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Moscow and Tokyo preparing Putin's visit to Japan


Sputnik News
Tue, 26 May 2015 18:58 UTC
Lavrov and Kishida
© www.rferl.org
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will lay the groundwork for President Putin's visit to Japan.
A visit of Japanese FM Fumio Kishida to Moscow could be considered a stage of preparation for the visit of Vladimir Putin to Tokyo.

Moscow and Tokyo are discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan, but dates have not been set yet, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Tuesday.

"Already last year we agreed on a schedule of political contacts, which includes the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister [Fumio] Kishida for a meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission, and for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov," Morgulov told RIA Novosti.

According to the politician, "this schedule has not yet been implemented, and this is not our fault." Russia adheres to the agreements and waits for Kishida to visit Moscow, he said.

"And of course this visit could be considered a stage of preparation for the visit of the Russian president to Japan, which has been discussed between the parties, but the dates for which have not been set so far," Morgulov added.


Comment: One issue speculated to be on the table is the disputed Kuril Islands. Russia and Japan do not have a permanent peace treaty for the four islands in the Sea of Okhotsk - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai (Russia: Southern Kurils, Japan: Northern Territories). The status of the Southern Kuril Islands was set in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty that handed over control of the islands to Russia. In February, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to reclaim the islands. Russia has been their caretaker but Japan still lays claim to them. So far Putin has not changed his position, but is apparently open to dialogue. Also on the agenda will be ways to expand economic cooperation. Lavrov and Kishida are now scheduled for a November 2 meeting.


Comment: According to analysts, Putin is working on closer ties to Japan through developing energy resources and trade opportunities. Some say this is to counter China's rising military power - but perhaps it also complicates the US/Japan/China mix as well!

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Bulb

Russian MPs suggest prison sentences for selling unmarked GMO products


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 20:19 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jim Young
A number of Russian MPs have suggested altering the current legislation and introducing criminal responsibility for illegal trade in GMO products. The idea is to mete out prison terms of up to two years for repeated offenders.

The bill tightening the rules for selling genetically modified products has been prepared by lawmakers representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, known for its nationalist stance. The draft has already been forwarded to the government and Supreme Court for assessment, and it will then be submitted to parliament.

If passed the bill would amend the existing article of the criminal code that orders punishment for concealing any information about potential hazards for human life and health. It would include violation of the rules for marking goods containing GMO material. Those found guilty would face fines of up to 300,000 rubles (about $6000), or up to two years in prison or penal labor. The bill specifies that, depending on the crime's circumstances, the punishment could be applied to the head of the company and the workers involved in the violations.
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War Whore

Another proxy army: U.S. and Turkey begin program to train 15,000 anti-Syrian rebels


Xinhua News Agency
Tue, 26 May 2015 20:10 UTC
Image
Turkey and the United States have started a program for training and equipping Syrian rebels in Kirsehir province of central Turkey, local daily HaberTurk reported on Tuesday.

"We have started the train-equip program with a small number (of Syrians). The reason of delay was logistics, it was about personnel and equipment transferred from the U.S.. Our soldiers and the U.S. soldiers are providing the training," the report quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying.

The program has been delayed several times since Turkey and the U.S. signed the agreement in February.

The program aims to train a total of 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters during a three-year period, 5,000 of whom will be trained at Hirfanli military base in Kirsehir.

Comment: Apparently the fact that the Syrian government was democratically elected is of no matter to the U.S. They want to control Syria and if they can't do it covertly, they'll just openly create an army to takeover the country. You can bet that there will be plenty of civilian casualties in whatever actions this army takes in Syria too.

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Vader

U.S. and UK governments hide behind national security excuse to cover up war crimes

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Thu, 21 May 2015 19:55 UTC
Image
© Washington Post/Getty Images
Colonel Ian Henderson was a British official dubbed "the Butcher of Bahrain" because of atrocities he repeatedly committed during the 30 years he served as chief security official of that Middle Eastern country. His reign of terror began in 1966 when Bahrain was a British "protectorate" and continued when the post-"independence" Bahraini King retained him in the same position. In 1996, The Independent described him as "the most feared of all secret policemen" in Bahrain, and cited "consistent and compelling evidence that severe beatings and even sexual assaults have been carried out against prisoners under Henderson's responsibility for well over a decade."

A 2002 Guardian article reported that "during this time his men allegedly detained and tortured thousands of anti-government activists"; his official acts "included the ransacking of villages, sadistic sexual abuse and using power drills to maim prisoners"; and "on many occasions they are said to have detained children without informing their parents, only to return them months later in body bags." Needless to say, Col. Henderson was never punished in any way: "although Scotland Yard launched an inquiry into the allegations in 2000, the investigation was dropped the following year." He was showered with high honors from the U.K.-supported tyrants who ran Bahrain.

Prior to the massacres and rapes over which he presided in Bahrain, Henderson played a leading role in brutally suppressing the Mau Mau insurgency in another British colony, Kenya. In the wake of his Kenya atrocities, he twice won the George Medal, "the 2nd highest, to the George Cross, gallantry medal that a civilian can win." His brutality against Kenyan insurgents fighting for independence is what led the U.K. government to put him in charge of internal security in Bahrain.
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Light Sabers

Favor for a favor: Clinton Foundation found to have received donations from repressive nations at the same time Hilary's State Dept. approved arms deals


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 19:32 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jim Young
Nations openly chastised by the US for dismal human rights records donated billions to the Clinton Foundation, while gaining clearance for weapons deals approved by the Hillary Clinton-led US State Department, according to a new report.

As the Obama administration increased military weapons exports, Hillary Clinton's State Department approved transfer of more than $300 billion worth of arms manufactured by US defense contractors to 20 nations that were or have since become donors of the Clinton Foundation, a major philanthropic organization run by the Clinton family. According to a review of available records of foundation donors by the International Business Times, those countries included governments that have received frequent criticism by the State Department for repressive policies.

"Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar all donated to the Clinton Foundation and also gained State Department clearance to buy caches of American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent crackdowns against political opponents," IBT wrote.

Algeria, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar were nations that directly donated to the Clinton Foundation during Clinton's term as secretary of state, even as they were requesting weapons shipments. The donated money represents a loophole in US law regarding political contributions.

"Under federal law, foreign governments seeking State Department clearance to buy American-made arms are barred from making campaign contributions -- a prohibition aimed at preventing foreign interests from using cash to influence national security policy," IBT noted. "But nothing prevents them from contributing to a philanthropic foundation controlled by policymakers."
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War Whore

Ukraine Army commander claims to be under pressure to use heavy caliber artillery in Donbass


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 19:24 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Efrem Lukatsky
According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces commander for Dzerzhynsk, commanders were under increasing pressure from personnel to bring forward heavy caliber artillery systems because the Donetsk People's Republic was using such systems.

Ukrainian frontline personnel insist on bringing forward heavy-caliber artillery systems in Donbass, the Ukrainian Armed Forces commander for government-controlled Dzerzhynsk told representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

"He added that Ukrainian Armed Forces commanders were under increasing pressure from frontline personnel to bring forward heavy caliber artillery systems because the Donetsk People's Republic was using such systems with impunity," according to a report to the SMM published on May 25.

According to the commander, Ukrainian servicemen claim that fighters of the self-proclaimed DPR are using such weaponry.


Comment: Where is the proof the the fighters of the DPR are using such weaponry?

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Eye 2

Ukraine army shelling in Donbass kills 3 civilians, including 11-year-old, news agency reports


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 19:20 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Irina Gerashchenko
Three civilians, including a child, have reportedly been killed in eastern Ukraine after a shell fired by the Ukrainian military hit a residential area.

Three people, including an 11-year old girl, her father and one more civilian have died in the town of Gorlovka, the Donetsk news agency reported, citing senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin. Four more people have been injured, including one serviceman, Basurin said.

According to recent estimates by the UN human rights office, over 6,000 people have been killed and over 15,000 wounded in eastern Ukraine during a year of fighting. However, the real numbers could be much higher. At least one civilian was killed in Donetsk a week ago, after an army shell hit an apartment building amid intense fire on rebel positions.

Last week, the Ukrainian parliament approved a regulation that removed the obligation to protect certain human rights in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Kiev says "anti-terrorist operations" in the area override their obligations in this regard.

The shelling comes amid a fragile ceasefire between Kiev and the Donbass rebels agreed in Minsk in February. Despite the agreements reached by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, then called the "last chance" to bring peace to Ukraine, violence in the region has continued.
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Red Flag

Yeah right! Neocon think tank blames Snowden leaks for damaging spy agencies and aiding terrorists


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 18:35 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Mark Blinch
Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks damaged the security services' war on terror, crippled spy agencies, aided terrorists and failed to reveal evidence of mass surveillance, according to a radical neoconservative think-tank.

In a "major study," the Henry Jackson Society argues that far from informing the world's citizenry about the excesses of military and intelligence agencies, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden caused massive damage to the institutions charged with security.

Among the charges levied against Snowden, it is claimed several Al Qaeda-linked groups altered their security procedures, codes became harder to crack and technology firms became less willing to cooperate with spy agencies as a result of the leaks.

The report, 'Surveillance After Snowden', argues claims of the "mass surveillance of ordinary citizens or brazenly looking at their emails" are simply untrue.

Report author Robin Simcox argues that the relationship between public and agencies need to be reengineered to ensure a "greater societal acceptance" of spies work.


Comment: This "report" is just another propaganda piece against anyone who might consider blowing a whistle on the U.S.-led efforts to terrorize the world and continue with its surveillance state tactics unabated. It also attempts to change the narrative surrounding the Snowden leaks, mainly that Snowden exposed mass illegal surveillance on Americans via spy agencies. No matter how much these paid lobbyists try to lie their way through a report, it should be clear to anyone paying attention that the U.S. government is illegally infringing on Americans' right to privacy and that their actions have very little to do with terrorism. If the neocons want to blame someone for aiding terrorists, they should look into a mirror.

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Snakes in Suits

Newly elected Polish president Duda is pro-Kiev but antagonistic towards EU


RT
Tue, 26 May 2015 17:42 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Kacper Pempel
Andrzej Duda, Poland's president elect
Youthful energy and rhetoric for change have seen Andrzej Duda transformed from a virtual unknown to the rising star of Eastern European politics - but his presidency could set Poland against Russia and the EU.

On Sunday, 51.6 percent of the electorate cast their votes for Duda to replace the centrist incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, with a turnout of 55.4 percent, according to the official results. Exit polls showed that over 60 percent of rural voters supported Duda, but only about 40 percent of those live in cities.

Like the last president from the Law and Justice party and Duda's idol, the late Lech Kaczynski, who held the office from 2005 to 2010, the new Polish leader won by appealing to voters from the traditional heartlands - Catholics, social conservatives, farmers, and those left behind by Poland's superficially stellar economic performance in the last decade.

His promises have been wildly populist: Duda said he would lower the retirement age, which rose to 67 in 2012, raise income tax brackets, and force banks to turn lucrative Swiss franc mortgages into manageable Polish zloty ones, costing them billions of dollars in profit.

Duda's critics have dismissed his proposals as contradictory, unfeasible, and even illegal. Indeed, as president he does not have the power to ride roughshod over prime ministerEwa Kopacz and parliament, which is dominated by her centrist Civic Platform party, at least until autumn's parliamentary election. His actual responsibilities for now will be mainly vetoing unacceptable legislation, and representing Poland at international meetings.

Image
© Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
Andrzej Duda (centre L), presidential candidate of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), poses for a picture with passerbys outside a subway station in central Warsaw, Poland May 25, 2015.

Comment: Like any newly elected politician, one has to take what they say during an election with a grain of salt. It will be his actions in office that will really show who he's beholden to.

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Bad Guys

The potential powder keg of Transnistria

Yury Nickulichev
Russia Insider
Tue, 26 May 2015 13:29 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Transnistria is a potential powder keg
It's really deplorable how, over the last decades, we've all had to become students in a kind of "military geography", remembering the names of regions and provinces, of cities, towns, and villages because those have become a war zone, a battlefield, an area of instability, etc. Was it Mark Twain who said that "God created war so that Americans would learn geography"? Or is it, rather, the Devil that's giving us all those unwanted lessons?

A new international conflict seems to be brewing. Now it's Transnistria, a strip of land and a state, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Pridnestrovie), located to the East of the Dniester River, where it borders Ukraine. In 1990 the region declared its independence and broke away from Moldova, thereby getting tightly wedged between Moldova and Ukraine. To maintain peace and security in the area, a joint military command structure and a tri-lateral peacekeeping force, comprised of Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian units, were established in 1992, with 10 Ukrainian observers joining in 1998. Ukraine was also a party to a number of negotiating formats over Transnistria, including the latest one of 2006.

So far so good, but a few days ago Kiev scrapped its 1995 agreement with Russia on military transit to Transnistria via Ukraine. With Moldova not obliging too, what this means is that the Russian peacekeeping units are kind of trapped there. Time will show whether it's a "no in/no out" situation or a compromise is still possible, but the development seems to be extremely dangerous. To understand why this is so, here is a bit of history.

Comment: The citizens of Transnistria are no doubt aware of what has happened in Ukraine, where Washington has had its fingers in an ethnic cleansing. From the article, Moldova the next clash between the West and Russia? :
The problem is that Transnistria does not want to go along with Moldova's vision of the future.

Instead, it has expressed its desire to politically and economically integrate with Russia, and over 1000 Russian peacekeepers are currently stationed there.

Its Russian-speaking and Russian-friendly population fears cultural and ethnic cleansing if Moldova moves closer to the West, since nationalists have been agitating for supposed 'reunification' with cultural cousin Romania.


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