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U.S. concedes Russia has control of Crimea

Paul Lewis, Spencer Ackerman and Jon Swaine
The Guardian
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:56 UTC
Image
© AFP/Genya Savilov
Pro-Russian activists hold a giant Russian flag as they rally in Simferopol, the administrative center of Crimea, on March 1, 2014.
The US conceded on Sunday that Moscow had "complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula" and announced that the secretary of state, John Kerry, will fly to Kiev in an attempt to halt a further Russian advance into Ukraine.

Senior US officials dismissed claims that Washington is incapable of exerting influence on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, but were forced to admit that Crimea had been successfully invaded by 6,000 airborne and ground troops in what could be the start of a wider invasion.

"They are flying in reinforcements and they are settling in," one senior official said. Another senior official said: "Russian forces now have complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula."

On Monday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he had discussed Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart and their views coincided on the situation there.

Lavrov said in a statement that the two veto-wielding UN security council members would stay in close contact on the issue.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian border guards reported a buildup of armoured vehicles near a ferry port on the Russian side of the Kerch Channel - a narrow sea channel dividing Russia and the Ukraine. A statement from the guard spokesperson said Russian ships had also been moving in and around the city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base, and that Russian forces had blocked telephone services in some areas.

Comment: Sophmoric peer pressure: Lawmakers call for G8 suspension of Russia

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USA

Leftovers from Afghanistan and Iraq wars: Amputations, severe brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders

Noel Brinkerhoff
ALL Gov
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 12:31 UTC
Amputees
© Chris Kleponis, Pool, Getty Images
George W. Bush with Afghanistan War amputees Neil Duncan and Max Ramsey, July 24, 2006.

The American toll from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be contemplated in many different ways, thanks to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

A new CRS report (pdf) has provided a human accounting not only of how many service personnel died in the two conflicts, but of the many kinds of serious, life-long injuries with which thousands returned home.

A total of 1,558 soldiers endured major limb amputations as a result of battlefield injuries. Major limb amputations include the loss of one or more limbs, the loss of one or more partial limbs, or the loss of one or more full or partial hand or foot, according to the CRS.

Considerably more military personnel suffered "severe or penetrating brain injuries" - 7,224. Another 23,319 men and women were diagnosed with "moderate" brain injuries.

When "mild" and "not classifiable" cases are factored in, nearly 288,000 total brain injury cases were reported among all military personnel deployed and not deployed.

Then there are the post-traumatic stress disorder cases. The military and the Department of Veterans Affairs are currently trying to help 118,829 individuals who made it back with this mental disorder.
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Pirates

Ukrainian militants caught trying to smuggle arms and explosives into Crimea


RT.com
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 12:04 UTC
Image
The self-defense forces guarding the borders of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea have prevented a large amount of firearms and explosives from being smuggled into the republic by Kiev radicals.

The Cossacks and Berkut troops at the road checkpoint in the Crimean peninsula have confiscated explosives equivalent to 400 kilograms of TNT as well as grenades, rifles and guns, Russia-1 TV channel reports.

The blasting agent was transported in a single batch by a truck, with the local self-defense forces currently investigating the origins and the purpose of the load. They told told RIA-Novosti news agency that the driver and the passenger of the truck were Maidan activists.

"They are citizens of Lvov [in western Ukraine], Maksim Shepetaylo - born in 1990 and Vasily Pusko - born in 1989. They didn't hide the fact that since December last year that active participated in Maidan clashes [in Kiev]," the source said.

One of the Berkut soldiers, who like many of his comrades refused to follow the order to disband from the self-proclaimed government in the Ukrainian capital, told Russia-1 TV that the majority of the arms were seized from vehicles with Kiev numbers.
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War Whore

Repeat of the Crimean war?

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh
Popular Resistance
Sun, 02 Mar 2014 11:34 UTC
The Siege of Sevastopol 1855

The Siege of Sevastopol 1855
It is sometimes instructive to learn a bit of history to reflect on current events because if we do not learn from history, we are bound to repeat the tragic history of useless wars. This came to me as I read about the escalating situation in Ukraine, where the US and western countries invested heavily to dislodge the Ukraine (strategically located on the Black Sea) from Russian influence. The coup that toppled the elected government in the capital and Russia's strong influence in the mostly Russian Speaking Crimean peninsula of the Ukraine threatens to ignite another Crimean war (1854 prelude to many more European wars).
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Phoenix

Reichstag Fire in Kiev


Club Orlov
Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
The Kiev regime announces general mobilization; only 1% to 1.5% of conscripts bother to turn up

A dozen major cities - pretty much everything southeast of the line that runs from Kharkov to Odessa - are flying the Russian tricolorUkraine's naval flagship is flying Russia's naval flag

The newly appointed head of Ukrainian navy has defected to the Russian side in Crimea within a few hours of being appointed

Most of the Ukrainian military units in Crimea have gone over to the Russian side voluntarily, without a single shot fired

Ukrainian troops from Kirov have been ordered to march on Crimea, but have refused to obey (illegal) orders from Kiev

During the last two weeks of February 143,000 Ukrainian citizens have requested asylum in Russia

Once upon a time I had an excellent history teacher, who has made a lasting impact on how I view the world. "It's about the dates," he taught us; "Be sure to remember the dates, and you'll have the key to history." You see, dates are important because most of the important historical events are, in fact, anniversaries. There is a hackneyed phrase that history does not repeat - it rhymes; but it would be a lot closer to truth to say that history has a rhythm - a rhythm based largely on multiples of the annual cycle.
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Star of David

AIPAC in trouble as Americans lose interest in war and Israel‏ becomes increasingly unpopular

Philip Giraldi
Op Ed News
Sun, 02 Mar 2014 16:37 UTC
AIPAC
© Beth Singer Design
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference begins on March 2 and will conclude with an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 4. The organizers boast that the meeting of "America's Pro-Israel Lobby" will attract "more than 14,000 pro-Israel Americans, more than two-thirds of Congress, [and] more than 2,200 students from 491 campuses."

There will be speeches by Senator John McCain and by Secretary of State John Kerry.
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Coffee

A little late! Karzai wakes up to the fact that the US started Afghan war for own interests


Press TV
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 08:49 UTC
Hamid Karzai
© AFP/Getty

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the US and its Western allies launched the war in Afghanistan for their own interests.

"Afghans died in a war that's not ours," Karzai said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday.

He said that the 12-year-old war was "for the US security and for the Western interest."

The Afghan president also urged the US to end air raids in Afghanistan, saying that, instead of Taliban militants, civilians are being killed in these airstrikes.

Karzai also said he will not sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Washington and that it is up to his successor to make the decision. Afghanistan will hold a presidential election in April.

"My stand remains the same - that I cannot sign this BSA agreement with the United States without the launch of the peace process... [US] President [Barack] Obama said, 'Well, the US can wait for the next president,'" the Afghan president said.

Comment: So at the end of his presidency and before the scheduled elections in April, that he is bound to loose, Karzai finally says the truth of why the US went to war in Afghanistan. Anyone who has read sott over the last 11 years would have known it too.

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Light Sabers

Ukraine: The price of internal division

Jack
Jack Matlock.com
Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Business Week
With all of the reports coming out of Ukraine, Moscow, Washington, and European capitals, the mutual accusations, the knee-jerk speculation, and - not least - the hysterical language of some observers, bordering on the apocalyptic, it is difficult to keep in mind the long-term implications of what is happening. Nevertheless, I believe that nobody can understand the likely outcomes of what is happening unless they bear in mind the historical, geographic, political and psychological factors at play in these dramatic events. The view of most of the media, whether Russian or Western, seems to be that one side or the other is going to "win" or "lose" Ukraine.

I believe that is fundamentally mistaken. If I were Ukrainian I would echo the immortal words of the late Walt Kelly's Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us." The fact is, Ukraine is a state but not yet a nation. In the 22-plus years of its independence, it has not yet found a leader who can unite its citizens in a shared concept of Ukrainian identity. Yes, Russia has interfered, but it is not Russian interference that has created Ukrainian disunity but rather the haphazard way the country was assembled from parts that were not always mutually compatible. To the flaw at the inception of an independent Ukraine, one must add the baleful effects of the Soviet Communist heritage both Russia and Ukraine have inherited.
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Cult

Confirmed: British Labour and Conservative governments in 1970s gave elite pedophile network nearly half a million quid

Paul Bentley
Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 02 Mar 2014 17:00 UTC
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A whistleblower has claimed Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration, which took over in 1979, may have provided funding for PIE.

A vile paedophile group with links to senior Labour politicians was funded with huge amounts of taxpayers' money, it has emerged.

The Paedophile Information Exchange was allegedly given £70,000 by the Home Office between 1977 and 1980 - the equivalent today of about £400,000.

The astonishing claims made by a whistleblower are now being investigated by the police and the government.

They come after the Mail exposed shocking links between the paedophile group and the National Council for Civil Liberties, a pressure group run at the time by former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt and Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman.

Comment: So, the British government is singularly responsible for spreading and normalizing pedophilia in the UK. Disgusting.

See also: Leading British opposition party politicians under investigation for channeling public funds to elite pedophile network

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V

Mess with Glenn Greenwald at your own risk

Danny Schechter
Information Clearing House
Sun, 02 Mar 2014 07:45 UTC
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Clearly, there's an officially sanctioned, if not supported, backlash underway to cast doubt on those who are disseminating the information that Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers are exposing to the global public.

What better way to respond to the evidence of government overreach and criminality in spying by the NSA and other agencies than to try to change the subject by smearing the people who are funding the reporting on it to us.

This latest round of the media battle should not be surprising. In fact, it's all too predictable.

In the latest round, lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald, the point person/interpreter for the majority of the Snowden disclosures, came under attack by indirection with a high profile smear on Pierre Omidyar, the E-bay billionaire funding his new venture, First Look Media.

Leading the charge publicly is one Patrick Ames, who writes for Pando News, a rival news agency funded by another Silicon Valley tech moneyman. He has gone after Greenwald before charging that he is profiting by selling state secrets.

Comment: When it comes to "full-spectrum information warfare", to quote the Project for a New American Century-inspired Bush-era Pentagon policy document, you cannot be 'paranoid' or 'delusional' enough - without actually feeling or becoming either paranoid or delusional, of course!

What we mean is that critical thinking requires just that: thinking critically about all the factors involved. If Greenwald is getting Big Bucks from a large corporation whose fundamental concern is Profit, then it IS interesting data that must be taken into consideration.

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