Российская Федерация

Yesterday evening I’ve picked up some additional comments on the “Missile Defense Shield” the Americans are planning to install in Eastern Europe (Czech Republic / Poland). The Bush administration in Washington claims this “shield” to be a protective measure against possible in-coming missiles from rogue state Iran, threatening the eastern coast of the USA.

Well, I am also not very happy about the idea of possibly seeing Iran arming herself with nuclear weapons. But I fail to see how such weapons could threaten the USA. Taking the rhetorics from Tehran into consideration, should such weapons form a threat at all, the country threatened would be Israel, not the USA.

Anyway, given the possibility that a) Iran should really intend to build an nuclear arsenal and b) posesses the carrier technology to “transport” nuclear warheads to the USA’s eastern coast, would a missile site in Poland help ? What kind of missiles are to be installed in Poland ?

What will happen, in a what-if-scenario, when a Poland based missile intercepts an incoming Iranian missile ? Where will the debris of the intercepted Iranian missile land ?

I vaguely remember the situation in Israel in 1991, during “Gulf War Part 1″. Saddam Hussein, obviously trying to draw Israel into the conflict by firing Scud missiles at Israel, failed. The incoming Scuds were turned, when being shot down by the US Patriot system, from one large object into many small objects, causing more damage than the “larger object” would have caused.

Had the Scuds been armed with biological or chemical warheads, as many people had feared back then, wouldn’t the fall out zone have been many times larger in size than it had been when the Scud had come down in one piece ?

I fully understand that the US American administration is much more in favour of having nuclear debris falling on European heads than on American heads. But what about the people of Poland and the neighbouring countries like Ukraine, Belarus, Germany and others ? Isn’t one Chernobyl more than enough ?

I am not in favour of seeing a failed USAnian foreign policy turn parts of Europe into a nuclear wasteland. What about you ?

The dispute between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yanukovych remains unsolved. The government refuses to finance the elections Yushchenko called for, Prime Minister Yanukovych ties his “go ahead” to the ruling of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court.

President Yushchenko fears that the Constitutional Court might need months to come to a decision and suggests to call for international mediators to help solving the problem.

Several media, such as the German Sächsische Zeitung, have announced that President Yushchenko has already called Austria’s Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. Yushchenko is reported to have said:

Austria is reknown for being a neutral and democratic state with a profound and solid legal tradition. Austria deserves to be trusted.

Asking Austria to be a mediator in the crisis would be an intelligent thing to do. Austria is a member of the European Union but not a member of the NATO, a member of a political-economical union and not of a political-military alliance. Other countries to act as a mediator could be Switzerland and Sweden.

Austria, Switzerland and Sweden do not have an anti-Russian agenda and could therefore also be accepted by Prime Minister Yanukovych. All three countries are also not very vulnerable to US-American pressure.

Ukraine is a European country after all, calling for help by democratic and independant European countries doesn’t cause any harm, does it ?

Tip: Ulrich Heyden

I have, therefore, chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth too rarely perceived. And that is the most important topic on earth: peace.What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek ?

Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children

–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.

This is just a little excerpt from President John F. Kennedy’s American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963. These are words from the past of the USA, from a time when the USA were respected and admired in Europe, a time long gone and not to return. Today the message is different, today it’s no longer JFK speaking, it’s Dick Cheney. What he has to say is nothing to my liking.

Is Cheney Trying To Break Up Ukraine ?  Nicholas of the “Kiev Ukraine News Blog” quotes the “Executive Intelligence Review”. It’s worth reading.

What are Cheney’s plans ? Divide and rule ? If  “we” can’t get Ukraine in one bite, let’s split her up ? Is he suggesting to break up Ukraine into three pieces, the “orange” West, the “blue” East and an autonomous “Crimean Republic” ?

The Western Ukraine, Yushchenko’s stronghold, is maybe easier to “transform” into the state Bush and Cheney want to see entire Ukraine to be. Yanukovych may keep the rural East and rule a midget state of his own ? And Yulia Tymoshenko may have the “Crimean Republic” ? A “Pax American” after all ?

Jeremy Scahill’s book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army“  reviewed by Lewis Perdue

This book aspires to be the definitive investigation into the growth of one of the largest private military firms in the world and an exhaustive catalog of its sins, especially as a tool for Bush Administration policy. It isn’t.

Rather it’s a cobbled-together amalgam of the author’s previously published articles, plus rehashed pieces by other “progressive” journalists, all embedded in a slurry of unattributed sources and one-sided quotations of politicos with an axe to grind. As such the book, subtitled, The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, fails miserably as anything other than a moveon.org playbook for the 2008 presidential campaigns.

Instead of solid investigative reporting and a steady march of organized facts from multiple credible sources, this book offers layers of innuendo cast in obviously biased language. There are no smoking guns here or even warm barrels, just 452 pages of poorly documented, mind-numbing minutiae wandering about in search of significance and lacking in overall coherence.

Blackwater was formed in 1997 to help train military and law enforcement personnel. Author Scahill early on attempts to indict the company for incompetence, or worse, by reconstructing the final days of the four Blackwater employees who were ambushed, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq. The indictment fails. And Scahill’s cartoonish descriptions of the men makes them into bumbling buffoons rather than offering the reader a moving sense of tragedy and men betrayed.

Trite, political-hot-button phraseology pervades the book. To Scahill, Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince is, “a radical right-wing Christian mega-millionaire who has served as a major bankroller not only of President Bush’s campaigns but of the broader Christian-right agenda.” Some facts would have been helpful: religious affiliation, personal net worth, dollar amount of contributions. Perhaps Mr. Prince is all of these, perhaps not. But only the facts would tell us.

Scahill’s lack of attribution destroys the book’s credibility. He first writes that, Blackwater has more than $500 million in government contracts, noting that “as one U.S. Congress member observed, in strictly military terms, Blackwater could overthrow many of the world’s governments.” But which member of Congress? Observed to whom? When? All those pesky little details that a beginning journalism course requires for a C, along with any attempt at a balanced rational analysis, are notably absent in this book. I give it an F.

This review was published by Gary Jackson, President, Blackwater USA in Blackwater’s Tactical Weekly of April 9, 2007.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is …. “The Newman Formula”.

Forget about all this nonsense like “Rating by Technorati Links” (factored by age, bra size or whatever), “Traffic by Alexa”, “LR Index” or “SBA” (Swiss Blogger Analysis).

The one and only “Formula” to precisely determine the importance and influence of a “Russia Blog”  has been published yesterday. On April 6th, 2007 the secret was revealed and published. Like the surprise launch of Sputnik 1  on October 4, 1957, which shocked the United States of America, the presentation of the “Newman Formula” changes the scientific world forever.

Mr. Newman, Tim Newman that is, runs the superb blog “White Sun of the Desert” and, literally over night, became as important as Albert Einstein, the father of “E=mc²” .

The “Newman Formula” is as brilliant as simple ….

“Multiply the number of visitors by the blog owner’s distance Eastwards from Moscow, divided by number of McDonalds in a 500 mile radius.”

Scientifically the “Newman Formula” reads:

X(viob) x D(E>M) / X(McD;r<=500) = BRBaNF

(*): X(viob) = Number of visitors (of the blog) / D(E>M) = Distance between Moscow and the blog owner’s residence (the more to the East of Moscow the bigger the factor D) / X(McD;r<=500) = Number of McDonalds in a radius smaller than or equal to 500 miles / BRBaNF = Best Russia Blog according the Newman Formula.

Mr. Tim Newman is herby awarded the “German Liederhosen Award of Germano-Russo-Blogoshphere” (GLAGRB) and may from now on bare the full name and title:

Mr. Tim Newman, BRBaNF - GLAGRB. (with or without brackets, as desired)

Now that sounds definitely more impressive than IFPAE - MC - PD, doesn’t it ?

The Kiev Post has an interesting article on Rinat Akhmetov, who is increasingly concerned about his reputation. Ukraine’s richest tycoon has decided to take Ukrainian journalists and publications disseminating allegedly defamatory material against him to court in the UK.

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky sued the business magazine Forbes in the mid 1990s, which ended with the US-based publication publicly acknowledging that it was wrong to characterize Berezovsky as a mafia boss. Hungarian-based gas trader Eural Trans Gas, which controlled the lucrative business of supplying Turkmen gas to Ukraine, has in recent years sued journalists in Ukraine and Russia alleging that their reporting had damaged the company’s reputation.

The original article at the Kiev Post is well worth reading it. (Follow the link)

… who has the best Russiablog of all ? This seems to be the most important question on blogosphere again these days. Andy Young’s ‘Siberian Light’ discusses the state of the Russia blogosphere , inspired by the infamous “La Russophobe Boys” who once again look in their magic mirror, posting their “LR Index”.

But also the German language “Russo Blogosphere” is infected by this virus. The Swiss based Russiablog ‘Krusenstern - Крузенштерн’ picks up this topic as well. In his entry “Die 16 größten Russland-Blogs der Welt (in Englisch)” Jürg Vollmer analyses this phenomenom, with the precision of a Swiss watch and a good sense of humour. (He is Swiss, and only the Germans are not supposed to be funny.)

Amending the “statistic” by adding the factor “Unique Visitors per Day” Jürg reaches the conclusion that his own blog ‘Krusenstern - Крузенштерн’ beats the ‘Fabulous La Russophobe Boys’ by 15,38 % (234 vs 19 and ‘Siberian Light’ by 6,84 % (234 vs 21 day per day and actually is the most successful “Russiablog of All” (based on the daily readership).

All around the globe people seem to look into their magic mirror today, asking the very same question …

Mirror mirror on the wall … who has / is the best of all ?

In Moscow, an ex-pat blogger will be asked by his mirror “With or without tits ?”

In Malverne NY, USA a tiny bald man looks into the mirror on the wall of the  employees’ changing room at Wendy’s, asking the question “Who is the most successful Independent Foreign Policy Analyst Extraordinaire (IFPAE), Media Critic (MC) and Political Dissident (PD) of all”.

And the mirror replies ….

“Why do you look, at all, in me,
For all you see is the same old ‘me’,
And not what you so desperately wanna be.”

And the tiny bald man wipes a tear off his cheek with his apron, heads towards the grill and puts on his most professional smile. He will desperately need it when saying, over and over again …..

“Thank you for eating at Wendy’s !”

Russland-Aktuell reports that the Polish management of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum, located on the area of the former Nazi-German concentration camp  in Poland, refuses to re-open the exposition commemo- rating the camp prisoners who lost their lives there.

The exposition was created in 1961, as a Russo-Polish joint venture, to display and commemorate the circumstances the camp prisoners had to live in and to suffer from. It also commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

The dispute addresses the fact that in the Russian contribution to the exposition camp prisoners originating from cities and towns in Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia, regions which prior to 1939 were part of the Polish Republic, are addressed having been citizens of the Soviet Union.

The Polish side now claims that these regions were illegally occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939, as a result of the infamous Hitler-Stalin-Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop-Pact), and therefore these victimes of Auschwitz-Birkenau are to be considered having been Polish citizens, not citizens of the Soviet Union.

The Polish management insists in keeping the exposition, or at least the Russian part of it, closed as long as Russia will not “correct” the nationality of the prisoners in question.

Although the Polish government, represented by the Ministry of Education and the Arts, insists in taking a neutral stand in this affair the Russian side is outraged and accuses Poland of abusing the victimes of Auschwitz-Birkenau for nationalistic purposes.

The Russian side suggests that the victimes of Auschwitz-Birkenau are to be seen as representatives of humanity, not of individual nationalities.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was erected in 1940 and operated until 1945. Approximately 1.1 million prisoners lost their lives in the camp. When the Red Army liberated the camp only 7000 survivors were found.

The news spreads quickly these days. It spreads at an impressive pace and the sources spreading the news are manifold and often astonishing. Often different threads are spun and seem to go in different directions, somtimes they unite and have “their ends” meet.

A couple of days ago I posted my entry on a poll held by Germany’s Forsa Institute on how Germans see the USA in comparison with Iran. On Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Sean Guillory of “Sean’s Russia Blog” posted an entry on Jeremy Scahill’s new book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army“ featuring Blackwater USA, the infamous US-American “Security Firm”.

Is there any connection between Sean’s blog entry and mine ? No, not directly. At least none that was intended, neither by Sean nor by me. But how do these two “threads” meet ?

This morning I opened my mailbox and went through my e-mails. The usual stuff, nothing really important actually, but one particular e-mail is worth mentioning.

It’s one of the many newsletters I receive for professional and semi-professional reasons, it’s Blackwater USA’s “Blackwater Tactical Weekly”. (Now don’t ask me why I signed up to this “newsletter”, I won’t answer in public ).

So what does Blackwater USA’s newsletter editor (and president) Gary Jackson write in the “Tactical Weekly” ?

He writes about US Marine Corporal Jason Dunham, who bravely threw himself on a grenade on April 14, 2004 at Karabilah / Iraq. Dunham was not only posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor , the US Departement of the Navy also announced that it would honour Dunham by naming the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer after him and there soon will be the USS Jason Dunham cutting the waves.

Next, Gary Jackson writes about “The Tehran’s Hostages - Iran’s act of war against our British allies”, “The Walk Trough Fire - Hard times feed the insurgency, and the insurgency keeps Iran in ruins (A report from the front, such as it is)”, “A deadly US- Iran firefight”, “Inside Hizballah’s Hidden Bunkers”, “Opposing Views: Things are looking up”, “The War of the Words”,  ”Beyond the Call of Duty”, “Brutal Chinese Weapon - Tailor-Made for Insurgents”, “Hunting the Hunters”, “China is fuelling Pacific arms race”, “Iran’s elite Guard Corps broadens influence”, “Talking Dafur to Death” and “Humanitarian Conduct & Enhanced Operations: Specialized Training for Field Managers and Independent Contractors”.

Of course there’s also a “Tactical Equipment Evaluation” on “Grayman Knives”.

Now that is really the important stuff a “security firm” needs to worry and to write about in a “newsletter”.

At this point I’d like to underline that Gary Jackson’s “The War of the Words” is not identical with my blog entry “The War of Words”, Mr. Jackson and yours truly are no co-authors.

I fully understand that Mr. Jackson has to publish his views on the “hotspots” of today’s world. One never knows, maybe Blackwater USA will shortly become a “contractor” of someone feeling the need to bring peace, stability and “security” to Sudan, China, Iran or the Lebanon. And then it’s definitely necessary to be informed about tactical knifes, the “Blackwater USA Limited Edition SIG-Sauer P226 Pistol” and the “Bushmaster AR Rifles” Blackwater USA advertises on its corporate websites (Blackwater USA).

When looking at Blackwater USA’s website, please do not forget to visit the “professional store” where you can order all those neat things like protective vests, combat knifes, sunglasses, water bottles, battle dresses and plenty of merchandise having the Blackwater USA logo on them.

You may want to have a Blackwater USA license plate on your SUV, or you may want to buy Mr. Jackson’s favourite bumper sticker which he advertises in his “newsletter”.

This bumper sticker reads :

” Personally I’ve never experienced normal or stayed awake long enough to understand it. “

Well, Mr. Jackson’s favourite bumper sticker explains why the things with Blackwater USA are the way they are. And it also explains why Mr. Jackson is having difficulties to understand the reaction of the German government he describes in his article “Hunting the Hunters”.

It’s too “normal” for Mr. Jackson to undertand that the government of an independant country (Germany) objects to having one of its nationals kidnapped in Macedonia, being transported to Afghanistan for “questioning” and being mistreated there. It’s needless to mention that the kidnapping had taken place on the basis of a mistaken identity. 

Now Jackson fails to understand that Germany, knowing who these 13 CIA folks “f****** this up” are, doesn’t want to see these dudes in Germany again (from where they obviously operated without informing the German government, but which knew about them anyway). Despite the “strong warnings” from Mr. Jackson (and of some other “patriots”) the German authorities announced that those guys will be arrested and extradited when showing up in Germany again.

The bumper sticker also explains why Gary Jackson begins his “newsletter” by posting the content of the “Spiegel Online International” article “Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs” .

“Spiegel Online”, widely regarded in Germany being the “German Pravda for Failed Academics” , and personified by Claus Christian Malzahn (SPIEGEL ONLINE’s rabid Berlin bureau chief), definitely meets Jackson’s “normal” standards for being a balanced and “journalistic” masterpiece.

Mahlzahn writes everything a “true American patriot” like Mr. Jackson needs to know and wants to read about Germany. He writes about the “Kaiser” and Adolf Hitler, about Karls Marx and “German Colonies in Africa”, about Jews, Jews and Jews, the Holocaust, the Holocaust and the Holocaust, the Nazis, the Nazis and the Nazis as well as the German failure to win the last Soccer Worldcup. And, of course, he writes about the deeply felt love for the Mullahs in Iran, the love that fills and warms every German’s heart.

Last but not least, Mahlzahn writes about how much Germans hate Americans for winning World War 2, about how much Germans hate Germany for losing World War 2 and about how much Germans hate Americans for winning World War 2 (haven’t I written this already ?) .

I apologize for being so confused, I am a German. I spend all day hating Americans, hating Americans and hating Americans. Inbetween I have to express my deep love for Iranian Mullahs and then have to get back to hating Americans for not letting us win the last Soccer Worldcup. (Ooops !). There is little room left for anything else, besides (of course) the German national sport of hating Americans, Jews and denying the Holocaust.

Mahlzahn even suggests to repeat World War 2 (or was it the lesson to be learnt from it ?) so the nasty Germans will finally learn NOW !

Maybe Jackson and Mahlzahn can team up. Blackwater USA could “liberate” Germany from those Germans, bring peace and stability, could install a missile defence shield and teach Germany the lessons to be learnt from “Humanitarian Conduct & Enhanced Operations: Specialized Training for Field Managers and Independent Contractors”.

And then the Blackwater Army  employees could travel from the operational bases in liberated Germany to Russia, via Estonia (where they could finally remove this stupid “Bronze Soldier” in Tallinn) and could kidnap invite Putin, bring him to Guantanamo (via Macedonia, Afghanistan and Iran) and torture interview him there.

And Mahlzahn could arrange the press conferences and control coordinate the media from his new Blackwater Russia office in Moscow.

A Moscow military court has sentenced a retired colonel to 12 years in prison for spying, the RIA Novosti news agency said Friday. The defendant earlier pleaded guilty to the charges.

The Moscow District Military Court has sentenced Colonel Valentin Shabaturov to 12 years in prison for treason and espionage, stripping him of his military rank and all state decorations. Prosecutors said Mr. Shabaturov, who was arrested at the Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow last March, had been recruited by intelligence of a European country and received $100,000 for his services.“The defendant actively cooperated with a foreign intelligence service for seven years, from 1999 to 2006,” the verdict said. “He revealed state secrets, causing substantial damage to Russia’s national security.

Prosecutors asked for 14 years for Valentin Shabaturov, but the court has given him the shortest term possible after he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Mr. Shaturov’s lawyer said the defense is set to appeal the verdict.

Source: Kommersant.Com

Andy Young of ‘Siberian Light’ has a cute little video on his blog, showing what happens when the iron discipline of the Russian Red Army Choir meets the big haired curly toed anarchy of the Leningrad Cowboys ? Thanks Andy, I really enjoyed Kalinka, Kalinka, Kalinka Maya.

How about starting a ‘Russo-Blogosphere Music Contest’ ? The winner may travel to Moscow and have a concert at Бутырская тюрьма and then a free ride on the “Stolypin Express” to Chita.

My favourite would be “The La Russophobe Boys” featuring Michael Averko, covering the all time chart breaker “Back To The USSR” by The Beatles.