Russian Pleads Not Guilty to American Retail Scam

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According to American media reports, a Russian national accused of setting up an online fraud ring that used stolen credit card details to defraud American retailers of millions of dollars plead not guilty in a Pittsburgh PA court. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Michigan-based Artur Gorlov, 28, who allegedly used the online pseudonym “Evilvodka”, was indicted on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud in 2011, but remained at large until American authorities arrested him as he disembarked at New York’s JFK Airport last month. Prosecutors have accused Gorlov of helping establish a group called “Atlanta Alliance”, which between 2005 and 2010 is believed to have run a network that used stolen credit card data to buy goods inside the USA. On Monday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that, according to prosecutors, the gang dispatched the merchandise to members of a second network who repackaged the goods and shipped them outside the USA to destinations selected by Gorlov. Prosecutors say that Gorlov used a set of websites to direct the networks and to resell the misappropriated merchandise. Authorities also say that he used the stolen credit cards to pay the fraud ring’s shipping costs and manipulated address details to circumvent US Postal Service security measures. On Monday, Gorlov entered a not guilty plea, and also waived his right to a detention hearing. The Tribune-Review reported that he’s currently being held without bail.

20 November 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20131120/184835671/Russian-Pleads-Not-Guilty-to-US-Retail-Scam.html

 

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USA Struggles to Return to Normal in Wake of Sandy

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On Wednesday, the American East Coast was slowly coming back to life, as some airports, bridges, and schools reopened, mass transit systems resumed limited service, power started coming back on, and flood waters began to recede in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which hit the region hard, requiring weeks, months, or longer for a full recovery. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, where Sandy hit hardest, where it destroyed a portion of the historic Boardwalk in Atlantic City, said, “It won’t be the same. It‘ll be different because many of the iconic things that made it what it was are now gone and washed into the ocean”.

The American death toll from the storm rose to 55 including a New York City policeman who died after saving his family from a flooded home. The number could still rise as search and rescue efforts continue in towns in several states along the coast. In Hoboken NJ, thousands of people were still feared stranded in their homes due to flooding, although this lacks confirmation. On Wednesday, the National Guard was on the scene, but a clearly frustrated Hoboken NJ Mayor Dawn Zimmer said she made repeated calls for help that was slow in arriving, saying to the Wall Street Journal, “We’re in a very difficult situation. The Hudson River has breached us at the north and at the south end”. Also on Wednesday, the New York City Police Department released several videos of dramatic rooftop rescues in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The videos show at least half a dozen people carried to safety from lifelines or rescue baskets dangling from a police helicopter.

On Wednesday morning, an estimated 6.9 million customers nationwide remained without power, down from 8.2 million in 17 states at the height of the storm; officials predict it will take some days before electricity is restored everywhere. Thousands of repair crews worked round-the-clock to clear downed trees and power lines across the region. According to economic forecasting firm IHS Global Insight, the storm shall cost about 20 billion USD (628 billion Roubles. 15.4 billion Euros. 12.4 billion UK Pounds) in property damage and another 10 to 30 billion USD (314 to 942 billion Roubles. 7.7 to 23.1 billion Euros. 6.2 to 18.6 billion UK Pounds) in lost business. On Wednesday morning, New York City’s John F Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey began limited service, but New York City’s LaGuardia International Airport remained closed. Officials said that clearing the backlog of delayed and stranded passengers was a major challenge. More than 18,000 flights were cancelled since Sunday, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and impacting airline flight schedules worldwide.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was set to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Wednesday morning, officially reopening markets that were closed since Friday. There was still no power to Lower Manhattan, including Wall Street, but the financial markets were running on backup generators. Assessing the damage to his city, Bloomberg said, “We’ll get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times… by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbour, comfort a stranger, and get the city we love back on its feet”. US President Barack Obama cancelled campaign events for a third straight day, he was scheduled to visit victims and tour damaged areas of New Jersey Wednesday afternoon, a state he’s expected to win easily in next week’s election, saying, “This is a tough time for millions of people, but America‘s tougher”.

31 October 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121031/177086413.html

6 December 2011. Three Grandmas Strip-Searched at JFK… Bush’s Legacy… If You Want a Police State WORSE Than That, Vote Republican in 2012

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Bush’s Folly… the TSA… is at it again. Read this. Got it? If you have a colostomy bag, expect to be searched by Bush’s Gestapo. This is all part of that post-9/11 Frenzy. Barack Obama did NOT found the TSA. George Bush did. Since I’ve had some experience with the TSA hiring process, it seemed to me that they were trying to winnow out anyone with a brain or initiative… they were looking for numskulls (most of the people working for the TSA aren’t brain-dead… but that’s what the system’s looking for). It’s not the rank n’ filers’ fault… they have to read off “scripts” and aren’t allowed any leeway whatsoever. I’m told that agents have ludicrous SOPs to follow… dreamed up by the paranoid Bushite apparat. In short, the Bush-era founder of the agency was an incompetent dolt, and their legacy’s the sclerotic system that we see now. As the ABC News article points up quite rightly:

A senior law enforcement official who has worked at New York‘s JFK airport for years told ABC News that the incidents expose the security agency to mockery. This senior official said, “Any law enforcement professional with any time experience would tell you that if you can’t tell the difference between an 80-year-old with a health issue and someone who might need further screening, then, this kind of behaviour makes us the laughing stock of law enforcement worldwide. These [passengers] were only guilty of buying a ticket”.

The War on Terror is as much an expensive folly as the War on Drugs is. Note well that the War on Drugs is going to continue as it enriches corrupt politicians and cops, and the War on Terror continues because it benefits corrupt politicians and corporations. Ike was right… none dare call it treason… attend to another part of his speech:

We … must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

If you vote for the Republican Party, you “live only for today, plundering for [your] own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow”. The Bush legacy is war, depression, and class war (of the rich against all others). If you vote Republican, you want MORE of that. Do you want an America where they can pull you off the street into indefinite detention? Even at the depth of the Great Purges, the USSR never sank that low. Yet, that’s what the Republican Party wants. Only one other country used such methods of detention… Nazi Germany. Is that what you want? Both the Republican Party and the Nazi Party wanted a “New World Order”… doesn’t the identity of terminology just make your blood run  cold?

The TSA is a symptom… not the disease. Yet, it does warn us of what MAY be. We are like Scrooge and the Three Spirits. “Tell me, Spirit, that these are the shadows of what MAY be, not those of what MUST be”. It needn’t be…. but we must REFUSE to vote Republican under ANY circumstance. That’s fundamental… to forestall evil, you must refuse to opt for it. We have NO other choice.

Note to Russian Orthodox people:

Jonas Paffhausen is speaking tonight at the Far Right American Enterprise Institute. JP spits on the actual opinion of the Church as His Holiness has spoken it. He does NOT represent the real position of the Church. His Holiness has called the present Free Market system a fraud, and that’s that. I apologise for this charlatan’s misrepresentation of what we stand for.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 6 January 2011

Albany NY