This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What's REALLY Going On In Odessa, Ukraine
Ukrainian War Crimes Whitewashed by Western Press
After more than 30 people died in a fire in the Ukrainian seaside resort town of Odessa, most of the Western press pretended that no one knows what happened or whose fault it was. For example, see these stories from the Guardian and BBC.
But USA Today reports:
Witnesses and journalists reported that as the building burned with people inside, a crowd shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Death to enemies!” [These are neo-Nazi slogans.]
***
[T]he Associated Press reported that the Russian sympathizers took refuge in the trade union hall on Kulikovo Field Square after government supporters rousted their encampment outside and then burned their tents. Police said the building was set on fire with Molotov cocktails.
At 5 seconds into this 15-second video, you can see a Molotov cocktail being thrown at the building in which the Russian sympathizers:
Former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter Robert Parry points out how bad New York Times coverage of the Odessa attack has been:
On Saturday, for instance, the dominant story from Ukraine was the killing of more than 30 ethnic Russian protesters by fire and smoke inhalation in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odessa. They had taken refuge in a union building after a clash with a pro-Kiev mob which reportedly included right-wing thugs.
Even the neocon-dominated Washington Post led its Saturday editions with the story of “Dozens killed in Ukraine fighting” and described the fatal incident this way: “Friday evening, a pro-Ukrainian mob attacked a camp where the pro-Russian supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to flee to a nearby government building, a witness said. The mob then threw gasoline bombs into the building. Police said 31 people were killed when they choked on smoke or jumped out of windows.
“Asked who had thrown the Molotov cocktails, pro-Ukrainian activist Diana Berg said, ‘Our people – but now they are helping them [the survivors] escape the building.’” [Here's the Post story.]
By contrast, here is how the New York Times reported the event in its Saturday editions as part of a story by C.J. Chivers and Noah Sneider focused on the successes of the pro-coup armed forces in overrunning some eastern Ukrainian rebel positions.
“Violence also erupted Friday in the previously calmer port city of Odessa, on the Black Sea, where dozens of people died in a fire related to clashes that broke out between protesters holding a march for Ukrainian unity and pro-Russian activists. The fighting itself left four dead and 12 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. Ukrainian and Russian news media showed images of buildings and debris burning, fire bombs being thrown and men armed with pistols.”
Note how the Times evades placing any responsibility on the pro-coup mob for trying to burn the “pro-Russian activists” out of a building, an act that resulted in the highest single-day death toll since the actual coup which left more than 80 people dead from Feb. 20-22. From reading the Times, you wouldn’t know who had died in the building and who had set the fire.
Billmon comments:
Not even “atrocities were commited,” just a fire “related” to clashes that “broke out.” Immaculate conception theory of war crimes.
Postscript: While the Western press tries to paint the percentage of neo Nazis within the new Ukrainian government as small, the leader of the “protests” which ousted the previous president of Ukraine is a neo Nazi and follower of WWII Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera, and neo Nazis are largely in control of the new government.
Whatever You Think of Putin, You Should Understand How Russia Thinks
Even if you think Putin is a tyrant with ambitions to build an imperial Russia, you can’t understand the war in Ukraine unless you understand how Russians think.
20 million Russians died fighting the Nazis in World War II.
Neo Nazis just killed at least 42 Russians when they firebombed a building in Odessa, Ukraine that the Russians had taken shelter in.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Russian official rhetoric has increasingly compared events in Ukraine to the darkest crimes of Nazi Germany, ahead of next week’s anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II.
***
The fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa that claimed at least 42 lives on Friday has been swiftly dubbed a new “reprisal raid” and even the “new Khatyn,” a reference to the Belarussian village where 149 residents were burned alive by the Nazis in 1943.
***
The Khatyn massacre went down in Russian history books as one of the Nazis’ most brutal “reprisal raids,” a term the Kremlin has now adopted to describe the offensive Kiev authorities have launched against pro-Moscow rebels in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk.
***
“What has happened, especially in the Trade Unions House, brings to mind the crimes of the Nazis during World War II,” pro-Kremlin lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told reporters in Moscow, referring to the Odessa fire.
“These are the new Khatyn and Auschwitz.”
A senior official in the pro-Kremlin government of Crimea, Ukraine’s peninsula taken over by Russia in March, chimed in.
“The last time people were burned alive in Ukraine was by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War,” Rustam Temirgaliyev said on Facebook, referring to the Russian name for World War II.
***
Russia’s losses and sacrifice during World War II remain a hugely sensitive subject in the country ….
To the extent that the U.S. and Nato are backing the right-wing Ukrainians, we are creating conditions that the Russian leadership – rightly or wrongly – considers an existential threat.
»
- advertisements -
The Political Secretary of the Malaysian Government is saying that CIA stole the airplane (MH-370) and sent it to Diego Garcia.
http://rt.com/op-edge/disappearance-malaysian-airlines-flight-373/
When sovereign governments publicly denigrate the USA government, is that conspiracy?
>>>
Conspiracy is when 'men of power' meet in secret, ergo its impossible for the keyboard army to be involved with conspiracy, when all they do is publicly 'rant'.
Lastly, if a groups of ant's can collude to move objects 100's of times larger than their own body mass, why can't it be theorized that humans are also capable of colluding as a group?
Huh? One person speaks and the whole country is given credit? Since when?
Men of power? So the peasants can't "collude" ? Stop thinking about "men of power" as the problem. Evil triumphs when (good men) do nothing.
The problem is the 'good men' that do nothing. The evil is there, it always has been and always will. The key is the 'good men' (and women for the gender conscious) that do nothing!
Telling me over and over about the bad men conspiring and causing the world problems is of ZERO value. Tell me what the 'good men' are doing to combat theh bad men.
As GW does, and he is very good at it, I could tell you all kinds of bad/evil things that people are up to, on a daily basis. That solves NOTHING! On the other hand, if I told that Joe the baker, (a good man) was suing the local city counsel for violating his rights, it might be something you could identify with and get involved with. You might make a difference.
It's easier to sit around complain about all the crap than it is to get dirty and do something about the crap yourself.
I have come to enjoy reading GW articles, despite all the blog links, it is just that I would like to read about the 'good guys' that are trying to do something about all the 'evil guys'.
As for the flight 373, the US is supposed to be able to detect a watermelon entering the earths atmosphere, via NORAD. (maybe only North America)
Look for it in Pakistan. Not even Capt. Skully could land on a smooth river without parts of the aircraft tearing off. And these pilots, in the dark, landed in rough seas and there is NO debis? No way!
I think we (the Gov) knows exactly where it is and will eventually take care of it. The passengers? All dead when the pilots went to 40+ thousand and decompressed. Just my thoughts. No comspiracy here, just evil men doing evil things.
So this is why Neitzsche said there is no good nor evil, only will to power.
It's hard to admit that 6-7 years ago I used to watch FOX regularly and watched as much MSNBC and CNN as I could stomach to make sure I was getting enough info to form a balanced opinion LMFAO! Today I watch no TV news and when I do try to stay up on current events that aren't happening within 1000 yards of my doorstep I feel that part of tripping balls on psilocybin where you have very little clue what is real and what is not and are just glad to be far far away from anyone besides a few trusted fellow trippers. I have been forced to the same method I always resort to when lost in a whiteout hunting or running home in the boat after dark and my gut is telling me the stories posted on ZH are generally closer to right than wrong and the shill* factor has increased a bunch over the past few months.
*the shill, not to be confused with the troll who mostly wants attention, is a paid or unpaid possibly even unknowing accomplice of a disinformation campaign....
You got that part right!
The Russian Communist and their Commissars starved several million Ukranians to death in WWII - no tears for the 20 million dead Reds, who slaughtered another 20 million central Europeans - the Fascist had it right.
You wanna go back a few years? OK here is another narrative.
You bastard Usan Capitailists killed millions during your Korean War, more millions during your Vietnam War, more millions during your Afghan and Iraq wars ... in fact your Republic has been at permanent war for 91% of the time since 1776.
The longest period of "no war" was about five years, during the Great Depression.
Trouble with nearly all Usans is they don't have a clue even about their own history, e.g. they imagine that the Founding Fathers were "democrats", whereas they were oligargachs who had NO intention of giving the plebs any say in things.
I was talking with some young expats recently, their education a joke btw, and this notion of Capitalism being different than other -isms needs extreme revision.
Capitalism is just an economy where you save and start a business.
The other -isms can exist at the same time.
So you can have a Fascistic government with a Capitalistic society, a Socialist/Capitalist, Communist/Capitalist, Democracy/Capitalist, Feudalist/Capitalist, etc.
Capitalism is neither of the right nor left (revision of that errant meme at another time...).
seven to eleven million -KULAKS- were killed, that about eliminated kulaks. Who knows what payback that was? They lived in so called ukraine. Other ukrainians were not starved. Mao killed, 45 million, of a selected group using same methods, that figure is from the guy who made himself the expert on that subject.
The british did the same thing over and over in India. But, folks wont be -preppers-. WIth just in time food supplies, it will be a piece of cake to depopulate. Wont you take 20 bucks a week and start a prepper food stockpile?
You sure fascist tools had anything "right"? Or the so called commies? No heros in that insane theater piece. Those that toasted their "success" in staging ww2 (three actually, the first world war was during the time of the french and indian war.) were neither fascist nor communist.
The problem is that Europeans think by banning words, speech and thought that they will prevent people from having ideas.
Conservative==Right Wing==Neo-Nazi in Europe.
Not much can be done to correct this errant 'thinking process'.
Banning Neo-Nazi's came about to make any idea beyond the political centre persona non grata and dead upon arrival in Europe so that socialism (NAZI stands for Nationalsozialismus or National Socialism, the irony is beyond European's mindset) could win, but without any National fervor so that Political Correctness could destroy those societies from within.
Meanwhile Russia and Putin can have an extremely nationalistic and ethno-centric agenda but no one calls them on it and most posts and comments here on ZH are pro-Russia to the extreme.
Truth. No longer on the menu.
Personally, I've been having fun with these socialist oligarch freaks.
Obama=Bad...Putin=Good.
All my dreams of clarity have come true ;-)
Go on ignoring evidence that in the present day the US is a more rampant socialist oligarchy than Russia, the same way you chose to ignore 911.
A true patriot you are.
Thanks for the corroboration. And the false choice is, we are supposed to choose between these two evils?
That sort of patriotism will get you killed for nothing.
"Former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter Robert Parry points out how bad New York Times coverage of the Odessa attack has been. ..."
The NYT is now the Goebbels Division of the oval office. This wasn't bad coverage--it is precisely what Obama ordered. The demise of the NYT into fishwrap is identical to the death of CNN, which used to be a national treasure also.
Hilariously, there is actually a federal law prohibiting the government from engaging in propaganda.
The demise of the NYT into fishwrap is identical to the death of CNN, which used to be a national treasure also.
It's late and I was in the sun all day so I'm assuming I missed the sarcasm emphasis......I hope it is clear to all now that all TV and most print/internet media IS the public relations arm of the new world order who pull the strings attached to "your" elected reps and nothing more.
None Dare Call it Conspiracy
The MSM web sites - Yahoo, MSN and any other mainstream portal - are so bad, so trite, so obviously targeted to 14 year old girls that I simply ignore them now.
WN.com is ok, but it has a clearly pro-Russian bias.
Google news aggregate is fair, but it's mostly big MSM names that get top fold views.
Best, of course, are a variety of blogs that cover various subjects.
ZH and TF are good sites that draw commenters that have deep and broad knowledge, but they don't last forever.
Too tired to check, but I think that law went out the window last year as part of the NDAA
"Even if you think Putin is a tyrant with ambitions to build an imperial Russia,..."
I do.
"...you can’t understand the war in Ukraine unless you understand how Russians think."
Good luck with that.
"20 million Russians died fighting the Nazis in World War II."
Yes...and how many died at their own countrymens hands with Stalins Order 227?
The Shtrafbat (penal battalions) sent Forward! to clear minefields with their feet. There could be any number of reasons why a Russian could (by misfortune) wind up in one of these units, ideology (not having your mind right) disobeying an order, petty infraction or crime or some functionary just didn't like you.
It was basically a death sentence, cannon fodder and you would either die advancing or be shot by your own for retreating, dark secrets.
The socialist/communist mind doesn't think like us George, whether its fascist or communist.
How many died?
'Americans' love to paint the nazi war machine as the best killer that was.
Now if the soviet killed a large number of what shows the nazi war machine as the greatest machine of them all, it provides an issue on who the champ is.
'Americans' though are not bothered with consistency one second.
They can claim that the nazi war machine was the best just as for the minute later, tells that actually, the soviet machine was the best.
As to the number of people killed by the article, it is documented.
Don't hurt your eyes peering down this rabbit hole Komrade AnAnonymous...the Chi-Coms have their Commissar's too.
It seems to be a unique feature of communist/socialist states ;-)
Lulz the corp mind must truly understand that socialist/communistic mind!
A corporation doesn't have a mind.
From about 2 weeks ago:
Tusk promotes energy independence planhttp://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/34758/
France and Poland put forward a proposal for a European energy community on Thursday, April 24, to counter the dependence of some European countries on Russian gas, reports AFP. French President Francois Hollande and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the proposal, against the background of the Ukraine crisis, for discussion at a European summit on energy policy in June.
Hollande said in a joint statement that the purpose was to make "Europe more independent, more coherent, more cooperative in its energy policy." France and Poland were putting forward a plan with six points to convince all members of the European Union to head towards "the European energy community," he said.
Tusk said that the proposal would serve the interests of the entire European Union which, he said was in a "critical situation" in view of the crisis in Ukraine. The European Union could no longer be so dependent on Russian gas, he said.
''The EU has to invest in infrastructure which would connect all of its members to a network of gas pipelines, and also had to push forward with new sources of energy,'' he added.
Tusk raised the possibility of the EU buying liquefied gas from the United States or from Australia, saying steps in these directions should be made as soon as possible. Countries to the south, in the Mediterranean basin could also be important suppliers, he said.
Tusk said that President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy had expressed support for the French-Polish proposal and that experts working for the President of the European Commission were already working on the proposals for the summit in June.
UPDATE: Published today...
U.S. gas companies could enter Latvia in about two years - Straujumahttp://www.leta.lv/eng/home/important/23A17A5A-8AB6-4C3F-94D1-466C41B60D34/
RIGA, May 3 (LETA) - In a conversation with LETA, after returning from her visit to the United States, Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma (Unity) said that U.S. gas companies could enter the Latvian market in about two years.
Straujuma, who had meetings with representatives from U.S. gas companies earlier this week, presented their calculations on investments in Latvia. According to these calculations, the price of U.S. gas is competitive to what Russia is offering.
''Now we must do our homework and decide on our energy independence,'' Straujuma said.
According to her, it could take about two years before a U.S. energy company enters the Latvian market. In order for this to happen, Latvia must solve several technical matters in the ground, like, for example, access to a regional liquefied natural gas terminal.
Straujuma said that U.S. exports of gas to European and NATO countries was one of the main topics discussed during her meeting with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in Washington earlier this week.
Allowing events to deteriorate into a major war or possibly into what some see as World War III is becoming a reality. As insane as it appears this could become the final outcome.
Some people think we can just go in and kick Putin's ass. I think they underesimate Russia's resolve. The location of this as a military confrontation is right in Putin's backyard and this is a strong advantage for Russia. It is silly to think Putin and Russia will back down. This means poking the bear is not a smart move. It should be noted the military of Ukraine is divided and extremely weak. More about this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/04/war-in-ukraine-bad-idea_26.html
re What's Really Going On in Ukraine
RUSSZA vs Russia
(RUSSZA: Rogue United Stasi States of ZIO-America)
US Refuses To Take Back 13 Dead CIA Spies Killed In Ukraine
"...... the Kremlin today states that the United States has refused to repatriate the bodies of 13 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) military operatives killed when their helicopters were shot down by pro-federalist forces on the outskirts of Slavyansk, eastern Ukraine this past Friday.
According to this report, on 2 May the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion of the 25th Separate Dnipropetrovsk Airborne Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, which had defected to the side of the pro-federalists in April, fired upon and downed two Russian made Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force that had been attempting to land CIA military “command and control” operatives into the battle zone of Slavyansk."
Of the 14 CIA military operatives aboard the two Mil Mi-17’s, this report continues, only one survived, who was initially identified as Captain Savuilov [photo 2nd left], but whose subsequent questioning revealed him to be an employee of the American mercenary company named Greystone Ltd."
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1767.htm
These aren't dead CIA guys--these are dead mercs from one of the endless renames of Blackwater.
Had me worried there for a moment.
Even if they were CIA, nobody would ever be able to ADMIT so, nobody dead or alive is allowed to admit they're CIA.
The Colonel used to say "Anybody that Say's he's CIA is either a liar or a traitor", ... that goes for dead men too.
If your waiting for the USA to admit they were 'CIA' that will be a cold day in hell,
>>>
Lastly, +90% of CIA are ANALYSTS, most wet-op, black bag work is done by 'contractors', who are generally retired special forces.
Lots of time the CIA call's in active duty NAVY-SEALS to do sniping or observation, or blow stuff up, but nobody would call them 'CIA', they're still navy-seals. But the rules of engagement are the same, if a SEAL is called in for such a CIA OP, it never happened and he was never there, FOREVER. He can never in his life tell anybody about an OP, or even his family.
This story was reading well until this was slipped in:
"Neo Nazis just killed at least 42 Russians when they firebombed a building in Odessa, Ukraine that the Russians had taken shelter in."
Huh? Maybe that is what happened but no proof, no link was provided. Reminds me of US media stories during the Iraq war and even 9-11 aftermath. Reading right along, agreeing, and than the writer zips in a total unfounded statement. All have the hallmarks of propaganda. George Washington, whose blog I would like to believe, unfortunately now has to be viewed with the same suspicion as the CIA infiltrated CNN.
Bad showing, George. Who is writing your stuff?
http://rt.com/op-edge/156632-odessa-burnt-protesters-ukraine/
If you were a dog we would rub your own shit in your face.
The USA will pay for this.
Pic of girl in blue and yellow neckerchief filling beer bottle molotavs in Odessa was posted here on ZH not two days ago. Where were you? Neo-nazi? I can't say, she was too busy to stop and salute.
The failure to reset the relationship after the end of the Cold War was the lost opportunity of our time...truly a blunder on a scale we haven't even seen the half of yet...
Neocon Washington Post? Are you using the term in the sense that low level leftists use it ie; 'yuk, yuk, we get to call the bastards cons' which is the extent of their comprehension of the term. Or do you mean the Post is populated with Jewish former liberals who have seen the light and have come to be called Neo conservatives? Or perhaps you meant it to be a droll irony easily descerned by the sophisticated denizens of ZH, we could probably use an emoticon for droll irony.
It's ODD that WASH-PO published SNOWDEN, but everybody in HELL, WASH-DC, ... knows that WASH-PO is home to the AIPAC's most influential all star team in the city.
In other words WASH-PO is command&control for AIPAC in WASH-DC, ... would anybody else here expect any different from them?
WASH-POST is AIPAC, but its also HOME to the MOST powerful AIPAC Journalists in AmeriKKKa.
Novictim has an awfully big mouth for someone who just recently joint fight club. 34 weeks only. Joined around the time the troubles started in Ukraine. And he can only comment on that, nothing else.
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/04/another-nyt-sort-of-retraction-on-u...
Exclusive: The mainstream U.S. media likes to talk about Ukraine as an “information war,” meaning that the Russians are making stuff up. But the false narratives are actually being hatched more on the U.S. side, as a new New York Times story acknowledges, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The New York Times, which has asserted for weeks that the Russian government is behind the unrest in Ukraine’s east, finally sent some reporters to the region to dig up the proof, but all they found were eastern Ukrainians upset by the coup regime in Kiev that replaced President Viktor Yanukovych.
The Times, which has been an unapologetic promoter of the “pro-democracy” uprising that ousted the democratically elected president through violent extra-constitutional means, has recently been promoting the “theme” that Ukrainians would be happy with their new unelected government if only the Russians weren’t “destabilizing eastern Ukraine.”
Times’ editors thought they had the goods two weeks ago with a front-page scoopfeaturing photographs supposedly proving the presence of Russian special forces troops. According to the Times, the photos “clearly” showed Russian special forces in Russia and then the same soldiers in eastern Ukraine.
However, only two days later, the scoopunraveled when it turned out that a key photo – supposedly showing a group of soldiers in Russia who later appeared in eastern Ukraine – was actually taken in Ukraine, destroying the premise of the entire story.
So, the Times belatedly dispatched reporters C.J. Chivers and Noah Sneider to Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine to talk with the militants who are opposing the coup regime in Kiev. To their credit, the two reporters actually seem to have recounted what they found, albeit with some of the anti-Russian bias that is now deeply embedded in the Western media narrative.
Noting that Moscow says the Ukrainian militants are not part of the Russian armed forces while “Western officials and the Ukrainian government insist that Russians have led, organized and equipped the fighters,” the reporters write:
“A deeper look at the 12th Company [of the People’s Militia] — during more than a week of visiting its checkpoints, interviewing its fighters and observing them in action against a Ukrainian military advance here on Friday — shows that in its case neither portrayal captures the full story.
Robert Parry is probably the top American reporter writing on Ukraine right now. He's a former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter, who broke alot of the biggest scoops on Iran-Contra.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-to-prosecute-crimean-t...
Thousands of Crimean Tatars on Saturday responded to news that their spiritual leader had been banned from the peninsula by blocking several highways in a tense standoff with riot police — the first sign that the Muslim ethnic group's discontent with Russian authorities may lead to turmoil.
On Saturday, Crimean authorities promised to dish out criminal charges to the group, which numbered about five thousand, according to the BBC Russian service. The group broke through border posts near the city of Armyansk and crossed the border into the buffer zone between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula to meet Mustafa Dzhemilev, former head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the ethnic group's representative body.
The group blocked several highways near Simferopol, Bakhchysarai, Stary Krym, Yevpatoriya and Oktyabrskoye, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
The incident seems to vindicate analysts' earlier warnings that the Muslim ethnic group's disaffection with Russian authorities may lead to instability in the region. Many Crimean Tatars, who account for more than 10 percent of the Crimean peninsula's population, opposed the territory's annexation by Russia in March.
"Before the annexation many predicted that Crimean Tatars would become a headache for Russians, and now the head is already aching," said Alexei Malashenko, an Islamic studies expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Malashenko warned that such protests could eventually destabilize Crimea, adding that some Crimean Tatars had already joined the Hizb-ut-Tahrir Islamist organization and even fought in Syria.
He attributed the strained ties between Crimean Tatars and Russia to "bad blood" left over from Nazi Germany, when some Crimean Tatars collaborated with Germany during its occupation of the peninsula in 1942 to 1943, and Stalin used this as an excuse for deporting the entire group to Uzbekistan in 1944.
Crimean authorities were quick to demonstrate that they would not tolerate such disorder, however.
---------------------
Thousands flee Syria rebel infightinghttp://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/04/us-syria-crisis-infighting-idU...
(Reuters) - Fighting between al Qaeda's Syria branch and a splinter group in eastern Syria has forced more than 60,000 people to flee their homes, emptied villages and killed scores of fighters, a monitoring group said.
Fighters from the al Qaeda branch, the Nusra Front, also arrested a rebel commander from a more moderate group and several other insurgent leaders in a southern province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Infighting among insurgents has undermined the three-year-old rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad and killed thousands of people since the start of the year.
The conflict has pitted hardline Islamists against more moderate insurgents, but disputes over turf and resources have also turned radical factions against one another, most recently in the oil-producing eastern province of Deir al-Zor.
The British-based Observatory said the Nusra Front had taken over control of the town of Abreeha from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a former al Qaeda affiliate formally disowned by the group this year.
------------
Syria approves 3 candidates to run for presidency
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/04/c_133309148.htm
DAMASCUS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Syria's supreme constitutional court has accepted the candidacy of three contenders, including incumbent President Bashar Assad out of the 24 people who have registered for the June 3 presidential elections.
The court, tasked with overseeing the elections' process, has rejected the applications of the other 21 contenders, saying their bids haven't met the constitutional and legal conditions, the media spokesman of the court Amjad al-Khadra made the announcement Sunday.
Still, the court has left the door ajar for the discarded contenders to file petitions to the court within three days following Sunday's announcement.
Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, Hassan al-Nouri and incumbent President Bashar al-Assad have got the court's approval, said al- Khadra. Hajjar, a Syrian parliamentarian, was the first to submit application for the presidential elections.
According to the state news agency SANA, Hajjar was born in Aleppo in 1968, hailing from a family well-known in religious teaching.
Meanwhile, Hassan al-Nouri, 54, declared his candidacy for the June 3 elections, a day after lawmaker Maher Hajjar announced his bid for the top post.
Al-Nouri served as minister of administrative development and minister of state for parliamentary affairs from 2000 to 2002. He also served as the general secretary of the Chamber of Industry from 1997 to 2000, and was a member of Syrian Parliament from 1998 to 2003.
Those two people, who haven't been publicly known ahead of the elections, are now running against Assad, who was the seventh to register his candidacy.
-----------
Chinese police hunt 10 relatives of Xinjiang train station bomber
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/04/chinese-police-relatives-se...
Chinese police are hunting 10 family members of a bomber whoattacked a train station in the far-western Xinjiang region last week, as high-level authorities, rattled by the incident, seek to rush the introduction of an anti-terrorism law.
The attack killed three people and injured 79 in the regional capital Urumqi at 7.10pm on Wednesday, hours after China's president Xi Jinping wrapped up a four-day trip to the region. State media blamed two "religious extremists" for the attack, both of whom died in the blast. Only one has been identified: Sedirdin Sawut, a 39-year-old man from Aksu prefecture, an arid, cotton-growing area in the region's south.
Xinjiang police have posted a notice offering a 100,000 yuan (£9,470) reward for more information on the suspects' movements before the attack, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper. They also urged local authorities to track down 10 of Sawut's family members, including his wife, brothers, cousins, 69-year-old father and 77-year-old father-in-law. A headshot of Sawut from a police notice shows a fair-skinned man with a narrow face, bushy moustache, and short black hair.
Xinjiang, a resource-rich and strategically located swath of deserts and mountains in China's far north-west, has been under Beijing's control since 1949. More than 40% of its 22 million people are Uighur, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group with strong cultural ties to central Asia.
In the past year, more than 100 people have died in attacks in the region, most of them clashes between Uighurs and local police. Uighur groups abroad call the attacks a cry of despair caused by religious repression and economic marginalisation. The government defends its regional policies as open and tolerant, blaming the attacks on religious extremism and "hostile forces" from abroad.
---------------
Kenya says Chinese premier's visit crucial to east Africa
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2014-05/03/c_133307205.htm
NAIROBI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese premier's visit to Kenya is crucial for development of the east Africa region, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday.
President Kenyatta, who held a talk with the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa in Nairobi, said that Premier Li Keqiang's visit is a game charger in terms of boosting bilateral relations and development of the region...
...During the meeting, President Kenyatta said this region requires a strong partner who will not only support it in economic ventures but also in peace settlement.
China has intensified investments in Kenya with bilateral trade increasing to 3.27 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, according to statistics from the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. China also has become Kenya's biggest foreign direct investments source.
the russians most empaticcally face an exisential threat, and their failure to repel the americans will seal their fate.
The Ukraine has to erase the Ruskies in Ukraine or they don't get paid by the IMF to pay the Ruskies. I think the current number to be paid is about $17B.
That's a lotta perogies!!!!
Get it??
Burnt, shot or drowned. It really doesn't matter.
Another look at what's going on in Ukraine, and what a winning strategy would look like. I don't know this site, can't vouch for it, but this analysis feels right. What is unfolding in Ukraine is evidently a popular revolution, one that will either win or be crushed in blood.
.....................................
The Fate of Donetsk is being decided in Kharkov http:/links.org.au/node/8382
... the militia members succeed from time to time in seizing new buildings or in raising the republic’s flag over new populated areas. These small victories raise the spirits of the resistance and in a minor way improve its tactical situation, but do not create the conditions for a strategic breakthrough. ... “defence is the ruination of a revolt.” ...
A breakthrough in the development of the struggle in south-eastern Ukraine will only occur when the largest regional centres, above all Kharkov and Odessa, join in the movement. Clearly, the authorities in Kiev understand this perfectly, since they are using all available means to try to maintain their control over these regions and to seal them off from the Donetsk republic. The experience of the past few days has shown that for mass protests to develop in these centres, the slogans of brotherhood with Russia and of defending the Russian language will be completely inadequate on their own.
A broadening of the social base of the uprising will depend on its program, on the goals and slogans that it advances. Against the background of an inexorably worsening economic situation, only demands aimed at satisfying the urgent needs of the masses can serve to mobilise the huge numbers of people who now sympathise with the rebel republic, but who are not ready to stand beneath its banner.
It is perfectly possible to put forward an anti-oligarchic social program today, and such a program does not even have to be exclusively left-wing or socialist. It is enough to call for nationalisation of the property of those Ukrainian oligarchs who have openly associated themselves with the Kiev regime, and to demand that these assets be directed toward the solving of social problems,...
......................
My comment:
Maybe Putin would go to war to save the Russians and anti-fascists of Ukraine. I think that more likely than the author of this article apparently does, for the reasons George Washington lays out, and also because Putin is showing himself to be a more extraordinary and less corrupt leader than his history and alliances would lead one to expect. Yet he clearly (and wisely) doesn't want a war with NATO, and it seems likely he will play for time at the expense of the people of East Ukraine if he has to.
The ball is in the court of the people of Ukraine, Russian and Ukranian.
Novictum: If Russia stands for one thing then that thing is CORRUPTION. It is corruption on the level of oligarchs directly raiding the till and funneling state money into private bank accounts.
Corruption in Western politics due to political influence peddling is one thing but RUSSIA takes the cake for full contact State criminality.
Pure nonsense. you can say EXACTLY the same thing about USSA. Where have you been hiding?
Do you see Russia going all around the world and shaking down countries?
...didn't think so.
Somebody is about to get mauled by an angry bear.
George,
What s this BS "right wing" tag you are applying to the Ukrainian IMF / US State dept employees? The State Dept of the US is a totally left wing fascist organization. Since when is the IMF a right wing organization.?
NeoCons are not right wing. They are really the neo Bolsheviks. I will expect a correction or at least an amplification.
Left, right, liberal, conservative, fascist, socialist, communist, Nazi, the words get thrown around and twisted until there's nothing left but tools for activating the listener's reptile-brain.
It's worth going back to study what these words meant historically. And you could do worse than starting with Orwell in trying to understand how they get twisted. Words, when they have specific meanings, are tools to think with, and when they get twisted around to mean their opposite and then the opposite of that, we loose those tools and our power to think is weakened. But for now, it might be good to just tune them out and keep focusing on whose interests and what program do groups and leaders represent.
THe Ukrainian IMF/US State Dept. employees clearly are promoting a program of division and hatred between ethnic groups that had been living together in peace for generations, promoting agents who resort to bullying, terror and murder, whose program will lead to the further impoverishment of the Ukrainian people and the further enrichment of its corrupt oligarchs, while delivering the country's resources and wealth to a predatory global power and puts it on the front line in a new world war that will likely destroy it utterly.
Is that Right Wing? Left Wing? Fascist? Communist? Put whatever label you want on it, it's pretty ugly.
And it's being done in "our" name.
"Living in peace for generations" ???? Bwaaaaaahhhhh! Ask a Ukrainian about the massive starvation in the 1930's. Ask them how peaceful it was. Unless of course you mean the peace of the mass grave.
"The State Dept of the US is a totally left wing fascist organization."
Jaysus kerist, clown ass, that is even more simpleton than your usual drivel: Victoria Nuland, who claims Julian Assange to be a terrorist, is a neocon of neocons and her hubby, Robert Kagan, was a founding member of the Project for a New American Century (Dick Cheney, R. James Woolsey and the usual suspects, etc.)
Neocon Marc Grossman was not only a Bush inner circle dood, but a relative of George Weasel Bush.
And don't get me started on the IMF, you moron!
Your homework assignment, oh militantly ignorant one: read the Wikileaked State Department cables, as you cannot even find your own vagina, dood!
Doom - Who the fuck do you think you are addressing lil boy? You are a simple, fucking monosyllabic windbag.
Your analysis above is so fecking short sighted, as is GW's "right wing" State Dept tag. Don't fuck wit me you low brow fuck wit.
Your comments are straight from NPR. I'll feckin set you straight with some insight if you have enough feckin IQ points to follow along. Otherwise shut yer ignorant feckin trap...
The Mossad ain't Jewish
The CIA ain't Christian
Left, Right really depend where you are on the Continuum, or if you are even on the Continuum.
That's why if you watch closely with what most of us OLD-TIMER's in life say, ... is that we call the USA-EMPIRE a "KLEPTOCRACY", e.g. a government ran by common criminals.
Now you have every right to diss GW about his use of the word 'RIGHT', but it has no fucking meaning. Everything is about CORRUPTION and THEFT.
Is Obama a liberal? Fuck no; Was HITLER left or RIGHT? Who gives a FUCK, both OBAMA & HITLER are both on BUSH/CHENEY 'ancestral payroll'; They can be what ever you want them to be because they are/were paid actors.
Is Pelosi/Feinstein are the liberal whores or right wing bitches? Who gives a fuck, label them as you wish they still need to be taken out and SHOT, just like Hillary Clinton?
Is the bitch from HELL, Hillary is she left or right? Top or bottom? Who gives a flying fuck, she's an evil fucking bitch.
>>>
Is BUSH, OBAMA, KERRY, ... are all the players KLEPTOCRATS? FUCK YES
End of story.
Long ago I used to say "It ain't left, right, top, or bottom; Its the fucking god-damn CORRUPTION".
>>>
HITLER came from the left in the 1920's the HIPPIES of that ERA loved his ARSE, one could hardly call him right until 1934, but then one could just call him an asshole, what difference does it MAKE? He was on BUSH/FORD, and Rockefellers payroll all along, and he would be anything the PAYMASTER wished.
What would feel better to be fucked in the ASS by OBAMA or by Dick Cheney? Would you rather be reamed in the ASS by a hot poker by Hillary or Netanyahu?
All labels are designed to "DIVIDE AND CONQUER' we the People.
You just have to ask yourself, are you with the KLEPTOCRAT's or not?
Neocons and Neoliberals: Two Masks, One Face ...
The Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives ...