opening salvo in London?

Friends gather outside burnt out Kua family home.

source

The other day in London, six members of a Palestinian family, the Kua family, died in a house fire early in the morning of Saturday, September 24, 2011. Two members of the family survived, the father and a teenage daughter. As reported later in the day on Saturday, September 24, 2011, the fire has already been ruled: Not Suspicious.

Police said there was no immediate evidence of foul play. "The fire at a residential property in Neasden in which six members of the same family died has been deemed non-suspicious following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade," Scotland Yard said in a statement on Saturday afternoon. It gave no other details about the cause of the blaze.

A thorough investigation will ensue?

Speaking at the scene, Chief Superintendent Matthew Gardner said police are conducting a "thorough and painstaking" investigation with the London Fire Brigade into the cause of the blaze.

The authorities are also conducting reassurance patrols in the local area and places of worship.

Who lives in this community?

Getting to the Heart of the Community, Harrow Times, 1/1/2000: The Jewish community in Brent is on the move -- leaving traditional areas like Cricklewood, Willesden and Brondesbury to Neasden, Kingsbury, Kenton and Harrow. Brent has a tradition of being home to immigrants from all parts of the world.
The Grange Museum in Neasden is currently showing an exhibition celebrating 100 Years of Jewish Life in Brent. TONY LELIW reports. The writing was on the wall for all to see. That Britain was and is a safe haven for the persecuted, and a country free from terror.

A young Jewish person had written these thoughts as part of an exhibition about Jewish life in Brent at the Grange Museum of Community Life in Neasden Lane, Neasden.

Brent is a borough of London.

 Neasden is an area in Brent.

We wonder where is a safe place to be for a Palestinian?

Fire trucks arrived within four minutes, but immediately faced an intense fire, which is Not Suspicious. It was a difficult fire to contain.

Also Not Suspicious about this extremely fast moving fire in which a family of Palestinians were killed in London coincidentally the day after Abbas made his declaration of statehood to the UN: the sound of explosions and debris in the neighbor's yard.

Neighbours told Sky News how they woke to the sound of a series of explosions before the fire, which is not being treated as suspicious by police, gutted the property.

'First there was an explosion three or four times and then after this we came out and saw the fire,' Gito Parma said at the scene.

Resident Joe Lyons said he was shocked almost a whole family were wiped out in the 'terrible fire'.

'The fire started just before 1am - the flames were belting out the front two windows,' he told Sky.

'We saw fire engines, ambulances and police. I was very surprised this morning to see on the news that six people had died.'

Mr Lyons said he found debris from the blaze, including broken tiles, in his backyard....

Station manager Glen Gorman said: 'Firefighters were faced with very intense heat and smoke - it was a very difficult situation to deal with.

Fire station manager Glen Gorman said the fatal fire was an "absolute tragedy."

source: SKY News

Since when are explosions Not Suspicious?

The surviving daughter is in critical condition after being blown out of a first floor window, which of course is NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL...? Most other reports say she jumped from a second story window, but her critical injuries are to her back and head, rather than to her legs.

The only survivors were her daughter Nur, 16, who appeared to have been blown out of a first-floor window and her husband, Bassam Kua.

Nur, a student at a Catholic sixth-form college, was in a critical condition last night at St Mary's Hospital in west London.

Mr Kua, 51, was being treated for severe burns to his hands after a desperate attempt to save his family.

Neighbours said the fire started at about 1am. One who was woken by a blast said people had to restrain Mr Kua, a builder, to prevent him from re-entering the inferno.
Abdi Osman, 47, a neighbour, told how he had sat with Mr Kua in an ambulance as paramedics tried to save his son. He said he had heard two explosions coming from the house, which sent bricks from the front wall flying into the road.
"I ran outside," Mr Osman said. "I could see the fire spreading. It started downstairs but then quickly spread upstairs. I started shouting out 'Is anyone home, is anyone home' but I couldn't hear anything. It was almost silent. They must have been asleep or already dead.
"Then the father came out. He was burnt black all over his arms and face. He didn't say anything, he was in shock.
"Some of the neighbours had to hold him to stop him from going back in the house. I ran up to him and said 'Is anyone inside, where is your family?' He just looked at me and said 'They're inside, they're all inside.'
"I went into the ambulance with him but he wasn't saying anything. He just sat with his head in his hands crying. Then they brought his son into the ambulance. They put a mask on his face and tried to resuscitate him. They did CPR but he died. His dad sat there watching. It was horrific."

...The family, of Palestinian origin, came to Britain from Libya 14 years ago, friends said. They moved to the four-bedroom semi-detached house in Sonia Gardens two years ago.

By all reports a lovely family, a hard-working family with polite and intelligent children. TAKE NOTE. 

London Ambulance Service was called at 12:51am by the London Fire Brigade.

"We were called at 12.51am by the LFB to reports of a fire at Sonia Gardens.

When the engines arrived, four minutes later, the house was already engulfed in flames.

Station manager Glen Gorman, who attended the scene, said when they had arrived the house was "engulfed" in flames.

What caused the fire?

Police said they believed the fire, which broke out at the four-bedroom semi at about 1am ­yesterday, was caused by an electrical fault in a fridge in the hallway.

With stunning contempt, The Sun headline reports: "Fridge Kills Six in House Inferno: Pals mourn mum and five kids." That's right, treat the death of this family like an episode of Sponge Bob. Tell us what you *really* think.



Of course it is NOT SUSPICIOUS that an electrical fire in a hallway refrigerator can flash over and engulf an entire house in four minutes, after causing three to four explosions powerful enough to throw a girl out of a window in another room......?

Comment at SKY News story: "If it is true that a faulty refrigerator caused this fire, then I hope that details of the make and model are quickly released so that the public can be made aware of whether they are in danger or not. There could be hundreds, perhaps thousands of families with similar models in their homes."

That's logical thinking, but COMMON SENSE tells us this fire was not caused by a fridge in the hallway.

And smoke alarms would not have helped this family, as we read some of the INANE and HATEFUL comments at some of these stories. Presumably the family was woken up by the THREE OF FOUR EXPLOSIONS anyway, hmm?, which were loud enough to wake neighbors?, and the smoke alarm would be a bit redundant in those circumstances?

No jumping to conclusions then? Wait for the investigations? The investigations that have already determined the fire Not Suspicious. How convenient. Sorry, but we will jump straight to conclusions thank you very much. 

And let's just follow this logic through here:

Glen Gorman, from London Fire Brigade, said fire crews were at the scene four minutes after they received a call from a member of the public....
A neighbour who wished to remain anonymous said: “I was in my room and the window was open.

“I heard a loud bang, it was literally like an explosion, almost like a bomb.

“I thought it was really strange and within four minutes I heard sirens and police cars and we looked out the window and the fire had literally reached the top within five minutes.

A "member of the public" reports a fire, and four minutes later the fire engines are at the scene.

A neighbor hears an explosion, and four minutes later heard the engines responding, but the house was already fully engulfed in that short time.

The neighbor thought it was really strange to hear an explosion, which seems a normal response to us. The neighbor did not know what was going on until hearing the sirens approaching, and only then looking out the window to see the house already engulfed. But the "member of the public" somehow knew exactly what was going on, apparently from the first moment of the explosion, because there was no delay in calling it in. Not even a minute of confusion. From the time of the explosion to the engines arriving: 4 minutes. From the time of the phone call to the engines arriving: also 4 minutes. Seems that the explosion and the phone call were made at the same time.

Perhaps by the same person? A "member of the public."

Maybe the police ought to investigate that hmm? Don't count on it. Probably a detail like that is considered Not Suspicious.

Not Suspicious?

Not Suspicious?

Click to enlarge.

Gaza destruction from Operation Cast Lead. Not Suspicious?

No Not Suspicious At All.

actually you CAN make this stuff up and it's done all the time

We watched the Abbas speech and found it very good, very well-delivered. Compelling. He held our attention. We were very encouraged at the good applause he received from the people representing the people of the world. We consider it an historical speech.

Now for the Netanyahu speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imJFnqi5rEs&feature=player_embedded

Paraphrasing Netanyahu in the first two minutes:

Happening NOW RIGHT NOW. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN security council. This means IN EFFECT that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with the world's security. You couldn't make this stuff up.

He makes a statement. It is not even a statement of fact, because Lebanon does not "preside over" the UN security council.

IN FACT, it's like this. Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Vietnam were elected non-veto-holding members of the 15-nation UN security council, which has the authority to impose sanctions and send peacekeeping forces.

NOT THE SAME as presiding over.


Certainly we could say that terror organizations do in fact preside over world (in)security, but we would not be talking about Hezbollah.

We think his arrogance and criminal insanity shine through perfectly clearly in the speech, especially when he delivers the more egregious lies with that little head pattern (lower, raise, stare, blink, lie).

In any case, the only reason we listened to this asshole is to find out what he projected as the problems in the world today, and of course we were not surprised to hear the usual litany: Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran, nuclear weapons, militant Islam, Gaza, Hamas, etc.

OF COURSE he failed to mention the Mossad, and what they may have been doing to wreck the "theory" of how peace actually works. Poor Israel did all these nice things, withdrawing from land that doesn't belong to them in the first place, and they did not get peace in return, but war. So regrettable. So confusing then? Not really. The problem is the same problem everywhere in the world with the out-of-control intelligence and military services playing a video game with real people on the ground, as Netanyahu knows perfectly well, as these people CREATE the REALITY ON THE GROUND that he LOVES TO COMPLAIN ABOUT because it JUSTIFIES WHAT HE WANTS TO DO.


Also, since Netanyahu brings up Gilad Shalit, let's remember that Israel holds over five thousand Palestinian in prison, and has stolen organs from Palestinians in the past.

If Americans Knew

Count on Bibi to leave out the important bits.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

PLACES

the players know the rules of the game

UPDATE: 


EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton asks Palestinians to please not go to the ICC, even if they get non-member state status.

"Ashton even asked us that if we get non-member state, not to go to the International Criminal Court," said Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said on Monday.

Hmm what's the word... pathetic? Yes. That's it.





This is about accountability.
And smashing the narrative of lies to pieces.
As many pieces as there are people who died, and had lives destroyed, and futures ruined, in Palestine.
Whether it changes the facts on the ground next week is not the point.
It changes the narrative.
It changes the definitions.
Sooner or later the facts on the ground follow.

This is the game the players have been playing.
They know the rules.
The facts on the ground follow the narrative.
That is why they made up all these narratives in the first place.
The narratives created and justified the facts on the ground.
Even though the narratives were lies.
It still worked.
That's the way the game works.

What happens when the narrative is the truth?
The facts on the ground will follow.
They always do.
Has this not been demonstrated with lies enough times?
It works with the truth also.
It works even better.
That's the point.

occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

a positive development

According to Russian Mafia, (The Endlessly Fascinating) Putin will reclaim the presidency in December.

A major banker and former high-profile official, who talks with both Putin and Medvedev regularly, said: “A month ago Volodya and Dima sat down to talks and dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. Putin will be the next president. Before the decision was made, both had been very angry and nervous, now they are different people, smiling and telling jokes”.
Here is the list of sources, that confirmed the information: a major St Petersburg businessman, who has been a Putin's friend for over 20 years, a high-profile officer at the interior ministry, who is a Medvedev's friend, and a number of officials. All of them say Putin will retake the presidential office. For them the presidential vote in December is no longer an enigma. Putin will again lead Russia.
Recent statements made by prime minister Putin hints to the fact that election campaign has started. His speech, as well as his unexpected appearance at the bikers' rally in Novorossiysk, riding a motorcycle, has resembled that of the candidate to the presidency.  

 Putin, a couple of weeks ago, at a motorcycle rally with the leader of the Night Wolves. 

More pics at Daily Mail, which adds, very helpfully:

"'Boys, girls you are great. Not only are you having fun while riding your bikes but you are also combining it with patriotic deeds.' Obviously, it sounded better in Russian." 

We noted in the last post that Russia and several of the Central Asian states paid close attention to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, and decided they ought to take some protective measures.

Just a month ago, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was gearing up to be president of Russia running on the Right Cause party ticket.

Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest businessmen, has only recently entered the political arena, though he has very ambitious plans. In June 2011 he became the head of Right Cause – a political party which was formed in 2008 as a successor to the market-oriented Union of Right Forces, the Democratic Party of Russia and the Civil Power party. Prokhorov claims that the Right Cause must become the second largest faction in the lower house after United Russia, and he has already started to attract individuals who could potentially form a shadow government.

Just a month ago, he was encouraging Russia to integrate with Europe. He was encouraging Russians to convert the "lion's share of their savings into euros and dollars." See video. According to Prokhorov, this would be the best way for RUSSIA to grow. Hmm. Seems to us that Russians putting the lion's share of their savings into euros and dollars would be bad for Russians, but what do we know. Prokhorov is the billionaire, not us. He made lots and lots of money with the oligarchs in the 1990s, as they disemboweled the Russian economy like a school of piranhas. And evidently, he is in tight with some Europeans (same link).

The decision to integrate Russia into Europe might seem a little eccentric for Prokhorov, who went through a public scandal with at least one European nation – France. In January 2007, Prokhorov and four of his friends were arrested and detained for several days in the ski resort of Courchevel over suspicion of involvement in a prostitution ring. Police released Prokhorov without pressing any charges, but the criminal case was closed only two years later. Media reports quoted French police sources as saying that some of the girls accompanying Prokhorov on his skiing trip had received gifts worth thousands of dollars, but investigators have failed to prove that this was not a genuine friendship, but a business arrangement. Also in 2009, the French government officially apologized to Prokhorov and in March 2011, the Russian businessman was awarded the French Order of the Legion of Honor.

Kiss kiss hug hug.

Michael Weiss of The Henry Jackson Society, in June 2011, was complaining (bitterly) about the Lack of Democracy in Russia, and bemoaning that "real" opposition parties can't get off the ground because the Kremlin intimidates people, and squashes budding democracy movements like bugs. And he had this to say about Prokhorov:

http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories.asp?pageid=49&id=2334

Here’s the kind of opposition party that can emerge in Russia: On Monday, it was reported that the “new” Right Course party would stand for the upcoming election. But there’s nothing new about it. The Right Course Party was registered back in 2009 to succeed the Union of Right Forces. It’s headed by Mikhail Prokhorov, the third richest man in Russia (he owns the New Jersey Nets basketball team in America), who disdains the term “opposition” and who’s chums with both Putin and Medvedev. Prokhorov is a major sponsor of the Seliger Camp...[Seliger Youth Camp, held annually in the Khimki Forest outside of Moscow, and sponsored by corporate giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Ernst and Young. Last July, Seliger featured an exhibition called, “You are not welcome here” - with mannequins of public figures ranging from Condoleeza Rice to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, all wearing Nazi caps.

Aha, Weiss suggests Prokhorov is bad? He sponsors (along with evil corporations) creepy youth camps in the woods? We can believe all that but... pals around with Putin and Medvedev?

Really? Those are his chums? That seemed a little odd to us. Prokhorov, after all, hangs out in Courchevel.

An estimated 10,000 Russians have packed into Courchevel for the Orthodox Christmas and New Year for each of the past few years. Mr Prokhorov, who is estimated to be worth more than £3 billion, is famous among them for lavish parties at which guests, dropped off by armoured Humvees and Mercedes, enjoy jereboams of Cristal champagne, the rich Russians’ favourite.

See pictures of people in Courcheval, among other locales, here: Some Shots of Oligarchs Life. For fun, you can look them up at Russian Mafia.

[In 2008, Prokhorov denied buying the world's costliest villa, Villa Leopolda, once owned by Edmond Safra. Lily Safra reportedly displayed nerves of steel waiting for months for the mysterious buyer to raise his bid. Imagine our shock. Prokhorov claimed he was not the buyer and in fact refused to do business in France until France apologized for that prostitution arrest, which naturally, France did. But turns out he *was* the buyer, and he and Lily had a spat over the deposit of $39 million, which Lily won in court, and gave to some of her favorite charities.]


Do you ever wonder who these people are? And who is Michael Weiss? Is he some sort of expert? Really?

Michael Weiss is an American journalist, and contributing editor of Tablet magazine. Having received a BA in History from Dartmouth College in 2002, Weiss has gone on to write extensively on the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israel-Palestine conflict and human rights issues. His work has been featured in many prestigious publications in both the United States and Britain, including The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, where he currently contributes a regular blog on Middle Eastern issues. Besides journalism, Weiss is also actively involved in political research, and works for two independent think tanks in London. He is currently Director of Communications for The Henry Jackson Society, and serves as the spokesperson for Just Journalism. Weiss also had a brief foray in the political arena in 2004, when he stood as a candidate for the New York State Assembly.

Well well well, lucky lucky lucky? Or, Top Fucking Talent? Get a BA in history, then go directly to your fantastic career as an established expert and think-tank hot-shot before age 30. Very nice.

Well it turns out that we don't think Prokhorov and Putin are pals after all.

Mikhail Prokhorov, deposed from the leader of the "Right of the case." This decision was made by opponents of a businessman who spent his Congress Party. The representative of the Ministry of Justice has recognized this decision as legitimate. Mr Prokhorov said that he left the project, but from the policy is not going to go away. He named the main culprit for the split first deputy head of presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, and said he would seek a meeting with the president and prime minister.

The translation is not great, but basically, he got canned. Which is why he claims he quit.

"Mikhail Prokhorov thought that the Lord God grabbed by the beard..." etc. A good article.

And he blames Vladislav Surkov. Who is Vladislav Surkov?

 Stratfor image, click to enlarge

and find

Vladislav Surkov.

2007, World Politics Review: To look at him, one would never suspect that Vladislav Surkov once worked as an agent for a crack special operations unit in the Red Army's intelligence corps. A svelte, retiring figure, Surkov, 42, usually shies away from the public spotlight. When he does give interviews or make public appearances, therefore, it commonly occasions a media frenzy. Attempts to slice through the veil of mystery shrouding this high-placed presidential aide assume particular urgency because, by some estimates, Surkov is the second most influential person in Russian politics.

Surkov came to the attention of casual Russia-watchers in the West following a well-publicized keynote speech he delivered to a gathering of Russian business people in July 2005. In his speech (delivered behind closed doors), Surkov explained the Kremlin's policies toward a whole range of pressing issues, from the social role of Russia's fledgling business community to Russia's relations with the West. Indeed, its hard-hitting content seemed to present the prevailing ideology of the Putin administration in microcosm. While taking care to present himself as an unimpeachable free marketeer, Surkov railed against the so-called oligarchs, businessmen who made their fortune from the quick-fire privatization of Russia's state-owned assets in the mid-nineties. "We won't allow a small bunch of companies to exercise power in this country. This is not democracy," he reportedly told a rapt audience. ...

http://putinsonlybitch.tumblr.com/

by sheer coincidence

 All good narratives are born in beautiful, simple, wholesome little cottages, surrounded by flowers.

Only bad people question these pristine narratives.

 ~~~~~~~~~

When we saw that Sergei Magnitsky's death had spurred various congress people to draft legislation targeting 60 people of the Russian federal government with visa restrictions and more, such action being a little over-the-top in a WTF? sort of way, and called such by the Russian government, to the point that it is nearly an "international incident," we figured there must be a reason. There must be a reason why these senators and the State Department are making such a big fuss over poor Sergei. And of course the next thought is it can't be whatever reason they claim, namely the horrible human rights violations and corruption of the Russian prison system.

Guantanamo

http://www.mynews.in/image_gallery.php?&iid=9974

Abu Ghraib

http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article11712417.ab

No, we figure there must be some special reason that the Team Browder narrative has such widespread support in the halls of power and in the press, the press that is consolidated into the hands of a few people.

The Browder narrative fits an agenda, an agenda of Russia=Bad. And yet, still, there are many narratives that fit an agenda and yet they don't rise to this level of sycophantic unison and official support to the point of making geopolitical waves as a result of asinine legislation. So it stands out to us as being rather special. In fact, the whole thing strikes us as a bit DEFENSIVE.

As in: Let's Change the Subject and Let's Point the Finger First. Let's talk about the Horrible Corruption in Russia. Look What Happened to Poor Sergei! And Poor Bill!! Something Must Be Done. And so it happened that they drafted S. 1039, Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011.

A bill to impose sanctions on persons responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, for the conspiracy to defraud the Russian Federation of taxes on corporate profits through fraudulent transactions and lawsuits against Hermitage, and for other gross violations of human rights in the Russian Federation, and for other purposes.

From the very specific to the very vague, the bill goes after the people responsible for killing Sergei, and for making fraudulent transactions and lawsuits against Hermitage, and after that for lots of other things in Russia which are, by sheer coincidence, not much specified.


Over at the Heritage Foundation, a prominent neocon think tank, Ariel Cohen manages to accuse the Russians of over-reacting to the legislation. Do you see how that works? US Senators do an outrageous thing against Russia but it's the Russians who overreact? This only works because the Team Browder narrative has gone essentially unchallenged in The West for some time now, plowing the soil.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/11/russian-threats-a-heavy-blow-to-obama%E2%80%99s-reset-policy/

Moscow’s position is as revealing as it is mind-boggling: It is ready to endanger the carefully constructed cooperation between U.S. and Russia in areas ranging from arms control to Afghanistan and Iran in order to protect a handful of corrupt police investigators and their high-ranking bosses who apparently stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian state.

Well that's just it though. APPARENTLY this has not been proven, and APPARENTLY we've only heard from Team Browder, and APPARENTLY the Russians have a different idea of what happened, and APPARENTLY they are willing to endanger the "reset" because APPARENTLY this legislation is bullshit. But you will never learn this from professional journalists or think tanks, because they are paid to pimp certain narratives.

Cohen goes on to quote the Freedom House president David Kramer, in recent testimony, that if Russia is willing to hold back the "reset" over this, then the US needs "to reexamine the relationship." A stern warning. Because if Russia wants to be one of the big boys, Russia needs to play by the rules.

http://freedomhouse.org/images/File/Kramer%20HFAC%20Testimony%20-%20Dem%20Freedom%20in%20EE%207-26-11.pdf

Of course, the HYPOCRISY of the US lecturing other countries, lecturing Russia, is something to behold. You might need a bucket.

So what do these people all have in common? Have you noticed?

A disease of the mind?

To describe the offer of giving the Palestinians 80 percent of 22 percent of 100 percent of what is originally their own land as a "generous" offer is a disease of the mind.

Oh but wait a second there Peasant, you'll say. We have no proof that Browder is a Zionist or that the Zionist agenda  has anything to do with Russia. That's true. We can't prove such things. We can only deduce the situation from the other pieces in place.

http://www.planetdan.net/blog/2007/06/missing-piece.htm

We don't know if Browder is a Zionist. But we know Browder has a narrative about Russia that he never tires of telling, and it so happens that certain powerful Zionists really like Browder's narrative about Russia, so their interests perhaps coincide? For instance, this past June Browder was given an uninterrupted platform for his narrative at The Henry Jackson Society. He met with Michael Weiss. International patrons of the society include Michael Chertoff, Dore Gold, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Richard Perle, and Natan Sharansky. We think it is safe to classify all of these people as Zionists.

Now is Browder simply being an opportunist, taking advantage of the invitation to get his story out One More Time (the poor thing)? OR might there be a synergy, a win win? You can look at it either way depending on how many puzzle pieces you've got fitted in.

http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories.asp?pageid=49&id=2334

Remember, Browder is an American from Chicago. You can see him speak at this video. Here's a snip from the "interview" with Michael Weiss on 6/28/11, posted at the Henry Jackson Society website (link above).

So we said let’s get justice outside of Russia and one of the biggest which we been doing is legislation and I went to the United States shortly after Sergei died and I met with a man named Senator Benjamin Carter, a man who was a chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, and he was aware of Sergei’s situation when he was still alive, because I made him aware it’s one thing to learn a story that everyone is moved right now, but its hundred times worse if you are somehow involved with Sergei while he was still alive even if very vaguely, because everybody thinks what could have I done differently, what more could I have done to deal with the situation.

Senator Carter was one of those people. I went to Senator Carter and I said to him – ‘Why don’t we take away the visas and their visas of the people who killed Sergei?’ We know exactly who they are; there is a list of 16, because they all signed the documents denying him medical attention. Senator Carter said that’s a great idea. He wrote to Hillary Clinton and said ‘let’s deny these people visas based on the US article of law’ and Hillary Clinton was right in the middle of her reset policy with Russia and so she rejected his request. So he said let’s not stop there, let’s make a piece of legislation, and so he came up with something called Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act, and the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act would deny their visas and also to take it one step further and freeze their assets in America. We got Senator McCain to co-sponsor it.

There's something really wrong with this interview transcript, because Bill Browder does not speak in Russian-accented English, and he does not typically make errors like getting Senator Benjamin Cardin's name wrong. So we don't know what this is all about dear reader, but there's a problem with the transcript provided by the society, as it appears to be slightly misleading. However that is merely an observation.

After Browder's narrative, Weiss lays in with a speech. At the end of this joint harangue they conclude with a curious blend of fear and ridicule toward Russia.

Russia is bad

so unlike The West

so let us laugh at their folly

and yet...

^^^^^^^

Is Russia bad? We don't think so. Does Russia have problems with corruption? Yes. But does the US have problems with corruption? Uh, yes.

Did you know that we have a huge problem of shell corporations suitable for money laundering and organized crime right here in the United States, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, among other places?

The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming. At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol....
All the activity at 2710 Thomes is part of a little-noticed industry in the U.S.: the mass production of paper businesses. Scores of mass incorporators like Wyoming Corporate Services have set up shop. The hotbeds of the industry are three states with a light regulatory touch-Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada.
The pervasiveness of corporate secrecy on America's shores stands in stark contrast to Washington's message to the rest of the world. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the U.S. has been calling forcefully for greater transparency in global transactions, to lift the veil on shadowy money flows. During a debate in 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama singled out Ugland House in the Cayman Islands, reportedly home to some 12,000 offshore corporations, as "either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record."

Yet on U.S. soil, similar activity is perfectly legal. The incorporation industry, overseen by officials in the 50 states, has few rules. Convicted felons can operate firms which create companies, and buy them with no background checks.

In the United States?!?

Are you SURE?????

Hmm... that seems so.... what's the word..... corrupt?!?

So the corruption is not isolated to Russia then?

This would be a good a time as any to remind the reader that Vladimir Putin does an annual question and answer session with the Russian people. The 2009 session ran four hours. Here's the transcript. You will see that Putin actually answers questions. He actually knows the answers to questions. Hot damn. We have never been to Russia, we've always lived here in the US where we have insipid, mewling politicians who don't give a shit about Americans but claw all over each other in their zeal to be the biggest grovelers for Israel, so we are probably biased, but we think it's pretty damn good that Putin will answer unrehearsed questions for four hours and doesn't act like it's really any big deal but in fact, CONSIDERS IT HIS JOB to know what is going on in Russia. How Quaint Is That?

On answering people's questions for four hours:

Question: Mr Putin, how do you relax after such marathons? Do you have any special relaxation techniques?

Vladimir Putin: I do not get that stressed, so I don’t need to do anything special to relax. This is part of my work, and it is a very useful part. Of course, it requires greater concentration, and you need to put extra time into the preparation. But in fact the preparation does not take that long, because my colleagues and I work hard throughout the year, dealing with all the problems mentioned today.

Oh American leaders are just as good, right? RIGHT? They all know all about your problems, RIGHT? They've all done the act of pretending to give a shit, right? Some better than others? Right.

wonkette.com

fanpop.com

But remember, according to some people, Putin is bad. Russia is bad. Russia is CORRUPT, unlike The West. The Freedom House ranks Russia as Not Free, unlike The West, where we have bushels of extra freedom on every street corner, guarded by police with tasers. Russia, on the other hand, needs some more "democracy" and "human rights."

Zionists never tire of telling you this. By SHEER COINCIDENCE, Bill Browder never tires of telling you this either.

And how does The West usually help countries that need more "democracy" and "human rights?" They drop it in from F16s.

http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/06/libyan-teen-tries-to-take-own-life-to.html

But they can't drop bombs on Russia, because Russia could fight back. So the cowards have to go about it some other way, and a relentless PR campaign is part of that. So again, it's probably only sheer coincidence that Bill Browder's narrative fits into this Zionist framework so neatly, because we have no proof that Browder is a Zionist, no proof in our purse. No doubt he's just minding his own business making piles and piles of money and fighting Russian corruption and trying to get justice for Poor Serge, and it's lucky for him that the good people at The Henry Jackson Society and the Heritage Foundation and the US State Department and the US Congress are so sympathetic to his plight. Lucky lucky lucky.


^^^^^^^

Russia is inconveniently located for a giant country not under Zionist control. Russia has lots of natural resources. Russia has pipelines that go across Russian territory. Russia has lots of neighbors with natural resources, like Kazakhstan, "Israel's partner in Eurasia" (by Ariel Cohen). Russia is close to China and Iran. Russia is friends with Syria. Damn Russia. Now if Russia happened to fall under Zionist control, if it could possibly be arranged, things would be different. Then we would hear about how good Russia is due to all those natural resources. But not before then.

So Putin was president for a long time (2000-2008), and then he was barred for another term, so Medvedev became president (2009-2012), and Putin has been alongside him as Prime Minister. Elections are coming up again in Russia (parliamentary 12/4/11, presidential 3/4/12), and Putin can run for president again. Not that anyone in The West would know or care.

However there are people who have been paying attention to events in Russia and they know all about the upcoming elections and the various opposition groups, and these are people like Michael Weiss and David Kramer, which you will note if you click on the links supplied above to their speeches. They are experts on opposition to Putin. And of course they could be Zionists but that would be a sheer coincidence.

Consider the implications.

And just imagine, if you were Bill Browder, and by some amazing stroke of lucky democracy, there was regime change in Russia and you got your visa back and justice for Serge and... hoo boy. That would be a Win Win.

^^^^^^^

But there is the problem of Putin. This is what they're up against. He is not so easy to oppose, actually.

Here's a speech he made recently in which he talks about Russia's future.

Building roads. Building Russia's infrastructure. Building ports. Building ships. Building cars. Creating jobs. Building towns, with jobs. Expanding inland waterways. Meeting social obligations. Building power plants, natural gas plants, manufacturing capacity. Exporting things Made in Russia.

You will remember how many lances were broken, and how much was said about our gas exports to Europe, and how many spanners were thrown in the works to impede, for example, the Nord Stream project, the gas system under the Baltic Sea, how many alternative projects were proposed. What happened to them? They have remained on paper. But Nord Stream has essentially been implemented. The capacity is 55 billion cubic metres a year, once two strips are in operation. One has been completed. We will start pumping process gas near Vyborg tomorrow. That will take about a month, and in late October-early November we will be able to provide gas to consumers.

What does that mean? It means that we are gradually, calmly freeing ourselves from the dictate of transit states, without any abrupt movements. This is “a window to Europe” in the energy field.

It's a political speech, granted, but unlike all the promises of hopey changey we get around here from all sides, they are actually doing the things Putin talks about, you know, with money and everything. Looks like that accountability stuff we hear so much about.

Putin knows that you can't have an economy without industrial production. So Russia is not STUPIDLY DOING what we STUPIDLY DID in the United States when we allowed globalists to dismantle our economy and send all our jobs oversees. We are the "some countries" he speaks of.

You know, I visited a school outside Moscow on September 1, and saw a social science manual which stated that unlike the 20th century, the 21st century is all about the provision of services, and that the production sphere ranks second on the list of priorities. This is a rather debatable issue.

We can see that some countries, which engaged too heavily in de-industrialisation policies, are now reaping bitter fruit. Engineering centres and skilled employees are following in the wake of disappearing production facilities. This creates conditions of degradation; therefore, it’s very premature to speak about the death of industrialisation. We need a new industrialisation based on new approaches. That is the right thing to do.

"Infrastructure is patriotic."

Russia is also ready to do something about all those drugs that keep pouring out of Afghanistan, inexplicably, despite all the international counter-efforts.  (via There Are No Sunglasses.)

Addressing reporters ahead of the Kabul meeting, Viktor Ivanov said that the top issue on the agenda would be why Afghan heroin keeps spreading across the globe despite international counter-efforts. One reason why the huge presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan failed to stop drug flows is that destroying opium plantations and drug-making laboratories is not on their mandate, Viktor Ivanov said.

No grain or vegetables are cultivated in Afghanistan, only opium poppy, he said. In this situation, the key task is reorienting the Afghan agriculture to non-drug crops.

Mr. Ivanov put forward a step-by-step anti-drug plan called Rainbow-2. It stipulates the creation of an international body that would work in close cooperation with the Afghan government, the governments of neighboring states and the United Nations. He also suggested that the Afghan drug problem be recognized as a threat to international peace and security, and that foreign troops in Afghanistan be authorized to destroy poppy plantations.

See: who moves the drugs out of Afghanistan?
See: let us count the ways

Heroin destabilizes populations. US troops are all over Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the world's supplier of heroin. By sheer coincidence, Russia has a huge heroin problem.

Also this week, Putin urged all defense contracts be concluded.


In other news this week, Russia wants to fortify military ties in the region to protect each other from the sorts of uprising that took place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

“The events in North Africa opened our eyes to many things,” Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said in an interview in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Sept. 3. “We must reflect on what happened there and develop means of defense.” 

Good idea.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html

the trough so deep

September 2011, 09/11, 9/11/11, the month of doom...? Doom for whom? We shall see.

Things deteriorate all around. Who can stop it? Who can even keep up documenting the rapid decay? It is beyond human hands, beyond the human mind to comprehend the deceptions in play as they cancel each other out or compound like the rogue wave that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Photo: Korshak (flickr)

"These rogue waves, which appeared without warning, were described as nearly vertical walls of water, up to 100 feet high. These twelve story waves were often preceded by a trough so deep that sailors called it a "hole in the sea." The ship Raffaello hit this 20 meter rogue wave which did major damage."

Rogue Waves 

Perhaps we are in the 'hole in the sea' right now. It feels that way. 

We see a particular date on the calendar that must be stopped from arriving somehow.

UN again faces choice between capitulation and credibility  -- must read.

On September 20, 2011, the 66th session of the UN General Assembly will meet in NY to vote on Palestinian statehood. The Israeli response to this development is all over the place. One might be tempted to call it panic.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Threats, warnings, slashing of funds, late payments and even the banning Shimon Peres from attending the UN: these are the means by which the State of Israel is trying to block the Palestinian Authority (PA) request for a seat in the UN as a full member or at least non-member State.

...Yesterday in Haaretz published excerpts of a message (secret) from Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the UN, to the Foreign Ministry. In it, Prosor fears that only a few nations "will vote against the Palestinian initiative."

...Youval Steinitz, the Israeli Minister of Finance, said today that "this initiative of the Palestinians is a more serious threat than that of Hamas in Gaza."... In retaliation, Steinitz has refused to anticipate the payment of monthly funds to the PA, with which it was to have paid the salaries of its employees before the festival of Eid.

...Uzi Landau, minister of infrastructure, threatened that faced with the Palestinian attempt, "... our agreements will be null and void." The minister, a member of an extremist nationalist party of Avigdor Lieberman, said that "we will impose our sovereignty over areas of the territories [occupied] ... and that is the Jordan Valley and major settlement blocs." 

...As if to threaten even more serous action, U.S. Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said on Tuesday she would propose a decree (already supported by 57 representatives) to cut UN funds to any organization that supports the PA request. 

 http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2010/11/ileana_ros-lehtinen_cuba_policy.html

Special mention for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Roman Catholic Hispanic of Cuban descent who somehow NEVER EVER EVER misses an opportunity to pimp the narrative.

The IOF prepares the settlers by giving them tear gas and stun grenades, while the IOF figures out the "red lines" for each settlement in the West Bank, so the soldiers know when to "shoot at the FEET of the Palestinian protestors" when the cross the "red lines," and the settlers know when and how to engage the moment they feel "threatened." This is called Operation Summer Seeds. Many preparations. Of course it is all in the name of Self Defense, just like after Operation Cast Lead, when our US congresspeople so vigorously supported the IOF's actions because Israel always has the right to Self Defense.



http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-training-israeli-settlers-ahead-of-mass-disorder-expected-in-september-1.381421

The main working assumption is that the Palestinian declaration will cause mass disorder. It will all be the fault of the Palestinians, you see? Everything that follows. The settlers will be "forced" to retaliate. The IOF will be "forced" to shoot at the feet of the Palestinians, and perhaps even higher, when they cross the arbitrary IOF red lines. It will all be very regrettable, we are sure, because it always is.

Nonetheless, the Palestinians have been campaigning for a long time and they have the support of 120 countries including CHINA, which is a big powerful country. However, great legal minds have already sussed out the ramifications and in the end it will be No Big Deal because the US will veto everything once it gets to the Security Council.

http://www.momentmag.com/moment/issues/2011/10/opinion_breger.html

Independent Journalism from a Jewish Perspective...
Marshall Breger is a professor of law at Catholic University.



Points made:

• "States can be admitted into the U.N. only by Security Council vote, where the United States has veto power."
• "Americans have worked 24/7 to develop a last-minute negotiating structure that could cause the Palestinians to pull back." 
• "No one expects Israel to return to the borders it had before June 1967."
• "There is not enough easily disposable Israeli land that the Likud is prepared to trade." (emphasis added)
• "[Likud] would be just as happy with the alternative—“managing” the “disputed territories” until world attention turns elsewhere."
• "All this assumes that the Palestinian problem [meaning the Palestinians - ed.] will eventually go away."

Concluding:

For such believers, the views of the rest of the world do not matter—we are, as the Bible tells us, a “people who dwell alone.” But most Jews realize...

OK let's stop right there before we go on to read what "most Jews realize." He has just laid out the geopolitical REALITY that the Palestinians can go to the UN General Session and get 120 countries including China to support their bid for statehood, and it won't matter in the end because the US will certainly veto the motion in the Security Council. Thus, in the end we guess the "views of the rest of the world do not matter."

Furthermore noting that AMERICANS have been working round the clock to derail the Palestinian bid for statehood. Why would AMERICANS do such a thing? Which AMERICANS are these who don't want the Palestinians to have a state? Might they work at the US State Department? Why do they take a position in opposition to the rest of the world?

 http://www.gregfelton.com/int_politics/2011_07_22.htm

He also notes that Israel does not want to make any actually uncomfortable sacrifices of land. If land is not "easily disposable" then it is not disposable. No one actually expects Israel to make an actual sacrifice of land, and in fact Likud would be very happy to MANAGE THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES UNTIL WORLD ATTENTION TURNS ELSEWHERE, somehow, and all these expectations and realities hinge on making the Palestinians disappear or accept the status of second class citizens.

According to Mr. Breger, the unreasonable position of "such believers" is distinguished from the realization of "most Jews." And yet he has also described the political reality, since the US government position reflects the unreasonable position. The US will veto the motion in the Security Council. So it won't matter that the Palestinians have broad worldwide support for statehood except in the most nebulous "moral authority" sort of way that evidently means nothing in actual geopolitical calculations, because it can be cancelled out by the US. This is how the world has been running for a long time. Notice what a fucking mess it is.

OK so what is it that "most Jews realize?"

But most Jews realize that international isolation weakens Israel and marginalizes Jews worldwide and that the demographic problems, if unattended, will doom Israel’s democratic character. 

International isolation is bad. Marginalization is bad. Behaving badly leads to isolation and marginalization. Behaving badly does not help preserve Israel's "democratic character." What character is that? The one that creates a society of separate roads, checkpoints, and walls necessary to preserve the "democratic character" of the Jewish State?

http://northshorewoman.blogspot.com/2009/02/enchantment-of-canary.html

http://tamerhalaseh.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/the-checkpoint-game/

http://www.ccmep.org/delegations/maps/palestine.html

They can call it whatever the hell they want, but the REALITY is that Israel is an apartheid state built on institutionalized oppression, and it is unsustainable as anything else. You can't spin 60+ years of behaving badly. You either continue behaving badly or you're done. There is no way to defend the indefensible except through non-stop violence. What else would anyone expect from a state founded on violence?

The moment Israel stops being Israel it becomes Palestine.

Everyone paying attention knows this. Just because you don't hear it on teevee or the prestigious newspapers and magazines does not make it any less real. And PRESUMABLY Jews around the world know this too, because they of all people pay attention to the "democratic character" of the Jewish State, so they can't very well claim ignorance too. Whether they agree with it or not, let us PRESUME that they are aware of the situation, that they know about the walls and the checkpoints and the demographic problems in Israel. The walls and checkpoints can only be made defensible by making the Palestinians out to be perniciously, irredeemably dangerous, which of course is exactly the narrative we are fed constantly.

So "most Jews" or "not all Jews" or however you want to define the people who are not running US foreign policy, recognize that people like Avigdor Lieberman and Benjamin Netanyahu can not prolong the unsustainable "democratic character" of Israel by being unmitigated assholes all the time. Which to us seems like a complaint over TACTICS, not STRATEGY. But there's no such thing as an Israeli leader who can preserve the "democratic character" of Israel by some approach other than violence. There is no such solution.

Thus, we're just having a little trouble finding the actual gap between what the crazy people want and what "most Jews" want. We think the main disagreement is over how to achieve the impossible, how to keep the zombie state alive and looking good. It's a real problem. And it's about to get worse on September 20th. And there may be required some sort of distraction for the rest of the world.

Unless the mythic gap is real.

But let's remember how after Operation Cast Lead, we saw all that congressional support. And in addition, the ADL conducted a survey and reported that American Jews were overwhelmingly supportive of the operation. Where was the gap then?


We will believe in the gap when we see it.

Israelis watching IOF bomb Gaza during Operation Cast Lead...

literally watching people being murdered.

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2010/01/meaning-of-gaza.html

Take a good look.