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According to the Chinese state-run newspaper Washington is again playing the victim. This time the evildoer is not Russia but China. And the victim – Washington – is being victimized by cyber espionage, when, in fact, according to the Chinese newspaper, it is the world’s top intelligence power.

"Regarding the issue of network security, the US is such a mincing rascal that we must stop developing any illusions about it" – wrote the Global Times.

On Monday the US Grand Jury indicted five Chinese military officers on charges "they broke into US computers to benefit Chinese companies" in the first ever prosecution by Washington of state actors over cyber espionage.

Beijing responded furiously on Tuesday, summoning the US Ambassador Max Baucus and accusing Washington of double standards. Authorities also banned the use of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system on all new Government computers and suspended the activities of the bilateral cyber working group.

The Global Times said that Washington's "pretentious accusation against the Chinese army officers is ridiculous" given that the US NSA itself has engaged in widespread cyber spying through its PRISM program.

Interpol, according to the Chinese publication, "should have ordered the arrest of designers and implementers of the PRISM program but they did not". "Therefore the US is acting so shameless by posting photos of the five Chinese army officers."

The US prosecutors said the five indicted officers belong to Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army.

A report last year by the US security firm Mandiant said the unit had thousands of workers operating from a nondescript 12-storey building on the outskirts of Shanghai and that their goal was to pilfer intellectual property and government secrets.

Beijing has denied the accusations and the Global Times on Wednesday called them "beyond our imagination".

Hello! This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Pr. Joseph Fitsanakis. He is the coordinator for the Security and Intelligence Studies Program at King University, and the Director of the King Institute for Security and Intelligence Studies. He is also the Senior Editor at Intelnews.org.

I'm pretty good myself. I read your article that you wrote about the scandal going on right now between China and the US regarding cyber spying. I’d like to ask you about the unprecedented charges against the officials, the naming of officials. Is the US really just a victim in all this?

First of all, let me agree with you – this is absolutely unprecedented. This is obviously an FBI operation. The FBI is the American intelligence agency in charge of counterintelligence. And we’ve never heard of the FBI actually naming the Chinese officials for People’s Liberation Army as persons responsible for espionage against the US.

These charges are indeed unprecedented. And some people think they maybe shape the things to come.

The timing of this! Now, when President Putin is in China, the Chinese-Russian relations are moving ahead quantitatively. What about the timing of this? Do you think this is specially timed?

We will see as the Chinese-Russian relations move ahead. I mean, it all depends on whether the deal with gas exports is going to be signed between the two sides.

The timing, of course, we can read all kinds of things in the timing. The US accuses China of economic espionage. That pushes China away from the US and to Russia. So, I’m not sure that will be too much in the timing of this, at this moment.

I don’t know if the US is interested anymore in doing business with anybody or having normal relations. I mean, they are pushing Russia away, they are pushing Europe away. Why not China?

That’s an excellent question. Some officials may not be accountable at all with this revelation. However, often the FBI will say – you know, I don’t care what do you think, the fact is that we have a counterintelligence investigation at hands, we have these officials that have been named, it is our duty to go ahead and name those officials.

I have a problem with a lot of the US media right now, especially with the coverage of Ukraine. I mean, it is all self-serving. And of course, they are going to demonize China as much as they can right now, because it has closer relations with Russia. And it seems like, as far as the media goes, anything they can do to demonize Russia in the last half a year intensely, they are going to do it.

This is not necessarily a controversial argument that you are making. I mean, the fact is that the American-Russian relations are not in a very good state right now. This revelation or this accusation just seems to appear out of the blue. So, yes, you are making a good point here.

Okay, in your article the headline was The US Cyber Security Posture is not Purely Defensive. What did you mean by that?

The US for the last decade or so has made the point that it finds itself unfairly targeted by the foreign cyber espionage. The question that one has to ask, and I’m speaking purely academically here, is – to what extent does the US itself is involved in offensive cyber espionage. Because one thing is to be defensive in the posture, and another thing is to be offensive.

And I think a lot of us who study this for living have this impression that the US is also involved in offensive espionage. We have had some evidence in the past of cyber security experts at the State Department who have attacked the websites.

If the US or other Western countries have an involvement with Stuxnet, that will be a textbook example of not cyber espionage, but cyber sabotage, if the US does that.

And here, there is an important issue, because every country in the world at this moment, they only say that they are defending themselves. I'm not quite sure this is accurate. I don’t pay too much attention to these crimes.

But what about Edward Snowden’s revelations? Are you going to say all that is lies or what?

The Edward Snowden’s revelations I think made a big impact on how we think about cyber espionage. The revelations themselves have shown that the US has spied on, particularly, foreign countries like Germany, Brazil etc.

I would take a step further – one the most incredible espionage revelations by Snowden didn't concern the US. It concerned spying by Australia against East Timor – a mining company for a mining contract which had nothing to do with the Australian national security, but had a lot to do with Australian economic interests. And Australia is considered as an analog of the US and Western countries. A very much shameful episode in the Australian intelligence’s history.

So, yes, I think the Snowden’s revelations have shed a lot of interesting light on how nations behave in the cyber realm.

In your article you’ve mentioned Hilary Clinton. She said that "countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation". That is everybody except for the US, as I take it.

Right! Again, you know, it is interesting. The US is very vocal about finding itself a victim of cyber espionage operation. I'd imagine that there is a cyber offensive aspect to America’s online presence.

So, in fact, what is interesting about this current spat with China, is that the US has said, in fact, many American officials have said that America does engage in espionage. But one thing they want to make clear is that the US does not engage in economic espionage. That what separates us from China, is that we don't spy on companies.

I’m sorry, I wasn’t born yesterday. I mean, I can’t believe that. The EU had all this evidence that they were spying on economic bodies in the EU and this stuff was brushed under the carpet really fast by the US Government.

That’s the argument the US makes. Now, I remember back in the mid 1990’es, when the Echelon network revelations came out, at that point any European countries, particularly Germany and France, were very upset believing that the US has engaged in economic espionage against their companies.

In fact, at that time, around 1998 or 1997, the EU sent a delegation to America to investigate these claims that were made in official EU report. At that point the US officials refused to meet with them.

So, like you, I was not born yesterday and I don’t disagree with your skepticism that that may well be.

I know and I’m sure you know there is a very-very close relationship between the US corporations, the military industrial complex, the big oil companies, these private intelligence companies in the US. This is not right! This is almost an incestuous relationship between these huge moneyed interests in the US Government and the intelligence community. So, I take that you agree with me that the US is not just innocent here.

To find innocence…almost every country in the world engages in offensive cyber espionage. And it would seem logical to assume that every country is either engaged in offensive cyber espionage or is exploring ways to become engaged in offensive cyber espionage.

That’s of course purely a conjecture using common sense, because I have no evidence to show this. But I think using common sense we have to assume that every country is engaged in this field of intelligence in some way or another.

What about the level of the intrusiveness of the NSA, for example? They’ve crossed some lines that shouldn’t have been crossed. I mean, spying on American citizens in the US, collecting information, that really they have no right to, from innocent people and I’m sure form companies etc. I mean, it is just within the US, don’t you think they’ve crossed the line?

If you ask the NSA, they will tell you that mistakes happen and so on and so forth. My personal view is that when you are looking at intelligence agencies like the NSA, comparatively speaking the NSA is more transparent in its operations that other similar agencies in the Western world, including by the way the British GCHQ…

Exactly! The joke that NSA stood for No Such Agency. Keep in mind that both authorized and unauthorized revelations about the NSA going are back to the late 1980’es…

So, would you say that Snowden’s revelations were authorized? I think they weren't. That's why they were so ballistic.

Absolutely not authorized. And I don’t think there is any intelligence observer that would not agree with the statement that the Snowden’s revelations were very damaging.

I wouldn't say they were damaging for national security. They didn’t damage any security, they just verified what everybody already knew.

But think about, for example, the case of the US relations with Germany. They have been actually quite hurt by the revelations.

The world of intelligence has its own rules. We are not talking about the department of agriculture here. These agencies and these functions go to the core of the modern nation state. And so, this is by nature very-very secretive. And I don’t think that is going to change any time soon.

The US nation state is at its core super secretive. And anybody who exposes anything that they are doing is demonized, like Bradley Manning, Edwards Snowden.

Yes! And closer you get to the core functions, for example, the national security and defense, the more secrecy is apparent.

And about Snowden, let me remind you that Snowden's revelations were not that shocking in many ways. But I think our conversation began me talking about America and China, rather than domestically. I think those two things are not necessarily related.

It is a continuation of – we are being attacked, we are innocent, we need to step up security, we need more millions of dollars for security, because we are being threatened.

Let me point this argument to you. If I were China, if I were Russia, I would realize it will be quite difficult to compete with the US in conventional warfare.

You've just made a mistake most Americans make, that there is no competition. The US is overextended. Really, the US officials and, apparently, most American people think that you have an unbeatable army and military force that is going to force American hegemony on the entire planet. It is not going to work.

Yes, I don’t think the recent history shows that the American army in unbeatable. In fact, if anything, there are several problems with its ability to dominate the battlefield.

The problem with this argument – it is more dangerous for Americans, because they are going to go out there and die with this false idea in their heads. It is a big disservice to the American people and to soldiers, and to anyone in the military.

It was actually quite interesting when the US went into Afghanistan, many articles appeared in the international press by the former Soviet veterans who were basically sharing their experiences of the war in Afghanistan and in many ways actually warning the US about what they are going into.

That war in Afghanistan would have been one interesting aspect in which, perhaps, Russia and the US could have worked together.

The people running everything, they are not thinking that way. And that is a problem. They are not thinking the way a normal person would. As far as I see it, they are provoking everybody on the planet. And now they are going to provoke China. I get this real impression that they are trying to start WW III in Ukraine.

When you say they, you know, it is very-very difficult to pinpoint who they are.

This is John Robles, you were listening to an interview with Pr. Joseph Fitsanakis. He is the Senior Editor at Intelnews.org. He is also the coordinator for the Security and Intelligence Studies Program at King University, and the Director of the King Institute for Security and Intelligence Studies.

The US Broadcast Board of Governors, the organization which runs the US Government's media and internet operations, recently received a letter from Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of Rossiya Segodnya, in which he stated that the Voice of America and Radio Liberty would not be allowed to broadcast in Russia any longer after their contract with Russia ran out.

The move is yet another indicator of the fact that the Russian Government, which has so far been patient as the US/NATO attempt to continue to surround it with missiles and continue to demonize everything Russian, is beginning to take serious measures to protect itself, its people and its allies.

In another example of Russia following the rule of law and honoring its agreements and contracts with all its partners and at a detriment to itself, the US Government's propaganda tool the Voice of America was allowed to continue its subversive sanctimonious self-serving propaganda disguised as democracy and freedom (as long as you are with them) broadcasting into the territory of the Russian Federation until the expiration of its contract. The grudging cooperation of the Russian Government with the main instrument of American subversion has come to an end with one simple sentence from Rossiya Segodnya's outspoken head Dmitry Kiselyov who the US recently added to its useless sanctions list because he dared to tell the truth about Ukraine.

"We are not going to cooperate anymore," said Mr. Kiselyov in a letter dated March 21, 2014 to the US Government's Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and to be honest nothing more needed to be said.

With headlines from the Orwellian alternate universe that the United States exists in like "Experts Liken Ukraine Crisis to Soviet's Afghanistan Invasion" it can be no wonder that the Russian Government and in fact any truth loving country or citizen of the world might want to ban the voice of the aging recidivist Cold War propaganda machine seeking to stay relevant by creating its own bogeymen and brainwashing the masses to promote knuckle dragging caveman policies of force and subservience.

Russia's refusal to continue to allow the US its beloved platform for incessantly attempting to subvert its government and brainwash its people is a move that must be applauded and one that any country in the world which does not want to face its own EuroMaidan when the Brzezinski brigades in Washington become concerned about their "democracy" must emulate.

It is understandable why the US and its subservient "West" continue to demonize Russia and its leader President Putin (who enjoys an over 92% approval rating something I believe no American president has ever attained) and continuously take issue with the fact that our president worked for the KGB, namely because they keep losing and for some strange reason every single attempt at subverting Russia keeps failing. You see dear reader, having a patriotic incorruptible member of the security services as a president (which is how I would describe President Putin), rather than a corrupt career politician or a "Euro" Maidan-style-bonehead-puppet like Vitali Klitschko or Arseny Yatsenyuk, is Washington's worst nightmare, other than a patriotic socialist of course.

President Putin, as a former KGB intelligence officer, understands perfectly well and perhaps better than any other leader in the world (with all due respect to Fidel Castro who the CIA tried to assassinate over 638 times and the Chinese State who even their staunchest allies know little about) the tools and methods that the United States in particular uses to subvert countries, dispose of leaders, bring about regime change and advance its own hegemony and "interests".

Presidents and leaders of the world please take note: if you value your country's sovereignty and want to advance the interests of it and your people pay attention to what President Putin has been doing and doing well. During his first terms he brought about a complete turnaround to the neocon/Brzezinski plan to divide Russia into 68 autonomous regions, he put an end to the rampant US promoted corruption (Washington's favorite type of country and official is a corrupt one), he stopped the nose-diving population numbers, he stopped the brain drain and the massive runaway escape of capital from Russia and he ended to 1990s near anarchy that was tearing Russia apart after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was internally.

President Putin's plans for Russia are more in keeping with American Indian thought than anything the West has come up with. The Americans Indians believe we must regulate our moves and actions with the well-being of 7 generations ahead in mind, and from what I have seen (and I may be wrong here perhaps it is more), President Putin's vision is somewhere about 400 years ahead. This is why he is running circles around leaders like Obama who has sold the current and next several dozen generations down river and is ready to completely frack the entire North American continent into an uninhabitable wasteland so that he and his oil company buddies can get a quick fix. President Putin is like a chess player who is playing 250 moves ahead while the rest are struggling with 3 (not even close to the grandmaster level of 12).

Now, closer to the matter at hand lest I digress, with regard to the architects of the collapse of the single greatest power in world history, namely the US Government and all of its instruments of international subversion, who sought to colonize Russia and gain control of it and its resources, President Putin has acted equally effectively and in each and every case followed the rule of law, the Constitution of the Russian Federation and his oath of office. Something so called "constitutional scholars in chief" might make a note of in seeking to emulate conditions for attaining a 92% approval rating by their populaces.

His moves for securing Russia from the out of control imperial hegemon included the law on NGOs (which Ukraine, Egypt, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Yugoslavia and other US regime change targets should have done) and foreign agents, the expulsion of CIA front company USAID which since the 90s had infected everything from pre-natal centers (eugenics?) to the banking sector, the very professional and subtle neutralization of McFaul and his color revolution brigades of church defilers rent-a-mobs and his principled and uncompromising insistence on pursuing international relations based on mutual respect and rule of law.

Of course the American exceptional hegemon is upset by all of these moves, and they should be I suppose, given that they keep failing in their "Democracy is: a McDonald's, free resources for big oil, "open" markets and a US puppet government" drive to rule the world, but things look like they will get worse for the US corporate controlled government and its CIA/NATO "destroying countries are us" over ambitious desperately faltering geopolitical imperial architects. They keep messing with a waking bear and that bear is defending itself.

Now I do not want to help Washington in anyway, but they should take heed. They keep pushing and Russia will push back. There is now talk of changing Russia's oil and energy trade to the ruble (something I think should have been done decades ago), establishing a Russian based international credit card system (goodbye to the Visa/MasterCard global monopoly) and other projects in the works in the fields of stock exchanges, organizations like the BRICS and the Customs Union and more Eurasian integration and cooperation. Russia and the world want to do business and advance their countries and peoples; this is bad for the empire of death.

So the big loser, when the world begins trading its oil in something other than the dollar and the whole worthless paper currency house of cards comes crashing down will be the United States of America, which really produces nothing to offer the world except weapons, some clever computer stuff that they use to spy on you and death and destruction.

The US is failing, in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and worldwide. And the world is beginning to wake up to the fact that the US is a rogue superpower, trampling on international law worldwide, engaged in an attempt at global domination through force and subversion and has only its own quick-fix-interests in mind.

No matter the current alternative universe Orwellian Ministry of Truth operations of the subservient corporate controlled media, which have attempted to paint the US billion dollar regime change/resource grab/NATO expansion/destruction of a state as somehow being Russia's fault. The US will fail because there is one weapon that there is no way they can win against and at the end of the day that weapon will win. That weapon is the truth.

Another reason that the US and its regime change subversion operation failed in Russia is that Russians are too smart to fall for rent-a-mobs running in the streets screaming for regime change while offering no reasonable alternative. Russians are too smart to fall for infantile American propaganda, which is the main reason US elites and the government make sure their educational system continues to be one of the worst in the world and higher education is only available to their own kind.

Unfortunately the average American is kept dumbed-down focused on non-issues like abortion and two men engaged in grotesque relations as marriage and terrorized and perplexed by never ending laws and ever more oppression by their own security state which has enslaved them. So with that in mind it is logical and natural that the US should support the illegitimate government in Ukraine which has shut down the media, freedom of expression and is ruling by brute force and fear. Yes dear reader, if you are hearing this for the first time the US/NATO/EU funded, trained and employed violent neo-Nazi criminal thugs, killers, insurrectionists and terrorists to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine so they can expand their territory and take what they want. That is the truth.

Again I have digressed from the matter at hand but the background is necessary. With all of that the Voice of America broadcasts ridiculous propaganda like the previous Ukraine/Afghanistan "Russia is to blame" comparison piece I mentioned.

On second thought it is pretty good comparison and as a journalist for the Voice of Russia I would love to hand the comparison back to the Voice of America. You might even say it is an "excellent" comparison because: as in Afghanistan where the US "created" Al-Qaeda and backed murderous Islamic lunatics to overthrow the socialist government, the US "created" the Right Sector and backed murderous Nazi lunatics to overthrow the democratic government; also Russia was asked to intervene in Afghanistan and helped the Afghan people just as Russia was asked to intervene (no invasion) in Crimea and helped the Crimean people; another similarity is that the fact that the war against the socialist government in Afghanistan was a CIA operation just as in Ukraine, for which Russia is being demonized by a concerted media effort, is also a CIA "op".

Back to the Spam of America, Dmitry Kiselyov who was added to what I call "the honorary sanctions list" said the issue with Voice of America and Radio Liberty has nothing to do with freedom of speech but is due to the fact that the US propaganda tools have nothing original to say and they sound like they broadcast from another world, or at least from a world that doesn't exist anymore.

He is absolutely right and once again the US has stepped on the same rake for the umpteenth time. They tried to influence and pressure Russia with "alternative universe propaganda" and sanctions and began trying to rewrite history to a well-informed people they know nothing about, as they always do, and they have had their lunch handed right back to them. Banning the Broadcast Board of Governors (BBG) and their fake news outlets from Russia was something that should have been done ages ago in my opinion.

The BBG should not worry though, last July they were allowed to broadcast their Ministry of Truth vitriol disguised as "democracy radio" into the United States after being previously banned. Useful tool I imagine for Obama's brainwashing of the American populace as they are being trampled upon and oppressed.

I can say what I want about the BBG and their "product" and will not, unlike the Voice of America, try to convince you I am "fair and balanced", I work for the Voice of Russia and love Russia and President Putin, so I have a certain pro Russia bias. The difference is I am not hiding that fact and you dear reader can therefore adjust appropriately. I will say that we at the Voice of Russia are not trying to change reality unlike the Voice of America, and as for myself I am always trying to inform my readers of the truth.

Perhaps it is better if I quote an American who had the Voice of America banned in America. In the 1970s James William Fulbright moved to restrict the Voice of America saying they "should be given the opportunity to take their rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics."

Fulbright's amendment was bolstered in 1985 by Nebraska Senator Edward Zorinsky, who argued that such "propaganda" should be kept out of America as to distinguish the U.S. "from the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government activity."

So dear reader, I thank you if you have stayed with me this far, if the US itself banned the Voice of America from being broadcast in America and upon reinstatement was protesting, why should Russia and your country allow and assist its most recalcitrant "partner" from attempting to poison the minds of its people.

And one more little final note and then you can go back to your regularly scheduled surfing. I would like to leave you with these facts for thought: someone in collusion with the United States neocon/coup government of George Bush killed 2,999 civilians and 9-11-01 and no believable explanation has yet to be given; the US continues to maintain the illegal torture prison at Guantanamo where it is holding hundreds of innocent men in violation of every conceivable international law and convention; in the last 15 years the US/NATO illegally invaded and committed acts of aggressive war against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya (these are crimes against humanity and peace); the US/NSA/FVEY is spying on the entire planet and all governments and even allied officials; every Tuesday the president of the United States decides on a list of people to extra-judicially murder without trial or charges; the US is engaged in a war against journalists and whistleblowers; the US was completely responsible for the violent coup in Ukraine (a democratic European country) and the US/NATO are admittedly expanding worldwide and in the business of destroying countries. Do you really want such "people" who pretend to be fair, balanced, friendly and "democratic" manipulating your mind? I would think not.

The views and opinions expressed above are my own I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.

During a Puerto Rican Day parade and festivities in the US city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, a brutal police officer was filmed punching a defenseless woman in the face as she had her back turned to him, bringing another act of criminal brutality under the authority of color to the forefront, and begging the question: What is wrong with America?

Yet another in a seemingly endless stream of cases of extreme police brutality in the US is having international resonance as another video posted on the internet goes viral and the world watches as a Philadelphia police officer brutally punches a small defenseless Puerto Rican woman, named Aida Guzman, in the face as she has her back turned to him and is walking away. The force of the blow was enough to throw her off her feet and knock her to the ground. Her crime? She reportedly was charged with spraying the police with a children’s toy called silly string, a harmless substance used at parties and celebrations.

The event took place during Puerto Rican Day festivities where a massive police presence had gathered. Those celebrating were enjoying their holiday and not engaged in any sort of act of protest or demonstration. They were attempting to celebrate their cultural heritage, not the heritage and history that Puerto Ricans have faced from the US, mirrored by the brutal event, but the cultural history of their people.

Just a little history for the international readers: Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean and a U.S. possession which was annexed by the US in the 1950s. Puerto Ricans are small minority in the US and are subjected to institutionalized discrimination and persecution and are often the objects of racist attacks by members of varying race groups. US states classify Puerto Ricans as belonging to different race groups, with some calling them white, some black and some Latino.

Puerto Ricans have classically been treated as second class citizens in the US, although they possess US citizenship from birth and many have large percentages of Indian blood flowing through their veins, from the native Taino Indians, who the US has classified as “exterminated.”

Back to the case at hand, the officer, one Lieutenant Jonathan Josey, deemed to be an outstanding officer by the police, has not been charged with any crime although it is clear that his actions were criminal and monstrously brutal.

Josey is no stranger to the people of Philadelphia when it comes to police brutality. He is also no stranger to those on the singles circuit where Josey nominated himself Sexy Single for 2006 and posted pictures of his half-nude self complete with tattoos and pierced nipples on the web for all too see.

According to local press reports Josey, a 19-year-veteran of the police force, has over 20 complaints against him that have been filed with the internal affairs division. Yet he is still on the street. One such case against him, according to the site Opposing Views, states that Josey, pulled over a car and with no evidence of wrongdoing, accused a man and his sons of being drug dealers, he then used his gun to terrorize them and beat the hell out of all of them, before arresting them on false charges.

Yet NBC Philadelphia reports that according to Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross, Josey has a good reputation. His “good reputation” does not stop with the above listed incidents. Josey also shot and killed a US veteran while off-duty in what was reported as a failed robbery attempt. The city of Philadelphia praised him for the killing.

Josey was also the subject of a lawsuit for which the city had to pay $7,500.00 to settle after he kicked, punched and threw an innocent man against a wall while supposedly searching for a weapon, another in a long series of brutality complaints against Josey.

Judging from local media reports the US press seems to be, for some reason, more worried about his 19-year-career and the “blemish” on his record and not the scars and damage that must have been done to the face of the little lady he punched.

There are also racial undertones to this case. If the woman was white and not Puerto Rican, the outrage would be extreme and on the other side of the spectrum if the officer had been white it would have been called a racist attack. Yet this was an act by a black cop beating a Puerto Rican woman, the press and the pundits are showing their indifference and trying to play neutral. Had it been black on black, we would probably not even have heard about this.

The officer has over 20 complaints, and this one just happened to be filmed. How many other innocent people did he beat and terrorize that we do not know about? How many members of the poor and defenseless side of society too afraid to file a complaint against an attacker in uniform is this man guilty of attacking? Can this type of behavior be supported by police departments?

Judging by the reaction in Philadelphia, this may be normal behavior and even commendable and heroic. How many hundreds if not thousands have been the victims of police violence in Philadelphia that we will never know about? How many animals such as Josey are currently working for US police departments? Millions?

In his half nude “Sexy Single” photo, posted by NBC news, with his tattoos and pierced nipples, Josey was apparently sitting in a housed owned by Al Capone in Atlantic City New Jersey. What location more befitting for a thug who beats defenseless little Puerto Rican women and preys on the weak than the former home a thug and killer of legendary proportions. Will Josey be arrested and punished? Not likely.

In the Mexican state of Coahuila 131 prisoners have escaped through a tunnel that was months in the making. The circumstances point to another case where corrupt officials and prison guards are suspected of involvement, underlining the need for reforms and the vetting of Mexico’s law enforcement officials. The problem is one that affects not only Mexico but the international community as well.

Another massive prison break in Mexico has the world focused once again on Mexico’s ongoing war against vicious drug gangs and battling drug lords.

The facts that we know are as follows; 131 inmates escaped from the prison in Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila, a city near the US border close to Eagle Pass Texas. They apparently used a 21 feet (6.5 meters) long and 4 feet (1.2 meters) wide tunnel that had been under construction for some time and it is suspected that prison officials may have been involved or had knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the escape.

According to reports the prison housed less than 800 inmates and was not overcrowded, leading to further speculation as to the involvement of the guards since the number of escapees amounted to about a 5th of the prison’s entire population.

A public safety official in Coahuila, Jorge Luis Moran, said that the escape was the work of the Zetas drug cartel and that even prisoners who were not members of the cartel were forced to go along, reported Daily Mail quoting Associated Press.

Mexican media alleged that the Zeta cartel is engaged in a battle over the illegal narcotics corridor into the United States, through which millions of dollars worth of drugs enters the US, with the Sinaloa cartel run by drug lord Joaquin Guzman who is at the top of Mexico’s most wanted list. The Zeta cartel has been hit hard by the federal police and its members are dwindling due to arrests and fatal shootings, so the Mexican authorities believe the escape was planned to refill the ranks of the cartel.

In a statement released on Twitter the President of Mexico Felipe Calderon said that the escape was a deplorable act and that the vulnerability of state law enforcement institutions must be corrected.

The Daily Beast’s Christine Pelisek writes that the terrain through which the tunnel was dug was rocky and would have required special tools and equipment to cut through, pointing to further collusion between the prison officials and the escapees.

The escape once again brings to the forefront the absolute corruption that exists at the state level in Mexico underlined by the fact that this is by far not the first time that such a bold prison escape has taken place in recent years.

The current mass escape is also the second in recent history where over a hundred inmates escaped. The other such escape occurred in December 2010, when 153 inmates escaped from a prison in Nuevo Laredo, which ended with 41 guards being sentenced on charges related to aiding and abetting the criminals.

Another brutal escape occurred in February when 30 inmates escaped from a prison in Monterrey murdering 44 rival gang members in the process, afterwards 9 guards admitted to having aided them.

For the president and the federal authorities in Mexico the rampant corruption at the state level continues to be one of the most pressing problems in the country and the largest internal threat to Mexico’s national security.

The federal authorities in Mexico understand the need for reforms and have attempted to correct the situation by introducing mandatory background checks and drug testing for federal, state and local law enforcement officers and agents. To date the results have been dismal at all levels, with the numbers showing just how serious the situation is.

Speaking to the press on Monday Mexico’s Federal Secretary of the Interior Alejandro Poire said that progress in vetting the nations officers was slow. He said that out of the over 430,000 police officers at the state level and lower only 180,000 have undergone the vetting process and out of those approximately 65,000 had failed to pass the tests.

At the federal level the numbers are equally dismal with 2,045 federal officers out of approximately 36,000, failing the tests since 2006 and of those only 302 being fired. Under the guidelines set forth in the vetting program any officer at any level who fails the tests is supposed to be fired.

The authorities say that due to Mexico’s labor laws and the lack of new recruits, it is impossible to fire everyone who fails the tests. This means that Mexico has over 67,000 officers working on the front lines who are not able to pass simple background checks and the vetting process, and this is only after less than half have been tested.

This serious lack of a secure internal security apparatus is a grave threat to Mexico’s national security. As Mexico is the main gateway for most of the narcotics and contraband traffic into the ever consuming US “market” this is also a problem at the international level as it only helps to sustain the flow of illegal narcotics from all over the world into the US, the world’s largest and most lucrative consumer.

The transport corridors through Mexico allow growers, suppliers and criminal groups worldwide, from Afghanistan to Columbia, to get their products to their consumers.

This means that the international community has a vested interest in assisting Mexico if there is ever going to be an end to the illegal narcotics trade. Something that is highly unlikely as long as the money flows with the blow.

Dr. Alon Ben Meir, a professor in international relations and affairs at New York University, talks about democratic transition in the Middle East and the roots of anger in the Muslim community over the anti-Mohammed film. Mr. Meir believes that the United States ought to educate the people that the Arab world is going through a significant historic transformation and that more sensitivity to the changes that are taking place is required to make the world safer for everyone to live in.

Nice to hear from you too! Since last time we talked a lot of things have changed. The entire Muslim world has erupted in violence. We talked a lot about the dangers of regime change and bringing democracy to countries not prepared for it in the past. Is what we are seeing today part of that? And what do you think the root causes are to all the violence?

Well, you know, I think the change, the transformation from the dictatorial and despot leadership in the Arab world is inevitable. My concern is about the pace of change – how quickly it should or shouldn't be. My feeling is that pushing, like I mentioned to you earlier, for early election within literally months after the fall of the leadership probably doesn’t serve well the public.

I always maintain that a transitional government should be formed representative of all the segments of the population and to stay in power for 3-4-5 years to prepare the public, to prepare parties, for parties to develop their political agenda and give the public an opportunity to get familiar with the change itself. And when you rush for an election and you have a parliament and then the next day they wake up in the morning… ok, they feel freer perhaps but the socio-economic conditions have not changed a single iota. This is not the kind of transformation that is going to work and that’s been our concern all along.

The connection is: you need anything to trigger this kind of violence because the truth of the matter is, the vast majority of young men and women in, say Egypt or Libya, have been despondent and despairing for so long. So, when there is something to trigger their anger they are going to do whatever it takes; they go to the street and they demonstrate and occasionally that is going to end up violently.

In this particular case some foolish people in the United States, in Hollywood or elsewhere, produced this video that is degrading the Prophet Mohammed and accusing him of being a womanizer, a child molester, and this has justifiably enraged many, many Arabs and Muslims around the world. The West, here specifically in the United States, they really have little understanding of Islam, it is more than just a religion, it is also a culture and a way of life for many Muslim and Arabs. And the Arab world doesn’t understand that in the United States there is real freedom and the Government cannot dictate to individuals what to write or what to produce, etc. There's that kind of cultural divide you might say, that is causing this misperception, that is bringing these conflicts to the fore.

What is missing in the efforts of both sides, in my view, is to begin remedy the situation by changing their public narratives in terms of each other. The new governments of the Arab world ought to say what America stands for, if they want to cooperate with the United States, if they want financial aid, if they want political support – they need to be speaking about it more positively; if the United States wants to have better relations, it ought to educate also the people, here, that the Arab world is going through a significant historic transformation and we have to show more sensitivity to the changes that are taking place. You know, maligning Mohammed who is considered so holy, a Prophet, is simply the wrong thing to do. And we seem to have, in the West, a propensity of making this type of mistake time and again and that’s unfortunate.

Yes, it is. Do you think that there has been anger simmering under the surface towards the United States for all the (for lack of a better word) meddling in the Muslim world that they’ve been doing for decades?

There is no question. There is a anger simmering, just below the surface. We have just concluded the war in Iraq that most Arab states and people, they do not agree why it happened, why it should have happened. And we are still fighting the war in Afghanistan that many, many Arabs and Muslims around the world do not justify. We continue to wage a war against terrorism and extremists. So, there is this underlining resentment and even hatred towards the United States.

But then, again these actions by the US ought to be explained. What happened, why is it happening? And I think the United States may be very good when it comes to waging a war but it is probably not as good at waging public relations to explain its position. And the same thing you might say is about the Arab states themselves. On the one hand they want American support, they want American military support, economic support, they want to borrow from international institutions where the United States has a tremendous influence. But on the other hand they malign the United States in the eyes of their public.

So, that doesn’t work. You can’t speak one language to the United States and different language to the masses. And there is that gap! And that is the kind of thing that is going to produce this type of reaction by the masses because, there is a gap: the divide exists.

Back to your previous comment, you were speaking about freedom of speech in the United States and how that’s not understood. Do you agree or do you think that freedom has a large responsibility with it, and freedom of speech should be limited or end when you start infringing on the freedoms of other people?

The freedom of speech, once you begin to tamper, you can say this but you cannot say that, that is not how it works. But the principle is that people who have the freedom to say what they want to say, they also must assume the responsibility and make every effort not to malign, not to debase other people, specifically other people’s religion. I always say to the people here: "When was the last time you’ve heard of a Muslim burning the New Testament in public."

"When was the last time they burned an Old Testament, when was the last time they criticized or maligned Moses or Jesus." They don’t do that because for them these three monotheistic religions are one and the same and they have a tremendous respect for these prophets. And I say this to them, because I say: "You need to show the same capacity, the same sensitivity and understanding that there are lines, borders to the freedom of expression" and that cannot be institutionalized by a government but certainly it can be reined upon by individuals themselves to maintain, if you have something so precious as the freedom to keep it you have to also be discriminating as to how to use that freedom that you actually have constitutionally.

The Voice of Russia's John Robles spoke to Dr. Alon Ben Meir on the desecration of religious sites and the reaction to the U.S. film "The Innocence of Muslims", in part 2 Dr. Meir speaks about the desecration of religious institutions and how all religions should be respected. He also talks about the double standard that exists in the United States and the responsibilities governments have to educate the people as to the real origins of acts such as the film in question.

Personally, even without the bombings and killings and terrorist acts, I have never heard of Muslim burning the Bible, for example.

No, they don’t, because for Muslim the Abrahamic religions are basically one and the same. Islam has been derived from Christian Judaic religions. 90% of the Koran is based on the Old Testament and the New Testament, so they’re not strangers to Judaism and Christianity. I mean, of course they may be conflicts, let’s say, in Egypt against the Coptic and in Syria against the Christians, but they will not take the Old and New Testament and burn it, because that’s against their very principle.

The recent desecration here in Russia of the Christ the Savior Cathedral – in the West they’re saying it’s free speech. What’s your opinion on that? What they did – they got into the part of the church where only priests are allowed to be.

Absolutely wrong. Nobody has a right to desecrate religious institution. This stands for mosques, stands for synagogues, stands for any kind of churches in any kind of denominations. This is very-very wrong. And this is really the center point here. If your dare to desecrate a synagogue or a mosque or a church – what you’re actually saying, you’re not only destroying the building, you’re actually expressing horrifying resentment to the religion that this institution, this building represents. That’s totally and completely inacceptable. No one should be able to justify awful acts like this. I don’t have to agree with precept of your religion and you don’t have to agree with mine. But we should have the capacity and the tolerance to accept one another, because a person’s belief is their own prerogative. And no one can take them away from them.

Thank you. You’re absolutely right. We need to respect each other. In the US do you think there’s a double standard towards Muslims? I mean, if somebody desecrates a synagogue or starts hate speech against Catholics or something – is the reaction the same in the US when people do this?

You know, it’s a very good question and a very sensitive one. What there’s today at this state is they look outside and they see conflict ranging in the Middle East and elsewhere, they see that 90% of them involve Muslims against Muslims. And so there’s a perception that Islam as a religion is a violent religion. I principally disagree with this, because people tend to forget history very quickly. And I say to them, “Look, what happened during WWII. 13 million died, by and large Christians by the hands of other Christians”. You can’t say that Muslims or Islam have monopoly on violence. This is not the case. The Arab world is going through major historic transformation. Any we tend to forget what the Europeans have gone through, what the US have gone through, what Russia have gone through – any revolutionary change as such, people pay tremendous price for that to do something better. We tend to forget that. So the perception is that Muslims are violent and therefore they deserve what they get. And this is a wrong perception. Probably if the synagogue was burnt, the reaction would be different, because that don’t see it the same way. But that’s the problem. And you need to correct perception by changing public narrative of what the Arab world is going through, not merely pushing for the democracy and freedom. It takes more than that.

I think everybody would agree that the killing of the Ambassador in Benghazi was abysmal. My question is do you think this was in a way revenge for killing for Muammar Gaddafi?

Entirely possible. But the truth is any killing of foreign officials in any country isn’t justified. If a country has done something wrong, the person representing this country should not be guilty of these charges themselves. That’s completely wrong. It’s also the responsibility of the host nation to provide security for all foreign representatives living in that country. That’s an absolute given and it should be honored and it should be respected, because without this, imagine, which country is going to send its ambassadors or officials into another country when they have to take their lives into their hands. The one thing I’d add to this is that knowing that the situation is tense throughout the Middle East – look what’s going on in Syria and still in Iraq, in Afghanistan and everywhere – I think that the state should also be more careful to argument their own internal security in various embassies. That’s just a wise thing to do. But real honor for the host government is to take the proper actions and condemn it immediately when it happens and bring the violators to trial for justice. That’s the only way you’re going to maintain civility and relationship between countries.

What effect, do you think, this film has had on relations between the Copts and Christians in Egypt and rest of the population? Apparently, the director of this film was a Coptic Christian activist. Has he helped his people?

I think he caused far greater damage than helped them, because this was stupid, ignorant things to do. You can’t help your people by offending other people. It doesn’t work that way. The relationship between Muslims and Coptic in Egypt has been tense for a while and if Muslims generally in Egypt feel that this was Christian Coptic, surely it is going even worse, because people tend to generalize. It’s also a mistake. A person who commits such transgression like the people who produced this movie – the general public, the Coptic community in Egypt shouldn’t pay the price for this. And again, the government in Egypt are to be very clear and very decisive by explaining things to the public. President Morsi himself should come up and say whoever produced this movies and whatever religion and ideology they hold, our believing should not affect our citizens. And that’s when the leadership comes to play a role. And if they don’t do so – basically, they’re giving a green line to continue the prosecution of Coptic wherever they are. And that’s not going to be good for Egypt as a country and for the future of Egypt as such. In every country where there’s demonstration, the government has an obligation to explain what we’ve been talking here about. Among people all around the world – Arabs, Jews, Christians, Buddhists – there’re craziest among them, no matter what you say or do. But you cannot blame the larger community for the misdeeds of the few. And that’s what government responsibility is – to explain to avoid further conflicts which are completely unnecessary.

The recent upheavals in the world have taken attention away from a very important move by US President Obama that could strip away another large chunk of freedom from Americans and place another huge and important piece of the public domain under government and corporate control. President Obama has circulated an executive order that will implement measures that have already failed to pass Congress and were contained in the failed Cybersecurity Act of 2012. Again the pretense for stripping away freedoms is “security” and again the attackers are China and Russia.

Whenever the US issues another order or law regarding “security” the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Why? Because this means that even more rights and civil liberties will be stripped away from the people and even more power will be had by the government.

Reports say that the Obama Administration is currently drafting what is called in the US, an executive order, giving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the power and the responsibility to establish standards of cybersecurity that would protect banks, water plants, telecommunication networks and the U.S. power grid from electronic attacks.

On the surface and to those who know little about the real cyber attacks, the program dubbed Perfect Citizen, looks like something that is needed and should have been implemented yesterday, but hold on a minute, the devil is in the details and in who is behind the plans, namely the most secret of the secret US Security structures, the National Security Agency or NSA.

The problem with that for US citizens and in general is that it would give an intelligence agency control over a public system which may be an area of expertise by the NSA, responsible for signals and electronic security, but goes against the NSA directive not to spy on US citizens.

The plan which has wide-ranging implications and will basically allow the government to take control over the electronic grid, and this includes the internet, is deemed necessary by its proponents because the power grid of the United States is supposedly vulnerable and under constant cyber-attack. However this is far from the truth.

According to Michael Tanji over at Wired, first of all the networks in question, power grids and the public water supply systems are rarely if ever connected to wide area networks and the public internet. Secondly the operating and control systems they use are often proprietary, meaning they have no publically or even privately available analogues that are available and accessible to the public or to hackers who can reverse engineer them and find weaknesses or vulnerabilities that they can exploit.

So the law is not needed and the rationale behind it is false then why attempt to pass the law, bypassing the legislative branch, by using an executive order to do so? First of all because a similar bill failed to be passed into law earlier this year and second of all for the reason I have already stated, it would allow the US Government to take control of the internet and the public electronic grid which includes almost all forms of modern communications.

According to propaganda put out by the continuously more powerful Department of Homeland Security there are constant attacks that target everything from the US power grid to nuclear power plants.

Even scarier is information being disseminated by the National Security Agency itself. A report published byReuters quotes the head of NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, Debora Plunkett when asked how real the threat of hacking from China, Russia and other countries was, as saying: "Significant. I don't know how else to describe it."

Even worse she said that: "Some of today's national cyber actors don't seem to be bound by any sense of restraint." Meaning state sponsored cyber-attacks are out of control and state actors behave recklessly.

Again the White House is demonizing China and Russia which they claim are attempting to commit computer espionage in a wide range of areas and for wide ranging reasons. This and other false propaganda about massive attacks on critical infrastructure is designed to terrify the American populace into giving away even more of their freedoms and rights, yet despite this the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed and there are not public cries begging for more “protection”.

According to the US media the Obama executive order bears a striking resemblance to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 which failed to be passed by Congress. Many also say that an executive order in this instance violates Article 1, Section 1 of the US Constitution which says: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Nowhere in the US Constitution does it say that if a bill is not passed the president can single-handedly decide to make a law himself.

The practice of using executive orders is a controversial one which many see as a tool of an “Imperial President” as they allow the president to unilaterally and without oversight or public debate pass laws that may not be in the public interest. Former US President George Bush was famous for issues such orders many making crimes such as torture illegal after the fact and other designed to protect him and his administration from bothersome oversight, such as an executive order limited access to presidential papers.

The greatest fear regarding this executive order is that a partnership between the government and corporations under the guise of “security” to jointly control the entire US electronic grid is a step to merging corporate and state power, a condition which is better known as corporate fascism.

The situation for the Roma in Europe is not improving. Trapped in a cycle of discrimination and poverty where they are not allowed a decent education and therefore cannot obtain decent jobs and in many cases segregated, not allowed proper health care and under constant attacks by ever increasing nationalist groups all over Europe, many turn to crime, prostitution and any other means they can to simply survive. This only reinforces the negative view of the Roma and leads to even more discrimination against them.

The Hungarian Roma community, which accounts for approximately 7% of Hungary’s population, continues to face discrimination in every aspect of their lives. Since a report issued by Amnesty International in 2009 little has changed for Hungary’s Roma, they still face discrimination and segregation in all areas of life. This includes public education, housing, employment and medical care.

The Roma not only face daily racism and discrimination but they have to contend with violent attacks by nationalist and neo-Nazi groups such as the illegal paramilitary Hungarian National Guard, which was disbanded by the Hungarian government but reformed and continues to grow. It is for the most part an anti-Roman organization whose members have included high level Hungarian officials in the past.

Last month the Hungarian Guard held an inauguration ceremony for 140 new members in a secret location in Dunaföldvár Hungary. Although the police came out in force, with over 300 officers taking part in an operation to shut down the ceremony and arrest members, the group managed to confuse police with decoys and misleading phone calls, and the police raided a location where none of the group’s members were actually present.

The discrimination of the Roma is by far not limited to Hungary, they face discrimination all over Europe but the reason that I am focusing on the Hungarian Roma is because soon they may have no place to go as many who were seeking asylum in Canada are being sent back and the doors for Roma asylum seekers in Canada are about to be all but closed.

With the passing of the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, a Canadian piece of legislation that some are calling the “anti-Roma law, the process for the Roma obtaining asylum will be all but impossible and their deportation will be much easier and quicker.

According to Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, in a report on the cic.gc.ca website; “This legislation will help stop foreign criminals, human smugglers and those with unfounded refugee claims from abusing Canada’s generous immigration system and receiving taxpayer funded health and social benefits. Canada’s immigration and refugee system is one of the most fair and generous in the world and will continue to be so under the new and improved system.”

In reality the law will stop the waves of Roma that had begun to arrive in Canada and were abusing the system, often by returning to Hungary and still receiving benefits from the Canadian government. But the reason they return is not so simple as the government wants to portray. For many of the Roma they have no choice, many arrived in Canada with the hope for a better life but were trapped in conditions that were worse than the ones that they had left another example of the vicious cycle that the Roma are trapped in.

The new law now allows the Canadian Government the option of adding countries to a safe list in order to speed up the processing of refugees and deporting them. If a refugee comes from a country on the list, their claim will be processed in 45 days, not the 1,000 days that the other claimants have.

Such a move may help Canada to implement a universal no-visa policy for the entire European Union, something it currently does not have. For example Hungarians do not require a visa to travel to Canada but Czechs do. Their non-visa status was revoked due to the number of Roma claims for asylum.

According to the Budapest times the Canada Border Services Agency has recently reported that they are worried about the rising level of crime being committed by Hungarian Roma refugees in the country, these crimes mainly include skimming fraud and check fraud with a rising level of cases where checks are stolen and deposited into the bank accounts of refugee claimants who returned to Hungary.

The Budapest Times reported last year that the head of the National Roma Self-Government Flórián Farkas was warned by the Canadian Ambassador in Budapest, that Roma travelling to Canada “face prolonged and complicated procedures and have little chance of their asylum application being successful.”

So for the Roma seeking a better life and to break the cycle discrimination which starts with poor education, poor medical care and poor housing and continues and leads to job discrimination and no chance for quality employment and the betterment of their lives due to the previous reasons, another door appears to have been closed due to the actions of some who have supposedly cheated the system.

Unfortunately for the Roma the vicious cycle they are trapped in may not have an exit.

Thousands of striking miners in South Africa have refused a minor salary increase offer and have vowed to continue their strike against UK based Lonmin PLC. Workers at other platinum mines are said to be striking as well amid fears that the strikes may spread to the gold mining industry. It is a classic struggle between the workers and the bosses, yet the level of violence from both sides is alarming and continues to grow.

The wildcat strike by miners working for the London-based Lomnin PLC in Marikana South Africa continues to worsen with mine management continuing to refuse to make concessions to the miners and the miners refusing a minimal pay increase offer by management.

Almost a month ago workers at the Marikana mine and one at Karee, south of Johannesburg launched a wildcat strike in protest of low wages. The strike led to what is now known as the "Marikana Massacre" the single most lethal use of force by the South African security forces since 1960 and the end of apartheid. On August 16th the security forces killed 34 miners and wounded at least 78 more.

According to reports from the scene of the massacre the strikers were cordoned into a small area when police opened fire and were far from police lines when the massacre occurred. People at the scene claimed, and the evidence shows that the police hunted down the miners, cornered them, and instead of arresting them, opened fire.

Several thousand miners at Anglo American Platinum, another key supplier of platinum, also have gone on strike and the company has had to close its four Rustenburg mines.

The two companies make billions of dollars and account for a large share of the world’s platinum supplies with 80% of the world’s know platinum reserves located in South Africa which also accounts for close to a fourth of the world’s mined gold. Lonmin itself reportedly accounts for 12% of the world’s supply of platinum. There are fears that the strikes may lead to unrest in the gold sector as well.

The managers and owners of the company make millions and the company could well afford to raise wages but they are not concerned with the conditions that the workers face and are afraid an increase in salaries would cut their bottom line. Reflecting the days of Apartheid is the fact that the management of the mines is almost exclusively white, with the miners being almost exclusively black.

Although the miners are only asking for a pay raise there are many other conditions at the mines and in their living arrangements that are well below accepted norms.

Claims that the miners already earn more than the average are hollow as their living conditions, ones of poverty and squalor, in no way reflect the “affluence” that officials try to portray they possess. The workers currently want approximately $1,500 a month, three times more than they are making now which is about $500.

Most of the miners come from other areas so they do not have homes near Marikana. Many of them also have families back home, who they are trying to support and send money to, while living with friends or in extremely bad conditions. The mines do provide some minimal support but it is not enough to allow for a normal existence.

The Bench Marks Foundation which calls itself: “…a unique organization in the area of corporate social responsibility”, says that despite all of the billions being made in the mining operations the benefits are not being shared by the miners and the surrounding communities.

The organization claims there are no employment opportunities for local youth, people live in sub-human conditions, there is high unemployment and there are conditions of growing inequality in the surrounding communities. In short the workers are exploited and the conditions under which they live and work do not reflect the huge profits that are being made.

According to International Labor Organization, a specialized agency of the UN for the miners the conditions are appalling and dangerous. The organization reported that the miners “… are exposed to a variety of safety hazards including falling rocks, exposure to dust, intensive noise, fumes and high temperatures, among others.” Yet the miners are only demanding a salary increase.

The strike has also brought to the forefront the internal struggle of the ANC and their close connections to the mining elite with some saying the strikes may affect President Jacob Zuma’s chance of being re-elected in an internal ANC election coming up in December.

The strikes also serve to underline growing worldwide displeasure by the working and the middle class with the power elites and big business who are not looking after the interests of the people but are only interested in making themselves rich.

With the secessionists winning the elections in Quebec the world is full of speculation that they will secede from Canada. In this piece I take a brief look at independence in the Americas and give my take on the Quebecers and others in North America who claim to want to be free but refuse to pay the price for that freedom.

Classically the French and the English have never really shared much love for each other. This goes back to the years of the great empire building and the wars for the Americas between the Spanish the French and the English, with the Portuguese and other nations playing a smaller role.

The Spanish, one could say won the wars for the Americas hands down, partly because they were able to assimilate better with the Indians and the indigenous peoples and rather than attempting to completely annihilate the natives they absorbed each other.

The Spanish won more territory taking over part of North America and almost all of Central and South America, with small areas won by the Portuguese.

For the French, loyal to France and the Monarchy it was a different story, the English, for the most part drunken cut-throats, murderers, and misfits of all sorts who hated England and were engaged in a campaign of genocide against the indigenous people, chased them far to the North where they too waged a war of annihilation on the Indians, albeit on a smaller scale.

The Tories, loyal to the United Kingdom and the Monarchy, were also chased to the North, by those who refused to pay allegiance to their homeland, in what is known as the American Revolutionary War.

With the grandiose schemes of Napoleon and then the successive failures of the French Empire, Quebec was a consolation prize for the French. It was a cold and unforgiving place that the English were not that interested in.

In the end the French in fact ended being subjugated and controlled by their historic rivals from across the La Mange as English speaking Canada and the Tories paid their allegiance to England and the Monarchy, and controlled what became to be known as Quebec.

Personally for me it is difficult to feel sympathy for any of these people as they committed the worst genocide in the history of all mankind against my people. Given that fact, they are all living on stolen land so any discussion of Quebec becoming independent from Canada seems to me to be absurd and a denial of history. Nevertheless the Indians are for the most part gone and those who are left are contained and voiceless, except for a very few.

Ignoring those facts, as the world has been trained to do, allow me to continue. The Quebec people are proud of their heritage, their language and their culture. They are also proud of what differentiates them from the English and in particular from the Americans.

Among these differences is violence in society. Many French Canadians view themselves as pacifists and violence, especially gun violence, in the country is rare. So the American style shooting outside of the victory speech by the new premier has many worried that this may be a sign that American style mass shootings may be coming to Canada. Not likely, as Canada has strict gun laws and a working social safety net for the population, including housing and healthcare, but nevertheless people are worried.

Will Quebec secede from Canada? Not likely, the people are too comfortable with what they have and the way things are, they may complain but few are willing to pay the price and go through all of the trouble that would be involved. Freedom and independence are not as important as all of the nice things they think they are provided with and many just want to be left alone to live their lives, pay their mortgages and raise their children.

So we have a continuation of the bickering and another question over the division of lands stolen from the Indians. Since this is an opinion piece I will give you my opinion: the Indian people should be allowed to hold a referendum on whether they wish the invaders to stay on their lands. Based on the answer then we should proceed from there.

Wishful thinking, since that is never going to happen and in fact the whole topic is not even worth discussing because it is up to the people of Quebec themselves to decide on whether or not they wish to stay a part of Canada, and they will not be doing so anytime soon.

They have too much to lose in their eyes and I have already said it would be too troublesome and adversely affect their comfortable lives. The same problem exists in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, the Maldives and a host of other territories or possessions where the people are too comfortable with the things they think have been given by the colonizers and fear the consequences of self-determination.

In this way capitalism and the West have manipulated and literally bought off much of the world. Were trade and import export levels balanced worldwide this would no longer pose a problem but unfortunately there are only a small group of countries controlling the flow of goods and services worldwide.

If this grip could be broken then there might be a chance for equality and an improved standard of living for the entire planet. This idea does not sit well with the United States or the world’s leading trade powerhouses, for when they lose the trade wars they lose a large tool that they use to advance their imperialist ambitions.

In reality it is strange for me, a person of Arawak (Taino) / Spanish descent, who has assimilated and been accepted in Russia to be writing about the French and English squabbles, people who not long ago brutally committed genocide against my people and are still bickering over the lands they stole, with the Quebecers making claims to wanting their own country on lands that are not theirs to begin with.

If the Quebecers want independence I say more power to them, they should stand up and have the fortitude to fight for their independence and stop whining. Many people’s would go to war for such a chance, all the Quebecers have to do is have a referendum and go through some difficulties. If freedom is not that important to them so be it, but stop whining.

I could say the same thing to my fellow Puerto Ricans, but they have been so brainwashed that the very idea of freedom, self-determination and independence is an abomination to them. They are too afraid to even think about such a thing and are content to be a US possession.

Before I go I just want to say to those who might write to me about Chechnya and the Russian Caucasus, those lands are and have been a part of Russia and were not annexed or taken possession of.

The question should not be where would we be without our McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Chevrolet cars, the question should be: “What would it be like to breathe freely?”

The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at jar2@list.ru

The shooting outside a packed venue in Montreal, Canada where Quebec’s new premier was giving her victory speech may not have been targeting the premier. Canadians continue to express shock and disbelief at the incident. Many Canadians see Canada as a pacifist country and are not accustomed to incidents of political violence and mass shooting.

The man who died in the attack was killed as he was preventing the killer, who has now been named by police, from entering the building. Police have yet to charge the shooter on charges related to an attempted assassination.

The name of the shooter in the assassination attempt on the newly-elected premier of the of the Canadian province of Quebec has been released to the public and is reported to be one Richard Henry Bain, the soon-to-be-62-year-old owner of a fishing and hunting shop in La Conception, Quebec .

Thursday morning the suspect was arraigned in a court in Montreal on 16 charges, the most serious of which being first-degree murder for the killing of 48-year-old Denis Blanchette, the sound technician who Bain shot dead at the venue called the Metropolis during the victory speech and celebrations of the new premier and her party.

Police have still not released any information regarding the motive for the killing even though the suspect has undergone interrogation. There are reports that during the incident, the arrest and afterwards the shooter was rambling and incoherently making statements in English and French.

The details continue to come in including those regarding the mental health of Bain who was reported to be lucid and calm in court as he was arraigned. Apparently he suffered from and was being treated for bipolar disorder in the recent past.

The 16 charges he faces include first-degree murder, a charge of attempted murder for shooting and wounding 27-year-old David Courage, two charges of attempted murder for pointing his gun and attempting to shoot Quebec Security Service Officer Sargeant Stéphane Champagne and a bystander named Elias Ames-Bull (fortunately his gun jammed), a charge of aggravated assault, an arson charge for attempting to burn down the Metropolis with a highway-flare, a possession of explosives charge and multiple and varied weapons charges, mostly for improper storage and handling.

Bain is said to have owned more than 25 weapons and rifles with almost all of them being registered. According to police he had 2 weapons with him and 3 more in his black SUV which was parked nearby. The five weapons included a 9 mm semi-automatic Luger, a Beretta, a Ceska Zbrojovka carbine, a semi-automatic .22 caliber hunting rifle and .357 Magnum revolver.

Bain is said to have lived alone in a chalet near a lake in La Conception more than 2 and a half hours from Montreal. His neighbors and friends paint a portrait of a man with many failed business ideas but with no particular political positions or leanings. There are reports, however, that he may have been angry because the government did not allow him to expand his fishing camp.

According to local media reports Crown prosecutor Éliane Perreault said that for the time being Bain will not undergo a psychiatric evaluation as he is lucid and understands what is going on around him and appears to understand the charges against him.

The state appointed public defender who is representing Bain, Elfriede Duclervil, told reporters she had not had a chance to speak to her client as he was in intensive care but that she would do so after the hearing where it is reported Bain merely said okay when he was made aware of the charges against him.

Prosecutors and investigators have not ruled out further charges prompting speculation on whether he will be charged with conspiracy to assassinate Pauline Marois, as was reported initially at the time of the incident. Currently there is no evidence that the killing and attempted arson of the venue was connected with an assassination attempt.

On Wednesday night hundreds gathered to pay respects to the man Bain murdered, Denis Blanchette. Mr. Blanchete, the father of one, prevented Bain from entering the Metropolis Theater where Marois was giving her speech and paid for it with his life. Those who gathered packed the street outside the theater and held a candlelight vigil.

Premier-elect Pauline Marois has requested outgoing premier Jean Charest to grant Mr. Blanchette a civic funeral. Mr. Charest’s press secretary has told the press that Charest plans on moving forward with Marois’ recommendation.

Doctor-Reverend Wright spoke with the Voice of Russia about the activities at the DNC and about the struggle of the poor in the US. He also talked about the hyper-police state that the US has become and stated that the US needs to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries.

Hello! This is John Robles. I’m speaking with Reverend Bruce Wright – he is with the Poor People’s Economic Human Right Campaign, he was also an organizer at Romneyville at the RNC in Tampa, and now is an organizer with Obamaville in Charlotte.

So, you’ve been active in both occupations if you will, in Tampa and there in Charlotte. Can you give us some of the differences between the cities regarding the security situation? How you’ve been treated?

What is interesting about this particular convention as opposed to the Republicans’, is while the Republicans had officers that were all wearing the same uniforms, in Charlotte officers are wearing different uniforms but I will say though this city is a lot more locked down which is probably because, as he’s the President and not a candidate for presidency. But it does seem to me like the police are a bit more heavy handed here, there is a lot of checkpoints happening that didn’t happen at the other. They were both heavy handed but in this case I just think it is a bit more tough.

What activities has the occupation and the other protesters have taken part in so far?

There’ve been several actions from anti-war actions and anti-war marches; there’ve been labour marches and marches for reproductive rights. Tomorrow we will be having a march for the poor, homeless and unemployed which we are organizing. There are all kinds of marches and that kind of thing. There’ve been some marches related to civil liberties and that kind of thing as well.

Can you tell us about what you are doing there and what you and people there hope to accomplish while occupying the DNC?

What we are hoping to do is to bring out to the public the reality that neither party is really all that different, they are both owned by big money and big corporations. As I’m speaking to you the former President Bill Clinton is speaking and is trying spin it differently, saying that there is a difference. They’re obviously both owned by big money and corporations. And the premises they’re coming from - both are governed by politics that control money. Poor people and unemployed people have not really faired any better under Obama. That’s the reality that people are dealing with.

Do you see any difference between the policies of the Democratic Party and the policies of the Republican Party?

In essence no, because as I said Wall Street controls their concerns. We had eight million families put on the streets through forclosures during the Obama Administration. Unemployment remains high as it did under Bush. And the reality is that what controls the ideas and thinking of both parties has more to do with what is going to make 1% if you will, the wealthy, powerful and happy. There is a lot of talk on the part of Democrats but what they actually do in reality is not all that different.

A couple of experts several weeks ago were speaking about a possible revolution in the US, an actual uprising. Do you think that’s a realistic possibility?

I think that there are all kinds of possibilities and scenarios that may happen. I also know that a lot of the American public is very fearful. We’ve created a hyper police state and with a hyper police state we’ve managed to play upon people’s fears, and people’s fears govern how sometimes they’ll act. A lot of people that are angry and upset, as certainly the occupy movement reflected. As to whether it’s at the level that’ll allow the same kind of things to happen that have happened in North Africa or the Middle East, or even in Europe remains to be seen.

It certainly is. I do believe our country is heading more and more to a super fascist state and consequently people are concerned and fed up. You know, again I think – how far it will go – it is not quite sure yet because Americans still have a lot of niceties, I’m of course not referring to the poor.

What differences do you see between the RNC and the DNC as far as the amount of protestors and demonstrators and the general mood there?

Well, I do think we here are much more solidified and organized, and effective at the RNC. Some of that has to do with, at the DNC, some of the so called liberals are co-opted by the Democratic Party, so I think there is a bit more lack of willingness to speak as strongly against Democrats. But there reality is that there are people protesting here and some of the protests think are being effective.

I’ve talked to other people and I’ve been told by many people that there is a huge amount of undercover police infiltrating all the groups. Is that true?

Absolutely! There hasn’t been the violence that there has been at others, I was at the RNC and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. But the violence can happen when perpetrated by the police. There was no violence on the part of the protestors, there was a lot of direct action and civil disobedience but not violence.

What do you think about the terrorism charges that were filed against three occupiers at the NATO protests in Chicago? Do you know anything about this?

I think that was blown way out of proportion And it was probably setup by the law enforcement, whether it’s the FBI, secret service, homeless security or local police, they’ve been known to entrap and fabricate. So, I do believe that’s entirely possible.

There is a march tomorrow for the homeless and unemployed and there will also be some actions during the Obama acceptance speech tomorrow night and throughout the day. The further plans after the conventions have finished are, of course to show up at the debates and also to try to bring forth to the public the fact that we can no longer just continue to support this two-party system as there are third-party alternatives such as the Green Party and that needs to be looked more.

How realistic now is a third party in the US, in your opinion? Do you think there will ever be a real chance for a third party candidate to breakthrough?

I think ultimately there will be one once people realize that both parties are really two sides of the same coin. And more and more people are realizing that. So, it takes time to build that kind of third party union but I think it is well on its way.

Speaking about foreign policy, now the Republicans have come out very against the Russian Federation. What do you think about the democratic platform? Is it any different towards Russia or is it all just empty rhetoric?

Well, our country does not want anyone else to prosper in the same way we are. It is like this kind of hyper-capitalism was hoisted upon Russia after the demise of the Soviet Union, it put the economy in a very difficult position and I think the US bears great responsibility for that. I think we need to stop meddling in other people’s economies or how they govern and we need to let the people of those countries decide how they want to govern themselves. Our interventionism, whether it is there or in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or even with Africon in Africa, we need to step aside and stop meddling in other people’s business.

That was an interview with Reverend Bruce Wright with the Poor People’s Economic Human Right Campaign. Thanks for listening.

At the victory speech ceremony for Quebec’s first woman premier and amid celebrations by the Quebec independence party, a lone gunman attempted to assassinate the new premier, Pauline Marois. Much of the world’s press see the victory as a sign that Quebec will secede from Canada, as opposed to those on the ground, many of whom say Quebec’s independence is the stuff of pipe dreams.

Canada, with a murder rate less than 33% of that of the U.S., where even police in some areas remained unarmed and where politically motivated violence is extremely rare, the last political killing in the country occurred in 1970 when Labor Minister Pierre Laport was murdered by a radical nationalist group operating in Quebec, is appalled by an assassination attempt on the newly elected premier of Quebec Pauline Marois.

The attempt on the life of the new premier took place at approximately midnight on Tuesday in a Montreal concert hall where Ms. Marois was making a victory speech after she became Quebec’s first female premier and her separatist party Parti Quebecois, were victorious over the incumbent Liberal party.

An unidentified man of about 40 years old was killed and another injured when the 62-year-old shooter, a “large man” whose name has not yet been released, opened fire at the venue just after Ms. Marois began speaking in English, something rare for a Quebec politician. According to Reuters she had just finished saying that one day Quebec would be an independent country.

Local media has reported that the man killed by the gunman was a technician at the theater and that the injured man was reportedly the driver of a bus used by the Parti Quebecois campaign.

After taking the man into custody police confirmed that the target of the killer was in fact Ms. Marois. So far they have released few other details regarding the incident.

The killer was armed with a hunting rifle and a handgun and was wearing a black mask and a black cape. According to police he entered the theater through a back entrance at approximately midnight and shot the two victims.

The gunman was also reported to have attempted to set fire to the theater and succeeded to starting a fire near the back door which police were able to put out.

During the arrest, as the man was being dragged away by police, he is reported to have shouted in French: "The English are waking up!"

The shooting has shocked Canada and has brought international attention to the separatist movement in Quebec, where close to 90% of the population are French speaking.

The victory by Parti Quebecois and their leader Pauline Marois has some Canadians worried about the secession of Quebec from Canada. However Ms. Arois has said there would not be a referendum any time soon, although she did promise a vote which might be years away. This might be due to the fact that, according to Reuters: “…a recent poll showed only 28% percent of Quebecers back separation from the rest of Canada.”

Ms. Marois is not loved by all Quebecers, according to Michael Den Tandt at the Ottawa Citizen, (LINK 1) she is the candidate for the Pure Laine or “pure stock” meaning Caucasian, Christian, francophone.

The author says her policies will attempt to give Quebec more control over a slew of issues including immigration, copyright rules, foreign aid and she has promised to give certain Quebecers “citizenship cards”.

The Ottawa Citizen and other Canadian publications also say that there is very little chance of there being a referendum on independence. Among the reasons the fact that Quebecers themselves do not want it, “they just want to be left alone to live their lives” and there are no monumental issues that Ms. Marois can rally behind to call for such a referendum.

So despite the fact the secessionists have won a small victory, winning 54 of the 125 seats in the provincial legislature, which means the Liberals will now have to share power, it is still unlikely that Quebec will be moving towards independence anytime soon.

One area where there is no room for rhetoric or for false attempts at being politically correct is the area of international adoptions and the welfare of the smallest and most defenseless individuals among us. We have seen this many times before in case after case of Russian orphans and adoptees suffering abuse and even death at the hands of their American adoptive parents.

Time and time again, in almost every aspect of Russian-Western relations, we have seen anti-Russian hysteria and pseudo-political correctness raise its ugly head. It is something that many are used to and something that more and more Westerners are beginning to notice.

Recently the Children’s Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Pavel Astakhov and Russian Human Rights Envoy Konstantin Dolgov, attempted to visit a “ranch” for adopted children in remote northwestern Montana. The purpose of the visit was to check on the well-being of the reportedly 10 Russian adoptees that were at the ranch and who according to RIA-Novosti were removed shortly before Mr. Astakhov’s visit.

On his official website Mr. Astakhov, who has been diligently fighting for the rights of Russian children worldwide, stated the following: "The very fact of the children being there is shocking. What is it, a pre-trial detention facility? A penal colony? Or a trash can for unwanted children?"

"These children are completely isolated from the outside world, which is grounds for violating their rights. It has not been made clear to us whether the children receive the necessary help and treatment, which is why the condition of the Russian kids at the ranch causes concerns," Astakhov said.

Were the children from any other country these concerns would have been granted the level of respect they deserve, especially when the safety and welfare of children are at their core and everything would have been done to ensure that the issue was properly looked at. Sadly this did not occur.

Instead the pseudo politically correct machine that is the U.S. mass media began an onslaught, not on the ranch’s owner, one Joyce Sterkel, but on Mr. Astakhov and the group of Russian government officials that travelled with him.

The AP published a huge piece of more than three pages in length full of anti-Russian quotes by Sterkel, which are not worth repeating here, with almost nothing about the children or Mr. Astakhov’s concerns, even referring to the ombudsman as “one of them.” (ABCNews)

Six days later the AP published 7 sentences regarding the illegality of Ms. Sterkel’s ranch. Which has not had a license to operate since 2010, has been ordered closed and where inspectors have not been allowed. Other problems at the ranch include a failure to show the structures on the ranch meet the building code, no disaster plan and no background checks on employees.

Again nowhere are the stories about the children in question or regarding their well-being - for the U.S. media they are not even a side issue. It is as if they do not exist.

Sterkel has not only denied the Russian inspectors entry onto the so-called ranch but has also denied the Montana state board any information about the children at the ranch according to board attorney Mary Tapper.

Statements in the U.S. press regarding sovereignty, intrusion, and privacy rights have no place in a dialogue involving the safety and welfare of children, wherever they may be from. However the U.S. is a country where in many cases pseudo political correctness comes first and the rights and safety of children come second.

The Reverend Peter Mullen in his blog on the Mail Online put it well when describing the influence of political correctness on adoptions in the Western system: “The scandal is that our Mephistophelian “caring institutions” would rather a child be aborted than that the mother should give birth and so present them with all these tiresome pseudo-problems derived entirely from political correctness.”

Having lived in both Russia and the U.S. for decades I can honestly say that any Russian travelling to the U.S. would be shocked at the number of stories and cases of child abuse and atrocities against children that exist in the United States and that no one hears about in the filtered international U.S. media.

The U.S. culture of death, sex, violence, hypocrisy and perversion is often reflected on the horrors that children become the victims of. The record has shown with regard to Russian orphans that the controls that exist for other orphans are just not there and that many adoptive parents feel that because they somehow “rescued” the children from some “terrible” faraway place they can do whatever they want to the children with impunity.

As for Russia and I can say this honestly and with the insight of an educator, the respect for children is much higher than in the U.S. and the level of crimes and cases of inhumane acts against children are so much lower as to almost be non-existent if one compares them to the U.S.

In the better part of two decades here there have been less than a dozen high profile cases of crimes against children. Once again I can not help but compare the almost daily onslaught in the U.S. media of cases of child abuse, kidnappings, child murders and pedophilia.

Joyce Sterkel did not allow the Russian delegation to inspect the facility in question, nor has she provided the Board of Private Alternative Adolescent Residential and Outdoor Programs any information about the children. She also removed the children from the premises before Mr. Astakhov arrived. What is she so afraid might be discovered? And what is really going on at the isolated and remote Deep Springs Ranch for Kids?

The pseudo-politically-correct U.S. establishment may have a problem asking those questions, but I don’t, and for the sake of the children they must be answered.

The numbers say it better than anything; on average 97,820 people are shot every year and approximately 268 every day. That is a huge number of people, individuals with families, dreams, hopes and lives. You may think these numbers come from a country at war, Iraq or Afghanistan, or some violent country in upheaval like Libya, Somalia or the Middle-East, yet these numbers according to the site bradycampaign.org, are the average numbers for victims of gun violence in the U.S.

The world is focused once again on a mass murder in the United States, this time the recent mass shooting in Aurora Colorado, an upscale community in the Denver Metropolitan Area, where a benign harmless looking young man with orange hair dressed in full body armor opened fire on a crowd gathered for a midnight showing of the latest celebration of violence being offered by Hollywood.

When he was done unloading four weapons full of ammunition into the crowd he had taken the lives of 12 people and injured another 58, a total of 70, making it the mass shooting with the greatest number of victims in U.S. history. Had his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic rifle with a 100 round drum magazine not jammed the number would have been undoubtedly much higher.

What may be surprising for some is that James Eagan Holmes had no previous criminal record and had legally purchased all of the guns he used from local guns shops and the almost 6,000 rounds of ammunition in his possession on-line. He did so with an ease that has many people all over the world shaking their heads in disbelief.

Again some numbers, according to the New York Times the US has 49,762 licensed gun dealers and 7,261 pawn shops that are allowed to sell weapons. This does not include department stores and sport shops, in some states, where rifles may be bought over the counter nor those sold by individuals. The point being that guns are a huge business and readily available if one wishes to purchase one.

This latest tragedy, the 60th mass shooting in the United States since January 8, 2011, when a lone gunman killed 6 and injured 13, including a U.S. Congressman, has once again sparked a debate in American society regarding gun control. A country where such jokes as, “the only problem with gun control is keeping your hands from trembling” are common, and more the rule than the exception, and where the pro-gun lobby is one of the most powerful in the country.

To enter into any debate regarding gun control in America we must first delve into the psyche and the culture of violence that exists in America, for this is where the real problem lies. It is not in 2nd amendment rights to bear arms or self-defense or crime, although these are issues the pro-gun lobby in the U.S. always hides behind. The real root cause is in the minds of the majority of the American public, who may feel that a gun gives them a feeling of empowerment, the power over life and death, the feeling that if they want to they can take a life. Something they see glorified in the media every day.

The Departed, Hardboiled, Hot Shots, The Replacement Killers, Heat, The Gauntlet and The Crow are all Hollywood films that vie for the glory of the most shots fired during a single film. Most Americans call this trivia but there is an underlying fascination and feeling of awe for such information. Films such as these only stoke the flames of violence and glorify killing and guns.

This fascination with killing is also evident every time there is a mass murder and the American media goes into overdrive, feeding the masses information about the type and caliber of weapon used and the number of rounds fired and in what duration. Then there are the endless talk shows and articles delving into the mind of the killer(s) and lastly, in many cases, the great pleasure and satisfaction many feel when the killer, who deserves to die, is executed .

The debate on gun control flares up after every such event, yet there is no outcry to outlaw guns, because as many Americans love to say, “If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.” Yet no one really wants to look at the causes that lead such individuals to snap and, in their minds, gain their moment of glory and attention. No one wants to debate the culture and glorification of death and violence that is an engrained part of the American psyche, because if they do then they have to take a long hard look at themselves.

The situation in America is a vicious circle of violence feeding itself and escalating as time goes by. U.S. law enforcement has become militarized with many police departments at a seeming “state of war” against the population they are supposed to protect. Why? Because every single person they may encounter during their workday may be packing, everyone from a 12 year old to an 89 year-old grandmother. But do they outlaw guns? No.

Laws covering gun possession and sales vary from state to state but for all intents and purposes almost anyone can buy a gun. If you can’t buy one from a gun shop, then in some states you can buy one in the hunting department of the local department store, in some areas the purchase of rifles does not require a waiting period or a background check. If that doesn’t work then you can go into the bad part of town and buy one from a pawn shop, a petty thief or a drug dealer if you spend a little time looking.

Sure owning a gun might make us feel safer but there are alternatives that are less lethal and just as effective. If the argument is about self defense, there are stun guns, tasers, tear gas and a variety of other options ideal for home or self-defense. Why would anyone need, for example, a 50 caliber Gatling gun to protect themselves and their family?

Countries all over the world, including Russia, need to take a long hard look at America before they even start to consider relaxing laws covering gun ownership and sales. Guns are designed for one thing, to kill people. Is this an ability we want everyone to have?

One of my favorite quotes by Albert Einstein, I think is very relevant: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." Perhaps it is time to lay down your arms America?

Do you suffer from Friggatriskaidekaphobia or Paraskevidekatriaphobia? If you do you are not alone. If you have never heard the words Friggatriskaidekaphobia or Paraskevidekatriaphobia, then don’t worry – you are also not alone. Both words are names for the same irrational fear: the fear of Friday the 13th .

The origin of the two words goes way back. The first – Friggatriskaidekaphobia – is a combination of the word “Frigg” (the name of the Norse goddess after whom Friday was named), and the word “triskaidekaphobia” which means the fear of the number thirteen. The second word is a grouping of three Greek words: paraskeví, which is the Greek word for Friday; dekatreís, meaning the number thirteen; and of course the suffix phobia, from the word phóbos.

There have been many scientists and reputable organizations over the years who have studied statistics and factual data to try and fathom whether the basis for this fear is somehow something more than just a superstition. Although different conclusions have been reached, people the world over continue to fear this day regardless.

For Russians, this day is not seen as being as unlucky as it is in the West, and there is not such a widespread dread of the two digits. For example, buildings have a 13th floor. Hotels, offices, and apartment blocks all have rooms or offices or apartments numbered 13. However there are some in Russia who also have ominous things to say about Friday the 13th . With regards to July 13th 2012, the head of the Russian school of astrology Alexander Zara told Interfax News Agency that this particular day may be an unlucky one.

According to Mr. Zara, July 11 saw the beginning of what is called the “Black Moon” –a term in astronomy that is neither well-known nor frequently used. The term “Black Moon” is used to describe the occurrence of two dark cycles of the moon in a single calendar month. Many who believe in the esoteric and in magic say that during the period of the second dark moon, any magic that is worked is extremely powerful – as are the forces of the spiritual world. He warns not to make hasty decisions and be more attentive on this day.

For people in many countries, Friday the 13th is a day like any other. For some, especially Americans, Friday the 13th is an extremely unlucky event, with some even refusing to drive, go to work, make serious decisions, or even leave their homes.

There are many different arguments and claims to the origin of the fear, among them those based in religion. One popular example is that Judas Iscariot was the thirteenth guest at the Last Supper, while Jesus died on a Friday. The great flood survived by Noah’s Ark is said to have occurred on Friday. Even Eve’s apple-temptation of Adam apparently occurred on a Friday.

In Norse mythology, Loki – the shape-shifting god of mischief – crashed a banquet being held by twelve other gods, bringing the total number of guests to thirteen.

Some say it originates with the arrests of all of the Templar Knights on the order of French King Philip IV, which took place on Friday 13th, October 1307. Others say that the Egyptian belief in the thirteenth stage of life that then became a fear of death was the origin of the fear.

Not all countries are terrified of one particular date in the calendar. For the Greeks and in many Spanish-speaking countries, Tuesday the 13th is considered unlucky. In Italy Friday the 17th is unlucky.

If you do feel a little dread on this day, don’t worry – it’s the last one of 2012. January 13th and April 13th have long since passed. Yet regardless of how superstitious you are, be attentive and careful all the same – there’s a chance they might just be right.

The views and opinions expressed here are the writer’s own. Some information from Interfax was used in making this report.

The decision to start up the reactor was made despite widespread protests and the fact that approximately 70% of Japanese want the government to prohibit the use of nuclear power indefinitely.

According to NHK some 7,000 protesters marched through Tokyo in opposition to the planned restart and to nuclear power, calling for a ban on nuclear power production.

The Ohi nuclear power plant uses pressurized water reactors (PWR) unlike those that melted down at Fukushima, which were boiling water reactors (BWR). They are both classified as light water nuclear reactors. The main difference between a BWR and PWR is that in a BWR, the reactor core heats water, which turns to steam and then drives a steam turbine.

In a PWR, the reactor core heats pressurized water which does not boil but does reach the boiling point. This hot water then exchanges heat with a lower pressure water system, which does in fact boil and turns to steam to drive the turbine.

The BWR was developed in the U.S. by the Idaho National Laboratory and General Electric in the mid-1950s.

The particular model used at Fukushima had inherent design flaws in the containment structure from the outset and engineers predicted the exact scenario that happened at Fukushima.

The General Electric Corporation began constructing the Mark-1 BWR reactors in the 1960s, claiming that they were cheaper and easier to build in part because they used a smaller and less expensive containment structure, and this is where the main problems lie.

A fact sheet published from the anti-nuclear advocacy group Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which is available on the internet, details problems with the design and states that in 1972 an Atomic Energy Commission member, Dr. Stephen Hanuaer, recommended that this type of system be discontinued.

More questions arose about the design in the mid-1980s, after Nuclear Regulatory Commission official Harold Denton stated that the Mark-1 reactors had; “…a 90 percent probability of bursting should the fuel rods overheat and melt in an accident.”

Thirty-five years ago, while reviewing the design for the Mark-1, Nuclear Engineers Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric were pressured into okaying the designs for the Mark-1 and were forced to resign after becoming convinced that the Mark 1 was so flawed it could lead to a catastrophe.

The key issue in this piece is, and there is very little detailed information out there on the subject, how many of Japan’s nuclear power plants run the G-E BRW Mark-1 reactors. All of the Fukushima reactors used the Mark 1 containment system while the sixth had the upgraded to Mark 2 system.

Below is a list of all Japanese ВRW reactors.

Reactor Location Type Containment Rating Status Operator

Fukushima I-1 Futaba, Fukushima BWR 439 Meltdown/exploded March 2011 TEPCO

Fukushima I-2 BWR Mark I 760 Meltdown March 2011 TEPCO

Fukushima I-3 BWR Mark I 760 Meltdown/exploded March 2011 TEPCO

Fukushima I-4 BWR Mark I 760 Meltdown/exploded March 2011 TEPCO

Fukushima I-5 BWR Mark I 760 Operational April 18, 1978 TEPCO

Fukushima I-6 BWR Mark II 1067 Operational October 1979 TEPCO

Fukushima II-1 BWR Mark II 1067 Operational April 1982 TEPCO

Fukushima II-2 BWR Mark II A 1067 Operational February 1984 TEPCO

Fukushima II-3 BWR Mark II A 1067 Operational June 1985 TEPCO

Fukushima II-4 BWR Mark II A 1067 Operational August 1987 TEPCO

Genkai-1 PWR 529 Operational October 1975 Kyūshū Electric

Hamaoka-1 BWR 515 Operational March 1976 Chūbu Electric

Hamaoka-2 BWR 806 Operational November 1978 Chūbu Electric

Hamaoka-3 BWR-5 1056 Operational August 1987 Chūbu Electric

Hamaoka-4 BWR-5 1092 Operational September 1993 Chūbu Electric

Higashidōri-1 BWR 1067 Operational December 2005 Tōhoku Electric

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-1 BWR 1067 Operational September 1985 TEPCO

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-2 BWR 1067 Operational September 1990 TEPCO

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-3 BWR 1067 Operational August 1993 TEPCO

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-4 BWR 1067 Operational August 1994 TEPCO

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-5 BWR 1067 Operational April 1990 TEPCO

Onagawa-1 BWR 498 Operational June 1984 Tōhoku Electric

Onagawa-2 BWR 796 Operational July 1995 Tōhoku Electric

Onagawa-3 BWR 798 Operational January 2002 Tōhoku Electric

Shika-1 BWR 505 Operational July 1993 RIKUDEN

Tōkai-2 BWR 1056 Operational November 1978 JAPC

Tsuruga-1 BWR 341 Operational March 1970 JAPC

JPDR-II BWR 13 1963–1982

Maybe it is time that all of these reactors were upgraded or shut down. Most have been on-line since the 1970s, and it is doubtful they become safer with time.

The opinions and views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Liberia, where men are supposed to be men and women are supposed to be women, on Friday held a vote on a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. All these same sex marriage debates were not only going on in the US - now Liberia and many African countries are also engaged in such discussion. The reasons are different however. Liberia does not have a huge homosexual community as does the US. There are not millions of LGBTs (meaning lesbian, gay, bisexuals and transgender people) engaged in lobbying their interests or making an in-your-face attempt to force the rest of the population to accept their lifestyles.

The reason this has become an issue in Africa is because the US and the UK have decided to tie US aid to rights issues involving LGBTs. This comes after Obama instructed US government officials to "ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, and transgender persons," around the world.

Just for a contrast homosexuality is currently illegal in 37 African countries, with some countries even having life-sentences and the death penalty for homosexual behavior.

When giving his instructions Obama stated that; “…legal, moral, and financial support will be boosted for gay rights organizations, emergency assistance will be sent to groups or individuals facing threats, and asylum in the US will be offered to people forced to flee anti-gay persecution in their countries.”

In a recent speech, full of bravado but lacking real substance or detail, to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva instead of addressing the hundreds of US violations in the area of human rights she made a big show that the US protects gay rights, proclaiming that "gay rights are human rights". She also announced the implementation of U.S. government-wide policies to push for the decriminalization of homosexuality overseas and to ensure US foreign assistance promotes the protection of LGBT rights".

In Liberia, as with many African countries, this set off a firestorm of debate, protests and even made things worse for the “LGBTs” who were in most cases quietly tolerated. These moves by the West, another attempt at imposing their will and bankrupt morality on the peoples of other countries, have caused Obama’s popularity and the level of widespread idolization of the US to fall considerably in much of Africa.

Since Clinton’s remarks many newspapers in Liberia have described homosexuality as "desecrating", "abusive" and an "abomination". Those remarks, coupled with a group of US backed activists, the Movement for the Defense of Gay and Lesbian Rights, who began activities to legalize same sex marriage, led to the constitutional debate.

According to an article by the AFP, up until now in Liberia, although “voluntary sodomy” has been considered a criminal offence, the question of gay marriage had not been expressly addressed in law. Well, it has now.

The Senate of Liberia on Friday voted unanimously to pass a constitutional amendment, under section 2.3 of the Liberian constitution which covers polygamy and incestuous relationships.

The president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was forced to defend her country and in an interview with the U.K.’s Guardian in March she stated: "We like ourselves the way we are. We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve."

Sirleaf recently won the Nobel peace prize for her work in advancing women's rights.

In the above interview with the Guardian, which Sirleaf gave jointly with Tony Blair, Blair, sitting beside the composed and quiet Sirleaf, looked furious and uncomfortable in the extreme, behaving as if Liberia did not have the right to make its own internal decisions. Maybe understandably as Blair was a champion for the “LGBTs”, among his achievements lowering the age of consent for gay sex to 16.

I know I might be accused of being harsh to those with sexual identification issues, but homosexuality is a psychological and some say physiological disorder stemming from earlier childhood development issues, trauma, and a hundred other sociological and familial disorders, which causes pain and suffering for those who suffer from it. These people should be helped and the root causes identified.

Same sex marriage, what exactly does that mean? You can be politically correct and call it homosexuality or alternative sexual preferences or even untraditional orientation, but many countries and people’s view this as an abomination and a deviation from accepted norms.

Maybe I am wrong here but a country, such as the U.K. which now allows old men to have sex with boys as young as 16, and another where men are being allowed to marry men, should not be dictating to the world how it should conduct itself.

Perhaps Sirleaf should be dictating policy to Obama and Blair, she has, after all won a real Nobel Prize and perhaps the US needs to look at the roots of the problem and find a way to help those suffering from sexual disorders, instead of trying to get the world to accept it.

Many countries all over the world have serious social and political problems that lead to popular unrest, demonstrations, instability, and in the extreme, to revolutions and the over-throwing of governments.

One of those countries, and in fact one of the worst transgressors when it comes to social justice, human rights and personal freedoms is the United States of America, with its dozens of simmering internal conflicts, reasons for massive discontent and massive underlying culture of oppression.

The list is long and it is a daunting task to choose where to begin, but almost any of the issues I would like to mention are enough and would be enough to cause massive strife, if not for the fact that the United States of America is a police state.

Let us start with that then if you will, for it is this fear of the government that will in the end lead to its downfall. The US has for too long tried and for the most part succeeded in ruling with an iron fist, this can be testified to by the percentage of the US population in the prison system or incarcerated at the local level. Imprisonment and the taking away of freedom is one of the favored tools of the American government. This has almost reached a level that can be called out of control since September 11, 2001.

Another fact that must be looked at when making such an assessment is something that no one is allowed to speak about, neither within the format of an internal political or social debate nor when making international assessments, it is taboo, and for the most part fear of point one, and the state control of the media keeps the debate in check. What I am talking about is the institutionalized racism that exists in the US. As members of the white race group love to say, and you better agree because it is a white man’s world, racism does not exist. If a black or other non-white member of society makes such an accusation or dares to speak out, it is usually white judges or white members of the system that come to the finding that racism does not in fact exist, and thus the system keeps the white members of society in power, in all of the top level jobs and in control of the government.

This is a subject that deserves much more debate and careful analysis than I can give it here, but when cases like Trayvon Martin bring the debate to the forefront and comparisons are made where the state of racism in America is said to be at 1950 levels, it is clear this is a still a disease that Americans have yet to deal with openly honestly and with a mind to end it. Of course those who benefit will do anything to make sure this never happens, even the Ku Klux Klan is satisfied with current level of affairs anhd maintains their official stance that when the status quo is under threat they will begin their hangings again.

Other societal problems include Indian rights, immigrant rights, religious persecution, an educational system that is inaccessible to most of the population, the lack of decent well paying jobs, unfair housing practices, unfair lending and banking rules, police brutality, lack of privacy, lack of real freedom of movement, an unforgiving legal system, no real retirement or social net for the elderly, a nationwide housing problem, homelessness, lack of accessible and affordable medical care, incredibly high taxes and no redress, endless wars against abstract enemies and the list goes on and on, including indefinite detention without trial and even death at the hands of the state if you are deemed an enemy.

All of the aforementioned are real and existing problems that have affected American society for decades but only now that they are beginning to affect large sections of the white population are they being talked about, thanks to the Occupy Movement. So why am I talking about all of this in a piece about the Russian opposition? Well, because all of these are real reasons for protests and rallies and demonstrations and because Russia has almost none of these problems.

So what is the Russian opposition about? Depending on who you talk to there are many reasons. However no one agrees on anything except that Putin is bad. Why? Just because. They can not offer anything concrete or factual but the accusations are as many as their fantasies allow.

What could they be protesting? Artificially high real estate prices would be at the top of my list, but the opposition will not talk about that because most of the “opposition” are people with their own flats who are able to rent out their flats at incredibly unrealistically high prices and get good credit to buy their expensive cars due to artificially high real estate values. This also keeps young people at home and prevents them from buying a flat and even renting one. That is something else that people could protest. By the way President Putin is already looking at these issues. They could be protesting healthcare which is attempting to follow the US model and become super expensive, without the same level of service, something else Mr. Putin has looked at.

What else? Jobs? Corruption? Pensions? President Putin has done more to create jobs, fight corruption, and increase pensions than any other figure in Russian politics. So then what?

Maybe there are a few people sucked into opposition rallies who have real beefs, but there are legal ways and means in place in Russia for people who really want to make a difference and the organizers and funders of these events are not interested in such lowly people and their causes. You don’t see exploited workers at these rallies, or people from other cities, or non-Russians, or pensioners, or any of the others who might really have something to complain about. Why because they trust and voted for Putin and they love Putin.

Who do we see at these rallies? Mainly dissatisfied Muscovites, with their own flat(s) who they rent out and don’t pay taxes on, who drive expensive foreign cars, and were empowered by President Putin’s as well as President Medvedev’s policies on business, property ownership, taxation and freedom of speech. Most of these people are followers of Yavlinsky and his Yabloko Party, long funded by the West, and other Western leaning or Western funded “democratic” groups.

What do they want? Exactly what those at the US Embassy want who are funding their activities (according to Russian media) just get rid of the democratically elected and very popular president Vladimir Putin and make Russia look as bad as possible.

What has the opposition done to get what they want? Do they challenge the leadership to debates, or introduce alternative plans, or candidates that are trusted and believed and loved by the people? No! Do they engage in constructive debate or fund and promote peaceful change? Do they formulate workable plans to improve the situation in an area that might be improved? Do they advocate even one position that the people agree on? No? If they do please tell me because I have missed it.

So in reality, please, what have they done? Tied up traffic? Throw rocks at and spit on the police? Exaggerate and promote anything that can cause unrest, civil disorder and problems for the authorities. Nothing positive. Yet we are almost not allowed to speak about them, or it must be done with a disclaimer, lest we be accused by the ever present West of being undemocratic or stifling dissent, by the West, what a joke, the very masters at stifling dissent and shutting up the opposition.

In reality people are afraid to talk back at the opposition, lest they not be given their Shengen or American visas or appear on some US Embassy black list as I have. So I renounced the US. Maybe they are right to be scared. I mean isn’t that what the US is expert at in controlling the masses? First their own American masses and now the world’s masses? Yes sirree Bob, if you bad mouth the US you may be the target of a drone strike. And lo and behold if you dare to go up against the US interference into the affairs of a sovereign nations, you will end up in the worst of places my friend. They will get you. Doesn’t matter if you are not even a US citizen like Victor Bout, they will come and get you wherever you are.

I think it is time for the “opposition” to wake up but can they? They are so tied into believing a dream propagated by the West, a dream that is not and never will be for them. They have been manipulated by Western mass media into believing the lies and the propaganda of the West to a degree that they are blind to the very facts right in front of them. Or they have been threatened and made afraid to speak their minds or stand up to the West in fear of facing economic, business or other retribution or being denied some privilege like a multi-entry visa.

So, please opposition, you have been given so much attention and media coverage and have failed to put a message across. Be constructive and organize and work within the democratic legal framework of the Russian constitution if you really have something to say other than parroting the orders of your western masters.

Interview with Captain John Cox, the Chief Executive Officer of Safety Operating Systems in Washington DC and a world renowned aviation expert

I’m very well, thank you. Nice to be speaking with you again. I’d like to speak with you today about the crash of the Superjet 100 in Indonesia. As an expert what can you tell our listeners about the crash? And how do you think this will affect the future development of the Superjet 100?

Well, it is certainly a tragedy that the Superjet accident occurred with the loss of everybody on board. I think they will determine pretty quickly if there are any airplane issues and if there are, then it will be up to the manufacturer to solve those pretty quickly. As far as the future, this is certainly going to affect it in the near term but I’m not necessarily so sure that it will have a negative effect in a longer term. All the aircraft have experienced accidents early in the program and have been able to be very successful. And I think that’s a possible relief for the Superjet 100 as well.

Some of the very early airbus accidents were very early in their program and yet the A320 family of airplanes has become one of the most successful. So, I think that implications here is that the manufacturer needs to be very upfront and very open with the things that they learn about the accident as the investigation progresses. And by being that open I think they will ensure the credibility of the airplane.

Indonesian Airlines are black-listed from flying in Europe. Can you tell our listeners anything you know about the safety situation in Indonesia?

The Indonesian accident rates are some of the highest in the world compared with the industry overall. Yet the Indonesian Government has been making good progress in trying to improve airlines safety in the area. I think this tragic accident will be another push forward for them to continue that improvement in the aviation infrastructure.

The plane that crashed apparently was in a perfect condition. The pilot was one of the best, if not the best Russian test flight pilot. What do you think contributed to the crash?

It is very early to tell. Obviously they were flying in mountainous terrain, so the questions that are going to come up – was there an airplane problem, were they flying where they were supposed to, were they in vehicle communication and flying appropriately with their traffic control. The investigators are going to look to see all those possibilities and they will come up with something very quickly.

The pilot, apparently right before the plane disappeared from radar, he requested to decent to 6 000 feet from 10 000. Have you heard anything about that? Do you know why he did that?

From what I have read, they had circled a mountain there, the 10 000 height mountain. They have circled around it once and they were for making a second turn and that’s when they requested to decent to 6 000 feet. The air traffic control approved that and shortly after that the radar contact was lost. Until they find the cockpit voice recorder and determine exactly why the request was made, I think it is something of an open question that the investigators will look at.

You don’t know of any design flaws or anything in the Superjet 100 that could have contributed to this?

The Superjet 100 had flown at the previous demonstration flight earlier in the day and they did not report any mechanical issues. So, it appears from that, that the airplane had not experienced any problem previous to the accident flight and the crew made no communications of any problems to air traffic control. So, it is hard to say this early whether there was a mechanical issue with the airplane or not but none is apparent at this point.

Some of the experts, can’t remember exactly it was, he said that the pilots may have been pushing the envelope with the plane since there were buyers on board. What do you think about that statement?

I think it is premature to try to suggest what the pilots were or were not doing until we get the cockpit voice recorder and at that point we will notice confidently. Demonstration pilots, test pilots are highly skilled individuals, they re consummate professionals so I would not want to suggest at this stage that what they did or didnt do could have been a contributor.

Thank you very much that could be heard. Any other factors you think may have played into this regarding Indonesia, the terrain, air traffic control there?

I have been in Malaysia and that part of the world is a mountainous terrain in close proximity to the airport. The pilots who fly in and out of there they deal with it on a regular basis. So, the infrastructure of Indonesia is challenging but its airplanes fly in and out of there safely every day. So, I think it is something the investigators will look at. But as far as the contributions the accident causes, I think only the investigators will determine that.

You say it is too early to make any conclusions regarding the Superjet here, right?

The key here, to protect the airplane’s reputation, is for everyone involved to be very open and to get as much information out to the aviation industry as early as possible.

I know that they had some typical testing issues. I can’t now give you the list of what they were. But I also understand that the manufacturer had been able to resolve all of them.

We are almost out of time. Is there anything else you would like to add and we will finish up I guess?

I think this is a tragedy. Everybody recognizes that it is also very important because of it being so early in the airplane history that this will be resolved quickly and openly. I think that’s the key thing to take away from this at the stage.

Thank you very much, John. You were listening to an interview with Captain John Cox – the Chief Executive Officer of Safety Operating Systems in Washington DC and a world renowned aviation expert.

Election season is under way in the United States and dirt is being thrown around left and right as Americans love to do. Rarely are positive campaigns fought in American politics, as a rule the focus is on the most minuscule impropriety or immorality, which if cooked and served up right, can take down the strongest of candidates. Sadly it is not even really important if there is truth in allegations, what is more important is how often (the lie) is repeated, for as with any non-truth, if it repeated enough it has a way of becoming truth to the public.

This time the dirt being dug up, if not fabricated, against President Barack Obama, a president who has been attacked by the right wing and its lunatic fringe since day one for everything from his name to his birth certificate, involves not him directly but a contributor to his campaign. Lest it be forgotten the person in question, New York donor Abake Assongba has been accused, not found guilty or convicted. This should be an important fact in the land of so called, “…innocent until proven guilty….”, but it is just a side point as is normally the case.

As anyone who knows me can state, without a doubt, I am not one to defend American politicians, even Obama, however as a champion of fairness I do find it necessary to underline one very important fact here; U.S. President Obama is the only presidential candidate who has released a list of what Americans call "bundlers," those who raise high-dollar campaign funds through friends and associates. This is something Republicans have long been want to do.

This is not the first scandal involving Barack Obama and his contributors. Let’s not forget the case of long-time Clinton family financier, Hassan Nemazee, accused of fraudulently obtaining loans totaling $292 million from three banks to support his lifestyle and make political contributions. He was convicted to 12.5 years in prison in July 2010 on multiple counts of bank fraud and wire fraud. However this case does not involve Obama directly.

What about the Republicans? Well if you do a Google search for the term “Republican Scandals 2012” you will get 68,200,000 results. I did not even know where to start. For the Republicans it is so bad that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched the “House of Scandal” website at: http://dccc.org/index.php/corrupt, which has an interesting feature, Corrupt Republican of the Month, for those interested in dirt.

In contrast to Barack Obama, Mitt Romney is no angel, a Google search for the term Romney Finance Scandals will provide you with 13,300,000 results, including an ABC News piece which turned out to be nothing, but provocatively began: “Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven. …” However as it turned out, like I said, it was nothing.

The real story here might be about the transparency that Barack Obama has attempted to maintain, as opposed to his opponents obfuscation, because really, with 1.3 million people having contributed to Obama’s campaign, according to Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, it would be really hard to vet every single one beforehand.

On the other hand the real story here might also be about how American politics has become a simple money game, where the richest man (or woman) wins. Let’s not forget Barack Obama saying he would raise $1 billion dollars for his campaign.

Just like the unprecedented transparency of the recent Presidential Elections in the Russian Federation, and transparency here meant transparent video monitored ballot boxes, among other things, no one in the American mass media really wants to comment on Obama’s transparency, it is all about ratings and dirt and maintaining prejudices and party lines.

With the global economic crisis, the world on the brink of WWIII, the US’ ongoing military campaigns, all of Obama’s broken promises, global warming, unrest over most of the Middle East and much of Europe, famine, disease and poverty and judging from the fact that this is an ongoing US election cycle, I would say that once again, with regards to US President Barack Obama, this latest “scandal” is much ado over nothing.

South Korean people watch a TV screen showing a graphic of North Korea's rocket launch, at a train station in Seoul on April 13, 2012. Photo: AFP

Last night, while half the world was asleep, dreaming of whatever it is half the world normally dreams about, according to the reports which the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea has released to the world, it attempted to launch a meteorological satellite into orbit, a first for the country and the first time they have attempted to launch a rocket of that magnitude.

The noble deed was meant to raise the spirits of its people and was timed to mark the 100th birthday anniversary of the country’s first leader Kim Il Sung.

Unfortunately, according to Western sources, the rocket broke up a few minutes after take-off and the launch was a complete failure. Or was it? Regardless of what the world is told to believe there are many who will doubt the official version and hold the belief that the missile was shot down by benevolent Western powers who want to protect the world from the Axis of Evil. This could be regarded as a propaganda victory for the West.

On the other end of the spectrum North Korea also has a win to some point, they can claim, and no doubt it is true, that in the face of dire threats and extreme resistance, they stood up to the world’s policeman and launched their little rocket anyway. They can spread rumors that it was Western interference that caused the rocket to fail and continue trying. This, in turn, could be claimed as a propaganda victory by the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.

Yet there is another aspect that perhaps North Korea, and those watching the situation, have not really thought about, and that is that the West needs North Korea to continue such activities, so regardless of what they do or the results of their attempts at creating weapons or advancing their technology, they will be playing into the West’s hands.

The only thing that North Korea could do, if it really wants to beat the West, is to completely hide its weapons programs, to protect it from a real invasion, and to appear to the world to have disarmed.

The West, in particular the United States and NATO need North Korea and Iran. They need them desperately in order to justify the billions upon they billions they are spending for the development of Reagan’s Star Wars shield and the expansion of NATO and its ABM system into the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific Region. Without these two countries NATO and its entire ABM shield and their global expansion become something unnecessary, something that few would likely support.

Yesterday we touched on the question why the West continues to call for sanctions against Iran and why do they continue putting pressure on the country to do something that they already know Iran is not doing; namely attempting to build nuclear weapons. According to one expert Iran may be dreaming about nuclear weapons but they are not doing anything to get them. This is well known by the US Government. So why continue the propaganda? Well because NATO and the US need a reason to continue their military expansion and their incursions on the sovereignty of half the world.

In that light the worst thing that North Korea could do now, for the West, is to either completely hide everything they are doing or to completely disarm. If they disarm there is the likelihood that they will be invaded so as to effect a regime change. But the West does not really want this. NATO needs North Korea to continue seeking to improve its technology so they can keep up their global escalation and claim they are protecting the world. For the same reason they need Iran to continue its nuclear program.

If the West decides they do not need Korea anymore to justify their own military escalation, then the country is in for a world of trouble and might quite possibly be the subject of the world’s next military intervention. Just some food for thought, thanks for checking in.

Russia, India, China urge diplomatic reaction to N. Korea’s failed space launch

Russia, India and China have called for resorting exclusively to political and diplomatic leverage to react to North Korea’s failed launch of a space satellite. This came in a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov following the talks of the three Foreign Ministers in Moscow earlier today. Lavrov urged all countries to show restraint and came out against slapping fresh sanctions on North Korea.

The North Korean mass media have admitted that the recent launch of a space satellite did take place but proved a failure.

The US air defenses detected the takeoff of the rocket-carrier, of which the first stage fell into the sea some 165 kilometres away from Seoul, while the two other stages are believed not to have detached themselves at all. It was in March that Pyongyang said it would launch a space satellite to mark the birth centenary of North Korea’s first leader, Kim Il Sung. The plan was strongly condemned by many countries, including Russia. The UN Security Council has banned North Korea from launching rockets that involve the use of ballistic missile technologies.

The launch of the North Korean rocket ended in failure according to reports by the U.S. government and Japan. The Pentagon reported that, according to preliminary data, the rocket broke up shortly after takeoff.

The UN Security Council will meet today in an emergency session to discuss an appropriate response.

Pyongyang’s plans to launch its own space rocket caused sharp condemnation from many countries, including Russia.

The international community fears that under the guise of attempting to place a satellite in orbit, North Korea may be testing a ballistic missile.

Pyongyang claimed that the mission had a peaceful goal, namely the placing into orbit of a satellite was to have performed meteorological functions.

The launch was timed, by the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Koreas, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the country's first leader, Kim Il Sung.

South Korea's navy on Friday launched a salvage operation to retrieve the debris from North Korea's failed rocket launch, a military spokesman said Friday.

"We've located where the debris landed and we're making efforts to salvage it," the Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman told AFP.

China on Friday urged "calm" and "restraint" from all sides after North Korea's failed long-range rocket drew strong condemnation from the United States and its allies.

"We hope all relevant parties can maintain calm and restraint, and refrain from acts that would harm peace and stability on the peninsula and in the region," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement.

Transparency, is it really something that we all need, or has it become an all encompassing overused catch phrase promulgated by certain governments and special interests as a cover word to strip away rights, sovereignty, and civil liberties? My belief has always been that when someone starts telling you change something, to simplify a process that really does not concern them or to give up your secrets and allow them into places they really should not be, you had better sound the alarms and take a very hard look at what they are really doing. When the parties in question tie their actions and your compliance to financial aid and other tempting carrots then it is time to call in the security people because you are being had my friend.

I am not against transparency, as I am sure few are, but there are limits I think to what should be and what should not be transparent. There must also be limits on “transparency” especially when dealing with areas where civil liberties and privacy rights are being trampled on, especially when we are talking about transparency for the government as it fulfills its role in protecting us, upholding the law and guaranteeing our security. This quite possibly most importantly applies to areas such as personal property rights, freedom of movement and association, and other areas where people should be allowed to possess the greatest amount of freedom possible. In order to guarantee our security we should not be trading security for freedom and that is the danger.

Who is calling for the transparency is also important. Is it the government calling for more transparency with regards to the transactions of financial institutions or the banking sphere? Or is it law enforcement wanting more access to people’s bank accounts or personal communications? Or perhaps it is one government or international body calling for the transparency of a certain country’s financial institutions or it political system or it scientific programs? Maybe it is one business group with financial interests in a certain sphere or industry? What are the motivations behind the calls for transparency and who benefits? All of these questions must be asked by officials and those in oversight positions.

If we hold to the tenet that transparency must not infringe on the freedoms or the sovereignty of a people or a country and that such trade-offs usually end with the people losing their freedoms or rights then, once again I must underline that we have to be very careful indeed when one country attempts to impose its will or standards on another with calls for transparency, regulation or other methods of control bringing into compliance with a certain set of standards or norms. Having said all of that we can look at calls by the US and its surrogates and certain allies and their calls for more transparency in Russia’s internal processes, not only the political system and it workings but also the military, industrial, educational, medical and other spheres.

During the 1990s, a tumultuous period for much of the world and especially for Eastern Europe with the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people and countries looked to the West for guidance and believed that the West had noble intentions and their best interests in mind, unfortunately due the naïveté of much of the world at the time no one really understood that regardless of what is being sold, the rule buyer beware must be tantamount even, when talking about things like accepting observers, reformers, analysts, and striving for “transparency”. It was during this period that American specialists were welcomed in Russia and allowed to do almost anything they wanted and almost anything they said was accepted and implemented.

In those days people like the current US ambassador to Russia were allowed to interface and finance all sorts of institutions and “opposition” groups, even allowed to interfere in the election processes of the country, and people trusted them and took their money and did what they were told to do. I know this is not true for everyone and maybe an oversimplification but it would take volumes to properly address all of the issues that existed in the 90s properly. This could not be more evident or clear as when the aforementioned individual returned to Russia not long ago, seeming to believe that the same cards were on the table and all of the players were still as naïve and trusting as they had been. Almost before even unpacking his suitcase he was meeting with his previous contacts in the Yabloko Party and according to reports in some of the Russian press even handing out payments along with instructions to “opposition” groups and figures before Russia’s presidential elections. All of this taking place against the background of a full-court-press by the West calling for more “transparency” and “democracy” and accusations of unfair parliamentary elections.

With all of their efforts against Vladimir Putin, and of course this is what it was all about, wasn’t it? The “opposition” came out, in numbers which were disappointing for the West, some of the rallies having almost as many members of the press as they did demonstrators. They tied up traffic caused a general feeling of discontent among the population and gave malcontents something to focus on. The “opposition” who have no one to thank but Mr. Putin, many of them, for the very ability to protest, became a fad, unfocussed and with no real alternative, but ready to gather and protest. The results they achieved were not what they were supposed to, however regardless of the low numbers they cost the Russian authorities billions of rubles and distracted and redirected resources and people from locations and events where they could have been better used.

In other areas Russia also spent billions and used resources to stand up to the challenges of the West and set about implementing scores of changes, including the never-before-tried installation of web cameras which filmed the ballot boxes, the allowing of over half a million election observers, new improved ballots, literally “transparent” ballot boxes and more, all done to be more “transparent”, all costing money and resources which could have been used for other things.

So is Russia now more transparent? To whom? To the West? Is all this transparency really necessary? For Russia herself I would say things are pretty much the way they were. All of the steps taken during the last presidential elections changed nothing in reality because the system, even though there were some minor faults and areas that were being abused, was already working the way it was supposed to.

What has now transpired, in my opinion, is that Russia now has one of the most “Democratic” elections systems in the world, no doubt fairer than that of the USA with its draconian districting and delegate counts, its electronic ballot boxes which provide no paper record and worst of all, the complete prohibition on observers.

Yes a prohibition on observers, by the same country that demands to place observers anywhere and everywhere they wish. In case you did not know the US refuses to allow UN or any other observers to monitor their own elections, which is strange really if you think about it. Many Americans believe this would undermine their sovereignty. So one must ask; why should Russia or any other country for that matter, allow in observers? Is their sovereignty or that of the Russian Federation worth less than that of the US? No. So why doesn’t Russia start pressuring the US to be more transparent? There are in reality so many areas we could start with.

In closing according to RIA-Novosti, recently the deputy head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Alexander Pochinok, said that, the yet to be released PACE report on Russia’s presidential elections is realistic while its criticism is logical and the violations in the course of the election were insignificant and did not affect the outcome. Also commenting on the report, the mission’s head, Dutch Senator Tiny Kox, said the monitors stated the March 4th presidential elections “had a clear winner” and were more transparent than previous polls.

Okay Russia has spent billions and its election system has become more “transparent” for those watching from the outside, but once again I ask, were all of the changes really worth it, and for the sake of national security, should we all really be so transparent?

Best of the day to you all, or the night, wherever you may be and whatever the case may

Best of the day to you all, or the night, wherever you may be and whatever the case may be. In the event that you have visited my little corner recently and wondered what had happened to me, I guess I owe you all an explanation, you see, my bosses, in their lovely wisdom, decided to let me take a few days off, and the timing could not have been better.

So many things have happened in the past week that it seems like I have been away for years, but that is how it is these days, isn’t it? The world and all of the events and people in it are moving at lightning speed. Is this good or bad? Doesn’t matter really, it is just the way it is and we have to deal with it, like it or not.

So, I have just gotten back from vacation, and it is nice, in a way. Vacations are good, few would argue and they are right, but idle hands are the Devil’s plaything, but oh how sweet… lounging about, sleeping in, or partying till you drop. However as with all good things, which end too soon, and too much of a good thing is also bad, it is time to move on, as the world has moved on, so there you have an enigma wrapped in a metaphor.

As the sun comes up I stretch out and bask in the morning sun savoring, relishing, soaking up, and luxuriating in the sunlight shining through my window, the hot sun kisses my skin, strange and pleasant and life giving after almost eight months of virtual darkness, freezing cold, and the brutal elements that go with winter this far north. The sun, so powerful so needed and so able to affect everything around us, brings new life into my old carcass blocking out almost everything else as it heals and nurtures my very soul. Sorry got carried away a little perhaps.

If you are fortunate or unfortunate, as the case may be, depending on how character-building you wish to views such things, and live in more moderate climes. You may say I sound half-cocked, ranting and raving about the sun and the weather as if something so benign could be something worth talking about, but if you have experienced decades of Russian winter you will probably understand me, you would know how weather can be a force which dictates how things are, how they will be and how it can be so powerful as to change your life, your psyche and your very existence.

I remember quite well my first full winter in Moscow, it was a doozy, with no exaggeration I did not see the sun, not even a slight five second glance through altocumulus, altostratus, cirrocumulus, cirrus, cumulonimbus, stratocumulus, or any other type of cloud or frozen or otherwise air-borne precipitation for more than eight months. With days that were less than six hours long, and temperatures that brutally did not move much higher than minus 25 degrees Celsius for months, it may not be too much of a stretch of the imagination to say it was like a frozen hell. But I, mad lover of cold, and things extreme, loved it….Except for one little thing, after six months of not seeing the sun it dampened the spirit…

So the sun has come to Moscow, and this year the transition from freezing winter to shirt sleeve heat took less than a week, I kid you not! The first day of my vacation I was still wearing my heavy winter coat, and there was still snow everywhere, on the third day I was watching rain fall outside the window and opening the windows to get a little fresh air as I walked around in shorts.

Getting used to such a weather change so fast is hard for some (sometimes it really feels as if the blood runs thicker in the winter like a big truck running number 2 diesel) and perhaps a major disappointment for those who invested heavily in spring collections, but it is what we have and I for one am glad.

Happy to be back, talk to you all tomorrow…. Enjoy the spring, or the fall for that matter, depending on where you are… Fall is also a wonderful thing…

If your sister or your mother, your most cherished, loved and honored persons, were to be brutally murdered in

If your sister or your mother, your most cherished, loved and honored persons, were to be brutally murdered in the street and at the time had (now bear with me here I know this is terrible) some M and Ms, some tissues and say a lipstick in their purse and then some malcontented half-wit decided to create a picture (a work of art) of the killers face using M and Ms, some tissues and lipstick, wouldn’t that be something that would be completely and totally morally reprehensible and an abomination in the eyes of all civilized and peace loving humans?

Now let us take this one step further, or two, or three, or four, and trust me I trying to make a point here, and ask another question. Why can’t we take it one step further, they keep doing the same thing, anesthetizing the masses and getting them ready for even worse, getting them used to accepting even further horrors. Let’s ask a question and include even more sinister and global events, events and deeds destroying the very very fabric of society, global consciousness and humanity. Let’s ask another question, this time involving Afghani children, since they keep getting killed by the dozens, and ponder what the world’s reaction would be if someone had the sick and twisted idea to collect the items from the pockets of the dead children and then used them to produce a mosaic of say an Amercan flag or even George Bush, wouldn’t that be an abomination?

What about if someone took the skulls of dead American Indians, a people destroyed by genocide and driven from their lands, and used them to make book ends, or candle holders, or start secret societies, where hate is worshipped and glorified, and even made into a code of conduct for some twisted and sick secret society bent on world domination through hate and death and manipulation.

Are you feeling ill yet picturing all of these horrors? Not let us take it further, and I feel we must for we must not be allowed to forget and what I have outlined above has been done, what if we collected items from the pockets and the hands of murdered Jews, murdered by the nazis (sic), and used them to produce a portrait of hitler (sic) or a swastika, that would be unthinkable wouldn’t it? Lest we forget or lest the historical revisionists have deleted some of the facts of the Holocaust from the history books, the Nazis did even worse things, they used the flesh of those they held in concentration camps, the Jews and others to make lampshades, wallets, book covers, soap and even cut off tattoos and saved them as tropies in albums, wasn’t all of that an abomination?

So on the eve of the birthday of the biggest monster in the history of all mankind, lest we forget and allow the historical revisionists any leeway, and with all of the historical revisionism and newfound tolerance for racism that is spreading throughout the world like a cancer on the wave of spreading American “democracy”, let me ask you all one more question, okay two; why would we then tolerate a sick individual making a portrait of the killer of Trayvon Martin with Skittles and then pretending to be sympathetic with the devil because he had a history of mental problems?

Not everything American is good and is to be welcomed with open arms and a conspiratory wink of the eye, no matter how cynical or sarcastic one wishes to be, accepting hate and letting it go by unaddressed and allowing it to spread is what happened in Germany in the 30s, it is not a sign of freedom of speech or democracy, for freedom of speech and true Democracy has with a huge responsible and that is to not allow it to be perverted by those cynical, sarcastic and hateful enough to do so for their own ends.

Just some more food for thought and I wish you all the best wherever you may be.