PUTIN OBSESSED PRESS

PUTIN OBSESSED PRESS

WHITE HOUSE CONTROL OF MEDIA

Ted Rall's Site

RE- KABUL CIA CHIEF

Fired journalist:

Until last week I was working this story for Pando Daily, where I was a staff writer and cartoonist. We intended to publish the name — not to endanger him (which in any case would not have been possible since Langley had yanked him off his post), but to take a stand for adversarial media.

Journalists ought to publish news wherever they find it, whatever it is, damn the consequences. Credible media organizations don’t protect government secrets. They don’t obey spy agencies. Real journalists don’t cooperate with government — any government, any time, for any reason. My editor and I believed that, by demonstrating a little fearlessness, we might inspire other media outfits to grow a pair and stop sucking up to the government.

There is no longer a “we.” Pando fired me over the weekend, along with the investigative journalist David Sirota.

... Read rest @ Rall's blog ...
http://rall.com/tag/cia

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So much for freedom of press and freedom of speech.

Welcome to 'Democracy', Ukraine.

COUNTERPUNCH: MEDIA IGNORES CIA IN UKRAINE

Counterpunch Article Extracts July 30, 2014 Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain The Media Ignores the CIA in Ukraine by BILL BLUNDEN http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/30/the-media-ignores-the-cia-in-ukraine/ A few days back the Economist published an essay which dismissed the idea of fascists in Kiev as an illusory product of Russian propaganda. Are readers supposed to categorically assume that U.S. intelligence has played absolutely no role in the coup d’état? So far the bulk of the American media’s coverage of the Ukraine deftly sidesteps the CIA’s role. Yet all of the signs are there. Former CIA Officer John Stockwell explained that “stirring up deadly ethnic and racial strife has been a standard technique used by the CIA.” Students of history (e.g. Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile, and Nicaragua) will also recognize many of the hallmarks of a covert destabilization operation. Senator John McCain sharing a stage with Oleh Tyahnybok [Svoboda] in the early days of the coup CIA director Brennan’s discreet visit to the Ukraine (buried near the end of a Reuters brief) taped phone call where Victoria Nuland essentially selects who would replace the deposed president disproportionate number of high-level officials in the new government linked to neo-fascist groups CIA has a well-documented history of supporting authoritarian regimes. If the far-right represents only a small contingent of the Ukrainian electorate, as we’ve been told by allegedly credible sources like Timothy Snyder, how exactly did they end up with so many powerful government slots? A report by FAIR provides unsettling details: “The new deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Sych, is from Svoboda; National Security Secretary Andriy Parubiy is a co-founder of the neo-Nazi Social-National Party, Svoboda’s earlier incarnation; the deputy secretary for National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the head of Right Sector. Chief prosecutor Oleh Makhnitsky is another Svoboda member, as are the ministers for Agriculture and Ecology” Media’s penetration by the intelligence community ... May ... White House ... accidentally leaked the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan to roughly 6,000 reporters. The White House asked reporters to dutifully “zip it” and that’s exactly what they did. ... one reporter who dared to cross the line and mention the station chief’s name and in print, Ted Rall, was summarily fired before he got the chance. Never mind that this sort of information is all over the Internet. [US-NATO EXPANSION INTO UKRAINE] Karl Rove aptly crystallized the prevailing mindset: ... The empire has its sights on expansion. Despite promises made to Gorbachev decades ago by then Secretary of State James Baker that NATO wouldn’t expand into former Soviet countries, that’s exactly what’s been underway.  Putin can see this happening and if he’s meddling in the Ukraine it’s only because he’s following the CIA’s lead. Note:  this is not complete article - go to article link above to view entirety.

So what would be the chances of CIA not being involved?

That leopard ain't changing its spots.

This is only portions of the article.  Link to it - here - if interested.

INDEPENDENT UK - Alleged secret German-Russian 'land for gas' negotiations

Independent Article

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/land-for-gas-secret-german-deal-could-end-ukraine-crisis-9638764.html

Independent claims they can reveal Merkel and Putin had been working on a secret deal to 'broker a peaceful solution' and to end tensions over Ukraine.

Aim is twofold:

1. Stabilise Ukraine borders; and
2. Secure new energy agreement (gas) to lift Ukraine economy.

The deal supposedly hinges on:

1. UN and international community recognising Crimean independence.
2. Russia withdrawing financial aid to East Ukraine independence supporters.
3. If I understand correctly, East Ukraine to receive some 'devolved' (delegated) powers.
4. Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO.
5. Russia agreeing not to 'block or interfere' with Ukraine's newly signed trade agreement with the EU.
6. Russia offering a long-term Gazprom future gas supply agreement.  Ukraine expected to run out of gas by winter, which would be 'ruin' economically and socially.
7. Russia to compensate Ukraine with $1 billion financial package for loss of rent Ukraine would have received from Russia stationing its fleets at Crimean ports, to the independence vote in March.

The deal is supposedly still on the table and the only negotiation hitch holding things up is the MH17 investigation.

The deal disclosure sounds like garbage to me.

For starters, the Russians deny financing the East Ukraine independence supporters.

Cannot see how the Russians could 'block' or 'interfere' with an EU trade agreement, that broke US-controlled and IMF reamed Ukraine has signed up for.

The Gazprom deal doesn't sound right either.  Ukraine hasn't paid their gas bill.  From what I read elsewhere, they were told by the US not to.  Russia cut off the supply.  But all this gas drama is then playing into US hands.  And let's not forget who has plenty of shale gas:  US.  And US is bent on selling Europe infrastructure and gas.  So there's no way I believe there's a Gazprom gas deal being negotiated.

The billion dollar 'compensation' to non-paying gas customer, Ukraine, sounds laughable.

Look forward to seeing how this piece of news pans out.  LOL

Che Guevara - Hasta la Victoria Siempre

Che Guevara

C H E  G U E V A R A (1928–1967)   Ernesto 'Che' Guevara      Born Argentina ... Basque and Irish descent. Referring to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels". Declassified CIA report: "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino." Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist ... Radicalised by the poverty, hunger, and disease in South America. Saw capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States. CIA-assisted overthrow of Guatemala's social reforms President Árbenz solidified Guevara's political ideology. Collaborated with Fidel Castro with aim of overthrowing US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime. 1967 Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA ... operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. About 30 minutes before Guevara was executed, Félix Rodríguez attempted to question him about the whereabouts of other guerrilla fighters who were currently at large, but Guevara continued to remain silent. Rodríguez, assisted by a few Bolivian soldiers, helped Guevara to his feet and took him outside the hut to parade him before other Bolivian soldiers where he posed with Guevara for a photo opportunity where one soldier took a photograph of Rodríguez and other soldiers standing alongside Guevara.  Guevara was asked by one of the Bolivian soldiers guarding him if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No," he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution." Guevara was shot nine times ... five times in his legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat.  [Did not want a clean kill because wanted appearance of death in battle.] ... Guevara's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby ... where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab ... witnesses were called to confirm his identity ... After a military doctor amputated his hands ... hands were preserved in formaldehyde to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. (His fingerprints were on file with the Argentine police.) They were later sent to Cuba. Cuba ... Ministry of the Interior building where Guevara once worked, is a 5-story steel outline of his face. Under the image is Guevara's motto, the Spanish phrase: "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (English: Until Victory, Forever). ... Fidel Castro ... addressed a crowd of one million mourners: "If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che!  If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che's spirit!  If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!" [Source - Wikipedia- here.]

Over the years, Che Guevara was just a cool-looking t-shirt to me.

'He was a revolutionary' was enough for me.  

The detail wasn't important enough for me to remember -- it was all vague and foreign.

Today, focusing on the detail of the man's life, I'm really moved.

Not a lot moves me emotionally.  But this did.

He wasn't an economist.  He saw inequity.  He wasn't a cosseted politician.  He was an Independence Fighter.  He wasn't a theorist.  He was a Realist.  

He put his life on the line, despite the odds.

He was instrumental in training men who thwarted a $13.1 million US-sponsored CIA invasion of Cuba (see also Cuban oil refineries US-controlled corporations:  Shell, Esso and Standard Oil).

He could have chosen an easy path in life, but he died in pursuit of higher aims for his people.

Che Guevara was Dr. Ernesto Guevara, Independence Fighter; not some wayward stirrer.

History has proved that Che Guevara did not live, or die, in vain.

C O U R A G E

C H E  G U E V A R A

(1928–1967)

IMT - Trotskyism

Alan Woods is a 'political theorist'.

Curious about him because he got a mention in an economics article relating to Venezuela.

Described as 'one of the leading members of 'International Marxist Tendencies' (IMT).

Wikipedia:

The International Marxist Tendency adheres to orthodox Trotskyism, emphasising the education of cadres of workers and youth.

The IMT manifesto makes demands such as "the end to privatisation and the abandonment of market economics", "the nationalisation of privatised companies without compensation" and "the reintroduction of the state monopoly of foreign trade".

The IMT has spread to parts of Latin America, where it now has groups in Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil and El Salvador. At the end of 2002 it promoted the launching of the solidarity campaign at Hands Off Venezuela, which is now active in 30 countries and has had resolutions passed within the trade union movements in Britain, Canada, Italy and other countries.

So that is:

• education and training of labour force.
• end to privatisation.
• abandonment of 'market economics' - supply and demand market / prices determined in free price system (contrast fixed price system - govt set price).
• nationalisation of privatised companies without compensation.
• reintroduction of state monopoly of foreign trade.

2009 dispute IMT leadership and leaderships of it's groups in:

• Spain
• Venezuela
• Mexico

In 2010 these (or portions) broke with IMT and established new international body, 'Corriente Marxista Revolucionaria':

• Spain
• Venezuela
• Mexico (part)
• Columbia

Thereafter break aways form 'Towards a New International Tendency' in:

• Sweden
• Poland
• Britain

Iranian section splinters off to form Marxist Revival ('with co-thinkers in Britain'), over IMT position on Venezuela's 'friendly relations with Iranian regime'.

Sounds like keeping everyone happy and united ain't easy.

Not really sure what this is all about.  Suppose it is some kind of interest/lobby group of supporters of 'orthodox Trotskyism'.

What is 'Trotskyism'?

Marxist theory:

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky identified as an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, and supported founding a vanguard party of the working-class, proletarian internationalism, and a dictatorship of the proletariat based on working-class self-emancipation and mass democracy. Trotskyists are critical of Stalinism, as they oppose the idea of Socialism in One Country. ... [wikipedia]

So they don't just want socialism in one nation; it's a worldwide effort?

International revolution

According to classical Marxism, revolution in peasant-based countries, such as Russia, prepares the ground ultimately only for a development of capitalism since the liberated peasants become small owners, producers and traders which leads to the growth of commodity markets, from which a new capitalist class emerges. Only fully developed capitalist conditions prepare the basis for socialism.

Trotsky agreed that a new socialist state and economy in a country like Russia would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world, as well as the internal pressures of its backward economy. The revolution, Trotsky argued, must quickly spread to capitalist countries, bringing about a socialist revolution which must spread worldwide. In this way the revolution is "permanent", moving out of necessity first, from the bourgeois revolution to the workers’ revolution, and from there uninterruptedly to European and worldwide revolutions.

I'm getting lost now.  Don't know enough to grasp this stuff.

Worldwide anything doesn't seem a realistic goal.  

Also, nothing is 'permanent'.  All empires crumble.

Really surprised to see Iran get a mention.  

I don't associate the Middle East with socialism, although Latin America and socialism compute because of all those cool pics of  Che Guevara.  LOL

Wondering what happens to revolutionaries when they attain their goals and no longer have the fun of the chase.  

Are they content?  Or is there always some other chase to be had?  

Is everyone chasing their own idea of nirvana?


 

WTO TALKS - INDIA STAYING STRONG

WTO talks down to the wire, India holds out fe Bureau | New Delhi | Published: Jul 31 2014, 01:08 IST Even as Thursday’s deadline for signing the protocol for the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) at the WTO loomed large, India remained obdurate, asserting that the pact — expected to ease customs rules and potentially add $1 trillion to the world economy — could not be a done deal till it saw progress on the food security issue. Visiting the US commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, however, sounded optimistic about finding a solution to the vexed issue “over the next couple of days”. Secretary of state John Kerry, before starting for India on Wednesday morning, had expressed the hope that India’s opposition to TFA would wither away, adding that this was a test case for the country’s commitment to advance liberalisation of global trade and investment. Kerry arrived in India in the evening on a three-day visit. ... http://www.financialexpress.com/news/wto-talks-down-to-the-wire-india-holds-out/1275271

WTO (World Trade Organisation).

Re:  adoption of free trade facilitation protocol for Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

WTO is negotiating an easing of 'customs and rules'.

WTO says 'public stockholdings' of food/grain must not exceed 10% of grains produced by a country. 

But this is on the basis of a 1986-1988 stockholdings 'base price', and India is challenging on the basis of rising INFLATION.

Hey, I learnt about inflation. 

So the WTO 10% (dollar?) figure doesn't take into account rising inflation and India is like a trade union for food/grain reserves, asking for the reserve to be brought up in step with inflation?

Fair call, India.

India points out that there's a potential $1 TRILLION to the world economy coffers.  Go India! 

India standing firm:  insists no shift in its stand.

India wants TFA implemented ONLY as part of SINGLE UNDERTAKING ... INCLUDING the PERMANENT SOLUTION ON FOOD SECURITY.

For Food Security Against Food Security WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION vs FOOD SECURITY INDIA CHINA CUBA PAKISTAN BOLIVIA VENEZUELA

Deadline is on 31 July 2014.  Support of two-thirds of member countries is required to implement the TFP.

India suggested a postponement of adoption of TFP and outlined steps towards resolution by a date in December.

*Note:  there is a couple of other issues at stake. Bali Package (a big one) ... and LDC.

Bali Package is yet another trade agreement 'to lower trade barriers'.

LDC issues relate to Least Developed Country ... it's a United Nations designation of a country (I think) on the basis of:

lowest indicators of socio-economic development, with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world.  [wikipedia]

So there is some formula the UN apply for rankings of countries on socio-economic development.

Formula:  (1) Poverty assessment (2) Human Resource assessment (ie the labour force) (3) Economic Vulnerability ... eg. are exports stable etc.

Gee, sounds like estimating the quality of cattle.

All this stuff is worked out by economists and I guess it affects the trade deals that countries are party to and, I think, the concessions that countries may receive.

As I'm new to looking at politics and economics, this information is best double-checked.  LOL.

This is just my take at the moment.

Stand firm India ... world economy wants those trillions.

PS ... Love how John Kerry wants India's opposition to 'wither away'.  Bet he does.  LOL.