Strategic Culture Foundation 21-26 February, 2010

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

2010-02-23
Anatoly ALIFEROV
The Iskander Missiles as the Guarantee of Normal Coexistence of Russia and Europe
Russia went public with the plan to deploy the Iskander missiles at its western frontier – in the Kaliningrad region or on the territories of neighboring countries, but the process of probing into Washington’s reaction is clearly taking too long. In politics, failure to appreciate the importance of acting quickly invariably creates problems, the above situation being a vivid example. The Iskanders are a remarkably potent weapon but it appears that Moscow risks playing the card as a minor element in the diplomatic game…” read more…
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2798

2010-02-21
Aurobinda MAHAPATRA (India)
India-Pakistan Talks after 26/11
“On 25 February 2010 India and Pakistan are going to resume foreign secretary level of talks after almost a hiatus of more than one year… The last year meeting between Indian Prime Minister and Pakistan President at Yekaterinburg in Russia at the sidelines of the BRIC summit, and later the meeting between Indian and Pakistan Prime Ministers at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt virtually produced nothing in substance…”
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2799

2010-02-26
Hannes HOFBAUER (Austria)
Ukraine: Post-orange challenges
“After ten months of tricky tactical games playing on electoral procedures and acknowledgements, the orange period of the post-communist Ukraine finally came to an end… After the acknowledgement of Yanukovych ‘s victory, Ukraine could come back to normality. The obstacle to a normal development is the bare and narrow manner of the outcome. The country – still – is divided… The biggest challenge of Yanukovych‘s presidency is the economic one. If he fails here, social and political unrest are likely to regain the situation…”
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2812

Mainstream Media Questions Inaccuracies in 9/11 Story By Tim King

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

27 February, 2010 — Palestine Think Tank – Salem-News.com

The Washington Times publishes story questioning official account.

Newly released photos of New York on September 11, 2001 by the NY Police Association

The mainstream press is showing interest in a taboo, however glaring subject; the inconsistencies in the Bush White House 9/11 account.

As The Washington Post reports today, “A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center.”

The problems with the official federal stories are endless and according to some of the world’s top minds, the suggested account is impossible[1].

When we first began to write about these seemingly pressing questions, our Web Designer Matt Lintz caught the U.S. Air Force attempting to hack into Salem-News.com[2].

One person who has never let the matter fade away is Richard Gage. He’s a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Gage told The Washington Times, “In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must have been artificially, exploded outwards.”

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Ibrahim Hewitt – The Observer, Israel and the language of war

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

26 February, 2010 — Palestine Think Tank [Also in Spanish below]

A leader writer in the Observer newspaper (“Israel can accelerate peace by exercising restraint” 21 February) really must be taken to task over the language that was used in the column. In seeking to analyse the Israel-Palestine situation the writer slipped into the sort of terminology that serves to highlight the difficulties of discussing this issue in a non-partisan fashion. Being particular about the terminology used is not mere semantics, for it can and does reveal an underlying mindset. Nowhere is the old saying “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” more accurately applied than in discussions about the conflict in the Holy Land.

The Observer claims that “Israel and the Palestinians are in a state of perpetual war”, so it is surely unreasonable and inaccurate for the writer to refer subsequently in the same article to Palestinian “terrorists”. Wars have combatants on opposing sides but the post-9/11 American-led narrative – with the “war on terror” – has blurred the distinction to the extent that it is now acceptable – indeed, de rigueur – to refer to anyone struggling against Western hegemony as a terrorist. It is surprising that a newspaper like the Observer has fallen for this deception. It is equally surprising that the conflict between the Israeli occupiers and the occupied Palestinians is actually described as a “perpetual war”, implying that this is a conventional confrontation between two sides each having some degree of equivalence in terms of military capabilities; it isn’t and they don’t. Israel is a nuclear state with an army equipped with the most up-to-date technology imaginable. The Palestinians are a largely civilian population; even a future Palestinian state will, if Israel has its way (which it no doubt will), be forbidden from having its own army beyond lightly-armed “security” forces whose task is and will remain, according to the Oslo accords, to uphold the security of Israel first and foremost.

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Tzipi Livni: “the ONLY targets are Military targets” A Video by Shadi Nassar

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27 February, 2010 — Palestine Think Tank

A truly outstanding video by Shadi Nassar that shows clips of Tzipi Livni and others, during the Israeli wanton destruction of Gaza known as “Operation Cast Lead”. Her words contradict the actions of her government and army.

http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.4889899

more about “Tzipi Livni: “the ONLY targets are Mi…“, posted with vodpod

Ukraine: Post-orange challenges By Hannes HOFBAUER

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

26 February, 2010 — Strategic Culture Foundation

After ten months of tricky tactical games playing on electoral procedures and acknowledgements, the orange period of the post-communist Ukraine finally came to an end. As if the elections of 2004 were repeated, the electorate again voted for Viktor Yanukovych. This time the attempts to complain about falsifications were not successful; no tents were seen in the streets of Kiev, no social, no national protest heard. And Yulia Tymoshenko gave up to ask for a repetition 12 days after the results were published when she withdrew her appeal against the election result, which had been approved by the court in the meanwhile.

Before her confession of her own defeat, numerous attempts to extend the orange period were undertaken. The first serious attempt was done by Viktor Yushchenko in May 2009 when he overthrew a parliamentary decision from the 1st of April 2009 that fixed the date for the presidential elections for the 25th of October 2009. 400 out of 450 parliamentarians voted for this date, nevertheless Yuchchenko postponed the process till the 17th of January 2010. In the meanwhile his former partner from orange times, Yulia Tymoshenko worked on a de-democratisation of presidency by trying to change the constitution, so that the electorate would be excluded from future presidential elections. The measure of Yushchenko aimed at gaining time not so much for himself – he lost all the chances to get re-elected long before –, but for a successor supporting the same Western pro-NATO-policy than he did. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, ex-foreign minister and high-degree Westerner could not profit from this postponement. The measure of Tymoshenko aimed at a possible parliamentary post-orange majority to avoid a dangerous public election that could have discredited the orange revolution post mortem. As it afterwards did. After the acknowledgement of Yanukovych ‘s victory, Ukraine could come back to normality. The obstacle to a normal development is the bare and narrow manner of the outcome. The country – still – is divided.

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The Iskander Missiles as the Guarantee of Normal Coexistence of Russia and Europe By Anatoly ALIFEROV

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

23 February, 2010 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Russia went public with the plan to deploy the Iskander missiles at its western frontier – in the Kaliningrad region or on the territories of neighboring countries, but the process of probing into Washington’s reaction is clearly taking too long. In politics, failure to appreciate the importance of acting quickly invariably creates problems, the above situation being a vivid example. The Iskanders are a remarkably potent weapon but it appears that Moscow risks playing the card as a minor element in the diplomatic game. One gets an impression that the threat to deploy the missiles in the Kaliningrad region has been aired too long for NATO on the whole or even Poland and the Czech Republic to take it seriously.

If this is the case and the powerful weapon is depreciated due to the evident lack of determination to use it, the adversary has reasons to conclude that the threat is nonexistent. In other words, NATO feels free to go on expanding east in line with its strategy and to disregard Russia’s objections as verbiage.

Recently Russian Minister of Defense and vehement proponent of the army reform A. Serdyukov inadvertently contributed to NATO’s resolution to make inroads into the post-Soviet geopolitical space. He said in Finland on February 19 that if Europe poses no threats to Russia there would be no Iskanders in the Kaliningrad region – they would be deployed only if threats emerge.

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VTJP Palestine/Israel Newslinks 26 February, 2010: PCHR expresses ‘grave concern’ over UNGA action on Goldstone

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ICH 26 February, 2010: Weekend Edition – An American Cry for Help

February 27, 2010Leave a comment

A “Good” Terrorist Captured by Iran
By Ray McGovern
If this kind of scenario is allowed to play out, hostilities with Iran will make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan look like volleyball games between Mount Saint Ursula and Holy Name high schools. Can President Obama be so naïve as to be unaware of the stakes here?
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24878.htm

Democrats Pull Provision on Penalizing Intel Personnel for Interrogation Methods
By The Associated Press
The House approved an intelligence agency bill Friday after Democratic leaders hastily removed a provision that would have imposed prison sentences for personnel using “cruel, inhuman and degrading” interrogation techniques.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24880.htm

The Road to Armageddon
By Paul Craig Roberts
If the U.S. government can murder its citizens abroad it can murder them at home, and has done so.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24872.htm

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