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Blue Planet

Best of the Web: The Ukrainian conflict explained in historical context: Interview with Sergei Glaziev, advisor to President Putin

The Saker
The Vineyard of the Saker
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:36 UTC
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Sergey Glazyev
Thanks to the superb work of the Russian Team, it is my huge pleasure to present you with one of the most interesting interviews about the war in the Ukraine and the global struggle for the future of the planet and the views of one of the best informed men in Russia: Sergei Glaziev.

Glaziev is an advisor to President Putin and a close friend. I personally believe that the western media is either wrong or deliberately lying when then say that Dugin is Putin's ideological mentor. I am not sure that Putin has - or needs - any kind of mentor, but over the years I have found that Glaziev seems to say out loud what Putin does not, but seems to be acting on.

Glaziev, who was born in the Ukraine and who is an economic himself, has a superb understanding of the behind-the-scenes power plays in the Ukraine and in Russia. This man really *knows* what is going on. Furthermore, he is one of the leading "Eurasian Sovereignists" and he is therefore absolutely hated by the pro-US circles in Russia. He is equally hated in the USA who put him on their recent sanctions list for no other reason then the fact that they don't like what he has to say.

I urge everybody to listen to this 15min interview which is one of the most interesting ones I have ever had the pleasure to post here.

Enjoy!

The Saker

(please turn on the subtitles by pressing on the 'cc' button)

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TV

Blatant censorship: Kiev orders crackdown on Russian TV channels


RT.com
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 18:58 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Viktor Drachev
Ukrainian cable providers could face heavy fines or have their licenses revoked if they broadcast leading Russian channels - including RT - which were earlier "suspended" by a series of court orders.

"Ukraine is a sovereign state and must defend its media space from outside aggression from Russia, which is purposely inciting hatred between different groups of Ukrainians within the country," said interior ministry adviser Anton Geraschenko in a statement on his Facebook page.

Kiev has promised "total monitoring" of all outlets, including "hotels, sanatoriums and hospitals" which have been instructed to switch off their Russian feeds "before officers of the law pay a visit."

Major providers have not carried Russian channels since a ban that followed Crimea's vote to join the Russian Federation in March. Officials then claimed that the sanction was a result of Ukrainian channels being cut off on the peninsula.

A further order to curtail Moscow broadcasts was produced by a Kiev court in July, but many cable operators in the east have continued to show their audiences Russian broadcasts, in defiance of the law.
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Eye 1

Masters of the internet: GCHQ scans entire countries for vulnerabilities


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:06 UTC
GCHQ
© he.wikipedia.orgGovernment Communications Headquarters
GCHQ is scanning servers in multiple foreign countries for vulnerable ports, according to German newspaper Heise. Using a tool called Hacienda, the intelligence agency seeks to 'master the internet' for sources of espionage.

Spanish for estate, Hacienda can port scan all of the servers in a country to provide information on user endpoints and scan for potential vulnerabilities. The ability to port scan is not new, but the scale of its use by government spies, with 27 countries scanned by 2009, has shocked many familiar with the software.

"In 2009, the British spy agency GCHQ made port scans a 'standard tool' to be applied against entire nations," Heise reports. "Twenty-seven countries are listed as targets of the Hacienda [program]."
The process of scanning entire countries and looking for vulnerable network infrastructure to exploit is consistent with the meta-goal of "Mastering the Internet", which is also the name of a GCHQ cable-tapping program. Targeted protocols include SSH, HTTP and FTP, among others.
Systems may be attacked simply because they might eventually create a path towards a valuable espionage target, even without indications this will ever be the case. Based on this logic, every device is a target.

Comment:
BORG eyepiece
© www.technovelgy.com
The image of GCHQ is like looking into the eyepiece of the BORG. As the BORG adapt, due to vast amounts of integrated knowledge and a continuous upgrading of the "collective mind," the victim's weakness renders him useless and he is assimilated. It doesn't take much to make this comparison. What is most disturbing is the scope and implications of this global eye-spy "tool." Who holds the power and what, if any, are the legal restraints? Apparently there are none when you can scan whole nations and every device is a target.
Say it with me..."Resistance is Futile!"

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Brick Wall

Obama administration sued yet again, this time for stonewalling FOIA requests

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
The Washington Times
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
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© UnknownThe comparisons made between the Obama and Nixon administrations' drive for secrecy are actually a misnomer. Many believe that no administration comes even close to the amount of extreme control the Obama administration tries to exercise over the release of information that is even produced by other Federal agencies.
The administration that vowed to be the most transparent in history now must defend itself against a federal lawsuit accusing it of thwarting the release of public information. It's a case that could reveal just how much politics influences the processing of Freedom of Information Act requests, especially when such releases could embarrass the president.

The civic watchdog group Cause of Action on Monday sued the Obama administration, claiming that presidential attorneys have interfered improperly in the release of public documents under the landmark FOIA law in an effort to curb the release of derogatory information about the White House.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the nonpartisan Cause of Action, names 12 federal agencies that the group says slowed the release of documents so officials could consult with White House attorneys under a review process established in spring 2009. FOIA analysts say this practice never occurred in prior administrations.

The process gave White House officials review authority over documents that mentioned the White House or presidential aides, and was based on an April 15, 2009, memo by White House Counsel Gregory Craig that instructed all federal agencies to consult with President Obama's attorneys on the release of documents containing "White House equities."

Comment: The administration's memo/directive referring to 'White House equities' is an interesting use of language in and of itself.
First, as mentioned in the article and video, it has no legal meaning whatsoever and, as such, should not wield the power of compelling other Federal agencies and departments who have received FOIA requests to first forward the documents relating to the Obama administration to the administration itself for their approval. This process reeks of an effort towards totalitarian control.

Secondly, when we look up the definition of equities, which is used rather opaquely here, we come up with this from Investopedia:

Definition of 'Equity '
1. A stock or any other security representing an ownership interest.

2. On a company's balance sheet, the amount of the funds contributed by the owners (the stockholders) plus the retained earnings (or losses). Also referred to as "shareholders' equity".

3. In the context of margin trading, the value of securities in a margin account minus what has been borrowed from the brokerage.

4. In the context of real estate, the difference between the current market value of the property and the amount the owner still owes on the mortgage. It is the amount that the owner would receive after selling a property and paying off the mortgage.

5. In terms of investment strategies, equity (stocks) is one of the principal asset classes. The other two are fixed-income (bonds) and cash/cash-equivalents. These are used in asset allocation planning to structure a desired risk and return profile for an investor's portfolio.

So, what else can one surmise from the use of the word equity except that the White House or Obama administration thinks it somehow 'owns' all the other Federal agencies and should therefore have complete control over them as their owner? Perhaps it shouldn't come as any surprise since Obama himself was put into office and is, himself, owned by the financial services/banking industry; he essentially being an equity of the financial elite.

See also:

Moore: "Wall Street Has Their Man And His Name Is Barack Obama"

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USA

Best of the Web: How we'd cover Ferguson if it happened in another country


Vox.com
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:42 UTC
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US regime forces have been brutalizing minority sect protestors in Ferguson
How would American media cover the news from Ferguson, Missouri, if it were happening in just about any other country? How would the world respond differently? Here, to borrow a great idea from Slate's Joshua Keating, is a satirical take on the story you might be reading if Ferguson were in, say, Iraq or Pakistan

Ferguson - Chinese and Russian officials are warning of a potential humanitarian crisis in the restive American province of Missouri, where ancient communal tensions have boiled over into full-blown violence.

"We must use all means at our disposal to end the violence and restore calm to the region," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments to an emergency United Nations Security Council session on the America crisis.

The crisis began a week ago in Ferguson, a remote Missouri village that has been a hotbed of sectarian tension. State security forces shot and killed an unarmed man, which regional analysts say has angered the local population by surfacing deep-seated sectarian grievances. Regime security forces cracked down brutally on largely peaceful protests, worsening the crisis.

America has been roiled by political instability and protests in recent years, which analysts warn can create fertile ground for extremists.
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Bad Guys

Britain can buy bombs to kill Palestinians and support Israel but doesn't have enough money for school meal program


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:20 UTC
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© Reuters / Suzanne PlunkettStudents receive their lunch at Salusbury Primary School in northwest London
British schools have warned they will struggle to feed their students and will be forced to sacrifice spending on maintenance and resources to provide meals under the government's controversial new school meals policy beginning next month.

British schools have warned they will struggle to feed their students and will be forced to sacrifice spending on maintenance and resources to provide meals under the government's controversial new school meals policy beginning next month.

Research produced by the Local Government Association (LGA) showed that nearly half of local councils will have to dip into other budgets to provide school meals to every child under a plan spearheaded by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last year.

As a result, councils need more than £25 million to be able to deliver the policy in the future.

The scheme, which was announced at last year's Liberal Democrat party conference, was designed to provide all students in their first year of primary education with free school meals.
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Magnify

UN calls for screening of all international travelers leaving Ebola-affected African countries


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:14 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Carl de SouzaA girls suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 16, 2014.
The number of cases of West Africa's Ebola outbreak has climbed to 2,240, including 1,229 deaths, the World Health Organization said. It urged affected countries to screen all people at international airports.

The Ebola virus killed 84 people between August 14 and 16, the WHO said Tuesday, reporting the toll in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Confirmed infections jumped by 113, bringing the total number of cases to 2,240, said the WHO, which is the United Nations health agency responsible for dealing with epidemics.

The virus, which has hit four West African nations since it broke out in Guinea at the start of the year, is by far the deadliest since Ebola was discovered four decades ago in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The WHO called for Ebola-affected countries to conduct exit screening of all people at international airports, seaports and major land crossings "for unexplained febrile illness consistent with potential Ebola infection."

"Any person with an illness consistent with EVD [Ebola virus disease] should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation," the WHO said in a statement. "There should be no international travel of Ebola contacts or cases, unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation."

Meanwhile, Liberian authorities reported that the 17 Ebola carriers who fled a quarantine center in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, have been tracked down and re-hospitalized.

The patients escaped from the medical center over the weekend when it was attacked by looters who stole bloodstained sheets and mattresses.
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Clipboard

Moscow reminds UN that Kiev is still withholding MH17 traffic control communications


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:50 UTC
Vitaly Churkin
© www.b92.netRussian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin
Kiev should make public the records of communications between the Ukrainian air traffic control and the Malaysian Airlines flight 17 in the hours before it was shot down over Ukraine's turbulent east, Russia's UN envoy said.

The issue was among several Russia raised at a UN Security Council meeting, which was called by Russia to discuss the progress of the investigation into the tragic incident, which killed 298 people in July, Vitaly Churkin said. Moscow sees the shortage of proper evidence known to the public so far as wrong.

"As far as we know, [UN's civil aviation watchdog] ICAO is being kept on the sidelines of the investigation, which has been conducted for some time," Churkin said.

Churkin added that Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who is to visit Kiev soon, would ask the Ukrainian government about the communications records between air traffic controllers and the plane.

Comment: While air traffic control conversations for MH17 were purportedly confiscated by the SBU (Ukraine Security Service), flight recorders were delivered to Britain to be analyzed by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) via a Dutch hand-off. It has been four "non-communicative" weeks. Perhaps the "Truth" takes time, a different type of "traffic control"?

Ahhh, how the mind races... what will the answers be?

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Quenelle

Putin will meet with Ukraine and EU representatives August 26 in Minsk


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:08 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Christophe EnaUkraine's President Petro Poroshenko (R) walks past Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) during an international D-Day commemoration ceremony on the beach of Ouistreham, Normandy, on June 6, 2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, will meet on August 26 in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, the Kremlin said.

The talks will take place as part of a summit between leaders of the countries in the Eurasian Customs Union - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan - with the Ukrainian president and representatives of the European Commission.

A number of bilateral meetings between the heads of states will also take place in Minsk.

The leaders "will discuss the relations between Ukraine and the Customs Union and there will be a number of bilateral meetings," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
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Megaphone

Russian MP: U.S. criticism of Bolotnaya case hypocritical in light of Ferguson police shooting


RT
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:00 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Michael B. ThomasLaw enforcement officers watch on during a protest on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014.
A Russian ruling party MP has reacted to Washington's criticism of the sentences given to participants of 2012 Moscow riots, saying that under similar circumstances the US police would use lethal force against protesters.

Alyona Arshinova of the United Russia parliamentary caucus emphasized that the sentences in the so called Bolotnaya Square case had been given only to those who had attacked law enforcement officers, and US laws provide that police can use firearms in such circumstances.

"US law enforcers can use firearms even in less straightforward situations. One example of this was the tragedy in the town of Ferguson." The lawmaker told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday.

Arshinova's reaction was prompted by US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf who on Monday started her press briefing with a statement that the US was "deeply concerned" about the sentences handed down to four Russians who had been found guilty of attacking police and participating in mass riots in Moscow in May 2012. The US officials called the whole Bolotnaya Square process "politically minded" and added that it had been "marked by a lack of due process," without going into details.

MP Arshinova said the State Department officials should "start looking for the plank in their own eye."
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