“a scenario they had prepared for us”

[Putin and Medvedev understand exactly what is going on in N. Africa and the Middle East, and who is behind it all, but knowing that "They" are behind the "sand-colored revolutions" and doing anything about it are not the same thing.  If the CIA activates the N. Caucasus branch of its revolutionary madness to such a degree that it stands in the way of Kremlin plans, then Putin will do what he must.  Read their words below from the Google translation and read between the lines.]

He added that the impact of these shocks will affect not only the North Caucasus, but in all countries, including European states

Putin hinted that the Revolution in the Maghreb countries are influenced from the outside: no need of such

He stated this at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on the results of the plenary session of the Russian government and the EU Commission in Brussels on Thursday

Global Look Press

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Moscow’s partners in the West against attempts from without hastening democratic processes in other countries in connection with events in North Africa

Global Look Press

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Moscow’s partners in the West against attempts from without hastening democratic processes in other countries in connection with events in North Africa. He stated this at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on the results of the plenary session of the Russian government and the EU Commission in Brussels on Thursday.

Putin responded affirmatively to the question of European journalists about the cause if he has any concern about events in the Middle East and their possible “echo” in Russia’s North Caucasus, but added that the impact of these shocks will affect not only the North Caucasus, but in all countries including European countries, ITAR-TASS.

“We are concerned, firstly, the number of casualties in the events in North Africa. We are concerned that despite the soothing theses about what is to come to power and the growing influence of radical groups in northern Africa, it is unlikely all did it bother us. And if that happens, it can not affect other parts of the world, including, of course, and the North Caucasus “, – stressed the head of the Russian government.

“You know – continued Putin – today we express concern about what is happening in Libya . Pay attention – and North African cell of al-Qaida, too, is concerned about what is happening in Libya. It’s just a coincidence? “

Putin recalled that the former leader of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini until his return to Tehran and the overthrow of the shah’s regime lived in Paris and the West’s policy of “inoculation of democracy in the Palestinian territories caused bloody clashes and resulted in a nasty power for many in the West, a radical organization Hamas .

“We need to let people decide their own fate and their future – said the Russian prime minister. – We must give them an opportunity in a natural way without any interference from outside to build their own destiny.” ”Society must move toward democratic institutions, to regulate itself, the device their own way, based on the internal processes of development”, – said Putin.

Recall the other day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev condemned therevolution in the Arab world. In his view, this may lead to the disintegration of states and the rise to power of fanatics and extremists. At the same time, Medvedev pledged that Russia will not like that. ”Such a scenario they had prepared for us, and even more so now they will try to implement it – in any case, this scenario will not work” – the Russian leader said, without explaining who was meant by “they.”

Previously, we recall a number of foreign politicians, including U.S. Sen. John McCain and former British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton , had prophesied a repetition of the Kremlin Egyptian script, where mass protests led to the overthrow of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for almost 30 years.

Simultaneously, the First Vice Prime Minister Igor Sechin, in an interview withthe newspaper The Wall Street Journal called for an examination, “What did you do in Egypt, the top managers of Google, any manipulation of the energy of the people took place there.”

Related links:

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Medvedev denounced the revolution in the Arab world and pledged that Russia is not held
/ / NEWSru.com / / In Russian / / February 22, 2011

U.S. senator: the overthrow Mubarak – a warning to Putin and his clique of KGB “
/ / NEWSru.com / / Around the world / / February 15, 2011

Former British ambassador warned Moscow: Russian paranoiacs threatens Egyptian script
/ / NEWSru.com / / In Russian / / February 21, 2011

Frankfurt Shooter Motivated By YouTube Video of Brutal American Raid In Afghanistan

Frankfurt attack was ‘Afghanistan revenge’

German police and US soldiers gather after a gunman fired shots at US soldiers on a bus outside Frankfurt airport.

BERLIN: German prosecutors said Friday that an alleged Islamic radical accused of shooting dead two US airmen at Frankfurt airport did so in revenge for Afghanistan but had no links to international extremists.

The 21-year-old carried out the attack on Wednesday “because he wanted to take revenge for the US intervention in Afghanistan,” federal prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum told reporters.

The shooter, originally from Kosovo but living in Germany, arrested immediately afterwards in the terminal building, told investigators he “saw a video on the Internet portal YouTube the day before the act,” Griesbaum said.

“In this video, American soldiers apparently raided a Muslim house and raped the daughter of the family,” he added.

“He said he could not get the pictures out of his head and wanted with his actions to prevent American soldiers going to Afghanistan and carrying out such acts,” added the prosecutor.

Griesbaum said however that there were no indications that the alleged gunman, who had with him 10 magazines with 14 bullets each plus two knives, had links to any “international terrorist groups.”

He shot the first airman in the back of the head at point-blank range after asking him for a cigarette outside their bus and asking if he was being deployed to Afghanistan, the prosecutor said.

He then boarded the bus, cried “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is Greatest”) and shot the driver in the head, killing him. He then shot two others before putting the gun to the head of another serviceman and pulling the trigger twice, Griesbaum said.

The gun jammed however, the prosecutor said.

The man then fled into the terminal building, but the serviceman whom he had just tried to kill followed him and apprehended him with help of German police.

The attack, if confirmed as such, was the first Islamic extremist attack on German soil.

It also left two airmen seriously injured, one of them fighting for his life in a Frankfurt hospital. The other was in intensive care.

Late Thursday, the US Air Force identified the dead servicemen as Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, of Williamston, South Carolina, and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21, of Stanardsville, Virginia.

A “saddened and outraged” US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that Washington would “spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place.”

A top German lawmaker called Friday for the expulsion of “hate preachers” after a suspected Islamic radical from Kosovo but living in Frankfurt shot dead two US servicemen at the city’s airport.

“Religious freedom does not mean the freedom to do anything you like,” said Wolfgang Bosbach, from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party and chairman of the German parliament’s home affairs committee.

“Whoever preaches hate in Germany must leave,” he told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung (NOZ) regional daily.

- AFP/cc

 

Ukrainian Coal Miners Still Waiting for Wages–All Year, So Far

[SEE: Ukrainian Coal Miners Seeking Back Wages? ]

source

[Ukraine's coal miners are the backbone of the steel industry and the power industry.  They never stop working, normally, in many cases, under very primitive conditions, in dark, damp, cramped tunnels.

SELF-EMPLOYED COAL MINERS in the UKRAINE, posted with vodpod

Miners in Yenakiyeve threaten to go on strike

AFP

Today at 11:35 | Interfax-Ukraine

Kyiv, March 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The staff of the Chervony Zhovten water pump mine in Yenakiyeve, Donetsk region, have said they are ready to go on strike due to wage arrears.

The miners “are on the verge of a social explosion, they have not been paid this year,” the Mining Industry Workers Union has reported on its Web site.

According to the union, the administration of the state-run enterprise Ukrshakhtgidrozakhyst (which owns the mine) has recently said “There is no money, don’t even wait for it,” citing delays by the Ukrainian cabinet, which has not approved a decree governing the release of funds to Ukrshakhtgidrozakhyst enterprises.

“The people are outraged to the limit. How much more can they test their patience?! Last summer, only a threat to stop the water pumping machines made the Mining Industry Ministry remember about us and pay us wages for four months, and now we have the situation again,” Yuriy Teslia, chairman of the mine’s union, said.

Waters from the region’s mining enterprises are flowing into the Chervony Zhovten mine and a halt of its operations may be catastrophic for Yenakiyevo.

If the water pumping machines stop working, residential territories and mines will be flooded and the problem of one state-run enterprise will cause a city-scale environmental catastrophe, in which people may be hurt.

U.S. trial for Viktor Bout is delayed

U.S. trial for ex-Soviet military officer is delayed

A Manhattan judge has delayed the trial for a former Soviet military officer.

Yesterday at 21:35 | Associated Press

A Manhattan judge has delayed the trial for a former Soviet military officer charged with trying to sell weapons to a terrorist group.

Viktor Bout appeared at a pretrial hearing Thursday.

He originally was to start trial in September. The new date is Oct. 11. The defendant has changed lawyers.

Bout was extradited from Thailand last year and has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges. He was arrested in March 2008 in a Bangkok hotel.

The Russian government has complained that his extradition was unlawful and political.

Leaving Saladin behind

[The world has witnessed an extraordinary, life-changing event, in the act of Christians, standing with Muslims to regain their human rights.  Even greater still, was the act of Christians becoming shields protecting Muslims, as they prayed to their common God.  There is One God, with many names, for many different cultures, just as there is only One Human Race, living in many different locations.  God lives as a race of beings known as Man; nothing can change that.  Seeing the awakening of human eyes in Cairo, to the wondrous natures of our True Beings, is inspiring.  Something that every other person could learn something valuable from.]

Young people across the Middle East rewrite the Arab narrative focusing on the future, embracing a new wave of interfaith cooperation and civic engagement along the way

BY HIND MAKKI, MARCH 4, 2011

	Looking forward together

CHICAGO, IL

President George W. Bush’s use of the word “crusade” in the days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks triggered a passionate response from Muslim communities all over the world. Many Muslims believed Mr. Bush used this word to broadcast his intentions to wage war on Islam and Muslims. This reaction shocked many Westerners, for whom the impact of The Crusades was long forgotten.

But it didn’t surprise me.

Growing up in a tight-knit Muslim community outside of Chicago, I’d always heard lamentations about the dire state of the global Muslim community (genocide in Bosnia, war in Kashmir, crisis in Somalia and Palestine, always Palestine). And they often ended with the plea: “Where is today’s Salahaddin?” For many Muslims, The Crusades had never faded from collective memory. They awaited a modern-day Salahaddin al-Ayubi, the Muslim hero of The Crusades; the Kurdish general who led Muslim armies into victory and recaptured Jerusalem, to come and lead them out of post-colonial decay.

Many contemporary Muslims desire to return to the “Golden Age” of Islam, which began after Salahaddin’s victory; an age that gave rise to Muslim mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers who changed the course of human history. Those centuries represent a “Muslim feel-good” era. They are viewed as a time when Muslims commanded respect as great scientists, healers and teachers and not despised as backwards or feared as bloodthirsty terrorists. Feeling oppressed by their own governments and disempowered by Western supremacy, many Muslims hoped to wish into existence a miracle savior to lead them out of centuries of civilizational decline.

During the last eight weeks, the world watched as millions of Arabs rose up against their authoritarian regimes. First in Tunisia, then Egypt, young people people demanded the downfall of their unelected governments – and got what they wished for. Freedom fever has spread across the region from the bloody uprisings in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, to the more muted protests in Morocco, Algeria, Iran, Jordan and Oman. People across the Middle East and North Africa have long yearned for self-representation and the end of state-sponsored brutality.

What’s different now is that the young people of the Middle East stopped dreaming of that better day and took charge of their own destiny through action, grassroots mobilization, and modern communications know-how. The populace of the Arab world is overwhelmingly young – people under the age of 25 accounts for more than half of the populations of Arab countries. These young people face dim job prospects and live in societies where free speech is muzzled and transparent political processes are essentially nonexistent. Frustration over the dearth of opportunity catalyzed a youth-led protest movement that embodied Gandhian non-violence techniques, overtly referenced the US civil rights movement and displayed the social media savvy of a generation of jobless, educated young people.

These young people changed the course of their own history and left Salahaddin behind.

Eight weeks ago, one desperate young man from a remote Tunisian town, having had enough of the daily humiliations he faced as a humble vegetable seller at the hands of the state, set himself alight outside the local police station. The tepid response by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to Mohammad Bouazizi’s self-immolation outraged Tunisians who suffered under his authoritarian regime for decades. Weeks later, Bouazizi’s death dealt the final blow to Ben Ali; millions of Tunisians took to the streets, protesting his brutal security apparatus and close-knit circle of corrupt governing elite. 24 years old, unmarried and bearing the sole responsibility of financially taking care of his aged mother, ailing step-father and 6 siblings, Bouazizi personified the stifled dreams of young Arabs across the region. After offering half-hearted concessions to the popular uprisings by his people in the days after Bouazizi’s death, Ben Ali stepped down from the presidency on January 14 and fled the country.

The Tunisian people’s victory stoked the flames of freedom in the Arab world.

First, there were copycat self-immolations by desperate Arabs in the region. Then, in Egypt, young people used Facebook to mobilize non-violent protests against their fearsome state security apparatus. They picked up rocks and defended Liberation Square. They picked up mobile phones and Tweeted their revolution to the world. Muslims and Christians, they were killed by their hundreds. The Arab world waited with baited breath to see whether the 30-year regime of Egyptian strongman Husni Mubarak would survive this unprecedented uprising. Powerful stories of interfaith cooperation came out of Liberation Square. People of all faiths were inspired by images such as this one of young Christian men forming a human shield to protect Muslimsfrom police attack as they offered their evening prayers.

A nascent civic identity was conceived in the Middle East; one in which young people, women and religious minorities had a seat at the table. In the days after Ben Ali fled and Mubarak stepped down, hundreds of young people swarmed onto the streets of Tunis and Cairo armed with broomsticks, cleaning solvent and towels. In the Eastern Libyan town of Benghazi, young people formed sanitation and protection committees on their own volition. A new sense of civic responsibility and national pride emerged among the youth of the Arab world. An Arab narrative that had passively awaited its hero suddenly found itself inundated with heroes from Tunis to Cairo, from Aden to Manama.

Through his famously chivalrous behavior on and off the battle field, Salahaddin al-Ayubi earned the respect of his Christian adversary King Richard the Lionheart and immortality in Muslim history. As we witness new waves of interfaith cooperation and youth civic engagement in the Arab world, it becomes clear that even though the Arab world is no longer be content to merely wish for a savior from the annals of history, Salahaddin’s legacy endures.

 

Hind Makki has been inspired by a belief in human rights, the power of young people and the potential of pluralism to work within the American Muslim community since the attacks of 9/11/2001. She holds a degree in International Relations from Brown University, where she concentrated in global security and diplomacy. She is often found tweeting about Muslims in the West, the media as news, the politics of poverty in contemporary Africa and figure skating (one of these things is not like the other).

Colombian president conditions dialogue with guerrillas

• Editor: Rocio
• Xinhua

The Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said today to be ready for dialogue with rebel groups to peace, provided they renounce violence.

“Whoever wants to talk about peace and is now walking the dark path of violence, kidnapping, terror, will soon leave for which the company is ready to such dialogue,” Santos said during a ceremony in Bogota.

Various sectors of the public have called the national government to open up the possibility of negotiations with the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who are said to have demonstrated their desire for peace.

They cite that the FARC was released six people, including two civilians and four members of the security forces, in operations that took place from 9 to 16 February in different parts of the country.

“To achieve peace, rather than being constantly talking about it, rather than strive to talk with those who refuse to disarm Dialogue must focus on building conditions for peace and reconciliation,” said the Colombian president.

Santos reaffirmed its commitment to peace in this country that has at least 40 years amid an internal armed conflict, in which several actors have been involved, including guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitaries.

“We work for peace, believe in peace, but not at any price. Not at the cost of tolerating violence and the flagrant violation of human rights by illegal groups,” said the Colombian president.

These words coincide with a series of violent acts, according to authorities, have been developed this week by rebels of the FARC and that have killed at least four people. End

China’s succession pressures stoke security overdrive

Analysis: China’s succession pressures stoke security overdrive

A police van sits parked on Tiananmen Square during the opening ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 3, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/David Gray

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING | Fri Mar 4, 2011 3:59am EST

(Reuters) – China has embarked on a tough security drive aimed at extinguishing threats before a leadership succession, placing iron control at home well ahead of any worry about foreign criticism.

In recent weeks, security forces have stepped up detentions of dissidents, tightened censorship and threatened to revoke visas of foreign reporters who don’t heed new reporting limits.

Online calls for Middle East-inspired pro-democracy gatherings are their immediate reason for alarm. But with the coming power hand-over from President Hu Jintao to heir-apparent Xi Jinping and his comrades in late 2012, the jitters about order will persist.

“The tightening-up now is directly related to the Middle East,” said Liu Junning, a Beijing political thinker purged in a past pre-succession crackdown. “In the longer term, I think all of this, including the ideological crackdown, is related to the succession.”

Liu spoke from personal experience. In 2000, he was dismissed from the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences because of his outspoken advocacy of democratic reform.

Many Beijing intellectuals at the time said Hu Jintao, then a Vice President being groomed for the top job, pushed out Liu and other dissenting scholars to show that he too could act tough.

Now, as Hu and his cohort prepare to step down, Xi and other likely successors face similar pressure to prove their resolve.

That could make human rights a persistent point of tension with the United States and other Western governments that have voiced dismay about recent attacks on foreign reporters trying to cover the site of the proposed protests, which never happened.

“The pressure to protect stability is growing and growing,” said Liu. “They’ll keep it up as long as they can, even longer.”

UNHAPPY MEMORIES

Leaders have deep memories of the elite splits and popular protests against Party rule that erupted in 1989, ending in troops shooting down hundreds of protesters in central Beijing.

Now, with the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, opening on Saturday, they fear even small gatherings could blemish their show of unity.

China’s capital has mobilized 739,000 police officers, officials, security guards and residents recruited into local patrols to guard against mishaps during the parliament, reported the official China News Service.

“The succession has started, and that is generally a period when the Party is particularly keen on projecting a picture of social harmony and popular content,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher in the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.

Party leaders are also jumpy about inflation, which fueled public discontent before the 1989 pro-democracy protests, as well as the Middle East unrest, said Murray Scot Tanner, a researcher who studies China’s domestic security policies.

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When the Irresistable Weight of the Masses Runs over the Immovable State

Forces of change are never forgiving!

This is a Pakpotpourri Exclusive

By: Admiral Fasih Bokhari(R)  

People across the world harbor real anger at the inequity in the world economic and political system that is backed by use of disproportionate force and anti people controls. This inequity has reached unbearable levels, especially in countries where regimes visibly rob and kill their own people with impunity, to satisfy the greed of fascist financiers who position and protect them in power. Fascism is the merger of State and corporate power for exploitation of the people’s labour. Corporate power’s financing of political power has led to fascism in nearly all countries. “Democracy of people’s interests” has been overtaken by “democracy of corporate interests”, includes in Pakistan, America, and India.

Pakistan is under existential threat from a violent nexus of neo imperial and local fascism. Corporate power, most notably that of the Army, is being exercised through its offspring puppet political parties. It is suffocating the people. People go missing, are unemployed, and cannot afford food or fuel. Life and livelihood are under constant threat. The people no longer have a stake in what Pakistan has become today. Today’s Pakistan is at the mercy of militant theocracy, and neo imperial fascism that facilitates and funds local fascism.

Raymond Davis and his cohort Theo-militant murderers of Taseer and Bhatti are the exposed tip of the iceberg that has focused the anger of the silent majority of Pakistanis today.

While Theo militants see Pakistan as a sectarian battlefield for destabilization of the Pakistani state; Neo imperial fascism sees nuclear Pakistan (ally of China) as an obstacle to its exploitative economic strategy in Asia. The American-Israeli-Indian-Arabia fascist nexus (supported by the Coalition forces in this region) has not openly declared the war it is waging alongside Theo militants against Pakistan. (Drones, Special Operation Forces, Mercenaries networking bomb blasts, Psywar media and Intelligence Ops, etc.) This does not mean that Pakistanis do not know that the war is underway. Our people are victims on a daily basis. Elements in the Pakistani government and establishment may wish to hide their supportive role in this war against the people of Pakistan; but the people will not allow them to continue their deception. The establishment and Army must grow out of their pre nuclear asymmetric proxy war strategy, and India centric planning. We are a south Asian state. That does not mean that we cannot have friendly ties with Arabia, America, and China. It does mean, however, that we cannot afford to have permanent hostility towards India, Iran, and Afghanistan. Out of date thinking that does not support the interests of the people of Pakistan is destroying the economy and hopes of our people. The people have had enough and can take no more.

The writing is on the wall for the fascist leadership of the coalition countries. Stop usurping the rights of your own and other peoples. The “long war” you are waging will not end in victory for inequity and plunder. Life can be bombed out of a people, not their beliefs and hopes.

The writing is on the wall for the fascist elements in the military and political leadership of Pakistan and most countries of the coalition. Stand with the people against inequity, or be washed away with the rising tide of anger.

The writing is on the wall for every Pakistani in the media, bureaucracy, Armed Forces, Police, and Judiciary. Are you with the people or are you working for local or foreign fascists who impose inequity?

Change will come. Forces that bring change are never forgiving.

.*The writer was  the chief of Pakistani Naval Staff from 1997 to 1999.

Jewish-American Contractor on trial in Cuba for Supplying Satellite Phones To Cuba’s Jews

U.S. contractor to go on trial in Cuba

HAVANA | Fri Mar 4, 2011 12:09am EST

(Reuters) – A U.S. aid contractor facing up to 20 years in prison was to go on trial in Cuba on Friday, accused of supplying illegal communications gear to dissidents in a case that has highlighted U.S. activities on the communist island.

Cuba says Alan Gross, 61, distributed sophisticated satellite phones under a U.S. program that is outlawed and considered subversive by the Cuban government.

The United States said he was providing Internet access to Jewish groups but committed no crime.

A panel of judges will hear testimony and review evidence in a proceeding that may last only a day. Prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 20 years for Gross, who has been jailed since his arrest in Havana on December 3, 2009.

The case already has halted a brief period of progress in U.S.-Cuba relations and could damage relations for years if Gross is locked away for a long time. But some observers believe a political solution will be reached that will allow Gross to go free soon.

He was a contractor for a U.S. Agency for International Development program launched under President George W. Bush to foster political change in Cuba.

His wife, Judy Gross, has pleaded with Cuba to release him for humanitarian reasons because their 26-year-old daughter and Alan Gross’ 88-year-old mother have cancer.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Xavier Briand)

EX CIA CREEP SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING WOMAN IN ALGERIA

FORMER U.S. OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO 65 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING WOMAN ON EMBASSY PROPERTY IN ALGERIA

WASHINGTON – Andrew Warren, 43, a former official with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was sentenced today to 65 months in prison on charges of abusive sexual contact and unlawful use of cocaine while possessing a firearm, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., and Eric J. Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.

Warren pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2010 and was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the U.S. District Court Judge Ellen S. Huvelle. Judge Huvelle also sentenced Warren to 10 years of supervised release following his prison term.

During the plea hearing last year, Warren admitted that on Feb. 17, 2008, he committed abusive sexual contact while on U.S. embassy property in Algiers, Algeria, by engaging in sexual contact with a female victim after he rendered her unconscious. Additionally, Warren admitted that on April 26, 2010, he unlawfully used cocaine while possessing a Glock, 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol in Norfolk, Va.

This case was investigated by Diplomatic Security Service; the U.S. Marshals Service in Norfolk; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Norfolk Police Department; and the Inspector General and the General Counsel of the CIA. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Christine Duey of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein of the District of Columbia and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Haynie from the Eastern District of Virginia.

Moscow woos Kiev for Customs Union membership

Igor Shuvalov

© RIA Novosti. Aleksei Nikoslkiy

• Ukraine’s accession to the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union would expedite the creation of a free-trade zone with the EU and help ensure global food security, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Thursday.

“We act on the assumption that these formats are not in conflict with each other, while Ukraine’s possible participation in the Customs Union could even accelerate the creation of a free trade zone with the European Union,” he said at a joint briefing with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Klyuyev.

There are also wide-ranging prospects in agriculture, he added.

“This could eventually become a nucleus in ensuring food security in the world. Together, our countries will be a powerful player on the food market,” he said.

The Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan materialized in early July 2010, when the countries ratified the Customs Code. Customs borders are to be scrapped on July 1, 2011.

The creation of a common economic space with the free movement of goods, services and labor is billed as the next stage of their integration.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Klyuyev was noncommittal, saying there were “plenty of integration projects that we have already discussed.”

In 2009, Ukraine urged Russia and Kazakhstan to revisit the idea of creating a Black Sea grain pool, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

KIEV, March 3 (RIA Novosti)

 

State sponsered death squad accept responsibility for killing Human Rights Activists

Occupied Balochistan: The banned “Baloch” Mussallah Diffah Army (BMDA) claimed responsibility for the killing of human rights activist Naeem Sabir Baloch in Khuzdar. The group, sponsored by Pakistan (military), targets political opponents of the government, including journalists and other professionals. The same group had accepted responsibility of the attack on a Baloch Cultural gathering in Khuzdar on2nd March 2010, two Baloch students were killed in the attack and around 30 others were wounded. according to dailytime.pk a BMDA spokesman, Mir Jang “Baloch”, calling from an unspecified location, said that his organisation had carried out the attack and vowed to continue such attacks in the future against those who are involved in targeted killings and torching government offices. He threatened the Baloch people against participating in the activities of the Baloch Student Organisation, Baloch Republican Party, Balochistan National Party and Baloch National Movement, otherwise they would meet the same fate. From before: Of Pakistani Death Squads, Baluch Masses and Slaughterhouses Original article at Crisis Balochistan | 7 Sep, 2010 by H. Baloch The Pakistani occupation has adopted a more sinister strategy to suppress the Baluch Independence movement. In order to save itself from charges of ‘crimes against humanity’ it now employs a multifaceted strategy that focuses not only on eliminating Baluch Resistance Fighters, but also on taking out politicians, activists and civilians with the use of death squads. These death squads are largely unknown entities and what makes one marvel is the rate at which they’re spawning. Ever since Quetta Police Chief Shabbir Sheikh of Quetta, an ethnic Punjabi, threatened “We’ll avenge target killing with target killing” in early 2010, the Baloch Defai Tanzeem (Baloch Defense Army), Sipah-e-Shoda-e-Balochistan (Army of Martyrs of Balochistan), Al-Ansar Mujahideen, Baloch Gheiratmand Tanzeem (Honorable Baloch Organization), and the Adozai Qaumi Itthed (Adozai Tribal Union) all entered the theater in the brief period of just under two months. These death squads have been carefully characterized and named to serve the machinations of the occupation. Anyone familiar with Pakistani history will recognize the connections. All the aforementioned death squads attempt to capitalize on religion and ethnicity. The Baloch Defai Tanzaeem, or more appropriately, the Defense Army for Pakistani Occupation of Baluchistan (DAPOB), is responsible for high profile murders, such as Baluchistan National Party’s (BNP) leader Habib Jalib, and for threatening Baluch journalists with dire consequences for providing coverage of the Nationalists. The boss of the DAPOB, son of Nasir Mengal, the Pakistani ex-federal minister for petroleum, Shafiq-ur-Rehman Mengal, uses religion in his rhetoric to muster support for the organization. His press releases refer to the targeting of Pakistani agents, soldiers or other members of the occupation as comparable to crimes committed against God and swears retribution for them. The Sipa-e-Shoda-e-Balochistan, the organization that accepts responsibility for abducting and then murdering Baluch men and the very little known al-Ansar Mujahideen remind us of the various pet projects of the Pakistani spy agencies used to fight Pakistan’s proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir. The Sipa-e-Shoda’s name is very lucid—it is a tribute to the Pakistani Occupation Members “Martyred” in Balochistan (POMMIB). Both the POMMIB and the Al-Ansar have developed to give a sense of security to, and rally support from, Pakistani settlers, that is, to gradually induct them in counter insurgency operations. The Adozai Tribal Union (ATU), which the Adozai Pashtuns disowned and described as an effort to create tensions between the Baluch and Pashtun nations, is designed with the motive of pitting the Pashtuns against the Baluch. The ATU’s claim to fame was accepting responsibility for the abduction of Advocate Zaman Marri, who practiced law at the provincial High Court. The ATU also issued threats to target the Baluch Resistance Fighters in Occupied Baluch territories, as well as in Afghan territory. The so-called Baloch Gheiratmand Tanzeem has been involved in acid attacks on young girls. Incidents like acid mutilation are alien to the Baluch, but such attacks are rampant in Punjab and urban Sindh. It is said that this outfit is also lead by the DAPOB’s chief, Shafiq-ur-Rahman Mengal. This organization carries the name Baluch for the sole purpose of depicting Baluch society as being intolerant towards women and children. The group developed exclusively to target the Baluch Womens Panel. Naming these organizations with the words Baluchistan or Baluch are efforts designed to deceive the international community into believing that there are ethnic, tribal and political feuds going on in Baluchistan, and that the state is not involved in murdering Baluch dissidents or civilians. Though these death squads have some well-known criminals on their rolls, such as Imam Beel, the notorious narcotics-trafficker of South Baluchistan, it is no secret that these death squads also have regular Pakistani Occupation Forces (POF) members as primary operatives. The assailants of Baluch political activists and leaders in Khuzdar, for example, were stationed in the POF Frontier Core (FC) base there. These death squads have accepted responsibility for the murders of certain Baluch abducted by the POF-FC: teenager Majeed Longove, 23-year-old Ashfaq Ahmed, Farooq Mengal, 24, Nazeer Ahmed, 25, Faiz Mohammad Bangulzai, 26, and Bahar Khan Bangulzai, 32. At this point, these death squads are nothing more than just ‘brands’, decoys designed to intimidate and preoccupy the movement. Being outnumbered usually has a demoralizing effect, flushing several opponents against the resistance is an attempt to elicit that demoralizing effect. The indiscriminate targeting of Baluches is a terror tactic intended to silence the politically aware and the activists. What is more alarming is the frequency of the killings, and the number of unrelated Baluch men being targeted. On average there are as many as three Baluch shot dead every day. About the same number are abducted and then dumped a few days later with notes left in their pockets bearing claims by a Pakistani death squad. Two or three men killed everyday adds up to any number between fifty and hundred per month. The international community’s aloofness is allowing the Pakistani government to get away with massacre. These death squads are carefully orchestrating the attacks. They go on a killing spree and then fall silent, making sure they don’t cross the lines that will provoke the Baluch public to openly revolt. The abducted Baluch are dumped a few days later, tortured and with bullets pumped in their heads. The dump sites are usually on the outskirts of Quetta city, in localities that are associated with the tribes. The objective behind the choice of dump site is to pit the tribes against one another. Lately these death squads have dumped at least one body in the vicinity of a Pashtun area. At the moment, the Baluch are facing the same fate as cattle in a slaughterhouse. The POF will abduct and kill or just kill Baluch outright–whether they are politically active or neutral. These death squads are the POF’s efforts to bring the war from the mountains and plains of Baluchistan to the Baluch homes. The Baluch must understand that it’s of no use to read poetry to someone who has drawn his sword in aggression. Read also: Tehreek-i-Taliban Punjab claims responsibility for the murder of Christian Minister for Minority Affairs in Islamabad.