Saturday, August 22, 2009
china confidential
Forest Fire Rages Out of Control Near Athens
White House Working on Rosh Hashana Message
U.S. President Barack Obama jumped the gun--by a month--on a Rosh Hashana (New Year) greeting to a group of rabbis, as reported here.
Maybe he has the holiday on his mind because he intends to use it as an occasion to push for the creation of a Palestinian state in the disputed (or liberated, depending on one's viewpoint) areas of the so-called West Bank. China Confidential Washington sources say Obama has assigned writers and aides to craft an appealing Rosh Hashana greeting, to be delivered on video and distributed via YouTube, which will emphasize the theme of "peace"--code for Israeli withdrawal to indefensible borders and surrender of East Jerusalem. The message will essentially be aimed at dividing diaspora Jewish communities from Israel.Libyan Lunatic Despot Rubs Salt in the Wound
Appeasement fans the flames of aggression.
Libya's lunatic dictator--a rabid creature that should have been eliminated long ago--is praising the release of the convicted Pan Am jetliner bomber.
And a reporter for what is arguably still the world's most influential newspaper is spinning the disgusting development as an example of "capricious mischief-making." Read all about it here--after first grabbing a vomit bag.Rafsanjani Backs Down, Supports Regime
The famous, phony Iranian moderate--himself a mass-murdering mullah--is urging "unity," backing the maniac-in-chief and the Supreme (Clerical Fascist) Leader. Click here for the story.
A case of carrot and stick. China Confidential sources in the Middle East say the fabulously rich Rafsanjani was bought off--given huge bribes--and also threatened with the murder and imprisonment of family members.
The sources add that Iran's atomic arms program will now proceed with renewed vigor; and Western appeasers and Useful Idiots, led by American appeaser-in-chief Barack Obama, will get back to the business of engaging--and trading with--the Islamist enemy.Russia Still Defends Perfidious Soviet-Nazi Pact
Sunday, August 23, marks the 70th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact , the non-aggression treaty signed in 1939 by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
The pact included a secret protocol dividing Eastern and Central Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence. Days after it was signed, first German and then Soviet forces invaded Poland.
Jonas Bernstein reports from Moscow on a new controversy.
The anniversary's approach has sparked a debate in Europe. Western governments condemn Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin as two equally murderous variants of totalitarianism. The Russian government calls that comparison a "distortion" of history.
On August 17, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service issued a statement saying it had declassified documents showing that the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the Soviet Union's "only available means of self-defense."
Defending Stalin
The spy agency's demarche was just the latest in a series of Russian government statements that critics say appear to defend Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and justify actions he took shortly before and during World War II.
In early May, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu introduced legislation in parliament that would make it a crime to deny the Soviet victory in World War II.
Later in May, President Dmitri Medvedev issued a decree setting up a presidential commission to counter what he called attempts to "falsify history."
At a meeting in early July, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe passed a resolution designating August 23 --the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact--as a day of remembrance for the victims of both Stalinism and Nazism.
Russian delegates to the European security body walked out of the meeting, in protest. Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced the OSCE resolution as "an attempt to distort history with political goals," while Russia's parliament called it a "direct insult to the memory of millions" of Soviet soldiers who, in the words of the parliament, "gave their lives for the freedom of Europe from the fascist yoke."
Strange Position
Former independent Russian parliament Deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov says what he calls the "official" Russian position on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is "extremely strange."
Ryzhkov asks why today's Russia, which has a democratic constitution and new democratic legitimacy, should justify the division of Europe between Hitler and Stalin.
He says that this view is now included in Russian history text books and has caused "enormous moral damage" to Russia's reputation, particularly in the countries of Eastern Europe that were the main victims of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Ryzhkov says the only explanation for the Russian leadership's position on the issue is what he calls "sympathy for Stalin."
Public opinion surveys suggest many ordinary Russians share at least some of their government's views.
A poll conducted by the state-run VTsIOM agency, following the OSCE resolution condemning Stalinism and Nazism, found that 53 percent of the respondents across Russia viewed it negatively, while 11 percent viewed it positively and 21 percent viewed it neutrally. In addition, 59 percent of those polled said the resolution was aimed at undermining Russia's authority in the world and diminishing its contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Click here for the report. The huge fire northeast of Athens comes just two days after a major blaze in the capital's industrial zone.
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