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Tuesday, November 28, 2006 |
NYTimes: "Violins crafted in the 18th century by Italian masters like Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesu have long been revered by makers and players alike. Scientists are now using high-tech tools to learn how specific parts of these violins contribute to the overall sound."
12:57:04 PM 
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ABC: "A security expert says he believes coalition forces face the prospect of defeat in Iraq with serious consequences.
Former soldier and military historian Robert O'Neill says it is likely the coalition will pull its troops out early.
In a speech to the Lowy Institute in Sydney tonight, Professor O'Neill, who served during the Vietnam War, described Iraq as 'an even worse problem than Vietnam'."
Yahoo: "Thousands of British soldiers will leave Iraq over the next year, significantly downgrading the country's commitment in the region, the defense secretary said Monday. Poland and Italy also announced the impending withdrawal of their remaining troops."
It'll be lonely this Christmas for Dubya and Tony.
Independent: "Nato's fragile unity over Afghanistan has begun to crack ahead of an important summit - with one public call to discuss an exit strategy from the Allied forces' bloody confrontation with the Taliban.
While heads of government are to make a show of unity over Afghanistan at tomorrow's alliance summit in Riga, Belgium's Defence Minister has questioned the future of Nato's most important mission.
And heads of the alliance's 26 nations are unlikely to agree to send reinforcements to Afghanistan - dealing a blow to Tony Blair's hopes that others will take up more of the increasingly heavy burden."
GoldSeek: "The dollar plunged with startling ferocity late last week, driven by heavy selling. This was very bearish action that signals panic, and the probable onset of a severe downtrend. A break below the crucial support at 80 on the dollar index is expected to mark the transition from a clandestine unloading of dollar assets to an all-out stampede to 'get what you can for them' before it's too late."
CommonDreams: "While Bush administration members have made a sport of breaking the law, both domestically and internationally, their intransigence will come back to haunt - one way or another.
Bottom line, as calls for impeachment build at home, Bush might heed advice he once gave to Osama bin Laden: 'you can run but you cannot hide'."
KyivPost: "A U.S. diplomat warned Georgia against signing a long-term contract for natural gas supplies with Iran, but the Georgian premier reaffirmed Monday that his nation remained determined to import the Iranian gas."
EUObserver: "The European Parliament in its final report on alleged CIA kidnappings and prisons in Europe is set to name and shame 11 EU member states with Poland coming in for some of the heaviest criticism, Polish press agency PAP reveals ahead of the study's Wednesday (29 November) publication date.
Italy, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Austria saw terrorism suspects snatched on their territory the report by Italian socialist MEP Claudio Fava will say, while the UK, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Romania and Poland hosted hundreds of secret CIA flights."
Conclusion: it doesn't look good for the US and the world has been damaged good by the cowboys.
12:43:27 PM
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Strangely enough, when the West sends out its killers (to Cuba - 638 plots to kill Castro, Lebanon or Russia) there is no great outcry. But the media are always ready to assume the worst from the East. And we are not even talking about this kind of thing.
The plot around the 'Russian spy' thickens.
5News: "One of the buildings where British police found traces of radioactive contamination is the office of the 'entrepreneur' Boris Berezovsky, who has declined to comment.
Radioactive contamination was discovered in six places in London: the sushi bar Itsu, the Millennium Hotel, Litvinenko's house where his family lives, the hospital where he was treated and in two offices in the West End."
Berezovsky is believed to be involved in money-laundering practices in Brazil. The same story here. In order to gain credibility in the West and because they are extremist neocons, people like Berezovky will do anything to attack the present government in Russia. In reality they are rogue traders, who wouldn't mind smuggling nuclear material to earn a dollar.
Independent: "As Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy, lay dying in a London hospital, regular bulletins on his condition were supplied not by his family and only rarely by the hospital. The head messenger was the energetic and voluble Alex Goldfarb, who described himself as a close friend of the stricken agent. He could also have been described, no less accurately, as the right-hand man of Boris Berezovsky, the fugitive oligarch exiled in Britain who heads the list of Russia's 'most wanted'.
Berezovsky's in Litvinenko's life - as Litvinenko's in his - is shrouded in the mystery that obscures so many exiled Russian plutocrats. But there is evidence that they kept up at very least what might be called a business relationship.
In 1989 - ahead of most - he sensed the way the wind was blowing and made the leap into business. And questionable business some of it was, too.
His official political vehicle in Britain is a group curiously called the Civil Rights Foundation, which he seems to do little publicly to promote, but may channel money to opposition groups in the former USSR. Berezovsky boasted that he had funded Ukraine's Orange revolution."
When rogue politics and rogue trading meet, forget about democracy. What the Berezovskys and Litvinenkos are after is power and money.
What worries me is not the death of a few plutocrats or oligarchs, but the threat to our world from neocon rogues.
CultureKitchen: "This is another one of my pet issues: the ongoing poisoning of American by Republican policies. This is not an accidental thing. It is a byproduct of intentional deregulation, intentionally ignoring clear warning signs of health problems, and allowing companies and utilities to circumvent environmental regulations."
12:23:06 PM
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© Copyright 2008.
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