October 2009

NEWS ANALYSIS and COMMENTS

 News ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Pres. Medvedev

When walking workward worldly Walden Warden, walking with washed up Willie Warfarin, wondered....

Vladimir Putin

 

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10-31-2009  RUSSIA CALLS FOR LIFTING US EMBARGO AGAINST CUBA By Sergei Sayenko Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Mikhail Savostianov said as he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday that Russia expected the US administration and President Barack Obama to take further steps to improve relations with Cuba up to lifting the economic embargo.

'Impossible’ Device Could Propel Flying Cars, Stealth Missiles 

By David Hambling  

        The Emdrive is an electromagnetic drive that would generate thrust from a closed system — “impossible” say some experts.

        To critics, it’s flat-out junk science, not even worth thinking about. But its inventor, Roger Shawyer, has doggedly continued his work. As Danger Room reported last year, Chinese scientists claimed to validate his math and were building their own version.

        Shawyer gave a presentation earlier this week on the Emdrive’s progress at the CEAS 2009 European Air & Space Conference. It answered few questions, but hinted at how the Emdrive might transform spaceflight — and warfare. If the technology works, that is.

        The heart of the Emdrive is a resonant, tapered cavity filled with microwaves. According to Shawyer, a relativistic effect generates a net thrust, an effect confirmed by various Emdrives he has built as demonstrations. Critics say that any thrust from the drive must come from another source. Shawyer is adamant that the measured thrust is not caused by other factors.

        While the argument over the drive’s impossibility continues, so does the engineering work. The problem is that nobody wants to talk about it. Even Shawyer gives little away.

        Last year, professor Yang Juan of the College of Astronautics at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an was happy to confirm that they were building an Emdrive which would be tested by the end of the year. But following the publication of this news in Danger Room, the situation changed. I was informed that the publicity was very unwelcome, especially any suggestion that there might be a military application. (Yang had previous published a study on the use of plasma as a weapon against low-orbiting satellites. [.pdf]) No further information has been forthcoming, and no Chinese papers have been published on the Emdrive, though Yang has recently published work on (unrelated)

  microwave plasma thrusters (.pdf).

        Shawyer asserts that work is also being carried out in France, Russia and in the United States by a major aerospace company. But he cannot provide details beyond vague promises of “significant progress [that] has been made in both theoretical and experimental work, within these groups.” He also asserts that the British National Space Centre is said to be reviewing the Emdrive. Again, no details.

        The CEAS 2009 paper outlines recent progress and plans. Previous thrusters generated relatively modest forces; the latest version now being built is based on a cooled superconductor and should generate more than 300 pounds of thrust for a 6-kilowatt input, Shawyer promises. (But does not yet appear to have done so.) The plan is to mount four of these thrusters on an unmanned demonstration vehicle that will weigh about 1,000 pounds. The craft will have no wings: It will be supported by the Emdrives and propelled by jet engines to about 230 knots. It will be capable of vertical takeoff and hovering silently in place. If successful, it will be adapted as a personal transport -– your very own flying car.

        In the longer run, perhaps 10 years, Shawyer envisages a hybrid spaceplane using Emdrive technology — see the photo above of a 2-meter scale model. The idea is a craft capable of making the 10,000-mile run from London to Sydney, Australia in under three hours … or taking a 40-ton payload on the moon in about four days.

        Aeronautical engineers have been dreaming of such a craft for decades; none have ever panned out. The theoretical advantage of the Emdrive spaceplane compared to rockets is that it allows a slow ascent with low acceleration rate. There is also no telltale rocket exhaust plume, and this may be the source of some of the interest. At present, the launch of a ballistic missile anywhere on Earth can be immediately spotted from space. An Emdrive-based launch system would be undetectable and could arrive from any direction, leaving the target of an attack no way of knowing who to retaliate against.

        This is the kind of factor that might drive governments to put money into Emdrive projects. An investment in contested science is not a  probable winner — but  the payoff could be a big one.

0-28-2009 Sologub and Kuranova are back

10-27-2009 Hello everyone, I hope that you are all well. Today is turning out to be weird.

10-24-2009 Guantanamo commander: I can empty prison in 10 days

10-22-2009 JAR2 asks that you please support the local population of Southend-on-Sea in their fight against the razing of the local market and the loss of a part of the town's heritage, dating back almost 2000 years .

Masonic Hand in Southend-on-Sea Market Closure? Is this Progress?

Closure of York Road Market, Southend-on-Sea
By Michael John Smith

        Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, based in Essex, a county in the UK, have made a decision to tear down half of the old historic part of the town, and to possibly replace it with modern buildings. The local radio station and the local newspaper are running campaigns to slow down the potential damage that is expected to be done to the town.
        The immediate threat is to the old Victorian covered market in York Road. The market traders were given only 3 days to get out of their shops and to vacate the premises. Many of these traders have been there for many years, and they are upset at the damage that is being done to their businesses and their futures. This is the response of the local government website. They claim that the market has become a hazard to the health and safety of the local resident's and even went so far as to commission a survey. However, the local government are responsible for the York Road Market, and they allowed it to deteriorate, deliberately, leading the inevitable demolition of the market.

        On 16 September 2003, the Council decided to restrict the leases of the market traders, so that they could be evicted quickly when a decision to demolish the market was taken. So it is clear that this plan has been in the works for quite some time.
        The Council is responsible for maintaining the market, but now, 6 years later, the Council have decided that "health & safety" issues mean that the market must be closed and all the traders thrown out onto the streets. I think this is only a trick. The real reason to to shut down the market is to enable the developers to make money.
        How many of the local Council are Freemasons, and have an interest with the contractors to make money out of the redevelopment of this part of the town? This is what the destruction of this old part of Southend really means to the Councilors - an opportunity to make profits for themselves.
       Another sad part of the story, and one the has international ramifications,  is that young Russian cadets, who regularly visit Southend-on-Sea,  from the famous sailing ship "The SS Sedov"  will be shocked to see that the Southend Council are tearing down this historic part of the town.

Local radio on the closure of the market

Responsible parties for the closure.  Are they all  Masons?

 

Photograph of the York Road Market a few hours before closure, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England October 17, 2009

The next day. The York Road Market Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England October 18, 2009

10.22.2009 Hello guys. I am terrible busy.

 

CIA Predator Crap

What are the risks of the C.I.A.'s covert drone program?
BY JANE MAYER
        On August 5th, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, could be seen reclining on the rooftop of his father-in-law's house, in Zanghara, a hamlet in South Waziristan.
        It was a hot summer night, and he was joined outside by his wife and his uncle, a medic; at one point, the remarkably crisp images showed that Mehsud, who suffered from diabetes and a kidney ailment, was receiving an intravenous drip.
        The video was being captured by the infrared camera of a Predator drone, a remotely controlled, unmanned plane that had been hovering, undetected, two miles or so above the house. Pakistan's Interior Minister, A. Rehman Malik, told me recently that Mehsud was resting on his back. Malik, using his hands to make a picture frame, explained that the Predator's targeters could see Mehsud's entire body, not just the top of his head. "It was a perfect picture," Malik, who watched the videotape later, said. "We used to see James Bond movies where he talked into his shoe or his watch. We thought it was a fairy tale. But this was fact!" The image remained just as stable when the C.I.A. remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator. Authorities watched the fiery blast in real time. After the dust cloud dissipated, all that remained of Mehsud was a detached torso. Eleven others died: his wife, his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, a lieutenant, and seven bodyguards.

Mossad/FBI Entrapment Op ("Spy" Catch)

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 19, 2009
Maryland Scientist Charged with Attempted Espionage    FBI Complaint PDF   FBI Complaint PDF Zipped
        A Maryland scientist who once worked in varying capacities for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been arrested for attempted espionage, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced today.

        A criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia charges Stewart David Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, with attempted espionage for knowingly and willfully attempting to communicate, deliver, and transmit classified information relating to the national defense of the United States to an individual that Nozette believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer. The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws in this case.

        Nozette was arrested earlier today by FBI agents and is expected to make his initial appearance tomorrow in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"The conduct alleged in this complaint is serious and should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our nation’s secrets for profit," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

        "Those who would put our nation’s defense secrets up for sale can expect to be vigorously prosecuted," said Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. "This case reflects our firm resolve to hold accountable any individual who betrays the public trust by compromising our national security for his or her own personal gain."

        "The FBI is committed to protecting the nation’s classified information and pursuing those who attempt to profit from its release or sale," said Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Nozette received a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from MIT in 1983, and worked at the White House on the National Space Council, Executive Office of the President, in 1989 and 1990. He developed the Clementine bi-static radar experiment that purportedly discovered water on the south pole of the moon. Nozette also worked at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from approximately 1990 to 1999 where he designed highly advanced technology. At the Department of Energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Department Top Secret and Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information clearances. Department of Energy clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.

        Nozette was also the President, Treasurer and Director of the Alliance for Competitive Technology (ACT), a non-profit corporation that he organized in March 1990. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his company ACT, entered into several agreements to develop advanced technology for the U.S. government. Nozette performed some of this research and development at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Virginia, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. From 1989 through 2006, Nozette held security clearances as high as Top Secret and had regular, frequent access to classified information and documents related to the U.S. national defense.

        According to the affidavit, on Sept. 3, 2009, Nozette was contacted via telephone by an individual purporting to be an Israeli intelligence officer, but who was in fact an undercover employee of the FBI (UCE). During that call, Nozette agreed to meet with the UCE later that day at a hotel in Washington D.C. According to the affidavit, Nozette met with the UCE that day and discussed his willingness to work for Israeli intelligence.

        Nozette allegedly informed the UCE that he had, in the past, held top security clearances and had access to U.S. satellite information. Nozette also allegedly said that he would be willing to answer questions about this information in exchange for money. The UCE explained to Nozette that the Israeli intelligence agency, or "Mossad," would arrange for a communication system so that Nozette could pass information to the Mossad in a post office box. Nozette agreed to provide regular, continuing information to the UCE and asked for an Israeli passport

        According to the affidavit, Nozette and the UCE met again on Sept. 4, 2009, in the same hotel. During the meeting, Nozette allegedly informed the UCE that, although he no longer had legal access to any classified information at a U.S. government facility, he could, nonetheless, recall the classified information to which he had been granted access, indicating that it was all still in his head. In the meeting, Nozette allegedly asked when he could expect to receive his first payment, specifying that he preferred to receive cash amounts "under ten thousand" so he didn’t have to report it. At the conclusion of this meeting, Nozette allegedly informed the UCE, "Well I should tell you my first need is that they should figure out how to pay me . . . they don't expect me to do this for free."

        On or about Sept. 10, 2009, undercover FBI agents left a letter in the designated post office box for Nozette. In the letter, the FBI asked Nozette to answer a list of questions concerning U.S. satellite information. The undercover agents also provided a $2,000 cash payment for Nozette. The serial numbers of the bills were recorded. Nozette retrieved the questions and the money from the post office the same day.

        On or about Sept. 16, 2009, Nozette was captured on videotape leaving a manila envelope in the designated post office box in the District of Columbia. The next day, FBI agents retrieved the sealed manila envelope that Nozette had dropped off and found, among other things, a one-page document containing answers to the questions posed by the undercover agents and an encrypted computer thumb drive. One of answers provided by Nozette contained information classified as Secret, which concerned capabilities of a prototype overhead collection system. In addition, Nozette allegedly offered to reveal additional classified information that directly concerned nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, and other major weapons systems.

        Also on or about Sept. 17, 2009, undercover FBI agents left a second letter in the post office box for Nozette. In the letter, the FBI asked Nozette to answer another list of questions concerning U.S. satellite information. The FBI also left a cash payment of $9,000 in the post office box. Nozette allegedly retrieved the questions and the money from the post office box later that same day.

        On or about October 1, 2009, Nozette was filmed on videotape leaving a manila envelope in the post office box. Later that day, FBI agents retrieved the manila envelope left by Nozette and found a second set of answers from him. The answers contained information classified as both Top Secret and Secret that concerned U.S. satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements of defense strategy.

        This investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with assistance from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

The prosecution is being handled by Trial Attorneys Deborah A. Curtis and Heather M. Schmidt, from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Asuncion, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

        The public is reminded that a criminal complaint contains mere allegations and that every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

09-1122  National Security Division

10.16.2009

Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini

Documents reveal Italian dictator got start in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5
By Tom Kington in Rome guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 October 2009 20.15 BST
        Benito Mussolini was paid £100 a week by MI5 to keep Italy in the first world war.
       History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has come to light: his brief career as a British agent.
        Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in politics in 1917 with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5.
        For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home.
       Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time.
        Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict. Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today."
        Hoare, later to become Lord Templewood, mentioned the recruitment in memoirs in 1954, but Martland stumbled on details of the payments for the first time while scouring Hoare's papers.
        As well as keeping the presses rolling at Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he edited, Mussolini also told Hoare he would send Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.
        "The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the £4m Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash," said Martland.
        "I have no evidence to prove it, but I suspect that Mussolini, who was a noted womaniser, also spent a good deal of the money on his mistresses."
        After the armistice, Mussolini began his rise to power, assisted by electoral fraud and blackshirt violence, establishing a fascist dictorship by the mid-1920s.
        His colonial ambitions in Africa brought him into contact with his old paymaster again in 1935. Now the British foreign secretary, Hoare signed the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy control over Abyssinia.
        There is no reason to believe the two men were friends, although Hoare did have an enduring love affair with Italy," said Martland, whose research is included in Christopher Andrew's history of MI5, Defence of the Realm, which was published last week.
        The unpopularity of the Hoare-Laval pact in Britain forced Hoare to resign. Mussolini, meanwhile, built on his new colonial clout to ally with Hitler, entering the second world war in 1940, this time to fight against the allies.
        Deposed following the allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Mussolini was killed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, by Italian partisans while fleeing Italy in an attempt to reach Switzerland two years later.
        Martland said: "Mussolini ended his life hung upside down in Milan, but history has not been kind to Hoare either, condemned as an appeaser of fascism alongside Neville Chamberlain."

10.15.2009

Obama CIA Ties?

By Sherwood Ross

Can President Obama be serious when he says he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize as “an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people of all nations”?

Among “all nations” does he include the people of Iraq? Polls show folks there overwhelmingly want the U.S. to get out. Apparently, they didn’t care for their dose of “American leadership.” Does Obama’s “all nations” include Okinawa, which the U.S. has occupied for 64 years and refuses to leave?

Does “all nations” include Diego Garcia, whose inhabitants the U.S. forced from their island homes in the Indian Ocean, (as Time magazine has reported,) and whose dogs we gassed for good measure? (President Bush later used that base to attack Afghanistan, the better to dominate the oil-rich Middle East.)

Since he’s been in office only a short time, when Obama speaks of “an affirmation of American leadership” is he referring to the eight years of warmongering by his predecessor George W. Bush, who tore up every international treaty he could lay his hands on? In fact, global public opinion polls identified Bush as one of the most feared public figures on the planet. What kind of “leadership” is it when one UN member invades another based on lies and kills a million of its people, steals it blind, and shatters its economy? Calling that “leadership” is a bit wide of the mark.

Perhaps Obama is referring to the “leadership” of his friend Bill Clinton, who let half a million Iraqi children starve to death during his White House watch and who inaugurated the rendition kidnappings of men off the streets of foreign countries---men who were subsequently tortured and denied legal rights and representation?

“Leaders,” of course, are supposed to have followers. But a CNN poll September 15th found that 58 percent of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan. That war is as illegal as the war in Iraq, yet President Obama is deliberating about whether to escalate it, not whether to end it.

Obama’s statement accepting the Nobel is as misleading as his remarks to the CIA last April 16th when he praised the Agency and hailed the U.S. as “a nation of laws” when today  it is, in fact, the world’s principal law-breaker. The fact is, the charismatic new president appears to see the world through the dark glasses of the CIA and has aligned himself with the Agency’s imperialist agenda. Given Obama’s past employment, this is not that odd.

According to Wikipedia, upon graduating from Columbia University, Obama for a year “held a position as a research associate” in Business International Corp., a CIA front organization. The company is alleged to have kindly paid off Obama’s college loans for him. Obama worked in BIC’s financial services division, where he edited “Financing Foreign Operations,” a global reference service, and wrote for “Business International Money Report,” a weekly financial newsletter.  According to an article in the October issue of Rock Creek Free Press, of Washington, D.C., reporter Wayne Madsen writes, “Through its contacts with leading liberals around the world, BIC sought to recruit those on the left as CIA agents and assets.” At any rate, the New York Times reported in 1977 that a BIC company official admitted providing “cover” for CIA employees.

The CIA, of course, has long been tied in with advancing the interests of the oil industry. Its Middle East station chief Kermit Roosevelt in 1953 stage-managed the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran after it nationalized its oil industry, as it had every right to do, especially when they were being cheated like mad.

As the CIA works largely under cover, many of its activities such as the torture in Iraq and Afghanistan prisons are concealed from public view. So Obama, as a former CIA asset, protects the Agency by not calling their alleged torturers to account, by withholding photographs of their nauseating handiwork, and by praising the bandits in public. One way to tell who really runs a country is to look to see which, if any, of its citizens are above the law. In America, those people are headquartered in Langley, Virginia.            #

(Sherwood Ross formerly reported for the Chicago Daily News, wire services, and national magazines. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com)

10-14-2009

Plea for Support: PLEASE HELP KEEP US AFLOAT 

10-12-2009

October Surprise: Peace Prize to a War Criminal
By Stephen Lendman
The Nobel Committee's tradition is long and inglorious, but for the well-informed no surprise. Consider its past honorees:
Henry Kissinger;
Shimon Peres;
Yitzhak Rabin;
Menachem Begin;
FW de Klerk;
Al Gore;
The Dalai Lama, a covert CIA asset;
Kofi Annan, a reliable imperial war supporter;
UN Peacekeeping (Paramilitary) Forces that foster more conflicts than they resolve;
Elie Wiesel, a hawkish Islamophobe;
Norman Borlaug, whose "green revolution" wheat strains killed millions;
Medecins Sans Frontieres, co-founded by rabid war hawk Bernard Kouchner, now France's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs;
Woodrow Wilson who broke his pledge to keep "us out of war,"
Jimmy Carter who backed an array of tyrants and drew the Soviets into its Afghan quagmire that took a million or more lives;
George C. Marshall, instrumental in creating NATO and waging war against North Korea;
Theodore Roosevelt who once said "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one;" and
other undeserving winners...."War is peace," what Orwell understood and why the award legitimizes wars and the leaders who wage them.
After the October 9 announcement, The New York Times quoted 2007 winner Al Gore saying it was "thrilling" without explaining it was as undeserved as his own. Writers Steven Erlanger and Sheryl Gay Stolberg called it a "surprise." For others it shocked and betrayed.
        Palestinian Muhammad al-Sharif asked: "Has Israel stopped building settlements? Has Obama achieved a Palestinian state yet?"
         Iyad Burnat, one of the West Bank's non-violent protest leaders, "started to go crazy" after hearing about the award. "I asked myself why. The Americans are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Palestine is still occupied....Why didn't (they) give the prize to (George Bush. He) worked very hard (for) eight years killing children, starting wars and supporting the occupation, and they gave the prize to (other choices). I think (the) prize makes the people more violent. Do you think that Obama can make peace....why didn't (they) wait until he actually made" it.
         Straddling both sides, The Times said that the "unexpected honor....elicited praise and puzzlement around the globe."
         It called it a rebuke of Bush's foreign policies instead of explaining it legitimizes wars and conflicts, the same ones Obama's pursuing more aggressively in Afghanistan and Pakistan under a general (Stanley McChrystal) James Petras calls a "notorious psychopath" - responsible for committing war crime atrocities when he headed the Pentagon's infamous Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). No matter, according to Erlanger and Stolberg's Times-speak:
         "Mr. Obama has generated considerable goodwill overseas (and) has made a series of speeches with arching ambition. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear weapons; reached out to the Muslim world (and) sought to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, at the expense of offending some of his Jewish supporters."
         In fact, his speeches are disingenuous and lie-filled. He disdains peace. The renamed "Global War on Terror" is now the "Overseas Contingency Operation." Torture remains official US policy. His administration reeks of Islamophobes. The Israeli Lobby remains comfortably dominant. Muslims are still target one. His ambition is global dominance. His method - imperial wars with a first-strike nuclear option. 

The Nobel Committee's Twisted Logic in Announcing the Award
         It reflects Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
     Fact Check:
        In less than nine months in office, Obama has been confrontational through destabilizing belligerence towards numerous countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, China, Occupied Palestine, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Somalia, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Honduras by deposing a democratically elected president and obstructing efforts to reinstate him.

        "Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."
     Fact Check:
        America has the world's largest, most threatening arsenal and global delivery systems. Besides Israel, it's the only major power with a first-strike nuclear policy against any country called a threat. Its drawdown plans will replace old weapons with better new ones, and so-called "missile defense" is solely for offense.
        "Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multinational diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions play."
    Fact Check:
        Obama is pursuing the same policies as George Bush:
permanent wars and occupations;
record amounts of military spending at a time America has no enemies;
supplying arms and munitions to rogue state allies;
confronting independent ones with sanctions, belligerent threats, and more war;
subverting the rule of law;
pursuing a global jihad against human rights and civil liberties;
using Security Council pressure and intimidation to enforce policy and block constructive measures through vetoes; and
overall continuing America's hegemonic pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary, including with nuclear weapons preemptively.
        Under Obama, "the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climate challenges the world is confronting."
    Fact Check:
        Obama's House-passed "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" is environmentally destructive, lets corporate polluters reap huge windfall profits by charging consumers more for energy and fuel, and creates new Wall Street bubble potential through carbon trading derivatives speculation.
        According to Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the "US stance retards progress at Bangkok climate talks" the way it's obstructed earlier efforts.
        "Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened."
    Fact Check:
        Obama's polices have weakened them at home and abroad. Torture remains official US policy. Muslims, Latino immigrants, and environmental and animal rights activists are repeated victims. So are peaceful protestors. Police state measures are still law and tough new ones are planned. Civil and human rights issues are nonstarters. Warrantless illegal spying continues. Health care reform schemes will ration a human right, and the new Swine Flu vaccines are covert bioweapons.
        "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future."
    Fact Check:
        Under Obama, growing millions in America face poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness, despair, ill health, and early deaths at a time of permanent wars.
        "For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely the international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman."
    Fact Check:
        Skirting the truth, the Committee's twisted logic picks honorees who should face prosecutions for their crimes.
        A 110-Year Tradition
        Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896) began it in 1901. Swedish- born, he was a wealthy 19th century chemist, engineer, dynamite inventor, armaments manufacturer, and war profiteer, later reinventing himself as a peacemaker.
        Past nominees included Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Tony Blair, Rush Limbaugh and George W. Bush. Mahatma Gandhi got four nominations but never won. Nor did three-time nominee Kathy Kelly and other deserving choices, passed over for war hawks like Henry Kissenger whose credentials include:
three - four million Southeast Asian deaths;
many tens of thousands more worldwide;
backing coups and despots;
stoking global conflict and violence; and
compiling an overall breathtaking criminal record.
Others like:
        Israeli leaders Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin matched him against Palestinian civilians;
Kofi Annan backed Western imperialism, years of genocidal Iraqi sanctions, the 2003 invasion and occupation, and the same lawlessness against Afghanistan; and
Al Gore, the 2007 choice, was infamous for putting politics above principles and made a career out of being pro-war, pro-business, anti-union, and no friend of the earth - credentials descriptive of Obama and his national security team, ideologically stacked with hawks.
As a result, American war making continues, sanctified and legitimized under Obama's peacemaker mantle. Or as CounterPunch's Alexander Cockburn put it in his October 10 "War and Peace" article:
        The award is "a twist on the Alger myth, inspiring to youth (and future Nobel hopefuls): you too can get to murder Filipinos, or Palestinians, or Vietnamese or Afghans and still win a Peace Prize. That's the audacity of hope at full stretch." Nobel hypocrisy also by scorning peace in favor of war. The tradition continues.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on Republic Broadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

10-12-2009

Former US President Wanted War Criminal, Current President Nobel Peace Prize Winner

By John Robles II

        I don’t get it. Do you? Maybe I missed something. Maybe you can inform me with a bit of inside information or news flash that I may have missed, bring me up to speed, enlighten my, what must be, oh so ignorant grasp of the facts. Maybe you can fill me in, bring me into the loop, inform me on what the great event was that I missed, something so monumentally Earth-shattering that must have been on such a scale that my missing it would mean that I had been living under a rock when it occurred. Surely it must have been some great history making event that warrants giving the new charismatic American President Barrack Obama the penultimate prize given to those who have made fundamental contributions to advancing world peace. Please somebody clue me in. WTF did he get it for?

        Is the Nobel Prize Committee now engaged in giving pre-emptive prizes? For are we not living in a pre-emptive world now? There were the pre-emptive wars launched by Obama’s predecessor, pre-emptive arrests, and torture, sanctioned and carried out by the same and continued by the Obama people. There are still hundreds locked up in the infamous, still as yet to be closed, Guantanamo Bay, “terrorist” torture factory. There are still close to nine-thousand Americans who have disappeared and are being held indefinitely because they opposed the status quo or dared to question 9-11 or the whole “War on Terror” global human rights, war crimes, fiasco. The “war” in Afghanistan continues to roll on with the “coalition” no better off than when they started the entire fiasco. Cuba is still dealing with a blockade. The entire global economic crisis, caused by the American Neo-Conservatives, and the Bush crime “family”, grows worse by the day.

        So please tell me. What has Obama actually “done”? I know I have missed something. I must have. There can be no other explanation.

        The jury was out for me when it came to Obama. Of course like the rest of the world I was hopeful and trying hard to believe all his rhetoric about “Change”, but I have been holding my tongue and waiting for him to actually do something before forming my opinion about him.

        My own thinking and my personal litmus test was whether part of the Zbingnew Berzhinsky plan of conquering Russia, by among other things, surrounding her with US missile batteries, was going to be allowed to take place. Lo and behold my dear reader it has.

        So what has Obama actually done, please oh please tell me because I am mired down in disappointment and worse yet, disillusion, in thinking about what he has “NOT” done.

        Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great that after having a war criminal in charge of the US for eight years it is simply splendiferous that the US has a Nobel Prize winner as president, and I, like you, also counted on “change”, but what in fact is the real change?

        I just don’t get it. I know what Obama has not done. You and I are living with the effects of his inactivity every day. I have compiled a short list. So without further ado, here is my list of why Obama does not deserve the “Nobel PEACE” Prize. It is because of all these reasons that his receiving it has actually cheapened and lessened the meaning of the prize, and that is tragic.               

1.     Obama has not gone after anyone in the Bush Administration for war crimes and the slaughter of close to three million human beings. Every death caused by their aggressive war (a crime against humanity) no doubt punishable and chargeable as murder.

2.     He has not opened a real investigation into the events of 09-11-2001. Surely something completely worthwhile as the 9-11 commission just towed the previous president’s line.

3.     He has not gone after anyone for absconding with $700,000,000,000.00, one of the last crimes of the Bush Administration. The catalyst for our current economic conditions,

4.     He has not pulled all US forces out of Iraq or Afghanistan or stopped these wars of aggression.

5.     He has not extended habeas corpus rights to detainees in the “war on terror”.

6.     He has not cancelled plans for a missile shield around Russia, just made them more mobile.

7.     He has not captured or killed Tom Ossman, ex CIA agent, Ossama Bin Laden.

8.     He has not closed the illegal prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, nor released those being held there for “preventive” reasons.

9.     He has not gone after Blackwater or Halliburton for their crimes against humanity.

10.    He has not done away with unconstitutional provisions in the “Patriot” Act, which strip many basic fundamental human rights from US Citizens.

11.   He has done nothing to reduce the “Police State” tactics used by the US to control almost every facet of life, from racial profiling to preventive detention to preventive execution sought against those illegally held in Guantanamo.

12.   He has not prosecuted anyone for torture or the crimes against humanity associated with torture and extraordinary rendition programs.

13.   He has not dealt with the TSA no-fly list or given justification why over one million Americans are on it, most of whom are average innocent citizens.

14.   He has not made corporations or the rich liable for their share of the tax burden.

15.   He has not solved the world economic crisis brought on by US crimes and policies nor has he caused economic prosperity in the US.

16.   He has not done anything to stop nuclear proliferation or the spread and escalation of weapons of mass destruction.

17.   He has not solved the Palestinian issue or caused peace between those holding different religious beliefs worldwide, the biggest source throughout history for wars and massive casualties.

18.   He has not gone after Georgia in any way for attacking, with US support, the peaceful citizens yearning to breathe free of South Ossetia, and murdering over a thousand of them.

19.   Now moving into internal US policy. First on this list would be the fact that he has not brought about true racial equality.

20.   He has done nothing to reinstate Affirmative Action programs or stop racial profiling as US Government policy at all levels.

21.   He has not provided health care to Americans or solved inequalities in this area.

22.   He has not solved educational disparities and inequality in the sphere of education.

23.   He has not solved the housing problem in the US or provided all Americans with homes.

24.   He has not done away with the death penalty or looked into why more than 1 in 100 Americans, or approximately 40,000,000, are in prison.

25.   He has done nothing to help the poor or the destitute.

26.   He has done nothing to help the American Indians who remain marginalized, forgotten, and prisoners in their own nation.

27.   He has done nothing to help those wrongfully profiled or suffering persecution because of Machiavellian US government policies, and paranoid prejudices, including yours truly.

28.   He has not made the CIA, the FBI, or US “Intelligence” accountable or more transparent.

29.   He has not separated Church and State nor done anything to advance the freedoms of those holding “marginal” faiths or beliefs.

30.   He has not caused or fostered policies that have led to great Scientific or Medical advances.

31.   He has not helped children or advanced children’s rights.

32.   He has done nothing to reduce the “police state” or reduce the level of confrontational mentality and fear the police use in their attempts to control the masses.

33.   He has done nothing earth shaking to reduce consumption or the creation of green house gasses and or pollution. Nor has he been instrumental in bring about the wide use of alternative energy sources.

34.   He has done nothing to advance freedom of speech rights, allow peaceful protest, protect journalists, or allow real dissent.

35.   He has done nothing huge to protect or benefit US soldiers and their families who continue to pay the ultimate price for misguided US policies.

        So what has Obama really done? We can all agree that he has opened dialogues with Russia and dozens of other countries, but this should be what any president must do, however after eight years of Bush and his isolationist pre-emptive war strategy, simple normal diplomatic relations seems to be something so out of the norm that perhaps in our 10 second attention span world this should merit recognition.

        So what has he really done? He has through clever marketing, image control, propaganda, clever speeches, and his own personality and intelligence given the world HOPE! Hope for change. Hope for a peaceful world. Hope for justice. Hope for accountability. Hope for beauty and the propagation and survival of the human race. Hope for change.

         What are we going to say when change never occurs? Where is the outcry that promised change has not occurred? Will it not be the penultimate crime against humanity to give the world and all its billions of inhabitants HOPE and then dash that hope against the rocks and corpse ridden landscape that is the status quo?

        For this humble nobody of a writer the jury is still out on Obama. I am still waiting for the promised “CHANGE”. So far, it is hard to fathom.

Birthday Wishes to VOR's Venerable  Carl Watts

10-06-2009 ÑËÓÆÁÀ ÂÍÅØÍÅÉ ÐÀÇÂÅÄÊÈ ÐÎÑÑÈÉÑÊÎÉ ÔÅÄÅÐÀÖÈÈ  (External Intelligence Service of the Russia Federation)
ÀÐÕÈÂ ÑÂÐ ÐÎÑÑÈÈ (Archive SVR Russia)
Äëÿ ñëóæåáíîãî ïîëüçîâàíèÿ (For Official Use)
Ñáîðíèê äîêóìåíòîâ (Collection of Documents)
(1935-1945)People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the USSR Special Report Top Secret  This is an English translation of some of the secret documents released by the SVR

10-05-2009 12:32

!!!WE WON!!!

10-05-2009 Later today there will be a small watershed moment for worker rights, for employee rights, for any sense of anti-corruption, and for immigrant rights here in Russia. In a court in the City of Lubertsy, a judge may decide the case of a foreign employee who spent thirteen years working for a firm which was taken over by local criminals and then unjustly let go after having his wages held back, not being paid for several months, and then being made the target of a campaign of character assassination, threats and intimidation after taking them to court. Today may be the final day in court. The result will be a very good indicator as to the climate that exists in Russia for foreign companies, foreign workers, honest individuals, and how serious the government is on fighting corruption and banditism. I will keep you all informed.  Unfortunately the outcome does not look very good at this point but we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that truth wins and that in the land of the Proletariat the worker still has some rights.

EU "Home Office" to organise intelligence sharing New Intelligence Agency: COSI (Part of Lisbon Treaty)

10-01-2009  Hello all. I am terribly horribly busy, so sorry for not answering everyone, will do this weekend. Thanks.

09-25-2009 CIA: Operation Gladio ????   In 1996, a car crashed in the town of Susurluk, in Turkey. The car contained a top police chief and a top politician. The car also contained a man called Abdullah Çatli, who was a drug trafficker and contract killer with links to fascism and the CIA's Operation Gladio.

 

09-22-2009  CIA EXPANDS PRESENCE IN AFGHANISTAN

Birthday Wishes to Mike Smith

09-22-2009 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOES OUT TO MY FRIEND MIKE SMITH))) HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE ))) MAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE))) e-mail Mike with your wishes parellic@googlemail.com

CIA Launching Surge

09-20-2009 CIA launching ’surge’ of spies into Afghanistan

09-19-2009 Ä.Ðîãîçèí: Çàÿâëåíèå Á.Îáàìû ïî ÏÐÎ íàäî ÷èòàòü ìåæäó ñòðîê

Ä.Ìåäâåäåâ ñ÷èòàåò íåïðàâèëüíûì íàçûâàòü Â.Ïóòèíà "øïèîíîì"

09-18-2009 Came out of work at one of my jobs a couple hours ago and found that someone had shattered my windshield, since I have no more enemies, we believe it can only be one guy, how about it Yura Sologub? I think it is about time you were, let's say, arrested? I am really tired of this guy. To put it mildly. They danced around on the hood too. So who is going to pay for the damage? Why me of course. This is Russia as everybody tells me. I wanted to go to the police but everyone says, this is Russia. They won't do anything and in reality that is true. So what can I do? Nothing. If anyone has any information please e-mail me. This happened in front of the Vechni Ogna in Lubertsy on the 18th of September between 20:00 and 21:37.  I can not afford to fix it so if anyone out there would be kind enough to help me out I would appreciate it very much. E-Mail me at jar2@list.ru. If you are new to jar2 read the archives about my running legal battle with a two bit hood Yura Sologub, and my former employer Center Razvita Lichnosti, in Malahovka, which was a BKC school which was taken over, where I worked for 13 years and in the end was made to work like a slave and when I demanded my pay I was illegally terminated. I took them to court to try to get part of the 684,00.00 rubles they owe me, but will they pay? No, everyone says. This is Russia.  I follow the law and lead an honest life and this is what I get. Wonderful. So look. A picture is worth a thousand words. What are you going to tell me? This is Russia? Beautiful. By the way this happened on the CIA's birthday. Conspiracy? No. This is Russia.  I still love it here but things are getting bad. Or I should say they have been bad for quite a while. I know I should shut up but I am tired of shutting up. I wonder how much this cost them? Am I afraid? I guess I should be intimidated but I am not. I am disgusted. Do I really think anyone cares or that anyone is going to help? No I don't. Do I think certain people are laughing about this and I am helping their cause? Maybe. Could it be someone down at the Embassy? Maybe. Could it be associated with my site? I don't know. Could the bomb scare in front of my window last week which I was told to be quiet about and which had half the neighborhood in a complete lock down have something to do with this? Maybe. Is someone trying to scare me? I think, definitely. Am I? No. It takes a lot to scare a Taino Indian. A Have a nice day)))

09-18-2009 Íàöðàçâåäêà ÑØÀ íàçâàëà Ðîññèþ ñòðàíîé, óãðîæàþùåé åå èíòåðåñàì   38°56′47″N 77°09′32″W  Âëàäèìèð ÂÎÅÉÊÎÂ, âåòåðàí ðîññèéñêîé âîåííîé ðàçâåäêè, ïîëêîâíèê çàïàñà: «Èõ ðàçâåä÷èêè ïðîñòî õîòÿò äåíåã» -  16 àìåðèêàíñêèõ ñïåöñëóæáàõ ÑØÀ ðàáîòàþò áîëåå 200 òûñÿ÷ ÷åëîâåê. Áîëåå 100 òûñÿ÷ èç íèõ íàöåëåíû íà ðàáîòó â Ðîññèè è âîêðóã íåå. Ãîäîâîé áþäæåò àìåðèêàíñêîé ðàçâåäêè íà 2010 ãîä - áîëåå $75 ìëðä.  ïîëòîðà ðàçà áîëüøå, ÷åì âåñü âîåííûé áþäæåò Ðîññèè! Îòêðîþ âàì ñåêðåò: àìåðèêàíñêîé òåìàòèêîé ñåãîäíÿ çàíèìàþòñÿ ïðèìåðíî äâà äåñÿòêà ñîòðóäíèêîâ Âíåøíåé ðàçâåäêè ÐÔ è Ãëàâíîãî ðàçâåäóïðàâëåíèÿ Ãåíøòàáà. ×óâñòâóåòå ðàçíèöó?

09-16-2009 Message from John: I am working four jobs to try to make ends meet which is why I don't have much time to post and do everything I do here. I am sorry if I have neglected some of you,  you are still dear to me but unfortunately in this world we all have to worry about making money first, and that has become quite the headache. Have a nice day.

Fascists Becoming a Problem in Britain

09-13-2009  Äåñÿòü ñàìûõ äîðîãîñòîÿùèõ êàòàñòðîô â èñòîðèè

Minister warns of 1930s-style fascists on Britain's streets

London mosque is targeted on anniversary of 9/11 attacks

9-11: An Inside Job. The Damning Proof? Unignited Thermite

09-11-2009 The World Trade Center Was Brought Down in a Controlled Demolition

09-09-2009 Their paths crossed in a strange Darwinian twist of fate, the retelling of which deserved the gravity of tales told during the greatest ages of literature, a story more akin to the romantic classics of those bygone days, ages ago, than to the hyper speed 5 second attention span media overload that was the world of 2009.

       The accused KGB spy who was living alone, lonely and heartbroken, trying to cope with a life that had been shattered, struggling to right the wrongs meted out on him by an overzealous agency that had been hell bent on justifying their own existence by proving there were spies to be had and ones to be caught and not caring if the innocent were made into the guilty or whether hundreds of lives were destroyed in the process, sat and thought. Or had it been something more sinister? Was the director of MI-5 herself a plant? Was she an agent groomed from the very day of her recruitment in the hot humid climes of India during the waning days of British Empire, planted in order to get to the position of director, with access to the real secrets of the crown? Secrets she would give to her controllers, ideologically holding views akin to hers on the fairness and equality of women, and who convinced her with the very unarguable justice and equality behind their ideology that it was the right thing to do.
       The Chilean illegal, had been put on ice in the vineyards of Northern Chile since her last mission and had lost hope of being recalled, becoming a lush in the process of trying to forget the disaster that had been her last mission, was now in England, hiding in the bushes waiting for the signal that meant it was time to go, to activate, to execute plan G, it would be soon now, thought the little Chilean with a penchant for forbidden grapes, very soon…..

09-07-2009 Question 9-11 and lose your job, your citizenship, your freedom or your life. Just like thousands before. 

09-04-2009  CIA Conducted Illegal Human Experimentation  Human experimentation without consent has been prohibited in any setting since 1947, when the Nuremberg Code, which resulted from the prosecution of Nazi doctors, set down 10 sacrosanct principles. The code states that voluntary consent of subjects is essential and that all unnecessary physical and mental suffering should be avoided. The Geneva conventions also ban medical experiments on prisoners and prisoners of war, which they describe as "grave breaches". Under CIA guidelines, doctors and psychologists were required to be present during the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees.

CIA Calls for Killing 100,000 Muslims 

08-29-2009 Federal / Military covert testing of through-the-wall infrasound weapons on American Citizens

08-28-2009 Bush is back in the news with another petty worthless mean deed. Refuses to attend Kennedy funeral.

UN envoy slams 'entrenched' racism in Australia

Ted Kennedy Passes Away/CIA Inspector General's Report

08-27-2009 CIA Inspector General's Report on Torture and Interrogation    PDF    ZIPPED    Top Secret, Heavily Redacted

CIA: Yet another torture technique

Ted Kennedy Dies at 77 Obama calls Kennedy 'greatest senator of our time'

CIA Secret Prison in Lithuania

08-23-2009 CIA Operated Secret Prison in Vilnius Lithuania

CIA Used Mock Executions as a Tool  

American HATE America The Violent - 1969?   Arthur Schlesinger Jr. “We are today the most frightening people on this planet. The ghastly things we do to our own people, the ghastly things we do to other people, these must at least compel us to look searchingly at ourselves and our society before hatred and violence rushes on to more evil, and finally tear our nation apart. . . . we cannot blame the epidemic of murder at home on deranged and solitary individuals, separate from the rest of us. For these individuals are plainly weak and suggestible men stamped by our society with a birth rite of hatred and a compulsion toward violence. We must recognize, I believe that the evil is in us, that it springs from some dark intolerable tension in our history and our institutions. It is almost as though some primal curse had been fixed on our nation. We are a violent people with a violent history, and the instinct for violence has seeped into the bloodstream of our national life.”

NATO and US Pentagon Intensify Plans For Global Military Supremacy: U.S., NATO Could Deploy Mobile Missiles Launchers To Europe and NASA May Be Militarized

American Political Debate? Heil Hitler screamed at Jews?

I am not making this stuff up people

Top  50 War Criminals

Top 50 War Criminals: After Downing Street has compiled, in hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve, a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals.  As a bonus: Nancy (Give up your kids as collateral) Pelosi Is an Expert at 'Drowning Out Opposing Views'

The Russian mafia was formed under the thieves law or vory v zakone in 1924 by prisoners of Russian gulags. These criminals came together to form a society that could more effectively carry out conspiracies and control the region, they were not a blood family but merely an organization. The Russian Mafia is a very secretive mob. If a member snitches about a crime not only will he be killed but his entire family as well

Moscow CIA OC Officer Kyle Hatcher's Cover Blown by Johnson
08-18-2009 Kyle Hatcher first Secretary of the US Embassy in Moscow and CIA OC officer, whose official responsibilities include liaising with members of the Russian religious community, including the highest levels of the Russian Orthodox Church and the heads of the Jewish and Muslim communities, has been caught engaged in sex with various prostitutes by unknown individuals who filmed him in the act. CIA apologists claim that due to his legend he could not possibly be CIA but upon attempting to verify his legend it comes up hollow. Congratulations to the CIA on this one, once again it goes to show that when it comes to HUMIT operations and million dollar training, the CIA can't control their baser functions namely keeping their Johnsons under control. Kyle Hatcher and his little friend is our outed CIA agent of the month.      Video Here      Photo Here    

Postscript: The real issue here is not the fact that he was engaged in illicit sex during his free time but that he was apparently unaware for hours and perhaps days or months that he was being followed, video taped and his cell phone conversations were being recorded. As the official CIA resident he should have been aware and have taken counter measures. Such entrapment and "honey trap" operations are common and are usually used to blackmail individuals of interest. Apparently Mr. Hatcher was not blackmailable, or was of no interest to those who filmed him any longer.

08-19-2009 On Dec. 4, 2001, five members of a Las Vegas-based charter crew were detained by Russian authorities after they landed without visas in Petropavlovsk. The remote Russian city, located on the Kamchatka peninsula and surrounded by active volcanoes, is nine time zones east of Moscow and cannot be reached by road.

 

The Russian Ship SS Sedov, a regular visitor to Southend-on-Sea