopasnost for secretly committing them (an electrically operated gun fitted with silencer and concealed inside a cigarette pack, which fired cyanide-tipped bullets).
In the late 1970s, Leonid Brezhnev gave Ceausescu, via the KGB, radioactive thallium that could be inserted in food to silently kill his own political enemies abroad. The substance was described to Ceausescu as a new generation of the radioactive thallium weapon unsuccessfully used against Khokhlov in West Germany in 1957. (Khokhlov lost all his hair but did not die.) Ceausescu baptized it with the codename “Radu” (from radioactive), and he used it to secretly kill his own political enemies. The polonium 210 that killed Litvinenko looks to me just like an upgraded form of “Radu.”
Putin and his KGB/FSB may temporarily be able to hide their involvement in Litvinenko’s vicious murder. But in the long run political crime does not pay, even when it is committed by the leader of a superpower.
Woolsey: I'm afraid I have to make it unanimous. Although if this were an isolated case, given the complex facts, it would be imaginable that it was the result of some feud between people in the Russian government and one or more oligarchs and Putin was not involved -- but that seems most unlikely in the current context.
The murder of Politkovskaya, the attack on Gaidar, the imprisonment of Khordokovsy, the proliferation of former intelligence officers in positions of power, the several other killings -- all point toward a Russian state that has regressed to the days of Nicholas I or worse.
I think the most damning fact is that Litvinenko had taken a position on the apartment bombings that were used to justify the second Chechen War. The FSB was extremely clumsy, as David Satter has very effectively chronicled, and the type of explosive used, the one plot that was uncovered (the FSB said it was for "training") and a number of other facts point toward those attacks having been an FSB provocation. This calls into question much of the rationale for Putin's rule and the basis for most of his suppression of civil liberties. Pursuing that issue could well have been Litvinenko's final death sentence.
It may never be known whether Putin gave a direct order or, like Henry II, just surrounded himself with a certain type of subordinate and then, musing on Litvinenko, mumbled the 21st century Russian equivalent of Henry's question: "Will not someone rid me of this turbulent priest?" It doesn't really matter. The rest of us have to deal with a solidifying Russian dictatorship, engorged on oil money, destroying independent media and political figures, determined to reassert control over as much of the former USSR as it can (in part using energy as an instrument of coercion).
Tell me again why this dictatorship is in the G-8?
FP: Thank you Jim Woolsey. Yuri Yarim-Agaev?
Yarim-Agaev: Let us describe what happened. British investigative journalist (not spy) and Putin critic Alexander Litvineko was killed in London by (most probably) Russian terrorists. The case is very similar to the Anna Politkovskaya murder, only now it is a British citizen on British territory. Why do most journalists and politicians prefer to see it differently? The two reasons are psychological and political.
Psychologically, people prefer not to hear for whom the bell tolls. It is much more comfortable to be presented with a cloak and dagger case rather than the murder of a colleague and compatriot.
The political reason is even more compelling. We have here a classic case of terrorism, the same terrorism that Bush and Blair are crusading against. Combine it with the previous murders and the laws quoted by Vladimir Bukovsky, and according to Bush’s definition, Russia is a country that “harbors terrorism.” To fit this definition the president of such a country does not have to authorize or even to know about specific terrorist acts. It was never claimed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar gave direct orders to Osama Bin Laden or even knew about 9/11 beforehand. That, however, was not considered a good excuse.
According to the Bush doctrine, countries that harbor terrorism call for preemptive action and retaliation. Had Bush and Blair demanded the immediate repeal of the laws authorizing the killing of Putin’s critics, Politkovskaya and Litvinenko’s murders could have been avoided. They did not. Instead , without saying a word, they went to St. Petersburg to pay tribute to Putin, who (what a coincidence!) had signed those laws only one week before the summit.
At least our political leaders should demand repealing those laws now. They should also consider other measures, including the possible suspension of Russia’s affiliation with the G-7 club. This is not only a matter of retaliation. This is necessary to guarantee that the lives of their own citizens will be protected, independent of whether those citizens like Putin’s regime or not. Unfortunately, so far we hear only assurances of eternal partnership with Putin, assurance that may invite even more murders.
Communism is dead, but many of its structures remain. The most dangerous of them - the KGB - is currently in power. Without communism, however, this power is limited. They cannot so easily imprison their critics or stop them from leaving the country. Therefore, they revert more to secret murders. And they will continue to do so until they are stopped.
It is not important whether these murders are in Putin’s personal interest or not. He remains merely a representative of the KGB, which put him in power in the first place, and he has to obey the rules of that organization. What should he tell his pals? “Thou shalt not kill’ or “We cannot suppress freedom of speech”? The only viable argument for them would have been that such killing would be very costly. The American and British position, however, does not provide much support for such an argument.
FP: But how can we “demand” that another nation repeal its laws? And what can we really do about it anyway? Can we really suspend Russia’s affiliation with the G-7 club? What else? Would even Putin care? Has the West lost its will and lost its respect?
Andrei Piontkovsky?
Piontkovsky: I think that the West now has the last opportunity to positively affect events in Russia.
Jim Woolsey`s King Henry argument is very appropriate in this situation. It would be pointless for G8 partners to speculate on the extent to which Mr. Putin is personally involved in these crimes. That never comes to light in political assassinations. What is more important is what Mr.Putin will do now.
Within Russia and beyond her frontiers, assassinations and attempted assassinations are taking place of “enemies of the people”, lists of whom are to found on all of our country’s quasi-fascist websites. It is only going to be possible to continue blaming these murders on the CIA, or the oligarchs Boris Berezovsky (in Great Britain) or Leonid Nevzlin (in Israel), for a few more days, until the British, as seems likely, publicly and officially produce compelling evidence showing that the tracks of Alexander Litvinenko’s murderers lead straight back to Moscow. The President of the Russian Federation will then have to take possibly the most momentous decision of his life.
Much the same dilemma faced the one-time President of Poland, Wojciech Jaruszelski, when his intelligence services brutally murdered their own “enemy of the Polish people”, the priest Jerzy Popieluszko. He could have tried to cover up the crime, thereby irrevocably becoming an accomplice (and if he had, he would undoubtedly be in prison today). Instead he chose to hand the murderers over to justice and as a result has remained, even today in post-Communist Poland, a respected political figure.
More important, however, than the fate of the Russian President is the fate of his country. The effective legitimization of these serial political murders will make not only President Putin but all of us hostages of the institutions which are committing them. That is quite apart from the fact that Russia’s international reputation for years to come depends on whether a radiological attack on a G-8 partner was sanctioned by the Head of the Russian State rather than by some rabid FSB oil baron.
To judge by several signals from the Kremlin, Putin is wavering. Some sound advice from his partners in the G-8 to their friend Vladimir could play a crucial role.
Such advice from the White House should be accompanied by a totally unambiguous warning of something that very many in Russian political class, including Putin himself, would find profoundly hurtful. That is, that if the Kremlin shields the murderers of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, and if its propaganda continues to accuse “Western intelligence agencies” of those crimes, as it does at present, as it accused and continues to accuse the United States of sinking the submarine Kursk and of being behind the massacre of children in Beslan, then relations between the USA and Russia will be totally soured and will remain so until the last day of V. Putin’s occupancy of the Kremlin.
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[part 2]
Symposium: From Russia With Death (Continued)
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 19, 2007
Bukovsky: I agree with most of what has been said. Except, perhaps, a largely unnecessary analysis into as deep a history as Ivan the Terrible or even Nicholas I. Both of them were hardly worse than their contemporaries in Europe. Instead, let me provide an update to the general political context of the present-day Russian situation:
The current ruling clique in Kremlin knows very well how much they are hated in the country, all the "polls" notwithstanding. They know that they are perceived as usurpers and impostors. True, in 2000 Putin came to power by winning an election, but so did Hitler in 1932. And, pretty much like Hitler, he immediately proceeded to dismantle all democratic checks and balances.
Now, as the power transition of 2008 is approaching, Putin is paranoid in his suspicion that the West will try to use this opportunity to stage an "orange revolution" Ukrainian style. Hence his government’s clumsy provocation against the British Embassy in Moscow a couple of years ago (the "electronic stone" case) aimed at discrediting non-governmental organizations perceived by them as hostile, cutting their funding from abroad and placing them under the Kremlin's control. Hence is the decision to silence the most persistent critics of the regime -- even by violent means if need be. In a way, this is understandable: they know they all will be in jail if a genuine democrat wins an election, particularly if it happens by means of a popular upheaval.
The question is: what should be done by the West and, first of all, by the British government? As the police investigation of the case is at its end, we expect the British Government to finally make a statement and to announce the measures in connection with it. I am afraid that the preliminary indications are that Blair will try to avoid a firm stand on the matter using one or another excuse. At least a leak to that effect was published by Sunday Times couple of weeks ago alleging that he said to the cabinet: "Our priority is to retain good long-term relations with Russia". If this is to happen, and quite apart from the fact that he will be in dereliction of his prime duties to the security of the UK citizens as well as to the sovereignty of this country, it will send a very wrong signal to the Russian rulers. They already believe that their energy supplies and the world's dependence on them places them above the international law and will allow them to get away even with murder. Further acts of appeasement by the West will make them outright dangerous.
What if they occupy Georgia or Moldova tomorrow? What if they do something equally stupid against one of the Baltic countries which are members of NATO now? What would the West do then? More excuses, more appeasement? No, in my firm belief, they should be stopped now, they should be shown their proper place in the world.
The options are limited and none of them is good. If Britain simply kicks out some 30 odd Russian diplomats from the Russian Embassy in London, there will be tit-for-tat expulsions, and the British government will be left looking rather silly. A suspension of diplomatic relations is even more silly, as we all know they will be quietly resumed in a year or so. In both cases, nothing would be achieved. Russia would not be forced to back off while relations will be spoiled for a couple of years anyway. Therefore, I suggest:
First, it should be made absolutely clear that a murder of a British citizen on British soil by agents of a foreign power constitutes an act of aggression and a violation of British sovereignty, and, as it happened, an act of a radioactive attack on a NATO country. Second, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty should be invoked demanding a collective response by the NATO countries. Third, NATO should present Russia with an ultimatum demanding an immediate repeal of that offensive law with apologies. Failing that, Russia should be expelled from all international organizations, starting with G8, Council of Europe, WTO, etc. etc. Top Russian officials should not be allowed to step on the territory of NATO countries. Russia should be proclaimed a rogue state.
What would be the likely response? At first, Russia will posture as an injured innocent, it might even flex its "gas muscles" for a while. But, then, in two years time, after that all-important transition of power in 2008, they will quietly drop that law from the books (without saying much to their public at home), and will be eager to mend fences. Of course, for two years relations will be strained, but they will be in any case. At least, Russia will be forced to climb down.
FP: What a wonderful thing it would be if the West could actually act with such resolve, not only against Putin but also against Islamism. But I fear it is too good to be true.
Dr. Pipes, what do you think of the others’ comments so far and Mr. Bukovsky’s recommendations, and the realism of them?
Pipes: I agree with the various analyses and recommendations, with one exception: Vladimir Bukovsky's astonishing statement that "all the polls notwithstanding" the rulers in the Kremlin know that they are "hated" in Russia. The polls conducted by such highly regarded pollsters as the late Iurii Levada cannot be dismissed so easily: they are professionally done and honestly reported.
This is the problem: the Russian people with a sizable majority approve of the authoritarian policies of the Putin regime because they respect "groznyi" (severe) rulers who (in their eyes) offer them protection from foreign and domestic enemies lurking around every corner. They are prepared to regard the Politkovskayas and Litvinenkos as traitors and the Putins as true patriots. This is the real tragedy of Russia.
It behooves the West to make it unmistakably clear to the Russian government and its citizens that such behavior will not be tolerated, that it disqualifies Russia from membership in the ranks of civilized nations, and, whenever possible, to give this opinion a practical demonstration. Appeasing evildoers will fail, as it always does.
Satter: I agree with Richard Pipes that the Levada polls need to be taken seriously but we need to consider the reasons why Putin's popularity rating is so high. During the Yeltsin period, the Russian people were subjected to a frontal attack on their values and material well being. If we take the latter first, in some months under Yeltsin, wage arrears exceeded 50 per cent of the total wage bill due.
By January 1, 1998, wage arrears reached 13 per cent of the total money mass (M2) or $8 billion at the official rate of exchange. Official statistics even introduced a heading "wage arrears" and by December, 1998, 26 million people lived in dire poverty. At the same time, an ideological vacuum was created. Of course, it was a good thing that communist ideology was discredited but no new system of values took its place. The "reformers" spoke a great deal about establishing the authority of "universal values" but universal values are reflected in the rule of law. What was introduced instead was unrestrained criminality.
Putin was Yeltsin's hand picked successor. He came to power to preserve the oligarchic regime. He immediately benefited, however, from the spectacular rise in oil prices (from $9 a barrel in 1998 to $78 a barrel recently.) By claiming to restore Russia as a great power, he also helped to fill the spiritual vacuum that resulted from the Soviet Union's fall. He did nothing to bring about the energy windfall and his efforts to "reassert Russia's greatness" consisted mainly of bullying small powers. Nonetheless, he won the support of the demoralized Russian population, which, at the very least, began to be paid on time. Therefore, Putin's popularity should not be underestimated. At the same time, it is one of the reasons that the murder of Alexander Litvinenko demands a strong Western response.
Unfortunately, Russian society cannot subject the regime to moral restraint on its own. Individuals in Russia have an almost impossible time defending their sense of right and wrong against the pressure of the regime even when they are so inclined. If we accede to absurd official Russian explanations for the death of Litvinenko, we will show that we too cannot defend our sense of right and wrong. This will encourage the view in Russia that the authorities can act with total impunity. The torture death of Litvinenko will then not mark the end of the present leadership's assault on civilized standards but only the beginning.
Pacepa: Let’s face the facts. On May 28, 2002, NATO welcomed President Putin as a partner in the alliance. A month later, his chief military prosecutor charged Litvinenko in absentia with high treason for providing old KGB secrets to the government of a NATO country. [1] No body blinked in Moscow. Quite a few Russians still love Byzantine deception—generations of them have kidded themselves about the glorious state of their country. The Russians also love Putin. They call him the “Gray Cardinal” for his secrecy and Vatican-like mastery of backroom intrigue, and they admire his icy blue eyes as indicative of the strong, silent type, a real man, who chooses his few words with great care.
So, what can we do? First, we should tear off the veil of secrecy surrounding Putin. When you get right down to it, his magic derives from his following the tradition of Soviet rulers who cloaked themselves in secrecy and began being known only after they were gone. It is true, we may get a glimpse of Putin’s wife and hear about his love of karate through occasional self-controlled appearances, but on the whole Putin looks less three-dimensional than his Soviet predecessors.
Next, we should admit that Putin is a dictator brought to power by a KGB putsch. Every Soviet bloc intelligence service had a “survival plan” in case Communism would collapse. Romania’s, which I wrote out by hand (typewriters were considered insecure), was christened with the pedestrian name “Plan M” and stated that a couple of hundred undercover Securitate officers (named in an attachment) should take over the government. Their task was to abolish the Communist Party, remove “Socialist Republic” from the name of the country, restore the old Romanian national flag, re-baptize the Securitate with a Western-sounding name, simulate privatization by secretly transferring state enterprises into their own hands, and introduce Romania to the world as a democratic country. The plan of East Germany’s Stasi was called OibE (Offiziere im besonderen Einsatz, “officers on special assignment”), and was registered as Top Secret Document 0008-6/86 of March 17, 1986. Plan OibE, published on June 27, 1990 by the German newspaper Der Morgen under the title “The Most Secret of the Secret,” was identical to my Plan M but provided for a much larger number of intelligence officers (2,587) assigned to take over the government. The speed of Eastern Europe’s collapse did not allow for plans M and OibE to become operational, although quite a few politicians who rose to prominence in those countries after Communism collapsed had been secretly affiliated with the Securitate and the Stasi in the past.
Russia’s “democratization” looks like an operation staged by my Plan M. The Communist Party was abolished, the Soviet Union re-became Russia, the Red Flag was replaced by the old tsarist one, the KGB got a Westernized name, and a small clique of predatory intelligence insiders plundered Russia’s most valuable assets. The looting penetrated to every corner of the country, and it eventually created a Mafia-style economic system that threatened the stability of the whole Russia. By July 1998 the ruble had lost 75% of its past year’s value, short-term interest rates had climbed from 21% to 60%, and the stock market had slumped by more than 60% since the last year.
By that time the Kremlin was reporting that Yeltsin was suffering from a “cold.” When the Russian media recalled that in the past “colds” had proved lethal for the rulers (former presidents Konstantin Chernenko and Yury Andropov were dead in weeks after catching colds), the Kremlin acknowledged that in fact Yeltsin had the “flu,” which later proved to be a euphemism for a heart problem that necessitated a multiple by-pass operation. Soon Yeltsin came down with one more “cold,” which metamorphosed into a two-month bout of pneumonia [2] To top it all off, an influential newspaper in Moscow was already reporting that a KGB putsch against the ailing Yeltsin was in the making.[3]
On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin announced his resignation. “I shouldn’t be in the way of the natural course of history,” he explained.[4] For his part, the newly appointed president, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree pardoning Yeltsin, who was allegedly connected to massive bribery scandals, “for any possible misdeeds” and granted him “total immunity” from being prosecuted (or even searched and questioned) for “any and all” actions committed while in office. Putin also gave Yeltsin a lifetime pension and a state dacha.[5] Now over 6,000 positions in Russia’s federal and regional governments are held by former KGB officers.
Finally, we should help the Russians realize that there might be more to their world than just Soviet traditions.
FP: Thank you Mike Pacepa. You definitely don’t lack a punch.
Jim Woolsey?
Woolsey: My colleagues have all made extraordinary contributions. I find nothing really to disagree with. Even the split between Messrs. Pipes and Bukovsky about Russian attitudes toward Putin seems to me to present the two sides of a recognizable historical phenomenon: authoritarian rulers being simultaneously popular (especially if they come to power after a period of chaos and rule simultaneously with a factor-of-seven increase in the price of their country's principal export) and also hated. The brave will in one way or another express their hatred of tyranny and love of liberty even in the face of government-sponsored terror: some, such as the remarkable Mr. Bukovsky, will take a public stand and be persecuted for it; others, such as Count von Stauffenberg and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer will take up arms. But most citizens of an economically successful tyranny will feel simultaneously fear, hatred, and physical satisfaction. Most of us are capable of a fair amount of cognitive dissonance.
I am inclined to think that these assassinations and the new Russian statute do present the West with an opportunity that should be seized in order to increase the pressure on Mr. Putin. It would probably be difficult to marshal support for a whole range of retaliatory steps, but refusing Russian membership in the G7 as its 8th member seems to me to present an ideal focus for getting Mr. Putin's attention. These seven democratic nations should simply refuse to have as a member a dictatorship that assassinates its enemies, whether on its own soil or the soil of a fellow member state, and proudly claims by statute its intention to do so. Taking such a step of expulsion, especially if it is combined by serious efforts to move away from dependence on oil (via alternative fuels, including electricity via the coming plug-in hybrid technology) and gas (via conservation, renewables, Russia-skirting pipelines to Central Asia) should get Russian attention.
With current demographic trends (ethnic Russians are having children at the incredibly low rate of about half what is needed to replace their population and Russian men's life expectancy is below that of Bangladeshi men) Russian rulers should be hearing some footsteps behind them: by the middle of the century Russian population, under these assumptions, will be under a hundred million, below that of Yemen, and nearly one-third will be Muslim. Mr. Putin and his thuggish compatriots may care about nothing beyond their own generation and its creature comforts, but some Russians in political authority before too many years will take a longer view. If they see a resolute West, their energy leverage declining, and their population declining even faster they will begin to re-think things. In the meantime we should begin our help for present and future Russian reformers by refusing to permit those who currently rule Russia to participate in the G7.
Yarim-Agaev: For any opinion poll to be meaningful, it has to have two components: a good pollster and people with opinions. I do not question the integrity of the late Yuri Levada, whom I knew when he was still a young nonconformist sociologist. The problem is with the second component. I am afraid that most Russians still do not have personal opinions on political matters. And, I mean real opinions, of conviction and consequence, opinions according to which a person acts.
We often under-appreciate the fact that to have such opinions is the privilege of a sovereign person living an independent life. Most people gain such independence not through metaphysical meditations, or even from liberties granted from above, but rather by possessing private property and running their own business. Most Russians do not have property and still work for the government, upon which they feel very dependent.
For almost a century, they were actively taught not to have opinions; they were in fact punished for having them. They remember this part of their education, and they still do not see much use in having their own opinions. Hence, however accurately you conduct a poll, you cannot reveal what does not exist. You can skim superficial sentiments and momentary emotions. Those are too volatile, though, and should not be given too much credence.
Similar considerations may be applied to a phenomenon even more important than opinion polls: elections. A democratic election also must have two components: first, a political and legal framework, and secondly, voters. Again, most Russians are not real voters--yet. For many of them, voting is merely a required ceremony or a way to express their emotions rather than a political act with consequences. Many Russians do not believe that their vote can influence the outcome of an election, or that it can somehow influence their future life. Most elections in post-soviet territories are merely a rubberstamping of the rule of the existing leader or a successor chosen by him. The rare exceptions, which start to approximate democratic elections, are called revolutions--such as in Ukraine, Georgia, or Kyrgyzstan.
The paradox of Putin’s first term election may serve as a good example that both opinion polls and voting in Russia carry very little weight. The totally unknown Putin was elected only because he was appointed by Yeltsin and ran on a platform of continuity, whereas at the same time the approval rating of Yeltsin himself and his policies dropped to 12%.
We ignore all these factors and concentrate only on the technical aspects of elections in these countries. We send hundreds of observers to make sure that all formal rules are adhered to, and if they are, we declare that the country has had a democratic election. As a result, we overrate the elected officials, who at this stage of political development in Russia and other former Soviet countries should be considered merely transitional, provisional authorities.
This one-sided approach is responsible for the America’s main policy mistake toward post-totalitarian countries: equating their majority vote with democracy. As soon as the first elections were completed in Russia, Afghanistan, or Iraq, we rushed to proclaim them democracies. This mistake has had dire consequences both for these countries and the U.S.
People in Russia and similar countries do not take it seriously when their leaders tell them that they are living in a democracy and free market. They take it differently when the ultimate authority on democracy and capitalism, the United States of America, reaffirms the declarations of their leaders. And America reaffirms it not only through numerous statements by its presidents, but in the case of Russia, by issuing it an official “diploma” as a democratic and capitalist country by admitting it to the G-7 club. Russian people looked around and said: “If America says that we live in a democracy and free market, it must be a democracy and free market, but we do not like it. If this is the American lifestyle, we do not like America.” Inadvertently, our impatience has helped both to create a new wave of anti-Americanism in Russia and to discredit not only democracy and the free market, but also freedom itself.
Faced with the eternal dilemma of freedom vs. security, Russia once again turned to the latter. With the primacy of security, it is only natural to have the KGB as a ruler.
If we want Russia to be a democratic country, we have the very difficult task of helping to rehabilitate democracy and capitalism in Russia. So far, we are doing a poor job. We endorse the rule of the KGB, we overlook the suppression of voices of freedom, and we pander to Russian chauvinism and xenophobia.
Until freedom and reason are rehabilitated in Russia, its people and leaders will persist in a quagmire of prejudice and absurdities. The recent campaign concerning Litvinenko’s and Politkovskaya’s murders is a good example of that. Russia’s officials and its controlled media are spreading the idea that behind those murders were forces that tried to discredit Russia and to spoil its relations with the West. It doesn’t occur to them that this is a self-incriminating proposition, since we know that such forces do not exist in the West. I know only of one place where these forces exist. It is Russia. And these forces are heavily concentrated around the Kremlin.
Piontkovsky: It's significant that most of us used the word "opportunity" in our discussion. The tragedy we are dealing with does present an opportunity, maybe the last one, to prevent Russia from sliding into the camp of authoritarian anti-Western dictatorships. Whether this opportunity will be smartly used depends on political will and the integrity of Western leaders, such as George W. Bush and T. Blair personally.
There is an additional human tragedy aspect in this macabre affair:
Given all the emerging evidence it is quite clear that Kovtun and Lugovoy brought Polonium 210 to London. Now they are hidden from the world behind the walls of a highly secret medical establishment. The fate of these people are being now decided in the Kremlin consumed with panic as to what to do next in the face of the growing heap of hard evidence. I see the Kremlin really facing two options here:
Option #1: Lugovoy and Kovtun quietly pass away behind the clinic walls and we will forever be left speculating about the reasons and motives of the Litvinenko assassination.
Option #2: Lugovoy and Kovtun testify against Boris Berezovsky or Leonid Nevzlin as the alleged mastermind behind the crime at a Moscow trial staged by the Kremlin (a-la Zinoviev and Kamenev trials in Stalin's Russia in 1930-s).
Knowing that Putin is famous for his indecision when it comes to serious political action, I would say that the first more inertial and less dramatic variant of events is the likeliest. In any case the fate of Kovtun and Lugovoy is not the subject of envy now. A dramatic factor is the fate of Lugovoy's family. His wife and children traveled with him to London on October 31 and also are in hospital now. What will happen to them now?
Anyway these two young gentlemen sent by the Russian King to England with an important mission look more and more now like the characters of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" or rather Tom Stoppard 's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" play.
If George Bush and Tony Blair let Vladimir Putin get away with this scandal they will become another pair of Rosencrants and Guildenstern. They will become morally dead as proponents of Western principles and values.
Bukovsky: The last thing I intended to do was to question Mr. Levada's integrity. But, as Yuri has explained, opinion polls mean very little in Russia. Suffice it to recall that in 1996, before his second elections, Yeltsin's rating was in single digits. Yet, in a couple of months, he won a landslide victory. Russian polls (and elections) are like a guessing game or a bet on who is more likely to win. They are no a real measurement of public sentiments. And, what else would one expect, bearing in mind that the people are never given a genuine, honest choice? It reminds me a popular joke circulating before Putin's first election victory in 2000 (based on the famous Aesop's fable about Mr. Crow with a piece of cheese, and a hungry Mr. Fox): So, Mr. Fox asks Mr. Crow: "Are you going to vote for Putin?" Mr. Crow keeps his beak closed, mindful of cheese. "Well, tell us, tell us, would you? Just say `yes’ or `no’. Very simple - `yes’ or `no’?" "Yes", finally says Mr. Crow and a happy Mr. Fox scurries away with cheese. Now, a very sad Mr. Crow sits on a tree top and muses: "Suppose I would have said `no.’ Would it change anything?"
Anyway, much more to the point is what the West will do to counteract Russian aggressiveness. Judging by what has been said in this discussion, my suggestions are perceived as too optimistic. Yet, nothing less will do the trick. So, are we at a dead-end? Perhaps we are, in some sense. On the other hand, perhaps this is a new beginning. Indeed, there is little doubt that Frau Merkel, Monsieur Chirac and Signor Prodi will do their best to undermine NATO unity and to water-down any serious measures. Equally, there is little doubt that the new NATO members, former Warsaw Bloc countries and the Baltic states, would vote for the toughest proposals on the table.
So, if a NATO member refuses to accept its responsibility under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, its membership should be terminated, should it not? In other words, this might be a great moment to do what is long overdue (and what we have been discussing on Frontpagemag.com for a very long time): to re-configure NATO. There are quite rough times ahead of us, and it sure pays to be well-prepared.
Satter: Andrei Piontkovsky raises an important point. We need to ask ourselves: what are the consequences if the West fails to respond forcefully to the murder of Litvinenko? The problem with contemporary Russia (and with Russia historically) is that it tries to redefine morality. We see this in the Litvinenko case. It is said that Britain is refusing to extradite persons wanted by Russia so Russia is under no obligation to extradite those wanted by Britain. The underlying assumption is that Russian justice is as impartial as British justice.
When the Soviet Union fell, it was suggested that Russia would become an authoritarian state on the Latin American model, corrupt but not totalitarian. Russia is certainly corrupt and authoritarian. But it is an authoritarian regime with pretensions. To a degree largely unanticipated in 1992, a new Russia has emerged with great power ambitions and a renewed insistence on its “special way.” What this amounts to is that the Russian regime refuses to be bound by higher moral values. Acts like the murder of Litvinenko, which it conceives as being in its interest, are treated as wholly legitimate.
Other enemies of the Russian regime have been murdered inside Russia. Litvinenko, however, was murdered, as were several victims of the Soviet regime, in the West. Are we to accept this as normal and lend our implicit support to the deluded Russian view of reality? If we fail to act, can we expect the Russian authorities to be more restrained in the future? And having made such a moral compromise will we be in a position to fight against the Islamic fanatics who are also trying to redefine morality?
We aren’t going to declare war on Russia. We have no intention of disrupting economic relations. We can’t refuse to give them credits because they don’t need our credits. But we can exert moral pressure. This may seem inconsequential but its effect is greater than often imagined, in part because there is no effective moral opposition inside the country. The alternative to attempts to hold the Russian leadership responsible for crimes in which they are implicated – at least in the West - is greater acts of Russian aggression -- as the leadership falls increasingly under the illusion that there is some substance to their talk about Russia’s “special way” after all.
Pacepa: I agree that refusing Russian membership in the G7 as its 8th member may get the Kremlin’s attention. But we must act now. Otherwise, we may see a repeat of what happened during the Cold War, when the Kremlin moved from killing émigrés to assassinating international leaders (Laszlo Rajk and Imre Nagy of Hungary; Lucretiu Pãtrãscanu in Romania; Rudolf Slansky and Jan Masaryk in Czechoslovakia; the shah of Iran; Palmiro Togliatti in Italy). The U.S. kept quiet, and eventually the Kremlin killed America’s own president. (At the time, the leaders of Moscow’s satellite intelligence services unanimously agreed that the KGB had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy; as a Communist general, I was involved for the next 15 years in Moscow’s cover-up “Dragon” operation aimed at throwing the blame on the U.S. itself for JFK’s death). Again the U.S. kept quiet, and the Kremlin was emboldened to attempt the murder of Pope John Paul II, who had started a crusade against Soviet Communism.
Appeasement and closing an eye to evil do not work. Appeasement was instrumental in spawning the current wave of international terrorism. In December 1979 the Kremlin assassinated the American-educated prime minister of Afghanistan, Hafizullah Amin, replaced him with a Soviet puppet, and invaded the country. The U.S. merely protested by boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow. That indulgent attitude generated the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden’s terrorism. In the 1990s, the U.S. government virtually ignored bin Laden’s first assault on the World Trade Center, the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. Subsequently, we had barely set foot in the 21st century when bin Laden’s terrorists directly attacked our country and unleashed a relentless general war against us.
For the long run, we should help the Russians learn about our Western democracy. They have never before experienced a free society, have never really owned property or been allowed to make decisions for themselves. They have never had a real political party, and few in post-Soviet Russia seem to see a particular need for one. But they are the only ones who can rid Russia of Putin-style leaders. Turning that huge country westward may be a lengthy, sinuous and expensive process, but we can help. I suggest publishing this Symposium in Russian as well. And maybe later, we could have a weekly Russian edition of the FrontPagemag.com. Let us remember that the missiles that destroyed European Communism were originally launched from Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Woolsey: I especially like David Satter's formulation that we have now a Russia "with pretensions" that seeks to "redefine morality". This is indeed far more totalitarian than what most of us had hoped for from a post-Yeltsin Russia. Many were prepared to understand some degree of corruption and authoritarianism in the aftermath of the chaotic nineties. But these pretensions and this indignity when assassinations and provocations are exposed are quite remarkable. At least the Communists had a bizarre ideology as a cover story for their trashing of things like truth and elementary human rights. Putin and the siloviki have nothing but the indignant pretensions of raw power.
Were it not for fossil fuels those pretensions would get the derision they deserve. But as one Russian neighbor after another is exposed to natural gas blackmail, as one international energy corporation after another is subjected to godfather-like offers they can't refuse and their investments, well, stolen, the character and extent of Russian extortion get clearer. As Tom Friedman puts it, the path of freedom and the price of oil run in opposite directions.
But last Sunday something happened in Detroit that bears watching, especially in Moscow, Caracas, Riyadh, and Tehran -- wherever the price of oil fuels repression. The General Motors that many thought moribund dramatically unveiled a concept car and joined Toyota in a race to be first into the market with a plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle. The plug-in aspect is crucial - both companies are headed toward having on the market soon cars that get on the order of 500 miles per gallon of petroleum products. This is because they can run on cheap off-peak electricity by being plugged in at night, but then just become an ordinary hybrid after some 40 miles of all-electric driving. And what liquid fuel they use after their all-electric run need not be petroleum-based -- it can easily be ethanol or bio-or renewable-diesel.
Can the new battery technology that makes 500 mpg (of gasoline) cars possible undermine the roots of Russian pretensions? Stay tuned. Consumers who will enjoy seeing their driving costs cut to a fraction of today's, the automobile companies that have woken up, and electric utilities (who smile at the prospect of being able to sell otherwise-wasted off-peak power) are joining the environmentalists and those who are seriously concerned about depending on dictatorships and autocratic kingdoms for our transportation fuel. These folks don't see everything alike, but they are united in having had it with oil. The need for natural gas for electricity generation and heating is another story -- but even there we are seeing important progress both in the efficiency of renewables and in the ability to utilize coal in a way that sequesters the carbon produced by its use. One can now begin to see a future where sitting on oil and gas reserves doesn't give dictators and autocrats anything like the leverage they have today. The progress of energy technology, Mr. Putin, does not bode well for your pretensions.
Yarim-Agaev: The KGB is not capable of inventing new morality, and does not need to do so. This new “revolutionary morality” was created by Lenin a century ago. According to this morality, specific rules of operations were developed for Soviet structures, such as the KGB, which has been operating under those rules for generations.
Now, without the communist system, the KGB is left with those rules like a severed limb with knee reflexes. The reflexes are simple. The enemy is neither good nor bad; it is only strong or weak. The US is enemy number one. If America comes up with any conciliatory step, it is a sign of weakness and invites attack. If attack does not encounter retaliation, it must be escalated.
These are typical rules for such structures. Look at Syria. Just as Washington started to mention it as a possible partner in Iraq’s situation, Syria immediately killed the most pro-democratic Lebanese minister. It was a knee-jerk reflex. One cannot exert moral pressure on a knee. Political or financial retaliation, yes. Even a knee can learn restraint, if with every jerk a leg painfully hits something hard.
Having said that, I do not deny the importance of providing a political and moral standard to people in Russia. For that purpose, however, we need first to stick to our own principles without compromising them and adapting to other countries’ rules, as we do now. Here are a couple of examples.
We know that a necessary condition for democracy to take root in Russia is to have a lustration, i.e., to prohibit former communists and KGB officers from holding positions of power. This condition is even more important for a democratic election than a proper vote count. We cannot force Russia to adopt a law to that effect, yet nobody can force us to recognize Russia as a democracy until such a law is passed. And we should not pretend that there exists some alternative form of democracy—Putin’s so-called “sovereign” democracy—which does not require such a condition.
The second example is the broadcasting done by Radio Liberty and the BBC, which were major vehicles for providing moral and political support to Russian democrats. As we have written recently, the work of these radio stations was greatly compromised by modifying their programs to the taste of the Russian audience and government.
These compromises are based on two premises: that we have to appease the Russian government, since we depend on it, and that we have to gain instant popularity with the Russian people, since that would help world peace and stability. Both premises are wrong and counterproductive.
We do not depend on the Russian government either strategically or economically. Our alleged strategic dependence is based on the fact that Russia has leverage over our enemies, such as Iran and North Korea. But Russia has this leverage only because it is their ally, not ours, and always acts in their interests.
There is no more validity to our alleged economic dependence on Russian oil. This is mutual interdependence, whose degree is determined by the percentage of oil in the corresponding GNP. Since oil constitutes a much smaller part of our GNP than Russia’s, we depend on Russia much less, than Russia depends on us. We can easily eliminate any dependence on oil by building nuclear power plants—the cleanest source of energy from the environmental standpoint. I welcome any new scientific developments, but I do not think that they will change our attitude. The existing economy and technology are sufficient for our independence. This dependence is not of a material, but rather of a psychological nature, and we can change this perception at any moment.
Our government is trying to gain popularity in Russia by supporting the KGB and by pandering to Russian chauvinism. This is a great disservice to the Russian people and an awkward way to improve relations between our countries. Such a policy helps to enhance the worst of the Russian nation and to suppress the best. It is demoralizing for true Russian democrats, people who deserve our real support. There may not be many of them, but they are the only hope for Russia to develop into a free, democratic and peace-loving country.
Piontkovsky: For Western governments to stand up to the Putin's regime is not just an issue of morality or concern for Russian democracy. It's an issue of self-interest and security.
Emboldened by US failure in Iraq, Putin's regime is challenging Western strategic interests more openly and aggressively all over the world. There is no brutal dictator or murderer in the world (from the Burma junta to Sudan’s genocidal rulers) which wouldn't be supported and covered both politically and militarily by Moscow.
Americans somehow talked themselves into the double stupidity. They still believe that they need Putin for dealing with Iran, North Korea, Syria and other rogue states and that they also need to reward him politically for his services.
But Putin has already been playing on the side of enemies of the West for a long time. Paradoxically he is also playing on the side of Russia’s enemies because enemies of the West (i.e. Islamofascists) regard Russia as part of the "satanic" West. Putin hates the West more than he loves Russia.
For the sake of Western, Russian and World security this disruptive and suicidal course of Moscow foreign policy should be stopped. And Western governments have sufficient leverages to do it.
Putin`s KGB cleptocracy wants to enjoy two pleasures simultaneously: to hate the West and to harm it and at the same time to enjoy a wealthy Western lifestyle. (Nothing new about it - the same is the behaviour of Saudi royals. All of their billions of dollars are held in Western banks and their real estate is at Cote d'Asure, Florida and Canary Islands.
The day after Crown Prosecutor office names the suspects in Litvinenko murder, Putin and his "brigade" should be demanded to expose the superiors of Lugovoy and Covtun, those KGB generals who were sent on their murder mission to London. Putin should be told very clearly that there will be no business as usual with him any more. If he gets away with this murder, he will not only hate the West but also despise it.
FP: Oleg Kalugin, Richard Pipes, Vladimir Bukovsky, Jim Woolsey, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, David Satter, Yuri Yarim-Agaev and Andrei Piontkovsky, thank you for joining to Frontpage Symposium.
[To go back to the first part of this symposium, click here.]
Notes:
[1] Steven Lee Myers, “Treason trial evokes ghosts of Soviet past,” International Herald Tribune, June 12, 2002, Internet edition, www.iht.com/articles/61081.html.
[2] “The Perils of Catching Cold,” The Time Inc., Magazine Company, December 1997, p. 38, Internet Edition, geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9802/yelt1.
[3] “Can the crisis end in a coup?” Moscow, the Nezavisimaya Gazyeta, July 7, 1998, p. 1.
[4] Barry Renfrew, “Boris Yeltsin Resigns,” The Washington Post, December 31, 1999, 6:48 a.m.
[5] Ariel Cohen, “End of the Yeltsin Era,” The Washington Times, January 3, 2000, Internet Edition, cohen-20000103.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070120/ts_nm/iraq_dc
Iraqi cleric's group says U.S. wants confrontation
By Mariam Karouny 6 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political movement accused Washington on Saturday of trying to provoke a confrontation by arresting of one of its key figures.
ADVERTISEMENT
Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for Sadr, was among at least three people arrested by U.S. and Iraqi troops in a midnight raid on Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in northeast Baghdad where U.S. forces rarely venture.
Sadr's movement is a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite bloc in the government, but Maliki has been criticized by Washington and leaders of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority for failing to disarm his Mehdi Army.
Abdul Mahdi Mtiri, a member of the Sadrists' political committee, said Iraqi officials had promised Darraji would be released. "We don't know how serious this promise is because so far he has not been released," Mtiri told Reuters.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who said on Friday the operation had Maliki's full backing, told Iraqiya state television he did not expect Darraji to be released on Saturday.
"The matter is not in the hands of the Iraqi government. The Americans arrested him and they're investigating him and when they're finished they will release him," said Dabbagh.
Dealing with Sadr and the Mehdi Army militia is a burning issue for U.S. forces and Maliki as they prepare what many see as a last-ditch effort to curb the sectarian violence that is pushing
Iraq toward civil war.
Sadr, a young populist cleric, enjoys a mass following in Iraq and some backing from Shi'ite
Iran.
"We know the truth behind this arrest is the Americans want to target the Sadrists and they want to draw the Sadrists into a confrontation with the American troops," Mtiri said.
continued...............
[Thanks to Milford421 for this report]
Update: LA Mercury Spill - Middle Eastern Man Spills Poisonous Mercury
Thanks to Debbie Schlussel
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/
In L.A., Muslim Dry Run for Subway Terrorism (L.A. Sheriffs Take 8
HOURS! to Respond)
By Debbie Schlussel
Hmmm . . . a "Middle Eastern man" crouches down and deliberately
spills poisonous mercury onto the Los Angeles subway lat at night
around Christmas-time and then disappears without getting on a train.
But it has nothing to do with terrorism, right? It's just "an
accident."
Hardly seems like it, according to CNN's coverage (there is video,
at this link, too):
The Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating an
incident involving an unidentified man who spilled a vial of mercury
inside an L.A. subway station just before Christmas and then
disappeared after reporting it to transit authorities.
L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. Ignored Mercury Dry-Run for 8 Hours
A statement released by the JTTF Wednesday evening shows a picture
of the man taken from a frame in a surveillance video. The caption
reads: "Wanted for questioning in connection with unexplained
activity."
That activity can be seen in a copy of the surveillance video --
obtained exclusively by CNN -- which shows the Pershing Square
subway station in Los Angeles late on the evening of December 22,
the Friday before Christmas.
In it, the man crouches on the train platform and spills about five
fluid ounces of mercury from a small bottle. He then goes to a
Metropolitan Transit Authority call box to report what happened.
An accident? Maybe, but authorities would like to know more. And a
counterterrorism expert told CNN the incident should set off warning
bells.
"It doesn't make sense," said Ken Robinson, who used to work in
intelligence for the Pentagon and has analyzed dozens of al Qaeda
tapes for CNN. "He's got a heavy metal and he's taking it into a
subway. There's no good reason to do that. None." . . . .
Shortly after the spill in late December, the [L.A. County]
sheriff's department sent out an alert, saying to be on the lookout
for a man described as being "white or Middle Eastern," who is
wanted in connection with a "possible act of terror."
But the L.A. County Sheriff's Department thinks it's just
an "accident." Move along. Nothing to see here:
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department, the lead agency in the
investigation, believes the spill was just an accident and not
terror-related. Also, the man who spilled it placed a call moments
afterward from a call box, alerting authorities to the spill.
"At this point we are relatively confident that it is not a credible
threat," said L.A. County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve
Whitmore.
Yes, people kneel over tracks and dump mercury onto them by accident
all the time. I've done it, haven't you? (Note to law enforcement
authorities: I haven't really done it. I was being facetious.)
But the FBI and Homeland Security--usually part of the "nothing to
see here, move along, no ties to terrorism" crowd--are suspicious.
In the past, they've warned that this kind of behavior is done as a
test run to guage police reaction time. And that's what this appears
to be:
A joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence
bulletin released in 2005 warns that terrorists may make calls to
test police reactions.
In the case of the spilled mercury, according to the HAZMAT cleanup
report read to CNN, law enforcement did not respond for a full eight
hours.
Pat D'Amuro, now a CNN analyst, was a top FBI counterterrorism
agent. He says it's premature to rule out terror. . . .
In Thursday's statement, the terrorism task force said that although
there is "no evidence to suggest these activities are terrorist-
related, or even criminal in nature, we are seeking to resolve
questions as to the reason and/or motivation of the mercury spill
and why the unidentified male had the vial in his possession."
Thanks to Reader Mary, who sent the tip and wonders why the L.A.
County Sheriff's Department is seeking a "White OR Middle Eastern"
in the description, when it is clearly a Middle Eastern Arab in the
video:
I watched the surveillence tape and that guy was an Arab. I've lived
in Detroit long enough to be sure on that fact.
Memo to the L.A. County Sheriff, who should be recalled for allowing
his men to take EIGHT HOURS to respond to the mercury spill: They
are here and planning their attacks on us from within. We must
finally begin to take them seriously.
Hello . . . ? Wake up.
Posted by Debbie at 09:51 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) |
Printer Friendly
January 17, 2007
[Thanks to Milford421 for this post]
from NewsSarasota
Badly Decomposed Body Bound found along I-75...
SARASOTA, FL. (NS/SSO) --
Sarasota County Sheriff's Investigator's are trying to learn the
identity of a body found Thursday along the northbound lanes of
Interstate 75, about a mile south of University Parkway on the edge
of Lakewood Ranch...
The body, was found bound and gagged, and was discovered floating in
about a foot of water at about 2:20 pm by two workers inspecting a
bridge that crosses over a small creek near the interstate...
The badly decomposed body made it unable to distinguish either a
race or gender. Authorities have been unable to determine how long
the body was in the water, but said it appeared to have been there
for some time...
Authorities would not say what was used to bind the body, but said
the victim's mouth was covered and the hands were tied in front at
the wrists...
Sheriff's Detectives are now treating the case as a homicide.
Detectives don't know if the crime happened where they found the
body or the body was just thrown over the bridge...
Sarasota County Dive Team members removed the body at about 6 pm
Thursday evening, and an autopsy will be performed on the body
sometime today...
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sarasota County
Sheriff's Office at (941) 861-4900, or Crime Stoppers at 366-TIPS
(8477).
[Thanks to Milford421 for this report]
Suspicious letter brought to police station - MI
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?
newsid=17733976&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6
Suspicious letter brought to police station
By Kelly Nankervis
01/20/2007
Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendlyAdvertisement
A letter postmarked in Korea and containing a card with a bluish
powder was enough for officials to seal off the area of the Midland
Law Enforcement Center late Friday night.
Midland Police Chief Jim St. Louis said a Midland County man
brought the opened letter to the center about 7:30 p.m., hours after
opening it in his vehicle. The center is closed after business
hours, but a push button in the vestibule alerts Central Dispatch
that someone needs help, so that's what the man did.
"They told him to stay put," when he told them what he had, St. Louis said.
Dispatchers called for the Midland Fire Department and hazardous
materials decontamination gear from Homer Township, as well as an
incident command center in the parking lot. The FBI also responded.
St. Louis said he'd been appointed as a media representative though
the scene was under the command of the Midland Fire Department.
Intersections leading to the center — Jefferson Avenue at
Bayliss and Rodd streets, and Nickels at Louanna streets — were
blocked by cones, road flares and patrol cars. Fire trucks were
parked in the lot while firefighters carried bags of gear from a
trailer into the center through a conference room door. Midland
County Sheriff Jerry Nielsen also waited outside the building.
St. Louis said the envelope does not have a return address and
the card inside is written in Korean. He was not sure if it came
from North or South Korea, but said an interpreter will be asked to
read the card to see what it is, he said.
The envelope was mailed to a home in the Gordonville Road area
and was addressed to a man who currently is serving with the
military in Iraq.
"They held on to it for a week, a week and a half, then decided
to open it up," St. Louis said. "They have no idea what the contact
would be in Korea."
The man who brought the letter to the center — the soldier's
father — was decontaminated in the parking lot there, St. Louis
said, adding he would not need to be taken to the hospital. He was
showing none of the symptoms that would be expected if he had been
exposed to harmful agents. His vehicle also will be decontaminated.
The letter was being sealed and turned over to the FBI for
testing.
St. Louis said the FBI believes that if the letter contained a
harmful substance, it would have been picked up in the screening
process in the mail service. He did not know which local post office
delivered the mail.
The nearby area was not evacuated because the letter was taken
from the man's vehicle to the vestibule and nowhere else, St. Louis
said.
Because the letter never made its way past the second set of
doors and into the Law Enforcement Center building, dispatchers and
on-duty officials from the Midland Police and Midland County
Sheriff's Office were not effected, St. Louis said. Scanner traffic
indicated deputies and police were conducting business as normal.
St. Louis noted the process of responding to situations with
potentially hazardous substances has become smooth. Officials have
been called for what turned out to be three Anthrax hoaxes within
the last few years, one at the Daily News, one at the Ashman Court
Marriott Conference Hotel, and one at a home in the city.
©Midland Daily News 2007
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/
[Thanks to Milford421 for the rest of the story]
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/18/america/NA-ODD-US-Fake-
Bomb.php
Fake nuclear bomb stolen from Los Alamos scrap yard
The Associated PressPublished: January 18, 2007
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico: Someone has stolen a fake nuclear bomb,
according to its owner.
The faux 500-pound (225-kilogram) nuke was somehow hefted from a Los Alamos salvage store, the Black Hole, the Los Alamos Monitor
reported in Thursday editions.
The store is run by Ed Grothus, a Los Alamos peace activist who
sells salvage from Los Alamos National Laboratory and other places.
Grothus said he bought several so-called "practice bombs" in
Oklahoma about three years ago.
He said he last saw it Monday morning, but he noticed it was gone
when he was ready to go home that evening.
Today in Americas
General sees new troops exiting Iraq before fall
News Analysis: China's missile test: A message for U.S.
U.S. Senate passes broad changes to ethics and lobbying rules
New Mexico was home to the Manhattan Project, the secret community
that gave birth to the atomic bomb. The first nuclear test was also
conducted there in 1945
[Thanks to Milford421 for the rest of the story]
Bones found in Mississippi linked to missing trucker
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2007/Jan07/011507/011707
-05.htm
Bones found in Mississippi linked to missing trucker
Trucker James Tate disappeared on Dec. 17, 2004, his trailer was
found in Bartlett, TN, and his tractor found 10 miles away in
Memphis a day later.
Now, more than two years later, a phone tip may have lead
authorities to the remains of the Tylertown, MS, man who was in his
mid-thirties when he went missing.
According to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, a caller reported a
skull found Friday, Jan. 12, in a wooded area in Lakeland, just east
of Memphis. Shelby County Sheriff's Office deputies used dogs to
search the area during the weekend and found 20 other bones they
believe are part of the same skeleton.
Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said authorities
believe the remains are Tate's because of clothes and personal items
found with the remains.
The Shelby County medical examiner told sheriff's officials the
bones belonged to a black man and had been in the woods for at least
one year.
The trailer Tate was hauling for M and K Logistics was found by
Bartlett police along Brunswick Road near Highway 64 in December
2004. One day later, police found Tate's tractor in a vacant lot
near Macon Road in Memphis "about 10 miles apart" from the trailer,
Shular said.
Sheriff's deputies have arranged for DNA analysis in Texas to match
bone fragments with Tate's DNA. Teeth were found inside the skull
but Sheriff's deputies don't have Tate's dental records to compare
them with.
"We're just not sure what the deal is or what the motivation might
have been," Shular said. "We're hoping that letting people know will
bring someone forward because someone does know something."
Detectives have no suspects and are asking anyone with information
about the case to call (901) 528-2274.
--By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com
littlegreenfootballs.com
The Arab Lobby in America
This is what the West is up against: Discover the Arab
Lobby "Network".
According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, "Assessing the
influence and breadth of the Arab/Muslim lobby would be a difficult
thing to do, since the metrics for assessing such things are not
easily available. The lobby's real strength is felt on the local
level, where its members receive community awards, participate in
human relations councils, change the local educational curricula,
persuade school districts to give them holidays off, and get local
police and statewide officials to attend their events. Nationally,
their influence is felt at the State Department in terms of their
being invited to briefings, sponsored on road trips abroad, etc. The
one recent time where they actually exacted an influence on
President Bush was in persuading him to drop the use of the
term `Islamo-fascism.'"
While the Arab lobby has a few friends in Congress today, its effect
is felt mainly as a result of its joint efforts with organizations
like the American Civil Liberties Union to dilute anti-terror
measures. The lobby, says Emerson, "is mainly in the process of
building up a grassroots network around the United States, with the
anticipation that, abetted by growing demographics, it will be in a
position of political influence in the future."
Following are brief summaries of a number of U.S.-based
organizations that lobby on behalf of Arab interests.
The article goes on to list dozens of radical Islamic front groups
that operate openly in the United States, funded heavily by Arab oil
money. Read the whole thing...
[Thanks to Milford421 for this report]
Fire Destroys A McAlester Food Processing Plant - OK
Fire Destroys A McAlester Food Processing Plant
KOTV - 1/18/2007 9:07 PM - Updated 1/19/2007 3:40 PM
A McAlester industrial park is partially open after a fire destroys
one business in the park. Already hard hit by the storm, McAlester
firefighters had to battle a massive blaze at the Diversified Foods
plant late Thursday evening. Fire investigators say they still don't
know how or where the fire started.
News on 6 reporter Carina Sonn says smoke was still rising Friday
morning as employees who work in the industrial park wait for the go
ahead to return to work and fire crews babysat what's left of
Diversified Foods.
It's a tranquil display compared to Thursday night. McAlester Fire
Chief Harold Stewart: "the east end of the building was totally
involved and the fire vented through the roof."
Stewart says someone driving by the plant a little after 7 PM saw
the fire and called for help. Only a handful of employees were
working at the time, none of them were injured. Officials say their
main concern was the 30,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on site. "We
set a perimeter, evacuated everyone within that perimeter and went
more to a defensive mode."
Fire crews say half of the ammonia was untouched during the fire.
They say they've isolated it and crews are expected to recover the
remaining anhydrous ammonia. Diversified Foods moved to McAlester
last year after the plant in Louisiana was destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina.
The plant's 75 employees make macaroni and cheese, bar-b-que sauce
and other food items for restaurants across the nation. The plant
manager says the company has four other locations in the South,
those plants will now have to pick up the slack.
He says he's relieved no one was hurt, but a lot of families depend
on the plant and he just wants his employees working again.
The McAlester Fire Department is working with the state fire marshal
to determine the exact cause of the fire. Damage is estimated at
about $9-million.
http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=118411
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/
That's a lot of good info you pinged us to overnight. Thanks.
[Thanks to Milford421's group for this report]
Feds thwart shipments totaling a million pounds of illegal food
Thanks to Mark Taylor.
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2007/Jan07/011507/011707-03.htm
Feds thwart shipments totaling a million pounds of illegal food
Three federal agencies have combined forces to stop more than a
million pounds of tainted food at the Port of Newark since 2005.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Agriculture worked with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents beginning in late 2005 to
inspect sea cargo containers as part of Operation Fowl Play,
according to an ICE news release.
The operation seized 50 food shipments totaling more than 1 million
pounds of poultry, fowl, meat, pork, and fruits and vegetables.
Federal agents lauded the operation.
"Given the possibility of an Avian Flu outbreak, this operation
closed down an illegal importation operation that was a threat to
public safety," Susan Mitchell, director of field operations for
Customs and Border Protection in New York, said in a press release.
The shipments could have contained illegal drugs or weapons, Kyle
Hutchins, special agent in charge of the ICE office of
investigations in Newark, NJ, said in the release.
"Shutting down illegal operations such as this is a critical mission
of ICE because it closes vulnerabilities in the importation
process," Hutchins said.
Agents served three search warrants last week in New York City and
seized documents related to illegal importation of foodstuffs and
merchandise to businesses in Chinatown and Brooklyn.
The Port of Newark was opened in 1915 and has 3 million square feet
of warehouse space, roads and direct railways, according to the port
Web site.
– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com
Mark R. Taylor
www.greatmindsthinkright.com
www.uglypuppy.net
www.americantruckersatwar.com
http://youtube.com/ironponyexpress
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/
January 20, 2007 Anti-Terrorism News
(Iraq) Report: 15 Sunni insurgents killed in Iraq
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467775139&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Iraq) Military: 3 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq - roadside bomb,
fighting Sunni insurgents
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070119184350
(Afghanistan) 5 NATO soldiers wounded in Afghanistan - Car bomb
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence_1
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467773970&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(India) Four held with explosives in Mumbai - four people, incl one
woman, were arrested with 6kg of powerful explosives near a crowded
railway station in Mumbai
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Four_held_with_explosives_in_Mumbai/articleshow/1339249.cms
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21091940-1702,00.html
(India) Two Harkat militants killed in J&K gun battle
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Two_Harkat_militants_killed_in_JK_gun_battle/articleshow/1341014.cms
Somali gunmen ambush Ethiopian convoy in Mogadishu
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070120/ts_afp/somaliaunrest_070120103050
(Somalia) More conflict in post-war Somalia, 4 dead
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070120/wl_nm/somalia_conflict_dc_154
Update: Somalian Islamists attack president - Friday story
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/20/wsomali20.xml
Former CIA Agent: 'US attack on Iran nuke sites would lead to war'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467772715&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Thai army officers detained over bombings
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467775019&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Philippines) DNA Tests confirm Abu Sayyaf leader's death
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_as/philippines_abu_sayyaf_3
(Philippines) Judge, activist shot dead - military believes internal
communist purge
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21090407-1702,00.html
(UK) Algerian terror suspects to leave UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/20/ndeport120.xml
Pakistan building new Nuclear facilities
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\20\story_20-1-2007_pg1_6
(Pakistan/Iran) Musharraf, Ahmadinejad discuss Mideast situation
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467773457&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
US willing to consider Jordanian nuclear program
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467772708&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Turkey: Three arrested for murder of journalist
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467772962&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Nigerian kidnappers release sick Italian hostage
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070119/wl_nm/nigeria_hostages_release_dc_1
Palestinian leader to meet with Hamas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_palestinians
Canada investigating terrorist threat - by Quebec separatists
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/16502620.htm
German Foreign Minister Under Pressure in Terror Inquiry
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2319340,00.html
China Defends 'Satellite Killer' as Weapon of Peace
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245119,00.html
Sri Lanka says LTTE is much more brutal than Al-Qaeda
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_07/January2061629JV.html
Related News:
(Germany) Muslim Converts in Germany: Angst-Ridden Germans Look for
Answers -- And Find Them in the Koran
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0%2C1518%2C460364%2C00.html
(Canada) Anti-Islam speech nixed at Ontario church after community
outrage
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ec1475f8-0488-4994-bfc2-297f3d4691ae&k=21973
(Australia) Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilal to run for Iemma's seat, says
report
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21093115-1702,00.html
(UK) Muslim store worker refuses smoker cigarettes
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=12267
London Times: Obama "was educated in madrassa"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2557001,00.html
Iranian student leader: Ayatollahs will run if Iran attacked
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354536,00.html
After years in jail, solitary confinement, torture and finally escape to US, Iranian student revolutionary leader Amir-Abbas Fakhr-Avar tells Ynet: Now is time for revolution, world must support Iranian people against regime
Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 01.20.07, 09:27
WASHINGTON - While United States Minister of Defense Robert Gates, along with many specialists on the matter, warn against a military attack on Iran, which in their view will entrap the Iranian people behind the Ayatollah regime, Iranian student leader Amir Abbas Fakhr-Avar believes an attack will have the reverse result.
In an exclusive interview with Ynet, Fakhr-Avar describes his blueprint for how to topple the regime. If the West launches a military attack on Iran , “The top brass will flee immediately. People will come out onto the streets protesting, why are we being bombed? Many of the regime’s mid-level officials will shave their beards, don ties and join the (civilians) on the streets.”
Fakhr-Avar exudes experience and wisdom far beyond his 31 years, after serving years of jail time, solitary confinement, torture and broken bones.
Fakhr-Avar, one of Iran’s student leaders, heads an organization numbering 12,000 students. According to a deal reached between Iran’s students and its regime, he was temporarily released from prison for academic testing, after serving half of an eight year sentence. He did not return. In May 2006 Fakhr-Avar managed to escape Iran and reach the United States.
He testified before the US Senate, met with President George W. Bush and senior administrators in the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as with experts and analysts on Iran, like Professor Bernard Lewis and others.
His message to the West is: Stop supporting the reformists in Iran. Help us topple the Ayatollah regime. He claims the time is right; all that is needed is a push from the West.
Fakhr-Avar believes the revolution can be accomplished within ten months to a year. He does not ask for much from the Americans: “What we really need is the tools,” he says. “Cell phones, computers, cameras, publication ability. This is the funding we need for our (revolutionary) activities, to coordinate within Iran and outside.”
Why are you convinced the Ayatollah regime can be overthrown?
There is a big difference between Shiite and Sunni mullahs. Foreigners may not know this. Many of the Sunni mullahs would pick up arms and fight, but the Shiite mullahs are not like that. Their hands, if you touch them, are softer than any woman’s hand. They’ve never fought.
They don’t know how to fight. They never get close to danger. When they feel a true threat, they escape. Look at the Shiite mullahs in Iraq during Saddam’s regime. None of them fought. When the US paved the way for them, now they’re barking."
Robert Gates in the senate portrayed a different outcome of an attack: That it would be a great danger to the world, that Iran would make terror in Europe, the US, close the Persian Gulf, stop oil, world crisis?
Our main purpose and help we can give the administration is to help them to decide better. They don’t know that society that well, they really don’t know the regime or the people. We need to help them – we being the opposition outside Iran.
In my testimony to the senate I told them a few things: Mainly that sanctions will help to make the regime weak, and that they need to put down the regime.
The outside world does not know much about Iran, maybe they know at best 10 percent of what is going on in Iran, what the people’s sentiments are. Seventy percent of the population is under the age of 30, but they’ve had grand experiences. They’ve been through post-revolution, war, robbery during (Akbar Hashemi) Rafsanjani’s era, so-called reform.
The Iranians inside Iran…They were led to believe that the Islamic regime is the best and all of that by the propaganda of the regime.
They have survived such conditions, under pressure, such as the covering of the girls. The head scarf, the way they dress is a protest, the way the talk is in a protest manner, even if they run a red a red light they are protesting the regime. You can see that in Iran – you aren’t supposed to wear tight fitting clothing, but the people do in protest. Even in London you see more women with their hair covered than in Tehran.
Fakhr-Avar admits that he and his friends, like the American administration, were wrong to believe former President Mohammad Khatami would promote reforms. "They did trust him the first time around in his first election. Aside from this, there was no other alternative."
When you talk with your friends in Iran on the mobile phone or through the internet, do you not put them in danger?
Not the mobiles, not the cell phones. They don’t have the technology to stop it, and there are too many. Right now they’re busy controlling each other’s mobiles – the mullahs, so that’s why some of these guys are doing it freely. However, landlines, they do control. But mobiles there are problems.
What is interesting is that the rest of the world believes in the information network of the Islamic regime is very strong, but that is not the case. They are extremely weak. They have a very low IQ.
How can you say that about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who seems to be doing whatever he wants, with total disregard for the international community?
Ahmadinejad is stupid. We’ve known him for the past 6-7 years from the political arena in Iran. When he was the mayor Tehran his plans were so stupid that people laughed at him. One of them was to pave the roadway that the 12th imam traveled on. He took all the intersections and removed the traffic signals so everyone can go where they want. A few months later they decided it was stupid and put them all back. It cost something like 2 billion dollars.
Ahmadinejad is the real face of the regime. Khatami was a lie. The Khatami government has us in jail while he was talking about civilization and reforms.
This is the opportune moment for us to have the population realize that the regime has taken them to neverland basically, they’re heading to annihilation, destruction. People are growing more informed. Khatami never said ‘we must wipe Israel off the face of the earth‘ – while he had that in mind, he never stated it. Now the Iranians know it.
Why do they care about Israel?
People in Iran react the opposite of what the regime says. If the regime says it’s day, they’ll close their eyes and say it’s night. Whatever the Islamic regime fights against- that becomes important to the Iranians. I don’t represent the entire population of course, but I can give you an idea of what are the sentiments. I was elected by the students and I speak for them. Remember, 70 percent are under age 30.
The older generation is stuck in the 70s, the youngsters speak a language the adults don’t understand
The majority of the population don’t care for Hizbullah or the Palestinian people, mostly because they see that their money is going to them.
Israel’s attack on Hizbullah was they best thing they’ve done in recent years. It helped to clean up the land from the terrorists, when they don’t have land they have no place to run troops, that’s why they drove Hizbullah crazy, regime in Iran wasn’t happy either. Right now UN is there so they can’t freely launch missiles towards Tel Aviv.
Israel should have taken over Lebanon . You have to be harsh and severe against terrorists. You can’t negotiate with them.
Jordan seeks nuclear power
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=January2007&file=World_News2007012072638.xml
Jordan seeks nuclear power
Web posted at: 1/20/2007 7:26:38
Source ::: AFP
JERUSALEM . Jordan wants to develop nuclear power for peaceful means,
King Abdullah II said in an interview with Israel's Haaretz daily
published yesterday.
"The Egyptians are looking for a nuclear programme. The GCC (Gulf
Cooperation Council) are looking at one, and we are actually looking at
nuclear power for peaceful and energy purposes. We've been discussing
it
with the West," he said.
"I personally believe that any country that has a nuclear programme
should conform to international regulations and should have
international regulatory bodies that check to make sure that any
nuclear
programme moves in the right direction," he told the liberal daily.
"The rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole
region. Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a
nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's going
for
nuclear programmes," the Jordanian king said.
Israel is considered the sole, albeit undeclared, nuclear power in the
region.
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