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Tuesday, September 2, 2008 |
WashingtonPost: "Sen. John McCain today issued some of his strongest criticism of President Bush over an aggressive interrogation technique, clearly suggesting that the president has endorsed torture.
During an assessment of the Bush presidency on 'Fox News Sunday', McCain discussed the administration's use over 'waterboarding', a technique that has been used to interrogate terrorist detainees.
'Waterboarding to me is torture, okay? And waterboarding was advocated by the administration, and according to a published report, was used,' McCain said. 'I obviously don't want to torture any prisoners.'"
Looks like damage control to me. I wouldn't trust McCain on any count.
Haaretz: "Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida lashed out Saturday at John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, accusing her of supporting 'Nazi sympathizer' Pat Buchanan, and branding the move an 'affront to all Jewish Americans'.
'John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans,' said a statement by Wexler.
'Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".
Haaretz: "U.S. vice presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden's press secretary vehemently denied on Monday a report that the Democratic candidate had said that Israel would have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran.
According to an unsourced report by Army Radio, the senator made the remarks to senior Israeli officials behind closed doors, adding that he opposed 'opening an additional military and diplomatic front'."
11:42:10 AM 
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EUObserver: "Polish and US officials rebuke 'mistaken' Georgia and 'illegal' Russia."
What stands out in this whole Georgia affair is the blatant hypocrisy among the right-wing extremists.
HRW: "The Georgian government said it used cluster munitions during the August 2008 armed conflict with Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to Human Rights Watch, the Georgian Defense Ministry stated that cluster rockets were 'used against Russian military equipment and armament marching from Roki tunnel to Dzara road [sic],' but that they 'were never used against civilians, civilian targets and civilian populated or nearby areas.' Human Rights Watch has not independently confirmed this information, but has reported Russia's use of cluster munitions during the fighting."
I suppose it's too much for Human Rights Watch to also denounce the use of cluster bombs by Georgia. It is obvious that if Georgia used cluster bombs in Tskhinvali they used them against civilians.
Spiegel: "When Georgian forces moved into the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7, they underestimated the Ossetians' determination to resist them. Young men opened fire with Kalashnikovs and teenagers hurled petrol bombs at tanks. Now the local Russian-sponsored regime is triumphant.
South Ossetians can't understand people who call them 'separatists'. They say they never broke away from Georgia because they never joined the new country when it was formed after the Soviet Union collapsed. It's impossible to find anyone in this part of the world who can seriously imagine the territory being a part of Georgia in future. What much of the world is labelling as 'separatism' is in fact the yearning for autonomy by a small people that was divided against its wishes.
In Soviet times, the north of Ossetia - now part of the Russian Federation - and South Ossetia were divided only by an invisible administrative line. But since 1992 a state border has separated brothers, sisters, parents and children. Violent attempts by Georgian nationalists to suppress the South Ossetians prompted the mountain people to close itself off within an unrecognized republic, like in a bunker.
The invaders who rode into the destroyed town of Tskinvhali on the morning of Aug. 8 in US jeeps wore US-made uniforms and helmets. Many of them were trained by US officers or served in Iraq as brothers-in-arms of the Americans.
They quickly realised that they weren't facing just a 'few dozen separatists' as Saakashvili had claimed. The attitude of South Ossetia's youth can be summed up by what student Julia Beteyeva of the University of Tskhinvali told SPIEGEL back in June 2004: 'One can only take our republic away from us by killing us.'"
If there is one thing clear, it is that Georgia is the aggressor and is illegally trying to annex South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Georgian people should understand that. This hypocrisy is going too far. Georgia wanted and got independence. Now they deny this same right to other people. Fact is that Georgia never had any legal claim on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russian intervention was completely justified and humanitarian, and saved the lives of thousands of people.
RIAN: "Speaking near the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Medvedev also said that Russia would not alter its decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He also said that Moscow's agreements with them envisaged military as well as economic support.
The five points, Medvedev said, were firstly, the superiority of the fundamental principles of international law.
The second point was that the world must be multipolar.
'A uni-polar world is unacceptable,' said Medvedev, adding that Russia could 'not accept a world order where all decisions are made by one side, even such a powerful one as the U.S.'
'Such a world is unstable and threatened by conflicts,' he added.
Thirdly, he said, Russia does not seek confrontation with any other country.
'Russia is not looking for isolation,' he said. 'We will develop, in as much as is possible, friendly ties with Europe, the U.S., and other countries in the world.'
Fourthly, Russia will protect the lives of its citizens, 'wherever they are.'
The fifth point was that Moscow would seek to develop ties in friendly regions."
I couldn't have said it better. America and its aggressive satellites are on the wrong side of the equation. They have openly shown how illegal and absurd their new world order is. Bush and Brown are remnants of a dying empire, an empire that shows ever more signs of fascism.
The right-wing extremists in the Bush administration had concocted in secret a Blitzkrieg by Georgia, in the hope of putting Russia before a fait accompli. They lost. It is the beginning of the fall of the American empire.
11:30:56 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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