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Former Russian assassin comments on Nemtsov murder


Fort Russ
Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:14 UTC
sherstobitov
[Excerpts from the article]

The former professional killer Aleksey Sherstobitov who is serving a prison term for the twelve murders and attempts, told Gazeta.ru journalists about his opinion concerning the killers' professionalism, their use of various ammunition batches, and why Anna Duritskaya was not harmed.

Concerning weapon used in the murder: "How do you know it was a PM [Makarov pistol]? The same ammunition is also used by the APS [Stechkin automatic pistol, with a 20-round magazine and capable of automatic fire]?

On the use of different ammunition batches: "If you are trying to throw off the investigation, using different munitions is dumb, because the barrel rifling and the extractor will leave identical markings on the bullets and the casings. Moreover, it's dumb to mix ammunition batches because even during the Soviet era it could have been quickly figured out. It will only help the courts, because if they find similar ammunition from the same batches at your home, it will be additional evidence against you. It's another story if the killer was collecting ammunition from whatever he had available".

Comment: Meanwhile, this image is going viral in Russian media:
Image

“Since the current US ambassador arrived in Russia, they killed Nemtsov, while he was in Georgia they killed Zhvaniya, and in Ukraine—Gongadze. Coincidence?” All three were prominent opposition figures, their deaths leading to political upheavals. To quote Ian Fleming, “once is a happenstance, twice--a coincidence, three times--enemy action.”
In related news, Russian media is reporting that Nemtsov's 'companion', Anna Duritskaya, not only was in a relationship with Ukrainian MP and commander of Dnepr-1 battalion (one of Kolomoisky's battalions), Yuri Bezera, according to her sister; she was recruited by Ukraine's security service, the SBU last September (according to Sergey Markov, Russian political scientists and member of the Public Chamber) in order to glean information on Bezera, Kolomoisky.

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Red Flag

Rothschild: Geopolitical situation as dangerous as any since WWII

Richard Dyson
The Telegraph
Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:31 UTC
Image
© Rex Features
Lord Rothschild has served on the board of the Courtauld Institute of Art and chaired the National Gallery for seven years during the 1980s
Jacob Rothschild, the 78 year-old banker and chairman of RIT Capital Partners, has delivered savers in the £2.3bn trust a stark warning about global instability and the fragility of future returns.

He used his chairman's statement in the trust's 2014 annual report to outline his concerns, saying that on top of a "difficult economic background" investors face "a geopolitical situation perhaps as dangerous as any we have faced since World War II".

He said this was the result of "chaos and extremism in the Middle East, Russian aggression and expansion, and a weakened Europe threatened by horrendous unemployment, in no small measure caused by a failure to tackle structural reforms in many of the countries which form part of the European Union".


Comment: It is not a stretch to say that all the above conditions of our current reality exist primarily because of the United States and their empirical machinations to have total hegemonic control over the world.


This was a much gloomier assessment of the world than the picture painted in his statement a year ago. Then, he listed the major dangers as the slowdown in China's growth and a possible over-valuation of shares.

The trust was established in the Sixties with the aim of overseeing much of Jacob Rothschild's personal wealth. He and his daughter Hannah, who is also on the trust's board, together own shares worth approximately £160m.

Image
© Numis
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Bomb

OSCE confirms Ukraine shelling of observers at Donetsk airport


ITAR-TASS
Fri, 06 Mar 2015 23:31 UTC
Image
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have confirmed that the mission's observers came under shelling at the Donetsk airport from an area controlled by Ukrainian military, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) told a briefing at the Donetsk news agency's press center on Friday.

"One episode of shelling of the Donetsk airport has been recorded by the OSCE mission observers who were there at that moment and confirmed that fire on a team of observers in a new terminal of the Donetsk airport was opened from the area controlled by Ukraine," Eduard Basurin said.

"I would specially underscore that the Ukrainian side knew that representatives of the international organization would arrive at the Donetsk airport," Basurin said. "It knew what sort of works we have been carrying out inside the Donetsk airport so as to return bodies of the killed Ukrainian servicemen to their relatives for burials."

Comment: Wow, the audacity of Ukraine's army. What do they hope to gain from this shelling?

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Che Guevara

Putin: The Russian bear won't ask for permission


RT
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 22:24 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Sergey Guneev
Vladimir Putin has voiced his disagreement with the West's position on Russia, which he likened to the Latin proverb "What is permissible for Jove is not permissible for an ox." However, he said "a bear" won't ask anyone for permission.

Stressing how different the international reaction to Kosovo and Crimea referendums was, the Russian president reminded of the proverb 'Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi'.

"We cannot agree with such definitions," he said.

"Maybe it isn't permissible for an ox, but I have to say that a bear will not ask anyone for permission," Putin jested, adding that a bear is "the master of the taiga" and it will not give it up to anyone.


The Russian leader attended the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Friday, where he touched on a wide range of topics - from Islamist militants in the Middle East to the state of the Russian economy.

Putin lashed out at the United States for destabilizing the world order of checks and balances for its own gains. He also accused the West of inflaming the situation in Ukraine and said Russia was not interested in empire-building.
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Document

Leaked docs reveal plot to erode stability of Venezuela and undermine Maduro presidency


RT
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 22:17 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Jorge Silva
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Leaked documents have revealed evidence of a plot to destabilize Venezuela and undermine the rule of leftist President Nicolas Maduro. The papers appear to substantiate Caracas' claims of outside attempts to cripple the country through internal sabotage.

Documents obtained by a contributor to RT's Spanish channel, Eva Golinger, detail a structured plan to erode the stability of Venezuela with a view to "returning real democracy and independence that have been hijacked for more than 14 years."

The plans are allegedly the product of a conference between American company FTI Consulting and two right-wing Colombian groups affiliated with former President Alvaro Uribe in the Colombian city of Cucuta in June of this year.

Former President Uribe was an outspoken critic of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, referring to him openly on Twitter as a "dictator" and an "assassin."

The three groups propose an initiative they name "The Venezuelan Strategic Plan" and list the ways in which they can disrupt all facets of Venezuelan society in the run-up to December's regional elections.

"The suggested aims in the plan are especially geared towards the municipal elections on December 8," writes the document. In the elections the Venezuelan population will choose 335 mayors, 2,435 municipal councilors, 69 local indigenous representatives, 2 mayors and 20 district councils.
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Eye 2

CIA psy-ops manual suggests rebels should assassinate their own to create martyr

George Washington
Zero Hedge
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:46 UTC
Image

Comment: One can't help but associate this story with the recent assassination of Boris Nemtsov. Clearly intelligence agencies understood the value of creating martyrs for a long time, so it's not a stretch to think that that is what occurred in Moscow.


A CIA "psychological operations" manual prepared by a CIA contractor for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels noted the value of assassinating someone on your own side to create a "martyr" for the cause.

The manual was authenticated by the U.S. government.

The manual received so much publicity from Associated Press, Washington Post and other media that - during the 1984 presidential debate - President Reagan was confronted with the following question on national television:
At this moment, we are confronted with the extraordinary story of a CIA guerrilla manual for the anti-Sandinista contras whom we are backing, which advocates not only assassinations of Sandinistas but the hiring of criminals to assassinate the guerrillas we are supporting in order to create martyrs.
Indeed, this is just one of scores of admitted false flag attacks by governments all over the world.

P.S. We're SURE this has nothing to do with this completely unrelated story:

Russian Opposition: Putin Did NOT Assassinate Opposition Leader
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Vader

The U.S. push for war is about creating financial collapse

Dimitry Orlov
Club Orlov
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:07 UTC
Image
Scanning the headlines in the western mainstream press, and then peering behind the one-way mirror to compare that to the actual goings-on, one can't but get the impression that America's propagandists, and all those who follow in their wake, are struggling with all their might to concoct rationales for military action of one sort or another, be it supplying weapons to the largely defunct Ukrainian military, or staging parades of US military hardware and troops in the almost completely Russian town of Narva, in Estonia, a few hundred meters away from the Russian border, or putting US "advisers" in harm's way in parts of Iraq mostly controlled by Islamic militants.

The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, volunteers and ammo do filter into Ukraine across the Russian border, but that's about it.) Further south, the efforts to topple the government of Syria by aiding and arming Islamist radicals seem to be backfiring nicely. But that's the pattern, isn't it? What US military involvement in recent memory hasn't resulted in a fiasco? Maybe failure is not just an option, but more of a requirement?

Let's review. Afghanistan, after the longest military campaign in US history, is being handed back to the Taliban. Iraq no longer exists as a sovereign nation, but has fractured into three pieces, one of them controlled by radical Islamists. Egypt has been democratically reformed into a military dictatorship. Libya is a defunct state in the middle of a civil war. The Ukraine will soon be in a similar state; it has been reduced to pauper status in record time—less than a year. A recent government overthrow has caused Yemen to stop being US-friendly. Closer to home, things are going so well in the US-dominated Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that they have produced a flood of refugees, all trying to get into the US in the hopes of finding any sort of sanctuary.

Comment: wow (in small letters). Didn't know "failure" could be so disgustingly complicated and yet "alluring"...like sheep-dung perfume. I guess you have to be one to get "whiff" the program. BTW, don't forget to stop and kill the roses...

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Alarm Clock

Demonizing Russia paves the way for war

Seumas Milne
The Guardian, UK
Wed, 04 Mar 2015 19:38 UTC
Azov
© Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty Images
On the ground, it has meant the rise of Ukrainian fascist militias such as the Azov battalion, now preparing to ‘defend’ Mariupol from its own people.
Politicians and the media are using Vladimir Putin and Ukraine to justify military expansionism. It's dangerous folly

A quarter of a century after the end of the cold war, the "Russian threat" is unmistakably back. Vladimir Putin, Britain's defence secretary Michael Fallon declares, is as great a danger to Europe as "Islamic State". There may be no ideological confrontation, and Russia may be a shadow of its Soviet predecessor, but the anti-Russian drumbeat has now reached fever pitch.

And much more than in Soviet times, the campaign is personal. It's all about Putin. The Russian president is an expansionist dictator who has launched a "shameless aggression". He is the epitome of "political depravity", "carving up" his neighbours as he crushes dissent at home, and routinely is compared to Hitler. Putin has now become a cartoon villain and Russia the target of almost uniformly belligerent propaganda across the western media. Anyone who questions the dominant narrative on Ukraine - from last year's overthrow of the elected president and the role of Ukrainian far right to war crimes carried out by Kiev's forces - is dismissed as a Kremlin dupe.
Ukraine has ignored the far right for too long - it must wake up to the danger
--Volodymyr Ishchenko
That has been ratcheted up still further with the murder of the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. The Russian president has, of course, been blamed for the killing, though that makes little sense. Nemtsov was a marginal figure whose role in the "catastroika" of the 1990s scarcely endeared him to ordinary Russians. Responsibility for an outrage that exposed the lack of security in the heart of Moscow and was certain to damage the president hardly seems likely to lie with Putin or his supporters.
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Arrow Down

Hillary Clinton fired US Ambassador to Kenya for using personal email account


Poor Richard's News
Thu, 05 Mar 2015 18:51 UTC
Hillary
© Poor Richard's News
CNN finds some hypocrisy piled on top of Hillary Clinton's criminal activity (see video below).

Jake Tapper points out a very important detail in all of this. Hillary Clinton and her staff have only turned over a limited number of emails from her time as Secretary of State, but the Federal Records Act requires all communication conducted by cabinet officials to be permanently archived.

Clinton may claim that the remainder of emails on her private server (many of which are now likely destroyed) were just personal communications not related to her official duties, but this is an unacceptable excuse because she created this elaborate secret email account on the day of her Senate confirmation hearings. The email server was designed from the beginning to hide her official communications from the public record.
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Airplane Paper

Pilots are deserting Washington's remote-control war

Pratap Chatterjee
Tom Dispatch
Thu, 05 Mar 2015 08:01 UTC
Drone pilot
© www.redicecreations.com
The U.S. drone war across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa is in crisis and not because civilians are dying or the target list for that war or the right to wage it just about anywhere on the planet are in question in Washington. Something far more basic is at stake: drone pilots are quitting in record numbers.

There are roughly 1,000 such drone pilots, known in the trade as "18Xs," working for the U.S. Air Force today. Another 180 pilots graduate annually from a training program that takes about a year to complete at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in, respectively, New Mexico and Texas. As it happens, in those same 12 months, about 240 trained pilots quit and the Air Force is at a loss to explain the phenomenon. (The better-known U.S. Central Intelligence Agency drone assassination program is also flown by Air Force pilots loaned out for the covert missions.)

On January 4, 2015, the Daily Beast revealed an undated internal memo to Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh from General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle stating that pilot "outflow increases will damage the readiness and combat capability of the MQ-1/9 [Predator and Reaper] enterprise for years to come" and added that he was "extremely concerned." Eleven days later, the issue got top billing at a special high-level briefing on the state of the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James joined Welsh to address the matter. "This is a force that is under significant stress -- significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations," she told the media.

In theory, drone pilots have a cushy life. Unlike soldiers on duty in "war zones," they can continue to live with their families here in the United States. No muddy foxholes or sandstorm-swept desert barracks under threat of enemy attack for them. Instead, these new techno-warriors commute to work like any office employees and sit in front of computer screens wielding joysticks, playing what most people would consider a glorified video game.
Drone room
© imgarcade.com
Military pilots control a reaper drone.
They typically "fly" missions over Afghanistan and Iraq where they are tasked with collecting photos and video feeds, as well as watching over U.S. soldiers on the ground. A select few are deputized to fly CIA assassination missions over Pakistan, Somalia, or Yemen where they are ordered to kill "high value targets" from the sky. In recent months, some of these pilots have also taken part in the new war in the Syrian and Iraqi borderlands, conducting deadly strikes on militants of ISIL.
Each of these combat air patrols involves three to four drones, usually Hellfire-missile-armed Predators and Reapers built by southern California's General Atomics, and each takes as many as 180 staff members to fly them. In addition to pilots, there are camera operators, intelligence and communications experts, and maintenance workers. (The newer Global Hawk surveillance patrols need as many as 400 support staff.)
The Air Force is currently under orders to staff 65 of these regular "combat air patrols" around the clock as well as to support a Global Response Force on call for emergency military and humanitarian missions. For all of this, there should ideally be 1,700 trained pilots. Instead, facing an accelerating dropout rate that recently drove this figure below 1,000, the Air Force has had to press regular cargo and jet pilots as well as reservists into becoming instant drone pilots in order to keep up with the Pentagon's enormous appetite for real-time video feeds from around the world.


Comment: The Scoreboard: Technology 1 / Human Evolution 0

"You never know who you're killing, because you never actually see a face. You just have a silhouette."

The Department of Justice White Paper "sets forth a legal framework for considering the circumstances in which the U.S. government could use lethal force in a foreign country outside the area of active hostilities against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qa'ida or an associated force of al Qa'ida - that is, an al Qa'ida leader actively engaged in planning operations to kill Americans." What it doesn't justify is all the hits and misses (U.S. pre-emptive strikes) involving innocent men, women and children of foreign countries, or for that matter, innocent Americans abroad. As in the al-Zawarhiri strike(s), mentioned in the article, a total of 76 children and 29 adults paid the price of this particular pursuit. Track record for drone success of limiting the hit to the "suspected" target of a "suspected attack on Americans" seems to be murder first and see if the suspect was amongst the dead. "Oops, sorry." Why isn't this sort of preplanned "terror with deadly consequences" qualified as a terrorist operation? War crime? (Hint: Technically we're there, "technically" we're not. Rather convenient.)

"We are the ultimate voyeurs, the ultimate peeping Toms. I'm watching this person, and this person has no clue what's going on. No one's going to catch us. And we're getting orders to take these people's lives."

One thing is clear: Drone wars are not going away. They give an aggressor nation, such as the USA, access to places that are not officially American war zones and provide attack capabilities from safe and secret war-room offices half-a-world away. They destroy, maim, kill and, as we see from this article, the track record is appalling. This form of warfare is a one-way trajectory. How many other countries, terror organizations, psychopaths can we imagine getting on board with this type of warfare/entertainment? Why play video games when you can blow something up or kill someone with an airborne assassinator, never to be traced or suffer the consequences? Drones are being sold by the U.S. all over the world. This genie has left the bottle! The psychologically sick pilots who have walked off the job--maybe they're the ones who still have a conscience.

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