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Monday, October 23, 2006 |
ICH: "Western elites have been waging an intensive public relations campaign against Putin since he nationalized Yukos Oil and put it under control of Gazprom. Gazprom is quickly growing into the world's largest oil corporation and will probably achieve that goal within the decade.
Putin's move to nationalize the industry has been popular at home (his personal approval rating is consistently over 70%) and has had a profound effect on stabilizing the ruble and raising the standard of living. Most Russians still remember the country's bleak experiment with 'free market' capitalism during the 1990s when the ruble fell through the floor and Russia's national assets were raffled off by the chronically-inebriated Yeltsin (under the supervision of western advisors). 'The Oligarchs', as they were known, contributed significantly to Russia's economic decline as well as its loss of prestige in the world. Putin has restored national pride, fueled the new prosperity, and is quickly rebuilding Russia into a world power. If energy prices continue to soar, as they undoubtedly will, Russia will be a force to reckon with throughout the 21st century."
Whoever thought that after the demise of communism the West would act friendly towards Russia is badly mistaken. The US prefers countries that can be manipulated and exploited for its own purposes. The US wants to see nations on their knees. The Bush administration thinks it owns the world. It does not recognize the sovereignty of any nation. They call it 'the free market', free only for the US. That is why Bush is a danger to peace and prosperity all over the world.
11:44:48 AM 
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Reuters: "More than three million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of Iraq and to neighbouring countries are facing what the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) describes as a 'very bleak future' after the agency's budget for offices across the region was halved for the coming year."
Guardian: "For months doubts over Iraq have risen along with the death toll. Last week a tipping point was reached as political leaders in Washington and London began openly to think the unthinkable: that the war was lost."
An Iraqi Islamic State has recently been declared.
TimesOnline: "Under traditional American justice, rendition meant capturing wanted people abroad and bringing them to trial in US courtrooms. But, as I subsequently discovered, a policy of 'extraordinary rendition' had been invented under President Clinton in about 1995. In secret, the CIA had rendered suspects not to America but to foreign countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Algeria and Morocco.
After 9/11 such outsourcing had expanded dramatically. When the Guantanamo camp opened in Cuba, a CIA source described it as the Pentagon's 'press release' - what Washington wanted the world to see. Beyond it there was a larger netherworld of secret prisons or 'black sites' involving hundreds more prisoners.
British officials said that behind closed doors they had told America that they disapproved of renditions; UK officials were involved only 'on the periphery' of some operations. At least three rendition operations involved refuelling at Prestwick, near Glasgow. The SAS, embedded with the US Delta Force in late 2001 and early 2002, helped to capture prisoners in Afghanistan, some of whom may have been rendered to foreign jails.
Britain's clearest complicity came from its practice of giving America almost open access to its intelligence files, even on British citizens and residents."
WashingtonPost: "The United States took another step yesterday toward building a new stockpile of up to 2,200 deployed nuclear weapons that would last well into the 21st century, announcing the start of a multiyear process to repair and replace facilities where they would be developed and assembled and where older warheads could be more rapidly dismantled."
NWEveningMail: "A retired Grange dentist is accused of being part of a bomb plot after a record number of explosives were seized in a Lancashire town.
Police found rocket launchers, chemicals, British National Party literature and a nuclear or biological suit at his home.
The find came shortly after they had recovered 22 chemical components from the house of his alleged accomplice, Robert Cottage, a former BNP election candidate, who lives in Colne."
At least, the police raided the right houses. In the US they invade people's homes on faulty information.
Major corporations and the government can now track your purchases and watch your every move. But has our society become more safe now? On the contrary. It has polarized public opinion and promoted the rise of right-wing extremism.
Guardian: "Now we know what we know, why is Blair still in office?
It doesn't matter now whether you were pro-war, strongly opposed to it or somewhere in between, the policy in the Middle East has been an unmitigated failure, an outcome that was built into the earliest planning for the enterprise. People's views four years ago don't count now because Britain is at the heart of a world-changing catastrophe and as far as our interests go, there has not been a single advantage, not even the one of keeping the special relationship alive.
The House of Commons must show it is not been entirely debauched by party politics and bring the government to account and that includes Labour members."
11:34:01 AM
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