Friday, August 22, 2008

WHAT A WEEK! Some snippets of news from the past days: ITAR-TASS: "Georgian authorities are preparing a large-scale provocation in the next few days, possibly tomorrow, a Russian military intelligence official said on Wednesday. 'Georgian Defence Ministry units plan to use the remains of the troops left after hostilities for this purpose,' he said. 'The cynicism of this can hardly be perceived' but 'the remains are being worked on in order to provide ostensible proof of victims among the peaceful population, humiliating treatment and brutality on the remains of the troops,' the official said. 'Three refrigerator trucks full of the remains gathered by Georgian units over the past few days left Tbilisi today,' he said, adding, 'Ice produced by the Coca-Cola plant near Gori was used to preserve the bodies'. He also noted two other circumstances. One, 'the Georgian side has so far buried almost none of its dead, which may suggest a possible provocation'. Second, 'The Russian peacekeepers and South Ossetian authorities have handed over numerous remains of the Georgian servicemen', he said. A representative of the Investigation Committee under the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said that if Georgian authorities stage such cynical provocation, the moral aspects put aside, they should understand the risk they will face in this event." We have seen dirty tricks in former Yugoslavia where killed soldiers were presented as civilians. Guardian: "MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian." It figures. What they want to convey is that anyone can be a terrorist. Very clever. It's a false justification for more civil rights abuses. Anyway, the greatest terrorists are state terrorists, and that includes those paid by the British government. AlJazeera: "Reports that 10 French soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan after being mistakenly attacked by Nato aircraft are to be 'looked into', officials for the military alliance have said. France's Le Monde newspaper quoted French soldiers who had survived the ambush near Kabul on Monday saying they were hit in a 'friendly fire' incident." NYTimes: "A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday." ScientificAmerican: "One of the reasons e-voting systems turned out to be such a failure is that the only people involved in checking these systems were the vendors, who wanted to sell their technology, and the local election officials, who were ill-equipped to understand the security issues, says David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor and founder of the Verified Voting Foundation, a nonprofit organization pushing for the implementation of voting processes that can more easily be verified and audited. 'There was a certification process in place,' Dill says, 'but it had very little to do with security.'" CSMonitor: "The tectonic plates of world politics have been shifting for several years now, and on Aug. 8 the extent of this shift became plain. In Beijing, China held a stunning coming-out party as a world power. Meanwhile, 4,000 miles away, Russia invaded neighboring Georgia, signaling loud and clear that it would no longer be taken for granted. Russia is back. China has emerged. Suddenly, the United States isn't the world's only superpower. Here's the good news: The interests of the world's leading powers are deeply entwined. China and Japan hold large amounts of US debt; Russia supplies much of Europe's energy needs; markets, investments, and production systems criss-cross national boundaries." BarentsObserver: "The Russian aircraft carrier 'Admiral Kuznetsov' is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area." NewStatesman: "House prices are dropping, unemployment is rising, home repossessions are on the increase, interest rates are the highest since 2001, businesses are squealing and sales of 4x4s are down. Trade unions are being asked to temper wage demands (what's new there?) and the British Chamber of Commerce is warning that a recession is more likely than not. The R-word is finally being used. Labour has to decide which side it is on: the voters who face a painful recession, or the financial interests that got us into this mess. It makes little political sense for a party that stands or falls on its claim to speak for ordinary people to defend only the powerful." Lobbyists for McCain. Lobbyists are the nation. 4:32:22 PM

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