Vladimir Kara-Murza writes about Putin´s failed anti-terrorist programme in the World Affairs Journal:
Another year, another terrorist attack in Russia. On January 24, a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the arrivals zone at Domodedovo, Moscow’s busiest airport. Thirty-five people were killed and more than a hundred were injured. As Vladimir Putin prepares for this year’s parliamentary “elections” and a possible return to the Kremlin in 2012, his “pacification” of the North Caucasus has once again been proven a failure. Not that more proof was needed after last year’s attack on Lubyanka metro station – literally under the nose of the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service.
---
A decade ago, the Kremlin rejected a political track in favor of the “shithouse” strategy. Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, whom Mr. Putin himself called “the lawfully elected president, whether we like it or not,” was branded a “terrorist” and killed. Any reference to him or his associates still stirs the Kremlin’s wrath, as was shown last week by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s protest over an event in Washington featuring Ilyas Akhmadov, Mr. Maskhadov’s former foreign minister. What had been a classic separatist movement in Chechnya was hijacked by Islamist fundamentalists and spread out to neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan. For this transformation, Mr. Putin’s heavy-handed and cynical approach to the Caucasus bears a direct responsibility.
Read the entire article here.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
The Mubarak legacy: Torture, imprisonment, repression of dissent, murder, disappearances
David Keyes, director of CyberDissidents.org. describes Hosni Mubarak´s human rights horrors:
Few know the cruelty of Mubarak’s regime better than (Kareem) Amer, who spent the last four years in prison for criticizing the dictator and “insulting” Islam on his blog. When I asked him to describe Mubarak’s record, he said: “Many human-rights activists and journalists were imprisoned during his reign. Some were beaten and tortured. Others were abducted or disappeared without a trace. The most important of these incidents was the disappearance of the Egyptian journalist Reda Helal in the heart of Cairo in 2003. Many believe the security services were behind the abduction because of his political views.” Amer said the worst of Mubarak’s crimes have been committed in the past few days. “The security forces have used great violence against demonstrators,” he said. “They opened fire on them, killing scores.”
Read the entire article here.
PS
CyberDissidents.org. now reports that Kareem Amer went missing last night in Cairo:
CyberDissidents.org has just received word that Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, recently released after four years in prison, has disappeared. Kareem is a member of CyberDissidents.org's blogger board and we are horrified at this news.
Last night around 11 pm Kareem left Tahrir square with a friend. They were warned not to go through Kasr Elnil because of ambushes and arrests there. It is not known if they used that exit, but Kareem and his friend have not been heard from since. Their phones are off and they are not in their apartments. "Mubarak has started to hunt us down," a friend of Kareem's told CyberDissidents.org. "One more week in power and he will kill us all."
PS 2
Maybe it is good to remind readers about what Obama´s Egypt envoy Frank Wisner had to say about his friend, the dictator:
Wisner said he considered Mubarak’s continued leadership in his country “critical.”
“It’s his opportunity to write his own legacy -- he’s given 60 years of his life to the service of his country,” Wisner said. “This is an ideal moment for him to show his way forward, not just in maintaining stability and responsible government, but actually shaping and giving authority to the transition that has to be underway.”
Few know the cruelty of Mubarak’s regime better than (Kareem) Amer, who spent the last four years in prison for criticizing the dictator and “insulting” Islam on his blog. When I asked him to describe Mubarak’s record, he said: “Many human-rights activists and journalists were imprisoned during his reign. Some were beaten and tortured. Others were abducted or disappeared without a trace. The most important of these incidents was the disappearance of the Egyptian journalist Reda Helal in the heart of Cairo in 2003. Many believe the security services were behind the abduction because of his political views.” Amer said the worst of Mubarak’s crimes have been committed in the past few days. “The security forces have used great violence against demonstrators,” he said. “They opened fire on them, killing scores.”
Read the entire article here.
PS
CyberDissidents.org. now reports that Kareem Amer went missing last night in Cairo:
CyberDissidents.org has just received word that Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, recently released after four years in prison, has disappeared. Kareem is a member of CyberDissidents.org's blogger board and we are horrified at this news.
Last night around 11 pm Kareem left Tahrir square with a friend. They were warned not to go through Kasr Elnil because of ambushes and arrests there. It is not known if they used that exit, but Kareem and his friend have not been heard from since. Their phones are off and they are not in their apartments. "Mubarak has started to hunt us down," a friend of Kareem's told CyberDissidents.org. "One more week in power and he will kill us all."
PS 2
Maybe it is good to remind readers about what Obama´s Egypt envoy Frank Wisner had to say about his friend, the dictator:
Wisner said he considered Mubarak’s continued leadership in his country “critical.”
“It’s his opportunity to write his own legacy -- he’s given 60 years of his life to the service of his country,” Wisner said. “This is an ideal moment for him to show his way forward, not just in maintaining stability and responsible government, but actually shaping and giving authority to the transition that has to be underway.”
Not so hard talk by BBC´s Stephen Sackur
Russia´s brave opposition politician Boris Nemtsov taught BBC´s Stephen Sackur a lesson in his Hard Talk interview last night. Robert Amsterdam reports on the double standards in the west when dealing with dictator Vladimir Putin:
Boris Nemtsov appeared on the BBC's HardTalk last night, delivering a scathing rebuttal to presenter Stephen Sackur's insistence that Nemtsov's call for sanctions against Russian leaders was improbable. In his defense, Nemtsov brought up the ongoing Western sanctions and harsh rhetoric against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. As Nemtsov indicates, Sackur's position reflects the bizarre Western bias, which upholds the mythology of Russian democracy, whilst claiming to see through that of its smaller, and less powerful neighbours.
Boris Nemtsov appeared on the BBC's HardTalk last night, delivering a scathing rebuttal to presenter Stephen Sackur's insistence that Nemtsov's call for sanctions against Russian leaders was improbable. In his defense, Nemtsov brought up the ongoing Western sanctions and harsh rhetoric against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. As Nemtsov indicates, Sackur's position reflects the bizarre Western bias, which upholds the mythology of Russian democracy, whilst claiming to see through that of its smaller, and less powerful neighbours.
SS: Do you think any Western government is going to take seriously your call for sanctions on Russia?
BN: I'm talking about sanctions, not against the state, but against persons who destroy people's rights in this country--
SS: You're talking about the state's President, the state's Prime Minister. So do you want sanctions from the West on Vladimir Putin, and do you think that's a serious proposition?
BN: Absolutely. You are talking mainly about double standards. Why [did] you implement sanctions against Lukashenko? What's the difference between Putin and Lukashenko? One guy is a dictator, [the] other guy is a dictator. Why are you ready to implement sanctions against Lukashenko, and do not touch Putin? Can you explain to me? What's the difference? Maybe you know?
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Egypt pro-democracy supporters face "great danger"
The pro-democracy demonstrators are in great danger, when the US supported Egyptian "transition team" - appointed and led by dictator Mubarak - orders the security services to take action:
"The protesters have now entered the most dangerous phase of this conflict," Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University said on CNN's AC360. "They are known to the security services. They have bet it all. And if indeed this regime survives -- if this regime truly, in a way, deludes us that it has changed ... most of these protesters, the leaders of these protesters are in great, great danger. I've been talking to several Egyptian intellectuals. This is now the most dangerous phase for those who dare stand up to the regime."
Read the entire arcticle here.
"The protesters have now entered the most dangerous phase of this conflict," Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University said on CNN's AC360. "They are known to the security services. They have bet it all. And if indeed this regime survives -- if this regime truly, in a way, deludes us that it has changed ... most of these protesters, the leaders of these protesters are in great, great danger. I've been talking to several Egyptian intellectuals. This is now the most dangerous phase for those who dare stand up to the regime."
Read the entire arcticle here.
"In Egypt, President Obama sides with efforts to limit democratic change"
It is very sad that the Obama administration has totally misjudged the popular uprising in Egypt by supporting the "orderly transition" led by Mubarak and his henchmen. The Washington Post editiorial says it all:
THE OBAMA administration's latest flip on Egypt - it now publicly backs "the transition process announced by the Egyptian government" - is driven by fear of the dangers that could come with a victory by the pro-democracy movement headquartered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "There are forces at work in any society . . . that will try to derail or overtake the process to pursue their own specific agenda," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday. Most likely she was referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist movement that many in Washington worry could hijack an uprising currently led by secular liberals.
Egypt's Islamic threat cannot be discounted. But the administration has focused on the wrong problem - and, as a result, has taken the wrong side. The biggest threat to the stated U.S. objective of a "real democracy" in Egypt is not an extreme opposition but the very regime the administration is backing - which is attempting to limit change and perpetuate its hold on power beyond President Hosni Mubarak's announced retirement in September.
The state of the European Union: " Pretension Without Power"
Doug Bandow´s article in Forbes is probably not favourite reading for eurocrats in Brussels. But quite a few ordinary Europeans would probably agree with his assessement:
The alternative to more German-funded rescues could be the collapse of the Eurozone. A majority of Germans would like to restore the D-Mark. Options include creating a two-tier euro, separating stronger and weaker economies. Or the weaker links could leave (or be expelled). Such a process would be economically painful and likely kill further political consolidation.
However, the EU has less political credibility today than before the Lisbon Treaty. The body remains fractured, with three “presidents” and an ineffective “foreign minister.” The organization also fails to field a military, and member states, including Great Britain and France, are shrinking their armed services. The E.U.’s objective of becoming the globe’s third Weltmacht, alongside America and China, looks ever more like a fantasy.
That was never a realistic objective, however. Europe is not a nation. No matter how much the Eurocrats huff and puff, the European Project no longer is the Europeans’ project.
Europe still matters because the Europeans matter. But the E.U. likely will remain a “dwarf power,” in State Department parlance, with more pretension than reality. Europe finally has a phone number–but no one in Washington has much reason to call.
Read the entire article here.
The alternative to more German-funded rescues could be the collapse of the Eurozone. A majority of Germans would like to restore the D-Mark. Options include creating a two-tier euro, separating stronger and weaker economies. Or the weaker links could leave (or be expelled). Such a process would be economically painful and likely kill further political consolidation.
However, the EU has less political credibility today than before the Lisbon Treaty. The body remains fractured, with three “presidents” and an ineffective “foreign minister.” The organization also fails to field a military, and member states, including Great Britain and France, are shrinking their armed services. The E.U.’s objective of becoming the globe’s third Weltmacht, alongside America and China, looks ever more like a fantasy.
That was never a realistic objective, however. Europe is not a nation. No matter how much the Eurocrats huff and puff, the European Project no longer is the Europeans’ project.
Europe still matters because the Europeans matter. But the E.U. likely will remain a “dwarf power,” in State Department parlance, with more pretension than reality. Europe finally has a phone number–but no one in Washington has much reason to call.
Read the entire article here.
Russia expels Guardian´s Moscow correspondent - for telling the truth
On December 1 the Guardian´s Moscow correspondent Luke Harding wrote this, based on leaked American embassy cables:
Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a "virtual mafia state", according to leaked secret diplomatic cables that provide a damning American assessment of its erstwhile rival superpower.
Arms trafficking, money laundering, personal enrichment, protection for gangsters, extortion and kickbacks, suitcases full of money and secret offshore bank accounts in Cyprus: the cables paint a bleak picture of a political system in which bribery alone totals an estimated $300bn a year, and in which it is often hard to distinguish between the activities of the government and organised crime.Among the most striking allegations contained in the cables, which were leaked to the whistleblowers' website WikiLeaks, are:
• Russian spies use senior mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations such as arms trafficking.
• Law enforcement agencies such as the police, spy agencies and the prosecutor's office operate a de facto protection racket for criminal networks.• Rampant bribery acts like a parallel tax system for the personal enrichment of police, officials and the KGB's successor, the federal security service (FSB).
• Investigators looking into Russian mafia links to Spain have compiled a list of Russian prosecutors, military officers and politicians who have dealings with organised crime networks.
• Putin is accused of amassing "illicit proceeds" from his time in office, which various sources allege are hidden overseas.
Harding has now been expelled from Russia. What better proof is there for the fact that Harding and the US cables told the truth about Putin´s criminal regime?
Read the entire article here.
Addendum (14.2)
It is now reported that Russia has reconsidered and let Harding return after first expelling him. Probably the expulsion was the work of FBI acting without consulting the President´s office, which does not want its image campaign spoiled.
(image by antiqueprints.com)
Addendum (14.2)
It is now reported that Russia has reconsidered and let Harding return after first expelling him. Probably the expulsion was the work of FBI acting without consulting the President´s office, which does not want its image campaign spoiled.
(image by antiqueprints.com)
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