18 September 2013. You Can’t Make Up Shit Like This… Former NSA and CIA Chief Sees Future of Alcoholism for Snowden

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Editor’s Foreword:

I knew that the Amerikantsy believed their own propaganda and think overly highly of themselves, but this is over the top even for them. Read on…

BMD

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Michael Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said that he envisioned a grim future of boredom and alcoholism for fugitive American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, now in Russia. The Washington Post quoted Hayden as saying in response to a question about Snowden at a discussion forum held in a church across from the White House earlier this week, “I suspect he will end up like most of the rest of the defectors who went to the old Soviet Union… isolated, bored, lonely, depressed, and most of them ended up alcoholics”. Hayden, now a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy co-founded by former US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, described Snowden as “a troubled young man… morally arrogant to a tremendous degree, but a troubled young man”. Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who helped to get temporary asylum status for Snowden, said that Snowden, a computer specialist and former NSA employee, currently resides anonymously in Russia, going for walks and travelling without being recognised. Earlier this summer, Snowden was the focus of international attention after he leaked classified information about widespread US government surveillance programmes to the media. He fled to Hong Kong, and, then, to Russia, where he received asylum in July after spending weeks in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport.

18 September 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20130918/183535169/Former-NSA-CIA-Chief-Hayden-Sees-Future-of-Alcoholism-for-Snowden—Report.html

Editor’s Afterword:

God, Snowden’s gotten their goat but good. This is “sour grapes” of the choicest vintage. Russian reports have it that Eddie’s moving freely and that he’s not bored or despondent… quite the contrary. Chertoff was a brutal and conscienceless consigliere for the Bush junta; he wrote the legal justification for torture and other such pleasantries in the so-called “War on Terror”. That’s the kind of person that Hayden works for… shitbirds of a feather flock together, y’ know, and “like does call unto like”. I’d say that if Hayden maligns you, it’s a compliment of the highest order. After all, he’s saying that Eddie’s not like him (or Chertoff)… and that’s a GOOD thing, kids. If the goodthinkers call you “disordered”, then, it probably means that you’re courageous and well-centred. Hayden’s a career spook, y’ gotta remember… he was the initiator of the lawless surveillance programme exposed by Snowden (that is, he DEFENDS government spying on the people). Methinks that the schmidiot was just “hoist by his own petard”… and he doesn’t realise it. It tells you about the intelligence level of Republicans (do note how Republicans defend torture, spying on ordinary folks, murder by drone, and kidnapping abroad)…

One last thing… as for “morally arrogant”, I don’t think that a former Langley operative has the high ground on that. After all, remember Ecumenical Patriarch Maximos Vaportzis (he was a SOCIALIST… oh, the humanity!)… Langley did topple him in a coup, after all…

BMD

 

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As John Robles Sees It… RNC Unified the People Against a Common Enemy

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The Republican National Convention will soon be history, but the resonance of what occurred in Tampa may live on for a long time. For the first time in decades, police and protestors found a common ground and mutual respect. Now, that’s something that the élites who met to plan their divisive foreign and internal policies and to continue and expand the influence of their party of exclusion, can’t be at all happy about. There are still a few people out there who haven’t forgotten the plethora of crimes committed by the Bush Administration, even though many people who questioned 9/11 and the aggressive wars launched by the USA against countries that had nothing to do with it were marginalised and written off as kooks, some are still able to make themselves heard and are still fighting for those responsible for everything from the Guantánamo detention centre to the Bush torture programme to be brought to justice.

Although a majority of the American people are too scared to stand up and protest, a growing number of Americans feel that they have nothing to lose and that it’s time to take their country back from the rich élites who have gutted the American Dream for the many and have destroyed the USA’s image. Many Americans are waking up; they realise that there isn’t any real democracy in the USA and that both parties are exactly the same. Despite this, the US Republican Party has been classically and unapologetically the party of rich white elitists, so, it’s now become the focus of protests by protest groups and the majority of Americans who’re truly suffering.

One of these groups, Code Pink, a predominantly-female anti-war group, has attempted to make citizen’s arrests of various members of the previous Bush Administration for years, but there’s a lack of legal entities willing to bring charges against entrenched political figures, came out in force at the RNC in Tampa. Code Pink’s methods may seem to be questionable, and some might even call them outrageous, but they’re effective in getting attention, and, then, using the attention to get their message out, in particular, their attempts to stage what Americans call a “citizen’s arrest”. Along with the Occupy Movement and over 40 other protest groups, they descended on the “Convention of the Élite”, who gathered in Tampa to select an already chosen candidate, to ogle beautiful women stripping in front of them, listen to speeches, to plan policy demonising Russia and other “evil” countries, and to pat each other on the backs and tell each other how wonderful they are.

Code Pink was very active at the RNC, for example, at a speaking engagement tied to the Republican National Convention, members of Code Pink protested outside of the venue whilst Condoleezza Rice was speaking inside. The protestors carried handcuffs and said they had come to arrest the former Secretary of State for war crimes. The Co-Director of Code Pink Rae Abileah and Code Pink Member Colonel Ann Wright, US Army (retired), managed to enter the building where Rice was holding her speaking engagement and disrupt her speech regarding “compassion”. At the beginning of the speech, the Colonel stood up and shouted, “You can’t be compassionate, and kill people in a war of choice, the war in Iraq!” Then Ms Abileah stood up and shouted, “The blood of Iraqi children is on your hands!” Then, guards escorted the women from the building. Code Pink later confirmed on Twitter that the activists tried to prevent Condoleezza Rice from making a political speech.

The group also managed to pull off one of the most successful disruptions of their 10-year existence by infiltrating and getting through the intense security of the Republican National Convention and disrupting a speech by the vice presidential contender Paul Ryan. The group also heckled Rick Santorum, pulling off more than the Occupy Movement and the other protest groups who’d also gathered to protest at the RNC. According to Code Pink, they’ve “become famous for confronting the warmongers, whether in the halls and hearing rooms of Congress, the national conventions of both the Republicans and Democrats, George Bush‘s fundraisers, the publicity tours of Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and others and even at Nancy Pelosi‘s house”.

Code Pink compiled a long list of Bush-era war criminals, it’s available on their website, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Stanley McChrystal, George Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Karl Rove, John Bolton, Michael Chertoff, John Ashcroft, I. Lewis Libby, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Dick Cheney, and George Tenet. They call for the arrests of all of the aforementioned. What’s more, according to Tighe Barry, an actor and a Code Pink activist, in an interview with VOR, the group approached and attempted to carry out a citizen’s arrest on all of the individuals on their list. Although the group is active regarding some of the most serious issues of our times, their tactics, such as the wearing of costumes designed to look like female genitalia, some say does not help their credibility and is actually insulting to women, others say this helps them get attention.

An organizer with Occupy the RNC, a local group that assisted and coordinated all of the groups that have come to protest the RNC, including Occupiers from all over the USA, said there were few if any incidents of violence between the peaceful protestors and the police. The organiser, Amos Miers, even said that, on Thursday, the Occupiers at the Occupy camp ran out of food and water and the Tampa Police themselves brought the Occupiers dozens of cases of food and fruit and dozens of bottles of water. Code Pink activist Tighe Barry also had many kind words for the police, who’re reported to have prepared for the worst, and who he said behaved professionally and without the use of violence or excessive force. Miers said that, according to police, they’d been told that they would be going up against violent anarchists and violent protestors and that the police were surprised at the peaceful and temperate nature of the Occupiers and the other protestors.

The Republican National Convention is coming to a close, and barring last minute and unexpected events, the RNC has accomplished one thing, for the first time in recent memory, the so called 99 Percent were looked after and have even found common ground with the police and the authorities, who until now appeared to be solely the servants of the One Percent.

31 August 2012

John Robles

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_31/RNC-unified-the-people-against-a-common-enemy/

Editor’s Note:

It doesn’t surprise me that the coppers acted like decent men… they’re working-class Joes, too. They’re not of the Affluent Effluent, and we shouldn’t act as though they are. They have eyes and ears… and brains. The One Percent’s actually losing its grip… and everyone knows it. The coppers aren’t ogres… let’s face it; if you got thrown in the drunk tank Saturday night, you probably deserved it.

BMD  

 

America Accuses Russia of Being a Police State… The Pot Calls the Kettle Black!

With all the noise from Washington about the “assaults on freedom” in Russia, one has to see how well George W Bush is doing on the same issue. In a word, his record is terrible. I saw an interesting article in the latest Economist (1-8 March issue, on p.40-41) that shows his police-state attitude. Please, note the following paragraph:

The thicker border affects everyday life as well as business. Volunteer firemen from Québec racing to fight a hotel blaze in upstate New York late last year were detained so long at the border that, by the time they reached the scene, the building had burned to the ground. After a Canadian ambulance carrying a patient requiring emergency surgery was stopped en route to Detroit, Stockwell Day, the security minister, asked Michael Chertoff, his American counterpart, to review border procedures. He may get short shrift: Mr Chertoff said recently that more than a dozen suspected terrorists had been apprehended trying to cross the northern border, and that he worried more about Canada than Mexico.

There one has it. The Bush government is so heavy-handed in its open police-state tactics that volunteer firemen are delayed (doesn’t US customs have telephones? What are they thinking? That al-Qaeda is going to infiltrate the US on firetrucks?). Stopping an ambulance! How low can Bush get? I remember when (and it wasn’t long ago) all that was necessary to cross the Canadian border was a driver’s license and a smile. Now, Bush is demanding full passport controls at the Canadian border. I note well that he isn’t demanding the same at the Mexican border. We can’t impede the flow of cheap labour so that GWB’s cronies can line their deep purses even further. Chertoff is more worried about Canada than Mexico… Chertoff, you’re smoking some “bad-ass weed”… who’s your supplier and what’s the price?

According to Chertoff, “more than a dozen suspected terrorists had been apprehended trying to cross the northern border, and that he worried more about Canada than Mexico“. Truly! The Canadian border is the more serious issue because we detained a DOZEN people. Oh, yes, the RCMP and the Canadian government cooperate with US authorities, we share a common working language, and all of those Canuck wetbacks are coming here… to spend money at American outlet stores, not to take jobs away from honest Americans. Thousands are detained at the Mexican border, the border personnel are stretched to the limit, the Mexican authorities refuse to cooperate, Mexican wetbacks are taking American jobs and depressing real wages, parts of the southwest have turned into the third world due to illegally low wages… if that’s the LESSER problem, it speaks volumes about the priorities of GWB and his neocon lickspittles, and I’ll follow Mr Scrooge and retire to Bedlam.

We see a specific case where GWB has restricted freedom. Therefore, to accuse Russia of being authoritarian and of reviving the Cold War is disingenuous on the part of GWB. He is doing a good job of imposing police-state controls at the American border himself. If we were getting cheap labour from the Great White North… you’d see GWB reverse himself in a trice. Do you wish such open worship of Mammon to be rewarded? Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a sincere Orthodox Christian… George W Bush is a worshipper of filthy lucre… you pays your money and you takes your choice. Need you guess which one I prefer?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 2 March 2008

Albany NY