No Agenda Episode 594 - "Tears Will Come"

TODAY
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- Micky's Show
  - Gühlen is a Sufi
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- Olympics
  - Women's Team Persuit Speed Skating - Wow.
  - NBC costas ski champ throwing cue cards
  - costas Mikaela Shiffrin
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    - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:03
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- Whatsapp worth more than the entire debt of Detroit
- 7,500 stray dogs, 18,000 cats roam Detroit streets, MSU researcher says
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- Multiple emails about the heart attack gun missing me
- BadChad's take on Shit Magnetism
  - AC-
  - On the last show you told the story about your trip to the theatre and
  - the unfortunate demise of the patron nearby. Since this has occurred to
  - you several times in various settings I thought I should tell you about
  - Shit Magnetism.
  - In the Emergency Medicine world, Shit Magnetism is a physical property
  - of an individual who is seemingly ever present for disaster. We
  - frequently notice this early on, especially in the case of Paramedic
  - students. We are only with them for a couple months while they intern so
  - when we notice a sudden uptick in f*d calls when they are present we
  - consider them a "Shit Magnet". For instance we have a Shit Magnet
  - student currently riding with some of my friends across town. Since he
  - got there they've run three hangings, a couple cardiogenic arrests and a
  - kid who self-immolated. There are medics who are perpetual shit magnets.
  - Always on the worst calls.
  - The inverse of this is a "White Cloud", or a person when present,
  - provides shit repulsion. Their calls are generally mundane and sometimes
  - he students end up having their internships extended for lack of
  - quality experience.
  - You my friend, may be a Shit Magnet.
  - This is neither blessing nor curse. Some Shit Magnets are destined to
  - just to Bear Witness. Some are destined to intervene. Shit magnetism is
  - independent of personal feeling on the subject.
  - Knowledge is power though. You will define how you use your shit
  - magnetism. Personally I'd get familiar with CPR and the use of AED's,
  - pay attention to hotel floor plan exit diagrams, and read that little
  - tri-fold card in the airplane seat-back. But then again, you have Micky
  - and based on your description of her actions at the incident she sounds
  - like a solid incident manager. That by the way, was HOT.
  - -BC
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- Outernet sats
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 17:18
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- Coming Soon: Free Internet From Space - NationalJournal.com
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:19
  - If all goes according to plan, North Koreans will soon have free, uncensored Internet provided by satellites the size of toaster ovens.
  - Related StoriesThat's part of a project called Outernet, which hopes to launch hundreds of tiny satellites'--known as CubeSats'--to provide Internet to every person on Earth. Forty percent of the world's people currently don't have access to the Web. In a little more than a year, Outernet plans to have a fleet of 24 satellites operational and testing to pave the way for a globe-spanning network.
  - The satellites won't be providing conventional Internet right away. They'll initially be used for one-way communication to provide services like emergency updates, news, crop prices, and educational programs. Users will help determine what content is offered.
  - The project's backers say knowledge is a human right'--one they intend to provide even in countries where dictators have thus far limited access. "We exist to support the flow of independent news, information, and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies," said Peter Whitehead, president of the Media Development Investment Fund, Outernet's backer. "It enables fuller participation in public life, holds the powerful to account and protects the rights of the individual."
  - It will be at least five years before Outernet can offer the more interactive Web as we know it, which allows users to both access information and upload it, said Syed Karim, MDIF's director of innovation.
  - Worldwide Internet could be available sooner, Karim said, if telecom giants invested in a few mega-capacity satellites like North America's ViaSat-1. Three years and $12 billion is all it would take to get the job done, he estimated. "We don't have $12 billion, so we'll do as much as we can with CubeSats and broadcast data," Karim said.
  - How much will it cost? Putting a 10x10x10-centimeter payload into orbit runs more than $100,000. A 34x10x10 satellite'--the biggest unit Outernet is considering'--costs more than $300,000 to launch. Now, multiply that by hundreds of satellites. "We want to stay as small as possible, because size and weight are directly related to dollars," Karim said. "Much of the size is dictated by power requirements and the solar panels needed satisfy those requirements."
  - To determine the range and size of its global fleet, Outernet will have to determine the gain on its signal. A higher gain would lower the satellite's reach but provide faster speeds. The first fleet's testing will help determine the right balance.
  - While Outernet's engineers test and prepare for launch, they're seeking support from those who believe in their cause. In addition to traditional donation sources like Paypal, they're also accepting online currencies like bitcoin and Dogecoin (bitcoin blockchains are among the initial services the one-way signals will offer). They're also asking NASA to let them test their technology on the International Space Station.
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SnowJob
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- Daring Fireball: On the Timing of iOS's SSL Vulnerability and Apple's 'Addition' to the NSA's PRISM Program
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 15:17
  - Saturday, 22 February 2014Jeffrey Grossman, on Twitter:
  - I have confirmed that the SSL vulnerability was introduced in iOS 6.0. It is not present in 5.1.1 and is in 6.0.
  - iOS 6.0 shipped on 24 September 2012.
  - According to slide 6 in the leaked PowerPoint deck on NSA's PRISM program, Apple was ''added'' in October 2012.
  - These three facts prove nothing; it's purely circumstantial. But the shoe fits.
  - Sure would be interesting to know who added that spurious line of code to the file. Conspiratorially, one could suppose the NSA planted the bug, through an employee mole, perhaps. Innocuously, the Occam's Razor explanation would be that this was an inadvertent error on the part of an Apple engineer. It looks like the sort of bug that could result from a merge gone bad, duplicating the goto fail; line.
  - Once in place, the NSA wouldn't even have needed to find the bug by manually reading the source code. All they would need are automated tests using spoofed certificates that they run against each new release of every OS. Apple releases iOS, the NSA's automated spoofed certificate testing finds the vulnerability, and boom, Apple gets ''added'' to PRISM. (Wasn't even necessarily a fast turnaround '-- the NSA could have discovered the vulnerability over the summer, while iOS 6 was in developer program beta testing.)
  - Or, maybe nothing, and this is all a coincidence.
  - I see five levels of paranoia:
  - Nothing. The NSA was not aware of this vulnerability.The NSA knew about it, but never exploited it.The NSA knew about it, and exploited it.NSA itself planted it surreptitiously.Apple, complicit with the NSA, added it.Me, I'll go as far as #3.1 In fact, I think that's actually the optimistic scenario '-- because we know from the PRISM slides that the NSA claims some ability to do what this vulnerability would allow. So if this bug, now closed,2 is not what the NSA was exploiting, it means there might exist some other vulnerability that remains open.
- Why is Apple using goto's?
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:51
  - Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
  - Like everything else on the iPhone, the critical crypto flaw announced in iOS 7 yesterday turns out to be a study in simplicity and elegant design: a single spurious ''goto'' in one part of Apple's authentication code that accidentally bypasses the rest of it.
  - Apple released iOS 7.0.6 yesterday to patch the bug in its implementation of SSL encryption '-- the internet's standard defense against eavesdropping and web hijacking. The bug essentially means that when you're e-mailing, tweeting, using Facebook or checking your bank account from a shared network, like a public WiFi or anything tapped by the NSA, an attacker could be listening in, or even maliciously modifying what goes to your iPhone or iPad.
  - But the terse description in Apple's announcement yesterday had some of the internet's top crypto experts wondering aloud about the exact nature of the bug. Then, as they began learning the details privately, they retreated into what might be described as stunned silence. ''Ok, I know what the Apple bug is,'' tweeted Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins. ''And it is bad. Really bad.''
  - By this morning, the details had surfaced on Hacker News, and Adam Langley, a web encryption expert at Google, posted a detailed breakdown of the bug based on his reading of Apple's published source code.
  - Some software bugs are infinitely subtle and complicated. Others are comprehensible almost at a glance to anyone who dabbled in BASIC as a kid. The iOS 7 bug is in the latter group.
  - Did you see it? This function is called when a iPhone connects to an encrypted site over SSL: it's meant to verify that the encryption key is being vouched for '-- digitally signed '-- by the operator of the website.
  - But notice the two ''goto fail'' lines, one after the other. The first one belongs there. The second is a typo. That extra, duplicative line diverts the program's execution, like a bypass stent, right past a critical authentication check. The part where the digital signature is actually checked is dead code, never reached.
  - The issue, Langley confirms, is indeed fixed in the new iOS 7.0.6 (which you should install, if you're using iOS 7.) An update to iOS 6 pushed yesterday fixes the bug there as well. Reportedly, OS X 10.9.1 is still affected by the vulnerability.
  - Using ''goto'' statements in any form has long been considered a poor programming practice, though everyone does it anyway.
  - The breathtaking simplicity of what's already being called #gotofail is spawning Snowden Era speculation that the bug was no accident at all. Google's Langley is having none of that.
  - ''I believe that it's just a mistake, he writes, ''and I feel very bad for whomever might have slipped in an editor and created it.''
  - You can test if you're vulnerable at GotoFail.com.
- Apple's SSL/TLS bug
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: Marco.org
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:44
  - Yesterday, Apple pushed a rather spooky security update for iOS that suggested that something was horribly wrong with SSL/TLS in iOS but gave no details. Since the answer is at the top of the Hacker News thread, I guess the cat's out of the bag already and we're into the misinformation-quashing stage now.
  - So here's the Apple bug:
  - static OSStatusSSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchange(SSLContext *ctx, bool isRsa, SSLBuffer signedParams, uint8_t *signature, UInt16 signatureLen){ OSStatus err; ... if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &serverRandom)) != 0) goto fail; if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &signedParams)) != 0) goto fail; goto fail; if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.final(&hashCtx, &hashOut)) != 0) goto fail; ...fail: SSLFreeBuffer(&signedHashes); SSLFreeBuffer(&hashCtx); return err;}(Quoted from Apple's published source code.)
  - Note the two goto fail lines in a row. The first one is correctly bound to the if statement but the second, despite the indentation, isn't conditional at all. The code will always jump to the end from that second goto, err will contain a successful value because the SHA1 update operation was successful and so the signature verification will never fail.
  - This signature verification is checking the signature in a ServerKeyExchange message. This is used in DHE and ECDHE ciphersuites to communicate the ephemeral key for the connection. The server is saying ''here's the ephemeral key and here's a signature, from my certificate, so you know that it's from me''. Now, if the link between the ephemeral key and the certificate chain is broken, then everything falls apart. It's possible to send a correct certificate chain to the client, but sign the handshake with the wrong private key, or not sign it at all! There's no proof that the server possesses the private key matching the public key in its certificate.
  - Since this is in SecureTransport, it affects iOS from some point prior to 7.0.6 (I confirmed on 7.0.4) and also OS X (confirmed on 10.9.1). It affects anything that uses SecureTransport, which is most software on those platforms although not Chrome and Firefox, which both use NSS for SSL/TLS. However, that doesn't mean very much if, say, the software update systems on your machine might be using SecureTransport.
  - I coded up a very quick test site at https://www.imperialviolet.org:1266. Note the port number (which is the CVE number), the normal site is running on port 443 and that is expected to work. On port 1266 the server is sending the same certificates but signing with a completely different key. If you can load an HTTPS site on port 1266 then you have this bug.
  - Because the certificate chain is correct and it's the link from the handshake to that chain which is broken, I don't believe any sort of certificate pinning would have stopped this. Also, this doesn't only affect sites using DHE or ECDHE ciphersuites - the attacker gets to choose the ciphersuite in this case and will choose the one that works for them.
  - Also, this doesn't affect TLS 1.2 because there's a different function for verifying the different ServerKeyExchange message in TLS 1.2. But, again, the attacker can choose any version that the client will accept. But if the client only enables TLS 1.2 then it appears that would workaround this issue. Likewise, if the client only enabled the plain, RSA ciphersuites then there's no ServerKeyExchange and that should also work around this issue. (Of the two, the former workaround is much more preferable.)
  - Based on my test site, iOS 7.0.6 does fix the issue but OS X 10.9.1 is still affected. (Update: it looks like the bug was introduced in 10.9 for OS X but existed in at least some versions of iOS 6. iOS 6.1.6 was released yesterday to fix it.)
  - This sort of subtle bug deep in the code is a nightmare. I believe that it's just a mistake and I feel very bad for whomever might have slipped in an editor and created it.
  - Here's a stripped down that code with the same issue:
  - extern int f();int g() { int ret = 1; goto out; ret = f();out: return ret;}If I compile with -Wall (enable all warnings), neither GCC 4.8.2 or Clang 3.3 from Xcode make a peep about the dead code. That's surprising to me. A better warning could have stopped this but perhaps the false positive rate is too high over real codebases? (Thanks to Peter Nelson for pointing out the Clang does have -Wunreachable-code to warn about this, but it's not in -Wall.)
  - Maybe the coding style contributed to this by allowing ifs without braces, but one can have incorrect indentation with braces too, so that doesn't seem terribly convincing to me.
  - A test case could have caught this, but it's difficult because it's so deep into the handshake. One needs to write a completely separate TLS stack, with lots of options for sending invalid handshakes. In Chromium we have a patched version of TLSLite to do this sort of thing but I cannot recall that we have a test case for exactly this. (Sounds like I know what my Monday morning involves if not.)
  - Code review can be effective against these sorts of bug. Not just auditing, but review of each change as it goes in. I've no idea what the code review culture is like at Apple but I strongly believe that my colleagues, Wan-Teh or Ryan Sleevi, would have caught it had I slipped up like this. Although not everyone can be blessed with folks like them.
  - Lastly, there was a lot of discussion yesterday that Apple missed checking the hostname in the certificate. It's true that curl on the OS X command line oddly accepts HTTPS connections to IP addresses when the IP address isn't in the certificate, but I can't find that there's anything more than that and Safari doesn't have that problem.
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- Oxford Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:46
  - The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is Britain's second oldest University Union (only the Cambridge Union Society is older), and has gained a worldwide reputation for the cut and thrust of its debate, proving a valuable training ground for many future politicians from Britain and other countries.
  - The Oxford Union Society is a sister organisation of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium.
  - Status and membership[edit]The Oxford Union is an unincorporated association, holding its property in trust in favour of its objectives and members, and governed by its rules (which form a multi-partite contract between the members).
  - Since its foundation, it has been independent of the University: historically, this was because the Victorian University restricted junior members from discussing certain issues (for example, theology). Despite such restrictions since being lifted, it has remained entirely separate from the University, and is constitutionally bound to remain so.
  - Only members of Oxford University are eligible to become life members of the Union, but students at certain other educational institutions are entitled to join for the duration of their time in Oxford. These institutions are:[1]
  - Shorter membership is also extended to those participating in some visiting study programmes in Oxford.
  - Residential memberships are available to Oxford residents who are not from the university, but only if they are deemed worthy by a full meeting by officers of the Union.
  - The Union buildings are owned by a separate charitable trust, the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust.
  - Union buildings[edit]The Oxford Union buildings are located in Frewin Court, off Cornmarket Street, and on St Michael's Street. The original Union buildings were designed by Benjamin Woodward and opened in 1857. The society soon outgrew these premises and commissioned Alfred Waterhouse to design a free-standing debating chamber in the gardens, opened in 1879. This was about a decade after the completion of the Cambridge Union's premises, also designed by Waterhouse, and the exterior of the two buildings is very similar.
  - The original Woodward debating chamber is now known as "The Old Library". The Old Library is best known for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, referred to as the Oxford Union murals. The current debating chamber, and several further extensions to the main buildings were added over the next forty years. The final extension was designed in a conventional Gothic Revival style by Walter Mills and Thorpe and built in 1910-11.[2] It provides a dining room and a second library, together with basement library stacks.
  - Many of the rooms in the Union are named after figures from the Union's past, such as the Goodman Library, with its oriel windows, and the wood-panelled MacMillan Room with barrel ceiling. The buildings have gradually been added to with paintings and statues of past presidents and prominent members.
  - The Gladstone Room also contains William Ewart Gladstone's original cabinet table, semi-circular in design so that he could look all his ministers in the eye as he held forth. The Old Library contains a fireplace situated in the middle of the floor, with a concealed flue, a rare design of which only a handful of examples survive in the UK.
  - In the debating chamber there are busts of such notables as Roy Jenkins, Edward Heath, Michael Heseltine, George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston and William Ewart Gladstone. There is also a grand piano in the debating chamber known as the "Bartlet-Jones Piano" after the Oxford University Music Society president who found it dusty and forgotten in a cupboard in the Holywell Music Room and placed it on permanent loan to the Union. The piano was unveiled by Vladimir Ashkenazy, who famously refused to play it in front of the packed chamber because he "had not warmed up". The despatch boxes which continue to be used in Union debates are modelled on those in the House of Commons, and were offered to the House during World War II.
  - The buildings were used as a location for the films Oxford Blues (1984) and The Madness of King George (1994).
  - Leadership[edit]Debating[edit]Debating at the Oxford Union takes two forms '-- competitive debating and chamber debating.
  - Competitive debating is the preserve of a minority of members of the Union. The Union's best debaters compete internationally against other top debating societies, and the Oxford Union regularly fields one of the most successful teams at the World Universities Debating Championship (which the Union hosted in 1993) and the European Universities Debating Championship. The Union also runs the prestigious Oxford Schools' Debating Competition and Oxford Intervarsity Debating Competition competitions, which respectively attract schools and universities from around the world, as well as running a number of internal debating competitions.
  - Chamber debating, including the debates (known as Public Business Meetings) with invited guest speakers for which the Union is best known, tends to be less formalised (even if more formal[clarification needed]) than competitive debates, and the manner of delivery is closer to public speaking, with audience engagement far more important.
  - Public Business Meeting debates also have voting. At the end of the debate, the audience votes on the proposition by exiting the hall through a door, the right-hand side of which is marked 'ayes' and the left-hand side 'noes'. This follows the style of the British Parliament, which votes this way if it is necessary to "divide the House".
  - The Oxford Union has been described as the "world's most prestigious debating society".[3]
  - The Union and the Student Union[edit]The Oxford Union is often confused with the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU). OUSU is the officially recognised student representative body of the University of Oxford. The Oxford Union, despite being composed largely of students, is not a part of the University.
  - OLDUT and OUS[edit]It is not generally recognised (either by the outside world, or the Union's members) that the Oxford Union Society does not own its buildings. The Oxford Union was never financially secure, and its position was not helped by its termly changes of junior (i.e. student) officers. There was also a significant level of historic debt, associated with the erection of its buildings.
  - Following a particularly bad period in the 1970s, the Union buildings were sold to a charitable trust ("OLDUT", the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust), and the Oxford Union Society was granted a licence to occupy the building.
  - Several parts of what were historically the Union buildings and grounds were subsequently either sold or made the subject of long leases, including an area of land around the rear of the debating chamber, part of the Union cellars (adjoining that now occupied by the Purple Turtle), and part of what was formerly the Steward's house (now occupied by the Landmark Trust). OLDUT has subsequently paid for the refurbishment and maintenance of the Union buildings, both from its own resources and by securing private donations and grant funding.
  - As a result of OLDUT's creation, the future of the physical Union is now secured, so that even if the Oxford Union Society were to cease to be, or to fail financially, the buildings would not be lost. In addition, OLDUT provides some financial support for the running of the Union in those areas where the Union undertakes activities which match OLDUT's charitable objectives - particularly the operation of the Union's library.
  - Despite the importance of OLDUT in preserving the fabric of the Union, the relationship between OLDUT and OUS has at times been strained. OLDUT is first and foremost a charitable trust, and it has objectives which do not always match those of what is primarily a student society.
  - Notable speakers[edit]The Oxford Union has a long history of hosting international figures and celebrities.[4]
  - author Robert GreeneDalai Lamaformer British prime ministers Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John MajorMother Teresaformer US presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald ReaganUS diplomats Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albrightformer CIA director David Petraeusformer US Presidential candidates John McCain, Newt GingrichUS Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinbergerformer Pakistani president Pervez Musharrafformer Australian prime minister John Howardformer New Zealand prime minister David Langeformer PLO leader Yasser ArafatAfghan president Hamid KarzaiRussian politician and former finance minister Grigory Yavlinskynotable barrister and prime-ministerial spouse Cherie Booth QCSinn F(C)in leader Gerry Adamsbiologist-atheist Richard Dawkinsscientist Albert Einsteinphysicist Stephen HawkingClassical Pianist Lang Langsavant Kim Peekcomedian and writer Stephen Fryformer US Attorney General and SenatorRobert Kennedyactress Judi Denchactors Johnny Depp, Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, Martin Sheen, Leslie Nielsenactor / directors Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beattyradio presenter Scott Millscomedians Frankie Howerd and Jim BowenMalcolm XO.J. Simpsonfootballers Diego Maradona, Paul Gascoignerock star Jon Bon Jovipop stars Michael Jackson, Shakira, Leehom Wangsinger and viral video star PSYcomposer Burt Bacharachtelevangelist Jerry Falwellmagician David BlaineTV talk show host Jerry Springersingers Barry White, Gerard Waypuppet Kermit the Frogfashion journalist Anna Wintourauthor John LeCarreinternational model Katia ElizarovaSlipknot/Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylormusical humourist and conductor Gerard Hoffnungporn stars Ron Jeremy, Annabel ChongUFC president Dana WhiteIslamic preacher Zakir Naikventriloquist David Strassmanformer Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Prime Minister S. W. R. D. BandaranaikeFree speech[edit]The Oxford Union has long associated itself with freedom of speech, most famously by debating and passing the motion "This House would under no circumstances fight for its King and country" in 1933.
  - What is generally forgotten (but arguably more significant as an example of the Union's commitment to freedom of speech) is that an attempt was made by several prominent Union members (including Randolph Churchill) to expunge this motion and the result of the debate from the Union's minute book. This attempt was roundly defeated '-- in a meeting far better attended than the original debate. Sir Edward Heath records in his memoirs that Randolph Churchill was then chased around Oxford by undergraduates who intended to debag him (i.e. humiliate him by removing his trousers), and was then fined by the police for being illegally parked.
  - Every year the academic term begins with the debate "This House Has No Confidence in Her Majesty's Government", which sees MPs from the government and the opposition debating against each other.
  - Speakers denied a platform[edit]Harold Macmillan called the Oxford Union "the last bastion of free speech in the Western world", a quotation which continues to feature prominently in the Union's publicity. However, the Union's commitment to free speech has not enabled it to resist pressure to deny platforms to controversial speakers.
  - John Tyndall[edit]A debate that was to have involved the far-right leader John Tyndall was met with a campaign of resistance in 1998. This opposition, coupled with police advice following a series of racially motivated nail-bombings in London, resulted in the cancellation of the debate.[5]
  - David Irving[edit]An invitation to the writer and Holocaust denierDavid Irving to speak in a debate on censorship in 2001 was met by a coordinated campaign by left-wing, Jewish, and anti-fascist groups, together with the elected leadership of the Oxford University Student Union, to have the invitation withdrawn. Following a meeting of Union members, and a subsequent meeting of the Union's governing body, the Standing Committee, the President decided the debate would have to be cancelled.[6] However, Irving was allowed to speak at a Union debate in 2007.[7]
  - Philip Nitschke[edit]In March, 2009, the Union withdrew an invitation to euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke after Nitschke had already accepted the invitation. Nitschke received a second email cancelling the invitation in the interests of there being a "fair debate", and was told other speakers were unwilling to speak alongside him.[8] The debate topic was the legalisation of assisted suicide, a field in which Nitschke is prominent. The reason given by Oxford Union president Corey Dixon was that two other speakers "disagree with his particular take on [assisted suicide]".[9] According to Dixon, the speakers who successfully pressured the Union to withdraw Nitschke's invitation were a member of the public, whose brother had undergone assisted death, and British euthanasia campaigner Michael Irwin.[9][10] However, Irwin later denied that he had applied pressure to exclude Nitschke.[11]
  - The Oxford Union then released a statement explaining the decision: "An administrative decision was made to ensure we had three speakers on each side of the debate, which was proving difficult due to Nitschke's attendance. It is always in the interests of the Oxford Union to ensure a balanced debate with as wide-ranging views as possible represented. There may have been miscommunication between the Oxford Union and Nitschke. We certainly hope that no offence has been caused. The Oxford Union is a politically-neutral institution and holds no opinion on Nitschke's views."[8]
  - Nitschke commented, "This famous society has a long tradition of championing free speech. To suggest that my views on end-of-life issues are inappropriate simply because I believe that all rational elderly adults should have access to the best end-of-life information beggars belief."[9] He also called the act "an almost unprecedented act of censorship".[12] Nitschke gave a series of lectures across the UK at the time the debate was held.[13]
  - Irving/Griffin controversy[edit]In November 2007, President Luke Tryl sparked controversy by inviting Holocaust denierDavid Irving and British National Party leader Nick Griffin to speak at a Union forum on the topic of free speech. Following protests by several student groups, a poll of the Union's members was taken and resulted in a two-to-one majority in favour of the invitations.[14]
  - On the evening of the planned debate several hundred protesters gathered outside the Union buildings, chanting anti-fascist slogans and later preventing guests and Union members from entering the premises. Eventually succeeding in breaching the poorly maintained security cordon, around 20 of the campaigners attempted to force their way through to the main chamber, whereupon some of the waiting audience blocked access by pushing back against the chamber doors. After students were convinced to yield to the protestors by Union staff, a sit-in protest was staged in the debating chamber, which prevented a full debate from occurring due to security concerns. A small number of the audience attempted to reason with the demonstrators. Because of a lack of security personnel, a number of students from the audience eventually came to take on the responsibilities of controlling events, in one instance preventing a scuffle from breaking out between a protestor and members of the audience, and eventually assisting police in herding protestors from the main hall. One student protestor interviewed by BBC News reported that fellow protestors played 'jingles' on the piano and danced on the President's chair [15] although the truth of the latter assertion is seriously questioned by eyewitnesses. Smaller debates were eventually held with Irving and Griffin in separate rooms, amid criticism that the police and Union officials had not foreseen the degree of unrest which the controversial invitations would arouse.[16] The President of Oxford University Student Union, Martin McCluskey, strongly criticised the decision to proceed with the debate, claiming that providing Irving and Griffin with a platform for their extreme views afforded them undue legitimacy.[17] Some students[who?] following the event criticised the Student Union for preventing Oxford Union members (as students themselves) from exercising the right to free assembly, and accused the Oxford University Student Union of hypocrisy in seemingly restricting the rights of free speech to those individuals whose views chimed with those of the Student Union leadership (although the decision to oppose the invite had been agreed by representatives of the Student Population at a Council meeting).[18][dead link]
  - Governance[edit]The Oxford Union is run by the Standing Committee which is constituted by the Junior Officers (the current President, President-Elect, Junior Librarian, Junior Treasurer, Librarian-Elect, Treasurer-Elect, and the Secretary), five elected members and recent Junior Officers (who have chosen to serve). The Chairman of the Consultative Committee is a member of Standing Committee without vote, and the Returning Officer (responsible for the conduct of the Union's elections and for advising on the interpretation of the Union's rules), the Bursar, and the Chairman of the Debates Selection Committee are non-members with speaking rights. The Union also has two Senior Officers, the Senior Librarian and Senior Treasurer (generally Oxford academics but must be members of the Union) who advise the Standing Committee.
  - The Junior Officers each have specific areas of responsibility, such as debates (President), "speaker meetings" (President and Librarian), sponsorship and funding (Treasurer), and social events (Secretary). The Junior Officers-Elect spend a term preparing their area, before assuming their office.
  - A number of other committee run or advise the running of various aspects of the Union, including the Wines and Spirits Committee (the Union's bar), the Cellar Management Committee (responsible for liaison with the management of the Purple Turtle), the Library Committee (responsible principally for library acquisitions and disposals), the Finance Committee (which advises the Standing Committee on financial matters), and the Debates Selection Committee (which runs competitive debating). Two further committees, the Secretary's Committee and the Consultative Committee, are not, despite their names, committees in the traditional sense.
  - The Secretary's Committee consists of eleven members, elected on a termly basis in the same ballot as that for the Officer and Standing Committee, who assist at the Union's social functions, and is generally the first stage for any aspiring Union politician. Although considered a committee under the rules, it only ever meets informally, and is more akin to a group of people with a particular role, rather than a committee.
  - The Consultative Committee holds weekly public meetings during term time, at which members can informally question the junior officers and members of the elected committees on the performance of their duties. All members of the Union are considered members of the Consultative Committee, so meetings tend to be more like an open forum.
  - The Chairman of the Consultative Committee (who is elected termly, but not during the Union's main elections) is a member of Standing Committee with speaking privileges but without voting rights, responsible for the Union's publicity, website and archives; setting up the Union's rooms for events; chairing Consultative Committee, directing members of the Secretary's Committee, and bringing up any matters of concern at Standing Committee. The Chairman of the Consultative Committee is in this capacity the President's Executive Officer, carrying out much of the daily business of the society.
  - The Returning Officer is elected from a body of Deputy Returning Officers whose members have been approved by a scrutiny committee. He is responsible for running the Society's elections and is empowered (along with the President) to interpret the Society's constitution. It remains hotly disputed whether the Returning Officer wields disproportionate influence without an electoral mandate, or maintains an essential check and balance to the powers of the President.[citation needed]
  - The day to day management of the Union is partly conducted by professional staff, principally the Bursar and the House Manager.
  - Past officers[edit]Notable past Presidents of the Oxford Union include:
  - Other Officers of the Union who have achieved political success include Ann Widdecombe, Edwina Currie, and Roy Jenkins. Harold Macmillan was Librarian of the Union before the First World War ended his university career in August 1914.
  - Elections[edit]The elections are held to fill the offices of President-elect, Librarian-elect, Treasurer-elect and Secretary, as well as five elected positions on the Standing Committee and 11 positions on the Secretary's Committee. In order to stand for election to the Secretary's Committee, members must make two speeches on different nights. For the other offices, this is increased to four. The election for the Chairman of the Consultative Committee is held at CC on Monday of 8th week. Only members who have attended four of the last eight meetings may either stand for election as Chairman or vote.
  - See also[edit]References[edit]^"The Oxford Union Society : Rules and Standing Orders". Oxford-union.org. Retrieved 2013-08-16. ^Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 273. ISBN 0-14-071045-0. ^Burns, John F. "Oxford Union girds for far-right debate Protesters vow 'anti- fascist' rally", International Herald Tribune, 27 November 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2009.^BBC News (2001a)^"Racism debate scrapped after bombings". BBC News (London). 27 April 1999. Retrieved 2009-04-09. ^BBC News (2001b)^Taylor, Matthew (27 November 2007). "Irving and Griffin spark fury at Oxford Union debate". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-04-09. ^ ab"Doctor accuses union of censorship - News - Virgin Media". latestnews.virginmedia.com. Retrieved 2009-06-20. ^ abc"Nitschke snubbed by Oxford debaters". smh.com.au. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-09. ^"Euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke snubbed by Oxford Union debaters". www.news.com.au. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-10. ^Alderson, Andrew (9 May 2009). "Suicide expert turns on 'Dr Death' - Telegraph". London: telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-05-10. ^"The Press Association: Doctor accuses union of censorship". www.google.com. Retrieved 2009-04-09. ^"Dozens attend euthanasia workshop". BBC News. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-10. ^University faces 'bigots and martyrs' debate row. - Yorkshire Post (Leeds, England) | Encyclopedia.com^BBC Media Player. Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-07-15.^Taylor, Matthew (27 November 2007). "Irving and Griffin spark fury at Oxford Union debate". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 20 May 2010. ^Unite Against Fascism - Student leaders and campaigners condemn Oxford Union's invite to fascist speakers^Oxford University Student Union '-- Oxford University Student Union^Smith (1989); p. 180-184^Martin Pugh, 'Monckton, Walter Turner, first Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (1891''1965)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013Other sources[edit]BBC News (1999) BBC.co.uk, Racism debate scrapped after bombings, 27 April 1999, Accessed 4 June 2006 - Cancellation of the debate involving John TyndallBBC News (2001a) BBC.co.uk,Oxford's star chamber, 5 May 2001, Accessed 4 June 2006] - Oxford Union historyBBC News (2001b) BBC.co.uk, Oxford drops Hitler historian debate, 9 May 2001, Accessed 4 June 2006 - Cancellation of the debate involving David IrvingFrei, Matt (2007) BBC.co.uk, Washington diary: Land of ideas, 2 May 2007, Accessed 4 June 2006Graham, Fiona (2005) Playing at Politics: an ethnology of the Oxford Union, Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, ISBN 1-903765-52-8Leonard, Bill (2004) The Oxford of Inspector Morse : films locations history, Oxford: Location Guides, ISBN 0-9547671-0-1Oxford Union (2006a) Oxfordiv.org , The Oxford Union Intervarsity 2007, Accessed 4 June 2006Oxford Union (2006b) Oxfordschools.org.uk, The Oxford Union Schools' Debating Competition 2006/07, Accessed 4 June 2006Smith, Cameron (1989) Unfinished Journey: the Lewis family, Toronto : Summerhill Press, ISBN 0-929091-04-3Walter, David (1984) The Oxford Union: playground of power, London : Macdonald, ISBN 0-356-09502-9External links[edit]Coordinates: 51°45'²11'"N1°15'²35'"W>> / >>51.75306°N 1.25972°W>> / 51.75306; -1.25972
- Edward Snowden elected Rector of Glasgow University
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: English
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 03:09
  - By Steve James20 February 2014Students at the University of Glasgow in Scotland voted Tuesday to elect Edward Snowden as Rector of the University, in a powerful display of opposition to attacks on democratic rights by the NSA and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
  - The former National Security Agency consultant and whistle-blower received 3,124 votes, more than double his nearest challenger, Kevin Holdsworth, a local clergyman and gay rights campaigner. Snowden received 51 percent of the vote, and will serve as Rector for three years.
  - Although the election took place in Glasgow, Scotland, there is not a university, college or school on the planet where a similar outcome could not be anticipated. For a large section of workers and young people, Snowden has become a symbol of opposition to surveillance, of resistance to arbitrary authority, of principled, clear-headed bravery in defence of the elementary democratic rights of the world's citizens.
  - ''I am humbled by and grateful to the students of Glasgow University for this historic statement in defence of our shared values,'' Snowden said in response to the election. ''We are reminded by this bold decision that the foundation of all learning is daring: the courage to investigate, to experiment, to inquire,'' he said.
  - ''If we do not contest the violation of the fundamental right of free people to be left unmolested in their thoughts, associations, and communications--to be free from suspicion without cause--we will have lost the foundation of our thinking society. The defence of this fundamental freedom is the challenge of our generation,'' he said.
  - Snowden concluded ''This election shows that the students of Glasgow University intend to lead the way, and it is my great honour to serve as their Rector.''
  - ''We are incredibly delighted to see Edward Snowden elected as the new Rector of Glasgow University,'' said the Edward Snowden for Rector campaign in a statement. ''We have a proud and virtuous tradition of making significant statements through our Rectors and today we have once more championed this idea.''
  - ''Our opposition to pervasive and immoral state intrusion has gone down in the records. What is more, we showed Edward Snowden and other brave whistleblowers that we stand in solidarity with them, regardless of where they are,'' the group added. ''In the following weeks we will continue to campaign for the NSA and GCHQ to cease their assault on our fundamental right to privacy and for Edward Snowden to be recognised as the courageous whistleblower he is, rather than a traitor.''
  - Media coverage of the campaign insisted repeatedly that the ''campus was split'' over whether Snowden was a ''hero or a traitor''. His election by an absolute majority is all the more extraordinary given the vilification, and slander directed against Snowden by the political and media establishment.
  - The election is a devastating rebuttal of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat government, the Labour opposition and the Scottish National Party government in Scotland, all of whom have agreed with, or maintained silence in the face of, the attack on Snowden, his supporters, sympathising journalists and the Guardian newspaper. It testifies to the profound gulf between all these parties and the great majority of young people.
  - The campaign also encountered bitter opposition from right-wing forces on the university campus. Campaign posters were slashed or torn down the first night they were put up, while the university authorities banned any more being put up for the duration.
  - Snowden's supporters were continually attacked for putting forward a candidate who was not a ''working Rector'', a charge that originated with the aspiring bureaucrats and pundits of the Students Representative Council (SRC). Another candidate, author Alan Bissett, advanced himself as ''a working Rector'', while making a pledge to ''Improve gender equality on campus'' his central demand in order to curry favour from feminists prominent within the SRC.
  - Two of these, Louise Wilson and Hannah McNeil, are writers for the student paper, the Glasgow Guardian. In the aftermath of Snowden's election, they became the poster children for quotes supposedly expressing more widespread student hostility to the result.
  - Louise Wilson is quoted by numerous newspapers proclaiming, ''It sucks. It's very disappointing but not surprising in the slightest. I'm all for political statements, but at a time when the university and students need the biggest say with all the cuts it's just not appropriate not to have a working Rector.''
  - Hannah McNeill declared, ''I'm furious. I think most people here are very upset about the result. We need an active Rector.'' The invocations of a ''working Rector'' are only a device for opposing Snowden's election and nothing more.
  - Previous Rectors, include Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and not a few British Prime Ministers. Since African National Congress leader Albert Luthuli's election in 1962, Rectors have tended to be more popular political or media figures. Stalinist shipyard leader Jimmy Reid was elected in 1972, Winnie Mandela in 1987. Popular comedy actor Richard Wilson held the post from 1996. Mordechai Vanunu, who exposed Israel's nuclear power program, was elected in 2004.
  - As for the incumbent ''working Rector'', he is Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, whose party is in coalition government with the Conservatives and has launched assault after assault on students'--including reneging on campaign pledges in order to support a trebling of tuition fees.
  - The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) circulated a leaflet in support of Snowden, writing that, ''Presented as part of the so-called 'war on terror', dragnet surveillance is in fact being used to profile working people, students and youth to criminalise political opposition and dissent.
  - ''The turn to totalitarian forms of rule reflects the unprecedented levels of social inequality generated by capitalism'--85 individuals now control more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the population or 3.5 billion people!
  - ''The wealth and power of this global plutocracy are incompatible with democracy. The defence of Snowden and democratic rights is possible only on the basis of a mass socialist struggle to break their stranglehold over the world economy and place it under public ownership and democratic control.''
  - The leaflet concluded with a call to make ''Glasgow University a focal point for mobilising the broadest possible support for Snowden amongst students and young people internationally.''
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- Overclassification
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: a.nolen
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:38
  - Edward Snowden reads a prepared script on how overclassification makes it impossible for a democracy to function. How could any reasonable person disagree? Hard to make the case he's an unpatriotic American from this vid.
  - On a darker note: Sam Adams Award, Oxford Union not embarrassing to Putin's American buddies? Hmmm.
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Sinaloa
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- From producer Robert
  - From a ex pat en Mexico, the guy in the video is an imposter it's not the
  - chapo. The chapo is more than six feet tall.
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- BBC News - Mexico's top drug lord Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman arrested
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:10
  - 22 February 2014Last updated at 15:38 ET One of the world's most wanted drug barons, Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo or "Shorty", has been arrested in Mexico.
  - He was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggles huge amounts of illegal drugs into the US.
  - "Shorty" Guzman had been on the run since escaping a high security prison in a laundry basket in 2001.
  - He was arrested in Sinaloa state, in a joint operation with American anti-drugs forces.
  - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto used his Twitter account to praise the forces involved in Guzman's arrest in the north-western resort of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa.
  - Guzman has been taken to Mexico City and paraded before the media at a navy hangar, before boarding a helicopter surrounded by heavily armed troops.
  - He was taken straight to prison, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told AP.
  - The US state department had offered a reward of up to $5m (£3.2m) for information leading to his arrest.
  - He has been indicted in the US on federal trafficking charges and US officials want him extradited.
  - The Sinaloa cartel controls much of the flow of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine to the United States.
  - 'Success story'"Shorty" Guzman's arrest is a big boost for the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, reports the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City.
  - Mr Pena Nieto, who took office just over two years ago, said he intended to change the "war on drugs" policy of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, which critics say led to a rise in violence throughout Mexico.
  - But Mexican police and troops have killed or arrested key figures in the drugs cartels since Mr Pena Nieto came to power.
  - The US has also arrested several associates and relatives of "Shorty" Guzman.
  - In May 2012, the US Treasury Department put two of his sons - Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez - on its blacklist of drugs kingpins.
  - Their assets were frozen and American citizens and companies were prevented from doing business with them.
  - Guzman's father-in-law, Ines Coronel, was arrested nearly a year ago. He was accused of smuggling drugs into the US.
  - Guzman's fortune, estimated by Forbes magazine at about $1bn (£630m), has given him hero status for many in impoverished Mexican communities, especially in his native Sinaloa state.
  - "A lot of people here see Guzman as a success story, because he is a poor guy who has been able to beat the system and become richer than you could ever imagine," singer Omar Meza told Reuters.
  - He was born in the town of Badiraguato, probably 56 years ago, and became an important figure in the drug cartels in the 1980s, arresting, torturing and murdering rivals on his way to the top.
  - He was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and handed over to the Mexican authorities. He was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail, but he bribed officers and escaped a maximum security jail in Mexico in 2001.
  - Since then, he has been continued to run the Sinaloa Cartel with complete impunity.
- Borderland Beat: Phil Jordan: Chapo funded EPN's Campaign
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:25
  - El Chapo contributed money to the campaign of Enrique Pe±a Nieto in order to become a candidate for the presidency, a former director of intelligence for the DEA revealed.Phil Jordan said that something bad happened between the PRI and El Chapo because of his capture. He says that it was a triumph for Mexico, that the president allowed the apprehension of El Chapo.El Chapo Guzman contributed financial resources to Pe±a Nieto's campaign, denounced Phil Jordan, former director of intelligence for the DEA in El Paso, Texas.''Something bad happened between the PRI and the narco,'' he said when being interviewed on a special segment on Univision.The interviewer asked him: What evidence is there to confirm that El Chapo supported the campaign of Pe±a Nieto?''That is documented in past campaigns of the PRI. El Chapo, Caro (Quintero), everyone gave money to whoever was running for president. I don't have the papers but there are intelligence reports indicating that the cartel of El Chapo is very involved in politics.'' Wouldn't it be contradictory that the government of Pe±a Nieto was the one who captured El Chapo but he received money from him?''Something bad happened between the PRI and El Chapo Guzmn. What I can't tell you now, because I don't know why they arrested him, when he was paying millions of dollars to not arrest him, like how he paid millions of dollars to let him out the previous time. He has all the money in the world.''Jordan said that the relationship between the narcos and Mexican politicians is well known; the ones they need to operate and create their empires.The interviewer then asks: If Chapo talked about his ties with Mexican politicians, would we have a big surprise in the political landscape of this country?''There won't be any surprises because the PRI and Chapo know very well that he was well involved in politics with money,'' he replied.Another question asked was that if Chapo also bribed officials from the United States. Jordan replies:''With the money that El Chapo has anything is possible. Corruption just doesn't occur in Mexico, it also occurs in the U.S.'' He warned that the jail that El Chapo ends up in, he can also run his business.He didn't rule out, however, that El Chapo negotiated his capture.He stated that with Mexican narcos, there shouldn't be more than one king, and with Caro Quintero free, he may be the new king.Source: Revoluci"n 3.0
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- TIME Magazine's Pay-to-Play Puff Piece on Mexican President Provokes Widespread Ridicule in Mexico | the narcosphere
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:54
  - The Government of Enrique Pe±a Nieto Paid Time-Warner $44,000 Prior to a Recent Cover Story on Him Titled ''Saving Mexico''
  - The kicker headline on TIME magazine's most recent international edition cover says it all: ''Saving Mexico.''
  - With it is the image of the dapper 47-year-old Mexican president, Enrique Pe±a Nieto, standing clad in an expensive suit and sporting a red-and-silver diagonally striped necktie. His hands are clasped in front of him; his head is cocked slightly upward; his jaw clenched '-- as though he is a determined man staring down the future.
  - TIME's cover, however, drew instant ridicule across the social-media circuit in Mexico, inspiring numerous parody covers, such as one showing a zombie-faced Pe±a Nieto holding a scythe with the kicker headline, ''Slaying Mexico''; and others depicting Pe±a Nieto as Moses or the Lady of Guadalupe or Mad magazine's mascot Alfred E. Neuman.
  - The inside story, like the magazine's cover, also was panned by critics as a shameless promotion of a political leader who is downplaying an increasingly bloody drug war in favor of pushing energy, education and fiscal reforms that many Mexicans believe will damn the larger nation to decades of misery for the benefit of a rich elite '-- among which are US investors.
  - One Twitter post blasted out on Feb. 13 to the author of the TIME story, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Michael Crowley, in reaction to his story states, ''I think u don't really 'get' what is really happening in Mexico. Take a look at today Mexico news.'' Another message, tweeted on the same day, says, ''We are used to see[ing] this [in] paid media. No worries.''
  - The reaction to the US magazine piece on social media in Mexico was so swift and so negative that it seemed to catch the TIME's Crowley by surprise.
  - ''Seems Mexico's president is not a popular guy on Twitter!'' TIME correspondent Crowley tweeted on Feb. 13. ''Critical feedback welcome '-- but do read the story first.'' That same day, Crowley also tweeted: ''Remarkable how many critics of Mexico's president seem to believe I must have literally taken a bribe to write a positive story about him.''
  - Well, Crowley may not have ''literally taken a bribe,'' but it does appear TIME itself had plenty of pecuniary incentive to sing Pe±a Nieto's praises.
  - In fact, some critics are questioning whether the recent TIME magazine puff piece on Pe±a Nieto was part of a larger quid-pro-quo deal between TIME's business side and the Pe±a Nieto government. But such an accusation seems beyond the pale with respect to a journalistic institution such as TIME magazine, or does it?
  - Unfortunately, many revenue-strapped commercial media outlets today, among them the giants of the business, are now crossing all too frequently the time-honored line that used to separate advertising from editorial integrity.
  - (Story continues below sidebar...)
  - Pe±a Nieto's Message Seamless Across TIME's Ad/News PlatformsThe narrative of TIME magazine's recent news story on Mexican President Enrique Pe±a Nieto '-- with the cover-page headline ''Saving Mexico'''-- is eerily similar to the script of the 14-page special advertising section (advertorial) that ran in the Dec. 23, 2013, edition of TIME '--with the headline '''Mexico's Moment' Set to Last.''In fact, the two are so nearly identical that passages from each can actually be blended together to read like a single story.
  - From TIME's news story:
  - Now the alarms are being replaced with applause. After one year in office, Pena Nieto has passed the most ambitious package of social, political and economic reforms in memory. Global economic forces, too, have shifted in his country's direction. Throw in the opening of Mexico's oil reserves to foreign investment for the first time in 75 years, and smart money has begun to be on peso power. ''In the Wall Street investment community, I'd say that Mexico is by far the favorite nation just now,'' says Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley. ''It's gone from a country people had sort of given up on to becoming the favorite.''
  - From TIME's advertorial:
  - Osorio Chong [who also is quoted in the Time news story] says the series of market reforms means 2014 is the ideal time to invest in Mexico and that foreign investors are welcome to bring their money, knowledge and skills to any of the nation's industrial, commercial and manufacturing sectors. [Miguel Angel Osorio Chong is Pe±a Nieto's Interior Minister, the top post in his administration.]
  - '... A former energy minister, Luis T(C)llez-Kuenzler, who is now president of one of the country's most important financial institutions, the Mexican Stock Exchange, adds:
  - ''Mexico is very investor-friendly. Anyone wishing to invest from any other country just needs to go to their bank or stock brokerage house and invest. It's transparent, efficient and very easy to do.''
  - From TIME's news story:
  - Want proof? On Feb. 5, Mexico's government bonds earned an A- rating for the first time in history when Moody's revised its assessment of the country's prospects, ranking it higher than Brazil, the onetime darling of international investors, and making it only the second Latin American nation after Chile to get an A.
  - ''I believe the conditions are very favorable for Mexico to grow,'' Pe±a Nieto told TIME in an interview at the Los Pinos compound. ''I'm very optimistic.''
  - From TIME's advertorial:
  - '... Despite dark economic clouds hovering over countries, a bright new dawn recently arrived in the proud nation of 120 million people through a series of innovative labor, fiscal, tax, energy, and education reforms made possible by a cross-party pact.
  - From TIME's news story:
  - The secret to his [Pe±a Nieto's] recent success lies in the way he then built a powerful legislative coalition. After meeting secretly with the two leading opposition parties, he struck the kind of legislative grand bargain that has eluded his counterpart across the northern border. The resulting Pacto por M(C)xico gave liberals higher taxes on the wealthy and conservatives an end to Mexico's ban on the re-election of politicians, while Pe±a Nieto won support for a raft of other reform, including opening up the country's oil monopoly.
  - From TIME's advertorial:
  - '... Such is the enthusiasm for these reforms, senior economists and officials coined the expression ''Mexico's Moment'' to emphasize the significance of the upbeat outlook and opportunities created by the historic multiparty agreement. The day after Pe±a Nieto was sworn in, on Dec. 1, 2012, the so-called ''Pact for Mexico'' was signed by the leaders of the other three political parties and is hailed as the country's cornerstone for growth and development for the years to come.
  - '-- BILL CONROYAnd in the case of the Pe±a Nieto cover story, it does appear TIME tripped over that line as well '-- maybe because the once-venerable magazine company later this year is about to be spun off from its parent company, Time Warner, and forced to survive on its own accord, without the benefit of being propped up by its parent company's huge revenue stream.
  - The Evidence
  - In TIME's Dec. 23 issue '-- the edition featuring Pope Francis as ''Person of the Year'' '-- the magazine also featured a 14-page ''sponsored-content'' section (an advertorial) that promoted Mexico as a tourism destination and also hyped the reforms being pursued by the Pe±a Nieto administration, billing his plan as a smart agenda for attracting foreign investment.
  - The advertorial includes several promotional stories paid for by government and corporate advertising sponsors, as well as a number of high-impact ads, all under an opening headline: '''Mexico's Moment' Set to Last: Against a backdrop of comprehensive economic reforms, Mexico's reputation as a secure destination for investors is boosted by a record performance of foreign direct investment (FDI).''
  - Atop each page of this advertorial are the words: ''Special Advertising Section.''
  - The narrative of this advertorial section is remarkably similar to the story line of the TIME news story penned by Crowley and published less than two months later '-- officially in TIME's Feb. 24 issue, though the story appeared online more than week prior to that date. [See sidebar.]
  - It is not clear how much the multiple Mexican public- and private-sector sponsors of this ''special advertising section'' paid for the content and its placement in a national publication like TIME, but it's certain the cost was not cheap. National magazine advertising can cost as much as $25,000 per page or more '-- putting the cost of a 14-page section at $350,000 or more.
  - A story now making news in Mexico, based on documents obtained from a Mexican government agency, indicates that Pe±a Nieto's government paid Time Warner '-- the owner of TIME magazine '-- a total of 576,000 pesos (about $44,000) between January and October of last year for ''publicity'' (advertising). That might have covered the Mexican government's portion of the costs for the multi-sponsor 14-page advertorial, though the Mexican government documents do not offer specifics.
  - Regardless, the fact that TIME was willing to publish a major cover story touting Pe±a Nieto as ''Saving Mexico'' '-- after only two months early publishing a 14-page advertorial that does essentially the same thing '-- raises some serious questions about who is really calling the editorial shots, ultimately, at the magazine. Is it the editors or the business department?
  - In any event, it should be no surprise to TIME's editors that the public reaction to the magazine's Pe±a Nieto ''news'' story in Mexico has been so overwhelmingly negative, given that the perception has been created that the story was part of a pay-to-play deal.
  - To make matters worse, Pe±a Nieto's administration, via the Mexico Tourism Board (or Consejo de Promocion Turistico de Mexico, CPTM) has hired a US public relations firm to further tout the Mexican president's reform agenda as well as Mexico as a tourist destination. That US PR firm is CLS Strategies (CLS) '-- formerly known as Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates.
  - This is not the first time the Pe±a Nieto administration has hired CLS Strategies as its trumpeter.
  - Following his election in July 2012 until the end of that year, Pe±a Nieto employed the services of the Washington, D.C.-based communications and marketing firm to help him spread positive propaganda during the transition period prior to his official swearing-in as the president of Mexico on Dec. 1 of 2012.
  - CLS is the same US image-building firm that was retained in the fall of 2009 by the Honduran regime led by ''de facto'' President Roberto Micheletti in the wake of its coup d'(C)tat in that Central American nation. CLS's Foreign Agents Registration Act filingwith the Department of Justice described its mission in Honduras as promoting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti's dictatorship as a democracy ''through the use of media outreach, policy maker contacts and events, and publicdissemination of information'....''
  - The current contract between Pe±a Nieto's administration and CLS, inked this past December, is outlined in documents filed on Dec. 24, 2013, in the US under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
  - From that FARA filing:
  - CLS will communicate to interested parties about the important changes that have occurred in Mexico that make it an attractive destination. The work will be performed through outreach to media and third party stakeholders with an interest in Mexico and dissemination of information in meetings, events, speeches, interviews and other related forms. This project will initiate on December 19,2013, for a monthly retainer of $40,000.
  - '... The registrant [CLS] shall disseminate information regarding the important political, social and economic changes in Mexico that make the country an attractive destination. This includes scheduling media interviews and disseminating materials to interested third parties and the public-at-large.
  - Activities will include communications to the media and to the general public on behalf of foreign principal.
  - Given the language of the contract, it seems reasonable to expect that among the media tools CLS will use to promote further positive coverage of Pe±a Nieto in the US and elsewhere is the recent TIME cover story itself, since it hypes ''the important political, social and economic changes in Mexico that make the country an attractive destination.''
  - In fact, one of the major sponsors of the 14-page advertorial appearing in TIME's Dec. 23 issue is the Mexico Tourism Board, or CPTM in its Spanish initials '-- the same Mexican agency that has now retained the US marketing firm CLS as its public-relations mouthpiece.
  - Yes, news becomes advertising and advertising is now news. That is the commercial media world we all must endure in 2014 and beyond.
  - Maybe the real challenge we face now is ''Saving Journalism.''
  - Update 02/18/2014
  - Time Inc. News Group's executive director of communications, Kerri Chyka, sent an email to Narco News today, Feb. 18, in reaction to the above story. [TIME magazine is part of Time Inc. News Group.]
  - Following is the text of Chyka's email:
  - See below for a statement from TIME regarding TIME's international cover featuring Mexican President Enrique Pe±a Nieto.
  - STATEMENT FROM TIME
  - TIME does not accept payment in exchange for editorial coverage under any circumstances. Rates listed on TIME's public media kit refer to the cost of advertising with TIME and have absolutely nothing to do with editorial content.
  - A Spanish-language version of TIME's cover story is now available here: http://ti.me/1jC66z8
  - REPORTER'S NOTE:. Below are passages from the website of Time Inc.'s Custom Content unit, which develops paid-content, or advertorials, for advertisers. Narco News put key words in bold type for emphasis to demonstrate that the message Time Inc.'s advertising department is giving advertisers like the Mexican government is very different from the message that its editorial department sent to Narco News today.
- Sinaloa Boss Arrested AP
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:20
  - MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel who was the world's most powerful drug lord was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a condominium in Mazatlan, Mexico, The Associated Press learned Saturday, ending a bloody decades-long career that terrorized swaths of the country.A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was taken alive overnight by Mexican marines in the beach resort town. The official was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity.Guzman, 56, was found with an unidentified woman. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were "heavily involved" in the capture, the official said. No shots were fired.Mexico's Attorney General's Office confirmed a capture on Saturday but would not say whether it was Guzman."This is a huge success for Mexican authorities," said Samuel Gonzalez, a former anti-drug prosecutor in Mexico, "that after so many years, this guy will return to prison. All of his victims deserve that."Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA's most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.A legendary outlaw, Guzman had been pursued for several weeks. His arrest comes on the heels of the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week.The son of Sinaloa's co-leader and Guzman's partner, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was arrested in November after entering Arizona, where he had an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities to arrange legal status for his wife.The following month, Zambada's main lieutenant was killed as Mexican helicopter gunships sprayed bullets at his mansion in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco in a four-hour gunbattle. Days later, police in the Netherlands arrested Zambada's flamboyant top enforcer as he arrived in Amsterdam.For that reason, rumors circulated that that the government was mounting a major operation to get Zambada.Experts predict that as long as Zambada is at large, the cartel will continue business as usual."The take-down of Joaqu½n `El Chapo' Guzm½n Loera is a thorn in the side of the Sinaloa Cartel, but not a dagger in its heart," said College of William and Mary government professor George Grayson, who studies Mexico's cartels. "Zambada ... will step into El Chapo's boots. He is also allied with Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza Moreno, one of most astute lords in Mexico's underworld and, by far, its best negotiator."Guzman's capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala since he slipped out in 2001 from prison in a laundry truck - a feat that fed his larger-than-life persona. Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government, which vanquished some of his top rivals.In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People" and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Guzman's play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In little more than a year, Mexico's biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.His cartel's tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamines.Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture. A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering. A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the state department.He has been indicted by federal authorities in the United States several times since 1996. The charges include allegations that he and others conspired to smuggle "multi-ton quantities" of cocaine into the U.S. and used violence, including murder, kidnapping and torture to keep the smuggling operation running. He's also accused of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the United States and money laundering.In 2013, he was named "Public Enemy No. 1" by the Chicago Crime Commission, only the second person to get that distinction after U.S. prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone. Guzman faces a two-count indictment in Chicago charging him with running a drug smuggling conspiracy responsible for smuggling cocaine and heroin into the U.S.Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed deep protection from humble villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities. He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers. He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton."There's no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel," said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn't be quoted by name for security reasons. "You've kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world."An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on Dec. 1, 2006. The current government of President Enrique Pena Nieto has stopped tallying drug-related killings separately. Many say his government's assault on drug cartels and arrest of kingpins actually fueled the growth of Sinaloa and its major rival, the Zetas, which are now going head-to-heard for lucrative territory.The two are battling for Nuevo Laredo, a play Guzman lost to the Zetas in 2005, and hitting each other deep inside their respective territories. Sinaloa took over a key Zeta port in Veracruz, while bands of Zetas have attacked their rival deep inside the cartel's home, western Sinaloa and Jalisco states.The conflict has led to the gruesome dumping of dozens of bodies by both organizations in their battlegrounds.Authorities said the battle also weakened the Sinaloa cartel and that key hits on the top leadership in Guzman's organization had shaken up his inner circle. In the first months of 2012, the Mexican army and federal police arrested a half dozen key Sinaloa people, including two major cocaine suppliers and a man described as the head of Guzman's security detail.In April last year, a video made the rounds on the Internet of a man whom U.S. authorities believed was Guzman, possibly indicating a security breach in his inner circle. In 2012, Colombian police seized 116 properties worth $15 million that they say were bought for Guzman, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was placing financial sanctions on a wife and several of his sons.While his capture may have symbolic importance, many, including Guzman's cartel partner, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, say it won't stop the violence or flow of drugs through Mexico to the United States."When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead or extradited - their replacements are ready," Zambada said in an exclusive interview published in Proceso magazine in April 2010.Guzman's success and infamy surpassed Colombia's Pablo Escobar, who was gunned down by police in 1993 after waging a decade-long reign of terror in the South American country, killing hundreds of police, judges, journalists and politicians.Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker, making key contacts with politicians and police to ensure his loads made it through without problems.After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa's operations.The Sinaloa cartel violently seized lucrative drug routes from rivals and built sophisticated tunnels under the U.S. border to move its loads.In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, outraging Mexicans.Police arrested Guzman weeks later before his escape from El Puente Grande prison in 2001. At the time of his escape, Guzman had been serving a 20-year sentence for bribery and criminal association in a maximum-security prison in Mexico.He was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron's cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush. He was also rumored to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride that was attended by officials and local police.Federal police say they raided the town that day, but got there just a few hours too late.Guzman had long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its "Golden Triangle," a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with a note: "Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo."
- Mexican drug kingpin Guzman captured in Mexico: U.S. government source
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:20
  - Mexican drug kingpin Guzman captured in Mexico: U.S. government sourceTop News
  - Mexican drug kingpin Guzman captured in Mexico: U.S. government source
  - Sat, Feb 22 12:06 PM EST
  - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico's most wanted man, drug kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, has been captured in Mexico by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials, a U.S. government source confirmed on Saturday.
  - The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate.
  - In Mexico City, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said authorities have "captured an individual in Sinaloa (state)" whose identity had not been confirmed.
  - Guzman runs the powerful Sinaloa cartel, which has been fighting a brutal war with other gangs over turf and drug-trafficking routes to the U.S.
  - Nearly 80,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon sent in the army in 2007 to quell the powerful drug bosses, a policy new President Enrique Pena Nieto has criticized but found tough to break with.
  - (Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Simon Gardner in Mexico City; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry)
  - Mexican drug kingpin Guzman captured in Mexico: U.S. government sourceTop News
  - Mexican drug kingpin Guzman captured in Mexico: U.S. government source
  - Sat, Feb 22 12:06 PM EST
  - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico's most wanted man, drug kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, has been captured in Mexico by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials, a U.S. government source confirmed on Saturday.
  - The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate.
  - In Mexico City, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said authorities have "captured an individual in Sinaloa (state)" whose identity had not been confirmed.
  - Guzman runs the powerful Sinaloa cartel, which has been fighting a brutal war with other gangs over turf and drug-trafficking routes to the U.S.
  - Nearly 80,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon sent in the army in 2007 to quell the powerful drug bosses, a policy new President Enrique Pena Nieto has criticized but found tough to break with.
  - (Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Simon Gardner in Mexico City; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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- FACT SHEET: Key Deliverables for the 2014 North American Leaders Summit
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 15:44
  - The White House
  - Office of the Press Secretary
  - For Immediate Release
  - February 19, 2014
  - Today President Obama met in Toluca, Mexico, with President Pe±a Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada for the North American Leaders Summit. They discussed their vision for a prosperous and secure future for the citizens of all three countries and their shared commitment to work together to realize that vision. They announced concrete initiatives by the three countries aimed at enhancing our competitiveness in the global economy, expanding opportunities for our citizens, and promoting peace, security, and development through multilateral action. Some of these initiatives include:
  - INCLUSIVE AND SHARED PROSPERITY
  - Creating a North American Trusted Traveler Program, allowing vetted individuals to travel more easily between our three countries.Harmonizing trade data, consistent with international standards, to make it easier for companies to do business in our three countries.Joint Investment and Tourism Cooperation including exchanging best practices. Creating a North American Transportation Plan, starting with freight planning.Exchanging information on our strong bilateral border initiatives.Strengthening trilateral regulatory cooperation in order to ease burdens on business.INNOVATION/EDUCATION
  - Creating a Trilateral Research, Development and Innovation Council, encouraging opportunities for North American leadership and a trilateral network of entrepreneurs, as well as economic development efforts in highly integrated regions, like the Pacific Northwest Economic Region and the CaliBaja mega region.Increasing educational exchanges and promoting skills for a 21st century workforce.Promoting trilateral cooperation on women's empowerment and entrepreneurship.ENERGY/CLIMATE CHANGE
  - Holding a North American Energy Ministers Meeting in 2014 in order to define areas for strong trilateral cooperation on energy.Supporting efforts to reinvigorate the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.Continue trilateral work under the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFC production and consumption.Continuing trilateral coordination in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.Declaring North American adherence to high standards in fuel quality, emissions standards, and fuel efficiency for heavy-duty vehicles.CITIZEN SECURITY
  - Trilateral Coordination on emergency management communications.Broadening the North American Plan for Animal and Pandemic Influenza to include other health security threats; leverage this collaboration as a model to strengthen global health security.Increasing trilateral cooperation to combat importation of counterfeit products.Fighting trafficking in persons, including through a trilateral technical-level exchange.REGIONAL, GLOBAL AND STAKEHOLDER OUTREACH
  - Providing North American support for a Disaster Risk Insurance Initiative for Central America to enhance the ability of the region to respond swiftly to natural disasters.Increasing North American cooperation on energy in Central America and the Caribbean.Creating an outreach mechanism to increase stakeholder input, including from civil society.
- Joint Statement by North American Leaders - 21st Century North America: Building the Most Competitive and Dynamic Region in the World
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 15:42
  - The White House
  - Office of the Press Secretary
  - For Immediate Release
  - February 19, 2014
  - Following is the text of a Joint Statement by North American Leaders:
  - 21stCentury North America: Building the Most Competitive and Dynamic Region in the World
  - We, the Leaders of North America, met today in Toluca, Mexico, to recognize the strength of our relationship and open a new chapter in our partnership. We are determined to promote inclusive broad-based economic growth for the wellbeing of our citizens, so that 21st century North America sets new global standards for trade, education, sustainable growth, and innovation. Our region is among the most competitive and dynamic in the world. We have a shared vision for its future, and a strong political, legal, and institutional framework to build upon.
  - Our countries are established democracies and share values and aspirations. Countless contacts among our societies bring us together. We generate close to 30 percent of global goods and services. Our trade is at least 265 percent larger than twenty years ago, when the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force, and is now worth more than one trillion dollars per year, while investment within the region has been multiplied by six. Our three economies benefit from each other's stability and complementarities, and a shared commitment to creating good jobs and opportunities for all of our citizens. Private investment is increasingly directed towards North America, in recognition of the competitive advantage of our integrated production and supply chains, and our highly skilled workforce.
  - Shared and inclusive prosperity
  - Our engagement as a region with the rest of the world has a direct impact on the competitiveness of our economies and the prosperity of our societies. We will continue to work closely on matters related to international trade, so that our integrated supply chains are deepened and strengthened. We will jointly promote trade and investment in those sectors in which the integration of our production chains serves as a distinct global advantage, and work together to highlight those advantages.
  - Our governments are committed to developing a North American Competitiveness work plan, focused on investment, innovation and increased private sector engagement. We seek to set new standards for global trade through the prompt conclusion of a high standard, ambitious, and comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership, as we promote further trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region.
  - We will develop a North American Transportation Plan, beginning with a regional freight plan and building on existing initiatives. We will also streamline procedures and harmonize customs data requirements for traders and visitors. We will facilitate the movement of people through the establishment in 2014 of a North American Trusted Traveler Program, starting with the mutual recognition of the NEXUS, Global Entry, SENTRI and Viajero Confiable programs.
  - Our governments will leverage the existing bilateral border mechanisms to enhance the secure movement of goods across North America, and promote trilateral exchanges on logistics corridors and regional development. Our governments will designate observers to attend meetings of the border management executive committees already in place. This approach will also be followed within the existing bilateral processes on regulatory cooperation. We will continue to protect and enforce intellectual property rights.
  - New areas of opportunity
  - The future success and competitiveness of our region depends on our ability to foster innovation, provide our citizens access to high quality educational opportunities and to technology, and promote a workforce with the skills necessary for success in the 21st century global economy. To help guide these efforts, our governments will engage stakeholders and academics to better assess and plan for the needs of North America's future workforce. We will promote joint research in national laboratories and universities, building connections between North American businesses, particularly entrepreneurs, and technology accelerators. We will first focus on entrepreneurship and innovation exchanges, and actions to advance the economic empowerment of women. Authorities responsible for these efforts will meet in an informal working group to seek greater coordination and collaboration among them.
  - Academic exchange and educational mobility have long contributed to the mutual understanding of our societies and of the promise of North America. We commit to increase the number of student exchanges from within the region in our respective higher education systems, in line with the United States' 100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative, Mexico's Proyecta 100,000, and Canada's International Education Strategy. We will explore opportunities for further cooperation in this area.
  - Energy is a trilateral priority. Developing and securing affordable, clean and reliable energy supplies can drive economic growth and support sustainable development, as we shift towards a low carbon energy future. To build on recent progress in this area, our Energy Ministers will meet later in 2014 to discuss opportunities to promote common strategies on energy efficiency, infrastructure, innovation, renewable energy, unconventional energy sources, energy trade, and responsible resource development, including the development of relevant technical studies.
  - Our countries will continue to work together to address climate change in pursuit of an ambitious and inclusive global agreement within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, while also collaborating through complementary mechanisms like the Major Economies Forum, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. In addition, we will intensify our efforts to promote an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase-down production and consumption of climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
  - We will continue to collaborate in the protection of our region's biodiversity and to address other environmental challenges, such as wildlife trafficking and ecosystems at risk. Our governments will establish a working group to ensure the conservation of the Monarch butterfly, a species that symbolizes our association.
  - Citizen security and global issues
  - We reaffirm our commitment to the principles of shared responsibility, mutual trust, and respect, in support of our domestic priorities, as we face together the challenges posed by transnational organized crime and other threats to the security of our citizens. As increasingly integrated neighbors, we recognize the need to collaborate effectively to counter global threats, such as international terrorism, and to protect our shared critical infrastructure.
  - The effective exchange of information and coordination among law-enforcement authorities will remain essential. We will continue to coordinate and pursue new areas of cooperation to counter drug trafficking, arms trafficking and other illicit trade, consistent with our laws and constitutions. To more effectively counter money laundering and illicit financial flows while ensuring the efficient interconnection of our systems, our authorities will enhance their dialogue on financial sector regulation and supervision. Our governments share a commitment to combating human trafficking in all its forms and will work toward improving services for the victims of this crime.
  - To strengthen regional security, we will continue to cooperate with our partners in Central America and the Caribbean, and with other countries in the hemisphere to promote development, economic growth and citizen security. We will provide capacity building support, and seek closer collaboration on financial inclusion and social safety nets, among other areas. We will broaden the scope of our efforts by including actions on disaster risk prevention and insurance, wildfire management, and access to affordable and clean energy, and will promote sustainable social development.
  - North America's response to the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 remains an example of timely and effective cooperation. We will build upon the North American Plan for Animal and Pandemic Influenza (NAPAPI) to strengthen our preparedness and response to future public health events.
  - North America will continue to develop collective solutions to global challenges. Our three countries will increase our already robust cooperation across the United Nations and other multilateral bodies. We will engage in the definition of the post-2015 development agenda with an inclusive approach that addresses inequalities and seeks to ensure that global objectives are pursued according to national standards of accountability. We support the Open Government Partnership, and we are committed to transparency and open government across the world. We will also continue to promote democracy, human rights and the respect of international law throughout the world and in the Americas, consistent with the values enumerated in the Inter American Democratic Charter.
  - Delivering on our agenda
  - The success of this vision will hinge on its follow up. Our governments will carry out periodic consultations on the implementation of our agreements, reporting to leaders on the progress of our efforts before each upcoming North American Leaders' Summit. Our countries will also develop a new outreach mechanism in 2014, through which experts and stakeholders will be able to share their perspectives on our agenda and propose new lines of action.
  - The collaboration between our governments, civil societies, academics, entrepreneurs, and other actors, has a direct and positive impact in the lives and wellbeing of our peoples. The future of North America is even more brilliant than its past and together we can make it the most competitive and dynamic region in the world.
  - President Obama and President Pe±a Nieto welcome Prime Minister Harper's offer for Canada to host the next North American Leaders' Summit in 2015.
  - Toluca, Mexico, February 19, 2014
- Mexico opens up to foreign investment - The Globe and Mail
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 14:37
  - Mexico is being touted as a new frontier for Canada's oil and gas industry as its government opens the energy sector to foreign investment for the first time in more than 70 years.
  - During a three-day visit to Mexico City and Toluca last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver spoke enthusiastically about new opportunities for Canadian firms. Mr. Harper was in the country for a North American leaders summit with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U.S. President Barack Obama.
  - Once the new rules are in force, foreign and domestic companies should be free to bid on contracts and licences, breaking a decades-old monopoly by Pemex, the state-owned petroleum company. The move is aimed at encouraging investment by firms that will be better equipped to tap Mexico's substantial oil and gas reserves and turn around 10 years of decline.
  - Speaking at TransCanada Corporation's Mexico City headquarters on Wednesday, Mr. Harper said the changes would create ''great opportunity'' for Canadian energy companies. Mr. Oliver met with Mexico's energy minister to discuss ways the two countries can work together.
  - ''I'm looking, obviously, from the perspective of opportunities for Canadian companies,'' Mr. Oliver told The Globe and Mail in an interview last week. ''You know, this is a big, big deal here. They're changing a law which was in place for about 75 years and it's deeply ingrained in the political ethos of the country, so I would say it was a very major political accomplishment.''
  - Mr. Pena Nieto has garnered international approval for a sweeping reform package he introduced last year, which includes fundamental changes to the country's energy, education and telecommunications sectors. Less than a week before the summit, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine along with the headline ''Saving Mexico,'' and Mr. Obama congratulated him during Wednesday's summit for changes that promise to make the country ''more competitive and increase opportunity for the people of Mexico.''
  - But enthusiasm for the reforms is far from universal, with a recent poll showing Mr. Pena Nieto's domestic approval rating dropped to 32 per cent '' down from a high of 51 per cent in July of last year '' and growing concern that the changes are being made too quickly to measure their long-term impacts.
  - Luis de la Calle, a consultant who helped negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, said he sees the reform package as a good start, but added there is still an open question about how the changes will be put into effect.
  - Not all of the reforms are viewed enthusiastically by investors. For example, a new royalty fee for mining companies is being met with concern from the Canadian business community in Mexico, which argues the change will make Mexico a less desirable place for extractive companies compared with the rest of Latin America.
  - Mexico's secretary of economy, Ildefonso Guajardo, told The Globe earlier this week that changes to the energy sector, in particular, should have a ''tremendous'' impact on boosting manufacturing in North America. And, like Mr. Oliver, he said he expects there will be plenty of opportunity for Canadian companies under the new regime.
  - Canadian energy companies have significant expertise in processing, refining and transporting crude oil, Mr. Oliver said, all aspects of Mexico's energy sector that will be in demand under the new system. ''They're looking to us,'' he said. ''Not only Canadian companies, but they're also looking to draw on our experience on the regulatory side.''
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F-Russia
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- Pussy riot beating WAS the music video
- Pussy riot protest in SF
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 16:39
  - Gay Pussy Riot Vigil @ Russian Concert: March 3 in San Francisco(Russian policeman about to strike Pussy Riot musicians on Feb. 19, near Sochi. Credit: Morry Gash, Associated Press.)The St. Petersburg Philharmonic, under the direction of conductor Yuri Temirkanov, will be performing in San Francisco on March 3and members of Gays Without Borders are organizing a solidarity vigil outside Davies Hall where they will be performing. Please mark your calendar for this important event:WHO: Gays Without Borders, LGBT & Feminist ActivistsWHAT: Speak out and raising of a 6'x10' rainbow flagWHERE: Davies Symphony HallWHY: Protest before the St. Petersburg Philharmonic concertLOCATION: Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue, San FranciscoWHEN: Monday, March 3TIME: 7 pm
  - Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/221625921375314/
  - Conductor Temirkanov was one of the Putin 500 Trustees, a group of prominent Russians who endorsed Vladimir Putin's 2012 reelection bid. On December 14, 2013, he was honored at a gala concert and 75th birthday party by Putin in St. Petersburg, according to the Kremlin's Presidential Press and Information Service which also circulated photos from the ceremonies.Temirkanov and the visit by the government-funded St. Petersburg Philharmonic are the perfect cultural figure and musical performance to communicate a message to Putin and all of Russia: We refuse to be silent as our brothers and sisters are denied free speech, the right to publicly assemble and full protection of their universal human rights.
  - Pussy Riot's new video titled "Putin, We Will Teach You How to Love the Motherland", was released today and should be viewed by anyone concerned with human rights.We believe March 3's vigil is the first post-Sochi action in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Russians, and the feminist rock group and social justice advocates of Pussy Riot.
  - (Gay activists being denied their right to assemble in Moscow's Red Square, before the start of the Olympics. Credit: Reuters.)After months of escalating violence and stigmatization of LGBT people in Russia, and the beating of Pussy Riot performers during the Olympics, it is crucial that we use cultural visits to send a message of hope and tolerance.A call has gone out to Bay Area supporters of the incredibly brave Pussy Riot performers, to join the March 3 action wearing the group's famous costume of a solid, brightly colored knit ski mask and blouse or dress. A limited number of such masks will be available at the solidarity vigil.
  - (Davies Hall illuminated with orange lights in solidarity with the SF Giants baseball team. Credit: Daniel Leu Photography.)The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, which is a City government agency that oversees Davies Hall because it is a publicly-owned building, last week rejected a request from Gays Without Borders to fly a rainbow flag on the hall's flagpole. We are appealing that decision and have also requested that the atrium lights of the hall be lit up with rainbow colors.If the City can illuminate the hall in the color of a privately-owned professional sports team, we think the hall can use the rainbow lights presently lighting up City Hall during the Sochi Olympics in support of gay Russians to light Davies Hall for one night.
  - Please join us on Monday, March 3 at 7 pm at Davies Hall and show your strong solidarity with Pussy Riot and LGBT people of Russia!
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- New Discontent Surfaces in Bosnia | Inter Press Service
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 13:58
  - Active Citizens, Aid, Civil Society, Crime & Justice, Democracy, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Europe, Featured, Financial Crisis, Global Geopolitics, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour, Peace, Regional Categories, Religion, United NationsBELGRADE, Feb 22 2014 (IPS) - Thousands of people have rallied in streets of major Bosnian cities since last week, demanding social justice, decent living conditions and resignation of top officials who they openly blame for unprecedented poverty and the country's economic decline.
  - The first protest rallies since the end of the bloody 1992-95 war began earlier this month in the north-eastern town of Tuzla, where thousands of workers from five major privatised companies had received no payments in years. They were joined in following weeks by thousands of unemployed young people and pensioners.
  - "The biggest fear of ruling elites all over and their nightmare is for ordinary people (of all ethnicities) to unite."
  - Backed by social networks and informal groups, the protests spread to capital Sarajevo and to Zenica, Kakanj, Travnik, Jajce, Brcko, Bihac, Mostar and several other towns. International media immediately dubbed the protests, some of them turning violent, the ''Bosnian spring''. Some call it ''the winter of Bosnian discontent''.
  - ''It's still winter here and we'd rather describe the events as an expression of widespread discontent and an introduction to ending the arrogant, unemotional and even scornful behaviour of authorities towards most people, who live in poverty,'' Kemal Kurspahic, co-founder of the Media in Democracy Institute in Bosnia, told IPS.
  - Data from the central Bosnian statistics office puts the unemployment rate at 44 percent. It says that one in five out of 3.8 million people in Bosnia live below the poverty line. For the employed, the average monthly salary is 570 dollars.
  - ''More and more people live in misery and poverty. They are hungry,'' Vahid Sehic from the NGO Forum of Tuzla Citizens told IPS.
  - After the bloody war of the nineties ended with the loss of some 100,000 lives, the country's industry came to a standstill. It seemed at first that recovery could be at hand, but the slow transition into a market economy entailed a complete change from what used to be former Yugoslavia with its deeply rooted social benefits.
  - ''There are practically two decades of economic devastation, where private interests of the ruling elite, masked as 'protection of national interest' served as an excuse for unfair distribution of wealth among the privileged,'' said Kurspahic.
  - The complicated regulation of the internationally sponsored Dayton Peace Accords, that defined the power structure for former warring ethnicities '' Bosniak Muslims, Croats and Serbs '' had a devastating effect on any possibility of creating an efficient state with a positive investment climate.
  - Bosnia-Herzegovina is divided into two entities '' the Bosnian Serb Republic of Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation, both topped with a Sarajevo-based central authority. Vetoing decisions at the central level have often blocked any initiatives for reforms.
  - Both entities have their own governments and parliaments, plus a central one in Sarajevo. The Federation is divided into 11 cantons created on ethnic lines for areas with a Muslim or Croat majority. This in practice means that the Muslim-Croat Federation area has 11 local governments with 11 prime ministers.
  - Most political leaders now are those who were leaders of major national parties during the 1992-95 war. That is ''about 80 percent,'' said Kurspahic. ''Approximately half of Bosnia's budget goes to salaries in administration.''
  - Privatisation of major industrial complexes was mostly hasty. It enabled newly born tycoons, close to people in power, to size down or even shut dozens of companies and make quick profits by selling their assets before declaring bankruptcy. Bosnian media has widely reported that new owners often failed to comply with privatisation contracts and failed to pay workers for years.
  - One of the worst instances is the Sodaso factory in Tuzla. It produced 80 percent of the table salt consumed in former Yugoslavia, amounting to 208,000 tonnes in 1991. In 1999, it produced 21,000 tonnes.
  - Besides, Tuzla had an additional burden to cope with. After the fall of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces executed some 7,000 men and boys, their family members adding up to some 35,000 children, women and the elderly were transported to Tuzla.
  - Since protests began, several cantonal prime ministers, including Tuzla's, have resigned. Sarajevo protestors have been offered negotiations by authorities over the modifications of certain laws, and new elections. The authorities have agreed to create 'plenums' in major cities such as Sarajevo that include representatives of political parties and leading civil society organisations in order to negotiate possibilities of fresh elections or other peaceful means for ending the protests.
  - ''This is the first time we saw fear in people in power,'' Sehic said. ''They worry that the social unrest will spread, and that the story of 'endangered ethnicity' will go down the drain; this means they go down the drain as well.''
  - Several analysts point out that the protests in Bosnia carried no ethnic dimension. ''It was more solidarity of people with no rights, the poor and unemployed, regardless of their nation,'' said Zarko Papic from the Sarajevo-based NGO, the Initiative for Better and Humane Inclusion.
  - Svetlana Cenic who teaches economics at the University of Banjaluka in the Republic of Srpska says there can be no serious changes in Bosnia Herzegovina without the social unity of all ethnicities.
  - ''The hungry belly is mine as well as yours, it does not differ between ethnicities,'' she said. ''The biggest fear of ruling elites all over and their nightmare is for ordinary people (of all ethnicities) to unite.''
  - That does not seem very likely. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik visited Belgrade almost immediately after the unrest in the Federation began, and told journalists after his meeting with first Vice Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic that there were no reasons for Bosnian Serbs to join the protest, claiming that ''the RS will remain calm'' as ''some forces from the Federation want escalation of unrest into the RS.''
- IBHI Initiative for better and humane inclusion
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  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:01
  - ABOUT US
  - The Initiative for Better and Humane Inclusion (IBHI) is registered at the BiH level, and its work is based on the results and activities of the Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues. Through numerous projects, IBHI has focused its activities on the fulfilment of these goals:
  - Producing studies, analyses and reports in the field of human development, the NGO sector, social policy and gender,Strengthening and capacity building of institutions within the governmental and non-governmental sector for policy development;Supporting municipalities and public institutions in capacity building for planning and policy development, in particular in the field of social policy.Capacity building of local NGO's with aims to improve their sustainability, including advisory services and technical support to local authorities and NGO sector regarding to policy development issues;Improvement of the return process.IBHI also dedicates a lot of its activities to the research of human development, social exclusion and poverty, reforms of social protection in all levels of government and the creation of favourable conditions for its self-sustainability, as well as to the development and support to the creation of a sustainable civil society in BiH.
  - IBHI has published over 70 publications (studies, analyses, reports) regarding human rights, social inclusion and poverty, the local NGO sector, social policy and social protection reforms, gender equality, etc. It has also, through presentations and papers, taken part in over 30 international conferences.
  - In 2009, IBHI received two international awards from UNDP and OECD for 'excellence in measurement'' for the development of an original methodology for measurement of social exclusion in UNDP/IBHI; NHDR 'Social Inclusion in BiH '' 2007''.
  - During its activities, IBHI has established cooperation with UN organisations, such as: UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNOPS, World Bank, OHCHR, as well as with governments of Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain; Multilateral and bilateral government organisations '' DFID, OSCE, SDC, USAID; international non-governmental organisations '' OSI, CARE, IRC, OXFAM, World Vision, Save the Children UK, BTD, TIRI; consulting firms - Birks-Sinclair & Associates Ltd (UK), KEK-CDC (Switzerland), LSE, Helsinki Consulting Group, Triple Line, etc. IBHI has established partnerships with local institutions in BiH, and cooperates closely with state ministries, as well as entity, canton and municipal authorities, BiH universities and other independent research institutions and companies. It also maintains very successful cooperation with local NGOs and other organisations implementing activities at the level of local communities.
  - The IBHI main office is located in Sarajevo. Field offices are located in Banja Luka (RS head office) and Travnik. Dr. Å½arko PapiÄ is the Director of IBHI.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- US destablisation of Venezuela part of larger picture | Green Left Weekly
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  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:11
  - Sunday, February 23, 2014
  - Violent opposition protests in Altamira, Caracas.
  - Since the 1990s, many critics of the United States have accused Washington of promoting the dismemberment of nations such as Yugoslavia, in accordance with neoliberalism's drive to weaken central governments and nation states.
  - Today, Washington's official policy in nations like Syria and now the Ukraine has been support for rebels seeking to overthrow the government, even though their chances of success are minimal.
  - In the case of Syria, the US has provided material support for rebels. In the case of the Ukraine, the Obama administration has threatened the government with sanctions even though the dissidents are armed and have attacked security forces.
  - Regardless of one's evaluation of the two governments (and I'm not defending either), it could be said that regime change in highly unlikely.
  - The best-case political scenario for those opposed to both governments would be a prolonged armed conflict, perhaps even civil war. The worst-case political scenario for them would be government consolidation and the complete defeat of the rebels.
  - Washington obviously knows this. Could it be that in cases of governments considered adverse to US interests, Washington prefers a civil war over a normal situation free of discord and violence?
  - This analysis of US policy toward the Ukraine and Syria is even more applicable in the case of Venezuela. Indeed, there are several key factors favouring the Venezuelan government that make regime change even less likely.
  - First, the Chavistas (supporters of the process of change initiated by late president Hugo Chavez and continued by President Nicolas Maduro) have the electoral support of 50% or more of the population. They a mobilization capacity that, since 2003, has exceeded that of the opposition.
  - Second, less than two months, ago the Chavistas defeated the opposition at the polls by a substantial margin.
  - Third, it has solid support in the military, not just from an ''institutionalist'' faction but from officers who identify with Chavismo.
  - And fourth, Venezuela counts on a united Latin America, more so than at any other time throughout its two-century history, and solid backing during the current conflict from governments throughout the region.
  - Yet the US openly supports the opposition. While the entire world (including such non-leftist governments as Mexico and Colombia) recoginsed the triumph of Maduro in the April 2013 presidential elections, Washington was alone in siding with the Venezuelan opposition in refusing to recognize the results.
  - (If the opposition really won the elections in April, how can you explain the Chavista triumph in December whose results were accepted by the opposition?)
  - All the statements coming out of Washington, including those from Kerry to Obama explicitly support the position of the opposition with specific reference to Leopoldo Lopez (U.S. educated at undergraduate and graduate levels who comes from one of the historically richest families in Venezuela), who represents the most extremist current within the opposition. Lopez, with his slogan ''salida'' (exit) openly supports regime change.
  - Washington along with the opposition leaders are banking on a wearing out process, what is known as ''low intensity war''. It may work.
  - It did in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Nicaraguan voters in 1990 felt that the only way to end the ongoing violence, which the US helped organise and fund, was by electing a ''moderate''. This was Violeta Chamorro (whose candidacy and party received millions of dollars from the US). A similar scenario may play out in Venezuela.
  - Last year's opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles very skillfully is positioning himself to play the role of ''moderate'' (he even calls himself a ''progressive'') and has distanced himself from the leader of the current protests Leopoldo Lopez, particularly on the social front (even though both come from the upper class).
  - Capriles says the only way for the opposition to triumph is by getting support from the popular classes, a position which represents an indirect criticism of Lopez for overestimating subjective conditions. In short, Capriles is following the ''Chamorro strategy''.
  - While not minimising the effectiveness of low-intensity war, there are other scenarios in which the current protests may have a boomerang effect on the opposition and the US.
  - First, is the possibility of a backlash, which is already occurring in middle class areas that have been subject to nearly all the violence. Furthermore, events in the Ukraine, which inspired the Venezuelan opposition who were led to believe that ''civil protests'' could topple regimes, are demonstrating how easy it is for things to slide into armed confrontation with scores of deaths and civil war.
  - Second, members of the middle-class opposition are likely to lose hope in the absence of positive short-term results for this all-or-nothing strategy. The staying power of the enthusiasm of these sectors tends to be limited.
  - Washington also has much to lose. It has a long history of supporting subversive movements (as in the case of Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954) that after reaching power had disastrous long-term effects on the country. Venezuela is not a typical case. It is in the center of world attention.
  - The failure of U.S. government efforts to bring about regime change in country after country (Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela) after scoring ''successes'' in Iraq and Libya would come as a blow to US prestige. In short, much is at stake.[Professor Steve Ellner has taught at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, since 1977. He is the author of many books on Venezuelan politics.]
- Venezuela: Democracy and social justice at stake | Green Left Weekly
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:46
  - Saturday, February 22, 2014
  - Oil workers march in support of the government and against right-wing violence in Caracas on February 18.
  - ''WHERE IS MURDEROUS DICTATOR #NICOLASMADURO HOLDING #LEOPOLDOLOPEZ ?IS LOPEZ TORTURED,DEAD?INSANE MONSTERS CAN'T BEAR PPL KNOWING THE TRUTH?'' So tweeted singer, actress and renown Venezuelan political analyst Cher tweeted on February 19.
  - Cher was far from the only celebrity to express support for the right-wing protests in Venezuela, and such tweets symbolise how much the source of disinformation and attacks on Venezuela and its democracy has shifted from the mainstream to social media.
  - In fact, as was shown by an expose by Dawg's Blawg of fake images circulating social media to imply the Venezuelan government was repressing peaceful protesters, mainstream outlets such as CNN sometimes took such faked images for its coverage.
  - So what is actually going on in Venezuela?
  - As has periodically happened in recent years, over the past few weeks Venezuela has been rocked by violence. At least 10 people had been killed by February 21, including supporters and opponents of the government.
  - Violent right-wing protesters have attacked government buildings, state-run hotels, offices of leading government officials, buses, train stations, trade unionists, known government supporters and journalists.
  - There are frequent reports from Venezuela's alternative media (ignored by the mainstream media) of ongoing terror against government supporters known as ''Chavistas''. Chavista support the process of change known as the ''Bolivarian revolution'', after 19th century independence fighter Simon Bolivar.
  - The terror includes "hooded figures" firing on a pro-government "march for peace" by industrial workers in the state Bolivar. At least nine people were wounded.
  - In another incident, Arturo Alexis Martinez, brother of a PSUV parliamentarian Francisco Martinez, was shot dead in Barquisimeto as he tried to clear the streets of the burning remnants of an opposition barricade.
  - There have also been peaceful protests both for and against the government, with opposition protests generally based in the wealthier parts of the country and government supporters drawn from the poor and working class.
  - Perhaps it is to be expected that those with greatest access to social media and more likely to speak English are the middle- and upper-classes ' whose views then get echoed around the world. Mainstream and social media, meanwhile, have mostly ignored marches in support of the government and against the violence.
  - Maduro and Lopez
  - Who are Nicolas Maduro and Leopoldo Lopez?
  - Maduro, a former bus driver and trade unionist, is not a dictator but the democratically elected president. After former president Hugo Chavez died in March last year, Maduro narrowly won as the candidate for Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
  - The opposition cried ''fraud'' and began violent attacks that destroyed government buildings and killed at least eight Chavistas. However, the elections were declared free and fair by international monitors. Former US president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center monitors elections around the globe, has called Venezuela's electoral process the ''best in the world''.
  - There is also no basis to call Maduro a murderer, as Cher does. During the recent violence, Maduro has repeatedly called for dialogue with his right-wing opponents to resolve the situation. He has also called for government supporters to remain peaceful and refrain from revenge attacks.
  - However, the government has, understandably, said it supports prosecuting anyone caught taking part in violent attacks.
  - Far from instructing security forces to repress peaceful protests, at least one Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) officer was arrested after a group of officers ignored direct instructions to remain in their barracks on February 12, the day of some of the worst violence.
  - With Maduro's PSUV having just won a big victory in December municipal elections, government has an interest in achieving stability. It has nothing to gain from violence, whereas the opposition, having repeatedly failed at the ballot box, does.
  - Lopez is now under arrest over his alleged role in the violence. He is a US-educated Harvard graduate and a leader of the far-right Popular Will party. This is part of the opposition that, as is well-documented is funded by the US government.
  - Not only is Lopez calling for the removal of the elected government, his claims to be a democrat are severely compromised by the direct role he played in the 2002 US-backed military coup. This coup briefly replaced then-president Hugo Chavez with the head of Venezuela's main business federation.
  - During the coup, justified with footage later shown to be faked that implied Chavistas were killing opposition protesters, the constitution, parliament, supreme court and a raft of pro-poor laws were abolished. Nearly 70 pro-democracy protesters, demanding the elected president return, were shot dead by police before an uprising of the poor restored Chavez to power.
  - Award-winning Irish documentary 'The Revoluion Will Not Be Televised' (above), captured the story of the coup against Chavez and the uprising that restored him.
  - George Ciccariello-Maher, author of We Created Chavez, told Democracy Now! on February 20 that Lopez played a direct role in the violence: ''During the coup, '... [Lopez] led these sort of witch hunts for Chavista ministers who were brought out and beaten publicly on the way to being arrested.''
  - Since Chavez was first elected in 1998, the opposition has repeatedly failed to defeat the Bolivarian movement Chavez ' and now Maduro ' led, at the ballot box or on the streets. The Chavista forces have won 17 national elections since 1998.
  - Redistributing wealth and power
  - To understand the ongoing attempt to bring down the Bolivarian government, you have to understand that powerful interests ' based in the US and Europe as well as in Venezuela ' have been affected.
  - Corporate interests have been badly hit in Venezuela ' politically and economically. Chavez's election in 1998 halted plans to privatise the state oil company PDVSA, one of the world's most lucrative.
  - Nonetheless, the nominally state-owned industry was run as a virtual private concern by its elite managers ' who sold oil at very low prices to Western interests while enriching themselves. Only 20% of PDVSA's revenue went to the elected government, 80% remained in the hands of the management under the guise of ''operating costs''.
  - Then in December 2002, just months after the failed coup, elite managers shut the oil industry down in a fresh bid to overthrow Chavez. Despite the economic chaos unleashed, a sustained mass movement by the poor, oil workers and loyal soldiers defeated the sabotage.
  - As a result, the elite managers were sacked and the industry was brought fully under control of the elected government. With all revenues going to the government, it was able to fund an ever-growing array of ''social missions''. These missions brought free health care, education, cheap food, housing and much more to the poor majority.
  - Since then, more corporate interests have been directly affected ' from laws strengthening workers' rights to the renationalisation of strategic industries privatised by past governments.
  - As a result of such policies, poverty has more than halved since 2003 and extreme poverty gone down even further. Illiteracy has been eliminated, hundreds of thousands of new homes built and the minimum wage has risen by 2000% since 1998.
  - So when on February 18, thousands of oil workers marched through Caracas streets to reject the actions of the right wing and defend the elected government, it carries enormous symbolic resonance.
  - The oil workers ' and the poor and workers from other sectors who marched with them ' understand they are facing the same enemy as in 2002. If the Lopezs win, it will only be a matter of time before the oil industry shifts to private hands and the social gains are reversed.
  - But what the corporate elite and its opposition puppets despise most of all is the way Venezuela's previously excluded poor have been empowered.
  - The country used to belong to the elite at all levels, but the Bolivarian revolution has promoted forms of participatory democracy. The social missions are run by communities in which they operate.
  - New bodies of direct democracy have been created, most famously the grassroots communal councils that group between 200 to 400 families. These are expanding into communes which are based on elected representatives from the communal councils and make decisions over a larger area.
  - Those whose interests are affected, from Caracas to Washington, are not happy. No matter how many times they are defeated in their bids to retake political power, they show no signs of stopping.
  - Much is made of Venezuela suffering shortages in recent times. The media and opposition blame government policies, but the government says capitalists are sabotaging the economy to destabilise the country.
  - Chile
  - This is often dismissed as an excuse, but there is a clear precedent. When Chile elected a government headed by left-wing president Salvador Allende in 1970, the US conspired with Chilean capitalists to sabotage the economy and manufacture shortages just like those in Venezuela.
  - Declassified documents showed that in 1970, then-president Richard Nixon instructed the CIA to ''make the economy scream''. The resulting economic chaos laid the groundwork for the 1973 military coup that installed the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
  - Pinochet's regime killed thousands of people and imposed extreme neoliberal policies that enriched capitalists at the expense of the majority.
  - In Venezuela, the government has sought to integrate the army into the process of change. It has so far remained loyal and a coup of the Chilean type does not appear to be on the cards in the short term.
  - The Venezuelan government is also taking measures to combat hoarding and price speculation. A new law imposes strict limits on profiteering, harsh penalties for companies caught violating the law and Maduro has threatened to expropriate any capitalist caught engaging in sabotage.
  - It is no surprise that the latest round of right-wing violence came after these new steps in what Maduro called an ''economic revolution'' were announced.
  - But the rich and powerful never give up without a fight. Their control of the media and ability to present a manipulated image can cause confusion over what is at stake in Venezuela.
  - A desperate elite and their powerful backers in Washington have shown time and again they will not accept the democratic will of the majority. The right-wing violence plaguing Venezuela is just one more expression of that, no matter what Cher tweets.
- Death toll rises to six as clashes continue in Venezuela
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  - Source: English
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:25
  - By Bill Van Auken21 February 2014The death toll in the week of clashes that began February 12 in Venezuela rose to six Wednesday as President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of fomenting violent upheavals in the country.
  - A stray bullet struck 23-year-old student Genesis Carmona in the head during an opposition protest in the northern city of Valencia Wednesday. Carmona, who was named the state of Carabobo's ''Miss Tourism'' in 2013, died from her wounds.
  - Also reportedly killed by gunfire Wednesday was a participant in a march by workers in support of the government in the eastern industrial city of Ciudad Guayana. According to Venezuela's minister of interior, Miguel Rodrguez, gunmen opened fire upon workers going home or back to their jobs at the end of the march, leaving one dead and at least three others wounded.
  - The latest fatalities came as violent clashes were being reported in 13 of Venezuela's 23 states, having escalated and spread since a February 12 demonstration called by the right-wing opposition in Caracas ended in bloodshed.
  - The government has charged Washington with fomenting the violence, denouncing a statement made by US president Barack Obama in Mexico on Wednesday calling on Caracas to release detained protesters, ''engage in real dialogue'' and address ''the legitimate grievances of the Venezuelan people.''
  - Obama also denounced the Venezuelan government's decision to expel three US embassy personnel for involvement in student protests, accusing it of ''trying to distract from its own failings by making up false accusations against diplomats from the United States.''
  - The Venezuelan foreign ministry responded with an official communiqu(C) accusing Obama of carrying out a ''new and gross interference in the internal affairs of our country.''
  - It demanded that the US government ''explain why it finances, encourages and defends the opposition leaders who promote violence in our country.'' The statement vowed that the Venezuelan government would continue ''monitoring and taking necessary actions to stop US agents seeking to sow violence and destabilization and to inform the world on the nature of the interventionist policy of the Obama administration in our country.''
  - Washington stepped up its attacks on Venezuela following the arrest Tuesday of Leopoldo Lopez, a Harvard-trained economist who is part of the hardline faction within the right-wing opposition coalition known as MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable).
  - Lopez, one of the main organizers of the February 12 demonstration, is the leader of the right-wing Voluntad Popular (VP'--Popular Will) Party. A product of Venezuela's traditional oligarchy, he was one of the leaders of the demonstrations that were organized in April 2002 as part of the abortive CIA-backed coup against Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez. He and his allies elaborated what they called the ''exit strategy'' for the latest protest campaign, meaning a drive to bring down Maduro, who was elected by a narrow margin last April.
  - While the government had initially said it would try Lopez for terrorism and murder, when he was arraigned Tuesday at a military prison a judge ruled only that there was evidence to hold him on charges of criminal incitement and arson.
  - The right wing has called for a mass march on Saturday in Caracas to demand Lopez's release.
  - Until now, the main violence has been concentrated in the upper middle class neighborhoods of eastern Caracas'--where buses were attacked Wednesday night'--and in the western cities of Merida and San Crist"bal. There have been scattered reports of small protests in some more working class areas, including the El Valle and Caricuao boroughs of Caracas, long considered strongholds of the ruling party.
  - There is unquestionably growing discontent within the working class and more impoverished layers of Venezuelan society under conditions of 56 percent inflation, growing social inequality as Venezuela's bankers rake in record profits, and attacks on workers' rights. In the industrial areas of Bolivar state, a number of unions refused to participate in demonstrations called by the ruling party because of the government's refusal to settle contracts and its attacks on working class militants.
  - At the same time, however, the agitation of the right, which has its base in the country's upper classes, has not found support among the masses of working people. The real danger is that, outside of an independent revolutionary movement in the working class, the present crisis can lead to the government's overthrow and the imposition of a right-wing dictatorship, or to its capitulation and implementation of the policies demanded by the right and US imperialism.
  - Henrique Capriles, the twice-defeated presidential candidate of the right and governor of the state of Miranda, took to the airwaves on Wednesday to condemn the Maduro government, while at the same time distancing himself from the violence of the right-wing demonstrators.
  - Capriles also cautioned against what he warned was a threat that elements within the government could use the violence to further their own purposes. ''There are elements who are interested in forcing Maduro out, because it means that Diosdado comes in,'' he said.
  - The right-wing politician was referring to speculation that within the government there is growing competition between Maduro and the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, a former army officer who took part in the failed military coup launched by Hugo Chavez in 1992. Cabello has taken various actions recently that are seemingly of a presidential character, including a recent trip to the western state of Zulia, on the Colombian border, to announce the sacking of military officers implicated in smuggling operations. He has started his own television program on government policy, reminiscent of Hugo Chavez's ''Al" Presidente'' show. It was also Cabello who showed up Tuesday at the Palace of Justice to meet Leopoldo Lopez.
  - The internal friction within the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) reflects the conflicting interests of the social forces upon which it rests, which include the military, sections of the union bureaucracy, petty-bourgeois nationalist layers as well as the so-called boliburguesia, the capitalists and financiers who have enriched themselves through connections to the government.
  - To the extent that the government is forced to rely on the military to suppress the right-wing agitation, these frictions can only intensify. Maduro announced on Thursday that he was prepared to impose a ''state of exception'' in San Crist"bal, a city on the border with Colombia where the protests began and have been particularly violent. The government has charged that the upheavals there are the result of a conspiracy involving both US officials and the Colombian right.
  - The imposition of a state of exception, a form of martial law, would be unprecedented for the government, which even under Chavez during the 2002 coup and the subsequent management strike against the state oil company did not resort to such measures. As it is, the government has announced that it is sending a battalion of paratroopers to the city to secure transportation routes, reinforcing national guard units to restore order and deploying a contingent from the army's corps of engineers to carry out the cleanup and reconstruction of facilities damaged in attacks.
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- President Maduro dreigt CNN Venezuela uit te zetten - BUITENLAND - PAROOL
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  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 17:34
  - 21-02-14 04:38 uur - Bron: ANP
  - Protesten in Caracas. (C) ap
  - De Venezolaanse president Nicolas Maduro heeft donderdag gedreigd journalisten van CNN het land uit te zetten. Hij vindt dat de nieuwszender de dodelijke protesten niet correct verslaat en eist rectificatie.
  - Massaprotesten in Caracas liepen vorige week uit de hand. In totaal kwamen zeker vijf mensen om het leven. De regering van de socialistische Maduro houdt de oppositie verantwoordelijk voor het geweld.
  - CNN was de enige zender die persconferenties van de oppositie live uitzond. Maduro zei op de staattelevisie dat hij de verantwoordelijke minister gevraagd heeft het administratieve proces te starten om de medewerkers van CNN het land uit te zetten, als ze niet rectificeren. 'Genoeg. Ik accepteer geen oorlogspropaganda tegen Venezuela', aldus Maduro.
  - CNN heeft laten weten nog geen officile reactie te hebben op de uitspraken van Maduro.
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- Russia could build a train that would connect New York to Paris | Grist
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:58
  - By Sarah Laskow
  - Amazing Maps posted this, uh, amazing map of a cross-Bering rail connection:
  - It seems like a fanciful idea '-- a bridge or a tunnel linking Russia and the United States. And people have been tossing the concept around, without actually doing anything about it, for a long long time. Czar Nicholas II, for instance, thought it was a good idea '... in 1905.
  - But there's a slim chance it could happen this time. Sure, it would cost a bundle ($100 billion-ish) and take at least a decade to build. But in 2007, the Russian government started seriously thinking about it. In 2011, there was a rumor that Russia was actually putting aside $65 billion for this project. In 2012, the president of Russia Railways told reporters that ''the decision to build must be made within the next three to five years.''
  - This would probably be a rail line that carried more oil than people. But it would mean, in theory, that one could take the train from New York to Paris (the long way around!), which would be an interesting, if inefficient, way to go.
  - Sarah Laskow is a reporter based in New York City who covers environment, energy, and sustainability issues, among other things. Follow her on Twitter.
  - Find this article interesting?Donate now to support our work.
- Twitter / Amazing_Maps: Proposed Russia to North America ...
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- Readout of President Obama's Call with President Putin
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  - Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:53
  - The White House
  - Office of the Press Secretary
  - For Immediate Release
  - February 21, 2014
  - President Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin today to discuss Ukraine and a range of other global issues. On Ukraine, they exchanged views on the need to implement quickly the political agreement reached today in Kyiv, the importance of stabilizing the economic situation and undertaking necessary reforms, and the need for all sides to refrain from further violence. They also spoke about the situation in Syria, including the importance of efforts to advance a political solution, concerns over the humanitarian crisis and the necessity of a strong UN Security Council resolution on the issue, and the need for the Assad regime to adhere to its commitment to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons program. In addition, they discussed U.S.-Russian cooperation in the P5+1 process on Iran. The President also congratulated Russia on its hosting of the Olympic games.
- US dictates terms in international talks with Iran
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  - Source: English
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:25
  - By Peter Symonds21 February 2014Following the conclusion of international talks on Iran's nuclear program yesterday, the US once again made it plain that there would be no final deal unless Tehran acceded to all Washington's demands. The three days of negotiations in Vienna produced nothing more than a broad framework for further talks over coming months. No issues of substance were discussed, let alone resolved.
  - The meeting was the first since an interim agreement was reached last November that gave Tehran limited relief from crippling economic sanctions in return for rolling back or freezing significant aspects of its nuclear program. The agreement between the so-called P5+1 (the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany) and Iran only came into effect on January 20, after weeks of haggling about the details, and is due to expire on July 20.
  - At a joint press conference, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif gave an upbeat assessment, declaring that ''a good start'' was made. However, US officials quickly made clear that sharp disagreements existed, even on the issues to be formally discussed.
  - Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a senior American official in Vienna contradicted statements by Zarif that the negotiations would be limited to Iran's nuclear activities and not extend to other areas. Referring to Iran's ballistic missile program, he said: ''Every issue of concern to us has been discussed, will be discussed, is on the table.''
  - The remark underscores Washington's real agenda. For more than a decade, the US has used unsubstantiated allegations about Iran's nuclear program as a pretext for economic sanctions and military threats aimed at securing Tehran's subordination to American interests in the region. The US is exploiting the talks as the means, not only to dismantle Iran's nuclear programs, but to press Tehran on a long list of other demands'--from eliminating its ballistic missile program to ending support for Palestinian groups and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
  - At the same time, the Obama administration is intensifying its campaign against the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Iran's chief ally in the Middle East. While Iran is preoccupied with securing an end to the devastating sanctions through the Vienna talks, Washington is using the opportunity to ramp up support for Islamist militias and mercenary forces fighting to oust Assad. The US has not ruled out military intervention in Syria or against Iran'--moves that would plunge the entire region into war.
  - The interim agreement provided Iran with access to a small portion of its own funds frozen in foreign accounts and lifted bans on a few economic sectors. But the most severe sanctions, which have halved Iran's oil exports and isolated it from the international banking and financial system, remain in place. In response to a large French business delegation to Tehran, Obama, standing alongside French President Francois Hollande last week, warned that the US would come down on any company breaching sanctions ''like a ton of bricks.''
  - Speaking to the media on Monday, a senior US official spelled out Washington's hostility to European corporate delegations to Tehran. ''We would,'' he said, ''prefer countries to wait and see where we get with a comprehensive agreement before rushing off to Iran.'' It is ''not fair, in our view,'' the official continued, ''for countries to go to Iran and say 'we want to get in line, so if a comprehensive agreement is reached we can be the first in line'.''
  - In other words, the US wants to ensure that if a deal is struck, American corporate interests get the lion's share of access to lucrative business opportunities in Iran. Having broken diplomatic and economic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Iranian revolution, the US is at a disadvantage by comparison with its European rivals. Washington is intent on using its control over sanctions to ensure it is ''first in line'' in the event of any agreement.
  - The Iranian regime is desperate to end the sanctions, which, along with the loss of crucial oil revenues, have led to widespread factory closures, rising unemployment and poverty, and the threat of social unrest. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, with the backing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, initiated talks with the P5+1 last year and has continued to signal Tehran's willingness to come to terms with Washington.
  - An International Atomic Energy Agency report yesterday confirmed that Iran had kept all its commitments under the interim agreement. Uranium enrichment to the 20 percent level has halted and Iran's stockpile either blended down to a lower level or rendered unusable for further enrichment to weapons-grade. No additional gas centrifuges have been installed at its enrichment plants. Construction work on its heavy-water reactor at Arak has stopped.
  - Rouhani is aligned with factions of the Iranian ruling elite that have long pushed for compromise with the US, sweeping pro-market reforms and the opening up of the Iranian economy to Western investment. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued an appraisal of the Iranian economy this week after being invited into the country for the first time in three years.
  - After pointing to the impact of sanctions'--negative growth in 2012 and 2013 and inflation that soared to an annualised rate of 45 percent last July, IMF official Martin Cerisola noted that the government is ''well aware of these challenges and the need to advance [pro-market] reforms'' and has begun ''preparatory work'' in many areas.
  - As well as seeking to declare Iran open for business to foreign investors, the government is indicating its willingness to accommodate to the strategic interests of US imperialism in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Zarif told a German television interviewer earlier this month that Iran would be willing to recognise Israel if a peace deal were reached between Israel and the Palestinians. While such a deal is improbable, Zarif's comments were a message to Washington that Iran is willing to abandon its position that Israel is an illegitimate state.
  - None of this is any guarantee that the US will reach a rapprochement with Iran. That will be determined by Washington's broader ambitions for regional and global hegemony. The Obama administration will take any Iranian concessions and proceed to make further demands, which will only end when the country is reduced to a subservient semi-colony.
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Ukraine
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- In all photos and footage, I keep seeing the dude with the shield and the table cloyh or curtian cape and Goofy helmet
- NATO 'security' clause in the EU agreement
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- 2012 UEFA Championships is when the 'foreign actors' entered the country. They came in as 'advisors to the media and building the stadium etc. Also press credentials.
- Concerns and controversies related to UEFA Euro 2012 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 22:45
  - Concerns and controversies related to UEFA Euro 2012 cover the themes and issues surrounding the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine. After Poland and Ukraine were chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee as host countries for UEFA Euro 2012, several issues arose. Preparation work proceeded more speedily in Poland than in Ukraine and, following a visit in April 2009, Michel Platini announced that all was on track and he saw no major problems.[1]UEFA confirmed the appointment of the Polish cities of Warsaw, PoznaÅ, WrocÅaw and GdaÅsk.[2] At the same meeting, an appeal for the delayed decision on the Ukrainian venues was granted to Lviv, Donetsk, and Kharkiv in order to meet specific conditions regarding infrastructure, with a warning that only Kiev and the best prepared city of the other candidates would otherwise be used if issues were not resolved by the end of November.[3][4][5][6]
  - Criticism of preparations[edit]In January 2008, UEFA President Michel Platini warned the organisers of the need to avoid "critical slippages" in their preparations,[7] prompting Scotland to volunteer as an alternative host twice.[8][9] By June 2008, however, UEFA stated they were "not discussing any plan B in terms of new countries" hosting.[10]
  - Ukraine reported several problems which threatened their ability to co-host, including delays in the renovation of Kiev's Olympic Stadium,[11] and difficulties funding infrastructure work after the economic crisis struck.[12] After an inspection in April 2009, Platini re-affirmed that Ukraine would remain co-host, hinting that most matches could go to Poland.[1]Polish Prime MinisterDonald Tusk stated that his country would be capable of the task, but was committed to the original plans,[13] as was the Polish Football Association (PZPN).[14]
  - In September 2009, Platini announced that "Ukraine has made sudden progress in their efforts to stage the tournament,"[15] and it was soon confirmed that their four cities (Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kiev, and Lviv) would host matches. Kiev was also confirmed to host the final match.[16]
  - An interview Platini gave to the German Football Association (DFB) in May 2010 suggested that Germany and Hungary could replace Ukraine unless improvements were made, casting new doubt on the nation's readiness.[17] By August, however, Platini revisited that and stated, "You can consider that the ultimatum no longer exists,"[18] and that he was optimistic about preparations in both countries and saw no major obstacles.[19] After a UEFA delegation visited Ukraine in September 2011, he stated the country was "virtually ready for Euro 2012."[20]
  - In September 2008, the Government of Poland suspended the Polish Football Association (PZPN) over corruption issues and assigned an administrator to fight against corruption in football. UEFA swiftly issued a letter warning that it risked losing the right to co-host.[21] Further, FIFA threatened that it would suspend Polish football representation in qualifying matches for the world cup. In October an agreement was reached that reinstalled PZPN with a new management and monitored by FIFA, UEFA and the Polish ministry of sports.[22][23]
  - Boycott calls[edit]Following Yulia Tymoshenko's hunger strike which started on 20 April 2012 and her mistreatment in a Ukrainian prison, there have been growing calls to boycott the Euro 2012 in Ukraine.[24]European Commission President Jos(C) Manuel Barroso, the Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, and Androulla Vassiliou. the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, have announced they will boycott the tournament in Ukraine.[25][26] The Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, announced in May that Austrian government officials would not attend the tournament as a "political signal."[27] Belgium's government officials have announced they will boycott games held in Ukraine, with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders calling on Ukraine's government to respect all of Tymoshenko's rights.[28] Germany has announced that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit would depend on Tymoshenko's release,[25] and she has urged her ministers to do the same.[29] Germany's Interior and sports minister Hans-Peter Friedrich will boycott the Germany v Netherlands match in Kharkiv.[29] The manager of Bayern Munich, Jupp Heynckes has called on the President of UEFA, Platini, to condemn Ukraine's authoritarian regime,[29] and the manager of Borussia Dortmund, J¼rgen Klopp, has stated that he will boycott the event.[29] However, German sports officials have said that such boycotts are ineffective and the event should go ahead.[30] Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has criticised calls for a boycott saying that they are inappropriate,[31] but added that Ukraine's reputation will "suffer dramatically" without a solution.[32] Poland's opposition party is in favour of boycotting matches in Ukraine to change decision about Yulia Tymoshenko.[33]
  - Ukraine has compared the threats of boycott by European powers as a return to Cold War tactics.[34] In a statement, UEFA says it has "alerted the Ukrainian delegation about the concerns raised by the political situation in Ukraine among European politicians and media",[35] but that "UEFA has no position and will not take any regarding the political situation in Ukraine, and will not interfere with internal government matters."[36] Meanwhile the heads of state of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Slovenia reportedly turned down an invitation to attend a summit of central and eastern leaders that Ukraine was due to hold.[37] The European Union asserted that all its commissioners would boycott the events in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted in saying that the boycott call was wrong and offered to give Tymoshenko medical treatment in his country, this was rejected. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry added that the threat of boycott could "hurt mutual understanding" and that they "view as destructive attempts to politicise sporting events, which since ancient times have played a paramount role in improving understanding and agreement between nations. An attack on this big dream undermines the chances of...all the former Socialist Bloc members to prove that their economic, human and scientific potential can turn them from the debtors of Europe to its engine of growth."[32]
  - Sensationalism, racism, antisemitism and hooliganism[edit]Panorama documentary and reaction[edit]On 28 May 2012, BBCcurrent affairs programme Panorama examined the issues of racism, antisemitism and football hooliganism which it stated were prevalent among Polish and Ukrainian supporters.[38] The programme, titled Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, included recent footage of supporters in chanting various antisemitic slogans and displays of white power symbols and banners. The documentary recorded antisemitism and monkey noise taunts of black players in Poland.[38] In Ukraine, it record Nazi salutes and FC Metalist Kharkiv supporters violently assaulting a group of Asian students at the Metalist Oblast Sports Complex, one of the stadiums hosting matches in Ukraine.[39][40]Panorama filmed former England defender Sol Campbell watching these clips, and then asked him whether he would recommend families go to the Championship. He responded: "Stay at home, watch it on TV. Don't even risk it'... because you could end up coming back in a coffin."[41]
  - The report was then followed up by most of the British media, which published a large number of articles accusing Poles and Ukrainians of racism.[42]
  - The documentary was criticised as sensationalist, unbalanced and unethical. Jonathan Ornstein, the executive director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krak"w, a Jewish source used in the film said: "I am furious at the way the BBC has exploited me as a source. The organization used me and others to manipulate the serious subject of anti-Semitism for its own sensationalist agenda... the BBC knowingly cheated its own audience - the British people - by concocting a false horror story about Poland. In doing so, the BBC has spread fear, ignorance, prejudice and hatred. I am profoundly disturbed by this unethical form of journalism."[43]
  - Another source used in the film, anti-racism campaigner Jacek Purski said: "The material prepared by the BBC is one-sided. It does not show the whole story of Polish preparations for the Euros. It does not show the Championship ran a lot of activities aimed at combating racism in the "Respect Diversity" campaign. For us the Euro is not only about matches. The event has become an opportunity to fight effectively against racism and promote multiculturalism. There is no country in Europe free from racism. These are the facts."[44]
  - Black Polish MP John Godson said: "The documentary was biased, one sided and rather sensational. I have received information that there were also interviews that were omitted by the BBC'--for example interview with the Polish police."[45]
  - A reporter from Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's biggest left-wing newspaper, questioned Panorama's practices and said: "I am becoming more and more surprised with what the BBC says. So far it has denied two situations I witnessed. I would not be surprised if the BBC prepared a statement saying that the Panorama crew has never been to Poland."[45]
  - Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshyn responded that the allegations were an "invented and mythical problem",[46] and that "Nazi symbols can be seen at ... any match in England".[47] Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated: "Nobody who comes to Poland will be in any danger because of his race. This is not our custom, as is not pointing out similar incidents in other countries."[48]
  - The Guardian reported: "Other sources have come forward to say that an interview with a Jewish Israeli player was also cut from the programme because he failed to confirm Panorama's "anti-semitism" thesis. The BBC interviewed midfielder Aviram Baruchian, who plays for the Polish team Polonia Warsaw. One source who was present said the Panorama journalists had complained afterwards that the interview was "useless". Panorama strongly denies this.[49]
  - Panorama responded to the criticism, saying: "England Fans, the official England Supporters' Club, travelling to Euro 2012 called the programme unhelpful and some Poles in the UK have expressed concern that they have been labelled as racist. But amid all of these accusations against Panorama and the BBC, there is a real fear that the key issue has been missed - the overt and frightening racist and anti-Semitic abuse and violence of the kind broadcast by Panorama is both wrong and deeply upsetting to those on its receiving end. That was the point of the programme. We set out to highlight a wrong. Were the beatings that the students from India sustained in Ukraine's Metalist stadium somehow "exaggerated"? Was the fact that they said the police were of "no use" as they walked off bruised and alone into the Ukrainian night somehow "made up"? Were the monkey chants hurled at the black players we filmed in Poland somehow "sensationalised"?[50]
  - Brendan O'Neill, the editor of Spiked wrote that England fans had staged "a protest against BBC Panorama's hysterical depiction of Ukraine as a hotbed of racism and anti-Semitism, which they have discovered during their stay in that country to be untrue. ...it was the respectable Beeb, echoed by broadsheets, which painted an entire nation ''over there'' as backward and prejudiced, while it has fallen to everyday fans to poke holes in this xenophobic mythmaking and to point out that there is actually nothing scary about modern Ukraine and its inhabitants. England fans have proven themselves way more racially enlightened than the aloof suits in the current-affairs department of the BBC."[51]
  - England football coach Roy Hodgson said the racism allegations were "the biggest negativity in England... As a result I think we've lost a lot of fans who didn't come because of a lot of horror stories about how life would be in the Ukraine and Poland." Hodgson added that he had nothing but positive impressions of Poland and Ukraine.[52]
  - The Daily Mail reported that the FA intended to write a letter of complaint to the BBC.[53] The paper also said that the three nations fined by UEFA for racism were not the hosts but visitors from Spain, Croatia and Russia.[54]
  - The Daily Mirror commented: "The biggest plus of Euro 2012 must be the scaremongering presented by BBC's Panorama of violence and terrible racism in Poland and Ukraine largely proved to be just that. If you do not believe me, then take the word of Gary Lineker who did not mind taking a swipe at his BBC bosses to point out how friendly and accommodating the locals have been. Ahead of Spain's semi with Portugal, Lineker tweeted: ''Donetsk is a lovely town with friendly folk. Pre-tournament scaremongering way off the mark.''"[55]
  - Other incidents[edit]According to the Dutch daily de Telegraaf, during an open training session in Krak"w, Dutch black players were allegedly subjected to monkey noises and jeers, an incident that the Holland captain Mark van Bommel described as a "real disgrace". UEFA acknowledged that there had been "isolated incidents of racist chanting".[56] However, other Dutch media, including the prestigious daily de Volkskrant, have reported that the allegations of monkey chants were made up. According to the newspaper, the coach of the Dutch team has made several statements to the BBC that he had not heard the supposed chanting, nor did the rest of the team. According to de Volksrant, the story was sensationalized by de Telegraaf.[57]
  - The first incidence of hooliganism at Euro 2012 happened on 8 June 2012 after Russia vs Czech Republic in WrocÅaw.[58] Russian hooligans were violent against Polish stewards at the WrocÅaw`s Municipal Stadium.[59][60] Around 30 Russian hooligans attacked a handful of stewards.[61][62] Four stewards needed hospital treatment after this attack.[63]
  - On 11 June 2012, before the Euro 2012 match between Croatia and Ireland, Croatian football fans clashed with riot police in the Polish city of PoznaÅ.[64] Croatian fans threw chairs, bottles and flares at Polish riot police. The incident began after a clash between intoxicated supporters of two rival Croatian teams from Zagreb and Split in one of the city centre's bars, shortly after 5:00 pm. Croatia was also later charged with racist chants and symbols against Mario Balotelli in the Italy game with anti-discrimination monitors reporting monkey noises were being made as well as far-right nationalist flags being displayed. A photographer for the AFP also reported monkey noises made and spotting a steward picking up a banana that was thrown onto the pitch.[65]
  - A clash involving Russian and Polish hooligans took place in Warsaw on 12 June 2012.[66] The violence broke out when, during a march organised by Russian fans celebrating Russia Day before the Poland vs. Russia game at Warsaw's National Stadium, rival groups of supporters began to provoke each other with insulting chants.[67] The Polish Police fired warning shots and used water cannon to disperse rival groups of fans; around 100 arrests were made and ten people hospitalised '' seven Poles, two Russians and one German.[68]
  - Germany fans were charged with displaying "inappropriate banners and symbols".[69]
  - UEFA has opened proceedings to fine both the football federations of Spain and Russia. Spanish fans were accused of chants to black Italian player Mario Balotelli, and Russian fans had similar behavior in their game against the Czech Republic, where Theodor Gebre Selassie noted racial chants from Russian fans.[70]
  - Disorder broke out in Bedford, England after Italy defeated England on 24 June. About 150 England fans targeted Italian fans; cars were damaged, there were four arrests and one person was hurt, but not seriously.[71] Some Twitter users also racially abused black English players Ashley Cole and Ashley Young.[72]
  - Animal cruelty[edit]Ukraine has come under criticism from animal welfare organisations for killing stray cats and dogs in order to prepare for Euro 2012.[73] On 13 November 2011 the Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources urged mayors around the country to stop the killings for six months and build shelters instead, but it is unclear how this measure will be enforced. The ministry's comments also suggested this would only be a temporary measure, drawing further criticism.[74][75][76] Mykola Zlochevsky, minister of the environment, said that amendments would be made to the Ukrainian legislation regarding the treatment of stray animals.[77] The minister also agreed a programme of construction for new animal shelters, the first to be completed by June 2012, and the introduction of new legislation making it "compulsory for city mayors to enforce such new regulations or run the risk of facing prosecution."[74] In spite of these promises, in April 2012 it was found that dog killings were continuing unabated.[78]
  - Terrorism[edit]On 27 April 2012, four bombs went off in Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine (which was not a host city). At least 29 people were injured in what was described as a terrorist attack.[79]Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yanukovych said that there would be an "adequate" response.[80]Hryhoriy Surkis, then head of the Ukrainian Football Federation, said that he "think[s] the people who committed this brutal crime...are also accomplices to an attack on the image of our country ahead of the Euro-2012." UEFA responded to the incident saying that it as confident of having a "smooth and festive tournament,"[81] however, should the political situation become more unstable, UEFA is reported to be open to the idea of the postponing the event to 2013.[82] Following serious security concerns, Angel Maria Villar, the Royal Spanish Football Federation president, has reportedly offered to stage Euro 2012 in Spain.[82]
  - Protests[edit]The FEMEN group has protested against a feared surge in prostitution and what they argue are Ukrainian government moves to legalise prostitution during the championships. Activists staged several topless protests, some on the Euro 2012 trophy while it was on public display.[83][84] The group asked UEFA and the Ukrainian government to create a social program devoted to the problem of sex tourism and prostitution in Ukraine; to inform football fans that prostitution is illegal in Ukraine; and to take additional steps to fight against prostitution and sex tourism.[85][86]
  - Hotels overcharging[edit]In April 2012, while on an inspection trip to the host city of Lviv, UEFA president Michel Platini labelled hoteliers as "bandits and crooks" for raising hotel prices in Ukraine for Euro 2012.[87] President Yanukovych ordered his government to prevent hoteliers from charging inflated prices.[88] Some hoteliers had increased prices eighty-fold, causing Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to warn that state control of hotel tariffs might be introduced.[89] Later that month, Markian Lubkivsky, head of the Euro 2012 organizing committee in Ukraine, said hotel and hostel prices were no longer "critically" inflated.[90]
  - Manipulations of live transmission[edit]The television transmission was not completely live. Several scenes were mounted into the transmission as thought appropriate, or cut out, or left out altogether. On the order of UEFA it was forbidden to show the empty seats in the stadiums. The scene where the German coach Joachim L¶w tolls a ball boy actually happened before the match.[91] The same is true for the footage of a German fan's tears, which happened before the match, but was shown after the Italian goal. The German broadcasting agency ARD expressed its intention to file a complaint against these practices by UEFA.[92][93]
  - Goal-line technology[edit]During the final matchday of the group stage, on 19 June, the match between England and Ukraine featured a "ghost goal" by Marko DeviÄ. In the second half, with Ukraine losing 1''0 to a header from Wayne Rooney, DeviÄ's shot was hooked clear from behind the England goal-line by John Terry under the eyes of the fifth official standing beside the goal (as confirmed by video replays).[94] England ultimately won the group (after Sweden overturned France in the night's other game) and Ukraine went out of the tournament. DeviÄ's "ghost goal" reopened football's goal-line technology debate.[95][96][97] Replays of the build-up also appeared to show Ukrainian forward Artem Milevskiy in an offside position when the ball was played to him, which also went unnoticed by the officials.[98]
  - Lost of public money[edit]Polish government TV - TVP bought exclusive rights to show the games in Poland for 120 mln zÅ, and lost at least 50 mln zÅ(because of the lower income from adverts).[99]
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Retrieved 25 May 2012. ^"Ukraine rejects Russian refuge for Tymoshenko". Al Jazeera English. 4 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012. ^ ab"Sol Campbell warns fans to stay away from Euro 2012". BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). 28 May 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012. ^"Asian fans racially abused in Euro 2012 stadium". BBC. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012. ^Lancefield, Neil (28 May 2012). "Steer clear of Euro 2012, warns former England defenders Sol Campbell". The Independent (London). Retrieved 29 May 2012. ^"Sol Campbell warns fans to stay away from Euro 2012". BBC News. 28 May 2012. ^"Euro 2012: are Ukrainians still Untermenschen? | Brendan O'Neill | spiked". Spiked-online.com. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Euro 2012 is overshadowed by accusations of racism and anti-Semitism". The Economist. ^"Wszyscy jesteÅmy odpowiedzialni za pseudokibic"w". Krakow.gazeta.pl. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^ ab"Stitch up unstitched'--updated (again)". The Economist. ^Balmforth, Richard (29 May 2012). "Ukraine says UK press racism allegations "invented"". Reuters. Retrieved 29 May 2012. ^"Euro 2012: Ukraine hits back after Sol Campbell warns fans". BBC. Retrieved 29 May 2012. ^"'Unfair' say organisers". Hindustan Times. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012. ^Harding, Luke; Tchorek, Kamil (13 June 2012). "Ukraine attacks BBC Panorama documentary as 'provocation'". The Guardian (London). ^Tom Giles. "The Editors: 'Stadiums of Hate': Legitimate and fair". BBC. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Englands football fans have proven that they are far more racially enlightened than the BBC". The Daily Telegraph (London). 20 June 2012. ^"Hodgson: Ukraine 'Horror Stories' Deterred Fans | Sports | RIA Novosti". En.ria.ru. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^Sale, Charles. "FA set to rap Panorama after race scare show". Daily Mail (London). ^"Euro 2012: Ukraine chief blasts Sol Campbell | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Matt Law's Euro 2012 diary: My highs and lows of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine - Matt Law - Mirror Online". Mirror.co.uk. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Euro 2012: Uefa acknowledge 'isolated' racist chants directed at black Holland players during training session". London: Telegraph. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012. ^"Holenderskie media: OpowieÅci o maÅpich odgÅosach sÄ wyssane z palca" [The stories about monkey chants are pulled out of thin air]. Retrieved 14 June 2012. ^"Daily Mail, Sportsmail reporter, "Russia victory marred by crowd trouble as supporters attack stadium stewards"". Dailymail.co.uk. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^SÅawomir PawÅowski,Gazeta Wyborcza, 09.06.2012^Youtube: "Russian hooligans beat steward EURO 2012 Wroclaw-Poland"[dead link]^"Daily Mail, Sportmail reporter, "Russia victory marred by crowd trouble as supporters attack stadium stewards"". Dailymail.co.uk. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Polish TV video". Wiadomosci.wp.tv. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^22:15 GMT (9 June 2012). "BBC Sport, "Uefa investigates improper conduct by Russia fans"". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Mike Linstead, BBC: "Croatian fans clash with police before match" video". Bbc.co.uk. 11 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"UEFA charge Croatian football association with racism after reports fans made monkey chants at Mario Balotelli". AAP (Warsaw: Fox Sports). 16 June 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2012. ^Euro 2012: Polish and Russian fans injured in clash as march descends into violence on Russia Day, The Telegraph, 12 June 2012^"Violent clashes mar Poland's draw with Russia". Uk.eurosport.yahoo.com. Retrieved 14 June 2012. ^Borowski, Chris (23 February 2010). "Fighting between Poles, Russians mars their Euro 2012 match | Football | Reuters". Football.uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 14 June 2012. ^"UEFA Charges Germany For Improper Fan Conduct". Huffington Post. 19 June 2012. ^Palmer, Justin (26 June 2012). "Spain and Russia face UEFA racism charges in Euro 2012 - Yahoo! Sports". Sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"BBC News - Euro 2012: Bedford disorder after England lose to Italy". Bbc.co.uk. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^"Euro 2012 racism: Twitter abuse at England stars Ashley Cole and Ashley Young investigated by police | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012. ^Osborn, Andrew (3 December 2011). "Ukraine accused of culling dogs in clean-up for Euro 2012". The Daily Telegraph (London). p. 23. ^ ab"UEFA welcomes Ukraine decision on stray dogs". UEFA. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2012. ^"Ukraine to stop killing stray dogs before Euro 2012 football championship". The Guardian (London). 17 November 2011. ^"Ukraine calls for dog killing ban". London: Independent. 17 November 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ^"Naturewatch thanks UEFA for help on stray dogs". UEFA. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2012. ^"Ukraine STILL killing dogs ahead of Euro 2012". 29 April 2012. ^Elder, Miriam (27 April 2012). "Ukraine bomb blasts injure dozens ahead of Euro 2012". The Guardian (London). ^"Janukowycz: odpowiemy adekwatnie". Tvp.Info. Retrieved 30 April 2012. ^"No concerns about tournament". Aljazeera.com. Retrieved 3 May 2012. ^ ab"Spain offer to host Euro 2012?". Sports Mole. Retrieved 3 May 2012. ^"Ukraine women go topless against UEFA, prostitution". 3 November 2011. ^"Topless protester attempts to snatch Euro 2012 trophy in Ukraine". London: Telegraph. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ^"Euro 2012 Without Prostitution: Femen Activists Go Topless Against UEFA". 2 December 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ^"Topless Protestors At Euro 2012 Draw Against Legal Prostitution During Soccer Tournament". Huffington Post. 2 December 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ^"UEFA complains about high Ukraine hotel prices". 12 April 2012. ^"UEFA chief slams price-gouging from Ukraine hotels". AP Worldstream. 12 April 2012. ^Tsukanova, Anya (16 May 2012). "Ukraine's Euro 2012 hotel crisis eases, a little". AFP. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ^"Euro 2012 hotel prices brought to norm in Ukraine". Miami Herald. 19 April 2012. ^J¼rgen Kaube: Die Regie spielt falsch. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 15. Juni 2012.^Montierte Tr¤nen auf sz.de, 29. Juni 2012.^Uefa montiert Tr¤nen ¼ber Balotellis Treffer..., 30 June 2012.^Tidey, Will (19 June 2012). "Ukraine vs. England: Marko Devic Enters Goal-Line Technology Hall of Shame". The Bleacher Report. Retrieved 19 June 2012. ^Barlow, Matt (19 June 2012). "Ghost goal fury of Blokhin while Hodgson's happy to get rub of the green". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 19 June 2012. ^"5 Famous Soccer Goal-Line Controversies". The Washington Post. 19 June 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2012. ^"England, France through to Euro 2012 quarters". Herald Sun. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012. ^Wallace, Sam (20 June 2012). "Rooney seizes his chance to lift England's expectations". The Independent (London). Retrieved 20 June 2012. ^http://finanse.wp.pl/kat,1033693,title,Nie-bedzie-Euro-2016-bo-nie-placicie-abonamentu,wid,16256427,wiadomosc.html
- Paul Ronzheimer has boots on the ground with Klitshko
- Ronzheimer's twitter feed
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- US, European Union threaten sanctions against Ukraine
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: English
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:10
  - By Bill Van Auken20 February 2014In the wake of Tuesday's bloody clashes in Kiev's Independence Square, both the European Union and Washington have threatened to impose targeted sanctions against Ukrainian officials as part of the escalating Western campaign for regime change in the former Soviet republic.
  - The threats from the West came amid warnings that the violence unfolding in Kiev and a number of other Ukrainian cities is evolving into a ''coup'' or even a ''civil war.''
  - President Barack Obama, in a public statement delivered during a state visit to Mexico, threatened that ''there will be consequences if people step over the line.'' He hastened to make clear that Washington is referring not to the right-wing demonstrators who have attacked security forces with gunfire, firebombs, paving stones and clubs. Rather, he said, ''We hold the Ukrainian government primarily responsible.''
  - The US president went on to state, ''There is still the possibility of a peaceful transition.''
  - This is a euphemism for a deal dictated by Washington that results in the ouster of the elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, and the installation of a regime that is closely aligned with the US and NATO and hostile to Russia.
  - In the course of his brief remarks, Obama used the phrase ''peaceful protesters'' three times, a description wildly at odds with the violent and deadly attacks carried out in Kiev on Tuesday.
  - Earlier, White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said that Washington was in consultation with its European allies on the sanctions. He described that Tuesday's ''scenes'' in Kiev were ''completely outrageous and have no place in the 21st century,'' an odd remark given the scale of violence unleashed by US imperialism in the first 15 years of this century. He reaffirmed that ''Ukraine's orientation towards Europe and the Transatlantic community is an important priority of US foreign policy.''
  - In Europe, heads of state and ministers engaged in similar denunciations and threats. The European Union is set to convene an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday to impose asset freezes and travel bans on select Ukrainian officials.
  - French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Paris Wednesday, stressing that sanctions were part of a broader policy aimed at forcing out the current government. ''What is happening in Ukraine is unspeakable, unacceptable, intolerable,'' Hollande fulminated.
  - Merkel signaled that sanctions were a foregone conclusion, with the only question being how they would be targeted. ''But sanctions alone are not enough,'' she added. ''We have to get the political process going again.''
  - Earlier this week, two principal Ukrainian opposition leaders, Vitaly Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, flew to Berlin for meetings with both Merkel and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss strategy. The talks were an indication of how directly Germany is intervening in Ukraine, a country it twice invaded in the 20th century.
  - Both Germany and the US have stepped up their intervention in the country after Yanukovych backed out of an association agreement with the EU that tied loans to austerity measures and instead entered into talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a $15 billion bailout.
  - The German, French and Polish foreign ministers are set to go to Kiev for talks with the government and the opposition and then proceed immediately to Brussels for the meeting to consider sanctions.
  - Tuesday's clashes, initiated by right-wing and neo-fascist opponents of the Yanukovych government after the Ukrainian parliament failed to approve measures that they had demanded, left at least 26 people dead, including at least 10 policemen. Injured or wounded were another 263 protesters and 342 police officers.
  - The government claimed that all of the police fatalities were caused by gunfire, although there were some reports that policemen had burned to death when protesters attacked an armored vehicle with Molotov cocktails. A video was posted on YouTube Tuesday showing protesters wearing helmets and flak jackets using rifles and pistols to fire on security forces in Kiev's Independence Square.
  - Wednesday saw sporadic clashes, but not on the lethal scale of the day before. Fires continued to burn along the parameter of the opposition encampment in Kiev's Independence Square, where crowds were reduced to just a few thousand, dominated by right-wing elements such as the anti-Semitic Svoboda party and the so-called Right Sector.
  - Reports from other areas of the country, however, indicated a continuing escalation of the attacks on the government. In the western city of Lviv, near the Polish border, right-wing militants stormed a number of government buildings, including police stations and a barracks of interior ministry troops, which was set on fire. Both officials and reporters said that guns were seized by the crowd.
  - Oleksander Yakimenko, the head of the SBU, the Ukraine state security service, reported Wednesday that, over the previous 24 hours, 1,500 firearms and 100,000 rounds of ammunition had been seized from police and military facilities. ''Violence is being used in a deliberate, targeted way by means of arson attacks, murder, hostage taking and intimidating the population to attain criminal goals,'' he said.
  - ''All this is being done with the use of firearms. These are not just signs of terrorism; these are specific acts of terrorism. By their actions, radical and extremist groups pose a real threat to the lives of millions of Ukrainians.''
  - In a video statement, President Yanukovych appealed to opposition leaders ''to separate yourselves from radical elements.'' He said that his aides had tried to convince him to ''take harsher measures,'' but that he had urged restraint. He added that the opposition had ''crossed the line when they encouraged people to take up arms.'' He denounced the recent actions as an attempted ''coup.''
  - Moscow, which sees the imposition of a pro-NATO government in Kiev as a direct threat to its strategic interests, has echoed this charge. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday describing the events in Kiev as a ''brown revolution,'' a reference to the Nazis taking power in Germany in 1933. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the violence in Kiev on Western governments encouraging right-wing extremists ''to act outside the law.''
  - Meanwhile, in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Ukraine was teetering on the brink of civil war and could undergo partition if a settlement is not reached. ''What if no compromise is achieved?'' he asked in parliament. ''We will have anarchy and perhaps division of the state or civil war, the beginning of which we may now be witnessing.''
  - Late last night, a statement on the presidential web site said Yanukovych had agreed to a truce and ''the start to negotiations with the aim of ending bloodshed, and stabilizing the situation in the state.'' No details were provided.
  - The announcement came after Yanukovych met members of a crisis group, which included the three main opposition leaders'--Klitschko, Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok'--the parliamentary speaker and top administration officials. Yatsenyuk confirmed that a truce had been declared so that ''the storming of the Maidan (Independence Square) which the authorities had planned today will not take place.''
  - In an earlier indication of the crisis of the Ukraine government, it was reported Wednesday that Yanukovych had sacked the head of the country's armed forces. The move came just as the government was threatening to order troops into the streets as part of an ''antiterrorist operation'' to restore order.
  - The instability of the Yanukovych government stems essentially from the fact that it, no less than its right-wing rivals, is fundamentally dependent upon and a political instrument of a narrow layer of corrupt oligarchs who enriched themselves off the privatization of state property following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
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- Piling cases on Tymoshenko
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 05:29
  - Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko led Ukraine's government in 2005 and again from 2007-2010 under President Viktor Yushchenko. She made a fortune in the natural gas trading business under the patronage of ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, in power from 1996-1997. Lazarenko is now serving a prison sentence in the United States after being convicted on money-laundering charges.With Tymoshenko's enemies back in power, not least among them Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and gas tycoon Dmytro Firtash, Ukrainian prosecutors seem determined to keep her locked up in prison far beyond the seven-year term she received on Oct. 11.
  - Here's a roundup of her legal troubles, which she and many others in Ukraine and internationally say amount to political persecution rather than a genuine attempt to root out corruption. Even though some of the accusations go back to the 1990s, investigators say the statute of limitations has not expired.
  - Tymoshenko has been found guilty of: exceeding authority when brokering gas contracts with Russia in January 2009. The court sentences her to seven years in prison and required to reimburse the state $188 million in losses caused by the gas contract. She is also banned from taking a job as a civil servant for the period of three years after serving her seven-year prison sentence.
  - Tymoshenko is under criminal investigation on suspicion of:
  - involvement in contract killing of a Donetsk businessman and national lawmaker Yevhen Shcherban in 1996;conspiring with Lazarenko to misuse public funds by shifting $405 million in corporate liabilities of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a company that Tymoshenko co-owned and directed, to the state's budget;embezzlement of Hr 25 million in budget funds and evasion of the payment of more than Hr 20 million in taxes through the introduction of a criminal financial scheme regarding payments for natural gas by the United Energy Systems of Ukraine; she also allegedly concealed income in Tymoshenko's offshore company;misuse of public money by spending $350 million out of the $480 million Ukraine received for selling Kyoto protocol carbon credits on pensions instead of using it exclusively to fund environmental projects;exceeding authority when authorizing as prime minister the purchase of 1,000 specialized Opel Combo medical vehicles at inflated prices, which allegedly incurred in Hr 67 million in losses to the state budget;receiving Illegal VAT returns worth Hr 14 million for United Energy Systems of Ukraine in 1997-1999;failing to pay VAT worth Hr 20 million for contracts between United Energy Systems of Ukraine and Gazprom in 1996-1997;failing to pay Hr 681,000 in taxes from income from Somolli Enterprises Limited, a Cypriot offshore company Tymoshenko allegedly co-owned;giving former Ukraine Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko a $86 million bribe in the 1990s;an attempt of giving bribes to judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in 2004 in attempt to get a court ruling which would release former managers of United Energy Systems of Ukraine.
- aangirfan: MYSTERIOUS YULIA
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 05:48
  - Yulia Tymoshenko's father was a Russian of Jewish descent.The Biography of Yulia Tymoshenko: Chapter One
  - Yulia has been linked to a number of mysterious deaths.Yulia favours the Ukraine having closer ties with the European Union.UkraineThe Ukraine has decided not to become the next Greece.
  - The Ukraine has decided not to sign a trade treaty with the European Union.
  - The Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has decided to 'get closer to a Moscow-led trade bloc.'
  - Reportedly, Vladimir Putin has been 'bullying' the Ukraine by threatening to cut energy supplies.Penny -The battle for Ukraine
  - Reportedly, the European Community has also been 'bullying' the Ukraine.
  - The USA's Zbigniew Brzezinski sees the Ukraine as being vital to Russia.
  - He wrote that "without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire."Armenia has joined the Russian customs union. Moldova and Georgia hope to do a trade deal with the EU.
  - TymoshenkoPresident Yanukovych has jailed his chief rival, the Orange leader Yulia Tymoshenko.In 1988, Yulia and her husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko opened a video business, with the help of her husband's rich father Gennadi Tymoshenko, who presided over a regional film distribution network. [48]
  - In 1989 - 1991, Yulia and her husband set up a larger video business, called "Terminal". [43][48]
  - Videosof Vladik from the Ukraine (right) have been sold all over the world.From 1989 to 1991, Yulia was a commercial director of the Dnipropetrovsk Youth Center "Terminal".In early October 2009, supporters of the frontrunner in the Ukraine elections, ex-premier Viktor Yanukovich, alleged that members of Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko's competing party were implicated in a child abuse case at a children's summer camp in Crimea in the Ukraine.
  - Lazarenko
  - According to Vladimir Kornilov, the director of the Ukrainian Center for Eurasian Studies:
  - "Tymoshenko joined the business wing of Pavel Lazarenko... who ... became Ukraine's Prime Minister.
  - "Today it is no secret, as it is a part of the investigation materials in the multiple criminal cases of contract killings that took place in Ukraine in 1990s, that the entire business created by Tymoshenko developed exclusively due to the 'krysha' (or criminal patronage) provided by Pavel Lazarenko".
  - Ukrainian ex-PM Tymoshenko may face life in prison for 'ordering ....
  - Lazarenko's estate in Novato, Marin Country, California
  - "When her corporation Ukrainian Petroleum transformed into the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, by some strange coincidence many of her competitors started dying on a regular basis."
  - Ukrainian ex-PM Tymoshenko may face life in prison for 'ordering ....
- Yulia Tymoshenko - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 05:21
  - Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (Ukrainian: Ð®ÌÐ>>ÑÑ Ð'Ð¾Ð>>Ð¾Ð´Ð¸ÌÐ¼Ð¸ÑÑÐ²Ð½Ð° ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÌÐ½ÐºÐ¾, pronounced [ËjulijÉ ÊÉ--lÉ--ËdÉªmÉªriÊnÉ tÉªmÉ--ËÊÉnkÉ--], n(C)e Hrihyan, Ð'ÑÑÐ"ÑÐ½,[4] born 27 November 1960) is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010.[5][6] Tymoshenko is the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", which was the largest opposition political party in Ukraine.[7] Tymoshenko strives for Ukraine's integration into the European Union, strongly opposes the membership of Ukraine in the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and supports eradication of post-Soviet corrupt clans in Ukraine.[8]
  - Early life and career[edit]Yulia Tymoshenko (born Hrihyan[4][9][10]) was born 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).[11] Her mother, Lyudmila Telehina (n(C)e Nelepova), was born 11 August 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk.[12] Her father, Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihyan'-- who abandoned Lyudmila Telehina and his daughter when Yulia was three years old[13]'--was born December 3, 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk and was according to his Soviet passportLatvian.[12] His mother was Maria Yosypivna Hrihyan, born in 1909.[12] His father was Abram Kelmanovych Kapitelman (Ukrainian: ÐÐ±ÑÐ°Ð¼ ÐÐµÐ>>ÑÐ¼Ð°Ð½Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ ÐÐ°ÐÑÑÐµÐ>>ÑÐ¼Ð°Ð½, born in 1914); after graduating from Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1940 Kapitalman was sent to work in Western Ukraine, where he worked "one academic quarter" as the director of a public Jewish school in the city Sniatyn.[12] In the autumn of 1940 Kapitalman was mobilized into the army, he was killed while taking part in World War II on November 8, 1944, with the rank of "lieutenant communications".[12]
  - Volodymyr left the family when Yulia was a year old, and Yulia was raised by her mother alone.[13] Tymoshenko took the surname of her mother, "Telehina", before graduating from high school in 1977.[13][14] In 1979, Yulia married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, son of a mid-level Soviet official.[15] In 1980 their daughter Yevhenia (Eugenia) was born.[16]
  - Education[edit]In 1977 Tymoshenko graduated from high school with distinction (school ' 37 in Dnipropetrovsk).[13][14]
  - In 1978 Tymoshenko was enrolled in the Automatization and Telemechanics department of the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute.[17] In 1979 she transferred to the Economic Department of the Dnipropetrovsk State University and majored in cybernetic engineering. In 1984 Tymoshenko graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State University with first degree honors as an engineer-economist.[18]
  - In 1999, she defended a PhD dissertation, entitled State Regulation of the tax system, at the Kiev National Economic University.[19]
  - Business career[edit]Tymoshenko has been a practicing economist and academic. Prior to her political career, she was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country. Before becoming Ukraine's first female Prime Minister in 2005,[20] Tymoshenko co-led the Orange Revolution.[21] She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2005.[22]
  - After graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984, Tymoshenko worked as an engineer-economist in a "Dnipro Machine-Building Plant" in Dnipropetrovsk until 1988 (the factory produced missiles).[23]
  - In 1988, as part of the perestroika initiatives, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko borrowed 5000 Soviet rubles and opened a video rental cooperative, perhaps with the help of Oleksander's father Gennadi Tymoshenko, who presided over a regional film distribution network in the provincial council.[24]
  - In 1989''1991, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko founded and headed a commercial video rental company, "Terminal", in Dnipropetrovsk,[16][24] which grew to be quite successful.
  - In 1991, Tymoshenko established (jointly with her husband Oleksandr, Gennadi Tymoshenko and Olexandr Gravets)[24] "The Ukrainian Petrol Corporation", a company that provided the agriculture industry of Dnipropetrovsk with fuel from 1991 to 1995.[23] Tymoshenko worked as a General Director. In 1995, this company was reorganized into United Energy Systems of Ukraine.[25] Tymoshenko was the president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a privately owned middleman company that became the main importer of Russian natural gas to Ukraine, from 1995 to January 1, 1997.[11][26][27] During that time she was nicknamed the "gas princess".[28][29] She was also accused of "having given Pavlo Lazarenko kickbacks in exchange for her company's stranglehold on the country's gas supplies",[30] although Judge Martin Jenkins of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, on May 7, 2004, dismissed the allegations of money laundering and conspiracy regarding UESU, Somoli Ent. et al. (companies affiliated with Yulia Tymoshenko) in connection with Lazarenko's activities.[31] During this period, Tymoshenko was involved in business relations (either co-operative or hostile) with many important figures of Ukraine.[32][33][34] Tymoshenko also had to deal with the management of the Russian corporation, Gazprom.[35] Yulia Tymoshenko claims that, under her management, UESU successfully solved significant economic problems: in 1995''1997, Ukraine's multi-billion debt for Russian natural gas was paid; Ukraine resumed international cooperation in machine building, the pipe industry and construction; and Ukraine's export of goods to Russia doubled.[36] In the period 1995''1997, Tymoshenko was considered one of the richest business people in Ukraine.[30] When Tymoshenko made her initial foray into national politics, her company became an instrument of political pressure on her and her family. As she said in one of her interviews, she refused to cooperate with Ukraine's corrupt officials, thus her company was destroyed upon request from president Leonid Kuchma[citation needed]. UESU top management faced prosecution.[37] Since 1998, Tymoshenko has been one of the most important politicians in Ukraine. She was removed from the list of "100 richest Ukrainians" in 2006.[38][39]
  - Political career[edit]Early career[edit]Yulia Tymoshenko entered politics in 1996, when she was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) in constituency #229, Bobrynets, Kirovohrad Oblast, winning a record 92.3% of the vote.[40] In Parliament, Tymoshenko joined the Constitutional Centre faction.[40] In February 1997 this centrists faction was 56 lawmakers strong[41] and, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, it supported the policies of Ukrainian PresidentLeonid Kuchma.[40] In late November 1997, the General Prosecutor of Ukraine asked the Verkhovna Rada to lift Tymoshenko's parliamentary immunity, but the deputies voted against it.[42] In late 1997, Tymoshenko called for the next Ukrainian Presidential elections to be held not in 1999, but in the fall of 1998.[42]
  - Tymoshenko was re-elected in 1998, winning a constituency in the Kirovohrad Oblast, and was also number six on the party list of Hromada.[40][43][44] She became an influential person in the parliament,[45] and was appointed the Chair of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.[23][46][47][48] After Hromada's party leader Pavlo Lazarenko fled to the United States in February 1999 to avoid investigations for embezzlement,[47] various faction members left Hromada to join other parliamentary factions,[49][50] among them Tymoshenko, who set up the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" faction in March 1999 in protest against the methods of Lazarenko.[47][51] "Fatherland" was officially registered as a political party in September 1999,[51] and began to attract the voters who had voted for Yevhen Marchuk in the October 1999 presidential election.[50] In 2000, "Fatherland" went in opposition to President Kuchma.[50]
  - Deputy Prime Minister for fuel and energy[edit]From late December 1999 to January 2001, Tymoshenko was the Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy sector in the cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko.[52] She officially left parliament on 2 March 2000.[44] Under her guidance, Ukraine's revenue collections from the electricity industry grew by several thousand percent. She scrapped the practice of barter in the electricity market, requiring industrial customers to pay for their electricity in cash.[53] She also terminated exemptions for many organizations[54] which excluded them from having their power disconnected. Her reforms meant that the government had sufficient funds to pay civil servants and increase salaries.[55] In 2000, Tymoshenko's government provided an additional 18 billion Hryvna for social payments. Half of this amount was collected due to withdrawal of funds from shadow schemes, the ban on barter payments and the introduction of competition rules to the energy market.[56]
  - On August 18, 2000, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, CEO of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) and Yulia Tymoshenko's husband, was detained and arrested. Tymoshenko herself stated that her husband's arrest was the result of political pressure on her.[57] On January 19, 2001, president Leonid Kuchma ordered Yulia Tymoshenko to be dismissed. Then prime minister Viktor Yushchenko silently accepted her dismissal, despite her achievements in the energy sector. Ukrainian media called it "the first betrayal of Viktor Yushchenko".[58] Soon after her dismissal, Tymoshenko took leadership of the National Salvation Committee and became active in the Ukraine without Kuchma protests.[59] The movement embraced a number of opposition parties, such as Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, ''Fatherland'', Ukrainian Republican Party, Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, ''Sobor'', Ukrainian Social-Democratic Party, Ukrainian Christian-Democratic Party and Patriotic Party.
  - Campaigns against Kuchma and 2002 election[edit]On 9 February 2001, Tymoshenko founded the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (the National Salvation Committee merged into it),[59] a political bloc that received 7.2% of the vote in the 2002 parliamentary election. She has been head of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) political party since the party was organised in 1999.[60]
  - On February 13, 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested and charged with forging customs documents and smuggling gas in 1997 (while president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine).[23][59][61] Her political supporters organized numerous protest rallies near the Lukyanivska Prison where she was held in custody.[62] In March 2001, Pechersk District Court (Kiev) found the charges groundless and cancelled the arrest sanction. According to Tymoshenko, the charges were fabricated by Kuchma's regime at the behest of oligarchs threatened by her efforts to eradicate corruption and institute market-based reforms. On April 9, 2003, the Kiev Court of Appeal issued a ruling that invalidated and cancelled proceedings on the criminal cases against Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko. Despite Tymoshenko being cleared of the charges, Moscow maintained an arrest warrant for her should she enter Russia. In 2005, all charges were declared groundless and lifted.[63][64]
  - The criminal case was closed in Ukraine in January 2005 due to lack of evidence, and in Russia in December 2005 by reason of lapse of time.[65]The case was reopened in Ukraine on 24 October 2011,[66] after Yanukovych came to power.
  - Tymoshenko's husband, Oleksandr, spent two years (2002''2004) in hiding in order to avoid incarceration on charges the couple said were unfounded and politically motivated by the former Kuchma administration.[67][68][69]
  - Once the charges were dropped, Tymoshenko reassumed her place among the leaders of the grassroots campaign against President Kuchma for his alleged role in the murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze. In this campaign, Tymoshenko first became known as a passionate, revolutionist leader, an example of this being a TV broadcast of her smashing prison windows during one of the rallies. At the time Tymoshenko wanted to organise a national referendum to impeach President Kuchma.[70]
  - Our government was doing almost an underground work under the rigorous pressure of president Kuchma and criminal-oligarchic groups. All anti-shadow and anti-corruption initiatives of the Cabinet of Ministers were being blocked, while the Government was being an object of blackmailing and different provocations. People were arrested only because their relatives were working for the Cabinet of Ministers and were carrying out real reforms that were murderous for the corrupted system of power.
  - On 11 August 2001, civilian and military prosecutors in Russia opened a new criminal case against Tymoshenko accusing her of bribery.[72] On 27 December 2005, Russian prosecutors dropped these charges. Russian prosecutors had suspended an arrest warrant when she was appointed Prime Minister, but reinstated it after she was fired in September 2005. The prosecutors suspended it again when she came to Moscow for questioning[73] on 25 September 2005.[74] Tymoshenko didn't travel to Russia during her first seven months as Prime Minister (the first Tymoshenko Government).[74]
  - In January 2002, Tymoshenko was involved in a mysterious car accident that she survived with minor injuries '' an episode some believe to have been a government assassination attempt.[75] Her Mercedes, part of a four-vehicle convoy, collided with a Lada in Kiev. The driver of the other car suffered head injuries and police said initial investigations suggested that Tymoshenko's chauffeur had been at fault.[76]
  - Tymoshenko's Role in the Orange Revolution[edit]In the Autumn of 2001, both Tymoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko attempted to create a broad opposition bloc against the incumbent President, Leonid Kuchma, in order to win the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004.[47]
  - In late 2002, Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine) and Viktor Yushchenko (Our Ukraine) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine". In the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the communist party stepped out of the alliance, but the other parties remained allied and Symonenko was against a single candidate from the alliance[77] (until July 2006).[78]
  - In March 2004, Yulia Tymoshenko announced that leaders of ''Our Ukraine'', BYuT and Socialist Party of Ukraine were working on a coalition agreement concerning joint participation in the presidential campaign. Tymoshenko decided not to run for president and give way to Viktor Yushchenko. On 2 July 2004, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc established the Force of the people, a coalition which aimed to stop "the destructive process that has, as a result of the incumbent authorities, become a characteristic for Ukraine." The pact included a promise by Viktor Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as Prime Minister if Yushchenko should win the October 2004 presidential election. Tymoshenko was actively campaigning for Yushchenko, touring and taking part in rallies all over Ukraine. After Viktor Yushchenko had dropped out of the campaign due to his mysterious poisoning, Tymoshenko continued campaigning on his behalf.[79]
  - After the initial vote on October 31, two candidates '' Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko '' proceeded to a runoff. As Tymoshenko earlier envisaged, Yushchenko received endorsement from former competitors who didn't make it to the runoff, such as Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party), Anatoliy Kinakh (Party of Industrials and Entrepreneurs), former Kyiv city mayor Oleksanrd Omelchenko and others.
  - On November 6, 2004, Tymoshenko asked people to spread the orange symbols (orange was the color of Yushchenko's campaign). ''Grab a piece of the cheapest orange cloth, make ribbons and put them everywhere'' she said. ''Don't wait untill the campaign managers give those to you''.
  - When allegations of fraud began to spread, the ''orange team'' decided to conduct a parallel vote tabulation during the November 21, 2004 runoff and announce the results immediately to people on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in Kyiv. Tymoshenko called Kyiv residents to gather on the square and asked people from other cities and towns to come and stand for their choice. ''Bring warm clothes, lard and bread, garlic and onions and come to Kyiv'' she said. On 22 November 2004, massive protests broke out in cities across Ukraine: The largest, in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti, attracted an estimated 500,000 participants.[80] These protests became known as the Orange Revolution. On November 23, 2004, Tymoshenko led the participants of the protest to the President's Administration. On Bankova Street, special riot police prevented the procession from go any further, so people lifted Tymoshenko up and she walked on the police' shields to the Administration building.
  - On December 3, 2004, the Supreme Court of Ukraine invalidated the results of the runoff and scheduled the re-run for December 26, 2004. After the cancellation of Viktor Yanukovych's official victory and the second round of the election, Viktor Yushchenko was elected President with 51.99% of votes (Yanukovych received 44.2% support).[81]
  - During the protests, Tymoshenko's speeches on Maidan kept the momentum of the street protests going.[82] Her popularity grew significantly, and she was unofficially called the ''Ukrainian Joan of Arc'' and the ''orange princess''.
  - After the Orange Revolution. First Term as Prime Minister[edit]On 24 January 2005, Tymoshenko was appointed acting Prime Minister of Ukraine under Yushchenko's presidency. On 4 February, Tymoshenko's premiership appointment was ratified by the parliament with an overwhelming majority of 373 votes (226 were required for approval).[16][83] The Tymoshenko cabinet did not have any other members of Tymoshenko's party besides Tymoshenko herself and Oleksandr Turchynov, who was appointed the chief of Security Service of Ukraine.[84][85] The ministers who were working with her took her side in the later confrontation with Viktor Yushchenko.[citation needed][clarification needed]
  - Highlights of Tymoshenko's first term as Prime Minister
  - In 2005, as Prime Minister of Ukraine, Tymoshenko held an open tender for the privatization of Kryvorizhstal, as a result of which the enterprise was sold for 24.2 billion hryvnias (the starting price was 10 billion hryvnias). At the same time, special economic zones, which were ''black holes'' for stealing money, were eliminated, and support payments following the birth of a child increased tenfold. There is currently a marked increase in the birth rate in Ukraine.
  - Yulia Tymoshenko official website [86]On 28 July, Forbes named Tymoshenko the third most powerful woman in the world, behind only Condoleezza Rice and Wu Yi.[22] However, in the magazine's list published on 1 September 2006, Tymoshenko's name was not among the top 100.[87]
  - Several months into her government[nb 1] , internal conflicts within the post'Revolution coalition began to damage Tymoshenko's administration.[88][89][90] On August 24, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko gave an Independence Day speech during which he called Tymoshenko's government ''the best''.
  - Yet on 8 September, after the resignation of several senior officials, including the Head of the Security and Defense CouncilPetro Poroshenko[91] and Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko,[92] Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko[92][93] during a live television address to the nation.[94] Yushchenko went on to criticize her work as head of the Cabinet, suggesting it had led to an economic slowdown and political conflicts within the ruling coalition.[95] He said that Tymoshenko was serving interests of some businesses, and the government's decision to re-privatize the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (previously owned by Leonid Kuchma's son in law Viktor Pinchuk) ''was the last drop'' that made him dismiss the government.[96] On September 13, 2005, Yushchenko accused Tymoshenko of betrayal of ''Orange Revolution'' ideas. In his interview for the Associated Press, he said that during the time of her presidency at UESU, Tymoshenko accumulated an 8 million Hryvna debt, and that she had used her authority as prime minister to write off that debt. Tymoshenko has repeatedly stated that the mentioned amount was not a debt, but fines imposed by the Tax Inspection in 1997''1998, and that all the cases regarding UESU had been closed before she became prime minister.[97]
  - Tymoshenko blamed Yushchenko's closest circle for scheming against her and undermining the activities of her Cabinet. She also criticised Yushchenko, telling the BBC that he had ''practically ruined our unity, our future, the future of the country," and that the president's action was absolutely illogical.[98]
  - At the time, Tymoshenko saw a rapid growth of approval ratings, while president Yushchenko's approval ratings went down.[99] This tendency was later proved by the results of parliamentary elections in 2006, when for the first time ever BYuT outran ''Our Ukraine'' party, winning 129 seats vs. 81, respectively. During the previous parliamentary elections of 2002, BYuT had only 22 members of parliament, while ''Our Ukraine'' had 112.
  - The work of Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister in 2005 was complicated due to internal conflicts in the ''orange'' team.[100] According to Tymoshenko, President Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko were trying to turn the National Security and Defense Council into the ''second Cabinet of Ministers''.[100]
  - Tymoshenko was succeeded as Prime Minister by Yuriy Yehanurov.[93]
  - Opposition (2005''2007) and 2006 parliamentary election[edit]Soon after Tymoshenko's discharge in September 2005, the General Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation dismissed all charges against her. On November 18, 2005, the Supreme Court of Ukraine issued a ruling which invalidated all criminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko and her family.
  - After her dismissal, Tymoshenko started to tour the country in a bid to win the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election as the leader of her Bloc.[nb 2] Tymoshenko soon announced that she wanted to return to the post of Prime Minister.[101] She managed to form a strong team that started a political fight on two fronts '' with Viktor Yanukovych's and Viktor Yushchenko's camps.
  - With the Bloc coming second in the election, and winning 129 seats, many speculated that she might form a coalition with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) to prevent the Party of Regions from gaining power.[102] Tymoshenko again reiterated her stance in regard to becoming Prime Minister.[102] However, negotiations with Our Ukraine and SPU faced many difficulties as the various blocs fought over posts and engaged in counter-negotiations with other groups.[103]
  - On Wednesday, 21 June 2006, the Ukrainian media reported that the parties had finally reached a coalition agreement, which appeared to have ended nearly three months of political uncertainty.[104][105]
  - Tymoshenko's nomination and confirmation as the new Prime Minister was expected to be straightforward. However, the political intrigue that took place broke the plan. BYuT partners ''Our Ukraine'' and Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) could not come to agreement regarding distribution of powers, thus creation of the Coalition of Democratic Force was put on hold. Yushchenko and oligarchs from his narrow circle were trying to impede Tymoshenko from returning to the office of prime minister. Her nomination was preconditioned on the election of her long-time rival Petro Poroshenko from Our Ukraine to the position of speaker of the parliament. Oleksandr Moroz, the chairman of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, also expressed his interest in becoming speaker. Tymoshenko stated that she would vote for any speaker from the coalition.[106] Within a few days of the signing of the coalition agreement, it became clear that the coalition members mistrusted each other,[106] since they considered it a deviation from parliamentary procedures to hold a simultaneous vote on Poroshenko as the speaker and Tymoshenko as Prime Minister.[107][108]
  - The Party of Regions announced an ultimatum to the coalition demanding that parliamentary procedures be observed, asking that membership in parliamentary committees be allocated in proportion to seats held by each fraction, and demanding chairmanship in certain Parliamentary committees as well as Governorships in the administrative subdivisions won by the Party of Regions.[109][110] The Party of Regions complained that the coalition agreement deprived the Party of Regions and the communists of any representation in the executive and leadership in parliamentary committees, while in the local regional councils won by the Party of Regions the coalition parties were locked out of all committees as well.[109]
  - Members from the Party of Regions blocked the parliament from Thursday, 29 June[111] through Thursday, 6 July.[112]
  - After lengthy negotiations, SPU suddenly pulled out of the Coalition and joined the alliance with the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Oleksandr Moroz assured that the team of Viktor Yushchenko was conducting secret negotiations with the Party of Regions. According to that deal, Viktor Yanukovych was supposed to become the speaker, while Yuriy Yekhanurov kept the prime minister portfolio. These negotiations were conducted by Yekhanurov himself upon Yushchenko's request. Later, Yekhanurov admitted this fact in his interview with the ''Ukrainska Pravda'' website.
  - Unfortunately, a different coalition has now been created. But it won't last long '' for a number of reasons. First, to unite incompatible things '' Communism and doubled-dyed clans '' into one team. A coalition of Communists, Socialists and mobsters won't last long because this country will sense the insincerity and the total absence of any strategic thing. I know for sure that our team won't allow Ukraine to be raped so easily.
  - Following the surprise nomination of Oleksandr Moroz from the Socialist Party of Ukraine as the Rada speaker and his subsequent election late on 6 July with the support of the Party of Regions, the "Orange coalition" collapsed. (Poroshenko had withdrawn his candidacy and had urged Moroz to do the same on 7 July.[106])[114][115] After the creation of a large coalition of majority, led by the former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and composed of the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Communist Party of Ukraine, Yanukovych became Prime Minister, and the other two parties were left in the wilderness.[116][117] On August 3, 2006, Tymoshenko refused to sign the ''Universal of National Unity'' declaration initiated by president Yushchenko. The document, signed by Yushchenko, Yanukovych and leaders of Socialist and Communist parties, sealed Yanukovych's appointment as prime minister. Tymoshenko called it ''the act of betrayal''. In September 2006, Tymoshenko announced that her political force would be in opposition to the new government.[113] Our Ukraine stalled until 4 October 2006, when it too joined the opposition.[118] On January 12, 2007, a BYuT vote in the parliament overrode the president's veto of the ''On the Cabinet of Ministers'' law that was advantageous for the president. (In exchange, BYuT voted for the ''On Imperative Mandate'' and ''On Opposition'' laws). This vote was one of many steps undertaken by BYuT to ruin a fragile alliance between president Yushchenko and prime minister Yanukovych.[nb 3][119]
  - In March 2007, Yulia Tymoshenko traveled to the United States, where she held high-level meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, the National Security Advisor under President George W. Bush. [nb 4]. On March 31, 2007, Tymoshenko initiated a "100 thousand people Maidan" aimed to urge the president to call an early parliamentary election. [nb 5]
  - On April 4, 2007, president Yushchenko issued an edict ''On early termination of duties of the Verkhovna Rada'' as a reaction to violation of the Constitution by the Party of Regions, which had started dragging individual deputies into the ''ruling coalition'' (this being illegal, as coalitions should be formed by factions and not by individual deputies). In doing so, the Party of Regions was trying to achieve a constitutional majority of 300 votes which would enable prime minister Yanukovych to override the president's veto and control the legislative process. Party of Regions didn't obey this edict. In order to dismiss the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko and her supporters in the parliament (168 deputies from BYuT and ''Our Ukraine'' factions) quit their parliamentary factions on June 2, 2007. That step invalidated the convocation of the Verkhovna Rada and cleared the path to an early election.
  - An early parliamentary election was held on September 30, 2007.
  - 2007 parliamentary election[edit]Following balloting in the 2007 parliamentary elections held on 30 September 2007, Orange Revolution parties said they had won enough votes to form a governing coalition. On 3 October 2007, an almost final tally gave the alliance of Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko a slim lead over the rival party of Prime Minister Yanukovych. Although Yanukovych, whose party won the single biggest share of the vote, also claimed victory,[124] one of his coalition allies, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, failed to gain enough votes to retain seats in Parliament.
  - On 15 October 2007, the Our Ukraine''People's Self-Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc agreed to form a majority coalition in the new parliament of the 6th convocation.[125] On 29 November, a coalition was signed between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine''People's Self-Defense Bloc, which was associated with President Yushchenko. Both parties are affiliated with the Orange Revolution. On December 11, 2007, the Coalition failed in its attempt to appoint Tymoshenko prime minister, falling one vote short (225 members of parliament supported her nomination). On December 12, 2007, the media reported on the possible attempted assassination of Yulia Tymoshenko. BYuT and Tymoshenko herself said it was an intimidation. On 18 December, Tymoshenko was once again elected as Prime Minister (supported by 226 deputies, the minimal number needed for passage), heading the second Tymoshenko Government.[126]
  - Prime Minister 2007''2010, and 2008 political crisis[edit]On July 11, 2008, Party of Regions tried to vote no-confidence to Tymoshenko's government in the parliament, but could not collect enough votes.[127]
  - The coalition of Tymoshenko's Bloc (BYuT) and Yushchenko's Our Ukraine''People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD) was put at risk due to differing opinions concerning the ongoing 2008 South Ossetia War between Georgia and Russia. Yulia Tymoshenko disagreed with Yushchenko's condemnation of Russia and preferred to stay neutral on the issue. Yushchenko's office accused her of taking a softer position in order to gain support from Russia in the upcoming 2010 election. Andriy Kyslynskyi, the president's deputy chief of staff, went as far as to accuse her of 'high treason'.[128] The accusations from the president's camp were highly exaggerated and distorted. Tymoshenko has publicly announced her support for Georgia.
  - Tymoshenko on Russia-Georgia war
  - "We stand in solidarity with the democratically-elected leadership of Georgia. Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected
  - Yulia Tymoshenko's press briefing on August 13, 2008 [129]According to BYuT, Viktor Baloha (Chief of Staff of the Presidential Secretariat) criticized the premier at every turn, accusing her of everything from not being religious enough to damaging the economy and plotting to kill him, and the accusation of 'betrayal' over Georgia was simply one of the latest and most pernicious attacks directed at the premier.[130][131][132][133][134]
  - After Tymoshenko's BYuT voted alongside the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions to pass legislation that would facilitate the procedure of impeachment for future Presidents[135] and limit the President's power while increasing the Prime Minister's powers, President Yushchenko's OU-PSD bloc pulled out of the coalition and Yushchenko promised to veto the legislation[136][137] and threatened to hold an election if a new coalition was not formed soon. This resulted in the 2008 Ukrainian political crisis, which culminated in Yushchenko calling an early parliamentary election on 8 October 2008.[138][139]
  - Tymoshenko was fiercely opposed to the snap election, stating "No politician would throw Ukraine into snap elections at this important time. But, if Yushchenko and Yanukovych '' who are ideologists of snap elections '' throw the country into snap elections, then they will bear responsibility for all the consequences of the global financial crisis on Ukraine".[140] Initially, the election was to be held on 7 December 2008,[141][142] but was later postponed to an unknown date.[143][144][145] Tymoshenko had no intention of resigning[146] until a new coalition was formed.[147]
  - In early December 2008, there were negotiations between BYuT and Party of Regions to form a coalition,[148] but after Volodymyr Lytvyn was elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) on 9 December 2008, he announced the creation of a coalition between his Lytvyn Bloc, BYuT and OU-PSD.[149] After negotiations,[150][151] the three parties officially signed the coalition agreement on 16 December.[152] It was not known whether this coalition would stop the snap election,[153][154][155] although Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn predicted the Verkhovna Rada would work until 2012.[156]
  - On February 5, 2009, Tymoshenko's opponents in the parliament were trying to dismiss her government again, but again the vote failed.[157] The following day, president Yushchenko strongly criticized Tymoshenko and the economic policies of her government.[158] Tymoshenko accused him of spreading "a mix of untruths, panic and hysteria.".[158]
  - A large part of Tymoshenko's second term as prime minister coincided in time with the global financial crisis of 2008, which required her government to respond to numerous challenges that could have led the country's economic collapse.[nb 6]
  - Tymoshenko's government launched an anti corruption campaign and identified it as one of its priorities. [nb 7]
  - Gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine (2009)[edit]The conditions leading to the 2009 gas dispute were created back in 2006, under the Viktor Yanukovych government, when Ukraine started buying Russian gas through an intermediary, Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo. (Fifty percent of RosUkrEnergo shares were owned by the Russian ''Gazprom'', with 45 percent and 5 percent owned by Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash and Ivan Fursin, respectively). Some sources indicate that notorious criminal boss Sergiy Shnaider (nick Semen Mogylevych, associated with Dmytro Firtash) also owned shares in the company.[159][160]
  - When Tymoshenko resumed her prime minister duties in 2007, she initiated direct relations between Ukraine and Russia with regard to gas trading. An October 2, 2008 Memorandum signed by Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin stipulated liquidation of intermediaries in gas deals between the two countries and outlined detailed conditions for future gas contracts. The gas conflict of 2009 broke out because of two factors, the lack of a gas contract for 2009 and a $2.4 billion debt that Ukraine had yet to pay for gas received in 2008.[161] Prime Minister Tymoshenko stated that it was the ''RosUkrEnergo'' company that was responsible for the debt, rather than the state of Ukraine. She called for an end to corruption in the gas trade area and the establishment of direct contracts with the Russian Federation.[162]
  - ''RosUkrEnergo'', with the aid of its ties to Yushchenko's administration, managed to disrupt the signing of a gas contract scheduled for December 31, 2008. Oleksiy Miller, head of ''Gazprom'', stated that trader ''RosUkrEnergo'' broke down talks between ''Gazprom'' and ''Naftogaz Ukrainy'': ''Yes indeed, in late December 2008, the prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine came to agreement, and our companies were ready to seal the deal for $235 per 1000 cubic meters of natural gas with the condition that all the export operations from Ukraine will be done bilaterally. RosUkrEnergo then suggested to buy gas at $285 price.'' On December 31, 2008, president Viktor Yushchenko gave Oleg Dubyna, head of ''Naftogaz Ukrainy'', a direct order to stop talks, not sign the agreement and recall the delegation from Moscow. The decision made by the president of Ukraine brought on the crisis.[163][164]
  - On January 14, 2009, prime minister Tymoshenko said, ''The negotiations on $235 gas price and $1.7''1.8 transit price, that started on October 2 and successfully have been moving forward since, have been broken up because, unfortunately, Ukrainian politicians were trying to keep ''RosUkrEnergo'' in business as a shadow intermediary'...The negotiations between the two prime ministers and later between 'Gazprom' and 'Naftogaz Ukrainy' were ruined by those Ukrainian political groups, who have gotten and are planning to get corrupt benefits from 'RosUkrEnergo'.'' On January 17, 2009, president of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev said, ''I think that our Ukrainian partners and us can trade gas without any intermediaries, especially without intermediaries with questionable reputation. The problem is that some participants of negotiations insisted on keeping the intermediary referring to the instructions from the top.''[165]
  - On January 1, 2009, at 10 AM, ''Gazprom'' completely stopped pumping gas to Ukraine.[166] On January 4, the Russian monopolist offered to sell Ukraine gas for $450 per 1000 cubic meter (minus a fee for gas transit through Ukraine), which was defined as a standard price for Eastern European countries. On January 8, 2009, the prime minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said that Ukraine would have to pay $470 for 1000 cubic meters of natural gas.
  - Between January 1 and 18, Central and Eastern European countries received significantly less gas. Ukrainian heat-and-power stations were working to utmost capacity. Due to sub-zero temperatures, the entire housing and public utilities sectors were on the verge of collapse. On January 14, the European Commission and the Czech presidency in the European Union demanded the immediate renewal of gas deliveries in full capacity lest the reputations of Russia and Ukraine as reliable EU partners be seriously damaged. On January 18, 2009, after five day-long talks, prime ministers Putin and Tymoshenko came to agreement on the renewal of gas delivery to Ukraine and other EU countries. The parties agreed upon the following: A return to direct contract deals between ''Gazprom'' and ''Naftogaz Ukrainy''; the removal of non-transparent intermediaries; the introduction of formula-based pricing for Ukraine (which also works for other Eastern European countries); and a switch to a $2.7 transit fee, which is close to the average price in Europe. According to the new gas contract, in 2009 Ukraine paid an average price of $232.98 per 1000 cubic meters,[167] while other European consumers were paying above $500 per 1000 cubic meters.[168]
  - 2010 Presidential election[edit]Tymoshenko was a candidate in the Ukrainian presidential elections of 2010,[169] but lost that election to Viktor Yanukovych (Tymoshenko received 45.47% of the votes in the second and final round[170] of the election, 3% less than her rival[171][172]).
  - In 2009, the relations between Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko,[173][174][175][176] the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine[177] and the oppositionalParty of Regions remained hostile.[178] According to Tymoshenko, her conflict with the President was a political competition and not ideological antagonism, and she emphasized early in February 2009 that the "election struggle for the next presidential elections has virtually begun."[179][180][181]
  - ''This is a competition during economic crisis; [some people] prefer to collect political benefits from these problems instead of solving them together'', Tymoshenko said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in February 2009. Later, in an interview with the French paper Le Monde, the prime minister said that ''the president treats her as a rival striving for president's office.'' She also added that the previously mentioned political instability fuels economic crisis. Tymoshenko then called for an early presidential election.
  - Having long being considered a possible candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 election,[182][183] Tymoshenko announced that she would indeed compete in the upcoming presidential election in a statement broadcast live on national TV on 7 June 2009.[169][184] Tymoshenko also stated that if she lost the presidential election she would not challenge the results.[185][186] On 12 September 2009, a tour in support of Tymoshenko's candidacy, called "With Ukraine in Heart", began on Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Popular Ukrainian singers and bands took part in the tour.[187][188][189]
  - On October 24, 2009, the delegates of all-Ukrainian union ''Batkivshchyna'' formally and unanimously endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko as their candidate for the next Presidential election.[190][191] The 200 thousand congress took place on Kyiv's Independence Square. On October 31, 2009, the Central Election Commission registered Tymoshenko as a candidate for presidential election in 2010.
  - The Tymoshenko candidacy was also endorsed by prominent Ukrainian politicians such as Borys Tarasyuk, Yuriy Lutsenko, former President Leonid Kravchuk,[192] the Christian Democratic Union,[193] the European Party of Ukraine[194] and others.[195] Analysts suggested that Tymoshenko was the Russian Government's preferred candidate in the election. On 3 December 2009, Russian Prime MinisterVladimir Putin denied this. Putin stated that he was cooperating with Tymoshenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine, but that he was not supporting her in the election.[196]
  - Yulia Tymoshenko's personal blog (7 December 2009)[197]Tymoshenko's campaign was expected to have cost $100 to $150 million.[198]
  - Tymoshenko expected early parliamentary elections after the 2010 presidential election if Yanukovych won the vote, but she was against this.[199]
  - On 1 December 2009, Tymoshenko urged "national democratic forces" to unite around the candidate who garnered the largest number of votes after the first round of the presidential elections. "If we are not able to strengthen our efforts and unite the whole national-patriotic and democratic camp of Ukraine... we will be much weaker than those who want revenge."[200] On 5 December 2009, she declared she would go into opposition if she lost the presidential election. She also complained of flaws in the election legislation, and expressed her certainty that attempts were being made by her opponents to carry out vote rigging.[201]
  - In the first round of the presidential election on 17 January 2010, Tymoshenko took second place with 25.05% of the vote, and Yanukovych took first place with 35.32%. The two proceeded to a runoff.
  - On February 3, 2010, two days before the run-off, the deputies from Party of Regions, Communist Party of Ukraine, ''Our Ukraine '' People's Self-Defense'' bloc and independent MPs amended the Law on Election of President, which changed the mode of composition and functioning of election commissions. BYuT warned that these amendments would create opportunities for the massive rigging of elections. Yulia Tymoshenko called on president Yushchenko to veto the law. Hanne Severinsen, former rapporteur of PACE Monitoring Committee on Ukraine, also called on the president to veto the law. Severinsen's statement read: ''"Unfortunately, the Party of Regions, as in 2004, is trying to create conditions for vote fraud.''[202]
  - Despite these requests, president Yushchenko signed the amended Law. This action generated vast international criticism from the Council of Europe and from members of the US congress' Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.[203][204] The Committee of Voters of Ukraine stated that the amendments to the Law on Election of President ''contained the biggest threats for democratic mode of the run-off.''[205]
  - Tymoshenko did not receive endorsement from other candidates who had not survived the first round of voting.[206] In the run-off held on 7 February 2010,[170][171] Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine. According to the Central Election Commission, he received 48.95% of the votes; Tymoshenko received 45.47% of the votes.[172] Yulia Tymoshenko won 17 of 27 constituencies in the western, central and north regions of Ukraine and in Kyiv.
  - Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc members immediately claimed that there was systematic and large-scale vote rigging in the run-off election.[207][208][209] However, Tymoshenko herself did not issue a statement about the election[210][211] until a live televised broadcast on 13 February 2010, in which she said that she would challenge the election result in court. Tymoshenko alleged widespread fraud[212] (according to Tymoshenko, a million votes were invalid) and said Yanukovych was not legitimately elected. "Whatever happens in future, he will never become the legitimately elected President of Ukraine." Tymoshenko did not call people into the streets to protest, and stated that she "won't tolerate civil confrontation."[213][214][215]
  - On 10 February 2010, Yanukovych called on Tymoshenko to abandon her protests and resign as Prime Minister.[211] Yanukovych stated he wanted to form a new coalition, and may try to call snap parliamentary elections.[215] On 12 February, Yanukovych stated he would not rule out talks with Tymoshenko if she would publicly apologize to him for accusations she made during her election campaign.[216]Tymoshenko's government did not want to resign voluntarily.[217]
  - On 17 February 2010, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine suspended the results of the election on Tymoshenko's appeal.[218] The court suspended the Central Election Commission of Ukraine ruling that announced that Viktor Yanukovych won the election.[219][220] Tymoshenko withdrew her appeal on 20 February 2010, after the Higher Administrative Court in Kiev rejected her petition to scrutinize documents from election districts in Crimea and to question election and law-enforcement officials.[221] According to Tymoshenko, "It became clear that the court is not out to establish the truth, and, unfortunately, the court is as biased as the Central Election Commission, which includes a political majority from Yanukovych."[222] Tymoshenko also stated, "At the very least there was rigging of votes using the main methods of falsification, and I think that for history this lawsuit with all the documentation will remain in the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, and sooner or later, an honest prosecutor's office and an honest court will assess that Yanukovych wasn't elected President of Ukraine, and that the will of the people had been rigged."[222][223]
  - On February 22, 2010, Tymoshenko announced in a televised speech that she believed the presidential election to have been rigged and did not recognize its results. ''As well as millions of Ukrainians, I state: Yanukovych is not our president,'' she said. She called on the democratic parliamentary factions to not seek ''political employment'' at the Party of Regions (meaning to avoid negotiations with the Party of Regions regarding the new coalition) and to ''quit arguing and create a united team that would not let an anti-Ukrainian dictatorship usurp the power.''
  - In opposition after 2010 presidential election[edit]The falsifications decided the elections, not you. Like millions of Ukrainians, I assert that Yanukovych is not our president.
  - PM Tymoshenko televised speech (22 February 2010)[224]During a nationally televised address on 22 February, Tymoshenko said of President-elect of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and "Yanukovych's team" (she referred to them in the speech as "The oligarchy"): "They need cheap labour, poor and disenfranchised people who can be forced to work at their factories for peanuts, they also need Ukraine's riches, which they have been stealing for the last 18 years." During the speech she also accused outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko of "opening the door to massive and flagrant election rigging" days before the 7 February runoff of the January 2010 presidential election by amending the election law.[224][225] During a Cabinet of Ministers meeting on 24 February, Tymoshenko stated, "The moment of truth has arrived: The decision whether or not to side with Yanukovych will show who values the preservation of Ukraine's independence and self-identity and who does not."[225] Tymoshenko and her party, Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, boycotted the inauguration ceremony of President Yanukovych on 25 February 2010.[226]
  - If the Second Tymoshenko Government could not be preserved, Tymoshenko stated on 22 February 2010, she would go into Parliamentary opposition.[224] On 3 March 2010, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a motion of no confidence in the second Tymoshenko Government in which the cabinet was dismissed with 243 lawmakers voting in favour out of 450[5] (including seven lawmakers of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko[227]). (Prime Minister Tymoshenko had demanded this vote herself on 1 March 2010.)[228] On 2 March 2010, the coalition had already lost the parliamentary majority.[229] Before the vote on 3 March, Prime Minister Tymoshenko again stated, "If the dismissal of the government is passed today, at that very same moment our government will leave the cabinet. Our political force will cross into the opposition."[230][231] Tymoshenko blamed the Lytvyn Bloc and "Our Ukraine, including the leader of Our Ukraine, who announced the position of the faction" for the fall of the cabinet.[229] Tymoshenko resigned from the Prime Minister post on 4 March 2010.[6] Fellow BYuT member Oleksandr Turchynov was empowered to fulfill the Prime Minister's duties until a new government was formed on 4 March 2010.[232] On 9[233] and 15 March,[234] 2010, Tymoshenko called on "all of the national patriotic forces" to unite against Yanukovych. On 10 March 2010, Viktor Yushchenko warned that her leadership of that opposition would end in disaster, saying, "Every political force that united with Tymoshenko ended badly."[235] On 16 March, a shadow government including BYuT was established.[236] On 10 May 2010, the People's Committee to Protect Ukraine was established, of which Tymoshenko is one of the representatives.[237][238] Tymoshenko was against the 2010 Ukrainian-Russian Naval Base for Natural Gas treaty, as she believes the agreement harms Ukraine's national interests.[239]
  - On 12 May 2010, Ukraine's prosecutor's office re-opened a 2004 criminal case against Tymoshenko regarding accusations that she had tried to bribe Supreme Court judges. The prosecutor's main investigation section said Tymoshenko had been called in on 12 May 2010, and formally told that the case, which had been prematurely closed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in January 2005 without a proper investigation, had been re-opened. As she left the prosecutor's office on 12 May, Tymoshenko told journalists she had been summoned to see investigators again on 17 May, and she linked the move to Russian PresidentMedvedev's visit to Ukraine on 17''18 May 2010.[240][241] Tymoshenko also claimed that she was told by "all the offices of the Prosecutor General's Office" that President Yanukovych had personally instructed the Prosecutor General's Office to find any grounds to prosecute her.[242] In a press conference on 12 May, President Yanukovych's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Yury Miroshnychenko, dismissed Tymoshenko's statement about Yanukovych's personal interest in prosecuting her. "Yanukovych is against political repression for criticism of the regime," Miroshnychenko stated.[243]
  - On 15 December 2010, the General Prosecutor's Office instituted a criminal case against Tymoshenko, alleging that she misused funds received by Ukraine within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. She was officially charged on 20 December 2010.[244][245][246][247] Tymoshenko denied the money had been spent on pensions, insisting it was still at the disposal of the environment ministry. She called the investigation against her a witch-hunt.[245] Tymoshenko was not arrested, but ordered not to leave Kiev while the inquiry was under way.[248][249] In the same case, the environment minister in the second Tymoshenko Government, Georgiy Filipchuk, was detained.[250] Filipchuk was the third minister from this government to face criminal charges since its fall in March 2010 (prosecutors charged former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko with abuse of office in early December, 2010, and former economy minister Bohdan Danylyshyn was detained in the Czech Republic in October 2010 on similar charges).[250] Lawmakers of BYuT blocked the rostrum and presidium of the Verkhovna Rada the next day in protest against this.[251] That same day, the European People's Party issued a statement in which it "condemns the growth of aggressive, politically motivated pressure by the Ukrainian authorities on the opposition and its leader Yulia Tymoshenko."[252] Tymoshenko dismissed the probe as "terror against the opposition by President Yanukovych."[253] Earlier that month, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka had stated that there were no political reasons for the interrogations of the opposition leaders Tymoshenko, Lutsenko and Oleksandr Turchynov.[254] According to government officials, the criminal case against Tymoshenko was a legitimate attempt to uncover corruption by the previous administration.[245] New corruption charges against Tymoshenko where filed on 27 January 2011.[255][256] She was accused of using 1,000 medical vehicles for campaigning in the presidential elections of 2010.[255][256] According to Tymoshenko, the charges were false and part of "Yanukovych's campaign to silence the opposition."[255][256] A third criminal case against Tymoshenko in connection with alleged abuse of power during the 2009 Russia''Ukraine gas dispute was opened on 10 April 2011.[257][258] This case was labelled "absurd" by Tymoshenko.[258] On 24 May 2011, prosecutors charged her in connection with this (third criminal) case.[259] She was not arrested.[259][260]
  - On 26 April 2011, Tymoshenko sued businessman Dmytro Firtash and Swiss-based RosUkrEnergo in a US District Court in Manhattan, accusing them of "defrauding Ukraine's citizenry by manipulating an arbitration court ruling" and "undermining the rule of law in Ukraine" in connection with a 2010 international arbitration court ruling in Stockholm that ordered Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz to pay RosUkrEnergo 11 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to compensate for fuel it had "expropriated" plus 1.1 billion bcm as a penalty.[261][262]
  - Throughout Yanukovych's presidency, Tymoshenko stayed very critical of his and the Azarov Government's performances and intentions which, among others, she accused of selling out to Russia and of being a "funeral of democracy."[263][264][265][266] Tymoshenko has accused "many of Ukraine's neighbours" of turning a blind eye to "Yanukovych's strangulation of Ukraine's democracy, some openly celebrate the supposed 'stability' that his regime has imposed."[267] She believes "Ukraine can return to a democratic path of development only with an active civil society and support from the international community."[268]
  - 2011 trial and imprisonment and other criminal cases against Tymoshenko[edit]Since May 2010 a number of criminal cases were brought against Tymoshenko.[271][272] On June 24, 2011, a trial started in the ''gas case'', concerning a contract with Russian gas company Gazprom to supply natural gas to Ukraine, which had been signed in 2009. Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of power and embezzlement, as the allegedly biased court found the deal anti-economic for the country and abusive.
  - Tymoshenko's trial (she was charged in May 2011) for abuse of office concerning a natural gas imports contract signed with Russia in January 2009 started on 24 June 2011, in Kiev.[273][274] A number of criminal cases were also opened against former officials from the second Tymoshenko Government.[275][276][nb 8] According to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, those cases were indiscriminately made to fight corruption in Ukraine.[277][278][279] Former President Viktor Yushchenko testified against Tymoshenko during the trial, which he called "a normal judicial process."[280] The trial against Tymoshenko has been referred to as "selective justice" and "political persecution" in statements by the U.S.A, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European countries; in statements by the European Union, NATO, the European People's Party; and in statements by human rights organizations such as Transparency International, Freedom House, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.[281] Currently Tymoshenko is under criminal investigation for ten criminal acts;[271]Ukrainian prosecutors have claimed Tymoshenko committed even more criminal acts.[282]
  - Early in July 2011, the Ukrainian security service (USB) opened a new criminal investigation into alleged non-delivery by United Energy Systems of Ukraine (in 1996) of goods to Russia for $405.5 million, the USB maintains that Russia may claim this sum to the State budget of Ukraine (this criminal case was closed in Russia in December 2005 years by reason of lapse of time).[65]
  - On 11 October 2011, the court found Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of power and sentenced her to seven years in prison, banned her from seeking elected office for her period of imprisonment, and ordered her to pay the state $188 million.[283][284][285] She was convicted for exceeding her powers as Prime Minister by ordering Naftogaz to sign the gas deal with Russia in 2009.[285][285] Tymoshenko did appeal the sentence, which she compared to Stalin's Great Terror,[283][285] on 24 October 2011.[286]
  - A 2001 criminal case on state funds embezzlement and tax evasion charges against Tymoshenko was reopened in Ukraine on 24 October 2011.[66]
  - On 4 November 2011, the Ukrainian tax police resumed four criminal cases against Tymoshenko.[287] She was charged for these cases on 10 November 2011.[288][289][290]
  - Tymoshenko was re-arrested (while in prison) on 8 December 2011, after a Ukrainian court ordered her indefinite arrest as part of the investigation of alleged tax evasion and theft of government funds (between 1996 and 2000) by United Energy Systems of Ukraine. Again the European Union showed concern over this.[291][292][293][294][295]
  - On 23 December 2011, Tymoshenko lost her appeal against her sentence of abuse of power.[296][297] She and her lawyers had boycotted the appeal proceedings,[296] claiming that the "Judicial system and justice are totally non-existent in Ukraine today."[298] Tymoshenko has lodged a complaint against the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights, which was given priority treatment by the court.[299]
  - On 30 December 2011, Tymoshenko was transferred to the Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv.[300][301]
  - In early January, 2012, Tymoshenko's husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko was granted asylum in the Czech Republic, which he had requested at the end of the previous year.[15][302]
  - In early April, 2012, the General Prosecutor's Office began examining the possible involvement of Tymoshenko and former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in the murder of Donetsk businessman Olexandr Momot in 1996.[303]
  - A trial concerning the criminal investigation into alleged misappropriating public funds of United Energy Systems of Ukraine started on 19 April 2012, in Kharkiv.[65][304] Tymoshenko refused to attend the trial, citing problems with her health.[304] Tymoshenko was then moved against her will from Kachanivska prison to a hospital where she began a hunger strike on 20 April to protest '' according to her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko '' "what is happening in the country and what is happening to her in prison."[305] She ended the hunger strike on 9 May 2012.[306] Since 9 May 2012, she has been receiving treatment at the hospital after being diagnosed with a spinal disc herniation.[307][308]
  - The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the verdict against Tymoshenko on 29 August 2012.[309]
  - From 29 October 2012, to 16 November 2012, Tymoshenko was again on hunger strike to protest vote rigging in the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[310][311]
  - Fatherland United Opposition nominated Tymoshenko as its candidate for the Ukrainian presidential elections of 2015 on 7 December 2012.[272] On 14 June 2013, the congress of her party approved the decision to nominate her as its candidate in the 2015 Ukrainian presidential election.[312][nb 9]
  - On 18 January 2013, Tymoshenko was notified that she is a suspect in the murder of businessman and lawmaker Yevhen Shcherban, his wife and two other people in 1996.[314] In May 2013, the Shcherban murder case was suspended.[315]
  - From 25 November to 6 December 2013 (during the Euromaidan protests), Tymoshenko was again on hunger strike in protest of "President Yanukovych's reluctance to sign the DCFTA" on 6 December.[316][317][318][319]
  - Appeal[edit]On October 24, 2011, Yulia Tymoshenko filed an appeal to the decision of Pechersk district court of Kyiv regarding the ''gas case''. On December 1, the Kyiv Court of Appeal started hearing the case. Tymoshenko herself was not present in the courtroom because of her health condition. After the hearing, the judge, Olena Sitaylo, had to call an ambulance and was hospitalized. On December 13, 2011, the Kyiv Court of Appeal resumed the hearing. All subsequent court sessions took place without Tymoshenko's presence. Immediately prior to the hearing of the appeal, the board of judges was altered: Sitaylo, the chief justice, was appointed the day before the first hearing; other justices were appointed several days prior to the court session. Thus, the judges did not have time to study the 84-page case log. The manner of the process proved that the decision to alter the board of judges was made beforehand.[citation needed] At the very end, Tymoshenko's defense boycotted the court session.
  - On December 23, 2011, the Kyiv Court of Appeal issued a ruling which fully supported the verdict of the Pechersk court. The judges didn't find any violations during the pre-trial investigation or trial on the ''gas case'', overruling the claims of Tymoshenko's defense.[320][321]
  - Cassation[edit]On January 26, 2012, Yulia Tymoshenko's defense submitted a cassation appeal to the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases regarding the ''gas case'' verdict.[322] On August 16, 2012, after a 7 month delay that impeded filing the case to the European Court of Human Rights, the panel of judges of the aforementioned court began hearing the case. The panel finished hearing the case on August 21 and went to the jury room to make decision. The ruling of the Court, issued on August 29, 2012, stated that the appeal of ex prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's defense on the ''gas case'' should not be satisfied.[323]
  - Media, diplomats, members of parliament and members of an EU special monitoring mission, Pet Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski, attended the court sessions. The ruling was announced on the day following public hearing of ''Tymoshenko vs Ukraine'' (regarding unlawful arrest of ex-prime minister and holding her in custody) case at the European Court of Human Rights.
  - The European Union, PACE, and governments of the United States, Great Britain and Canada expressed frustration with the cassation ruling.[324] ''We are deeply disappointed with the consequences of the current situation, when two important opposition leaders cannot stand in the upcoming parliamentary elections, [and] when the court disrespects international standards for fair and transparent processes,'' a representative of the European Commission, Michael Mann, said in Brussels on August 29, 2012.
  - International reactions[edit]The ''gas case'' trial was viewed by many international organizations, such as the Danish Helsinki Committee, as a politically-charged persecution that violates the law.[325][326] The European Union and other international organizations see the conviction as "justice being applied selectively under political motivation."[327] The European Union has shelved the European Union Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine over the issue.[328][310][329] The EU has repeatedly called for release of Yulia Tymoshenko as a primary condition for signing the EU Association Agreement. [nb 10][330] The European Court on Human Rights stated in April 2013 that Tymoshenko's arrest in the case had been politically motivated and her rights had been violated.[331]
  - The head of EU diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement that the verdict would affect bilateral EU-Ukraine relations, including the Association Agreement. At the same time, the Commissioner for Enlargement Å tefan F¼le indicated that he was counting on Tymoshenko's rapid release through changes to Ukraine's Criminal Code. Some MEPs have made much more categorical statements. The head of the European People's Party, Wilfried Martens, has called for talks with Ukraine on the Association Agreement to be suspended. These responses correspond to the Union's current position: That for the Association Agreement to be signed, Tymoshenko must be released and permitted to participate in the next elections. The Russian Foreign Ministry also commented on the former prime minister's sentence, stating that the court's decision had anti-Russian overtones and was politically motivated, but deemed the signed gas contracts to have been lawful. The gas contracts were also defended by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
  - Yulia Tymoshenko sentenced, Center for Eastern Studies (12 October 2011)[330]The European Union and other international organizations see the conviction as "justice being applied selectively under political motivation."[327] Many world leaders, such as former Czech president Vaclav Havel, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, published an open letter condemning the violation of democratic principles by Ukraine's authorities and expressing support for Yulia Tymoshenko.[332] United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also has expressed concern over Tymoshenko's conviction. In a press statement, he said he hoped that all the judicial proceedings in the case would be "conducted in a fair and impartial manner and follow due process."[333] German chancellor Angela Merkel repeatedly urged Ukrainian authorities to release Tymoshenko. In 2012, Merkel campaigned for a boycott of the Euro 2012 football tournament being held in Ukraine unless Tymoshenko was freed. She also stated that Germany was ready to provide the former prime minister with relevant medical treatment, and called for her immediate release.[334] Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called for Tymoshenko's release following reports that she had been severely beaten by prison guards.[335]
  - In June 2012, the European Parliament established a special monitoring mission to Ukraine, conducted by former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Both politicians have observed trials, repeatedly visited Tymoshenko in custody and conducted meetings with Ukraine's authorities regarding her release.
  - The European Union has shelved the European Union Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine over the issue.[310][329] In March 2012, the foreign ministers of Sweden, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany (Carl Bildt, William Hague, Karel Schwarzenberg, Radoslaw Sikorski and Guido Westerwelle) condemned Ukraine's government for selective justice and politically motivated prosecution of opposition leaders, in particular those of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko.[336]
  - President Yanukovych recognized that the Tymoshenko case impedes Ukraine's integration into European structures.[337]
  - On April 30, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment[338] asserting that ''Ms. Tymoshenko's pre-trial detention had been arbitrary; that the lawfulness of her detention had not been properly reviewed; and, that she had no possibility to seek compensation for her unlawful deprivation of liberty.''
  - On May 28, 2013, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued a report by rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt. The report said that the Committee was deeply troubled by the manner in which the country's criminal justice system is abused for the persecution of political opponents by Ukrainian authorities.[339] Omtzigt also suggested the status of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko be recognized as that of a 'political prisoner' within the meaning of the definition adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.[340]
  - The United States Senate has passed two resolutions calling for the release from prison of former prime minister Tymoshenko. The most recent, presented in the Senate in June 2013, called for Tymoshenko's release in light of the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling, and was adopted on November 18, 2013.[341][342][343] An earlier resolution, passed in 2012, condemned the politically motivated prosecution and imprisonment of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko.[344]
  - On September 5, 2013, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published a report based on their December 2012 visit to Ukraine. The report claimed that physical force had been used against Yulia Tymoshenko during her transportation from Kachanivka penal colony to Kharkiv hospital on April 20, 2012.[345] The CPT investigation concluded that Tymoshenko's rights had been violated based on several Articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, in particular Articles 3 (Prohibition of torture) and 8 (Right to respect for private and family life).
  - On October 2, 2013, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution calling for the immediate release of Yulia Tymoshenko and, two days later, Pat Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski, representatives of the European Parliament mission, handed president Yanukovych a petition to pardon Tymoshenko.[346][347]
  - In December 2012 the united opposition nominated her and later in June 2013 confirmed her as its candidate in the 2015 Ukrainian presidential election.[312]
  - 2014 Release from prison[edit]Following the February 2014 Euromaidan riots, on 21 February 2014, Parliament voted for her release in a 310-54 veto-proof vote.[348] On Saturday 22 February 2014 she was released. After her release Tymoshenko is now able to run for office, since she has no criminal record.[349] Tymoshenko had been held since May 2012 in the Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 under police surveillance, where she had been receiving treatment after being diagnosed with a spinal disc herniation.[307][308] Tymoshenko has been on three hunger strikes since her imprisonment.[316][310][305][306][350][311]
  - The authorities released Tymoshenko on February 22, 2014 following a revision of the Ukrainian criminal code, which effectively decriminalized the action for which she was imprisoned. She gained her freedom as a result of as-of-then on-going Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, the participants in which had made her release one of their top objectives.
  - Political views[edit]Tymoshenko wants her country to become a member of the EU, while also expressing concern about antagonizing Russia.[351][352] "I try to defend our interests so that we can find a balance in our relations both with the EU and Russia".[351]
  - Tymoshenko supports Ukraine joining NATO, stating it would be "uncomfortable" for Ukraine to remain "in a void, outside all existing security systems".[351] But, according to Tymoshenko, the question of Ukraine joining any system of collective security would "be resolved only by referendum."[353] Tymoshenko favours close relations with the EU, including the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU[354] and later a full membership.[355] According to Tymoshenko, "The European project has not been completed as yet. It has not been completed because there is no full-fledged participation of Ukraine."[356] She opposes foreign intervention in internal Ukrainian affairs: "Ukraine's realization of its sovereign rights, forming a modern political nation, cannot be considered as a policy aimed against anyone."[357] Tymoshenko does not want to expand the lease contract of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Ukraine because, "The Constitution of Ukraine quite clearly stipulates that foreign military bases cannot be deployed in Ukraine, and this constitutional clause is the fundamental basis of the state's security."[358] She also believes in "building a genuine civil society" as the best way to help democracy.[267][268]
  - Tymoshenko regards Ukraine as a "unitary and indivisible state." Tymoshenko considers separatist attitudes in Ukraine unacceptable: "Love one another, from Donetsk, Crimea, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv and all the other corners of our native land."[359] According to Tymoshenko, citizens in Russian-speaking Dnipropetrovsk already understood Ukrainian in Soviet times and that problems surrounding the Russian language in Ukraine were being[by whom?] "exaggerated and don't exist."[184][360]
  - Tymoshenko opposes the introduction of Russian as a second official state language.[184][361][362] About her own attitude toward the Ukrainian language, Tymoshenko has stated that "today I am thinking in Ukrainian... and the fact that I know Russian very well, I think it is not a secret for you... you all know that I was brought up in the Russian speaking region in Dnipropetrovsk, to my mind, I spared no effort to speak Ukrainian as soon as possible as I came in the Government."[184][360][361]
  - Tymoshenko wrote an article called "Containing Russia" that was published in the May''June 2007 edition of the journal Foreign Affairs.[363][364] In the article she criticized Russian expansionism. Consequently, the article irked Russia and more than a week after the article was published, Russia responded by calling it an "anti-Russian manifesto" and "an attempt to once again draw dividing lines in Europe."[365][nb 11]
  - The first Tymoshenko Government was in favor of transparent and honest re-privatization of 3,000 enterprises,[369] as with the case of the Kyvorizhstal steel mill.[370] Tymoshenko believes that Ukraine's economy is excessively monopolized.[95][371] Tymoshenko is against privatization of the gas transportation system in Ukraine.[372] Tymoshenko lists the salvation of the economy of Ukraine during the 2008''09 Ukrainian financial crisis as one of her achievements.[373] The second Tymoshenko Government has spent 1.6 billion hryvnya on modernizing the coal mining industry.[374]
  - Tymoshenko wants to raise the general level of social standards by equalizing salaries in the industrial and social spheres,[375] and pledged in November 2009 to revamp Ukraine's hospitals and health system within two years.[376] She also pledged tax breaks for farmers.[377] Other economic policies included compensation for depositors who lost Soviet-era savings, price controls on food and medicines to bring inflation down, and calls for a review of murky privatisations and high social spending.[378] Tymoshenko wants to cut the number of taxes by a third to simplify the system, and wants to cut the Value Added Tax (VAT) and offer tax breaks to importers of new technologies to poor regions to boost investment there.[379] In December 2009, the second Tymoshenko Government proposed creating independent anti-corruption bureaus in Ukraine.[380]
  - Tymoshenko believes Ukraine can gain energy security and independence, and she wants to speed up exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas from the Black Sea shelf.[379] Considering Nuclear power provides almost 50% of the electricity supply in Ukraine, Tymoshenko's government agreed to cooperate with the company Westin to establish factory production of nuclear fuel in Ukraine, independent of Russia. She also suggested a 10-year tax break for enterprises that would develop alternative energy sources in Ukraine.
  - Tymoshenko is for the cancellation of Verkhovna Rada deputies' immunity from prosecution.[381] For Ukraine, Tymoshenko prefers the proportional representationvoting system with open lists.[382] Tymoshenko wants to reform the forming of state executive bodies,[383] and favours giving parliamentary opposition "real instruments of influence on the authorities." She also wants Ukrainian court system reforms[384] and wants devolution of executive power to local authorities.[384][385][386] Together with representatives of regional governments, Tymoshenko expanded a Law that aimed to empower local authorities. In the summer of 2009, she claimed she tried to bring together different political parties in order to amend the constitution and switch to a parliamentary form of government.[387] In February 2011, Tymoshenko stated "Viktor Yanukovych's naked attempt to hijack the election that precipitated the Orange Revolution should have resulted in him being banned from running in future elections."[267]
  - In November 2009, Tymoshenko called Ukraine "an absolutely ungovernable country" due to the changes to the Constitution of Ukraine as a part of a political compromise between the acting authorities (former-President Kuchma) and opposition during the Orange Revolution.[388] (Tymoshenko has characterised those reforms as "incomplete",[389] and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc voted against them in December 2004).[390] In January of 2010, Tymoshenko called for urgent amendments to the Constitution via the majority of the Verkhovna Rada after a survey or plebiscite is conducted.[391] In April 2011, she still believed the constitution "didn't work".[387]
  - Genealogy, family and personal life[edit]Yulia Tymoshenko (born Hrihyan, also transliterated "Grigyan");[4][9][10] was born on 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. Her mother, Lyudmila Mykolayivna Telehina (born Nelepova), was born on 11 August 1937 in Dnipropetrovsk.[12] Her father, Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihyan, was born on 3 December 1937, also in Dnipropetrovsk. According to his Soviet passport, he was Latvian.[12] His mother was Maria Yosypivna Hrihyan, born in 1909.[12]
  - In the Ukrainian media, there has been a lot of speculation regarding the genealogy of Tymoshenko. Some of the hypotheses have no scientific evidence (for example, the hypothesis of the Armenian origin of the surname "Grigyan"); [392] some of the hypotheses (concerning her Jewish roots) have been labelled as provocative,[393][394][395][396] or could be designed to create negative PR.[397][398]
  - About her ethnicity, Yulia Tymoshenko herself has said, "On my father's side '' everyone is Latvian for ten generations, and on my mother's side '' everyone is Ukrainian for ten generations."[399] Tymoshenko's parents were both born in Ukraine and are, therefore, Ukrainian as defined by the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine and by the Ukrainian Constitution.[400][401][402]
  - Family[edit]Personal life[edit]Tymoshenko and her husband rent a house in Kiev (the house belongs to relatives) and own a house in Dnipropetrovsk.[406][407][408] Tymoshenko has declared she never used and will never use or move into a state-owned summer house,[407][408] in contrast with all former-Presidents of Ukraine, who are all living in state-owned dachas in Koncha-Zaspa.[409] According to Ukrainian media Tymoshenko lives in an estate in Koncha-Zaspa (estimated worth: $5 million), "rented from a friend for free".[410]
  - Tymoshenko has publicly stated that, like most Soviet citizens, she spoke only Russian in her childhood (although Tymoshenko had been studying the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian literature at the school for 10 years, as all schoolchildren in Soviet Ukraine).[184][360] In January 2010 Tymoshenko stated that in Dnipropetrovsk she did not have to speak Ukrainian until she was 36 (i.e. before 1996).[411] According to Tymoshenko her braids are a family tradition.[360]
  - In her spare time, before she was imprisoned, Tymoshenko ran on a treadmill for exercise and listened to the music of Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Anna Netrebko and Alessandro Safina.[412]Ukrayinska Pravda is her favourite news source.[412] Tymoshenko has stated she has watched the Tunisian Revolution and Egyptian Revolution of 2011 "with joy and admiration".[267]
  - Cultural and political image[edit]Tymoshenko is a voluble public performer.[413] Her fiery rhetoric made her an icon of the Orange Revolution.[21]
  - Tymoshenko's critics have suggested that, as an oligarch, she gained her fortune improperly. Some have speculated that her familiarity with the illegal conduct of business common in Ukraine uniquely qualifies her to combat corruption'--if she is willing to do so. Her former business partner, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, was convicted in the United States on charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud, the magnitude of which was in the billions of dollars.[414] However, Judge Martin Jenkins of the US District Court for the Northern District of California on May 7, 2004 dismissed the allegations of Tymoshenko's involvement in Lazarenko's murky business.[415]
  - Her transition from oligarch to reformer was believed by many voters to be both genuine and effective.[50][95][416] Discrepancies between her declared income and her seemingly luxurious lifestyle (mostly because of her designer outfits) have been pointed out in the Ukrainian tabloids.[410][417][418]
  - When Tymoshenko joined the Yushchenko government she did not speak Ukrainian.[360] According to fellow Ukrainian politician Borys Tarasyuk in 2002 Tymoshenko "only spoke Russian even when I spoke to her in Ukrainian", but since then she has made the transition to speaking only Ukrainian.[360][419][420]
  - During her second stint as Prime-Minister her ratings in opinion polls fell. In early 2008 in opinion polls for the Ukrainian presidential election, 2009 she stood at 30% but by late-April 2009 that had shrunk to 15%[421] According to a poll carried out between 29 January and 5 February 2009 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology just over 43% of the Ukrainian voters believed Tymoshenko should leave her post, whereas just over 45% believed she should stay.[422] According to an opinion poll carried out between 3 and 12 February 2009 by the "Sofia" Center for Social Studies some 59.1% of those polled believed that the activities of (then) Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko where aimed at the defense of her own interests and that of her entourage, some 4.2% said her activities were aimed at the defense of interests of foreign states and some 23.9% believed that Tymoshenko worked for the sake of national interests. 77.7% of the respondents where unsatisfied with the economic policy of the second Tymoshenko Government. Some 71.8% believed that this government was not able to lead the Ukrainian economy out of the 2008''09 Ukrainian financial crisis or even change the situation in Ukraine to better; 18.1% of respondents did think that the government could do that.[423][424] 1. Despite the neck-to-neck 2010 presidential race, many experts believed that Tymoshenko would win the vote due to her ability to ''hike her popularity just before the voting day''. JP Morgan Securities Inc. experts said that Yulia Tymoshenko's victory in presidential election would ''bring stability in 2010, with budget consolidation, better terms of crediting and higher influx of capital. As a result, the economy will have better prospects of growing in the second half of 2010 and 2011''.[425]
  - Tymoshenko has been ranked three times by Forbes magazine among the most powerful women in the world. During her first term, in 2005 she was ranked third (behind Condoleezza Rice and Wu Yi),[22] in 2008 she was number 17[426] and in 2009 at number 47.[427] According to the Ukrainian magazine Focus Lady Yu was placed first in annual ranking of the most influential women in Ukraine in 2006''2010 (five years).[428][429] During the Orange Revolution some Western media publications dubbed her the "Joan of Arc of the Revolution".[430] Tymoshenko was also dubbed one of the most beautiful women ever to enter politics by the Daily Mail and 20 Minutos in 2009.[431][432] In December 2011 Tymoshenko's party BYuT-Batkivschyna nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize.[433]
  - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stated (in November 2009) he found it comfortable to work with his (then) Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko and also praised her for strengthening Ukrainian sovereignty and building stable ties with Moscow[122] and called the second Tymoshenko Government "efficient and a force for stability".[123] It has been suggested by Reuters that the Russian government, after seeing her opposition to Viktor Yushchenko, supported her since late 2008, although Putin denied it.[378]
  - Former ally and President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko stated in November 2009 "I am sure that every week spent by Yulia Tymoshenko in the post of Prime Minister leads the country to a catastrophe. Because of Yulia Tymoshenko, it is a crisis, a crisis in everything".[434] Yushchenko has repeatedly accused his former ally turned rival Tymoshenko of acting in the interests of Russia, she firmly denied the allegations.[21] On 31 May 2010 Yushchenko stated that Tymoshenko was his "worst mistake", "The most serious mistake was to give the power to her twice".[435] Expert in Ukrainian politics Dr. Taras Kuzio believes that he has always prioritized personal revenge against Tymoshenko over Ukraine's national interests.[436] In her turn, Tymoshenko has blamed President Viktor Yuschenko for obstructing the government-proposed anti-crisis measures and efforts to form a broad coalition to battle the crisis. "The president is using flashy words today to deprive the nation, first of all its government, of the opportunity to counter the crisis, and to leave the nation without a government it logically needs'' she said. "Viktor Yushchenko has no right to any criticism. He is the incumbent president. He only has the right to work and to serve Ukraine. He will have the right to criticize when he joins the opposition. Now he must work and answer for his moves''.[437]
  - Yushchenko is being dishonest'--which shouldn't surprise us'--but he is also being self-serving when he says that Yanukovych and Tymoshenko ''are cut from the same cloth.'' For one thing, even Tymoshenko's most ardent detractors realize that, if she were president, Ukraine would not be sliding toward a 20-year dictatorship. For another, if anyone is cut from the same cloth as Yanukovych, it's Viktor Yushchenko, who's shown a remarkable willingness to seek rapprochement with him and the Regionnaires since 2005. Yushchenko should be ashamed. Worse, Yushchenko should be on meds. A perfectly reasonable argument for EU engagement with Ukraine became, in the manner of all of Yushchenko's speeches in the last years of his presidency, a rant against Tymoshenko and thereby self-destructed. I had once suggested that Yushchenko probably couldn't forgive himself for being too weak to stand up to the powerful Tymoshenko. His feelings of impotence are obviously still going strong.
  - Yulia Yanukovych's Galleon and Yushchenko's Obsession, Alexander Motyl, The World Affairs Journal
  - Former Ukrainian Minister of Finance of Ukraine Viktor Pynzenyk has called Tymoshenko's decisions "normally guided by 'adventurous populism,'" which she saw as a tool to "consolidate power in her own hands" and believed Tymoshenko should have "taken advantage of the opportunity presented by the 2008''2009 Ukrainian financial crisis to reform".[438]
  - Party of Regions Deputy Head Borys Kolesnykov stated on 11 February 2010 "Tymoshenko was the most effective politician during the entire period of Ukraine's recent history".[439] Former European High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana has called Tymoshenko "a patriot regardless of the position in which you have found yourself".[440] President Viktor Yanukovych stated about Tymoshenko on 13 May 2010 "She likes to create a sensation. We have grown used to this extravagant woman".[441]
  - Vitaly Chepinoha has closely collaborated with Tymoshenko during various elections for more than a decade.[198]
  - In some press-media Tymoshenko is sometimes referred to as Lady Yu (ÐÐµÐ´i Ð®, ÐÐµÐ´Ð¸ Ð®).[442]
  - Opinion polls since early 2011 show that the percentage of votes that Tymoshenko would gain in a future presidential election stands about 15%.[443] Yet recent opinion polls show increase of Tymoshenko's rating. Thus, according to the survey conducted by ''Rating'' sociology think tank in September 2013, 21% of respondents would vote for Tymoshenko.[444]
  - Opinions about her[edit]Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic: ''I admire Ms. Tymoshenko and respect her as fearless, energetic and honest politician. You can't see lots of those today''. (2010)[36]
  - Aleksander Kwasniewski: ''She is an extremely gifted politician. I have met and worked with many world politicians and Tymoshenko belongs to the most gifted ones''. (2010)[36]
  - Wilfried Martens, former President of the European People's Party: ''Yulia Tymoshenko is a shining example of Ukraine's democratic spirit.'' (2012)[445]
  - Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security PolicyJavier Solana called Tymoshenko ''a patriot, regardless of which post she holds'' (2010)[nb 12][446]
  - Leonid Kravchuk, first President of Ukraine: ''When she works, she shines. She is on fire, she is burning. And most of our politicians are barely smoldering, emitting smoke. That's why her energy, strengths and beliefs attract people''. (2010)[36]
  - Leonid Kuchma, second president of Ukraine: ''She is the only man in the Ukrainian politics''.[447]
  - Viktor Yushchenko, third president of Ukraine: "The most serious [sic] mistake was to give the power to her twice". (2010)[448]
  - Viktor Yanukovych, fourth president of Ukraine: "She is as prime minister as a cow on the ice". (2007)[449]
  - Paolo Coelho, writer: ''She is very charismatic. I was so impressed. She is a strong personality. I think there are not so many charismatic leaders like her in the world. I think there are efficient people who govern their countries pretty well, but charisma is a unique feature. If you ask me to name the brightest ones I would name Luiz Lula, President of Brazil, Yulia Tymoshenko, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy is also an extraordinary person''. (2010)[36]
  - Yuriy Lutsenko, former Minister for Internal Affairs of Ukraine: ''Tymoshenko is ready for presidency more than anyone else. She is some sort of matrix of a leader''. (2013)[450]
  - Jakov Sedlar, Croatian filmmaker: ''To my mind, she is a very unusual politician as for these days. I think we live in time, when there are a lot of good governors, good people who want to serve their country. But there are only few who can be called leaders, heroes. I think that Yulia Tymoshenko is one of them. In this world that is lacking great people, she is an exception''. (2013)[451]
  - Awards and International Recognition[edit]Yulia Tymoshenko's positions in national ratings[edit]2004 Korrespondent magazine names Yulia Tymoshenko ''Revolutionary of the Year''
  - 2005 Korrespondent magazine, TOP 100 the most influential politics of Ukraine, 2nd place (Women with nimbus), Person of the year
  - 2007 Yulia Tymoshenko, Focus magazine, the most influential women of Ukraine, 1st place. Yulia Tymoshenko, Korrespondent magazine, TOP 100 the most influential politics of Ukraine, 4th place (Woman-brand), Person of the year. Yulia Tymoshenko, Focus magazine, 200 the most influential Ukrainians, 2nd place.
  - 2009 Yulia Tymoshenko, Korrespondent magazine, TOP 100 the most influential Ukrainians, 1st place (Dream women). Yulia Tymoshenko, Focus magazine, the most influential women of Ukraine, 1st place. Yulia Tymoshenko, Focus magazine, TOP 200 the most influential politicians of Ukraine, 1st place.
  - 2012 The national rating (December 28, 2012) by the Razumkov Center and the "Foundation for Democratic Initiatives" : Yulia Tymoshenko is recognized as the best Prime Minister of Ukraine '-- 19.5%, Viktor Yanukovych '-- 11.4%, Mykola Azarov '' 8.6%, Leonid Kuchma '' 5.6%, Viktor Yushchenko '' 3.9%, Pavel Lazarenko '' 2.2%.[458]
  - 2007''2013 In Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko is the most popular politician on the Internet ,[459] in blogs[460][461] and social networks.[462] Yulia Tymoshenko is the most popular foreign politician in the Russian media.[463]
  - Multimedia[edit]2004 (29 November) '-- (Russian language) Tymoshenko's speech in Donetsk on Akhmetov's Channel "Ukraine" '' during the Orange Revolution on YouTube (Tymoshenko in the orange shirt of FC Shakhtar Donetsk).2007 '' (Ukrainian language) campaign videos about "Ivan, Galia, and the Vampire-Yanukovich" on YouTube in support of BYuT; the parliamentary elections-2007.2009 '' concert at the "Independence Square"-Maydan (Kiev) in honor of Yulia Tymoshenko's nomination as a candidate for the presidency; the song "Yulia, Yulia, Ukraine" (Nastya Kamenskih and "Potap") on YouTube; 29 October 2009.2009 '' "The Red Heart", a clip of Yulia Timoshenko's presidential election-2010; 2 December 2009. on YouTube2011 '-- Yulia Tymoshenko on Euronews (English Version). Tymoshenko in Brussels. March 31, 2011. on YouTube2011 '' a documentary film (25 minutes), which was shown at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 8 October 2011 '' "The trial of Yulia Tymoshenko. The true story". on YouTube2011 '' Tymoshenko rendered a verdict. Kiev, 11 October 2011. on YouTube2011 '-- Eugenia Tymoshenko, the daughter of Ukrainian political prisoner and former PM Yulia Tymoshenko, gave an interview to MyEPP TV during the EPP Congress in Marseille. December 16, 2011. on YouTube2012 '-- BBC World News: Ukraine facing Europe boycott calls over Yulia Tymoshenko 1 May 2012. on YouTube2012 '-- Ukrainian opposition parties on Saturday held a rally in central Kiev in support of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. '-- (German language) Ukraine opposition rallies for Tymoshenko. Euronews. May 12, 2012. on YouTube2012 '-- "Witness : Ukraine, State of Chaos". Al Jazeera English. November 22, 2012 (film lasting 47 minutes) on YouTube. The film concludes that as of 2012 the leader of democracy in Ukraine is Tymoshenko.2012 '-- Ruslana, "Euphoria", 2012 (English version) on YouTube, (Ukrainian version). on YouTubeRuslana was an active member of the Orange Revolution. Since the jail Tymoshenko, the theme of the prison became a daily in the Ukrainian media reports.2013 '-- (WASHINGTON, DC) Assistant Senate Majority Leader and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dick Durbin, called for the release of Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko in light of the European Court of Human Rights recent decision on her case. Washington, July 18, 2013. on YouTube^Key economic achievements of Tymoshenko's government[edit] Increased salaries, pensions, scholarships; Fulfilled one of the paragraphs of social program from Yushchenko's election agenda on support for new families: in 2005 a social aid for a newborn child was increased 12 times; ''Contraband stop'' campaign was launched. The campaign was accompanied by eradication of shadow schemes in business; Call for nationalization and re-privatization of more than 3000 enterprises. Eventually the government nationalized and then re-privatized country's biggest metallurgical plant ''Kryvorizhstal''. In October 2005 it was sold for $4 billion to a new owner, which was an impressive amount compared to $8.5 billion received by the government from privatization between 1991 and 2004; On June 16, 2005 president Viktor Yushchenko, speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn and Yulia Tymoshenko signed a memorandum on guarantees of ownership rights and ensuring lawfulness for their implementation. According to Yushchenko, ''Ukrainian government brought murky privatization practice to the end''; Reaction to crises on internal market[edit] In April''May 2005 Ukraine faced so called ''meat, sugar and petrol crises'' when prices for the abovementioned products went up by 30''50% over a couple of weeks. These crises allegedly resulted from a cartel conspiracy and it took Tymoshenko's government about 1,5 month to get the prices down to the initial level with the help of ''goods intervention'' mechanism; The meat crisis was caused by increased demand for meat as a result of increased salaries. Tymoshenko's government lifted duties on imported meat, which dropped the speculative prices Tymoshenko's political opponents (Yushchenko and Yanukovych) kept criticizing her for importing ''low quality meet''. At that time Tymoshenko's government made a decision to increase production of poultry, which eventually made Ukraine a poultry exporter. The sugar and petrol crises were caused by a ''cartel conspiracy'' which increased prices for the abovementioned goods by 30''50%. Tymoshenko's government organized import of cane sugar and dropped duties on oil products import. In a couple of months the prices stabilized. In 2006 Anti Monopoly Committee, who investigated the ''sugar crisis'' issued a conclusion which said that it was a cartel monopoly with a participation of Petro Poroshenko, then-head of the National Council of Security and Defense. In May 2005, at the height of the petrol crisis, Viktor Yushchenko publicly sharply criticized Tymoshenko for ''pressure on oil traders''.^On December 7, 2005, Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko held a convention in Kiev. At this convention Yulia Tymoshenko presented a new ideology of the Bloc (''solidarism'') and announced the first top 10 of the party list for the upcoming parliamentary election of 2006. Unlike the other parties that ran for election, BYuT did not disclose the rest of the names on the list. On March 26, 2006, BYuT won 22.27% of votes (5,648,345 votes) and came first in 14 regions of Ukraine.^See more at 2007 Ukrainian political crisis.^The key purpose of her visit was to explain to the US administration ''the biggest problem of Ukrainian politics'': Yanukovych's actions toward unconstitutional enlargement of the ''ruling coalition'' that could potentially remove Viktor Yushchenko from power. The only possible solution envisaged by Tymoshenko was dismissal of the Verkhovna Rada (according to the Constitution) and an early parliamentary election. In addition to meeting with top officials of the Bush administration, Tymoshenko gave speeches at the Kennedy Center for Strategic and International Studies and the National Press Club. She also received an award for her contribution to the development of democracy in Ukraine from the influential NGO Conservative Political Action Conference.^On March 31, 2007, Tymoshenko and her political party initiated and conducted the ''100 thousand people Maidan''. Other Orange Revolution leaders such as Viacheslav Kyrylenko and Yuriy Lutsenko attended the meeting. The participants urged president Yushchenko (who was not there) to dismiss the Verkhovna Rada and call early election.[120] During this trip she received an award for contribution into democracy development from Conservative Political Action Conference.[121]^Tymoshenko herself outlines the biggest achievements of her government[86] introducing anti crisis program for the key industries (mining and metallurgical sector, agrarian sector, chemical production, construction and development), strengthening Ukraine's energy independence through direct gas deals with Russian Federation, restoring Ukraine's fame as the world's bread basket due to unprecedentedly rich crops of grain (53.3 million tons in 2008, and 46 million tons in 2009), preventing drop in the agricultural production, revitalization of high-tech industries such as space engineering and aircraft construction, resuming of series construction of Antonov aircraft, getting final UEFA's confirmation for conduct Euro-2012 tournament in Ukraine, introducing independent high school graduate testing, obtaining WTO membership, and commencing negotiations on EU association.^Tymoshenko introduced an apparatus of the Cabinet of Ministers' Commissioner for anti corruption issues and made sure that a number of anti corruption laws and government regulations (acts) were adopted. Tymoshenko herself was personally in charge of fight with ''gas'' and ''land'' mafia, which, in the first case, ended up with removal of corruption intermediary from gas trade between Russia and Ukraine; in the second case it ended up with introduction of free of charge registration and issuing land ownership documents for citizens. According to Tymoshenko, the efficient anti corruption campaign [167] and significant financial discipline armed the government with additional resources for dealing with burning social problems during the crisis period. Due to that the following goals were achieved: pensions, stipends and salaries to the state-run organizations' employees were paid on time; gas and electricity prices for households were not raised; people received their deposits from the bankrupt banks; additional payments for teachers, healthcare workers and librarians were provided; financial aid to families with a newborn child was increased in several times; those who qualify, received more than 5500 state subsidized apartments; about 6 million of clients of former Soviet Oshchadbank received compensations for their lost savings; people could register their land plots free of charge.^These criminal cases were opened against officials from the second Tymoshenko Government (prosecutors have not accused them of corruption, or assignment of funds, but rather have accused them of abuse of power):Prime Minister '' TymoshenkoMinister of Police '' Yuriy LutsenkoMinister of Defence '' IvashchenkoMinister of Finance '' DanylyshynMinister of Natural Resources '' FilipchukDeputy Minister of Justice '' KorneichukHead of Customs of Ukraine '' MakarenkoHead of the regional customs '' ShepitkoHead of the State Treasury of Ukraine '' Slyuz; Deputy head '' GritsounDeputy head of "Naftogaz" (state monopoly on trade in gas and oil) '' DidenkoGovernor of Dnipropetrovsk region (former Minister of Transport) '' BondarMinister and former mayor of Lviv '' Kuybida. Source: Minister and former mayor of Lviv '' KuybidaFirst Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov '' repeatedly summoned for questioning^In December of 2010, Tymoshenko had stated she might run for President in 2015, but that this also depended on her family.[313]^European politicians deemed the court's decision to be politically motivated and a violation of democratic standards. The head of EU diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement that the verdict would affect bilateral EU-Ukraine relations, including the Association Agreement. Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule indicated that he was counting on Tymoshenko's rapid release through changes to Ukraine's Criminal Code. The head of the European People's Party, Wilfried Martens, has called for talks with Ukraine on the Association Agreement to be suspended. These responses correspond to the Union's current position; for the Association Agreement to be signed, Tymoshenko must be released and permitted to participate in the next elections.^It was subsequently revealed that significant portions of the article were paraphrased from an article written by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Tymoshenko's staff denied allegations of plagiarism on the grounds that the Foreign Affairs format does not usually include attributions.[366] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote an article called "Containing Russia: Back To The Future?"[367] for the same journal which was apparently meant to be a response to Tymoshenko. He withdrew the article before publication, accusing the editors of changing his text and said his article was subjected to "censorship".[368]^"You know what a sincerely friendly attitude I have to Ukraine. In Europe, you have not only many friends of Ukraine, but also a lot of your own friends. I see how wisely you treat the circumstances that you currently have, and you remain, of course, a patriot regardless of the position in which you have found yourself''^Tymshenko's daughter Yevhenia Tymoshenko received a Medal for her contribution to the defense of democracy and human rights of the same organization in October 2012.[454]References[edit]^NUCLEAR ENERGY IN UKRAINE, International Nuclear Safety Center (July 1997)^Senior Experts, IMEPOWER Investment Group^"Kuchma dismisses Tymoshenko". Ukrweekly.com. 2001-01-28. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^ abcAn orange revolution: a personal journey through Ukrainian history by Askold Krushelnycky, Harvill Secker, 2006, ISBN 978-0-436-20623-8, p. 169.^ abUkraine parliament votes out Tymoshenko's government, Kyiv Post (3 March 2010)^ abPress secretary: Tymoshenko vacates premier's post, Kyiv Post (4 March 2010)^Ukraine election:Opposition rally against 'rigged' poll, BBC News (5 November 2012)^"Tymoshenko to handle recession and challenge the clan '' Leonid Kravchuk". Zik.ua. 2009-07-14. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^ ab"Azeri reporter pesters Yulia Timoshenko about being Armenian". Site "Ukrayinska Pravda". Armeniandiaspora.com. 27 December 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2011. ^ abIvanova, Galina (12 November 2007). "Yuliya Tymoshenko". Russianelection2008.blogspot.com. Retrieved 11 October 2011. ^ abEastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004 (Regional Surveys of the World) by Europa Publications, Routledge, 2003, ISBN 978-1-85743-187-2, p. 604.^ abcdefghiChobit', Dmytro. "Ð®ÐÐÐ¯ ÐÐÐ'ÐÐ¨ÐÐ'ÐÐ: Ð. Ð ÐÐ--ÐÐ'ÐÐ-- Ð®. ÐÐÐ'ÐÐ¨ÐÐ'ÐÐ (Yuliya Tymoshenko: [Part] I. Ancestry of Yu. Tymoshenko)" (in Ukrainian). Makuha.info. Retrieved 27 January 2014. ^ abcd(Russian)ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ð®Ð>>Ð¸Ñ, Korrespondent^ ab"''Anna Usik.'' Classmates wrote off work in mathematics at Julia Tymoshenko. Newspaper "Newspaper in Ukrainian" ' 1039, 09.06.2010. Category "People". Website "Gazeta.ua"". Gazeta.ua. Retrieved 11 October 2011. ^ abCzechs give asylum to spouse of Ukraine's TymoshenkoReuters (6 January 2012)^ abcUkraine's Gold-Plaited Comeback Kid, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (23 September 2008)^"Government portal: Julia Tymoshenko got acquainted with the achievements of "the National Mining University in Dnipropetrovsk"". Kmu.gov.ua. 18 September 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2011. ^Tymoshenko, Yulia. FormerPrime Minister of Ukraine. "Lentapediya", 19 October 2011.^"Dissertation of Y. Tymoshenko "State Regulation of the tax system"". Nbuv.gov.ua. 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Retrieved 4 February 2007. ^Staff Country Report Ukraine, International Monetary Fund (October 1997)^Ukraine: State and Nation Building by Taras Kuzio, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0415171954.^How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy by Anders slund, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009, ISBN 0-88132-427-2.^More gas charges against Tymoshenko, United Press International (29 March 2012)Yulia Timoshenko: a dangerous woman in danger, Russia Today (9 August 2011)^ abAccording to Matthew Brzezinski (author of "Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier"), "gained control over nearly 20% of Ukraine's gross national product, an enviable position that probably no other private company in the world could boast." Quoted by James Meek, "The millionaire revolutionary," The Guardian (26 November 2004)^"U.S. judge throws out 23 of 53 counts against Lazarenko (05/23/04)". Ukrweekly.com. 2004-05-23. 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BBC News. 29 June 2006. Retrieved 26 August 2006. ^ELECTION OF NEW PRIME MINISTER AND GOVERNMENT, European Country of Origin Information Network (August 2006)^ ab"We will be either in the opposition or we will fight in a new election", Yulia Tymoshenko official website (7 July 2006)^Lawmakers loyal to Yushchenko call for new elections in Ukraine after pro-Russian parties announce coalition, Kyiv Post (11 July 2006)^Ukraine's Orange coalition falls apart after Socialists break ranks, Kyiv Post (7 July 2006)^Ukraine's political fate shifts amid Rada chaos, Kyiv Post (13 July 2006)^Ukraine's Leftists Announce New Coalition, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (7 July 2006 )^"Ukraine: Two Viktors, But No Clear Winner". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 6 October 2006. ^"Ukrainian rivals rally in capital". BBC News. 1 April 2007. ^(Ukrainian)Ð'Ð° 8 ÐÐµÑÐµÐ·Ð½Ñ ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ ÑÐµÐºÐ°Ñ-- Ð²ÑÐ´ Ð®ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ° ÑÑÑÐµÐ½Ð½Ñ ÐÑÐ¾ ÑÐ¾Ð·ÐÑÑÐº ÐÐ°ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð¼ÐµÐ½ÑÑ On March 8 Tymoshenko expects Yushchenko to dissolve parliament, Gazeta.ua (06.03.2007)^ abTymoshenko tells U.S. that Ukraine is in ''deep constitutional crisis'', The Ukrainian Weekly (March 11, 2007)^ abRussia's Putin says comfortable with Ukraine's Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (20 November 2009)^ abPutin gives Ukraine a break on gas deal, Kyiv Post (20 November 2009)^"Orange bloc edges to poll victory". BBC News. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2006. ^"Ukrainian Parliament Continues Shift Towards Yushchenko". Korrespondent (in Russian). 15 October 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2007. ^"Parliament named Tymoshenko as the Prime Minister of Ukraine". Korrespondent (in Russian). 18 December 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2007. ^Premier survives no confidence vote, Daily Express (July 11, 2008)^"Ukraine PM Accused of 'High Treason'". 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However, the coalition agreement has not been signed so far."^Tymoshenko Bloc, OU-PSD, And Lytvyn Bloc Sign Rada Coalition Agreement, Ukrainian News Agency (16 December 2008)^President calls on VR to focus on overcoming economic crisis, UNIAN (11 December 2008)^Yushchenko categorically opposed to "coalition of three" '' Hrytsenko, UNIAN (15 December 2008)^Presidential Secretariat urges parliament to include early election funds in 2009 budget, Interfax-Ukraine (15 December 2008)^Lytvyn Predicts Rada's Work Until 2012, Ukrainian News Agency (13 December 2008) "I can reassure everyone that snap elections will not be held... If the Rada is working adequately and the public sees its efficiency, the Parliament will work next four-year," he said.^"Ukraine Parliament fails to pass non-confidence bill against cabinet". En.ce.cn. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^ abCullison, Alan (2009-02-06). "Rivalry Deepens Ukraine Economic Woe". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Luke Harding. 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BBC News. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2011. ^Jailhouse Watch: Many former top officials remain in jail for months, Kyiv Post, 11 March 2011.^Yanukovych: Over 400 officials of current government stand trialKyiv Post (Augustus 25, 2011)^Yanukovych vows to put an end to corruptionKyiv Post (15 September 2011)^Yanukovych: 'Some misinform international community about Ukraine'Kyiv Post (7 February 2011)^Ukraine's parliament passes president's anti-corruption lawRIA Novosti (7 April 2011)^Ukraine Retreats to a Dark Past, Der Spiegel (18 October 2011)^"Amnesty International believes that "the verdict Tymoshenko" is politically motivated". Infosud.ru. 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Getting Yulia, Kyiv Post (3 November 2011)^ abUkraine ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko jailed over gas deal, BBC News (11 October 2011)^The Tymoshenko verdict. Full text of the sentence, "Law & Business" (13 October 2011)^ abcdTymoshenko convicted, sentenced to 7 years in prison, ordered to pay state $188 million (update), Kyiv Post (11 October 2011)^Tymoshenko files appeal against court ruling in gas case, Kyiv Post (24 October 2011)^Tax police resumes four criminal cases against Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (7 November 2011)^Ukraine heaps more charges on Tymoshenko (updated), Kyiv Post (11 November 2011)^Vlasenko: investigators illegally presented Yulia Tymoshenko with new charges, UNIAN (11 November 2011)^Ukraine tax authorities file charges against Tymoshenko, Interfax Ukraine (11 November 2011)^Ukraine 're-arrests' Tymoshenko, EU sends envoy, Kyiv Post (9 December 2011)^Teixeira: EU concerned about new arrest Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (9 December 2011)^Tymoshenko faces indefinite arrest, Kyiv Post (9 December 2011)^Lawyer: Tymoshenko arrested 'for life', Kyiv Post (9 December 2011)^Jailed Tymoshenko seen by EU Commissioner Stefan Fuele, BBC News (13 December 2011)^ abUkraine's Tymoshenko loses appeal against jail term, BBC News (23 December 2011)^Tymoshenko sentence in gas supply case takes legal force, Kyiv Post (23 December 2011)^Official statement by Yulia Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (22 December 2011)^Press release, ECtHR (20 December 2011)^Tymoshenko moved to prison in Kharkiv (updated), Kyiv Post (30 December 2011)^Tymoshenko moved to Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv (updated), Kyiv Post (30 December 2011)^"Husband of Ukraine's Tymoshenko wins Czech asylum". 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Retrieved 6 January 2012. ^(Ukrainian)Ð'ÐµÐ½ÐÑÐ¾ÐºÑÑÐ°ÑÑÑÐ° ÐÐµÑÐµÐ²ÑÑÑÑ-- ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ð½Ð° ÐÑÐ¸ÑÐµÑÐ½ÑÑÑÑ Ð´Ð¾ ÑÐµ Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ð¾Ð"Ð¾ Ð²Ð±Ð¸Ð²ÑÑÐ²Ð°, BBC Ukrainian (7 April 2012)^ abUkraine's Tymoshenko refuses to attend new tax trial, BBC News (19 April 2012)^ abUkraine's jailed ex-PM Tymoshenko 'on hunger strik, BBC News (24 April 2012)^ abUkraine's Tymoshenko moved from prison to hospital; ends hunger strike, The Globe and Mail (9 May 2012)^ abOpposition leaders visit Tymoshenko's hospital, Kyiv Post (13 November 2012)German doctors arrive at Kharkiv-based clinic to see Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (15 November 2012)Rome mayor's office puts up Tymoshenko portrait on facade, Kyiv Post (26 November 2012)Ukraine opposition leader demands closure of protesters' cases, Tymoshenko release, Interfax-Ukraine (21 February 2014)^ abFrance disappointed by Tymoshenko appeal rejection, Russian Legal Information Agency (31 August 2012)^"Ukraine's Highest Court Upholds Tymoshenko Verdict". The Wall Street Journal. Associated Press. 29 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012. Ukraine's highest court upholds Tymoshenko verdict, Arkansas Online (29 August 2012 )^ abcdUkraine's jailed Tymoshenko calls off hunger strike, Kyiv Post (16 November 2012)Chief doctor:Tymoshenko to have recovered from hunger strike by end of this week, Kyiv Post (28 November 2012)^ abTymoshenko to decide whether to continue hunger strike, Kyiv Post (13 November 2012)^ abBatkivschyna to nominate Tymoshenko for presidency, Yatseniuk heads party's political council, Interfax-Ukraine (14 June 2013)^Tymoshenko still ready to run for president, Kyiv Post (10 December 2010)^"UKRAINIAN EX-PM SUSPECTED IN MURDER CASE". Associated Press. Retrieved 19 January 2013. Tymoshenko accused of murder, Euronews (19 January 2013)Jailed Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko suspected in long-dormant murder case, Montreal Gazette (19 January 2013)Ukraine Prosecutors Say Tymoshenko May Face Murder Charge, Bloomberg L.P. (18 January 2013)Ukraine prosecutor accuses Tymoshenko of murder, Reuters (18 January 2013)^"Defender: Shcherban murder case suspended. No evidence against Yulia Tymoshenko (video)". Tymoshenko.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^ abTymoshenko stops hunger strike, Interfax-Ukraine (6 December 2013)^Jailed Tymoshenko on hunger strike over EU U-turn by Ukraine, Euronews (25 November 2013)^Ukraine opposition leader Tymoshenko ends prison hunger strike, Euronews (6 December 2013)^Russia and Ukraine leaders seek partnership treaty, BBC News (6 December 2013)^"Court of Appeals leaves Yulia Tymoshenko in custody". En.for-ua.com. 2011-12-14. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^[]^"Tymoshenko's defense submitted cassation appeal against "gas sentence"". En.for-ua.com. 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Tymoshenko's cassation in gas case read out in court". Kyivpost.com. 2012-08-17. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"A staunch court". Day.kiev.ua. 2012-09-04. 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TYMOSHENKO, "Containing Russia" in Foreign Affairs, May''June 2007, pp. 69''83.^I. KHRESTIN, "The Kremlin's Issue with Foreign Affairs" in The Weekly Standard, 17 April 2007.^Russian Embassy to South Africa, Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding a Question from RIA Novosti Concerning Yulia Tymoshenko's Article 'Containing Russia' in the Journal Foreign Afffairs.[dead link]^Editor's note, Foreign Affairs Vol 86 Issue 5 (September''October 2007) p. 195^"The Article by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov "Containing Russia: Back to the Future?"" (in (Russian)). Mid.ru. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2011. ^RFERL.^Ukraine revisits state sell-offs, BBC News (16 February 2005)^Myers, Steven Lee (9 September 2005). "Ukraine Leader Fires Cabinet as Reform Coalition Splits". The New York Times International. Retrieved 8 October 2013. ^Tymoshenko: Ukraine's economy excessively monopolized, Kyiv Post (7 October 2009)^Tymoshenko promises not to allow privatization of Ukraine's gas transportation system, Kyiv Post (16 November 2009)^Achievements, Official website of Yulia Tymoshenko^Yulia Tymoshenko: Effective development of coal industry is the future of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (25 August 2009)^Government plans raise general level of social standards, says Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine (1 October 2009)^Tymoshenko pledges to revamp ailing hospitals by 2012, Kyiv Post (1 November 2009)^Tymoshenko promises tax breaks for farmers, Interfax-Ukraine (25 November 2009)^ abUkraine's election: portraits of main players, Kyiv Post (1 January 2010)^ abEconomic policies of Ukraine's election front-runners[dead link], Kyiv Post (18 January 2010)^Tymoshenko proposes creating independent anti-corruption bureaus in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (8 December 2009)^Tymoshenko denies seeking deputy immunity from prosecution, Kyiv Post (8 May 2010)^Tymoshenko: Proportional voting system is the best for Ukraine, Kyiv Post (26 May 2010)^Tymoshenko proposes to change staff policy in country cardinally, UNIAN (22 October 2009)^ abTymoshenko promises to establish 'dictatorship of law' if she wins at presidential elections, Kyiv Post (5 October 2009)^Tymoshenko speaks in support of decentralization of power, Kyiv Post (5 October 2009)^Tymoshenko approves of Poroshenko as foreign minister, Kyiv Post (9 October 2009)^ abTymoshenko: idea of united opposition is great deception by Yanukovych, UNIAN (15 April 2010)^Tymoshenko calls Ukraine 'absolutely ungovernable', Kyiv Post (26 November 2009)^The Report: Emerging Ukraine 2007, Oxford Business Group, 2007, ISBN 978-1-902339-68-9, p. 20^Ukraine's constitutional crisis drags on by Taras Kuzio, Kyiv Post (10 January 2007)^Tymoshenko: Constitution must be amended after survey conducted on form of government, Kyiv Post (20 January 2010)^(Russian)Between Ukraine, Armenia and Latvia: Yulia Tymoshenko hides its identity, REGNUM News Agency (20 April 2008)^Ukraine 2007, Stephen Roth Institute (2007)^(Ukrainian)Tymoshenko is Ukraine-Latvian nationality, but he loves the Jews, Ukrayinska Pravda (2 September 2005)^Debate rages over whether Ukraine presidential hopeful is Jewish, Haaretz (10 November 2009)^Campaign gets dirty: Leaflets smear Tymoshenko as 'Jew', Kyiv Post (5 February 2010)^Michael Dubinyansky. "Information war, holy war", Ukrayinska Pravda Thursday 16 October 2008^In Sniatyn install a plaque Abram Kapitelmanu '' grandfather Tymoshenko. Site "http://ru.tsn.ua", 2 September 2009. '' Provocative initiative "Party of Regions" (the author is a former member of "the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc" Zinovy Boychuk) '' under the advocacy company of "Tymoshenko is Jewish woman".^"# b2_2 The reply of the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko to blame the Minister of Transport "Chervonenko, Eugene Alfredovich", autumn 2005". Farysei.narod.ru. Retrieved 11 October 2011. ^"Citizenship". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Retrieved 18 April 2008. ^"Law on Citizenship of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Retrieved 18 April 2008. ^Gender bias, anti-Semitism contributed to Yanukovych's victory, Kyiv Post (18 March 2010)^"Dossier: Yulia Tymoshenko". File.liga.net. 27 November 1960. 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Ð--Ð>>Ñ ÐÐ¾Ð>>ÑÑÐ¸ÐºÐ¸?, Ukrayinska Pravda (16 December 2011)^Tymoshenko declares her incomes, UNIAN (7 April 2008)^ abAs President, Yulia Tymoshenko will not use state dachas, Official website of Yulia Tymoshenko (4 January 2010)^ abYulia Tymoshenko has never used a government summer house, Official website of Yulia Tymoshenko (19 December 2009)^Ukrayinska Pravda exposes president's Mezhygirya deal, Kyiv Post (6 May 2009)^ abWhile leading lavish lifestyles, politicians declare almost pauper-like incomes, assets, Kyiv Post (17 June 2010)^(Russian)ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ ÑÐºÐ°Ð·Ð°Ð>>Ð°, ÑÑÐ¾ ÐÐ¾-ÑÐºÑÐ°Ð¸Ð½ÑÐºÐ¸ ÑÑÐ°Ð>>Ð° Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¸ÑÑ Ñ 36 Ð>>ÐµÑ, RIA Novosti (3 January 2010); Quote: "Ð¯ Ð½Ð°ÑÐ°Ð>>Ð° Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¸ÑÑ Ð½Ð° ÑÐºÑÐ°Ð¸Ð½ÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼, ÐºÐ¾Ð"Ð´Ð° Ð¼Ð½Ðµ Ð±ÑÐ>>Ð¾ Ð"Ð´Ðµ-ÑÐ¾ 36 Ð>>ÐµÑ, Ð° Ð´Ð¾ ÑÑÐ¾Ð"Ð¾ Ñ Ð¼ÐµÐ½Ñ Ð¼Ð°Ð¼Ð° Ð¸ Ð²ÑÑ ÑÐµÐ¼ÑÑ '' Ð¼Ñ Ð²ÑÐµ ÑÐ°Ð·Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð°ÑÐ¸Ð²Ð°Ð>>Ð¸ Ð½Ð° ÑÑÑÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼. Ð£ Ð¼ÐµÐ½Ñ Ð´Ð¾ ÑÐ¸Ñ ÐÐ¾Ñ Ð¼Ð°Ð¼Ð° Ð¾Ð±ÑÑÐ½Ð¾ Ð½Ðµ ÑÐ°Ð·Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð°ÑÐ¸Ð²Ð°ÐµÑ Ð½Ð° ÑÐºÑÐ°Ð¸Ð½ÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼." ("I beginning to speak in Ukrainian when I was around 36. Before that, my mother and the rest of my family, we all conversed in Russian. My mother still usually doesn't talk in Ukrainian.")^ abÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ñ Ð´Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð"Ð¾ÑÐÐ¾Ð´Ð°ÑÐºÐ¸ Ð½Ðµ ÐÑÐ´Ðµ, Ð° Ñ Facebook '' Ð¾Ð±ÑÑÑÑ--, Tablo ID (3 February 2011)^Ukraine's Yanukovich shuns TV face-off with rival, Kyiv Post (1 February 2010)^"Former Ukraine PM is jailed in US". BBC News. 25 August 2006. Retrieved 26 August 2006. ^Kupchinsky, Roman (2004-05-10). "Many Charges Dropped Against Ukraine's Ex-Premier". Rferl.org. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Levy, Clifford J. (7 October 2007). "'The braid' is crowning glory for the Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 July 2012. ^(Ukrainian)ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ñ "Ð'ÑÑÑÐ¾Ð½" '' ÐÑÐºÑÐµÐ¼Ð±ÑÑÐ·ÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ "Ð¼Ð¾Ð²Ðµ ÑÐ¾Ð½", Tablo ID (17 June 2009)^(Ukrainian)Ð®Ð>>ÑÑ ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ñ ÐÐ°ÑÐµÑÐ¸Ð½Ð° Ð®ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ð²Ð´Ð°ÑÐ¸Ð>>Ð¸ ÐÐ¾ Chanel, Tablo ID (19 November 2008)^Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine by Laada Bilaniuk, Cornell University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8014-7279-4 pp. 68''69^Orange Leaders Face Shutout in Ukraine Election, ABC News (13 January 2010)^See Ukrainian presidential election, 2010#Opinion polls for references and more information^Poll says Ukraine's president should step down now, UNIAN (17 February 2009)^Majority of Ukrainians believe Tymoshenko defends her own interests, UNIAN (17 February 2009)^Ukrainians have lost confidence in government's handling of crisis, says poll, Interfax-Ukraine (17 February 2009)^"What's in store for Ukraine if Tymoshenko wins presidential election". Zik.ua. 2009-10-31. 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Meet the women voted the world's most stunning politicians (what WOULD Sir Humphrey say...), Daily Mail (26 March 2009)^(Spanish)Qui(C)n es la poltica ms linda del mundo?, 20 Minutos (26 March 2009)^Korolevska: BYT nominating Tymoshenko for Nobel Peace Prize, Kyiv Post (15 December 2011)^Tymoshenko's activity at post of Prime Minister is reason of crises in Ukraine '' Yushchenko, UNIAN (24 November 2009)^Yushchenko told about his 'worst mistake', Kyiv Post (31 May 2010)^Yushchenko's hand in the imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko, Kyiv Post (17 November 2011)^"Tymoshenko blames Yushchenko for obstructing government's fight against crisis". Kyivpost.com. 2009-06-09. 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( Ð¸Ð>>Ð¸ ÐºÐ°Ð·Ð½Ñ Ð'Ð¸Ð>>ÐµÐ´Ð¸ ) (video)". Video.bigmir.net. Retrieved 18 February 2011. "Ð§ÐµÑÑÑÐµ Ð´ÐµÐ>>Ð° ÐÐµÐ´Ð¸ Ð®". Donbass.ua. 27 November 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2011. Top-POP. "ÐÑÐ¾ÑÐ°Ð>>ÑÐ½Ð¾Ðµ ÑÐ¾ÑÐ¾ ÐÑÐ°Ð²Ð¸ÑÐµÐ>>ÑÑÑÐ²Ð° ÐÐµÐ´Ð¸ Ð®". Kp.ua. Retrieved 18 February 2011. (Ukrainian)ÐÑÑÐ¾ÑÑÑ Ð¾Ð±'Ñ--Ð´Ð½Ð°Ð½Ð½Ñ "Ð'Ð°ÑÐ¾Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ð¸" ÑÐ° ÐÐ®Ð [ÑÐµÐÐ¾ÑÑÐ°Ð¶, Ð²ÑÐ´ÐµÐ¾], 5 Kanal (12 December 2010)^Every fourth Ukrainian ready to vote for Yanukovych in presidential election '' poll, Interfax-Ukraine (6 March 2013)Survey: Yanukovych and Tymoshenko would compete for presidency in early presidential elections, Interfax-Ukraine (28 December 2012)Poll: Yanukovych leads Tymoshenko in presidential rankings by small margin, Interfax-Ukraine (5 December 2011)Tymoshenko leads presidential rating '' poll, Interfax-Ukraine (27 December 2011)Poll: Yanukovych has highest 'presidential' rating, Interfax-Ukraine (25 February 2011)^2013-10-21T10:37+02:00 10:37 21.10.2013 (2013-10-21). "ÐÑÐµÐ·Ð¸Ð´ÐµÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ ÑÐµÐ¹ÑÐ¸Ð½Ð" ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ Ð¸ ÐÐ>>Ð¸ÑÐºÐ¾ ÐÐ¾ÑÑÐ¸ ÑÑÐ°Ð²Ð½ÑÐ>>ÑÑ". Interfax.com.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Five minutes with Wilfried Martens, President of the European People's Party: "Yulia Tymoshenko is a shining example of Ukraine's democratic spirit."". Blogs.lse.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Solana happy with Tymoshenko's constructive mood in opposition". Kyivpost.com. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^zsingelschucher 13 Ð¸ÑÐ½Ñ, 19:41 (2013-06-15). "ÐÐ²ÑÐ¾ÑÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ ÐÐ¾Ð"Ð>>ÑÐ´ Ð½Ð° Ð¼Ð¸Ð½ÑÐ>>Ðµ, ÑÑÐ¾Ð"Ð¾Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð½Ñ Ñ Ð¼Ð°Ð¹Ð±ÑÑÐ½Ñ--. - ÐÐ¸ÑÑÑ Ð±ÐµÐ· ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾. Ð§Ð°ÑÑÐ¸Ð½Ð° 1". Zsingelschucher.livejournal.com. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Yushchenko told about his 'worst mistake', Kyiv Post (May 31, 2010)^"5.ua :: Ð¯Ð½ÑÐºÐ¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ Ð½Ð°Ð·Ð²Ð°Ð² ÐÐ¸Ð¼Ð¾ÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ "ÐºÐ¾ÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¾Ñ Ð½Ð° Ð>>ÑÐ´Ñ" on YouTube (22 September 2009)^"ÐÑÑÐµÐ½ÐºÐ¾ '' Ð¾ ÑÐ¾Ð¼, ÐÐ¾ÑÐµÐ¼Ñ ÐÐ>>Ð¸ÑÐºÐ¾ Ð½Ðµ Ð¼Ð¾Ð¶ÐµÑ ÐµÐ´Ð¸Ð½Ð¾Ð>>Ð¸ÑÐ½Ð¾ ÑÐµÑÐ¸ÑÑ Ð¸Ð´ÑÐ¸ Ð² ÐÑÐµÐ·Ð¸Ð´ÐµÐ½ÑÑ - Ð'Ð¾ÑÑÐ´Ð°ÑÑÑÐ²Ð¾". Forbes.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^""Ð'Ñ Ð±ÑÐ´ÐµÐ¼ ÑÐ°Ð´Ñ, ÐµÑÐ>>Ð¸ Ð®Ð>>Ð¸Ñ ÑÐ²Ð¸Ð´Ð¸Ñ ÑÐÐµÐºÑÐ°ÐºÐ>>Ñ Ð¾ ÑÐµÐ±Ðµ Ð²Ð¶Ð¸Ð²ÑÑ" - ÐÐ·Ð²ÐµÑÑÐ¸Ñ". Izvestia.ru. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Forum Ekonomiczne". Forum-ekonomiczne.pl. 2013-12-18. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Prix de la Fondation | Crans Montana Forum - Committed to a more Humane and Impartial World". Cmf.ch. 2011-11-12. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^ ab"Yevheniya Tymoshenko receives award in Geneva". Photo.ukrinform.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"The Hans Otto Theater". Potsdam.de. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Yulia Tymoshenko awarded for her contribution to defending democracy". Tymoshenko.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"Who Wants to Kill Yulia Tymoshenko? (Edinburgh Fringe) - Reviews". Whatsonstage.com. 2013-08-08. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Ð¤Ð¾ÑÐ¾: ÐÐ (2012-12-28). "(Russian language) Yulia Tymoshenko is recognized as the best Prime Minister of Ukraine". Korrespondent.net. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^"(Russian language) Popularity rating of politicians on the Internet: Tymoshenko ahead of Yanukovych". Delo.ua. 2012-12-26. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Ð'Ð°ÐºÑÐ¸Ð¼ ÐÑÑÐ¸Ðº. "(Russian language) Yulia Tymoshenko is the most popular politician in the blogs of Ukraine. 2007". Ain.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^Ð'Ð°ÐºÑÐ¸Ð¼ ÐÑÑÐ¸Ðº (2012-02-09). "Yulia Tymoshenko is the most popular politician in the blogs of Ukraine". Ain.ua. Retrieved 2013-12-28. ^(Russian language) The most popular politician on the social networks of Ukraine (in 2013).[dead link]^"(Russian language) Yulia Tymoshenko is the most popular foreign policy in the Russian media". Top.novostimira.biz. 2010-10-01. Retrieved 2013-12-28. Further reading[edit]External links[edit]
- The opposition is not going to discuss the issue of Tymoshenko release with the authorities - WikiYulia
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  - This was announced by UDAR Party leader Vitalii Klitschko answering to the journalists questions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. According to him, they are not going to raise the issue of Yulia Tymoshenko release during the upcoming negotiations with the government. The negotiations will focus on the ways to overcome the political crisis in the country. At the same time, Klitschko stressed that, generally speaking, the issue of political prisoners release is still of current concern in Ukraine. A state cannot be considered democratic if it has political prisoners, and it concerns our state in particular as we have too many of them in Ukraine, said UDAR leader. Recall that according to the opinion surveys, Klitschko is slightly ahead of Tymoshenko in presidential rating. Therefore, he wouldn't get any benefits from the former Prime Minister release.
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- Crimea-Black Sea Fleet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  - The Black Sea Fleet (Russian: Ð§ÐµÑÐ½Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ Ð¤Ð>>Ð¾Ñ) is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian (and formerly Soviet) Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. Its ships are based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, while its aviation and infrastructure is based in various locations in Crimea, Ukraine and Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
  - It is considered to have been founded by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783, together with its principal base, the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine. The major shipyard is located in Mykolaiv (today in Ukraine). Expanded to the south at the end of 18th century, Russia struggled for long time against its main rival in the region the Ottoman Empire, with the Ottoman Navy being its main opponent in the Black Sea. The Black Sea Fleet defeated the Turks in 1790, fought the Ottomans during World War I, the Romanians during World War II, and Georgia during the 2008 South Ossetia war. The division of the fleet in 1997 became the basis of the Ukrainian Navy.[citation needed]
  - History[edit]The Black Sea Fleet is considered to have been founded by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783, together with its principal base, the city of Sevastopol. Formerly commanded by such legendary admirals as Dmitriy Senyavin and Pavel Nakhimov, it is a fleet of enormous historical and political importance for Russia. In 1790, Russian naval forces under the command of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Kerch Strait.[1]
  - From 1841 onward, the fleet was confined to the Black Sea by the London Straits Convention.
  - As a result of the Crimean War, one provision of the Treaty of Paris was that the Black Sea was to be a demilitarized zone like the Island of land in the Baltic Sea, although Russia subsequently renounced the treaty and reconstituted its naval strength and fortifications in the Black Sea.
  - The crew of the battleship Potemkin revolted in 1905 soon after the Navy's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Lenin wrote that the Potemkin uprising had had a huge importance in terms of being the first attempt at creating the nucleus of a revolutionary army.
  - During World War I, there were a number of encounters between the Russian and Ottoman navies in the Black Sea. The Ottomans initially had the advantage due to their having under their command the German battleship SMS Goeben, but after the two modern Russian dreadnoughtsImperatritsa Mariya and Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya had been built in Mykolaiv, the Russians took command of the sea until the Russian government collapsed in November 1917. German submarines of the Constantinople Flotilla and Turkish light forces would continue to raid and harass Russian shipping until the war's end.
  - Soviet Navy[edit]During the Russian Civil War, the vast majority of the Black Sea Fleet was scuttled by Bolsheviks in Novorossiysk, some were managed to be interned by the Central powers (later passed to Ukraine) or Western Allies (later passed to the White movement, see Wrangel's fleet). In 1919 out of the remnants of the Russian Imperial Fleet was established the Red Fleet of Ukraine which existed few months before a major advance of the Armed Forces of South Russia which occupied all the South and East Ukraine. Most of the ships became part of the "Russian Squadron" of Wrangl's armed forces and after the evacuation sailed to Tunisia. Out of those ships, some were passed to the French Navy and some were salvaged.
  - Upon the defeat of the Armed Forces of South Russia, the Ukrainian National Army and the Polish Armed Forces in Ukraine the Soviet government signed a military union with the Russian SFSR transferring all the command to the Commander-in-chief of Russia. Few ships that did stay in Black Sea were salvaged in the 1920s, while a large scale new construction programme began in the 1930s. Over 500 new ships were built during that period as well as massive expansion of coastal infrastructure took place. The Fleet was commanded by Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrskiy on the outbreak of war with Germany in June 1941. The Fleet gave a credible account of itself as it fought alongside the Red Army during the Siege of Odessa and the Battle of Sevastopol.[2] (See Black Sea Campaigns (1941''44) for more details.)
  - In 1952, Turkey decided to join NATO, placing the Bosporus Strait in the Western sphere of influence. Together with the advent of long-range nuclear weapons, this dramatically decreased the strategic value of any naval activity in the Black Sea.[citation needed]
  - In the later post-war period, along with the Northern Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet provided ships for the 5th Operational Squadron (ru:5-Ñ ÐÑÐµÐ´Ð¸Ð·ÐµÐ¼Ð½Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾ÑÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÑÑÐºÐ°Ð´ÑÐ° ÐºÐ¾ÑÐ°Ð±Ð>>ÐµÐ¹ Ð'Ð'Ð¤) in the Mediterranean, which confronted the United States Navy during the Arab-Israeli wars, notably during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.[3]
  - In 1988 Coastal Troops and Naval Aviation units of the Black Sea Fleet included:[4]
  - Danube Flotilla:116th River Ship Brigade (Izmail, Odessa Oblast)112th Reconnaissance Ship Brigade (Lake Donuzlav (Mirnyy), Crimean Oblast)37th Rescue Ship Brigade (Sevastopol, Crimean Oblast)Department of Coastal Troops810th Naval Infantry Brigade (Sevastopol, Crimean Oblast)362nd independent Coastal Missile Regiment (Balaklava, Crimean Oblast)138th independent Coastal Missile Regiment (Chernomorsk, Crimean Oblast)417th independent Coastal Missile Regiment (Sevastopol, Crimean Oblast)51st independent Coastal Missile Regiment (Mekenzerye, Crimean Oblast)Department of Naval Aviation Black Sea Fleet2nd Guards Maritime Missile Aviation Division (Gvardeyskoye, Crimean Oblast)(three regiments of maritime attack Tu-22M2s[5]5th Maritime Missile Aviation Regiment (Veseloye, Crimean Oblast) - disbanded 15.11.94.124th Maritime Missile Aviation Regiment (Gvardeskoye, Crimean Oblast) - disbanded 1993.943rd Maritime Missile Aviation Regiment (Oktyabrskoye) - disbanded 1996.30th independent Maritime Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (Saki-Novofedorovka, Crimean Oblast)(Tu-22P)318th independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment (Lake Donuzlav, Crimean Oblast)78th independent Shipborne Anti-Submarine Helicopter Regiment (Lake Donuzlav, Crimean Oblast)872nd independent Shipborne Anti-Submarine Helicopter Regiment (Kacha, Crimean Oblast)917th independent Transport Aviation Regiment (Kacha, Crimean Oblast)859th Training Center for Naval Aviation (Kacha, Crimean Oblast)After the fall of the Soviet Union[edit]The military importance of the fleet has degraded since the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to significant funding cuts and, to a degree, the loss of its major missions.[citation needed] However, in the early 21st century, local conflicts in the Caucasus region (particularly the 2008 South Ossetia war) saw Moscow employ elements of the Black Sea Fleet off the coast of Georgia, and the development of oil transit[disambiguation needed] in the region has strengthen Russia's support of the fleet.[citation needed]
  - In 1992, the major part of the personnel, armaments and coastal facilities of the Fleet fell under formal jurisdiction of the newly independent Ukraine as they were situated on Ukrainian territory. Later, the Ukrainian government ordered the establishment of its own Ukrainian Navy based on the Black Sea Fleet; several ships and ground formations declared themselves Ukrainian.
  - However, this immediately led to conflicts with the majority of officers who appeared to be loyal to Russia. Simultaneously, pro-Russian separatist groups became active in the local politics of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Sevastopol municipality where the major naval bases were situated, and started coordinating their efforts with pro-Moscow seamen.
  - Joint Fleet and its partition[edit]To ease the tensions, the two governments signed an interim treaty, establishing a joint Russo-Ukrainian Black Sea Fleet under bilateral command (and Soviet Navy flag) until a full-scale partition agreement could be reached. Formally, the Fleet's Commander was to be appointed by a joint order of the two countries' Presidents. However, Russia still dominated the Fleet unofficially, and a Russian admiral was appointed as Commander; the majority of the fleet personnel adopted Russian citizenship. Minor tensions between the Fleet and the new Ukrainian Navy (such as electricity cut-offs and sailors' street-fighting) continued.
  - In 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed the Partition Treaty, establishing two independent national fleets and dividing armaments and bases between them.[6] Ukraine also agreed to lease major parts of its new bases to the Russian Black Sea Fleet until 2017. However, the treaty appeared to be far from perfect: permanent tensions on the lease details (including often reported issue of lighthouses) control continued. The Fleet's main base is still situated in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. The Yushchenko Ukrainian government declared that the lease will not be extended and that the fleet will have to leave Sevastopol by 2017.[7] However, in 2010 the Russian leasehold was renegotiated with an extension until 2042 and an option for an additional five years until 2047 (see below).
  - Georgia in the Fleet partition[edit]The newly independent nation of Georgia, which also hosted several bases of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet when it was the Georgian SSR, also claimed a share of the Fleet, including 32 naval vessels formerly stationed at Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti. Not a CIS member at that time, Georgia was not, however, included in the initial negotiations in January 1992. Additionally, some low-importance bases situated in the Russian-backed breakaway autonomy of Abkhazia soon escaped any Georgian control. In 1996, Georgia resumed its demands, and the Russian refusal to allot Georgia a portion of the ex-Soviet navy became another bone of contention in the progressively deteriorating Georgian-Russian relations. This time, Ukraine endorsed Tbilisi's claims, turning over several patrol boats to the Georgian Navy and starting to train Georgian crews, but was unable to include in the final fleet deal a transfer of the formerly Poti-based vessels to Georgia.[8] Later, the rest of the Georgian share was decided to be ceded to Russia in return for diminution of debt.
  - Since the 2008 South Ossetia war the Russian Black Sea Fleet has not taken part in any joint naval exercises involving Georgian warships.[9] However, such a statement has little meaning since the Georgian Navy has ceased to exist (early 2009 it was merged with the Georgian coast guard).[10]
  - Russia is a member of the Black Sea Naval Co-operation Task Group usually referred to as BLACKSEAFOR.
  - Combat operations[edit]Russia mobilised part of the fleet during the 2008 Georgian conflict. Russian units operating off Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region resulted in a reported skirmish with the Georgian Navy unconfirmed by Georgia. As a result, Ukraine's then PresidentViktor Yushchenko decreed that the Black Sea Fleet would henceforth need permission to cross the Ukrainian border to enter and leave to Sevastopol,[11] to which a Russian admiral retorted that the President of the Russian Federation and not Ukraine commands the Black Sea Fleet.[citation needed] Yushchenko's decrees[11] where without force and deployed units of the Russian Black Sea Fleet returned to their home moorings without incident.
  - Black Sea Fleet and Ukraine[edit]As a consequence of Ukraine's Yushchenko government announcing that the lease of Russian naval bases on the Crimea will not be extended beyond 2017,[12][13] the Russian Black Fleet initiated the expansion of its base in Novorossiysk. In July 2007, the Navy Commander announced that the new base will be ready in 2012.[14] Under the 1997 bilateral treaty, Russia paid $98 million annually and the treaty provided for an extension by mutual agreement. Russian officials repeatedly said they would like to extend the lease.[15][16]
  - In June 2009, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service said that after December 13, 2009, all officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) represented at the (Russian) Black Sea Fleet must leave Ukraine, from then the Security Service of Ukraine will ensure the security of the (Russian) Black Sea Fleet and Russian sailors on Ukrainian territory.[17] According to the Russian Foreign Ministry the employees of the FSB, who are working at the Black Sea Fleet facilities, are staying on the Ukrainian territory "in line with bilateral agreements".[18]
  - In October''November 2009, the (Russian) Black Sea Fleet complained about inspection of (non-boat) transport vehicles owned by the fleet by the Sevastopol State Auto Inspectorate and Ukrainian security officers, calling them "disrespect for the status of the Russian military units and an unfriendly step aimed at worsening the Russian-Ukrainian relations".[19][20]
  - On April 21, 2010, Ukrainian President Yanukovych and Russian President Medvedev reached an agreement whereby the Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea would be extended beyond 2017 by 25 years with an additional 5-year renewal option (to 2042''47) in exchange for a multiyear discounted contract to provide Ukraine with Russian natural gas.[21][22][23] This deal is controversial in Ukraine.[24][25][26][27][28]
  - Joint exercises of the Ukrainian Navy and the (Russian) Black Sea Fleet may be resumed after a seven-year interval in June 2010.[29]
  - In 2010, Russian military counterintelligenceofficers from the Russian Federal Security Service will return to the (Russian) Black Sea Fleet base.[30]
  - While a Yushchenko administration minister said that Russia cannot unilaterally replace its Black Sea Fleet ships without Ukraine's consent,[31] the recent lease extension also revalidated the agreements of 1997. Those agreements stipulate that the Russian Black Sea Fleet can maintain the same numbers and types of ships that it had based in Sevastopol as a result of the 1997 fleet division without approval by Ukraine. This stipulation permits Russia to increase the current size of the fleet which has fallen below those numbers.[32]
  - As a result of the stance of the Ukrainian authorities, it was reported on 20 May 2013 that Russia would be concentrating on its new base in Novorossiysk and putting Sevastopol on hold as it upgrades the Black Sea Fleet. The Project-11356 frigate Admiral Grigorovich and the Project-636 submarines (Kilo class submarine) Novorossiysk and Rostov-na-Donu are expected to join the Fleet in 2014 and new moorings are being made ready for them at the base.[33]
  - Additions of ships to the Fleet[edit]Repeated and sometimes contradictory announcements have been made claiming that new ships will join the fleet. On December 3, 2009, First Vice Mayor of Sevastopol Vladimir Kazarin stated that Russia's Black Sea Fleet could lose its combat capability, given a small number of ships and the absence of new ones.[34] Similar doubts had been stated by the Russian media. The Gazeta newspaper noted that by 2015 the majority of the warships would no longer be fit for duty.[35]
  - In April 2010, Russian Navy sources said that up to four frigates and four diesel-electric submarines will be added to the Black Sea Fleet by 2015.[36] In June 2010, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky announced that Russia was reviewing plans for the naval modernization of the Black sea fleet. The plans include 15 new warships and submarines by 2020.[37][38] These vessels will partially replace the reported decommissioning of Kerch,Ochakov (reportedly decommissioned in 2011), several large support ships, and a diesel-electric submarine.
  - Russian Navy HQ sources have said that by 2020 six frigates of Project 22350 Gorshkov-class, six submarines of Project 677 Lada class, two large landing ships of Project 11711 Ivan Gren-class and four class-unspecified ships will be delivered. Due to the obsolescence of the Beriev Be-12 by 2015 they will be replaced with Il-38s. Sukhoi Su-24M aircraft are planned be upgraded to Su-24M2 at the same time.[39][40][41] However, the November 2011 suspension of building of the second and third Lada-class boats throws this particular announcement into doubt.
  - The Project 636.3 (Kilo-class) diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk '-- the first of three such new submarines '' laid down at Admiralty Wharves Shipyard, St. Petersburg, on August 20, 2010 is destined to serve in the Black Sea Fleet.[42] Navy sources also say that Project 11356 Grigorovich class frigate will be despatched to the Black Sea.[43]Admiral Grigorovich, the lead ship of the class, was laid down on December 18, 2010 and is expected to be in service 34 months from that date (Oct 2013). Three ships of this class are to be in service in the Black Sea Fleet before 2015.[44]
  - Incidents with Ukraine[edit]The Russian Black Sea Fleet's use of leased facilities in Sevastopol and the Crimea has been controversial. A number of incidents have taken place:
  - A lighthouse is located on the headland, which from 2005, was the subject of a controversy between Ukraine and Russia. From August 3, 2005, the lighthouse is occupied by the Russian Army.[45] Not paying attention to the ruling of the Government Court in Sevastopol on the subject of the return of 77 geographical objects to Ukraine (including the lighthouse on Sarych), Russian military officials referred to the fact that they only subordinate to the chief of the Russian Navy headquarters and no one else. The Ukrainian public activists state that Sarych is illegally occupied by the Russian Navy.[46] As a military object, the territory around the Sarych headland is closed to trespassers with barbed wire with the Russian flag flying above Sarych.[47]In 2006, Ukrainian officials prevented Russian workers from entering the Black Sea Fleet lighthouse in Yalta.[citation needed]During the 2008 South Ossetia War, the Ukrainian Navy was ordered to block the entrance of Russian vessels taking part in hostilities to Sevastopol.[48] However, Russian Navy ships returned to base unimpeded.June 20, 2009 '' In Sevastopol, an incident again took place involving the Black Sea Fleet. In 2007, the administration of this organization was contracted by some 200 citizens of Sevastopol to build four several stories residential buildings. The job was never finished although the financial aspect of the contract was fulfilled as it was a prepaid venture. At this time, there are only two buildings that are only finished at 95% as stated in the local newspaper Novyi Sevastopol. The protesters are being simply kicked out by force without any intention to regulate the conflict. The protesters also sent a letters to the President and the Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, and also to the Minister of Defense of Russia, Anatoliy Serdyukov. Those attempts brought no results. UNIANOn August 27, 2009, Ukrainians identifying themselves as bailiffs were detained when they attempted to seize a Russian lighthouse. Russia states that Ukrainians may not step onto its bases without permission.[49]On April 16, 2013 a "high-ranking Russian Defense Ministry official" complained to Interfax that ''Ukraine's stubborn position" was slowing the cancellation of customs payments (for the fleet) and that Ukraine still upheld (former) Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yushchenko 2008 decrees that banned the "relaxed procedure" of Black Sea Fleet formations across the Ukrainian border.[11]Fleet Commanders[edit]List of Black Sea Fleet ships[edit]30th Surface Ship Division[edit]11th Anti-submarine Ship Brigade#TypeNameClassYearStatus121Guided Missile CruiserMoskvaSlava1983Active713Large ASW ShipKerchKara1974Active;Scheduled to be decommissioned within the next several years810Guided Missile DestroyerSmetlivyKashin1969Active as of 2011[51]801Guided Missile FrigateLadnyyKrivak-class frigate1978Active as of 2012[52]808Guided Missile FrigatePytlivyyKrivak-class frigate1979197th Assault Ship Brigade#TypeNameClassYear152Landing ShipNikolay FilchenkovAlligator1975148Landing ShipOrskAlligator1968150Landing ShipSaratovAlligator1966151Landing ShipAzovRopucha-II1990142Landing ShipNovocherkasskRopucha-I1987158Landing ShipTsezar KunikovRopucha-I1986156Landing ShipYamalRopucha-I1988247th Independent Submarine Division[edit]68th Coastal Defense Ship Brigade[edit]400th Antisubmarine Ship Division
  - #TypeNameClassYearBaseStatus554Diesel Attack SubmarineAlrosa (B-871)Kilo1990SevastopolActive, only Kilo class submarine with a pump-jet propulsion system.#TypeNameClassYear059ASW CorvetteAlexandrovetsGrisha I1982053ASW CorvettePovorinoGrisha III1989071ASW CorvetteSuzdaletsGrisha III1983064ASW CorvetteMurometsGrisha III1983060ASW CorvetteVladimiretsProject 11451 / Mukha-class1984418th Minesweeper Division#TypeNameClassYear913Seagoing MinesweeperKovrovetsNatya I1974911Seagoing MinesweeperIvan GolubetsNatya I1973912Seagoing MinesweeperTurbinistNatya I1972909Seagoing MinesweeperVice Admiral ZhukovNatya I197741st Missile Boat Brigade[edit]166th Novorossiysk Small Missile Boat Division#TypeNameClassYear615Guided Missile CorvetteBoraDergach1988616Guided Missile CorvetteSamumDergach1991620Guided Missile CorvetteShtylNanuchka-III1976617Guided Missile CorvetteMirazhNanuchka-III1983295th Sulinsk Missile Boat Division#TypeNameClassYear966Missile BoatR-44Matka Moddisc955Missile BoatR-60Tarantul-III Mod1985962Missile BoatR-71Tarantul-II Mod1985952Missile BoatR-109Tarantul-III1991953Missile BoatR-239Tarantul-III1991954Missile BoatIvanovetsTarantul-III1988184th Novorossiysk Coastal Defense Brigade[edit]#TypeNameClassYear054Small Antisubmarine ShipEyskGrisha-III1987055Small Antisubmarine ShipKasimovGrisha-III1984901Seagoing MinesweeperZheleznyakovGorya-class1988770Seagoing MinesweeperValentin Pikul'Natya I Mod2001426Base MinesweeperMineralnyye VodySonya-class1990438Base MinesweeperLeytenant IlyinSonya-class1982Black Sea Naval Infantry and Coastal Defense Force[edit]11th Independent Coastal Missile-Artillery BrigadeAnapa, Krasnodar region
  - 3x K-300P Bastion-P anti-ship missile system[53]
  - 810th Naval Infantry Brigade382nd Independent Naval Infantry Battalion
  - Black Sea Fleet Naval Air Force '' HQ Sevastopol[edit]Status in 2010[39][40]25th Independent Anti-submarine Helicopter Regiment '' HQ at Kacha, Crimea '' ~20 helicopters of types Ka-27 and Mi-14917th Independent Composite Air Regiment '' HQ at Kacha, Crimea '' ~10x Antonov transport aircraft of types An-2, An-12 and An-26; 4x Be-12; ~10x Mi-843rd Independent Naval Shturmovik (Assault) Air Squadron '' HQ at Gvardeyskoye, Crimea '' 18x Su-24M; 4x Su-24MR;See also[edit]References[edit]^Black Sea Fleet (BSF) Morskoyo Flota (Naval Force). Globalsecurity.org.^John Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, Cassel Military Paperbacks, 2003, p.205^On Airpower.org, Military Thought article on Soviet Mediterranean squadron air defence. Retrieved May 30, 2008.^Michael Holm, Red Banner Black Sea Fleet, accessed December 2012.^Michael Holm, Navy (VMF) Aviation Regiments, accessed December 2012.^Subtelny, Orest (2000). Ukraine: A History. University of Toronto Press. p. 600. ISBN 0-8020-8390-0. ^No Russian fleet in Ukraine beyond 2017 -Ukrainian PM : Ukraine News by UNIAN. Unian.net (September 24, 2008).^Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (opt, mozilla, unix,english,,new) Newsline. Vol. 1, No. 42, Part I, May 30, 1997^Russia's Black Sea Fleet rules out joint drills with Georgia, UNIAN (June 17, 2009)^Navy to Merge with Coast Guard, FINANCIAL (December 3, 2008)^ abcKyiv obstructs Black Sea Fleet's modernization, says Russian military official, Interfax-Ukraine (16 April 2013)^Russia denies naval bases report, BBC News (January 16, 2009)^Yulia Tymoshenko: Russian Black Sea Fleet will not remain in Crimea, Personal web site of Yulia Tymoshenko (June 25, 2009)^Moscow News '' News '' Russia's New Black Sea Base Complete by 2012[dead link]^Russia hopes to keep naval base in Ukraine, Reuters, (July 14, 2009)^Russia fleet 'may leave Ukraine', BBC News, (October 18, 2008)^All FSB officers working at Russian Black Sea Fleet must leave Ukraine ''SBU, UNIAN (June 17, 2009)^Russia says FSB to stay in Crimea, UNIAN (June 18, 2009)^Black Sea Fleet: Black Sea Fleet concerned by checks by Ukrainian security agencies, Kyiv Post (October 14, 2009)^Russian Black See Fleet slams Ukraine authorities over trucks incident, Kyiv Post (November 3, 2009)^The Great Power (mis)Management by Alexander Astrov, Ashgate Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1409424677 (page 82)^ITAR-TASS 21.04.2010 17:13^Deal Struck on Gas, Black Sea Fleet, The Moscow Times (April 21, 2010)^Russia, Ukraine agree on naval-base-for-gas deal, CNN (April 21, 2010)^Our Ukraine: Yanukovych should be impeached, Kyiv Post (April 21, 2010)^Ukrainian parliament ratifies agreement extending Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Crimea, Kyiv Post (April 27, 2010)^Oppositional deputies throw eggs in Lytvyn, Kyiv Post (April 27, 2010)^Police clash with protesters in front of Ukrainian parliament, Kyiv Post (April 27, 2010)^"Russia and Ukraine resume joint naval exercises". Voice of Russia. April 16, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2010. ^Russian counterintelligence officers to return to Sevastopol, Kyiv Post (May 12, 2010)^Ukrainian minister: Russia cannot unilaterally replace Black Sea Fleet ships, Kyiv Post (April 28, 2010)^Russia-Ukraine Agreement on the Division of the Black Sea Fleet, May 1977^Interfax-AVN military news agency, Moscow, 0740 GMT 20 May 13^Sevastopol official: Black Sea Fleet risks to lose combat capability by 2017, Kyiv Post (December 3, 2009)^Russia's Black Sea Fleet may lose all warships by 2015 | Defense . RIA Novosti.^Globalsecurity.org, Russia plans to upgrade Black Sea Fleet with new warships, April 13, 2010^Russian Black Sea Fleet to receive 15 new combat vessels by 2020. RIA Novosti. (June 23, 2010).^Russia admits it needs to modernize its Navy". RIA Novosti. (June 25, 2010).^ abÐ§ÐµÑÐ½Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾ÑÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÐÑÐ¾ÑÐ¸Ð²Ð¾Ð>>Ð¾Ð´Ð¾ÑÐ½Ð°Ñ Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð°ÑÐ¸Ñ Ð¾ÐºÐ°Ð·Ð°Ð>>Ð°ÑÑ ÐÐ¾Ð´ ÑÐ"ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð¾Ð¹ Ð¸ÑÑÐµÐ·Ð½Ð¾Ð²ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ. Flot.com (October 20, 2010).^ abBlack Sea Fleet to get 18 new warships and renew naval aviation till 2020. Rusnavy.com (October 25, 2010).^A general criticized Black Sea Fleet aviation. Rusnavy.com (October 27, 2010).^ÐÑÐ¾ÐµÐºÑ 636. Deepstorm.ru.^One can fire at any target from the Black Sea '' BSF ex-commander. Rusnavy.com.^"RIA Novosti: a new frigate is laid down in Kaliningrad for the Russian Navy (in Russian)". RIA Novosti. December 18, 2010. ^"The owner of the "sarych" lighthouse came back with a blank document to the President of Ukraine". CPCFPU (in Ukrainian). Retrieved February 24, 2007. ^"Access to Ukrainians is prohibited.". Zakryta Zona (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2007. ^""Sarych" was surrounded with a barbed wire and had a Russian flag flying above it". Korrespondent (in Ukrainian). February 10, 2006. ^Ukraine drifts further from NATO as president sacks Navy chief '-- RT. Rt.com.^Ukrainian officials attempt seizure of Russian Black Sea Fleet property '-- RT. Rt.com.^Interfax-AVN, Moscow, 0903GMT 15 May 13^BSF Ships Head For Mediterranean To Exercise With Italy. Rusnavy.com.^Frigate Ladny Returns from Deployment. Rusnavy.com.^Third Bastion missile system has been delivered to Black Sea Fleet. Rusnavy.com (January 19, 2011).Further reading[edit]Simonsen, Sven Gunnar (June 2000). ""You take your oath only once:" Crimea, The Black Sea Fleet, and national identity among Russian officers". Nationalities Papers28 (2): 289''316. doi:10.1080/713687467. External links[edit]
- Russia rattles sabre over fate of Crimea - freenewspos.com
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- UKRAINE: Four reasons why it's going to end in tears | The Slog.
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  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 13:50
  - As I posted yesterday, the EU is way out of its depth in Ukraine. It hasn't so much bitten off more than it can chew as popped a red-hot potato into its omnivorous mouth.
  - 'You have removed this cancer from our country', former Prime Minister Tymoshenko claimed in front of a euphoric crowd in Kiev yesterday. But there are two problems with her analysis: President Victor Yanukovych is refusing to resign; and he has every right so to do, having been elected by democratic vote four years ago, as a result of an election described at the time by international monitors as ''impeccably fair and free from intimidation''.
  - Yanukovych was of course voted in with the overwhelming support of the Russian speakers in the South, and he has behaved like a voracious barbarian. But he wasn't imposed on anyone: Ukraine is Ukraine until one partitions it.
  - But the chief factor that's going to smack the West right between the eyes is the country's hopeless debt position: to be more precise, a situation that is hopeless without Russian help'...and a situation that is urgent in the Greek sense of the word.
  - The country's debt to GDP ratio is under 40% and thus nowhere near to the ClubMed levels: but a whopping 25% of the entire debt is in short term bonds that must be repaid by mid 2015. Long before the Kiev demos got going, the country's leaders knew that bankruptcy and sovereign default were inevitable, because the economy is in bad shape, '' and no way capable of generating the cash to pay off the pressing bond maturities.
  - The only way that bond yields have been kept within reason so far is that Moscow has been buying vast amounts of Ukrainian debt at heavily discounted levels. But once things began to look dodgy for Yanukovych, Russia deliberately pulled back. Not only has it no plans to buy further debt, the Kremlin is politely (so far) asking for the Ukrainians to pay their energy bills.
  - In that context, you'd have to be an idiot to leave Putin out of the truce talks. But then, the EU is run by idiots'...as indeed is the US. John Kerry is talking this morning about bazookas and packages being available to help: but this is one occasion when talking a good Geithner game isn't going to cut it.
  - Ukrainian securities suffered the worst sell-off on record last week. Any Bourse or bond trader now betting to get the yields down simply isn't well-informed: whether we like it or not, victory for the demonstrators means inevitable fiscal disaster for their country.
  - The knock-on effect of a Ukrainian default would not be pretty'....and it's not as if Brussels didn't know this beforehand: the S&P's sovereign survey of October 2013 confirmed the inherent danger the Ukraine presents to the global economy:
  - Although the Russian Federation owns a lot of the debt, observers calling default ''a massive blow'' to Moscow haven't done their homework: for the time being at least, Russia's reserves are in good shape '' and Ukrainian debt still only about 10% of it. As ever in 2014, the fear is for the emerging economies, and the high likelihood of Ukrainian collapse pushing up their yields.
  - Finally, a fourth factor has reared its ugly head '' as it tends to do in Eastern Europe whenever things are going wrong. Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azmanhas urged Kiev's Jews to leave the city and even the state, amid talk '' as he put it '' of ''constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions. Edward Dolinsky (another senior Ukrainian Jew) has asked Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to ''secure the [Jewish] community.''
  - In Eastern Europe, I'm afraid, there are only very rarely good and bad guys.
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- EU, Georgia launch talks on energy ties
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 18:57
  - Despite the dramatic refusal of Ukraine, another former Soviet state, to enter into an association agreement with the European Union, Georgia has said it is determined to sign an EU accord on trade and broader cooperation.
  - It is also increasing its ties with the 28-country bloc's energy market by joining the EU energy community.
  - "Joining the energy community will attract investments into Georgia and bring Georgian citizens and businesses closer to the other members of the energy community and the European Union," EU Energy Commissioner G¼nther Oettinger said following the start of talks in Tbilisi.
  - A second set of talks will be held in Brussels on March 19.
  - Apart from seeking to complete its own internal energy market, the Commission - the EU executive - is working on closer energy integration with EU neighbours.
  - The energy community so far includes the EU and eight nations from southeast Europe and the Black Sea region. The aim is to create a more joined-up energy market across the region with greater cross-border trade.
  - Members include Ukraine, which in late November stunned the European Union by spurning the EU trade deal and instead winning a $15 billion ('¬11bn) bailout deal from Russia.
  - As part of Ukraine's membership of the energy community, the Commission had been seeking to convert Ukraine from a gas transit nation almost totally dependent on Russian gas into an energy hub producing its own fuel, developing storage and importing gas from the European Union as well as from Russia.
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- Ukraine Famine of 1932-33
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  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:56
  - Famine of 1932-33Famine of 1932-33THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, December 13, 1998Remembering Ukraine's Unknown HolocaustBy ERIC MARGOLIS, contributing Foreign Editor
  - As Britain's socialist government cleared the way for a gaudy show trial of that Great Satan of the left, Chile's Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the 65th anniversary of this century's bloodiest crime was utterly ignored. Leftists now baying for Pinochet's head don't want to be reminded of the Unknown Holocaust.
  - In 1932, Soviet leader Josef Stalin unleashed genocide in Ukraine. Stalin determined to force Ukraine's millions of independent farmers - called kulaks - into collectivized Soviet agriculture, and to crush Ukraine's growing spirit of nationalism. Faced by resistance to collectivization, Stalin unleashed terror and dispatched 25,000 fanatical young party militants from Moscow - earlier versions of Mao's Red Guards - to force 10 million Ukrainian peasants into collective farms. Secret police units of OGPU began selective executions of recalcitrant farmers.
  - When Stalin's red guards failed to make a dent in this immense number, OGPU was ordered to begin mass executions. But there were simply not enough Chekists (secret police) to kill so many people, so Stalin decided to replace bullets with a much cheaper medium of death - mass starvation. All seed stocks, grain, silage and farm animals were confiscated from Ukraine's farms. (Ethiopia's Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam used the same method in the 1970s to force collectivization: the resulting famine cased one million deaths.) OGPU agents and Red Army troops sealed all roads and rail lines. Nothing came in or out of Ukraine. Farms were searched and looted of food and fuel. Ukrainians quickly began to die of hunger, cold and sickness.
  - When OGPU failed to meet weekly execution quotas, Stalin sent henchman Lazar Kaganovitch to destroy Ukrainian resistance. Kaganovitch, the Soviet Eichmann, made quota, shooting 10,000 Ukrainians weekly. Eighty percent of all Ukrainian intellectuals were executed. A Ukrainian party member named Nikita Khruschchev helped supervise the slaughter.
  - During the bitter winter of 1932-33, mass starvation created by Kaganovitch and OGPU hit full force. Ukrainians ate their pets, boots and belts, plus bark and roots.
  - The precise number of Ukrainians murdered by Stalin's custom-made famine and Cheka firing squads remains unknown to this day. The KGB's archives, and recent work by Russian historians, show at least seven million died. Ukrainian historians put the figure at nine million, or higher. Twenty-five percent of Ukraine's population was exterminated.
  - Millions of victims Six million other farmers across the USSR were starved or shot during collectivization. Stalin told Winston Churchill he liquidated 10 million peasants during the 1930s. Add mass executions by the Cheka in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the genocide of three million Muslims in the USSR; massacres of Cossacks and Volga Germans and Soviet industrial genocide accounted for at least 40 million victims, not including 20 million war dead.
  - Kaganovitch and many senior OGPU officers (later, NKVD) were Jewish. The predominance of Jews among Bolshevik leaders, and the frightful crimes and cruelty inflicted by Stalin's Cheka on Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland, led the victims of Red Terror to blame the Jewish people for both communism and their suffering. As a direct result, during the subsequent Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe, the region's innocent Jews became the target of ferocious revenge by Ukrainians, Balts and Poles.
  - While the world is by now fully aware of the destruction of Europe's Jews by the Nazis, the story of the numerically larger holocaust in Ukraine has been suppressed, or ignored. Ukraine's genocide occurred 8-9 years before Hitler began the Jewish Holocaust, and was committed, unlike Nazi crimes, before the world's gaze. But Stalin's murder of millions was simply denied, or concealed by a left-wing conspiracy of silence that continues to this day. In the strange moral geometry of mass murder, only Nazis are guilty.
  - Socialist luminaries like Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb and PM Edouard Herriot of France, toured Ukraine during 1932-33 and proclaimed reports of famine were false. Shaw announced: "I did not see one under-nourished person in Russia." New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Russian reporting, wrote claims of famine were "malignant propaganda." Seven million people were dying around them, yet these fools saw nothing. The New York Times has never repudiated Duranty's lies. Modern leftists do not care to be reminded their ideological and historical roots are entwined with this century's greatest crime - the inevitable result of enforced social engineering and Marxist theology.
  - Western historians delicately skirt the sordid fact that the governments of Britain, the U.S. and
  - Canada were fully aware of the Ukrainian genocide and Stalin's other monstrous crimes. Yet they eagerly welcomed him as an ally during World War II. Stalin, who Franklin Roosevelt called "Uncle Joe," murdered four times more people than Adolf Hitler.
  - None of the Soviet mass murderers who committed genocide were ever brought to justice. Lazar Kaganovitch died peacefully in Moscow a few years ago, still wearing his Order of the Soviet Union, and enjoying a generous state pension.
  - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  - Eric can be reached by e-mail at: margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com Letters to the editor should be sent to: editor@sunpub.com
  - Famine of 1932-33Famine of 1932-33THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, December 13, 1998Remembering Ukraine's Unknown HolocaustBy ERIC MARGOLIS, contributing Foreign Editor
  - As Britain's socialist government cleared the way for a gaudy show trial of that Great Satan of the left, Chile's Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the 65th anniversary of this century's bloodiest crime was utterly ignored. Leftists now baying for Pinochet's head don't want to be reminded of the Unknown Holocaust.
  - In 1932, Soviet leader Josef Stalin unleashed genocide in Ukraine. Stalin determined to force Ukraine's millions of independent farmers - called kulaks - into collectivized Soviet agriculture, and to crush Ukraine's growing spirit of nationalism. Faced by resistance to collectivization, Stalin unleashed terror and dispatched 25,000 fanatical young party militants from Moscow - earlier versions of Mao's Red Guards - to force 10 million Ukrainian peasants into collective farms. Secret police units of OGPU began selective executions of recalcitrant farmers.
  - When Stalin's red guards failed to make a dent in this immense number, OGPU was ordered to begin mass executions. But there were simply not enough Chekists (secret police) to kill so many people, so Stalin decided to replace bullets with a much cheaper medium of death - mass starvation. All seed stocks, grain, silage and farm animals were confiscated from Ukraine's farms. (Ethiopia's Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam used the same method in the 1970s to force collectivization: the resulting famine cased one million deaths.) OGPU agents and Red Army troops sealed all roads and rail lines. Nothing came in or out of Ukraine. Farms were searched and looted of food and fuel. Ukrainians quickly began to die of hunger, cold and sickness.
  - When OGPU failed to meet weekly execution quotas, Stalin sent henchman Lazar Kaganovitch to destroy Ukrainian resistance. Kaganovitch, the Soviet Eichmann, made quota, shooting 10,000 Ukrainians weekly. Eighty percent of all Ukrainian intellectuals were executed. A Ukrainian party member named Nikita Khruschchev helped supervise the slaughter.
  - During the bitter winter of 1932-33, mass starvation created by Kaganovitch and OGPU hit full force. Ukrainians ate their pets, boots and belts, plus bark and roots.
  - The precise number of Ukrainians murdered by Stalin's custom-made famine and Cheka firing squads remains unknown to this day. The KGB's archives, and recent work by Russian historians, show at least seven million died. Ukrainian historians put the figure at nine million, or higher. Twenty-five percent of Ukraine's population was exterminated.
  - Millions of victims Six million other farmers across the USSR were starved or shot during collectivization. Stalin told Winston Churchill he liquidated 10 million peasants during the 1930s. Add mass executions by the Cheka in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the genocide of three million Muslims in the USSR; massacres of Cossacks and Volga Germans and Soviet industrial genocide accounted for at least 40 million victims, not including 20 million war dead.
  - Kaganovitch and many senior OGPU officers (later, NKVD) were Jewish. The predominance of Jews among Bolshevik leaders, and the frightful crimes and cruelty inflicted by Stalin's Cheka on Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland, led the victims of Red Terror to blame the Jewish people for both communism and their suffering. As a direct result, during the subsequent Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe, the region's innocent Jews became the target of ferocious revenge by Ukrainians, Balts and Poles.
  - While the world is by now fully aware of the destruction of Europe's Jews by the Nazis, the story of the numerically larger holocaust in Ukraine has been suppressed, or ignored. Ukraine's genocide occurred 8-9 years before Hitler began the Jewish Holocaust, and was committed, unlike Nazi crimes, before the world's gaze. But Stalin's murder of millions was simply denied, or concealed by a left-wing conspiracy of silence that continues to this day. In the strange moral geometry of mass murder, only Nazis are guilty.
  - Socialist luminaries like Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb and PM Edouard Herriot of France, toured Ukraine during 1932-33 and proclaimed reports of famine were false. Shaw announced: "I did not see one under-nourished person in Russia." New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Russian reporting, wrote claims of famine were "malignant propaganda." Seven million people were dying around them, yet these fools saw nothing. The New York Times has never repudiated Duranty's lies. Modern leftists do not care to be reminded their ideological and historical roots are entwined with this century's greatest crime - the inevitable result of enforced social engineering and Marxist theology.
  - Western historians delicately skirt the sordid fact that the governments of Britain, the U.S. and
  - Canada were fully aware of the Ukrainian genocide and Stalin's other monstrous crimes. Yet they eagerly welcomed him as an ally during World War II. Stalin, who Franklin Roosevelt called "Uncle Joe," murdered four times more people than Adolf Hitler.
  - None of the Soviet mass murderers who committed genocide were ever brought to justice. Lazar Kaganovitch died peacefully in Moscow a few years ago, still wearing his Order of the Soviet Union, and enjoying a generous state pension.
  - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  - Eric can be reached by e-mail at: margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com Letters to the editor should be sent to: editor@sunpub.com
- Jews, Zionists Behind Armenian Genocide Holocaust
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:15
  - The plans of the 1915-23 Armenian Genocide, where a million and half Armenians perished in a barbaric way in their ancestral lands in modern Turkey, actually were drawn up and were in place by the year 1910 or 1912. There is the book "Inner Folds of the Ottoman Revolution" written by Mevlan Zadeh Rifat in Turkish and published in 1929, the author, a pro-sultan Turk, claims that the "Armenian genocide was decided in August 1910 and October 1911, by a Young Turk committee composed entirely of displaced Balkan Jews in the format of a syncretist Jewish-Muslim sect which included Talaat, Enver, Behaeddin Shakir, Jemal, and Nizam posting as Muslims. It met in the Rothschild-funded Grand Orient loge/hotel of Salonika." Syncretism means a combination of different forms of belief or practice; masonism fits that description. As the masons started the 1897 revolution in France with the cry "liberty, fraternity, equality," Young Turks used the same slogan in their revolution of 1908. A 1994 conference paper/lecture by Joseph Brewda of Schiller Institute entitled "Palmerson launches Young Turks to permanently control Middle East " claims the founder of the Young Turks to be a certain Jew by the name of Emmanuel Carasso. He states: "Carasso set up the Young Turk secret society in the 1890s in Salonika, then part of Turkey, and now part of Greece. Carasso was also the grand master of an Italian masonic lodge there, called 'Macedonia Resurrected.' The lodge was the headquarters of the Young Turks, and all the top Young Turk leadership were members." Further on Mr. Brewda says: "During the Young Turk regime, Carasso continued to play a leading role. He met with the sultan, to tell him that he was overthrown. He was in charge of putting the sultan under house arrest. He ran the Young Turk intelligence network in the Balkans. And he was in charge of all food supplies in the empire during World War I." It is ironic that four centuries after the Turkish sultans welcomed the expelled European Jews into Turkey, certain Jews belonging to secret societies and to Zionism will kick the sultan out of power early in 20th century, destroy the Ottoman Empire, and celebrated their victory by massacring by proxy almost the whole Christian Armenian people, one million and half Armenians; half million Greeks; and half million Christian Assyrians & Arameans. In 1982, after the Israeli army conquered Lebanon, they celebrated their victory by massacring by proxy children and women in the Palestinian camp of Shattila, in Lebanon, by allowing Lebanese Phalanger militia fighters to move into the camp for two days and murder its inhabitants. Eighty percent of the camp were killed. Nearly all of the dead were old men, women and children and all of them had been unarmed. Not one gun, not one knife was found in their possession, claims a Palestinian witness. All this according to the percepts of the Talmud, the Satanic Bible of the Jews, which encourages Jews to kill, directly or indirectly, by sayings like: "Every Jew who spills the blood of the godless, is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God." Talmud: Bammidber Raba c21 & Jalkut 772. In the eyes of Talmudists all non-Jews are godless. And "It is the law to kill anyone who denies the Torah. The Christians belong to the denying ones of the Torah." Talmud: Coschen Hamischpat, Hagah 425. Very neatly put sentence indeed. Jesus came and shed his blood for us in order to save humanity and put an end to human and animal sacrifices practiced by Talmudist Jews who believe that the shedding of the blood of the innocents is a prerequisite of their reptilian gods, specially before embarking on an enterprise. They have orchestrated the massacres and slaughters of millions and millions of humanity so that their demonic gods will be appeased and grand them a new homeland in the near-east. Apparently, the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of humanity during the first half of the twenty century (including the six million Jews of Nazi Holocaust) have appeased their gods and their wish was granted. Back to the Young Turks. Mr. Brewda writes: "Another important area was the press. While in power, the Young Turks ran several newspapers, including 'The Young Turk,' whose editor was none other than the Russian Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky had been educated as a young man in Italy." Mr. Brewda, ignoring the possibility that Talaat could have been a secret infiltrated Jew, writes: "Of course, there were also some Turks who helped lead the Young Turk movement. For example, Talaat Pasha. Talaat was the interior minister and dictator of the regime during World war I. He had been a member of Carasso's Italian masonic lodge in Salonika. One year prior to the 1908 coup, Talaat became the grand master of the Scottish Rite Masons in the Ottoman Empire. If you go to the [archives of] Scottish Rite headquarters in Washington, D.C., you can find that most of the Young Turk leaders were officials in the Scottish Rite." By 1916 the British and French, overpowered by greed, already had a secret agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Presently Hitler's "Mien Kempt " anti-semitic book is a best-seller in Turkey, it is published by various Turkish publishers by thousands and thousands. Are the Turks finally waking up and realizing that their Sultan's refusal to grant Palestine to the Zionist Jews as a homeland had cost them their centuries-old empire? And are the subjugated Turks about to discover who their real rulers are? There are claims that the blue-eyed founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk had Jewish origins. And it is known that at least two presidents of modern Turkey (Inonu and Bayar) were Jewish. In Istanbul, which was the capital and the power center of the Ottoman Empire, there was only few thousands (less than 10,000) Jews and some 200,000 Armenians and Greeks who controlled the trade, finances and arts of the Empire. Jews and Christians were in strong competition through hundreds of years of the life of the empire. Jews were the losers and Christians were the winner always because the Sultans ( there were very few bad sultans who killed Christians) listened to and favored the Christians. For the Zionist Jews to take over Turkey, its Christians had to be eliminated; and that is another ugly facade of the first Genocide of the 20th Century in Turkey. Another source is the lengthy article "The Armenian & Jewish Genocide Project: Eliminating Ethnic Conflict Along the Oil Route From Baku to the Suez Canal Region " written by Clifford Shack and posted in his web-site. Mr. Shack writes: "In the 1880's, the French branch of the Rothschild family acquired interests in Russia's Baku oil fields in an effort to supply their refinery on the Adriatic with cheap Russian oil. In exchange for these interests they built a railroad linking Baku to the newly acquired Black Sea port of Batum. This opened up the Baku oil, a major world supply, to the world. With the success of the new railroad, the Rothschilds had more oil than they could actually sell. Overcoming their fear of competing with the giant Standard oil [of USA], they sought out the huge [Far East] markets east of Suez." Further on Mr. Shack makes his point: "The decision by the shrewd French Rothschild branch to diversify into other areas of oil exploitation was, presumably, a calculated one. Three years after they joined Royal Dutch, production at Baku would come to an abrupt halt in 1905. Although shaken by political activity, the principal disruption was due to the violence of the ethnic conflict between the region's Muslims and the minority population of Armenians who are Christians. This ethnic conflict caused the first interruption of oil distribution to the world market. Standard oil was quick to supplant the needs of the effected markets as its source was operating under the blanket of peace. The Royal/Dutch/Shell Group (and the Nobles) watched their Baku investments go up in flames. Ethnic conflict was at the root of the matter. It could be safely assumed that they were taking measures to eliminate the possibility of that happening in the future." Oil corporations seem to have learned their lessons from history because before the construction of present-day Baku-Ceyhan pipeline has began, someone has made sure that no Armenians were left in Baku anymore. Mr. Shack notes that "the mere elimination of the Armenian population of Baku would not solve the problem of ethnic conflict in that region. The surrounding areas would provide reservoir effect in resupplying the conflicting minority element." And he asks: "was the removal [in 1915-23] of a small minority like the Armenians [from historical Armenia] a fair price to pay for the peace in a region so crucial to the development and investment of the Far East?" Apparently Mr. Shack ignores the factor of revenge raging in the heart of human beasts. Mr. Shacks answers his own question by stating in his article about the big business or big corporations: "It would be fair to say that the genocide of a group of a million or so, to serve the benefit of a billion or so [in the Far East], is less of a question of should it be done, than how it could be done. So as not to reveal any plausible motive which could link the actual planners to the genocide, the scheme involved a proxy party [namely the Muslim Turks, Kurds & Azeris] , which was manipulated through layers of influence, providing sufficient cover for the planners." In chapter 30 of the book of Isaiah we read God speaking by His prophet: "Woe to the rebellious children, who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;...For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord." This is not the whole story; there is an evil aliens connection to it. Amitakh Stanford, in her web-site and in her article "The Anunnaki Remnants Are Still on Earth" writes: "It is these horrible beings, the Anunnaki, that Sitchin has written an apology for. Reading Sitchin's material, he has painted these evil aliens as palatably as possible by presenting the story that they are trying to save their own planet, and leaves the readers to believe that after that is accomplished, they would leave without a trace, so to speak. But, the Anunnaki came here to conquer and enslave, not for any worthy purpose whatsoever, nor will they leave voluntarily. "Anunnaki cull people and other species from the planet. Before, this was often referred to as genocide. However, today the more euphemistic term of "ethnic cleansing" is used. The disdain of other races is another vile Anunnaki-sponsored trait to divide people into factions and create hatred and distrust of one another. Any fair look at history will verify this as true. The twentieth-century Holocaust is one such example." So after all, we are not dealing with normal human beings, but by humans who are possessed with those alien entities and humans that are manipulated, influenced, and given instructions by those evil aliens in their various factions. _____ This research article is not copyrighted. Reproduction is permitted. No one need waste time calling the author an 'anti-semite.' He will be the first to come to the help of a Jew if and when a Jewish life is in peril. Before you call him anti-semite your better call the God of the Bible and His prophets 'anti-semites.' If not, then you have to re-read the Bible...carefully. For Joseph Brewda's article go to : SchillerInstitute.org then put the name of the author or title of his article in the search tab of the web-site of the institute. For Clifford Shack's article, put his name in the search tap of Yahoo in order to find his web-site where his article is posted. The Turkish book "Inner Folds of the Ottoman Revolution" has no known English translation. It was translated into Armenian in 1939 in Beirut, Lebanon, by Donigian Press.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Timoshenko freed. Yanukovych refuses to resign
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:21
  - Former Ukraine PM Yulia Tymoshenko was freed Saturday from two years in jail, declaring ''Dictatorship has fallen. All must be done to ensure that protesters did not die in vain." A commitment by President Viktor Yanukovych to release her lease was contained in his deal with the opposition Friday. Yanukovych earlier announced - apparently from the eastern town of Kharkiv -, that he would not resign. He said the parliament resolution dismissing a legally elected president and calling a May election was illegal. He called the protesters' seizure of the presidential office in Kiev ''a coup by gangsters and armed extremists.'' In contrast to parliament, the Party of Regions initiated a meeting Saturday of deputies of all levels (city councils, regional councils) of the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, where Yanukovych appears to be marshalling support. Local governments called on the army and police to secure ammunitions stores across the country.
- Speaking from Khrakiv, Yanukovych refuses to resign
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:20
  - Viktor Yanukovych broadcast a notice Saturday afternoon, apparently from the eastern town of Khrakiv, refusing to resign. He said the parliament resolution dismissing a legally elected president and calling a May election was illegal. He called the protesters' seizure of the presidential office in Kiev ''a coup by gangsters and armed extremists.'' In contrast to parliament, the Party of Regions initiated a meeting Saturday of deputies of all levels (city councils, regional councils) of the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, where Yanukovych appears to be marshalling support. Local governments called on the army and police to secure ammunitions stores across the country.
- BBC News - Ukraine, as viewed from Moscow
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:22
  - 21 February 2014Last updated at 10:48 ET Vladimir Putin's policies in Ukraine are not part of an attempt to expand Russia's empire westwards. He is simply trying to reduce the chaos caused by the massive incompetence of Ukraine's ruling elite, writes Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
  - The events in Ukraine look different when seen from Moscow rather than from other European capitals. European TV channels show spirited faces of young people from Maidan and aggressive riot police attacking the demonstrators. Russian TV shows militants from the opposition attacking police, ruined buildings, and piles of garbage in the streets. These are two dimensions of one reality, but each side sees only one.
  - There is a widespread view in the West that Vladimir Putin is afraid of what is happening in Ukraine because it can serve as an example for the Russian opposition. This is a very simplified view. The Russian president draws parallels between developments in Kiev and the situation in Russia, but he sees them as confirmation that he is right.
  - In his view, unrest must be suppressed before it turns into a huge fire. Unrest produces nothing but chaos. A weak state drives itself into a trap. Once a state falters, external forces will charge through the breach and start shattering it until it falls. The West is destructive. It is either unable to understand the complexity of the situation and acts in a primitive way, designating "good" and "bad" players, or it deliberately destroys undesirable systems. The result is always the same - things get worse. The desire to limit Russian influence and hinder Moscow's initiatives is the invariable imperative of the Western policy.
  - Continue reading the main story18th Century: Most of modern-day Ukraine falls under control of Russian empire; far west controlled by Austrian empire 1918: Ukraine declares independence, civil war ensues 1921: Red Army conquers most of Ukraine, which is absorbed into USSR; far west under Polish control 1945: Western Ukraine taken by USSR after World War Two 1991: Ukraine declares independence; 90% back the move in referendum This is probably how Putin sees the Ukrainian crisis, as well as other local crises of recent years, for example, in the Middle East. He does not sympathise with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who evokes unpleasant memories. In 2004, Putin was personally involved in attempts to help Yanukovych become president. He came to Ukraine to support him and suffered a big defeat. He views the Ukrainian leadership as unreliable and slippery.
  - However, as in the case of Syria, it is not a personal matter. Yanukovych is a legitimate president of a sovereign state. If external forces are allowed to delegitimise him, let alone remove him from power, this would violate the basic principle of international relations. Therefore, Moscow will not deny Yanukovych (and Syria's Bashar al-Assad) its support - although it is well aware of his weaknesses, the fragility of the situation, and the risk of his removal from power.
  - Moscow believes that regime change would thrust Ukraine into anarchy and that it may collapse as a state in the end. It considers the Ukrainian political class, regardless of its political views, irresponsible and unprofessional. Ukrainian "peacetime" politics is reduced to endless intrigues of oligarchic groups, which have no idea about strategy.
  - For the past 20-plus years, the Ukrainian elite has failed to build a capable and firm state, although after the Soviet Union's break-up, Ukraine was considered perhaps the most promising country among the post-Soviet states.
  - However, the rule of the "Orange" coalition in 2005-2010 was an example of utter incompetence. There is no reason to believe that another "pro-Western" government will be more effective, especially considering the leaders of the protests. They do not control the turmoil of the riot, but are only trying to keep up with it.
  - Russia believes that the continuation of anarchy will lead to the fragmentation of Ukraine. The country acquired its present borders partly by accident: Stalin expanded the Soviet empire by annexing Western Ukraine; Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
  - The nation has not become a unified whole, and attempts to shake the status quo and force Ukraine to make a final choice in favour of the EU or Russia deepen the division. The west of the country has a clear identity, but it does not have an economy of its own. The east has an economic base, but it lacks a distinct identity.
  - Today Moscow is not seeking the collapse of Ukraine and is taking no special steps in this direction. But if the internal conflict escalates, Russia may opt to establish closer contacts with pro-Russian regions in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine. Russia is confident that the West's interference and unilateral support for the opposition brings such a scenario closer.
  - Putin fears chaos. The main driving force behind his policy towards Ukraine will be not a desire for expansion, but a desire to reduce the risk of chaos spilling into Russia. To this end, anything goes - both defensive and offensive means.
- Dozens killed in Ukraine as EU and Washington step up pressure on Yanukovych government
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:24
  - By Stefan Steinberg21 February 2014European Union foreign ministers stepped up pressure on the Ukrainian government Thursday as fresh fighting between protesters and police left dozens dead. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 25 to 100, with most reports placing the number at around 70, making Thursday the bloodiest in several days of clashes involving armed protesters and riot police.
  - At an emergency meeting in Brussels yesterday, European foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on Ukraine, including visa bans, asset freezes and restrictions on the export of anti-riot equipment. The EU decision followed immense pressure from the US for the European powers to take punitive action against the Ukrainian regime. Washington has already imposed travel bans on 20 leading Ukrainian politicians.
  - Earlier on Thursday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland traveled to Kiev for talks with the government and opposition aimed at forcing President Yanukovych to stand down.
  - In statement prior to the EU foreign ministers meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced any fresh sanctions against Ukraine. ''America's sanctions encourage rioters,'' Lavrov declared, adding that any new EU sanctions amounted to ''blackmail.'' He concluded: ''We're worried about Western capitals influencing the situation in the country.''
  - The Obama administration, the German government and the EU authorities bear the main responsibility for the latest escalation of violence in Kiev and other cities throughout Ukraine.
  - Following clashes between police and protesters on Tuesday that left 26 dead and hundreds injured, President Yanukovych issued a statement late Wednesday agreeing to a truce and ''the start of negotiations with the aim of ending bloodshed and stabilizing the situation in the state.''
  - The readiness of Yanukovych to call a truce was confirmed by the leader of the right-wing Fatherland party, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who said the purpose of the amnesty was to ensure that ''the storming of the Maidan (Independence Square) which the authorities had planned today will not take place.''
  - The fascist Right Sector organization, which, together with the ultra-right, anti-Semitic Svoboda party, is playing the leading role in the street battles, issued a statement Wednesday night declaring that it had not signed up to the government truce and there was ''nothing to negotiate.''
  - According to media reports, the outbreak of violent confrontations on Thursday began early in the morning when protesters armed with axes, knives, truncheons and corrugated iron shields launched an attack on riot police assembled around Independence Square.
  - Within an hour, the area surrounding the Ukrania hotel, which had been under the control of riot police, fell to the protesters. Following a series of attacks on government buildings and police stations, including the torching of the city's central trade union offices, far-right elements confiscated large quantities of arms and ammunition. Videos of the fighting on Thursday show protesters armed with rifles firing at police lines.
  - The widely despised Yanukovych regime responded by mobilising additional units of its Berkut special force to repel the rioters. Yanukovych, who inflamed the ire of the US, Germany and the EU by backing away from a proposed deal with the EU last November and deciding instead to maintain close ties with Moscow, represents different factions of Ukrainian oligarchs from those oriented to the West, who are backing the opposition.
  - Rightist and nationalist forces have also gone onto the offensive in a number of cities in the west of the country. On Wednesday, central administration buildings were stormed and occupied by protesters in Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod and Ternopil. In Lviv, the largest city in the west, protesters seized the prosecutor's office and ransacked police stations. They then declared the city's political autonomy from the central administration in Kiev. Supporters of the autonomy movement set up barricades at the borders with Poland, preventing traffic crossing into the region.
  - With tensions flaring up on the Ukraine-Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Polish TV he had instructed hospitals to prepare for Ukrainian refugees.
  - Tusk said Hungary and Slovakia were making similar preparations, adding, ''What is happening today is not war, but the situation could spiral out of control at any moment'... We are ready for the worst case scenarios.''
  - The provocations of ultra-right groups and hooligans have met with deafening silence from Western politicians and media, which uniformly ascribe responsibility for the crisis in Ukraine to the Yanukovych regime and Russia.
  - The White House and the EU bureaucracy in Brussels are quite willing to allow these forces to destabilize the state through street violence while they lead the campaign to force the Yanukovych government out of power. The US and the EU powers are striving to impose a client regime in Ukraine pledged to carry out austerity policies demanded by the International Monetary Fund and take a much more confrontational stance towards Russia.
  - During a trip to Mexico, US President Obama publicly criticised the role played by the Russian government in Ukraine. ''Mr. Putin has a different view on many of those issues [people's basic freedoms] and I don't think that there's any secret on that,'' Obama said.
  - ''Our approach in the United States is not to see these as some Cold War chessboard in which we're in competition with Russia,'' he continued. ''Our goal is to make sure that the people of Ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future.''
  - In fact, the Obama administration's aggressive policy in Central Europe is a continuation of that of the Bush administration, which sought to undermine the influence of Russia over former Soviet republics and former Eastern Bloc allies in Europe, as well as former Soviet Republics in Asia. The real content behind Obama's bluster about democratic aspirations was most vividly exposed by the recent comments of Victoria Nuland, the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
  - In a leaked telephone conversation with the US ambassador to Ukraine, Nuland, wife of the neo-conservative cold warrior Robert Kagan, put forward her preferred scenario for a future Ukrainian government, dismissing the opinion of European leaders with the comment, ''Fuck the EU.''
  - Nuland had previously underlined the geostrategic importance of Ukraine to the US when she told an international business conference that the US had invested $5 billion in NGOs and other organizations opposed to the Yanukovych regime.
  - In Libya and Syria, the Obama administration and its European allies were prepared to utilize the most reactionary political forces to achieve regime-change. Now in Ukraine they are supporting ultra-right groups to overturn the elected government of Yanukovych. In so doing, they are provoking the break-up of the country and its descent into civil war.
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- The Ukrainian Insurgent Army
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 16:26
  - The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian: Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÑÐ¼ÑÑ (Ð£ÐÐ), Ukrayins'ka Povstans'ka Armiya; UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalistparamilitary and later partisan army that engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and both Underground and Communist Poland. The group was the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists '-- Bandera faction (the OUN-B), originally formed in Volyn (northwestern Ukraine) in the spring and summer of 1943. Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942,[1] day of Intercession of the Theotokos feast.
  - The OUN's stated immediate goal was the re-establishment of a united, independent national state on Ukrainian ethnic territory. Violence was accepted as a political tool against foreign as well as domestic enemies of their cause, which was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a dictatorship that would drive out the occupying powers and set up a government representing all regions and social groups.[2] The organization began as a resistance group and developed into a guerrilla army.[3]
  - During its existence, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against the Poles and the Soviets as their primary opponents, although the organization also fought against the Germans starting from February 1943. From late spring 1944, the UPA and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B (OUN-B) '-- faced with Soviet advances '-- also temporarily cooperated with German forces against the Soviets and Poles in the hope of creating an independent Ukrainian state.[4] The army also played a substantial role in ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and East Galicia,[5][6][7][8][9] as well as subsequent defending the Ukrainian population in Poland from the similar actions, and preventing the deportation of the Ukrainians in southeastern Poland.[10]
  - After the end of World War II, the Polish communist army '-- the People's Army of Poland '-- fought extensively against the UPA. The UPA remained active and fought against the People's Republic of Poland until 1947, and against the Soviet Union until 1949. It was particularly strong in the Carpathian Mountains; the entirety of Galicia and in Volyn '-- in modern Western Ukraine. By the late 1940s, the mortality rate for Soviet troops fighting Ukrainian insurgents in Western Ukraine was higher than the mortality rate for Soviet troops during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.[11] Among the anti-Nazi resistance movements, it was unique in that it had no significant foreign support. Its growth and strength were a reflection of the popularity it enjoyed among the people of Western Ukraine.[12][13] Outside of Western Ukraine, support was not significant, and the majority of the Soviet (Eastern) Ukrainian population influenced by Stalinist propaganda considered, and at times still view, the OUN/UPA to have been primarily collaborators with the Germans.[14][15]
  - Organization[edit]The UPA's command structure overlapped with that of the underground nationalist political party, the OUN, in a sophisticated centralized network. The UPA was responsible for military operations while the OUN was in charge of administrative duties; each had its own chain of command. The six main departments were military, political, security service, mobilization, supply, and the Ukrainian Red Cross. Despite the division between the UPA and the OUN, there was overlap between their posts and the local OUN and UPA leaders were frequently the same person. Organizational methods were borrowed and adapted from the German, Polish and Soviet military, while UPA units based their training on a modified Red Army field unit manual.[16]
  - The General Staff, formed at the end of 1943 consisted of operations, intelligence, training, logistics, personnel and political education departments. UPA's largest units, Kurins, consisting of 500-700 soldiers,[17] were equivalent to battalions in a regular army, and its smallest units, Riys (literally bee swarm), with 8-10 soldiers,[17] were equivalent to squads.[16] Occasionally, and particularly in Volyn, during some operations three or more Kurins would unite and form a Zahin or Brigade.[17]
  - UPA's leaders were: Vasyl Ivakhiv (spring '' 13 of May 1943), Dmytro Klyachkivsky, Roman Shukhevych (January 1944 until 1950)[18] and finally Vasyl Kuk.
  - In November 1943, the UPA adopted a new structure, creating a Main Military Headquarters and three areas (group) commands: UPA-West, UPA-North and UPA-South. Three military schools for low-level command staff were also established.
  - Former policemen constituted a large proportion of the UPA leadership, and they comprised about half of the UPA membership in 1943.[19] In terms of UPA soldiers' social background, 60% were peasants of low to moderate means, 20-25% were from the working class (primarily from the rural lumber and food industries), and 15% members of the intelligentsia (students, urban professionals). The latter group provided a large portion of the UPA's military trainers and officer corps.[16] With respect to the origins of UPA's members, sixty percent were from Galicia and 30% from Volyn and Polesia.[20]
  - The number of UPA fighters varied. A German Abwehr report from November 1943 estimated that the UPA had 20,000 soldiers;[21] other estimates at that time placed the number at 40,000.[22] By the summer of 1944, estimates of UPA membership varied from 25-30 thousand fighters[23] up to 100,000 [22][24] or even 200,000 soldiers [25]
  - Structure[edit]The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was structured into four units:[26]
  - UPA-NorthRegions: Volyn, Polissia.Military District Turiv>>Commander '-- Maj. Rudyj.Squads: Bohun>>, Pomsta Polissja>>, Nalyvajko>>.Military District Zahrava>>Commander '-- Ptashka (Sylvester Zatovkanjuk).Squads: Konovaletsj>>, Enej>>, Dubovyj>>, Oleh>>.Military District Volyn-South>>Commander '-- Bereza.Squads: Kruk>>, H.>>.UPA-WestRegions: Halychyna, Bukovyna, Zakarpattia, Zakerzonia.Military District Lysonja>>Commander '-- Maj. Hrim, V.Kurins: Holodnojarci>>, Burlaky>>, Lisovyky>>, Rubachi>>, Bujni>>, Holky>>.Military District Hoverlja>>Commander '-- Maj. Stepovyj (from 1945 '-- Major Hmara).Kurins: Bukovynsjkyj>>, Peremoha>>, Haidamaky>>, Huculjskyi>>, Karpatsjkyi>>.Military District Black Forest>>Commander '-- Col. Rizun-Hrehit (Mykola Andrusjak).Kurins: Smertonosci>>, Pidkarpatsjkyi>>, Dzvony>>, Syvulja>>, Dovbush>>, Beskyd>>, Menyky>>.Military District Makivka>>Commander '-- Maj. Kozak.Kurins: Ljvy>>, Bulava>>, Zubry>>, Letuny>>, Zhuravli>>, Boiky of Chmelnytsjkyi>>, Basejn>>.Military District Buh>>Commander '-- Col. VoronnyiKurins: Druzhynnyky>>, Halajda>>, Kochovyky>>, Perejaslavy>>, Tyhry>>, Perebyjnis>>Military District Sjan>>Commander '-- OrestKurins: Vovky>>, Menyky>>, Kurin of Ren, Kurin of Eugene.UPA-SouthRegions: Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Zhytomyr Oblast, southern region of Kyiv Oblast, southern regions of Ukraine,and especially in cities Odessa, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Mariupol, Donetsk.Military District Cholodnyj Yar>>Commander '-- Kost'.Kurins: Kurin of Sabljuk, Kurin of Dovbush.Military District Umanj>>Commander '-- Ostap.Kurins: Kurin of Dovbenko, Kurin of Buvalyj, Kurin of Andrij-Shum.Military District Vinnytsia>>Commander '-- Jasen.Kurins: Kurin of Storchan, Kurin of Mamaj, Kurin of Burevij.UPA-EastRegions: northern strip of Zhytomyr Oblast, northern region of Kyiv Oblast, and Chernihiv Oblast.Anthem[edit]The organization adopted the Ukrainian Army song of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen "Chervona Kalyna" as their anthem.[27][28][29]Audio sample on YouTube
  - Ukrainian language versionÐÐ¹, Ñ Ð>>ÑÐ·Ñ ÑÐµÑÐ²Ð¾Ð½Ð° ÐºÐ°Ð>>Ð¸Ð½Ð° ÐÐ¾ÑÐ¸Ð>>Ð¸Ð>>Ð°ÑÑ.Ð§Ð¾Ð"Ð¾ÑÑ Ð½Ð°ÑÐ° ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ð° Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ð° Ð·Ð°Ð¶ÑÑÐ¸Ð>>Ð°ÑÑ.Ð Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÑÑ ÑÐµÑÐ²Ð¾Ð½Ñ ÐºÐ°Ð>>Ð¸Ð½Ñ ÐÑÐ´ÑÐ¹Ð¼ÐµÐ¼Ð¾,Ð Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ, Ð"ÐµÐ¹! Ð"ÐµÐ¹! ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð²ÐµÑÐµÐ>>Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾!
  - Ð'Ðµ ÑÐ¸Ð>>Ð¸ÑÑ, ÑÐµÑÐ²Ð¾Ð½Ð° ÐºÐ°Ð>>Ð¸Ð½Ð° '' Ð¼Ð°Ñ--Ñ Ð±ÑÐ>>Ð¸Ð¹ ÑÐ²ÑÑ.Ð'Ðµ Ð¶ÑÑÐ¸ÑÑ, ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ð° Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ð° '' Ð¼Ð°Ñ--Ñ Ð´Ð¾Ð±ÑÐ¸Ð¹ ÑÑÐ´.Ð Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÑÑ ÑÐµÑÐ²Ð¾Ð½Ñ ÐºÐ°Ð>>Ð¸Ð½Ñ ÐÑÐ´ÑÐ¹Ð¼ÐµÐ¼Ð¾,Ð Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ, Ð"ÐµÐ¹! Ð"ÐµÐ¹! ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð²ÐµÑÐµÐ>>Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾!
  - Ð'Ð°ÑÑÐ¸ÑÑÑÑÑ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ Ð´Ð¾Ð±ÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¾Ð>>ÑÑÑ Ñ ÐºÑÐ¸Ð²Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð¹ ÑÐ°Ð½,Ð'Ð¸Ð·Ð²Ð¾Ð>>ÑÑÐ¸ Ð±ÑÐ°ÑÑÐ²-ÑÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐ² Ð· Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¾Ð¶Ð¸Ñ ÐºÐ°Ð¹Ð´Ð°Ð½.Ð Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÑÑ Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¾Ð¶Ñ ÐºÐ°Ð¹Ð´Ð°Ð½Ð¸ ÑÐ¾Ð·ÑÐ±'Ñ--Ð¼Ð¾,Ð Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ, Ð"ÐµÐ¹! Ð"ÐµÐ¹! ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð²ÐµÑÐµÐ>>Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾!
  - ÐÐ¹, Ñ ÐÐ¾Ð>>Ñ ÑÑÐ¾Ñ ÐÑÐµÐ½Ð¸ÑÐºÐ¸ Ð·Ð¾Ð>>Ð¾ÑÐ¸ÑÑÐ¸Ð¹ Ð>>Ð°Ð½,Ð Ð¾Ð·ÐÐ¾ÑÐ°Ð>>Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ Ð´Ð¾Ð±ÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¾Ð>>ÑÑÑ Ð· Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¾Ð"Ð°Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÐ°Ð½!Ð Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÑÑ ÑÑÑÑ ÐÑÐµÐ½Ð¸ÑÐºÑ ÑÐ·Ð±ÐµÑÐµÐ¼Ð¾,Ð Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ, Ð"ÐµÐ¹! Ð"ÐµÐ¹! ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð²ÐµÑÐµÐ>>Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾!
  - Ð¯Ðº ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑ-- Ð±ÑÐ¹Ð½ÐµÑÐµÐ½ÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ Ð²ÑÑÐµÑ Ð· ÑÐ¸ÑÐ¾ÐºÐ¸Ñ ÑÑÐµÐÑÐ²,ÐÐ¾ ÐÑÐ¾ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð¸ÑÑ ÐÐ¾ Ð²ÑÑÐ¹ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ ÑÑÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ ÑÑÑÑÐ>>ÑÑÑÐ².Ð Ð¼Ð¸ ÑÑÑ ÑÑÑÑÐ>>ÐµÑÑÐºÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ñ Ð·Ð±ÐµÑÐµÐ¶ÐµÐ¼Ð¾,Ð Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð°ÑÑ ÑÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð½Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½Ñ, Ð"ÐµÐ¹! Ð"ÐµÐ¹! ÑÐ¾Ð·Ð²ÐµÑÐµÐ>>Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾!
  - English language versionHey, in meadow the red viburnum has tilted.For some reason our glorious Ukraine has saddened.And we will lift up that red viburnum back to the top,And we will cheer up our glorious Ukraine!
  - Do not tilt, the red viburnum, for you have a white bloom.Do not be saddened, the glorious Ukraine, for you have a good heritage.And we lift up that red viburnum,And we make our glorious Ukraine to rejoice!
  - There are marching our volunteers into bloody dance,To liberate brothers-Ukrainians out of enemies chains.And we will break those hostile chains,And we make our glorious Ukraine to rejoice!
  - Hey, the field is flooded with the golden wheat,Our volunteers have begun the dance with enemies!And we will harvest that wheat,And we make our glorious Ukraine to rejoice!
  - As the strong-like wind will blow out of the wide steppes,He will glorify the Sich Riflemen across the whole Ukraine.And we will keep the Riflemen glory,And we make our glorious Ukraine to rejoice!
  - Oath of the Soldier of Ukrainian Insurgent Army[edit]This oath approved by the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council and implemented by General Order No. 7, dated 19 July 1944.
  - I am a fighter in Ukrainian Insurgent Army,
  - with weapons in my hands, proudly swear with my honour and conscience in front of the Great Nation of Ukraine, in front of the Holy earth of Ukraine, in front of spilled blood of all the Best sons of Ukraine and in front of the Highest Political Leadership of Ukrainian Nation:
  - To fight for complete liberation of all Ukrainian lands and Ukrainian people from the invaders and to succeed in creating Ukrainian Independent Sovereign State.
  - In this battle I will not have any remorse for my blood or my life and will fight until my final breath and definite victory over all of the enemies of Ukraine. Will be brave, courageous and valiant in the battle and pitiless to the enemies of Ukrainian land. Will be honest, disciplined and vigilant revolutionary. Will do all of the commands from the ranks above me. Strictly will preserve all military and all national secrets. Will be worth my brothers in the battlefield and in battle life to all of my brothers in arms.
  - When I will breach, or back down from this oath, I should be rightly punished by the just law of Ukrainian National Revolution and let the dishonour of Ukrainian People fall on me.
  - Flag[edit]The battle flag of the UPA was a 2:3 ratio red-and-black banner. The flag continues to be a symbol of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. The colors of the flag symbolize 'Ukrainian red blood spilled on Ukrainian black earth'.[30]
  - Military ranks[edit]The UPA made use of a dual rank system which included functional command position designations and traditional military ranks. The functional system was developed due to an acute shortage of qualified and politically reliable officers during the early stages of organization.[31]
  - SUPREMECOMMANDER
  - REGIONALCOMMANDER
  - DIVISION(MILITARY DISTRICT)COMMANDER
  - BRIGADE(TACTICAL SECTOR)COMMANDER
  - BATTALIONCOMMANDER
  - COMPANYCOMMANDER
  - PLATOON LEADER
  - SQUAD LEADER
  - UPA rank structure consisted of at least seven commissioned officer ranks, four non-commissioned officer ranks, and two soldier ranks. The hierarchical order of known ranks and their approximate US Army equivalent is as follows:[32]
  - UPA RANKSUS ARMY EQUIVALENTSHeneral-KhorunzhyiBrigadier GeneralPolkovnykColonelPidpolkovnykLieutenant ColonelMaiorMajorSotnykCaptainPoruchnykFirst LieutenantKhorunzhyiSecond LieutenantStarshyi BulavnyiMaster SergeantBulavnyiSergeant First ClassStarshyi VistunStaff SergeantVistunSergeantStarshyi StriletsPrivate First ClassStriletsPrivateAlso rank scheme provided for three more higher general officer ranks: Heneral-Poruchnyk (Major General), Heneral-Polkovnyk (Lieutenant General), and Heneral-Pikhoty (General with Four Stars).
  - Armaments[edit]Initially, the UPA used the weapons collected from the battlefields of 1939 and 1941.[citation needed] Later they bought weapons from peasants and individual soldiers, or captured them in combat. Some light weapons were also brought by deserting Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. For the most part, the UPA used light infantry weapons of Soviet and, to a lesser extent, German origin (for which ammunition was less readily obtainable). In 1944, German units armed the UPA directly with captured Soviet arms. Many kurins were equipped with light 51 mm and 82 mm mortars. During large-scale operations in 1943-1944, insurgent forces also used artillery (45 mm and 76.2 mm).[33] In 1943 a light Hungarian tank was used in Volyn.[33][34]
  - In 1944, the Soviets captured a Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft and one armored car and one personnel carrier from UPA; however, it was not stated that they were in operable condition, while no OUN/UPA documents noted the usage of such equipment.[35] By end of World War II in Europe the NKVD had captured 45 artillery pieces (45 and 76.2 mm calibers) and 423 mortars from the UPA. In the attacks against Polish civilians, axes and pikes were used.[33] However, the light infantry weapon was the basic weapon used by the UPA.[36]
  - Formation[edit]1941[edit]In a Memorandum from August 14, 1941 the OUN (B) proposed to the Germans, to create a Ukrainian Army ''which will join the German Ðrmy ... until the latter will win'' (preferable translation: "which will unite with the German Army ... until [our] final victory"), in exchange for German recognition of an allied Ukrainian independent state.[37] The Ukrainian Army was planned to have been formed on the basis of DUN (Detachments of Ukrainian nationalists - Druzhyny Ukrainskykh NatsiÐ¾nalistiv) and specifically on the basis of the ''Ukrainian legion'', at that time composed of two battalions ''Nachtigall'' and ''Roland.'' These two battalions were included in the Abwehr special regiment ''Brandenburg-800''. However, these proposals were not accepted by the Germans, and by the middle of September 1941 the Germans began a campaign of repression against the most proactive OUN members.
  - At the beginning of October 1941, during the first OUN Conference, the OUN formulated its future strategy. This called for transferring part of its organizational structure underground, in order to avoid conflict with the Germans. It also refrained from open anti-German propaganda activities.[38][dubious'' discuss] At the same time, the OUN tried to infiltrate its own members into and create its own network within the German Auxiliary police.
  - A captured German document of November 25, 1941 (Nuremberg Trial O14-USSR) ordered: "It has been ascertained that the Bandera Movement is preparing a revolt in the Reichskommissariat which has as its ultimate aim the establishment of an independent Ukraine. All functionaries of the Bandera Movement must be arrested at once and, after thorough interrogation, are to be liquidated..."[39][unreliable source?] By the end of November 1941, both the ''Ukrainian Legions'' Roland and Nachtigall were disbanded and the remaining soldiers (approximately 650 persons) were given the option of signing a contract for military service after being transferred to Germany for further military training. At the same time (end of November 1941) the Germans started a second wave of repression in Reichskommissariat Ukraine specifically targeting OUN (B) members. Most of the captured OUN activists in Reichskommissariat Ukraine however, belonged to OUN (M) wing.
  - 1942[edit]At the Second Conference of the OUN(B), held in April 1942, the policies for the ''creation, build-up and development of Ukrainian political and future military forces'' and ''action against partisan activity supported by Moscow'' were adopted. Although German policies were criticized, the Soviet partisans were identified as the primary enemy of OUN (B).[40]
  - In July 1942 OUN (B) issued a statement in which it stated that the main enemy targeted was ''Moscow'', while Germany was criticized for its policy concerning the Ukrainian independent state. Until December 1942, OUN (B)'s principal activity was propaganda and the development of its own underground network; at that time, actions against the Germans were described as undesirable and provocative.
  - The ''Military conference of OUN (B)'' met in December 1942 near Lviv. The conference resulted in the adoption of a policy for the accelerated growth for the establishment of OUN(B)'s military forces. The conference emphasized that ''all combat capable population must support, under OUN banners, the struggle against the Bolshevik enemy''. On May 30, 1947[41] the Main Ukrainian Liberation Council (Ð'Ð¾Ð>>Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ð° Ð'Ð¸Ð·Ð²Ð¾Ð>>ÑÐ½Ð° Ð Ð°Ð´Ð°) adopted the date of October 14, 1942 as the official day for celebrating the UPA's creation.
  - Germany[edit]Despite the stated opinions of Dmytro Klyachkivsky and Roman Shukhevych that the Germans were a secondary threat compared to their main enemies (the communist forces of the Soviet Union and Poland), the Third Conference of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - held near Lviv from 17''21 February 1943 - took the decision to begin open warfare against the Germans[42] (OUN fighters had already attacked a German garrison earlier that year (7 February)).[43] Accordingly, the OUN (B) leadership on March 20, 1943 issued secret instructions ordering their members who had joined the German auxiliary police in 1941-1942 to desert with their weapons and join with UPA units in Volyn. This process often involved engaging in armed conflict with German forces as they tried to prevent desertion. The number of trained and armed soldiers who now joined the ranks of the UPA was estimated to be between 4 and 5 thousand.[44] Initially, the military formation of the OUN under Bandera's leadership was called the "military detachment of OUN (SD)" but after April 1943 the name "Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya" (UPA) was adopted as the official title.[45]
  - Anti-German actions were limited to situations where the Germans attacked the Ukrainian population or UPA units.[46] Indeed, according to German Eastern Front General Ernst Kostring, UPA fighters "fought almost exclusively against German administrative agencies, the German police and the SS in their quest to establish an independent Ukraine controlled by neither Moscow nor Germany."[47]
  - During the German occupation, the UPA conducted hundreds of raids on police stations and military convoys. In the region of Zhytomyr insurgents were estimated by the German General-Kommissar Leyser to be in control of 80% of the forests and 60% of the farmland.[48] The UPA was able to send small groups of raiders deep into eastern Ukraine. According to the OUN/UPA, on May 12, 1943 Germans attacked the town of Kolki using several SS-Divisions (SS units operated alongside the German Army who were responsible for intelligence, central security, policing action, and mass extermination), where both sides suffered heavy losses.[49] Soviet partisans reported the reinforcement of German auxiliary forces at Kolki for the end of April until the middle of May, 1943 [50]
  - In June 1943 German SS and police forces under the command of General von dem Bach-Zelewski, chosen by Himmler and seen as an expert in anti-guerrilla warfare, attempted to destroy UPA-North in Volyn during Operation "BB" (Bandenbek¤mpfung).[51] According to Ukrainian accounts, the initial stage of Operation ''BB'' (Bandenbek¤mpfung) against the UPA had produced no results whatsoever. This development was the subject of several discussions by Himmler's staff that resulted in General von dem Bach-Zelewski being sent to Ukraine.[52] He failed to eliminate the UPA, which grew steadily, and the Germans, apart from terrorizing the civilian population, were virtually limited to defensive actions.[53]
  - From July through September 1943, as a result of an estimated 74 clashes between German forces and the UPA, the Germans lost over 3,000 men killed or wounded while the UPA lost 1,237 killed or wounded.[54][55][56][57] In the fall of 1943, clashes between the UPA and the Germans declined, so that Erich Koch in his November 1943 report and New Year 1944 speech could mention that ''nationalistic bands in forests do not pose any major threat'' for the Germans.[58]
  - In autumn 1943 some detachments of the UPA attempted to find rapprochement with the Germans. Although doing so was condemned by an OUN/UPA order from November 25, 1943, these actions did not end.[59] In early 1944 UPA forces in several Western regions engaged in cooperation with the German Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, SiPo and SD.[60][61][62] However, in the winter and spring of 1944 it would be incorrect to state that there was a complete cessation of armed conflict between UPA and German forces, because the UPA continued to defend Ukrainian villages against the repressive actions of the German administration.[63]
  - For example, on January 20, 200 German soldiers on their way to the Ukrainian village of Pyrohivka were forced to retreat after a several-hours long firefight with a group of 80 UPA soldiers after having lost 30 killed and wounded.[64] In March''July 1944 a senior leader of OUN(B) in Galicia conducted negotiations with SD and SS officials, resulting in a German decision to supply the UPA with arms and ammunition. In May of that year, the OUN issued instructions to "switch the struggle, which had been conducted against the Germans, completely into a struggle against the Soviets.".[65]
  - In a top secret memorandum, General-Major Brigadef¼hrer Brenner wrote in mid-1944 to SS-Obergruppenf¼hrer General Hans Prutzmann, the highest ranking German SS officer in Ukraine, that ''The UPA has halted all attacks on units of the German army. The UPA systematically sends agents, mainly young women, into enemy-occupied territory, and the results of the intelligence are communicated to Department 1c of the [German] Army Group'' on the southern Front.[66] By the autumn of 1944, the German press was full of praise for UPA for their anti-Bolshevik successes, referring to the UPA fighters as "Ukrainian fighters for freedom"[67] After the front had passed, by the end of 1944 the Germans supplied OUN/UPA by air with arms and equipment. There even existed, in the region of Ivano-Frankivsk, a small landing strip for German transport planes. Some German personnel trained to conduct terrorist and intelligence activities behind Soviet lines, as well as some OUN-B leaders, were also transported through this channel.[68]
  - The UPA, fighting a two-front war against both the Germans and approaching Soviets (as well as Soviet partisans), did not focus all of its efforts against the Germans. Indeed, it considered the Soviets to be a greater threat. Adopting a strategy analogous to that of the Chetnik leader General DraÅ¾a MihailoviÄ,[69] the UPA limited its actions against the Germans in order to better prepare itself for and engage in the struggle against the Communists. Because of this, although the UPA managed to limit German activities to a certain extent, it failed to prevent the Germans from deporting approximately 500,000 people from Western Ukrainian regions and from economically exploiting Western Ukraine.[70] Due to its focus on the Soviets as the principal threat, UPA's anti-German struggle did not contribute significantly to the liberation of Ukrainian territories by Soviet forces.[71]
  - Ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Galicia[edit]Beginning in 1943, the UPA adopted a policy of massacring and expelling the Polish population of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.[72] The ethnic cleansing operation against the ethnic Polish population began on a large scale in late February of that year and lasted until the end of 1944.[73] In Volhynia deadly acts of aggression, including the mass murder of Poles, occurred throughout 1943 before spreading to eastern Galicia in early 1944. In June 1943, Dmytro Klyachkivsky head-commander of UPA-North made a general decision to exterminate all male Poles living in Volhynia.[74][75] July 11, 1943, was one of the bloodiest days of the massacres, with UPA units marching from village to village, killing Polish civilians. On that day UPA units surrounded and attacked 99 of Polish villages and settlements in three counties '' Kowel, Horochow, and WÅodzimierz WoÅyÅski. On the following day fifty additional villages were attacked.[76]
  - Between August 21 and 25, 1943, during the Third Convention of the OUN, Roman Shukhevych accepted the "Volhynia stategy," an operation which aimed at Poles and had been conducted by Dmytro Klyachkivsky.[clarification needed]
  - The methods used by the Ukrainian nationalists in both Galicia and Volhynia consisted of killing all Poles in the villages, then pillaging the villages and burning them to the ground. Victims, regardless of age or gender, were routinely tortured to death.[citation needed]
  - In late 1943 and early 1944, after most Poles of Volhynia had either been murdered or had fled, the killings moved to the neighboring province of Galicia. In March 1944, the main Command of the UPA ordered the ethnic cleansing[77] of all Poles from Galicia. Unlike Volhynia, where Polish villages were destroyed and their inhabitants murdered without warning, Poles in eastern Galicia were sometimes given the choice of fleeing or being killed.[78]
  - By the end of summer 1944, mass acts of terror aimed at Poles were taking place in Eastern Galicia to force them to resettle on the western bank of the San river. A popular slogan during the period was "Poles beyond the San".[78] Ukrainian peasants sometimes joined the UPA in the violence,[79] and large bands of armed marauders, unaffiliated with the UPA, brutalized civilians.[80] In other cases however, Ukrainian civilians took significant steps to protect their Polish neighbors, either hiding them during UPA raids or vouching that the Poles were actually Ukrainians.
  - The total number of Poles murdered specifically by UPA is unknown. Estimates of the Polish deaths in Volhynia are over 50,000. The number of UPA victims in Volhynia, Galicia and current Poland combined ranges from 80,000 to 100,000 [81]
  - Post-war[edit]After Galicia had been taken over by the Red Army, many units of UPA abandoned the anti-Polish course of action and some even began cooperating with local Polish anti-communist resistance against the Soviets and the NKVD. Many Ukrainians, who had nothing to do with earlier massacres against the Poles, seeking to defend themselves against communists, joined UPA after the war on both the Soviet and Polish sides of the border.[82] Local agreements between the UPA and the Polish post-AK units began to appear as early as April/May 1945 and in some places lasted until 1947, for example in the Lublin region. One of the most notable joint actions of UPA and the post-AK Freedom and Independence (WiN) organization took place in May 1946, when the two partisan formations coordinated their attack and took over of the city of Hrubiesz"w.[83]
  - The cooperation between UPA and the post-AK underground came about partly as a response to increasing communist terror and the deportations of Ukrainians to the Soviet Union, and Poles into the new socialist Poland. According to official statistics, between 1944 and 1956 around 789,000 Ukrainians and 488,000 Poles were deported by the Soviets.[83]
  - On the territories of present day Poland, 8-12 thousand Ukrainians were killed and 6-8 thousand Poles, between 1943 and 1947. However, unlike in Volhynia, most of the casualties occurred after 1944 and involved UPA soldiers and Ukrainian civilians on one side, and members of the Polish security services (UB) and border forces (WOP).[83] Out of the 2200 Poles who died in the fighting between 1945 and 1948, only a few hundred were civilians, with the remainder being functionaries or soldiers of the Communist regime in Poland.[83]
  - Soviet Union[edit]German occupation[edit]The total number of local Soviet Partisans acting in Western Ukraine was never high, due to the region enduring only two years of Soviet rule (in some places even less).[84] Only towards the end of the war, in 1944, did the numbers and activity of Soviet Partisans in Ukraine increase. The UPA first encountered them in late 1942.
  - In 1943, the Soviet partisan leader Sydir Kovpak was sent to the Carpathian Mountains, with help from Nikita Khrushchev. He described his mission to the western Ukraine in his book Vid Putivlia do Karpat (From Putivl to the Carpathian Mountains). Well armed by supplies delivered to secret airfields, he formed a group consisting of several thousand men[85] which moved deep into the Carpathians. Attacks by the German air force and military forced Kovpak to break up his force into smaller units in 1944; these groups were attacked by UPA units on their way back. Soviet intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov was captured and executed by UPA members, after unwittingly entering their camp while wearing a Wehrmacht officer uniform.[86]
  - Fighting[edit]As the Red Army approached Galicia, the UPA avoided clashes with the regular units of the Soviet military fearing their offensive action would annihilate them.[87] Instead, the UPA focused its energy on NKVD units and Soviet officials of all levels, from NKVD and military officers to the school teachers and postal workers attempting to establish Soviet administration.[88] Soviet archival data shows that UPA attacks were focused on small units and groups of Soviet soldiers, often ending with killing of the captured and wounded. The UPA opposed the mobilization of able-bodied men into the Soviet Army through the extermination of whole families of those who joined.[citation needed] The UPA also disrupted Soviet efforts at collectivization.
  - In March 1944, UPA insurgents mortally wounded front commander Army General Nikolai Vatutin, who led the liberation of Kiev.[89] Several weeks later an NKVD battalion was annihilated by the UPA near Rivne. This began a full-scale operation in the spring of 1944, initially involving 30,000 Soviet troops against the UPA in Volyn. Estimates of casualties vary depending on the source. A letter to the state defense committee of the USSR, Lavrentiy Beria stated that in spring 1944 clashes between Soviet forces and UPA resulted in 2,018 killed and 1,570 captured UPA fighters and only 11 Soviet killed and 46 wounded. Soviet archives show that a captured UPA member stated that he received a reports about UPA losses of 200 fighters while the Soviet forces lost 2,000.[90] The first significant sabotage operations against communications of the Soviet Army before their offensive against the Germans was conducted by the UPA in April''May 1944. Such actions were promptly stopped by the Soviet Army and NKVD troops, after which the OUN/UPA submitted an order to temporarily cease anti-Soviet activities and prepare for further struggle against the Soviets.[91]
  - Despite heavy casualties on both sides during the initial clashes, the struggle was inconclusive. New large scale actions of the UPA, especially in Ternopil Oblast, were launched in July''August 1944, when the Red Army advanced West.[91] By the autumn of 1944, UPA forces enjoyed virtual freedom of movement over an area of 160,000 square kilometers in size and home to over 10 million people and had established a shadow government.[16]
  - In November 1944, Khrushchev launched the first of several large-scale Soviet assaults on the UPA throughout Western Ukraine, involving according to OUN/UPA estimates at least 20 NKVD combat divisions supported by artillery and armored units. They blockaded villages and roads and set forests on fire.[88] Soviet archival data states that on October 9, 1944 1 NKVD Division, eight NKVD brigades, and an NKVD cavalry regiment with the total number of 26,304 NKVD soldiers stationed in Western Ukraine. In addition, 2 regiments with 1,500 and 1,200 persons, 1 battalion (517 persons) and three armored trains with 100 additional soldiers each, as well as 1 border guards regiment and 1 unit were starting to relocate there in order to reinforce them.[92]
  - During late 1944 and the first half of 1945, according to Soviet data, the UPA suffered approximately 89,000 killed, approximately 91,000 captured, and approximately 39,000 surrendered while the Soviet forces lost approximately 12,000 killed, approximately 6,000 wounded and 2,600 MIA. In addition, during this time, according to Soviet data UPA actions resulted in the killing of 3,919 civilians and the disappearance of 427 others.[93] Despite the heavy losses, as late as summer 1945, many battalion-size UPA units still continued to control and administer large areas of territory in Western Ukraine.[94] In February 1945 the UPA issued an order to liquidate kurins (battalions) and sotnya's (companies) and to act predominantly by choty's (platoons).[95]
  - Spring 1945''late 1946[edit]After Germany surrendered in May 1945, the Soviet authorities turned their attention to insurgencies taking place in Ukraine and the Baltics. Combat units were reorganised and special forces were sent in. One of the major complications that arose was the local support the UPA had from the population.
  - Areas of UPA activity were depopulated. The estimates on numbers deported vary; officially Soviet archives state that between 1944 and 1952 a total of 182,543 people[96][97] were deported while other sources indicate the number may have been as high as to 500,000.[98]
  - Mass arrests of suspected UPA informants or family members were conducted; between February 1944 and May 1946 over 250,000 people were arrested in Western Ukraine.[99] Those arrested typically experienced beatings or other violence. Those suspected of being UPA members underwent torture; (reports exist of some prisoners being burned alive). The many arrested women believed to be affiliating with the UPA were subjected to torture, deprivation, and rape at the hands of Soviet security in order to "break" them and get them to reveal UPA members' identities and locations or to turn them into Soviet double-agents.[66] Mutilated corpses of captured rebels were put on public display.[100] Ultimately, between 1944 and 1952 as many as 600,000 people may have been arrested in Western Ukraine, with about one third executed and the rest imprisoned or exiled.[101]
  - The UPA responded to the Soviet methods by unleashing their own terror against Soviet activists, suspected collaborators and their families. This work was particularly attributed to the Sluzhba Bezbeky (SB), the anti-espionage wing of the UPA. In a typical incident in Lviv region, in front of horrified villagers, UPA troops gouged out the eyes of two entire families suspected of reporting on insurgent movements to Soviet authorities, before hacking their bodies to pieces. Due to public outrage concerning these violent punitive acts, the UPA stopped the practice of killing the families of collaborators by mid-1945. Other victims of the UPA included Soviet activists sent to Galicia from other parts of the Soviet Union; heads of village Soviets, those sheltering or feeding Red Army personnel, and even people turning food in to collective farms. The effect of such terrorist acts was such that people refused to take posts as village heads, and until the late 1940s villages chose single men with no dependants as their leaders.[102]
  - The UPA also proved to be especially adept at assassinating key Soviet administrative officials. According to NKVD data, between February 1944 and December 1946 11,725 Soviet officers, agents and collaborators were assassinated and 2,401 were "missing", presumed kidnapped, in Western Ukraine.[103] In one county in Lviv region alone, from August 1944 until January 1945 Ukrainian rebels killed ten members of the Soviet activ and a secretary of the county Communist party, and also kidnapped four other officials. The UPA travelled at will throughout the area. In this county, there were no courts, no prosecutor's office, and the local NKVD only had three staff members.[103]
  - According to a 1946 report by Khrushchenv's deputy for West Ukrainian affairs A.A. Stoiantsev, out of 42,175 operations and ambushes against the UPA by Destructive Battalions in Western Ukraine, only 10 percent had positive results - in the vast majority there was either no contact or the individual unit was disarmed and pro-Soviet leaders murdered or kidnapped.[104] Morale amongst the NKVD in Western Ukraine was particularly low. Even within the dangerous context of Soviet state service in the late-Stalin era, West Ukraine was considered to be a "hardship post", and personnel files reveal higher rates of transfer requests, alcoholism, and nervous breakdowns and refusal to serve among NKVD field agents there at that time.[105]
  - The first success of the Soviet authorities came in early 1946 in the Carpathians, which were blockaded from January 11 until April 10. The UPA operating there ceased to exist as a combat unit.[106] The continuous heavy casualties elsewhere forced the UPA to split into small units consisting of 100 soldiers. Many of the troops demobilized and returned home, when the Soviet Union offered three amnesties during 1947-1948.[87]
  - By 1946, the UPA was reduced to a core group of 5-10 thousand fighters, and large-scale UPA activity shifted to the Soviet-Polish border. Here, in 1947, they allegedly killed the Polish Communist deputy defense minister General Karol Åwierczewski. In spring 1946, the OUN/UPA established contacts with the Intelligence services of France, Great Britain and the USA.[107] Although the UPA obtained some help from the CIA and British intelligence during the latter phase of its struggle, the operation was betrayed by Kim Philby. After the huge winter 1945/46 operation by the NKVD, the UPA/OUN fielded 479 units and had 3,735 fighters, according to an NKVD estimate from April 1, 1946. By January 1, 1947 the Soviets estimated the OUN and UPA as having 530 fighting units with 4,456 fighters.
  - End of UPA resistance[edit]The turning point in the struggle against the UPA came in 1947, when the Soviets established an intelligence gathering network within the UPA and shifted the focus of their actions from mass terror to infiltration and espionage. After 1947 the UPA's activity began to subside. On May 30, 1947 Shukhevych issued instructions joining the OUN and UPA in underground warfare.[108] In 1947-1948 UPA resistance was weakened enough to allow the Soviets to begin implementation of large-scale collectivization throughout Western Ukraine.[16]
  - In 1948, the Soviet central authorities purged local officials who had mistreated peasants and engaged in "vicious methods". At the same time, Soviet agents planted within the UPA had taken their toll on morale and on the UPA's effectiveness. According to the writing of one slain Ukrainian rebel, "the Bolsheviks tried to take us from within...you can never know exactly in whose hands you will find yourself. From such a network of spies, the work of whole teams is often penetrated...". In November 1948, the work of Soviet agents led to two important victories against the UPA: the defeat and deaths of the heads of the most active UPA network in Western Ukraine, and the removal of "Myron", the head of the UPA's counterintelligence SB unit.[109]
  - The Soviet authorities tried to win over the local population by making significant economic investment in Western Ukraine[citation needed], and by setting up rapid reaction groups in many regions to combat the UPA. According to one retired MVD major, "By 1948 ideologically we had the support of most of the population."[87] The Soviets skillfully exploited Polish-Ukrainian ethnic friction by recruiting Poles as informants. This contributed to the growing isolation of the UPA which was further helped by the Polish government implementing Operation Vistula in 1947. On September 3, 1949 Shukhevych issued an order, dissolving UPA units and headquarters and integrating UPA's personnel into the OUN (B) underground.
  - The UPA's leader, Roman Shukhevych, was killed during an ambush near Lviv on March 5, 1950. Although sporadic UPA activity continued until the mid-1950s, after Shukhevich's death the UPA rapidly lost its fighting capability. An assessment of UPA manpower by Soviet authorities on 17 April 1952 claimed that UPA/OUN had only 84 fighting units consisting of 252 persons. The UPA's last commander, Vasyl Kuk, was captured on May 24, 1954. Despite the existence of some insurgent groups, according to a report by the MGB of the Ukrainian SSR, the "liquidation of armed units and OUN underground was accomplished by the beginning of 1956".[108]
  - Controversially, it has been suggested that there were NKVD units dressed as UPA fighters[110] which committed atrocities in order to demoralize the civilian population.[111] among these NKVD units were those composed of former UPA fighters working for the NKVD.[112] The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recently published information about 150 such special groups consisting of 1,800 people operated until 1954.[113]Bohdan Stashynsky was ex-UPA turned MVD fighter who would then climb the ladder of MGB (and later KGB) hierarchy to become a foreign agent who assassinated the OUN chief Lev Rebet in 1957 and later Stepan Bandera in 1959.
  - Prominent people killed by UPA insurgents during the anti-Soviet struggle included Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky) of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, killed while travelling in a German convoy,[114] and pro-Soviet writer Yaroslav Halan.[87]
  - In 1951 CIA covert operations chief Frank Wisner estimated that some 35,000 Soviet police troops and Communist party cadres had been eliminated by guerrillas affiliated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the period after the end of World War II. Official Soviet figures for the losses inflicted by all types of "Ukrainian nationalists" during the period 1944-1953 referred to 30,676 persons; amongst them were 687 NKGB-MGB personnel, 1,864 NKVD-MVD personnel, 3,199 Soviet Army, Border Guards, and NKVD-MVD troops, 241 communist party leaders, 205 komsomol leaders and 2,590 members of self-defense units. According to Soviet data the remaining losses were among civilians, including 15,355 peasants and kolkhozniks.[115] Soviet archives state that between February 1944 and January 1946 the Soviet forces conducted 39,778 operations against the UPA, during which they killed a total of 103,313, captured a total of 8,370 OUN members and captured a total of 15,959 active insurgents.[116]
  - Soviet infiltration[edit]From the beginning of 1944, the Soviets waged an active campaign against the UPA, launching a large-scale assault against the Ukrainian underground in several directions: propaganda among the population; military operations; repression against members and their families. Soviet anti-insurgent propaganda was concentrated on discrediting and dividing the national liberation movement. Soviet propaganda emphasised their thesis on the treason and crimes of "Ukrainian-German nationalists" and their collaboration with "fascist invaders".
  - From 1944 through the 1950s, frontal sections of the Red Army and SMERSH operated against the UPA. Later the function of fighting the UPA fell to the NKVD.
  - In 1944-1945 the NKVD carried out 26,693 operations against the Ukrainian underground. These resulted in the deaths of 22,474 Ukrainian soldiers and the capture of 62,142 prisoners. During this time the NKVD formed special groups known as spetshrupy made up of former Soviet partisans. The goal of these groups was to discredit and disorganize the OUN and UPA. In August 1944 Sydir Kovpak was placed under NKVD authority. Posing as Ukrainian insurgents these special formations used violence against the civilian population of Western Ukraine. In June 1945 there were 156 such special groups with 1783 members.[73]
  - The Soviets used "extermination battalions" (strybky) recruiting secret collaborators in each population point. Attempts were made to place agents at all leading levels of the OUN and UPA.
  - From December 1945 '' 1946 15,562 operations were carried out in which 4,200 were killed and more than 9,400 were arrested. From 1944-1953,the Soviets killed 153,000 and arrested 134,000 members of the UPA. 66,000 families (204,000 people) were forcibly deported to Siberia and half a million people were subject to repressions. In the same period Polish communist authorities deported 450,000 people.[73]
  - UPA and Jews[edit]There is a lack of consensus among historians about the involvement of the UPA in the massacre of Western Ukraine's Jews. Numerous accounts ascribe to the UPA a role in the killing of Ukrainian Jews under the German occupation.[117][118] Other historians, however, do not support the claims that the UPA was involved in anti-Jewish massacres.[94][119]
  - Antisemitism did not play a central role in Ukrainian nationalist ideology, notwithstanding the antisemitic rhetoric that was obligatory in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. German documents of the period give the impression that Ukrainian ultranationalists were indifferent to the plight of the Jews; they would either kill them or help them, whichever was more appropriate for their political goals.[120] According to specialist John Paul Himka, OUN militias were responsible for a wave of pogroms in Lviv and western Ukraine in 1941 that claimed thousands of Jewish lives. The OUN had earlier repudiated pogroms but changed its stand when the Germans, with whom the OUN sought an alliance, demanded participation in them.[121] Recently declassified documents have shown that the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) was most likely not strongly involved in anti-Jewish activities in 1941.[122]
  - The OUN pursued a policy of infiltrating the German police in order to obtain weapons and training for its fighters. In this role they helped the Germans to implement the Final Solution. Although most Jews were actually killed by Germans, the OUN police working for them played a crucial supporting role in the liquidation of 200,000 Jews in Volyn in the second half of 1942 [123] (although in isolated cases Ukrainian policemen also helped Jews to escape [124]) Most of these police deserted in the following spring and joined UPA.[123]
  - Jews played an important role in the Soviet partisan movement in Volhynia and participated in its actions. The Soviet partisans were known for their brutality, retaliating against entire villages suspected of working with the Germans, killing individuals deemed to be collaborators, and provoking the Germans to attack villages. UPA would later attempt to match that brutality.[125]
  - By early 1943 the OUN had entered into open armed conflict with Nazi Germany. According to Ukrainian historian and former UPA soldier Lew Shankowsky, immediately upon assuming the position of commander of UPA in August 1943 Roman Shukhevych issued an order banning participation in anti-Jewish activities. No written record of this order, however, has been found.[126] In 1944, the OUN formally "rejected racial and ethnic exclusivity"[94] Nevertheless, Jews hiding from the Germans with Poles in Polish villages were often killed by UPA along with their Polish saviors, although in at least one case they were spared as the Poles were murdered.[125]
  - Despite the earlier anti-Jewish statements by the OUN, and UPA's involvement in the killing of some Jews, there were cases of Jewish participation within the ranks of UPA, some of whom held high positions. Jewish participation included fighters,[127] but was particularly visible among its medical personnel. These included Dr. Margosh, who headed UPA-West's medical service, Dr. Marksymovich, who was the Chief Physician of the UPA's officer school, and Dr. Abraham Kum, the director of an underground hospital in the Carpathians. The latter individual was the recipient of the UPA's Golden Cross of Merit. A claim exists that a Jewish woman, Stella Krenzbach, the daughter of a rabbi and a Zionist, joined the UPA as a nurse and intelligence agent. She is alleged to have written "I attribute the fact that I am alive today and devoting all the strength of my thirty-eight years to a free Israel only to God and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I became a member of the heroic UPA on 7 November 1943. In our group I counted twelve Jews, eight of whom were doctors." [128] although her particular account has been dismissed as a hoax by several sources.[129][130]
  - One Ukrainian historian has claimed that almost every UPA unit included Jewish support personnel. Many Jews, particularly those whose skills were useful to UPA, were sheltered by them.[131] It has been claimed that UPA sometimes executed its Jewish personnel, although such claims are either uncorroborated or mistaken.[132]
  - Soviet propaganda complained about Zionist membership in UPA [133] and during the period of persecution of Jews in the early 1950s described the alleged connection between Jewish and Ukrainian nationalists.[134]
  - Supporters of the UPA argue that the relationship between the UPA and Western Ukraine's Jews was complex and not one-sided.[135]
  - Reconciliation[edit]During the following years the UPA was officially taboo in the Soviet Union, mentioned only as a terrorist organization.[136] Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, there have been heated debates about the possible award of official recognition to former UPA members as legitimate combatants, with the accompanying pensions and benefits due to war veterans.[136] UPA veterans have also striven to hold parades and commemorations of their own, especially in Western Ukraine. This, in turn, led to opposition from Soviet Army veterans and some Ukrainian politicians, particularly from the south and east of the country.[136] The government in Russia has also reacted negatively.
  - Attempts to reconcile the two groups of veterans have made little progress. An attempt to hold a joint parade in Kiev in May 2005, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, proved unsuccessful. The assessment of the historical role of UPA remains a controversial issue in Ukrainian society, although Ukrainian presidentViktor Yushchenko joined several public Ukrainian organizations in calls for reconciliation, pensions, and other benefits for UPA veterans which would give them equal status with the veterans of the Soviet Army, and aid the understanding of their role in the chaotic times of UPA operations. In 2007, president Yushchenko awarded the title "Hero of Ukraine", the country's highest honour, to UPA leader Roman Shukhevych.
  - Recently, attempts to reconcile former Armia Krajowa and UPA soldiers have been made by both the Ukrainian and Polish sides. Individual former UPA members have expressed their readiness for mutual apology. Some of the past soldiers of both organisations have met and asked for forgiveness for the past misdeeds.[137] Restorations of graves and cemeteries in Poland where fallen UPA soldiers were buried have been agreed to by the Polish side.[138]
  - Monuments (for combatants or victims)[edit]Without waiting for official notice from Kiev, many regional authorities have already decided to approach the UPA history on their own. In some western cities and villages monuments, memorials and plaques to the leaders and troops of the UPA have been erected, including a monument to Stepan Bandera himself which opened in October 2007. In late 2006 the Lviv city administration announced the future transference of the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders of OUN/UPA to a new area of Lychakiv Cemetery specifically dedicated to Ukrainian nationalists.[139]
  - In response to this, many southern and eastern provinces, despite the fact that the UPA did not operate in these regions, have responded by opening memorials of their own dedicated the UPA's victims. The first one of these, titled "The Shot in the Back", was unveiled by the Communist Party of Ukraine in Simferopol, Crimea in September 2007,[140] and in 2008 one was erected in Svatove, Luhansk oblast, and another in Luhansk on May 8, 2010 by the city deputy Arsen Klinchaev and the Party of Regions.[141] The unveiling ceremony was attended by Vice Prime MinisterViktor Tykhonov, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the Pro-Russian Party of RegionsOleksandr Yefremov, Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin, Luhansk Regional Governor Valerii Holenko, and Luhansk Mayor Serhii Kravchenko.[141]
  - Recognition[edit]According to Columbia University professor John Armstrong "If one takes into account the duration, geographical extent, and intensity of activity, the UPA very probably is the most important example of forceful resistance to an established Communist regime prior to the decade of fierce Afghan resistance beginning in 1979...the Hungarian revolution of 1956 was, of course, far more important, involving to some degree a population of nine million...however it lasted only a few weeks. In contrast, the more-or-less effective anti-Communist activity of the Ukrainian resistance forces lasted from mid-1944 until 1950".[142]
  - On January 10, 2008 President of UkraineViktor Yushchenko submitted a draft law "On the official Status of Fighters for Ukraine's Independence from the 1920s to the 1990s". Under the draft, persons who took part in political, guerrilla, underground and combat activities for the freedom and independence of Ukraine from 1920-1990 as part of the:
  - as well as persons who assisted these organizations shall be recognized as war veterans.[143]
  - In 2007, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) set up a special working group to study archive documents of the activity of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in order to make public original sources.[144]
  - Since 2006 the SBU has been actively involved in declassifying documents relating to the operations of Soviet security services and the history of liberation movement in Ukraine. The SBU Information Center provides an opportunity for scholars to get acquainted with electronic copies of archive documents. The documents are arranged by topics (1932-1933 Holodomor, OUN/UPA Activities, Repression in Ukraine, Movement of Dissident).[145]
  - As of September 2009, Ukrainian schoolchildren will take a more extensive course of the history of the Holodomor and OUN and UPA fighters.[146]
  - President Yushchenko took part in the celebration of the 67th anniversary of the UPA and the 65th of Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council on October 14, 2009.[147]
  - To commemorate National Unity Day, on January 22, 2010 President Yushchenko awarded Stepan Bandera the Hero of Ukraine honor posthumously. A district administrative court in Donetsk, Ukraine cancelled on April 2, 2010, the presidential decree granting the Hero of Ukraine title to Bandera. Lawyer Vladimir Olentsevych argued in a lawsuit that the title of Hero of Ukraine is the highest state award which is granted exclusively to citizens of Ukraine. Bandera was not a Ukrainian citizen, as he was killed in emigration in 1959 before the 1991 Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.[148][149]
  - On January 16, 2012 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine upheld the Presidential decree of January 28, 2010 "About recognition of OUN members and soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as participants in struggle for independence of Ukraine" after it was challenged by the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Nataliya Vitrenko, recognizing the UPA as war combatants.[150][151]
  - Popular culture[edit]The Ukrainian black metal band Drudkh made a song entitled Ukrainian Insurgent Army on its 2006 release, ÐÑÐ¾Ð² Ñ Ð'Ð°ÑÐ¸Ñ ÐÑÐ¸Ð½Ð¸ÑÑÑ (Blood in our wells). Ukrainian black metal band Nokturnal Mortum have a song titled "Hailed Be the Heroes" (ÐÐ>>Ð°Ð²Ð° Ð"ÐµÑÐ¾ÑÐ¼) on the Weltanschauung/Ð'Ð¸ÑÐ¾Ð²Ð¾Ð·Ð·ÑÐµÐ½Ð¸Ðµ album which contains lyrics pertaining to World War II and Western Ukraine (Galicia), and it's title, Slava Heroyam, is a traditional UPA salute.
  - Two Czech films by FrantiÅek VlÄil, Shadows of a Hot Summer (Stny hork(C)ho l(C)ta, 1977) and The Little Shepherd Boy From The Valley (PasÄek z doliny, 1983) are set in 1947, and feature UPA guerrillas in significant supporting roles. The first film resembles Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971), in that it's about a farmer whose family is taken hostage by five UPA guerrillas, and he has to resort to his own ingenuity, plus reserves of violence that he never knew he possessed, to defeat them. In the second, the shepherd boy (actually a cowherd) imagines that a group of UPA guerrillas is made up of fairytale characters of his grandfather's stories, and that their leader is the Goblin King.
  - Also films such as Neskorenyj (Undefeated), Zaliznya Sotnya (Company of Heroes)and Atentant (Assassination in Munich) feature more description about the role of UPA on their terrain. Undefeated is about the life of Roman Shuhevych and the hunt for him by both German and Soviet forces, Company of Heroes shows how UPA soldiers had everyday life as they fight far more superior forces, Assassination in Munich is about the life of Bandera and how treacherous KGB agents murdered him.
  - Films[edit]The Undefeated (2000)The White Bird Marked with Black (1970)The Last Bunker (1991)Vyshnevi Nochi (1992)The Company of Heroes (2005)Assassination. An Autumn Murder in Munich (1995)Stracheni Svitanky (1995)One - the soldier in the field (2003)Goodbye, Girl (1994)OUN - UPA war on two fronts (2006)UPA. Third Force (2007)Security Service of OUN. "Closed Doors" (2012)Memories about UPA (1993)Freedom or death! (2006)Songs[edit]The most obvious characteristic of the insurgent songs genre is the theme of rising up against occupying powers, enslavement and tyranny. Insurgent songs express an open call to battle and to revenge against the enemies of Ukraine, as well as love for the motherland and devotion to her revolutionary leaders (Bandera, Chuprynka and others). UPA actions, heroic deeds of individual soldiers, the hard underground life, longing for one's girl, family or boy are also important subject of this genre.[152]
  - Taras Zhytynsky "To sons of UPA"[153]Tartak "Not saying to anybody"[154]Folk song "To the source of Dniester"[155]See also[edit]References[edit]^"Demotix: 69th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army". Kyivpost.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Myroslav Yurkevich, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv)This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).^Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÑÐ¼ÑÑ '-- ÐÑÑÐ¾ÑÑÑ Ð½ÐµÑÐºÐ¾ÑÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ, Lviv, 2007 p.28 (Ukrainian)^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Chapter 4 pp. 193''199 Chapter 5^Norman Davies. (1996). Europe: a History. Oxford: Oxford University Press^Aleksander V. Prusin. Ethnic Cleansing: Poles from Western Ukraine. In: Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen. Immigration and asylum: from 1900 to the present. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. 2005. pp. 204-205.^Timothy Snyder. The reconstruction of nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Yale University Press. 2003. pp. 169-170, 176^John Paul Himka. Interventions: Challenging the Myths of Twentieth-Century Ukrainian History. University of Alberta. 2011. p.4.^Grzegorz RossoliÅski Liebe. "The Ukrainian National Revolution" of 1941. Discourse and Practice of a Fascist Movement. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Vol. 12/No. 1 (Winter 2011). p. 83.^Timothy Snyder. The reconstruction of nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Yale University Press. 2003. p. 192.^http://blogs.voanews.com/russia-watch/2014/01/29/dont-underestimate-ukraine/^Subtelny, p. 474 Subtelny, Orest (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 800. ISBN 0-8020-8390-0. ^Interview with historian Viktor Korol "The very fact that in contrast to practically all the other resistance movements in the countries occupied in World War II by Nazi Germany, the Ukrainian resistance movement was not getting any outside help, and the fact that it could go on fighting first against the Germans and later against the Soviets showed that the UPA had a very substantial support of the local Ukrainian population."^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 4, p. 180^Miller, Christopher (17 January 2014). "Svoboda's rise inspires some, frightens many others". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 5 February 2014. ^ abcdeZhukov, Yuri. "Examining the Authoritarian Model of Counter-insurgency: The Soviet Campaign Against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (PDF). Small Wars and Insurgencies. 18, no. 3. pp. 439''466. ^ abcInstitute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 12, p. 169^ÐÐ°ÑÑÐºÐ° Ð´Ð>>Ñ Ð(C)ÑÑÐ°>> 4 Ð>>Ð¸ÑÑÐ¾ÐÐ°Ð´Ð° Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ð¾Ð¼Ñ Ð· Ð·Ð°ÑÐ½Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ð¸ÐºÑÐ² Ð£ÐÐ Ð--Ð¼Ð¸ÑÑÐ¾Ð²Ñ ÐÐ>>ÑÑÐºÑÐ²ÑÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼Ñ Ð²Ð¸ÐÐ¾Ð²Ð½Ð¸Ð>>Ð¾ÑÑ 95 ÑÐ¾ÐºÑÐ² in Ukrainian-Russian "Zerkalo Nedeli" Magazine^Ivan Katchanovski, Terrorists or National Heroes? Politics of the OUN and the UPA in Ukraine, http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2010/Katchanovski.pdf.^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 12, p. 172[dead link]^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 14, p. 188^ abMagoscy, R. (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ^Petro Sodol - Ukrainian Insurgent Army 1943-1949. Handbook. New '' York 1994 p.28^John Armstrong. (1963). Ukrainian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press. pg. 156^William Taubman. (2004). Khrushchev: The Man and His Era W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05144-7 pg. 193^ÐÐµÑÑÐ¾ Ð'ÑÑÑÑÐº, Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÑÐ¼ÑÑ. 1942-1952. Ð'ÑÐ½ÑÐµÐ½, 1953. - 233-234 ÑÑ.^"Hey, in meadow the red viburnum has tilted..." from "Narodna Pravda" on April 9, 2008(Ukrainian)^(Ukrainian)So, who is the author of the famous song "Hey, in meadow the red viburnum has tilted"?^"Avramenko, O.M., Shabelnykova, L.P. ''Chapter 12. Riflemen songs.'' Ukrainian literature. Sixth grade. (textbook)" (in (Russian)). School.xvatit.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^http://donetsk.comments.ua/news/2014/01/18/194557.html^Major Petro R.Sodol, USA (RET.). UPA: THEY FOUGHT HITLER AND STALIN. New York 1987. p. 34^Major Petro R.Sodol, USA (RET.). UPA: THEY FOUGHT HITLER AND STALIN. New York 1987. p. 36^ abcMotyka, p. 148^However it is not true that UPA had a Soviet T-35 tank.^Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kyiv Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 p.585^(Ukrainian) Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÑÐ¼ÑÑ - ÐÑÑÐ¾ÑÑÑ Ð½ÐµÑÐºÐ¾ÑÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ - ÐÑÐ²ÑÐ², 2007 p.203^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Chapter 1 p.69^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Chapter 2 P.92^"Ukrainian History - World War II in Ukraine". InfoUkes. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Chapter 2 P.95-97.^Banderivtsi Nationalistic Portal (ÐÐ°Ð½Ð´ÐµÑÑÐ²ÑÑ ÑÐ´ÑÑÑ! in Ð'Ð°ÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð°Ð>>ÑÑÑÐ¸ÑÐ½Ð¸Ð¹ ÐÐ¾ÑÑÐ°Ð>>)(Ukrainian)^(Ukrainian) ÐÑÐ"Ð°Ð½ÑÐ·Ð°ÑÑÑ ÑÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ñ Ð½Ð°ÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð°Ð>>ÑÑÑÑÐ² Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° Ð°ÑÐ¼ÑÑ p.164^[1] p.181^(Ukrainian) ÐÑÐ"Ð°Ð½ÑÐ·Ð°ÑÑÑ ÑÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ñ Ð½Ð°ÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð°Ð>>ÑÑÑÑÐ² Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° Ð°ÑÐ¼ÑÑ p.165^Mykola Vladzimirsky. "Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Military Formations of the OUN During World War II, by Ivan Mukovsky, 2002 (Ukrainian)". Warhistory.ukrlife.org. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^(Ukrainian) ÐÑÐ"Ð°Ð½ÑÐ·Ð°ÑÑÑ ÑÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ñ Ð½Ð°ÑÑÐ¾Ð½Ð°Ð>>ÑÑÑÑÐ² Ñ Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ° Ð°ÑÐ¼ÑÑ p.178^Debriefing of General Kostring Department of the Army, 3 November 1948, MSC - 035, cited in Sodol, Petro R., 1987, UPA: They Fought Hitler and Stalin, New York: Committee for the World Convention and Reunion of Soldiers in the UIA, pg. 58.^Toynbee, T.R.V. (1954). Survey of International Affairs: Hitler's Europe 1939-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. (page # missing). ^Yuriy Tys-Krokhmaluk, UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York, N.Y. Society of Veterans of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-80823 P.58-59^Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kyiv Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 p, 384 p.391^James K. Anderson, Unknown Soldiers of an Unknown Army, Army Magazine, May 1968, p. 63^Yuriy Tys-Krokhmaluk, UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York, N.Y. Society of Veterans of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-80823 p.238-239^Yuriy Tys-Krokhmaluk, UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York, N.Y. Society of Veterans of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-80823 p.242-243^According to post-war estimates, the UPA had the following number of clashes with the Germans in mid-to-late 1943 in Volyn: in July, 35; in August, 24; in September, 15; October''November, 47. See Ukrainian Institute of Military History, Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Military Formations of the OUN During the Second World War, Ivan Mukovsky, Oleksander Lysenko, #5-6, 2002^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 14, p. 186^L. Shankovskyy (1953). History of Ukrainian Army (ÐÑÑÐ¾ÑÑÑ ÑÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ¾Ð"Ð¾ Ð²ÑÐ¹ÑÑÐºÐ°). Winnipeg. p. 32. ^Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Military Formations of the OUN During World War II, by Ivan Mukovsky, 2002 (Ukrainian) "...ÐÑÑ ÑÑÐ¼Ð½Ð° ÑÑÐ°ÑÐ¸ÑÑÐ¸ÐºÐ° ÑÐ¸Ñ Ð±Ð¾ÑÐ²: Ñ Ð>>Ð¸ÐÐ½Ñ Ð²ÑÐ´Ð±ÑÐ>>Ð¾ÑÑ 35 ÑÑÑÐ¸ÑÐ¾Ðº, Ñ ÑÐµÑÐÐ½Ñ - 24, Ñ Ð²ÐµÑÐµÑÐ½Ñ - 15; Ð²ÑÑÐ°ÑÐ¸ ÐÐ¾Ð²ÑÑÐ°Ð½ÑÑÐ² ÑÑÐ°Ð½Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ð>>Ð¸ 1237 Ð±ÑÐ¹ÑÑÐ² Ñ ÑÑÐ°ÑÑÐ¸Ð½, Ð²Ð¾ÑÐ¾Ð¶Ñ Ð²ÑÑÐ°ÑÐ¸ ÑÐºÐ>>Ð°Ð>>Ð¸ 3000 ÑÐ¾Ð>>Ð¾Ð²ÑÐº..."^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 4, pg. 190^p.190-194[dead link]^p.192[dead link]^p.192-194[dead link]^Yaroslav Hrytsak, "History of Ukraine 1772-1999"^p.196[dead link]^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 14, pg. 197^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 14^ ab[2][dead link]^Martovych O. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). '' Munchen, 1950 p.20^Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, p.338[dead link]^Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 3, pp. 179-180^Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 4, pp. 179-180^Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 4, pg. 199^Martin, Terry (December 1998). "The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing". The Journal of Modern History (The University of Chicago Press) 70 (4): 820. ^ abcInstitute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 16, pg. 247-295^Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's holocaust. Published by McFarland. Page 247^WÅadysÅaw Filar, Wydarzenia woÅyÅskie 1939-1944. Wydawnictwo Adam MarszaÅek. ToruÅ 2008 ISBN 978-83-7441-884-3^Grzegorz Motyka, UkraiÅska Partyzantka 1942-1960, Warszawa 2006, p. 329^Grzegorz Motyka, UkraiÅska Partyzantka 1942-1960, p. 377^ abGrzegorz Motyka, UkraiÅska Partyzantka 1942-1960, Warszawa 2006, p. 303-381^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 11, pg. 24^Jeffrey Burds (1997). "Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", East European Politics and Societies v.11 p 96[dead link]^John-Paul Himka wrote: "This is really a problem area because they killed so many people, civilians." In addition to Jews, he wrote, they killed 60,000 to 100,000 Poles, as well as political opponents, Orthodox clergymen, teachers of Russian and many prisoners of war from eastern Ukraine. He estimates the UPA fighters killed several thousand Jews, "but perhaps the number was much higher." [in:] In Ukraine, a movement to honor members of the World War II underground set off debates. The Washington Post. January 8, 2010^A fascist hero in democratic Kiev.Timothy Snyder. New York Review of Books. February 24, 2010.^ abcdGrzegorz Motyka, "W Kreguy Lun w Bieszczadach, Rytm, Warsaw, 2009, pg. 12-14, 43^Partisan Movement in Ukraine[dead link]^Subtelny, p. 476^Ihor Sundiukov, "The Other Side of the Legend: Nikolai Kuznetsov Revisited", 24 January 2006. Retrieved on 18 December 2007.^ abcdVladimir Perekrest, former NKVD officer, Source: FSB.ru[dead link]^ abKrokhmaluk, Y. (1972). UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York: Vantage Press. p. (page 242). ^Grenkevich, L., translated by David Glantz. (1999). The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944: Critical analysis of. Routledge. p. 134. ^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 15, p. 213-214^ abIvan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kiev Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 pp.549-570^According to Soviet archives, the NKVD units located in Western Ukraine were: the 9th Rifle division; 16, 20, 21, 25, 17, 18, 19, 23rd brigades; 1 cavalry regiment. Sent to reinforce them: 256, 192nd regiments; 1 battalion three armored trains (45, 26, 42). The 42nd border guard regiment and another unit (27th) were sent to reinforce them. From Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kiev Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 P.478-482^Exact statistics of UPA casualties by the Soviets and Soviet casualties by UPA, in specific time periods, according to data compiled by the NKVD of the Ukrainian SRR: during February - December 1944 the UPA suffered the following casualties: 57,405 killed; 50,387 captured; 15,990 surrendered. During the period from January 1, 1945 until May 1, 1945 the following casualties were reported: 31,157 killed; 40,760 captured; 23,156 surrendered. The UPA's actions numbered 2,903 in 1944, and from January 1, 1945 until May 1, 1945 - 1,289. During February until December 1944 Soviet losses were: 9,521 "killed and hanged"; 3,494 wounded; 2,131 MIA; amongst them NKVD-NKGB suffered 401 killed and hanged, 227 wounded, 98 MIA and captured. From January 1, 1945 until May 1, 1945 the NKVD and Soviet Army troops suffered 2,513 killed, 2,489 wounded, 524 MIA and captured. Soviet Authorities personnel suffered 1,225 killed or hanged, 239 wounded, 427 MIA or captured. In addition, 3,919 civilians were killed or hanged, 320 wounded, and 814 MIA or captured. From Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kiev Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 pp.604-605^ abcOrest Subtelny, Ukraine: a history, pp. 489, University of Toronto Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8020-8390-0^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army [3]^(Ukrainian)external link^Theses include deported (1944-47): families of OUN/UPA members'''' 15,040 families (37,145) persons; OUN/UPA underground families '' 26,332 (77,791 persons) taken from: Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kiev Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 P.545-546^Subtelny, p. 489^Burds, p.97^"Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", Jeffrey Burds (1997) East European Politics and Societies, v.11^William Taubman. (2004). Khrushchev: The Man and His EraW. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05144-7 pg. 195^"Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", Jeffrey Burds (1997) East European Politics and Societies, v.11, pp. 106 - 110^ ab"Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", Jeffrey Burds (1997) East European Politics and Societies, v.11, pp. 113-114^"Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", Jeffrey Burds (1997) East European Politics and Societies, v.11, pg. 123^"Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", Jeffrey Burds (1997) East European Politics and Societies, v.11, pg. 120^"Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army". Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2006-05-29. Retrieved 26 May 2013. (Ukrainian)^"Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army". Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2008-04-11. Retrieved 26 May 2013. (Ukrainian)^ abMykola Vladzimirsky. "Ð¶ÑÑÐ½Ð°Ð>> "Ð'Ð¾Ñ--Ð½Ð½Ð° ÑÑÑÐ¾ÑÑÑ" #5-6 Ð·Ð° 2002 ÑÑÐº Ð'ÑÐ¹Ð½Ð° ÐÑÑÐ>>Ñ Ð²ÑÐ¹Ð½Ð¸". Warhistory.ukrlife.org. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Jeffrey Burds (1997). "Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", East European Politics and Societies v.11 pp. 125-130[dead link]^Wilson, A. (2005). Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 15. ^Ukrainian Weekly, July 28, 2002, written by Dr. Taras Kuzio[dead link]^Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917-1953 Vol.2 Kyiv Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 ISBN 5-325-00599-5 P 460-464, 470-477^"Ukrainian News". Ukranews.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^John Armstrong (1963). Ukrainian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 205-206^p.439[dead link]^Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 21, pp. 385-386 [4]^Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, Israel Gutman, editor-in-chief. New York: Macmillan, 1990. 4 volumes. ISBN 0-02-896090-4.^Tadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist), Ukrainian Collaboration in Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918''1947 pp. 220''59, McFarland & Company, 1998, ISBN 0-7864-0371-3^Institute of History, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army[dead link]^Ukrainian Collaboration in the Extermination of the Jews during the Second World War: Sorting Out the Long-Term and Conjunctural Factors by John-Paul Himka, University of Alberta. Taken from The Fate of the European Jews, 1939-1945: Continuity or Contingency, ed. Jonathan Frankel (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), Studies in Contemporary Jewry 13 (1997): 170-89.^The Lviv pogrom of 1941 By John Paul Himka. Kyiv Post September 23, 2010.^"SBU declassifies documents proving OUN-UPA not connected with anti-Jewish actions : Ukraine News by UNIAN". Unian.net. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^ abTimothy Snyder. (2004) The Reconstruction of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press: pg. 162^Timothy Snyder. (2008). "The life and death of Volhynian Jewry, 1921-1945." In Brandon, Lowler (Eds.) The Shoah in Ukraine: history, testimony, memorialization. Indiana: Indiana University Press, pg. 95^ abTimothy Snyder. (2008). "The life and death of Volhynian Jewry, 1921-1945." In Brandon, Lowler (Eds.) The Shoah in Ukraine: history, testimony, memorialization. Indiana: Indiana University Press, pg. 101^Phillip Friedman. (1980). Ukrainian-Jewish Relations During the Occupation. From Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. New York: Conference on Jewish Social Studies, pg. 203^Leo Heiman, "We Fought for Ukraine - The Story of Jews Within the UPA", Ukrainian Quarterly Spring 1964, pp.33-44.^Moses Fishbein, transcript of a delivered at the 26th Conference on Ukrainian Subjects at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 24-27 June 2009 posted on the website of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine^John Paul Himka. Falsifying World War II history in Ukraine. Himka notes that Bohdan Kordiuk an OUN member who had been incarcerated in a concentration camp (Auschwitz), described Krenzbach's memoirs as false in the newspaper Suchasna Ukraina (no. 15/194, 20 July 1958), where he wrote ''...None of the UPA men known to the author of these lines knows the legendary Stella Krenzbach or have heard of her. The Jews do not know her either. It is unlikely that anyone of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees after the war met Stella Krenzbach.'' Himka also noted the Philip Friedman faield to find evidence of her existence.^Philip Friedman. Ukrainian-Jewish Relations During the Nazi Occupation. In Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. (1980) New York: Conference of Jewish Social Studies. pp.203-204^Friedman, P. Ukrainian-Jewish Relations During the Nazi Occupation, YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science v. 12, pp. 259''96, 1958''59. Friedman gives the examples of two camps, one numbering 100 Jews and another with 400 Jews^Philip Friedman. Ukrainian-Jewish Relations During the Nazi Occupation. In Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. (1980) New York: Conference of Jewish Social Studies. pg. 189 and footnotes pp. 204-205. Friedman notes that claims by Eisenstein-Keshev that UPA liquidated its physicians did not include any detailed data about this, and reported that another claim is questionable. Eisenstein claimed that at the approach of the Soviet army UPA liquidated the 400 Jews they had employed in Kudrynki in Volhynia (only 17 of whom survived). In reality, Friedman notes that the camp did not disperse due to the advance of Soviet forces as erroneously written by Eisenstein but was overrun by a German motorized battalion. Friedman notes that "conceivably, some of the Jewish inmates were left behind, fell into the hands of the Germans, and were exterminated." Friedman noted that he personally met one Jewish physician and his wife who had been with the Bandera group and knew of another physician and his brother who also served in the UPA and settled near Tel Aviv after the war.^"Divide and Conquer: the KGB Disinformation Campaign Against Ukrainians and Jews. ''Ukrainian Quarterly'', Fall 2004. By Herbert Romerstein". Iwp.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Iwan S Koropecky (Ed.) The Selected Works of Viacheslav Holubnychy. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. pg. 123.^Peter J. Potichnyj "As for the killings of Jews and Poles, Potichnyj argues that no matter where guerrillas fight for liberation, it's a messy affair."; "With respect to Jews," he said, "obviously, in the situation there must have taken place some killing of the Jews, although in 1943, when the UPA was quite strong, there were hardly any Jews left because the Germans had, unfortunately, killed them all off. But there were some remnants, and the remnants were either working with the Ukrainian underground or they were working with the Soviets." Those allied with the Red partisans were obviously enemies of the underground, he said." and John-Paul Himka "He estimates that UPA fighters killed several thousand Jews, "but perhaps the number was much higher."; "Although what UPA did to the Jews may not have been, in the larger scheme of things, a major contribution to the Holocaust, it remains a large and inexpugnable stain on the record of the Ukrainian national insurgency, ... Potichnyj said the underground made a terrible mistake in not condemning the Germans' efforts to exterminate the Jews. But he strongly denies that there is any document showing that the underground ordered the "systematic" killing of Jews.". [in:] In Ukraine, movement to honor members of the World War II underground sets off debate. The Washington Post. January 8, 2010^ abcPancake, John (6 January 2010). "In Ukraine, debate over history". Washington Post. ^Jadwiga Nowakowska. "Wprost 24 - Pojednanie na cmentarzu". Wprost.pl. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"A.PrzewoÅºnik: w Polsce nie moÅ¼na stawiaÄ pomnik"w UPA". Money.pl. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group". Khpg.org. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Lenta.ru Ð' ÐÑÑÐ¼Ñ Ð¾ÑÐºÑÑÑ Ð¼Ð¾Ð½ÑÐ¼ÐµÐ½Ñ Ð¶ÐµÑÑÐ²Ð°Ð¼ Ð±Ð°Ð½Ð´ÐµÑÐ¾Ð²ÑÐµÐ² 14.September 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2008.^ abLuhansk unveils monument to victims of OUN-UPA, Kyiv Post (May 9, 2010)^John Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism, 3rd edition. Englewood, Colorado: Ukrainian Academic Press, 1990. ISBN 0-87287-755-8 (2nd edition: New York: Columbia University Press, 1963) pp.223-224^"'Yushchenko pushes for official recognition of OUN-UPA combatants'". Zik.com.ua. 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"SBU to study archive documents on activity of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists / News / NRCU". Nrcu.gov.ua. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"Articles. Analysis of events in Ukraine. Political and economical Ukraine - ForUm". En.for-ua.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Schoolchildren to study in detail about Holodomor and OUN-UPA, UNIAN (June 12, 2009)^President takes part in celebration of the 67th anniversary of the UPA, Kyiv Post (October 14, 2009)^"Ukraine court strips Bandera of Hero of Ukraine title". Top.rbc.ru. April 2, 2010. ^"Ukraine court strips Bandera of Hero of Ukraine title because he wasn't citizen of Ukraine". Gzt.ru. April 3, 2010. ^Historic Pravda. 2013-2-5^Mark Rachkevych. "High court upholds decree recognizing UPA partisans as World War II combatants". Kyivpost.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^Zenon Lavryshyn. Songs of the UPA. Toronto: Litopys UPA, 1996, p. 19^"ÐÐ¸Ð½Ð°Ð¼ Ð£ÐÐ. ÐÐ°ÑÐ°Ñ ÐÐ¸ÑÐ¸Ð½ÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹". Youtube.com. 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"Ð'Ðµ ÐºÐ°Ð¶ÑÑÐ¸ Ð½ÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼Ñ ÐÑÑÐ½Ñ ÐÑÐ¾ Ð£ÐÐ ÐÐ°ÑÑÐ°Ðº.avi". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2013-10-15. ^"Ð--Ð¾ Ð²Ð¸ÑÐ¾ÐºÑ Ð--Ð½ÑÑÑÑÐ°! ÐÐ¹ Ñ Ð>>ÑÑÑ, Ð½Ð° ÐÐ¾Ð>>ÑÐ½ÑÑ.Ð£ÐÐ". Youtube.com. 2009-09-23. Retrieved 2013-10-15. English[edit]Subtelny, Orest (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6. Davies, Norman (2005). God's playground: a history of Poland: in two volumes, Vol. 2, Chapter 19. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925340-4. Jeffrey Burds (1997). "Agentura: Soviet Informants' Networks & the Ukrainian Underground in Galicia, 1944-48", East European Politics and Societies v.11Yuri M. Zhukov (2007). "Examining the Authoritarian Model of Counter-insurgency: The Soviet Campaign Against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army", Small Wars and Insurgencies, v.18, no.3Volodymyr Viatrovych, Roman Hrytskiv, Ihor Derevianyj, Ruslan Zabilyj, Andrij Sova, Petro Sodol'. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army: A History of Ukraine's Unvanquished Freedom Fighters (exhibition brochure). Lviv 2009.Ukrainian[edit]Polish[edit]WoÅodymyr Wiatrowycz, Druga wojna polsko-ukraiÅska 1942-1947, Warszawa 2013, ISBN 978-83-935429-1-8Za to Å¼e jesteÅ UkraiÅcem... : wspomnienia z lat 1944-1947 / wyb"r, oprac., wstÄp i posÅowie Bogdan Huk. Koszalin [etc.] : Stowarzyszenie UkraiÅc"w WiÄÅºni"w Politycznych i Represjonowanych w Polsce, 2012. 400 s. : il. ; 23 cm. ISBN 978-83-935479-0-6Sowa, Andrzej (1998). Stosunki polsko-ukraiÅskie 1939-1947. Krak"w. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/83-909631-5-8|83-909631-5-8 [[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]] . Motyka, Grzegorz (2006). UkraiÅska partyzantka 1942-1960. Warszawa: ISP PAN / RYTM. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/837883731638|837883731638 [[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]] . Motyka, Grzegorz; Wnuk, RafaÅ (1997). Pany i rezuny: wsp"Åpraca AK-WiN i UPA 1945-1947 (in Polish). Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen. ISBN 83-86857-72-2. External links[edit]
- Berlin and Washington foment civil war in Ukraine
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:23
  - 20 February 2014Recent events in Ukraine are a warning to the working class. They make clear that political leaders in Washington, Berlin and Brussels are prepared to split the country, drive it into civil war and risk a conflagration across the entire region to achieve their geopolitical goals.
  - Following the failure of the Ukrainian opposition and its Western supporters to overthrow President Viktor Yanukovych by means of demonstrations and replace his regime with an EU-friendly government, armed fascist gangs are being mobilized to achieve the same aim.
  - On Tuesday, Kiev witnessed the bloodiest clashes since the protests began three months ago. Twenty-six people, including several policemen, were killed, and some 1,000 were injured when gangs armed with paving stones, guns and firebombs engaged in violent street battles with government security forces.
  - Even Western media outlets, which have propagandized in support of the opposition, could not entirely ignore the role of ultra-right forces in the violent protests. The Financial Times reported, ''Some demonstrators wearing camouflage clothing, military helmets and bullet proof vests responded with what appeared to be hand guns.'' The same newspaper wrote: ''Right Sector, one of the most militarized protest groups, urged citizens with guns to join the encampment.''
  - German news channel N24 reported that the ''radicals of Right Sector have hijacked the protest movement.'' Noting that the group consists of ''supporters of ultra right-wing organizations across the country,'' it added, ''With their faces hidden behind masks or helmets, they attack the police in Kiev with batons and iron bars.''
  - The US and German governments are supporting these paramilitary neofascist groups in order to increase pressure on Yanukovych and his government. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung expressed this bluntly. It ''no longer matters if it was radical opponents of the regime or the security forces who first resorted to violence on Tuesday,'' the paper stated. ''Now only one thing can help: the rapid resignation of Yanukovych.''
  - On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly received Ukrainian opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko, but turned down their call for sanctions. After the bloody riots in Kiev, she reversed herself and expressed support for sanctions against the Yanukovych government. In a joint appearance with French President Fran§ois Hollande, she denounced the security forces in Ukraine for brutality.
  - Similar comments were made by the US government, which called on the Ukrainian government to withdraw its riot police. ''There will be consequences if people cross a line,'' President Barack Obama threatened.
  - The fact that Berlin and Washington are prepared to exploit the services of paramilitary fascist gangs for their own purposes exposes the official propaganda, which states that what is at issue in Ukraine is the rule of law and democracy. In fact, the aim is to replace the regime of Yanukovych with one that will distance itself from Russia, subordinate itself to the European Union and impose brutal austerity policies on the Ukrainian working class.
  - This is also the aim of the opposition led by Klitschko, Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tyahnybok, whose Svoboda party openly celebrates the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and espouses anti-Semitism and racism.
  - The battle for Ukraine is part of efforts by the US and the European powers to incorporate all of Eastern Europe into their sphere of influence and isolate Russia. This process began with the restoration of capitalism, continued with the incorporation of the former Eastern Bloc countries and the Baltic States into NATO and the EU, and is now to be extended to large parts of the former Soviet Union.
  - Ukraine, with its network of energy pipelines, strategically important military bases and heavy industry, is a major target of American and European imperialism. On two occasions in the last century, in 1918 and 1941, German imperialism invaded Ukraine. In World War II, Hitler's armies massacred millions of Ukrainians.
  - Ukraine also serves as a base to draw other former Soviet republics into the sphere of influence of the EU. In an article for Carnegie Europe, journalist Judy Dempsey referred to the crisis in Ukraine as ''a great opportunity for the EU.'' She continued: ''Now is the time for the EU to start selling itself, not just in Ukraine but also in Georgia and Moldova.''
  - The installation of a client regime in Ukraine or imperialist carve-up of the country is ultimately aimed against Russia itself. Various think tanks are studying the ethnic and political tensions that could be exploited to bring about regime change in Russia and dismember that country as well.
  - The policies pursued by Washington, Berlin and Brussels in Ukraine, with the support of their right-wing and fascist allies, are directed against the social and democratic rights of the working class. They risk civil war and increase the danger of a military confrontation with Russia.
  - The Ukrainian working class cannot avoid these dangers by supporting the camp of Yanukovych. His regime is corrupt and bankrupt, representing a different faction of oligarchs than those backing the opposition. They all agree when it comes to the looting of public property and the impoverishment and suppression of the working population.
  - The only way forward for the working class is to build an independent socialist party that fights for the expropriation of the oligarchy and the nationalization of the banks and corporations, uncompromisingly rejects imperialism and nationalism, and fights for the unity of Ukrainian workers with the workers of Russia, Europe and the rest of the world.
  - Peter Schwarz
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- World's first nuclear civil war may begin in Ukraine '' SBU statement - ABC.AZ
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  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:48
  - World's first nuclear civil war may begin in Ukraine '' SBU statement
  - Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The first-in-the-history-of-the-world nuclear civil war may start in Ukraine. Anyway this is the statement of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
  - According to SBU statement, the recent events in the country have led to tension in the society as a result of illegal actions of separate radically- inclined organizations and citizens.
  - "Along with the manifestation of extremism, anonymous threats to explode hydroelectric and nuclear power facilities, the damage of which can have unforeseen particularly serious consequences for the population of Ukraine and neighboring countries have become more frequent," the SBU statement says.
  - For reference, Ukraine has four nuclear power plants with 15 generating units, and Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (6 units with total capacity of 6,000 megawatts) - the largest one in Europe.
  - "The events that occur around the facilities of the national energy system have negative impact on the level of security of our country and threaten its functioning, as well as the life and health of citizens. The Ukrainian Security Service warns that possible seizure, destruction or damage to objects that have important economic or military significance with the purpose to weaken the state, violate public security, intimidate the population, influence decision-making by state or local authorities is punishable under Articles 113 (diversion ) and 258 (terrorism) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. These acts are punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to 15 years," the SBU statement says.
  - If the statement does not work, then the first in the history of the world nuclear war may break out in the form of civil war in Ukraine.
- Ukrainian opposition capture the Rovno nuclear power plant - News - Company - Voice of Russia
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- This is the one map you need to understand Ukraine's crisis - The Washington Post
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 15:22
  - By Max Fisher, Published: JANUARY 24, 1:45 PM ETE-mail the writer Aa Ukraine's protests and the 2010 election results. Click to enlarge. (Max Fisher/Washington Post)
  - After two months of rallies in the capital city of Kiev against President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject a deal for closer integration with the European Union, Ukraine's protests are spreading to other major cities throughout the country's west. Protesters have even seized government administrative buildings in several regional capitals, heightening concerns about where Ukraine's crisis will go.
  - What's happening in Ukraine is about much more than the anger over Yanukovych rejecting the European Union deal and drawing the country closer to Russia. To help explain what's going on, I've put this map together up top. The red stripes show regions where mass protests are surrounding the regional capital buildings. The black stripes show regions where protesters have actually seized the government administrative buildings. The blue regions are where Yanukovych won a majority in the last presidential election, in 2010; dark blue means he won at least 70 percent. Orange regions show where Yulia Tymoshenko, then prime minister and candidate for a pro-European party, won the majority; she won at least 70 percent in dark orange regions.
  - Here's why this map is important: There is a big dividing line in Ukrainian politics -- an actual, physical line that separates the north and west from the south and east. You can see it in this map and in just about every electoral map since the country's independence. That divide goes beyond the question of whether Ukraine faces toward Europe or toward Russia, but that question is a major factor. And it's polarizing.
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  - This map drives two things home: First is that the protests are practically endemic in the half of the country that voted against Yanukovych, which includes Kiev. Second, the protests are not really a factor in the half who voted for Yanukovych. That doesn't mean that people in the blue areas adore Yanukovych, but they're certainly not pouring out into the streets to oppose him. It also doesn't mean that the protesters lack legitimate gripes or that it's just about their candidate losing. The economy is in terrible shape, and the government recently imposed severe restrictions against free speech, media and assembly rights, which is part of why the protests kicked back up again.
  - In other words, in the European-facing half of Ukraine, the orange half, the protests are even more widespread and severe than you might have gathered from watching the media coverage. But it's important to keep in mind that the other half of the country, the blue half, is much quieter.
  - You may be wondering, then, why there is such a consistent and deep divide between these two halves of Ukraine. Here's the really crucial thing to understand about Ukraine: A whole lot of the country speaks Russian, rather than Ukrainian. This map shows the country's linguistic divide, which you may notice lines up just about perfectly with its political divide.
  - Ukraine's protests and linguistic breakdown. Click to enlarge. (Max Fisher/Washington Post)
  - Ukrainian is the majority and official language of Ukraine. But, as a legacy of of the country's subjugation by Russia, many Ukrainians speak Russian, which is the native language for about one-third of the population. The Russian speakers are clustered in the south and east. A significant chunk of them are ethnic Russian, as well. In some regions, more than three-quarters of the population speaks Russian as their primary language.
  - Heavily Russian-speaking regions can tend to be more sympathetic (or at least less hostile) to policies that bring their country closer to Russia, as Yanukovych has been doing. But the Ukrainian-speaking regions have historically sought a Ukrainian national identity that is less Russia-facing and more European. So this is about politics, yes, but it's also about identity, about the question of what it means to be Ukrainian.
  - Ukraine's ethno-lingistic political division is sort of like the United States' "red America" and "blue America" divide, but in many ways much deeper -- imagine if red and blue America literally spoke different languages. The current political conflict, which at its most basic level is over whether the country will lean toward Europe or toward Russia, is part of a long-running and unresolved national identity crisis. Yes, it's also about Yanukovych's failures to fix the economy and his draconian restrictions against basic freedoms. But there's so much more to it than that, which helps make the crisis so intractable.
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- A Wedding That Became a Funeral | Human Rights Watch
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 15:50
  - To the Governments of the United States and YemenEnsure that the United States is taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians in targeted killings and is complying with all other obligations under the laws of war. Outside of armed conflict situations, use lethal force only when absolutely necessary to protect human life in accordance with international human rights law.Conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations into the air strike outside Rad`a on December 12, 2013 and other strikes that may have violated the laws of war. Make public the findings, including drone videos of the attack, and seek disciplinary measures or criminal prosecutions as appropriate.Implement a system of prompt and meaningful compensation for civilian loss of life, injury, and property damage from unlawful attacks. The United States also should institute a system of condolence or ex-gratia payments, as it has done in Iraq and Afghanistan, for losses in which there is no assumption of liability.To the US GovernmentExplain the full legal basis on which the United States carries out targeted killings, including the attack on December 12, 2013.Publicly clarify all policy guidelines for targeted killings. Explain the apparent discrepancy between the strike on December 12, 2013 and the May 2013 policy on targeted attacks announced by President Obama on May 23, 2013.Human Rights Watch's full set of recommendations on targeted killings in Yemen can be found in ''Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda'': The Civilian Cost of US Targeted Killings in Yemen (2013).
- HRW-PR-New Details of Attack on Yemeni Wedding Prompt More Demands Obama Explain Drone Policy - The Intercept
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 15:52
  - A new report on the U.S. drone missile strike that killed 12 members of a Yemeni wedding convoy has renewed calls for the Obama administration to make public its own investigations into the incident '-- and explain how such strikes are consistent with international laws of war.
  - The detailed, 28-page report from Human Rights Watch describes conflicting accounts of the December 12 attack, but nevertheless concludes that some, if not all, of the victims may have been civilians.
  - The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians that are not discriminate or attacks that cause civilian loss disproportionate to the expected military advantage.
  - The report also calls on the U.S. government to explain how the attack could possibly have complied with the new policies President Obama announced in May 2013, and repeated less than three months before the wedding strike, that he had ''limited the use of drones so they target only those who pose a continuing, imminent threat to the United States where capture is not feasible, and there is a near certainty of no civilian casualties.''
  - Obama administration officials have insisted since the strike that only members of al Qaeda were killed. Defense Department spokesman Bill Speaks reiterated to TheIntercept on Wednesday ''that the Yemeni Government has stated that the targets of this operation were dangerous senior al Qaeda militants,'' but he declined to provide any details or evidence to support that conclusion. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden also declined.
  - The Associated Press reported Thursday morning that, according to three anonymous U.S. officials, two government investigations concluded that only members of al Qaeda were hit in the strike:
  - Lt. Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered an independent investigation by an Air Force general and the White House requested another by the National Counterterrorism Center. Both concluded no civilians were killed. Votel's staff also showed lawmakers video of the operation. Two U.S. officials who watched the video and were briefed on the investigations said it showed three trucks in the convoy were hit, all carrying armed men.
  - But the officials provided no details, no evidence '-- and were not quoted by name. The AP explained:
  - The officials said the Pentagon can't release details because both the U.S. military and the CIA fly drones over Yemen. By statute, the military strikes can be acknowledged, but the CIA operations cannot. The officials said that if they explain one strike but not another, they are revealing by default which ones are being carried out by the CIA.
  - But at its core, the Human Rights Watch report makes the case that a swirling mix of competing accounts surrounding the strike demands a transparent investigation and publicly available findings. In an interview with The Intercept Wednesday, Letta Tayler, the author of the report, said the contradictory claims her team uncovered investigating the strike were ''mind boggling.''
  - ''It would be comical if we were not talking about human beings who were killed and yet, that is what we're talking about,'' Tayler said. ''And that's why the silence is unconscionable.''
  - ''The contradictory accounts that we documented cry out for an official explanation,'' she added. ''The families of those killed deserve to know what happened and why the U.S. turned this wedding procession into a funeral.''
  - Tayler said her organization has ''serious questions about how intelligence is gathered in Yemen and how it is being used.'' But, she noted: ''We do not know if faulty intelligence led to this strike or not, because we do not know enough about the strike itself.''
  - A Feb. 10 article in The Intercept described the National Security Agency's role in locating targets for lethal drone strikes, raising concerns that the U.S. has been overly relying on the activity of mobile phones that targets are believed to be using, rather than confirming a target's identity with operatives or informants on the ground. A former Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) drone operator and NSA analyst told The Intercept that during his time in Yemen, the U.S. gathered ''almost zero'' human intelligence before strikes. ''Every one of their strikes relies on signals and imagery for confirmation,'' he said.
  - The level of detail in the Human Rights Watch report impressed close observers of the U.S. drone program. Micah Zenko, Douglas Dillon Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations and a leading expert on U.S. targeted killings, told The Intercept, ''It's just a very careful and cautious study.'' He said the report ''raises incredibly troubling evidence'' that ''the United States might have blown it'...might have killed civilians unintentionally.''
  - ''The report is well documented and it is carefully measured in saying what the researchers know and don't know,'' Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University and co-editor-in-chief of the national security blog, JustSecurity.org, said in an email to The Intercept. ''Of course mistakes happen in wartime, but a key question for the laws of war is whether the mistake resulted from a failure to take the proper precautions,'' Goodman added. ''The report includes evidence that clearly suggests violations of the laws of war may have occurred.''
  - The attack took place late in the afternoon of December 12, 2013. According to the report, four Hellfire missiles slammed into a convoy of 11 cars stopped by a flat tire. The cars, Human Rights Watch confirmed, were carrying 50 to 60 wedding-goers. They had been traveling from the bride's home to the groom's village.
  - Abdullah Muhammad al-Tisi, a local sheikh, was driving one of the vehicles. ''Everyone was happy; everyone was celebrating the wedding,'' he told Human Rights Watch. ''Then the strike turned happiness to grief.''
  - Al-Tisi said he watched as four men piled out of 2005 Toyota Hilux pickup truck ahead of him and ran. Moments later a missile tore into the vehicle. Soon after, three more missiles rained down, throwing shards of hot metal through the air.
  - ''Blood was everywhere, the bodies of the people who were killed and injured were scattered everywhere,'' al-Tisi, a father of three, recalled. ''I saw the missile hit the car that was just behind the car driven by my son. I went there to check on my son. I found him tossed to the side. I turned him over and he was dead. He was struck in his face, neck, and chest.''
  - In addition to the 12 men who died, 15 others were wounded. Shrapnel cut the bride's face and tore her clothing. Roughly half the wedding party was killed or wounded. The youngest man to die was 20, the oldest 65.
  - Anonymous U.S. officials told reporters the military's elite JSOC operatives carried out the strike '-- not the CIA.
  - The day after the attack, Yemen's official news news agency cited an unnamed ''official source'' who claimed that a car belonging to an al Qaeda ''leader'' that was carrying ''many terrorist members and leaders who were involved in plotting attacks against armed forces, police, and vital public facilities'' had been targeted. There was no mention of civilian casualties until the following day, when a Yemeni general apologized for the attack at a local community meeting. The general said the attack was a ''mistake,'' and provincial officials paid the families a total of $159,000 in reparations and gave them 101 Kalashnikov assault rifles, a tribal gesture of apology.
  - Human Rights Watch found three government sources who disputed the official news agency account of the strike. Those sources said five civilians were killed in the attack. None of the Yemeni sources said who among the dead was al Qaeda and who was a civilian wedding celebrant. One of the sources did say, however, that the dead included, ''smugglers and arms dealers. They were guys for hire '-- shady.''
  - Unnamed U.S. officials later told the AP that the target was Shawqi Ali Ahmad al-Badani, a member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who they said was one of Yemen's most wanted terrorists and a key figure in the plot that resulted in the closure of 22 U.S. diplomatic posts the preceding summer. The officials claimed he was wounded in the strike but escaped.
  - Human Rights Watch found two Yemeni government sources who claimed the first vehicle struck by the American missile was al-Badani's and that he did indeed escape. Two other Yemeni sources, however, said he was residing in a city more than 100 miles from the scene of the strike.
  - Witnesses and relatives told Human Rights Watch they did not know al-Badani and that he was most certainly not at the wedding. Other sources who spoke to the human rights organization claimed an entirely different AQAP member '' Nasr al-Hotami '' was in the truck that was fired upon. Again, relatives denied the claim. Some Yemeni officials suggested AQAP ''had joined the procession, possibly as 'camouflage.'''
  - ''The conflicting accounts, as well as actions of relatives and provincial authorities, suggest that some, if not all those killed and wounded were civilians,'' the report concludes.
  - Tayler, the report's author, said the strike invites questions that have become frustratingly commonplace for U.S. drone strike investigators.
  - ''How do the laws of war apply here? How can you assume that civilian loss will not be disproportionate to the expected military advantage if you are striking a wedding convoy?'' she said. ''There may be an answer but the U.S. sure has not given it.''
  - ''There are now a host of questions about the Obama administration's self-professed killing-policy restrictions, how malleable they are in practice, and the extent to which the killing policy is unlawful,'' Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project said in an email to The Intercept. ''In response to those questions, the administration has responded with self-serving statements from anonymous government officials and deafening official silence.''
  - ''The Obama administration has not only refused to disclose its legal memos justifying the killings of U.S and non U.S. citizens far from any battlefield,'' Shamsi added. ''It won't even provide the public with basic information about the number and identity of the thousands of people who have died as a result of its lethal program.''
  - Edited by Dan Froomkin.
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- Sri Lanka's war crimes and the US ''human rights'' charade
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:31
  - By K. Ratnayake20 February 2014The Obama administration has declared that it will present a third consecutive resolution on Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting in March, calling for a probe into human rights violations. The focus will be on abuses during the final months of the Sri Lankan government's war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended in May 2009.
  - Successive Sri Lankan governments are directly responsible for war crimes during the 26-year conflict with the LTTE, but under President Mahinda Rajapakse the civil war took an even more brutal turn. The 2011 report of a UN expert panel estimated that around 40,000 civilians were killed in the months before the LTTE's defeat.
  - Rajapakse and his ministers flatly rejected the UN report and deny that any war crimes took place in what they describe as the military's ''humanitarian operation'' to ''liberate'' the Tamil population. Despite its denials, the government is desperately appealing to US officials to hold back the resolution and is seeking international support to block its passage. Within Sri Lanka, Rajapakse continues to whip up patriotic and anti-Tamil sentiment by claiming his government is the victim of ''an international conspiracy'' for regime-change in Colombo.
  - While Rajapakse is undoubtedly implicated in crimes, no credence should be placed in Washington's bogus ''human rights'' campaign. The US is no more concerned about war crimes in Sri Lanka than it was in Iraq, or Libya or Syria. The ''human rights'' charade is simply the ideological banner used by US imperialism for its intrigues, provocations and wars of aggression around the world. In fact, the Rajapakse government and the Colombo media justify the Sri Lankan military's use of torture, arbitrary detention, killing of civilians and other human rights abuses by pointing to what the US carried out in its occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
  - Moreover, Washington fully backed the Rajapakse government when it tore up the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE and renewed military offensives in 2006. While denouncing the LTTE, the US, along with India and China, provided vital military assistance to the Sri Lankan army and remained silent amid mounting evidence of its atrocities. The US implemented its own ban on the LTTE by hunting down its supporters and fund raisers, and strong-armed the European Union into doing the same.
  - The US and its European allies only began to raise concerns about the Sri Lankan military's ''human rights'' abuses as it became apparent that the LTTE was heading for defeat. The Obama administration was preoccupied, not with the fate of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians, but the rising influence of China, which had emerged as the supplier of military hardware, loans and aid to the Rajapakse government.
  - A December 2009 US Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, ''Sri Lanka: Recharting US strategy after the war,'' warned that ''this strategic drift [by Sri Lanka toward China] will have consequences for US interests in the region.'' It bluntly concluded that the US cannot afford to ''lose'' Sri Lanka and called for ''an integrated strategy that leverages political, economic, and security tools'' to secure US interests. John Kerry, now secretary of state, chaired the Senate committee.
  - The Obama administration's stance on Sri Lanka was bound up with the developing shift in US foreign policy known as the ''pivot to Asia'''--a comprehensive strategy of undermining Chinese influence throughout the region and encircling China militarily to ensure ongoing US hegemony. The Obama administration has been restructuring and building up US military forces in Asia and stoking up dangerous flashpoints, such as the maritime disputes in the East China and South China Seas, as a means of isolating China.
  - Over the past four years, Washington has maintained a steady pressure on Colombo. Its previous UNHRC resolutions gave credence to the Rajapakse government's own bogus Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which whitewashed the Sri Lankan military's war crimes. Now, however, the US has taken a harder line, hinting at the establishment of an international probe'--a move that could lead to putting Rajapakse in the International Criminal Court's dock on war crimes.
  - While acutely aware of the US threat, Rajapakse confronts a deepening economic and social crisis and depends heavily on China for economic aid and investment. In a bid to shore up his shaky position, Rajapakse has stepped up his claims of an ''international conspiracy,'' declaring that the West is plotting to put him in the ''electric chair.'' Those who oppose or criticise the government are branded as ''traitors to the nation.''
  - The opposition led by the right-wing United National Party (UNP) has lined up with the US ''human rights'' offensive and is waging its own phony campaign for ''democracy'' against the autocratic Rajapakse government. The UNP, which was responsible for launching the war against the LTTE in 1983 and has defended all of the military's crimes, nevertheless now declares that ''the country must not pay for the government's mistakes.''This signals UNP support for tougher measures against Rajapakse over human rights abuses.
  - The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which functioned as the LTTE's parliamentary mouthpiece, has issued a statement backing an international war crimes investigation. In return, the bourgeois TNA is seeking Washington's support for a power devolution package that would secure the privileges of the country's Tamil elite. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which helped Rajapakse come to power and backed his war, now criticises the government's ''human rights'' record for opening the country to potential US intervention.
  - The most cynical supporters of the US ''human rights'' juggernaut are the pseudo-left organisations'--the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) and United Socialist Party (USP)'--which slavishly function as cheerleaders for the UNP and TNA. NSSP leader Wickramabahu Karunaratne last week declared that he would go to the UNHRC gathering in Geneva next month to add his voice to Washington's supposed calls for justice and democratic rights in Sri Lanka.
  - The working class should reject the machinations of the US and its allies in Colombo and internationally. At the same time, workers must condemn the war crimes of the present and past Sri Lankan governments. Their attacks on the basic democratic rights of Tamils were always part and parcel of the onslaught on the social position and rights of the working class as a whole.
  - The entire Colombo political establishment is responsible for the war crimes and the police-state apparatus that has been built up during the war. Ever since so-called independence from British imperialism in 1948, the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie has whipped up and exploited anti-Tamil chauvinism to divide the working class and maintain its reactionary rule.
  - The working class must advance its own strategy and program to oppose US imperialism. This involves the independent mobilisation of workers in Sri Lanka, South Asia and around the world on the basis of a unified struggle for a socialist perspective. Above all, this means fighting for the political independence of the working class in Sri Lanka from every faction of the bourgeoisie, which are all utterly subservient to imperialism.
  - The Socialist Equality Party calls on the working class to reject all forms of nationalism and chauvinism, in order to unite Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers in a common struggle against capitalism and its political defenders. The SEP fights for a Socialist Republic of Eelam and Sri Lanka as part of a union of socialist republics in South Asia and internationally. We urge workers and youth to join and build the SEP, the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International.
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- Organizations Supporting the Film! | A WHISPER TO A ROARA WHISPER TO A ROAR
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:11
  - All the organizations are helping get the word out about ''A Whisper to a Roar.'' Check out the great work they're doing supporting democracy and human rights around the globe.
  - American Ethical Union''Our faith is in the capacity and responsibility of human beings to act in their personal relationships and in the larger community to help create a better world. Our commitment is to the worth and dignity of the individual and to treating each human being so as to bring out the best in him or her. Members join together in ethical societies to assist each other in developing ethical ideas and ideals, to celebrate life's joys and support each other through life's crises, and to work together to improve our world and the world of our children.''
  - Boat People SOS''We are a national Vietnamese American community organization with the mission to ''empower, organize, and equip Vietnamese individuals and communities in their pursuit of liberty and dignity.''
  - Center For Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law''The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) engages in research, training, and teaching, and organizes intellectual and policy dialogues aimed at increasing public understanding of economic and political development.''
  - Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)''The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) strengthens democracy around the globe through private enterprise and market-oriented reform. CIPE is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. Since 1983, CIPE has worked with business leaders, policymakers, and journalists to build the civic institutions vital to a democratic society.''
  - Chicago Freedom School''Founded in 2007, the mission of the Chicago Freedom School (CFS) is to create new generations of critical and independent thinking young people who use their unique experiences and power to create a just world. CFS provides training and education opportunities for youth and adult allies to develop leadership skills through the lens of civic action and through the study of the history of social movements and their leaders.''
  - Council for a Community of Democracies ''Advancing global democracy through partnerships between civil society and government. Since 2001, CCD has devoted itself to advocating for democratic change and international cooperation by working with civil society and governments around the world to making the CD a strong, democratic institution capable of addressing the needs of an ever-changing world.''
  - Council on Foreign Relations, U.S.''The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. ''
  - Egyptian Democratic Academy''The Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA) is a non-profit youth organization established by a group of activists working to promote the values of democracy, human rights and political participation. In addition, EDA promotes values of freedom of opinion and expression, openness and political and religious tolerance. EDA focuses on using new media tools with a special interest in the participation of the groups who are subject to marginalization, such as women, children and the disabled.''
  - El Mundo Vota''No importa tu edad, ciudadana, o residencia, solo tu deseo de votar por una elecci"n presidencial que te afecta.''
  - Human Rights Foundation''The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan organization devoted to defending human rights globally, with an expertise in the Americas. Grounding our work in a deep commitment to individual liberty, we aim to raise awareness about both the nature of freedom and the vulnerability of freedom around the world.''
  - The Human Rights Project''The Human Rights Project (HRP) works to improve the lives of New Yorkers living in poverty with a particular focus on women and people of color. We do this by monitoring and advocating for government compliance with universal human rights standards, especially the human rights to employment, housing, health, food, education and other economic and social rights.''
  - Institute for Democracy in Africa (IDASA)''IDASA is an independent public interest organization committed to building sustainable democratic societies in collaboration with African and global partners.''
  - Institute for Public Knowledge''The Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK) brings theoretically serious scholarship to bear on major public issues. Located at NYU, it nurtures collaboration among social researchers in New York and around the world.''
  - The Inter-American Dialogue''The Dialogue brings together leading citizens from throughout the hemisphere who incorporate a diversity of political and professional perspectives, yet share a commitment to democratic rule, social equity, and economic cooperation in the Americas. Our mission is to convene these leaders to help build productive ties among Western Hemisphere nations.''
  - The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations''The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations is dedicated to promoting positive race and human relations in an increasingly complex and multicultural county. The Commission works to develop programs that proactively address racism, homophobia, religious prejudice, linguistic bias, anti-immigrant sentiment, and other divisive attitudes that can lead to inter-cultural tension, hate crimes and related violence.''
  - Moulay Hicham Foundation''The Foundation's mission is to foster research in social sciences in the Maghreb and the Middle East.'¨It aims to study society and political systems and to identify the factors which lead to open societies as well as the obstacles to change in the region.''
  - Muslims for Progressive Values''Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) is an inclusive community rooted in the traditional Qur'anic ideals of human dignity and social justice. We welcome all who are interested in discussing, promoting and working for the implementation of progressive values '-- human rights, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state '-- as well as inclusive and tolerant understandings of Islam.''
  - National Democratic Institute (NDI)''The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.''
  - National Endowment for Democracy''The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.''
  - Palms for Life Fund''Palms for Life Fund is dedicated to ending poverty by addressing its root causes. We reach out to underprivileged people in Africa, Asia and Latin America focusing on food security, water access and education. We also raise awareness about hunger and poverty in the United States. Since our inception in 2006, Palms for Life has impacted the lives of thousands of people around the world. We work with a range of investors to raise funds and support our programs.''
  - Peace Museum of New York''PEACE MUSEUM NY uses art, community, culture, the humanities, public space and joyful events to shift our global value system to one of compassion, generosity and inclusion. PEACE MUSEUM NY inspires all to find peace in their own hearts in order to create, celebrate and share peace in our world, now!
  - Project on Middle East Democracy''The Project on Middle East Democracy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to examining how genuine democracies can develop in the Middle East and how the U.S. can best support that process.''
  - Reporters Without Borders''The mission of Reporters Without Borders is to continuously monitor attacks on freedom of information worldwide; to denounce any such attacks in the media; to act in cooperation with governments to fight censorship and laws aimed at restricting freedom of information; to morally and financially assist persecuted journalists, as well as their families; and to offer material assistance to war correspondents in order to enhance their safety.''
  - '¨Voto Joven''VotoJoven es una organizaci"n venezolana que busca promover en los j"venes la cultura y participaci"n electoral a trav(C)s de la generaci"n de estructuras juveniles que desarrollen estrategias y actividades que impulsen el voto como herramienta fundamental de la democracia.'¨'¨Nos motiva nuestro profundo compromiso con la democracia y la importancia que tiene el voto para fortalecerla y porque creemos que juntos podemos obtener resultados electorales que reflejen la decisi"n de la mayora de la poblaci"n venezolana que es joven. Nuestro trabajo no esta limitado por la edad y va enfocado a todo aquel que se sienta joven, tenga nuevas ideas y quiera ser escuchado.''
  - Tiny Stars''Tiny Stars is a 501(c)3 non-government agency dedicated to workingwith US Federal Law Enforcement gathering evidence to prosecute extreme human rights abusers..''
  - United for Human Rights''United for Human Rights (UHR) is an international, not-for-profit organization dedicated to implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at local, regional, national and international levels. Its membership is comprised of individuals, educators and groups throughout the world who are actively forwarding the knowledge and protection of human rights by and for all Mankind.''
  - Zimbabwe Student Recruitment Program''The Zimbabwe Students Recruitment Program is a non profit organization that seeks to provide financial assistance to qualified Zimbabwean high school graduates as well as other college students who are economically needy and are unable to meet the costs of college education.''
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Agenda 21
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- If the President is all in on AGW and Evolution, why do we accept him asking God to Bless America?
- GOD-SCIENCE-Al Gore brings climate change message to Kansas City - KansasCity.com
  - Link to Article
  - Just as one telephone company study 25 years ago underestimated the huge increase in the use of cellphones, estimates on the acceptance of wind and solar technology also have been conservative, Gore said.
  - Among the countries or states turning to renewable energy strategies, Gore mentioned the Vatican's increasing use of solar technology. Vatican City, Gore said, wants to be the first CO2-neutral sovereign city-state in the world.
  - ''They have two advantages,'' Gore said. ''It is very small, and they have God on their side.''
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:47
  - Al Gore has been known for his climate change warnings since the 2006 film ''An Inconvenient Truth.''
  - But the former vice president, speaking Saturday in Kansas City, cited many more recent examples how heavy use of fossil fuels is contributing to extreme weather events and trends, in his view.
  - Gore filled a Westin Crown Center ballroom with a 90-minute presentation, using photos and videos to illustrate a litany of floods, wildfires, torrential rains, droughts, dust storms, rising sea levels and increasing world temperatures.
  - To those attending the Folk Alliance International conference, he noted examples of flooding in locations both remote and closer to home, such as in Manitou Springs, Colo., where high water barreled down mountain highways last year, carrying cars along with it.
  - ''They had never seen anything like this in Manitou Springs,'' Gore said.
  - He cited the possibility of how flooding in Pakistan could destabilize that country, a nuclear power, and the possible effect that continuing drought in California might have on the world's food supply.
  - ''Think about that,'' he said. ''The Dust Bowl is coming back, quickly, unless we act.''
  - Gore presented animation from his 2006 film depicting water pushing into the streets of lower Manhattan '-- much mocked at the time, Gore said '-- followed by images of water filling New York City subway tunnels during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.
  - Gore conceded the possible fatigue some may have with his warnings, as well as the possible sense of powerlessness as to what any one individual can do to affect what appear to be vast, unchangeable trends.
  - ''Do we really have to do this and '-- if the answer is yes '-- can we do it?'' Gore said, repeating two questions he routinely hears.
  - ''The answer to both of those questions '-- spoiler alert '-- is 'yes.' ''
  - Gore cited what he considered the increasing momentum with which renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power have been embraced.
  - Just as one telephone company study 25 years ago underestimated the huge increase in the use of cellphones, estimates on the acceptance of wind and solar technology also have been conservative, Gore said.
  - Among the countries or states turning to renewable energy strategies, Gore mentioned the Vatican's increasing use of solar technology. Vatican City, Gore said, wants to be the first CO2-neutral sovereign city-state in the world.
  - ''They have two advantages,'' Gore said. ''It is very small, and they have God on their side.''
  - He urged his listeners to act on an individual basis.
  - ''The one missing ingredient may well be you, no kidding,'' he said.
  - And, given how he was addressing a room filled with folk music admirers, Gore framed his remarks with references to two singers: Bob Dylan and the late Pete Seeger. Reciting a phrase from ''The Times They Are a-Changin' '' and later invoking Seeger's memory, Gore urged those in attendance to write songs and spread a renewable energy message ''all over this land.''
  - Folk music, he added, ''played a positive role in resolving the central question in civil rights, as to what was truly right and truly wrong.''
- JCD's rant email on our stance on AGW
  - 1) the debate is panicky and hysterical as if we are all going to die yet
  - the solution always falls back to schemes that trade emission such as cap
  - and trade. These trading mechanisms (exchanges) are owned by the same
  - people who promote the global warming agenda. Logic dictates that if
  - things were so dire and provable thus then you would have cap only and no
  - trade.
  - This entire scheme stinks to high heaven with what appears to be corruption.
  - 2) Half the scientists all-in on warming were the same guys all in on the
  - 1970 Global cooling argument. Curiously a few never came over and are
  - still all-in on global cooling.
  - 3)People who object to the global warming debate are shouted down! This is
  - not science. We have people like Joy Behar and Bill Maher telling us that
  - man made global warming is a fact. Why are they so adamant? I find it
  - weird.
  - 4) How can people overlook the corrupted and tweaked data that came from
  - the major scientists and was revealed by an email hack. Warmists have no
  - qualms about this. None. Not even an apology.
  - 5) Follow the money. It's a bonanza.
  - 6) The best solution to climate change is always seen as natural gas. This
  - equals fracking and profit for certain oil companies. The real solution is
  - modern nuclear power yet the warmists are against that solution pointing
  - to Fukishima or Chernobyl. New systems are nothing like those plants. But
  - it is not discussed. Natural gas burns and gives off CO2. The great irony
  - to this is that the warmists have bitched and moaned about methane being
  - worse than CO2 and condemned farming in fact pointing the finger at cows.
  - Natural gas is mostly methane. Hello!
  - I could go on. If people do not see the absurdest humor in all this then
  - they are just suckers of the highest order or just brain-dead true
  - believers who are the worst sort of slave. The prime component of these
  - folks are obvious connivers like Al Gore or the scientists who "switch
  - sides" and coincidentally profit in some major way.
  - Adam likes to point to the many cocksure statements made just a few years
  - ago about how the poor kids of England will never see snow again. Then
  - there is the climate is NOT weather commentary once popular. Then suddenly
  - it IS weather and cold is caused by warming. Wow.
  - Adam and I have pretty much this perspective and it is not based on any
  - political agenda or denial. It based on a broad look at the landscape, the
  - contradictions, the lies, the shouting.
  - And there are plenty of scientists who think the science, per se, is
  - bullshit. I would include Freeman Dyson amongst them.
  - The show, BTW, is not about Global warming and we find the debate tedious
  - and silly. We only jump on it when some warmist parrots some press release
  - or says something stupid that we find amusing.
  - To summarize:
  - Cap and trade. Why? How does this change anything?
  - Nuclear power. Why not? Are you serious about the problem or just playing
  - games?
  - Sounds like a scam to me.
- Climate Change IS the economy that we are running on. WMD
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Why The Great Global Warming Swindle is wrong | CSIRO
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 15:27
  - CMAR aims to advance Australian climate, marine, and earth systems science.
  - Dr Raupach responds to the UK television program The Great Global Warming Swindle, airing on ABC television on Thursday 12 July 2007.
  - 11 July 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011The Great Global Warming Swindle has sent a shiver of excitement through those for whom global warming is somewhere between a bad dream and a dangerous plot. Can we breathe a sigh of relief and forget climate change?
  - To assess this, let's start with what can be called the consensus view.
  - Through careful evaluation of evidence, most climate scientists have reached three major conclusions:
  - the concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly, mainly due to human activities
  - these increases will lead to global warming, rainfall changes, sea-level rises, and damage to ecosystems and human populations
  - the risks posed by unchecked climate change are so great that emissions of greenhouse gases - particularly CO2 - have to be at least halved over coming decades.
  - This is where the going gets tough, because the biggest source of CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy. Hence, these scientists are actually asking for a complete rethink on how human societies do everything involving energy - that is, most things.
  - The Swindle takes an utterly different view. The program accepts that CO2 concentrations are rising because of human activities, but then diverges radically from most climate science by maintaining that CO2 does not cause global warming, present efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are misplaced and even 'anti-human', and scientists advocating emissions reductions are (to paraphrase) fund-grabbing puppets of a neo-Marxist movement intent on overthrowing western capitalism.
  - The major scientific claims in the Swindle are either wrong or are true statements so out of context as to create falsehoods. Here are the main assertions, contrasted with the facts.
  - Swindle: Temperature actually fell between 1940 and 1980 but CO2 concentrations rose, so CO2 cannot cause warming.
  - Truth: Global average temperatures rose by about 0.3 degrees from 1910 to 1940, stayed approximately constant between 1940 and 1970, and have risen by a further 0.5 degrees since 1970. Three factors have combined to produce this pattern: fluctuations in solar radiation, volcanic activity, and greenhouse gases. Since 1970, the role of greenhouse gases has been dominant as their concentrations have risen sharply.
  - Swindle: The Medieval Warm Period (from 1000 to 1300 AD) was warmer than today.
  - Truth: Several recently published climate reconstructions show that there was indeed a warm period back then, but also that temperatures now are warmer than the highest during this period by between 0.5 and 1 degree.
  - Swindle: Climate models predict that warming occurs faster several kilometres aloft than at the surface, but observations show the reverse; hence the models are wrong.
  - Truth: Published studies have revealed calibration problems in upper-air temperature data from both balloons and satellites. When these were fixed, the data and the models agreed.
  - Swindle: Ice cores show that over the last 500,000 years, CO2 rises followed temperature rises by a few hundred years. Hence CO2 can't cause temperature increases.
  - Truth: The observation is correct but the conclusion is wrong. The observation merely shows that CO2 does not cause the first few hundred years of the warming events that terminate ice ages. This initial warming is due to subtle earth-orbital variations which are too weak to break down the major ice ages alone. The necessary extra leverage is supplied by powerful positive feedbacks including rising atmospheric CO2 as oceans warm, darkening surfaces as ice melts, and increasing water vapour in a warmer atmosphere. All these factors work together to produce glacial cycles. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities now provide a warming trigger different from the one that broke down past ice ages.
  - Swindle: The current warming is all due to natural variability caused by the sun.
  - Truth: Solar fluctuations in both gross energy output and cosmic radiation are nowhere near strong enough to cause the rapid warming since 1970, as confirmed by several recent studies including one published just last week.
  - Swindle: Volcanoes produce more CO2 than human activities; so does the ocean.
  - Truth: Volcanoes produce only about 1 per cent of current CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. The oceans, together with vegetation on land, certainly release vast amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere, but they also take up vast amounts. The current net effect is actually a removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by oceans and land vegetation, of about half of all fossil-fuel emissions each year.
  - Swindle: Climate models are useless.
  - Truth: Climate models are based on known laws of physics, and incorporate the effects of greenhouse gases together with many other processes. They do a good job of reproducing and explaining past climates, so their predictions of climate trends over coming decades are worthy of respect.
  - Why, then, do a handful of scientists torture the evidence to claim that human activities do not induce climate change?
  - The answer often quoted, that these scientists are in the pockets of oil companies, is probably inadequate (like the counterclaim that most climate scientists are in the pockets of neo-Marxists).
  - A more fundamental reason may be philosophical: those who attack the links between CO2 and human-induced climate change believe that the planetary machinery is too vast and intrinsically variable to be thrown off course by mere humankind, and that the earth's environment is in no way threatened by human exploitation.
  - Sound science now shows that this view is dangerously misplaced.
  - We have the power to alter the workings of the planet, and are already doing so through climate change. The leap we must make in just a few decades is to accept global stewardship of our shared environment. The position taken in The Swindle is a dangerous dead weight as we endeavour to face this entirely new and critical challenge.
  - Read more about CSIRO scientists and the climate change debate.
  - This article was published in The Canberra Times newspaper on 12 July 2007
  - Share this CSIRO content using:
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- Forget The Local Cold: Worldwide, It Was Another Hot January : The Two-Way : NPR
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:22
  - hide captionA chart showing average temperatures around the world for January 2014.
  - National Climate Data Center/NOAAA chart showing average temperatures around the world for January 2014.
  - National Climate Data Center/NOAAJanuary will go down in the weather history books as the fourth-warmest on record.
  - That's right.
  - No matter how brutal the winter was in North America, especially the Eastern half, it was balanced by warm temperatures elsewhere on the planet.
  - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data Center says that last month marks the 38th consecutive January and the 347th consecutive month (almost 29 years) that global temperatures have been above the average for the 20th century.
  - The last time the average temperature was below-average in January was in 1976 and the last time there was a below-average month was February 1985. Record keeping goes back to 1880.
  - NOAA says the combined global land and ocean surfaces for last month was 54.8°F (12.7°C), or 1.17°F (0.65°C) above the 20th century January average of 53.6°F (12.0°C):
  - "Most areas of the world experienced warmer-than-average monthly temperatures, with the most notable warmth across Alaska, western Canada, southern Greenland, south-central Russia, Mongolia, and northern China. Parts of southeastern Brazil and central and southern Africa experienced record warmth, contributing to the warmest January Southern Hemisphere land temperature departure on record at 2.03°F (1.13°C) above the 20th century average. Temperature departures were below the long-term average across the eastern half of the contiguous U.S, Mexico, and much of Russia. However, no regions of the globe were record cold."
  - The Weather Channel asks "in a warming world, how can it be so bitterly cold?"
  - "Deke Arndt, a scientist at the National Climatic Data Center explains, 'We see more evidence that we will continue to have cold air outbreaks as the climate continues to warm. Cold air outbreaks, like the type we saw in January, over time, have become statistically more uncommon.'"
  - "Even though it was generally colder than average east of the Continental Divide and in parts of Siberia, it was warmer than average elsewhere."
  - "Take Alaska for example. The Last Frontier is normally frigid this time of year, but looking at the map it's clear that temperatures were well above average for January."
  - "January's average monthly high temperature for Fairbanks, Alaska is 1.1°F. But the average January high temperature in Fairbanks this year was nearly 15 [degrees] higher than normal, at 16.4°F. At one point, the afternoon high temperature in Fairbanks hit 45°F, which was a tie for its sixth warmest January day on record."
- Report: Farmers' Almanac more accurate than government climate scientists | The Daily Caller
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:21
  - This exceptionally cold and snowy winter has shown that government climate scientists were dead wrong when it came to predicting just how cold this winter would be, while the 197-year old Farmers' Almanac predicted this winter would be ''bitterly cold''.
  - Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) predicted temperatures would be ''above normal from November through January across much of the lower 48 states.''
  - This, however, was dead wrong. As Bloomberg notes, the CPC underestimated the ''mammoth December cold wave, which brought snow to Dallas and chilled partiers in Times Square on New Year's Eve.''
  - CPC grades its prediction accuracy on a Heidke skill score, which ranges from 100 (perfect accuracy) to -50 (no better than playing pin the tail on the donkey while blindfolded).
  - CPC's score for October's weather predictions for November through January was -22 and the September weather prediction for October through December was at -23.
  - ''Not one of our better forecasts,'' Mike Halpert, the Climate Prediction Center's acting director, told Bloomberg Businessweek.
  - What actually happened this winter? A ''polar vortex'' swept down and caused every state except Florida to experience snowfall and brought about 4,406 record low temperatures across the U.S. in January along with 1,073 record snowfalls.
  - The most recent winter storm that slammed into the eastern U.S. last week knocked out power for more than 1 million people in the Southeast and caused 21 deaths along the East Coast. More than 2,500 flights were delayed last Friday and 1,500 were canceled from East Coast airports.
  - Who could have predicted such a harsh winter? The Farmers Almanac did, according to a CBS News report from August 2013. The nearly 200-year old publication hit newsstands last summer and predicted that ''a winter storm will hit the Northeast around the time the Super Bowl is played at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey,'' and also predicted ''a colder-than-normal winter for two-thirds of the country and heavy snowfall in the Midwest, Great Lakes and New England.''
  - ''We're using a very strong four-letter word to describe this winter, which is C-O-L-D. It's going to be very cold,'' Sandi Duncan, the almanac's managing editor, told CBS News in August.
  - While there was thankfully no snow on Super Bowl Sunday, those sad Broncos fans trying to get back home from New Jersey had some trouble as snow started falling the day after the most important football game of the year.
  - The Midwest and Great Lakes regions also saw terribly cold weather and record levels of snowfall this winter. Major Midwest cities like Chicago, Cincinnati and Detroit have seen record levels of snowfall. Chicago alone saw 45.8 inches of snow by the end of January, and, as of Friday, the Great Lakes were 90 percent frozen over.
  - The Midwest and New England were hit with frigid weather and snow for long periods of time. So long, in fact, that there were propane shortages and natural gas prices spiked due to increased need for heating and supply bottlenecks.
  - The Farmers' Almanac makes predictions based on planetary positions, sunspots and lunar cycles '-- a prediction system that has remained largely unchanged since its first publication in 1818. While modern scientists don't put much stock in the almanac's way of doing things, the book says it's accurate about 80 percent of the time.
  - (H/T Climate Depot)
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- Progressive Insanity and the Global Warming Cult
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: UN Agenda 21
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:46
  - Exposing the comprehensive UN plan to bring about an authoritarian world government via international regulations and treaties under the guise of environmentalism and social equity.
  - Remember, a lot of this is heavy doublespeak. I.E. "Commuter Friendly" = Commuter hell, at the mercy of public transportation, unfriendly-to-cars, no leaving the area etc., "Walkable" = car unfriendly, literally poverty infrastructure
  - New UrbanismTriple Bottom LineSustainability/Sustainable DevelopmentSocial EquityEconomic EmpowermentSocial Responsibility"Smart" i.e. Smart GrowthEconomic/Environmental JusticeCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR)Liveable/WalkableNew NormalComplete StreetsMixed-Use (property)"Green"Commuter Friendly"Well-Being"Community ActionResilience/Resilient CommunitiesTransition TownNext/New EconomySECTION I. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS: Chapter 2.1.
  - In order to meet the challenges of environment and development, States have decided to establish a new global partnership. This partnership commits all States to engage in a continuous and constructive dialogue, inspired by the need to achieve a more efficient and equitable world economy, keeping in view the increasing interdependence of the community of nations and that sustainable development should become a priority item on the agenda of the international community. It is recognized that, for the success of this new partnership, it is important to overcome confrontation and to foster a climate of genuine cooperation and solidarity. It is equally important to strengthen national and international policies and multinational cooperation to adapt to the new realities.
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  - We are all different here, and you may find that have different beliefs, but please be respectful of each other.
- The U.S. Government's Amazingly Wrong Forecast for This Winter - Atlantic Mobile
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:18
  - Next ArticleOne of the many responsibilities of the U.S. federal government is to play the role of American Oracle. The Congressional Budget Office tells us how laws, like tax cuts and Obamacare, will affect the economy in the next decade. And the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tells us what sort of weather to expect in the next few months.
  - Oh wow, was it wrong this year.
  - The official forecast for November 2013 through January 2014 anticipated "above normal" temperatures for the swath of the continental U.S. stretching from Maine to Baja, California. Above normal.
  - Then reality intervened, and, yes, "above normal" might describe your heating bill, your show-shoveling-calories burned, or the degree to which you are ready to sell your house and move to Mexico. But it certainly doesn't describe the national temperature during a winter that has set records and near-records for frigidness across the Great Plains and Northeast. Compare the swoosh of red (predicted, above) to the block of blue (reality, below).
  - ''Not one of our better forecasts,'' admitted Mike Halpert, the Climate Prediction Center's acting director. Bloomberg Businessweek's Peter Coy, whose piece clued me in to this report, explains that the center grades itself on a spectrum ranging from 100 (totally right) to -50 (completely wrong). "October's forecast for the three-month period of November through January came in at -22," Coy reported. "The September prediction for October-December was slightly worse, at -23." The December cold wave followed by the massive polar vortex basically smashed the agency's three-month temperature model.
  - We shouldn't be too surprised. Meteorology has made tremendous strides with predicting temperature and precipitation within 24- and 48-hour periods. But once you get past eight days, chaos reigns. And when you get out past a week, and you're predicting climate's effect on temperature, your estimates become exquisitely sensitive to the smallest consequential changes. In fact, the Butterfly Effect'--the idea that a butterfly's wings in Brazil can trigger a tornado in Texas'--comes from a 1972 paper on chaos theory by Edward Lorez, a former meteorologist.
  - The trouble with predicting the next three months of temperatures is that weather is a dynamic system, where small changes can yield huge variances in outcomes. After a little more than a week, predictive models are swarmed by the butterfly wings of chaos. Nate Silver offered a useful metaphor for the difficulty of longer-term weather projections in his book, The Signal and the Noise:
  - Think of the atmosphere as akin to a NASCAR oval, with various weather systems represented by individual cars that are running along the track. For the first couple of dozen laps around the track, knowing the starting order of the cars should allow us to make a pretty good prediction of the order in which they might pass by ...
  - Soon, however, the faster cars will start to lap the slower ones, and before long the field will be completely jumbled up. Perhaps the second-placed car is running side by side with the sixteenth-placed one (which is about to get lapped), as well as the one in the twenty-eighth place (which has already been lapped once and is in danger of being lapped again). What we knew of the initial conditions of the race is of almost no value to us.
  - Likewise, once the atmosphere has had enough time to circulate, the weather patterns bear so little resemblance to their starting positions that the models don't do any good.
  - Since weather forecasts break down after about a week, the Climate Prediction Center uses different variables to build months-long climate forecasts. These broader forecasts take into account more enduring variables, like the temperature of the ocean, which determine whether a season's weather patterns are more likely to be hot vs. cold or wet vs. dry. It's an entirely different formula from the seven-day forecast you'll see on your local news or iPhone. But, just like your local meteorologist, the federal government's official climate prognosticators don't have a perfect record'--and this is a particularly good reminder to regard all federal forecasts with skepticism.
  - Next ArticleDerek Thompson is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Business Channel.
- 31% Agree Global Warming Is 'Perhaps Most Fearsome Weapon of Mass Destruction' - Rasmussen Reports'
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:13
  - Most voters don't agree with Secretary of State John Kerry's statement earlier this week that global warming is now "perhaps the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.'' Despite Kerry's dismissal of those who question global warming as belonging to the Flat Earth Society, voters are almost evenly divided when asked if global warming is proven scientific fact.
  - The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with Kerry's assessment of global warming. Fifty-four percent (54%) disagree and say global warming is not ''perhaps the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.'' Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
  - Forty-seven percent (47%) think global warming is a proven scientific fact, but nearly as many (45%) say there is still credible disagreement within the scientific community.
  - Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters agree with the urgency Kerry expressed in his speech in Indonesia and say the world is headed toward an irreversible catastrophe if we fail to deal with global warming in the near future. Forty-two percent (42%) disagree with this apocalyptic forecast, while 22% are not sure.
  - Like most major issues these days, however, there are sharp partisan differences of opinion. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Democrats think global warming is ''perhaps the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction''; 80% of Republicans and 61% of voters not affiliated with either major party disagree.
  - Seventy percent (70%) of Democratic voters believe global warming is proven scientific fact, but 74% of Republicans think there is still credible disagreement within the scientific community. Among unaffiliated voters, 46% say fact, 49% say disagreement.
  - Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters in Kerry's party think the world is headed toward an irreversible catastrophe if we fail to deal with global warming in the near future. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of GOP voters and a plurality (48%) of unaffiliateds disagree.
  - (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Facebook.
  - The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
  - Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters view global warming as a somewhat serious problem, with 30% who consider it a Very Serious one. Yet while most voters have expressed concern about global warming for years, just 41% are willing to pay more in taxes or in utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming. That includes 23% who are willing to pay no more than $100 extra a year.
  - Forty-three percent (43%) of voters now have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Kerry, while 45% view him unfavorably. This includes 11% with a Very Favorable view and 25% with a Very Unfavorable one.
  - This marks only a slight shift from late December 2012 after President Obama nominated him to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of State when Kerry earned favorables of 47% and unfavorable of 42%. Fifty-one percent (51%) had a favorable opinion of the Massachusetts senator in October 2004. Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election to GOP incumbent George W. Bush by a 50.7% to 48.3% margin.
  - Ten percent (10%) of voters think Kerry is a better secretary of State than Clinton, while 19% say he is worse. Sixty-one percent (61%) rate the two about the same.
  - Democrats believe more strongly than Republicans and unaffiliated voters that Kerry is a worse secretary of State than Clinton, but roughly 60% of all three groups view the two as about the same.
  - Still, 68% of Democrats view Kerry favorably. Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans and 52% of unaffiliated voters have an unfavorable opinion of him.
  - Sixty percent (60%) of all voters believe economic threats are a bigger threat to the United States than terrorist attacks or military attacks from other nations.
  - Forty-six percent (46%) think the circumstances surrounding the September 2012 murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. Embassy employees in Libya will hurt Clinton if she runs for president two years from now.
  - Foreign policy was in the spotlight for much of last year.
  - Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
  - Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
  - The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Slave Training
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- Amanda Jo Stephen dragged away in handcuffs by cops for refusing to ID herself | Mail Online
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 05:05
  - Amanda Jo Stephen, 24, charged with failure to identify and traffic signal violation in Austin, TexasEyewitness said Stephen was jogging with headphones on and didn't hear police officer tell her to stop Police were in the area giving tickets to pedestrians for crossing street on red lightBy Snejana Farberov
  - PUBLISHED: 14:43 EST, 21 February 2014 | UPDATED: 18:29 EST, 21 February 2014
  - 19,582shares
  - 1344
  - Viewcomments
  - A female jogger out for a run in Austin, Texas, Thursday was arrested, handcuffed and hauled into a police cruiser screaming and in tears for allegedly failing to identify herself.
  - The entire incident was caught on video recorded by Chris Quintero, a student at University of Texas who was sitting in a cafe across the street and witnessed the woman being taken into custody.
  - The arrest took place just before 11am outside a fast-food eatery near the intersection of 24th Street and San Antonio Street in Austin.
  - Scroll down for video
  - Busted: Amanda Jo Stephen, 24, is seen handcuffed and in tears following Thursday's arrest for a traffic violation in Austin
  - Caught on camera: Chris Quintero took pictures and video of the jogger's arrest; the college student said the 24-year-old crossed the street without waiting to the light to switch and was ordered to stop by police
  - Sporting a black crop top, shorts and toe sneakers, 24-year-old Amanda Jo Stephen was running across the street when an officer yelled for her to stop.
  - According to Quintero, who saw the arrest play out from a nearby Starbucks, the jogger got caught in a police operation targeting jaywalkers, University of Texas' student newspaper The Daily Texan reported.
  - Since Stephen had her headphones on, she allegedly didn't hear the officer and continued on her way.
  - The officer quickly caught up with her and grabbed Stephen's hand from behind, prompting her to push his hand away.
  - Female student jogger arrested for jaywalking
  - Desperate pleas: A sobbing Stephen repeatedly told the officers that she did nothing wrong and was simply exercising
  - Lawbreaker: Austin PD said the woman has been charged with failure to identify herself to police and a class B traffic signal violation
  - An Austin police spokesperson told MailOnline Friday that Miss Stephen was handcuffed and taken into custody for failing to give her name to police.
  - In Quintero's 2-minute video, the young woman with blond hair arranged in two braids in seen weeping on the ground with her hands restrained behind her back and two officers towering over her.
  - At one point, the apprehended jogger notices Quintero taking pictures of her and declares: 'I was doing nothing wrong. I was crossing the street.'
  - A moment later, a pair of uniformed cops, joined by two more cops on bikes, could be seen placing the sobbing woman into the back of a squad car, with her pleading and shrieking at the top of her lungs.
  - 'I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't do anything wrong! she said repeatedly. 'I didn't f***ing do anything wrong! I just crossed the street.'
  - Since going up on YouTube Thursday, Quintero's video has gone viral, drawing more than 17,000 views, and counting.
  - Internet hit: Quintero's video showing the four burly man overpowering the slender young jogger has gone viral in a day
  - The Austin Police Department has denied that the officers seen in the video were specifically targeting jaywalkers, claiming instead that they were working 'pedestrian enforcement' to ensure traffic safety.
  - The agency spokesperson told MailOnline Miss Stephen has been charged with failure to identify and a class B traffic signal violation.
  - As of Friday, she was not listed as an inmate in the local jail, suggesting that she has been released on bond.
  - 'Maybe the plus size cops should follow her lead, and go on a jog instead of wasting tax dollars on trivial matters... just a thought,' Quintero wrote in his blog.
  - Share or comment on this article
- Home Services Programs FAQ Subscribe to our mailing list Preserving Austin's Quality of Life-Code Compliance | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:47
  - The mission of the City of Austin Code Compliance is to provide quality education and enforcement of city codes and ordinances for our citizens so that Austin will be a more livable city.
  - City codes and ordinances have been created to protect the health, safety, and quality of life for the citizens of Austin. Code Compliance investigates reports of most code violations and ensures that the standards required by City codes are met. Code Compliance works closely with local authorities, contractors and other City departments to bring properties into compliance.
  - Code Compliance has divided the City into four districts (North, South, East and West) with between seven and nine inspectors assigned to each district. Assigning inspectors to a specific district allows inspectors to get to know the neighborhoods and citizens in the area.
  - Some of the most common violations reported are dangerous structures, substandard living conditions, tall weeds and grass, trash and debris, illegal dumping and illegal signs. Code Compliance also has a "Commercial Investigation Unit" that focuses exclusively on investigating reports of work being done without the required city permits.
  - If you believe there are code violations in your neighborhood, call 3-1-1 and Code Compliance will be out to investigate, generally within two working days.
  - See the Code Compliance organization chart
  - See the compliance & enforcement process
  - View our video about What We Do. (14 minutes).
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- What STEM shortage? Electrical engineering lost 35,000 jobs last year - Computerworld
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:41
  - News
  - January 16, 2014 04:27 PM ET
  - Computerworld - Despite an expanding use of electronics in products, the number of people working as electrical engineers in U.S. declined by 10.4% last year.
  - The decline amounted to a loss of 35,000 jobs and increased the unemployment rate for electrical engineers from 3.4% in 2012 to 4.8% last year, an unusually high rate of job losses for this occupation.
  - There are 300,000 people working as electrical engineers, according to U.S. Labor Department data analyzed by the IEEE-USA. In 2002, there were 385,000 electrical engineers in the U.S.
  - The trend in electrical engineering employment is occurring despite the emergence of the so-called Internet of Things, which promises to put networked electronics into every imaginable consumer and industrial product.
  - Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, called the electrical engineering employment trend "truly disturbing.
  - "Electrical and electronics engineers are at the heart of high technology innovation," Hira said. "Just like America's manufacturing has been hollowed out by offshoring and globalization, it appears that electrical and electronics engineering is heading that way."
  - But there's more disquieting news in this data.
  - The number of employed software developers, the largest IT occupation segment, increased by only 1.75%, to 1.1 million, a gain of 19,000. The unemployment rate for developers last year was 2.7%, which is still elevated, according to Hira.
  - Jobs for computer systems analysts increased by 35,000, to 534,000, an increase of 7%, but Hira said it is the most common H-1B occupation and that nearly all those gains went to H-1B visa holders.
  - IT hiring increase overall last year, according to labor analysts, but nearly all the increases were in IT services categories and consulting work. These are occupations more closely associated with offshore outsourcing, which may be one of the problems affecting electrical engineering.
  - For instance, one Labor Department category, management/technical consulting services, saw an increase of 61,700 jobs last year, according to an analysis by Foote Partners, an IT labor research firm.
  - Citing historical data going back more than 40 years, Hira said, at full employment, electrical and electronics engineers should have an unemployment rate of approximately 1.5%. The current unemployment rate is more than three times that level.
  - The unemployment rate for electrical engineers exceeded other engineering categories. For mechanical engineers, the unemployment rate was 2.7%, and for civil engineers, 3.4%.
  - In the computer hardware engineering field, which employs about 90,000, there was a decline of 1,000 jobs from 2012, setting the unemployment rate at 2.7%.
  - "The fact that these key occupations are faring worse than the average professional is a bad omen for the future of U.S. technological superiority," Hira said. "The widespread offshoring of the semiconductor industry appears to be taking its toll on the job market for American electronics engineers both upstream, in the equipment makers and designers, and downstream in the systems integrators."
  - Claims of shortages of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workers "have no support in fact and no connection to reality, " Hira said. "The NASDAQ is at its record high in more than a decade, only at the height of the dot-com bubble was it higher." adding that hiring for electronics engineers should be booming.
  - This article, What STEM shortage? Electrical engineering lost 35,000 jobs last year, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
  - Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed. His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.
  - See more by Patrick Thibodeau on Computerworld.com.
  - Read more about IT Careers in Computerworld's IT Careers Topic Center.
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AFRIKA
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- Libyan military commander calls for Egyptian-style military junta
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: English
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 17:52
  - By Jean Shaoul22 February 2014Major General Khalifa Haftar has called for the suspension of the General National Congress (GNC) and the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, and the formation of a presidential committee to govern the country till new elections could be held. He described it as a road map to ''rescue'' Libya from chaos.
  - Military officials met earlier to discuss setting up an Egyptian style military council to replace the GNC and the Zeidan government. When the GNC's president instructed the police to detain those involved, the top Military Police official refused, saying he no longer accepted the legitimacy of the GNC because its term expired on February 7.
  - A GNC spokesperson, Omar Humaidan, said, ''He doesn't represent the army. He is not even in Tripoli, the capital is secure.''
  - While the proposed military coup did not materialise, the incident testifies to the exceeding fraught political situation in Libya three years after the first protests in Tripoli against the Gaddafi regime that provided the major powers with an excuse to organise his overthrow. Their aim was to pre-empt a mass movement of the working class by installing a pliant stooge who would open up Libya's vast energy resources to Western corporations.
  - The GNC'--the legislative body established after the NATO-led war'--is little more than a consortium of Islamist forces, ex-Gaddafi regime elements, and criminal gangs, penetrated by the US and its military and intelligence agencies. Only candidates selected by the NATO-installed National Transitional Council were eligible for election.
  - On February 3, the interim parliament, charged with organising elections before February 7 to a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution, to be followed by a general election, extended its mandate to the end of 2014. It set February 20 as the date for the election of the panel to draft the new constitution. Thousands took to the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi to protest, chanting, ''No to the extension.'' Several members of the Congress resigned.
  - The US-backed government is in a desperate crisis, facing threats of Islamist militias, demands from workers for better pay and more jobs'--the real unemployment rate is believed to be about 30 percent'--and cities requiring reconstruction as a result of the devastation caused by the 2011 war. One million people, many of them supporters of the former regime, remain internally displaced.
  - Following strikes by workers and a blockade of Libya's oil ports last July by those seeking autonomy for the eastern region of Cyrenaica, oil production fell to an all-time low of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), as opposed to 1.5 million bpd before the strike. This has risen since the beginning of the year to 570,000 bpd.
  - Government revenues, 95 percent of which are dependent upon oil, have fallen to the extent that Zeidan has warned that it ''could have difficulties paying salaries.''
  - Zeidan has become increasingly isolated. He faces a hostile GNC, where five members of his coalition government resigned, and a boycott by the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated opposition. His government is at best only in nominal control of much of the country, including the capital.
  - While some 250,000 are on the government's payroll as outsourced security providers, they mostly operate under the direction of Islamist and regional warlords who constitute the principal power in the country, and terrorise, kidnap and murder civilians, top army figures, judges, and security and government officials with impunity.
  - Armed clashes are a frequent occurrence around Tripoli, where nationalist forces have fought pitched battles with militias backed by the GNC regime, and in the eastern port city of Benghazi. Last week, Abdelaziz al-Hasadi, the first prosecutor general appointed after Gaddafi's fall, was gunned down in the eastern city of Derna. Many of his fellow judges have fled Benghazi for the capital, fearing for their safety if they pursue cases against the militias.
  - Last month, gunmen tried to kill Deputy Prime Minister Sadiq Abdulkarim, who also serves as interim interior minister in Tripoli. This came less than three weeks after the assassination of Deputy Industry Minister Hassan al-Droui. Zeidan was abducted by an Islamist militia last October, only to be released shortly afterwards by another militia.
  - In January, pro-Gaddafi forces in the south seized control of the Tamenhint air base 30 km northeast of Sabha, the main city in the region, after semi-nomadic Toubou forces from Murzuk who were guarding it withdrew. The Toubou unilaterally pulled out, charging that the Zeidan government was deliberately exploiting clashes in Sabha between them and the Toubou and Awlad Sulaiman tribes to divert attention from moves to install a new administration.
  - Recent clashes have been the deadliest since a ceasefire agreement in March 2012 that ended tribal battles that had led to the death of at least 150 and wounded hundreds of others. At that time, Toubou leader Issa Abdel Majid Mansour threatened a separatist bid to protect his people against ethnic cleansing.
  - The Toubou and other sub-Saharan ethnic minority groups have faced vicious attacks by Arab militias, with thousands held incommunicado in makeshift prisons controlled by the militias and subjected to torture and killings. They have been excluded from the political and economic life of the country, leading to shifting regional alliances between the Toubou, Tuareg and other black minority groups in southern Libya, northern Chad and Niger, and a degree of alignment with pro-Gaddafi forces they once opposed.
  - There were unconfirmed reports of pro-Gaddafi forces taking control elsewhere, leading the government to pass a new law banning satellite television networks broadcasting pro-Gaddafi news and commentaries. Another decree bans scholarship students and public employees from speaking out against the conditions in Libya.
  - Zeidan called an emergency GNC session to declare a countrywide state of alert, and announced the deployment of troops in the south to suppress the rebellion. A Defence Ministry spokesman said later that the central government had reclaimed control of the air base.
  - There is great anxiety in imperialist circles that the opposition to both the Islamist proxies Washington used to topple the Gaddafi regime and Zeidan's neo-colonial regime will bring down the tottering government. Recent developments presage a possible return of NATO forces to Libya.
  - Just last November, Zeidan warned of a possible ''intervention of foreign occupation forces'' to protect civilians under the United Nations Charter's Chapter VII, because ''the international community cannot tolerate a state in the middle of the Mediterranean that is a source of violence, terrorism and murder.''
  - This was the same pretext for the NATO intervention that caused the crisis in the first place.
  - French Admiral Edouard Guillard recently appealed for a renewed imperialist intervention in Libya, claiming that developments on the southern border could lead to a ''terrorist threat.'' While France claims to have ruled out Western military action for the time being, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, speaking in response to a call for intervention from Niger, said that a meeting of officials from Britain, Germany, France, the US, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, to be held in Rome at the beginning of next month, would discuss what help they could give Libya.
  - ''That does not mean we have to have people on the ground,'' he said, ''It means we have to help governments that want to get rid of terrorism, which is the case with the Libyan government.''
  - Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
- Notice --Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Libya IDLs and Notice
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 16:40
  - The White House
  - Office of the Press Secretary
  - For Immediate Release
  - February 20, 2014
  - NOTICE
  - - - - - - - -
  - CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO LIBYA
  - On February 25, 2011, by Executive Order 13566, I declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. I found that Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, his government, and close associates had taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries, and wanton violence against unarmed civilians. In addition, there was a serious risk that Libyan state assets would be misappropriated by Qadhafi, members of his government, members of his family, or his close associates if those assets were not protected. The foregoing circumstances, the prolonged attacks, and the increased numbers of Libyans seeking refuge in other countries caused a deterioration in the security of Libya and posed a serious risk to its stability, thereby constituting an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
  - We are in the process of winding down the sanctions in response to developments in Libya, including the fall of Qadhafi and his government and the establishment of a democratically elected government. We are working closely with the new Libyan government and with the international community to effectively and appropriately ease restrictions on sanctioned entities, including by taking action consistent with the U.N. Security Council's decision to lift sanctions against the Central Bank of Libya and two other entities on December 16, 2011. The situation in Libya, however, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and we need to protect against this threat and the diversion of assets or other abuse by certain members of Qadhafi's family and other former regime officials. Therefore, the national emergency declared on February 25, 2011, and the measures adopted on that date to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond February 25, 2014. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13566.
  - This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
  - BARACK OBAMA
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- IBM News room - 2014-02-06 IBM Brings Watson to Africa - United States
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:47
  - LAGOS and NAIROBI - 06 Feb 2014: IBM (NYSE: IBM) has launched a 10-year initiative to bring Watson and other cognitive systems to Africa in a bid to fuel development and spur business opportunities across the world's fastest growing continent. Dubbed ''Project Lucy'' after the earliest known human ancestor, IBM will invest US$100 million in the initiative, giving scientists and partners access to the world's most advanced cognitive computing technologies.
  - ''In the last decade, Africa has been a tremendous growth story -- yet the continent's challenges, stemming from population growth, water scarcity, disease, low agricultural yield and other factors are impediments to inclusive economic growth,'' said Kamal Bhattacharya, Director, IBM Research '' Africa. ''With the ability to learn from emerging patterns and discover new correlations, Watson's cognitive capabilities hold enormous potential in Africa '' helping it to achieve in the next two decades what today's developed markets have achieved over two centuries.''
  - IBM's Watson represents a new era of cognitive computing, in which systems and software are not programmed, but actually improve by learning so they can discover answers to questions and uncover insights by analyzing massive amounts of Big Data.
  - Watson technologies will be deployed from IBM's new Africa Research laboratory providing researchers with a powerful set of resources to help develop commercially-viable solutions in key areas such as healthcare, education, water and sanitation, human mobility and agriculture.
  - To help fuel the cognitive computing market and build an ecosystem around Watson, IBM will also establish a new pan-African Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Development (CEDD) and is recruiting research partners such as universities, development agencies, start-ups and clients in Africa and around the world. By joining the initiative, IBM's partners will be able to tap into cloud-delivered cognitive intelligence that will be invaluable for solving the continent's most pressing challenges and creating new business opportunities.
  - ''For Africa to join, and eventually leapfrog, other economies, we need comprehensive investments in science and technology that are well integrated with economic planning and aligned to the African landscape,'' said Prof Rahamon Bello, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos. ''I see a great opportunity for innovative research partnerships between companies like IBM and African organizations, bringing together the world's most advanced technologies with local expertise and knowledge.''
  - Centerof Excellencefor Data-Driven Development
  - Decades of development work in Africa have significantly helped to improve the livelihood and raise the standard of living for millions across the continent. However, traditional approaches have often fallen short because of commercial unviability, a domain specific scope and a lack of accurate data.
  - Big Data technologies have a major role to play in Africa's development challenges: from understanding food price patterns, to estimating GDP and poverty numbers, to anticipating disease '' the key is turning data into knowledge and actionable insight.
  - ''The next wave of development in Africa requires a new collaborative approach where nonprofit and commercial organizations like RTI and IBM work together to consolidate, analyze and act upon the continent's data,'' said Aaron Williams, Executive Vice President for International Development, RTI International. ''Data-driven development has the potential to improve the human condition and provide decision makers with the insight they need to make more targeted interventions.''
  - By establishing the pan-African Center for Data-Driven Development (CEDD), IBM will leverage the latest Watson cognitive technologies to provide its research partners with access to high-frequency and better organized data. This will enable scientists and analysts to more accurately calculate social and economic conditions and identify previously unseen correlations across multiple domains. Through the Project Lucy initiative, partners will be able to tap into IBM's unparalleled expertise in cognitive computing across its 12 global laboratories and new Watson business unit. Through CEDD they will gain access to the resources, tools and knowledge-based services necessary for developing cognitive computing innovations.
  - ''Africa is facing a double challenge: the lack of accessible data to support its economic development, and the lack of advanced skills in data analysis. IBM's work to share Watson with Africa will help to address both challenges," said Michel B(C)zy, Associate Director, Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda. "We are really excited by this opportunity for our students and faculty to partner with IBM to solve critical regional problems with the most advanced cognitive technology available.''
  - Two of the first focus areas of the new center are healthcare and education:
  - Healthcare
  - Sub-Saharan Africa is home to approximately 25 percent of the world's disease burden; yet the most common form of healthcare outside of cities is delivered by community health workers. CEDD will collect encyclopedic knowledge about traditional and non-traditional diseases in Africa. With access to Watson's cognitive intelligence, doctors, nurses and field workers will get help in diagnosing illnesses and identifying the best treatment for each patient.
  - For example, women in sub-Saharan Africa account for 22 percent of all cases of cervical cancer worldwide mainly due to a lack of services and knowledge. Watson could provide new insights into the evolution of cervical cancer in Africa and suggest new approaches for its prevention, diagnosis and treatment. By feeding back valuable clinical data about their field observations, healthcare workers will be able to contribute to improving Watson's inference abilities.
  - Education
  - Currently, half of African children will reach their adolescent years unable to read, write or perform basic numeric tasks. The key to improving these statistics is a thorough understanding of student performance, teacher expertise, attendance levels, class sizes, linguistic abilities and learning materials. While previous information systems have only provided a limited view of point problems, using Watson technologies, CEDD aims to create new holistic approaches for analyzing data to identify previously unrecorded correlations. For example, Watson could identify the link between a contaminated water borehole, an epidemic of cholera and the subsequent low levels of school attendance in the region. Watson could also help to uncover other causes of low school attendance in a particular region such as a lack of sanitary supplies and cultural traditions placing childcare responsibility on older siblings.
  - Today's announcement is part of a broader effort by IBM to advance and share cognitive computing innovations around the world. Nearly three years after its triumph on the television quiz show Jeopardy!, IBM has advanced Watson from a game playing innovation into a commercial technology. The company recently established a new Watson business unit dedicated to the development and commercialization of cognitive computing innovations and is investing more than $1 billion to bring cognitive applications and services to market.
  - This week IBM is also announcing other investments into the African innovation ecosystem with the opening of new IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos, Nigeria; Casablanca, Morocco, and Johannesburg, South Africa. These new centers aim to spur local growth and fuel an ecosystem of development and entrepreneurship around Big Data analytics and cloud computing in the region. In recognition of its role in driving data-driven growth and opportunity, this week Frost & Sullivan named IBM an Innovation Leader in Big Data and Analytics in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  - IBM recently organized an initiative asking people from across Africa to submit images which best illustrate Africa's grand challenges and opportunities and help illustrate the mission of IBM's new Africa Research Lab. 'The World is Our Lab '' Africa' project has generated over 1200 images from across 25 African countries helping to tell the other side of the continent's story. To visit the project website, go to: http://www.theworldisourlabafrica.com/
  - For more information on 'Project Lucy' and to download the official IBM infographic, go to: http://ibm.co/1eUYH9S
  - To download images of the IBM Research - Africa lab and its staff, go to: http://bit.ly/MIK2YY
  - To view a film about Africa's grand challenges and opportunities visit: http://bit.ly/19ZvXAv
  - About IBM Research - Africa
  - IBM has had a direct presence in Africa for over 70 years that today spans more than 20 countries, including Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Kenya and Tanzania. IBM Research '' Africa - the continent's first commercial technology research facility - was inaugurated in by His Excellency, the President of Kenya, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta in November, 2013. The lab employs researchers from some of the world's best universities to conduct applied and far-reaching exploratory research into the grand challenges of the African continent by delivering commercially-viable innovations that impact people's lives.
  - The 2000m2 facility features one of Africa's most powerful, cloud-enabled computing hubs giving researchers the ability to analyze and draw insight from vast amounts of data in the search for solutions to Africa's most pressing challenges.
  - About Watson
  - Named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, IBM Watson was developed in IBM's Research labs. Using natural language processing and analytics, Watson processes information akin to how people think, representing a major shift in an organization's ability to quickly analyze, understand and respond to Big Data. Now delivered from the cloud from a single Power 750 server running Linux and able to power new consumer and enterprise services and apps, Watson is 24 times faster, smarter (with a 2,400 percent improvement in performance) and 90 percent smaller '' IBM has shrunk Watson from the size of a master bedroom to three stacked pizza boxes. Watson's ability to answer complex questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence is transforming decision making across a variety of industries.
  - For example, IBM is partnering with a range of healthcare organizations to apply Watson in order to transform how medicine is practiced, paid for and taught. The company is also working with a variety of organizations to transform how enterprises conduct research, share data-driven insights, and engage their customers via Watson-powered solutions.
  - To share cognitive computing with a broader group of innovators, IBM has made Watson available as a development platform in the cloud, enabling software application providers to build a new generation of apps infused with cognitive computing intelligence.
- IBM Markets Watson as Potential Solution to Africa's Health and Education Woes | Singularity Hub
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:46
  - IBM's Watson is one of the most impressive demonstrations of artificial intelligence to date. Yet the company continues to struggle to find an area, other than quiz shows, where the tool can shine.
  - The company recently announced that it will invest in an artificial intelligence-based research program in Africa to improve water and sanitation, agriculture, healthcare and education on the continent using Watson. Universities and non-governmental organizations will provide the data sets for Watson to parse, and will in turn develop programs to respond to any new insights the system offers.
  - ''With the ability to learn from emerging patterns and discover new correlations, Watson's cognitive capabilities hold enormous potential in Africa '' helping it to achieve in the next two decades what today's developed markets have achieved over two centuries,'' Kamal Bhattacharya, the director of IBM's Research '' Africa, said in a news release.
  - Watson might be able to identify a link between a contaminated waterhole, a cholera epidemic, and low school attendance in a particular region, the company suggested.
  - Still IBM has already tried to stake out healthcare as a key vertical for Watson in the United States, and the AI system has struggled to tackle huge medical data sets. It may yet provide treatment improvements, but the challenges underscore how much artificial intelligence still has to learn, according to expert Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield.
  - ''What you get in AI is this kind of exponential increase, then we go for a very long plateau and nobody knows how long that plateau will be,'' Sharkey told Singularity Hub.
  - IBM will spend $100 million to establish the pan-African Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Development based in its Nairobi, Kenya offices. Organizations and companies that participate in the initiative will gain access to Watson's cloud-hosted smarts.
  - IBM stands to embed its products and services in a slate of companies in emerging economies. And it will also be continuing to invest in Watson, which, like a curious toddler, grows smarter with each dataset it masters.
  - IBM recently created a New York artificial intelligence hub similar to the CEDD, though it will primarily serve advanced medicine and business rather than the NGO community.
  - The move is surely good for Watson's artificial intelligence, and it will be interesting to watch if AI devises any innovative solutions for the intractable problems Africa has faced.
  - Photos: IBM Research
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  - 98 total views.
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- CHINERS-Lakkotrypis: no pipeline to Turkey without Cyprus solution | Cyprus Mail
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:16
  - By Peter Stevenson
  - Without a solution to the Cyprus problem, transporting natural gas to Turkey via a pipeline is not an option, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Friday.
  - During a joint press conference with Greens MP Giorgos Perdikis, the minister said the prospects were there if a solution was found.
  - ''The government was very clear. The President said that without a solution there is no chance (for a pipeline to Turkey). The ministry is not considering such an option. A pipeline to Turkey is not our decision to make,'' Lakkotrypis said adding that ''in the event of a solution, of course, it opens up wide prospects and the matter would take on a commercial format''.
  - In response to claims that transporting Cyprus' natural gas through a pipeline through Turkey would be the cheapest method Lakkotrypis said that ''on a technocratic level, it does not means that the cheapest method of transportation will be the most effective method for the government''.
  - ''It is not currently an option. The Turkish side may talk all it wants about its plans,'' he added.
  - Asked whether the government had been sounded out about transporting Israeli natural gas to Turkey via Cyprus, the minister said he was not aware of such proposals. He said the only time he had heard of something along those lines was from former US diplomat Matthew Bryza during a conference on hydrocarbons in Cyprus last summer.
  - ''There is nothing substantial in the comments and there was no in-depth discussion or analysis on the subject. It was Mr. Bryza's position which he expressed during a conference in Paphos,'' he said.
  - Responding to questions regarding possible Chinese investment in Cyprus' natural gas, Lakkotrypis confirmed reports of a meeting he had with a Chinese company which is interested in exploiting Cyprus' natural gas reserves.
  - ''We had a meeting with a huge Chinese state-run company, but I need to say that we have all had such meetings in the last 12 months with large Chinese state-run companies who have shown interest in contributing on the subject of indigenous deposits and on exploiting Cyprus indigenous deposits and on an interim gas solution.
  - ''The meeting I had last week was on both subjects, on an interim gas solution and the specific Chinese company's activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),'' he said.
  - He explained that various Chinese companies were interested in all of the stages in the chain of natural gas exploitation and not only in the upstream but in exploiting the natural gas, certain solutions and major infrastructural projects which will be developed.
  - Perdikis said he believed a national council to deal with energy policy needs to be formed.
  - On the issue of the pipeline to Turkey, the Greens MP said that under no circumstances should any plans to connect Cyprus with Turkey via a pipeline reverse any plans for a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal, whether it is in Vassilikos, a floating LNG or by using a terminal in Egypt or Israel.
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- Indian Subcontinent Is Fast Becoming An Arena For A Third World War! | Link Newspaper
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:42
  - By Dr. Sawraj Singh
  - The Indian subcontinent is moving toward becoming an arena for a Third World War. The changing world situation, sharpening contradictions, and the shifting balance of power are making it likely that the Indian subcontinent will become an arena for a Third World War. The major factors which are likely to push the subcontinent in this direction are: the decline of the American and western powers, the re-emergence of Russia as a world power, the widening gap between Europe and America, the re-emergence of Japan as a military power, the rise of secular forces in the Maghreb (Arab countries), and the growing differences between America and the South American countries.
  - Overall, instead of a dual conflict between the western civilization and the Islamic civilization, it is becoming a triangular contest. During the Cold War, the confrontation was between America and the western countries on one side, and the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries on the other side. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the bipolar world became a unipolar world. America became the only superpower of the world. It also became the undeclared leader of the present globalization, which in reality is the highest stage of western capitalism, and it also became the self-appointed Policeman of the world. No country had the power to challenge American hegemony.
  - The rise of Islam posed a serious challenge to American hegemony and western domination. Scholars such as Samuel Huntington started seeing the clash between the western and Islamic civilizations as the major conflict in the world. Now a third force has risen. The alliance of Russia and China has become a rallying point for this emerging third force. This force includes secular forces, leftist forces such as the Latin American countries, and patriotic forces such as Iran.
  - In this new scenario, America is changing its attitude toward Islamic and other religious fundamentalism. To a degree, it is seeing fundamentalists as potential allies against the third force. America is seeing a Third World War as the last and only chance to maintain American hegemony and western domination. For this purpose, America sees the Indian subcontinent as the best region where such religious fundamentalism can lead to a Third World War. America is faithfully following the ''Divide and Rule'' policy of British Imperialism.
  - The British imperialists brought unparalleled suffering to the Indian subcontinent by dividing it along religious lines. However, America wants to push the subcontinent to a most destructive Third World War. America is trying to convince the people of India that it is their best friend and that both countries face a big threat from the rising China. To contain China, it is necessary to start an all-out war and defeat it. For this purpose, India should start a war with Pakistan, who is China's ally. China will then be drawn into this war. With India and America on one side and Pakistan and China on the other, America will easily defeat China. However, to start the war it is important to incite Hindu fundamentalism in India and Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan.
  - This over-simplistic American victory theory has several fault lines. The first: America and India cannot be true friends because such friendship only exists between equals. The America-India relation is just like the British Empire-India relationship: a master (British) and slave (India), rather than a friendly relation. This means that the relationship will primarily cater to American interests rather than Indian interests. There are several other fault lines in this easy victory theory. This war is not going to be limited to India, Pakistan, China, and America. Countries like Russia, Iran, and North Korea can also be drawn into this war. In the easy victory American theory, Japan has a role to play. America is militarizing Japan, which can act as a pincer to contain China from the North and East, while India and America will contain China from the South and West. However, if Russia and North Korea neutralize Japan, then the strategy to contain China is defeated. Similarly, if Iran joins the war, then it can make a big impact just like it has made in Syria.
  - America had two big proxy defeats in the last few years. When Russia attacked Georgia and America became a silent observer, then it was established that Russia is the leading force in Europe. The results of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine have been reversed, and the other East European countries have become cautious about leaning toward the West. As the rebels in Syria (supported by America and the western powers) are being defeated in Syria, this establishes Russia as an important player in world affairs. In the latest wars, Iran has played a very significant role. If Iran decides to disrupt the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf, then this can have a disastrous impact on the western countries as well as it can have a big impact on India. If the present crisis in Egypt deepens to a civil war, then that can lead to the weakening of the leading Arab country and a very important American ally. Eventually, Egypt can move toward the third force and further weaken American influence in the Middle East. We can conclude that an easy victory is very unlikely and a prolonged war is more likely, and the possibility of defeat cannot be ruled out.
  - Another scary truth is that both India and Pakistan have nuclear capability. Therefore, a nuclear war cannot be ruled out. Pakistan is more likely to use the nuclear option first. No matter which country uses the nuclear option first, the end result can be the worst destruction of the subcontinent.
  - One of the big dangers of the rising religious fundamentalism is the rising passions which make balanced thinking and a measured response more difficult. What is needed is a very sincere, serious, deep and balanced dialogue before we plunge the subcontinent into an armed conflict. We should first exhaust all diplomatic channels and peaceful options. We should follow a policy which serves the fundamental interests of the people of the subcontinent rather than a policy which helps maintain American hegemony.
  - The fundamental interest of not only the people of the Indian subcontinent, but all people of the world, including American people, is to avoid the most destructive Third World War. This can only be achieved if America and the western countries agree for a peaceful transition from a unipolar world to a multipolar world. They should realize that the era of western domination and American hegemony is over, and the world can survive and flourish if we follow principles of equality, fairness, justice, and mutual respect.
  - Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.
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- Inside the Ring: China readies for 'short, sharp' war with Japan - Washington Times
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:21
  - Navy Capt. James Fanell, director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a conference in San Diego that the war games last fall by People's Liberation Army forces show that China is preparing for a short war with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea. (U.S. Navy)
  - China's recent military exercises revealed that it is preparing for a short war with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea, a Navy intelligence official recently warned.
  - Navy Capt. James Fanell, director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a conference in San Diego that the People's Liberation Army's large-scale war games last fall showed that the island of Taiwan is no longer Beijing's lone major target.
  - ''In addition to a longstanding task to restore Taiwan to the mainland, we witnessed the massive amphibious and cross-military region exercise, Mission Action 2013, and concluded that the PLA has been given new task: To be able to conduct a short, sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea, followed by what can only be expected [as] a seizure of the Senkakus, or even the southern Ryukus,'' he said.
  - The uninhabited Senkakus islands are located north of Taiwan and south of Japan's Ryuku islands. China claims the chain as its ''Diaoyu'' islands.
  - Capt. Fanell, who last year warned that China was escalating its bullying of regional neighbors, said security in the Asia Pacific over the past year has worsened, reaching a nadir in November with China's imposition of an air defense zone over much of the East China Sea.
  - Earlier, Chinese coast guard and naval forces had conducted a coordinated series of provocations aimed at intimidating nearby nations, he said.
  - The provocations included China's harassment of a U.S. warship. The encounter led to the near-collision between the guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens and a Chinese amphibious ship in the South China Sea. Officials said the incident could have triggered a larger conflict between the U.S. and China.
  - China asserted the Cowpens had violated a defense zone around its aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, near Hainan Island. But Capt. Fanell said the U.S. ship was 50 miles away when the Chinese amphibious ship sailed within 100 yards of the Cowpens and stopped in front of it, forcing the U.S. ship to make an emergency turn to avoid collision.
  - The Chinese also continued ''expansionism'' throughout the region last year, he said.
  - ''Tensions in the South China and East China seas have deteriorated, with the Chinese coast guard playing the role of antagonist, harassing China's neighbors, while PLA navy ships, their protectors, conduct port calls throughout the region, promising friendship and cooperation,'' Capt. Fanell said at the Feb. 13 conference.
  - Capt. Fanell also expressed concern about a report published last fall in China's state-run Global Times that highlighted, with graphics, the effects of submarine-launched nuclear missile attacks on West Coast cities. The article said the JL-2 missile attacks would kill up to 12 million Americans.
  - ''Imagine the outrage if a similar statement had been made by any U.S. media outlet,'' he said, noting that China's first ballistic missile submarine patrols are expected to begin this year.
  - Capt. Fanell noted that the late Gen. Liu Huaqing, considered the father of the Chinese navy, in 1983 outlined Beijing's timetable for naval hegemony: By 2010, China will achieve naval supremacy over the what its call the ''first island chain'' '-- waters near its coast '-- and by 2020 will expand to control waters around the ''second island chain'' located hundreds of miles from China.
  - Liu predicted that by 2040 ''China will have the power to contain the dominance of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans,'' Capt. Fanell said, noting that Liu was known for directing forces that killed unarmed protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and engineered the naval attack that killed 70 Vietnamese sailors at the South China Sea's Johnson South Reef in 1988.
  - ''I think they are ahead of schedule,'' Capt. Fanell said.
  - Another speaker, Rear Adm. James G. Foggo, said he is leading a Navy effort to update a maritime strategy that will be released in the spring.
  - Adm. Foggo, assistant deputy chief of naval operations, noted that in 2007 the Navy's maritime strategy failed to mention China, an omission unlikely for the upcoming strategy as the Obama administration shifts its focus to Asia and the military concentrates on its new Air Sea Battle concept.
  - Adm. Foggo was involved in the new battle concept that seeks to better coordinate naval and air forces to counter what the Pentagon calls China's anti-access, area-denial weaponry '-- missiles, submarines and other high-technology arms.
  - Air Sea Battle ''scares a lot of people, including the Chinese,'' he said.
  - The admiral said the military is seeking to follow the policy that came out of last year's meeting between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to develop closer military ties.
  - Adm. Foggo said it is very important for the two militaries to develop norms, standards of behavior and rules of the road so that a military ''miscalculation'' is avoided.
  - A third speaker, Navy Capt. David A. Adams, director of the Captain's Initiatives Group of the 7th Fleet, headquartered in Japan, warned that China's nuclear buildup and the lack of any dialogue about its strategic forces are a dangerous mix.
  - Capt. Adams said U.S. ''strategic deterrence remains important'' in the strategy for the Pacific region.
  - China is pursuing what he termed a ''hybrid approach'' to warfare that combines traditional and non-traditional capabilities, including economic warfare and cyber warfare, and the U.S. must do more to prepare for it.
  - ''They are pursuing a hybrid approach to warfare, not the big war, but it could be high-tech, hybrid, low-tech, legal, financial, cyber,'' Capt. Adams said. ''And we're already losing that war in the South China Sea today. And we're not focused on that, and our strategy, that peripheral conflict.''
  - To better deal with China, the United States needs to bolster strategic advantages of submarines and air power, he said. More aircraft carriers and submarines should be based in the Asia Pacific as well.
  - ''We have to think unconventionally, hedge against the big war, and be ready to win a hybrid war that we're not even thinking about,'' Capt. Adams said. ''And if we lose a war, if the Navy has its Vietnam, it's going to be a dirty, hybrid paramilitary war in the Pacific.''
  - The panel discussion on China was held at the annual Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference. Video of the conference was posted by the U.S. Naval Institute.
  - 'Insidious' cyber war
  - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday warned of a new form of conflict that he said poses a major national security threat.
  - Speaking at the Beth El Synagogue in Bethesda, Mr. Hagel said cyber warfare is one type of future conflict that could destroy societies without traditional military strikes.
  - ''Cyber warfare is a significant threat to the security of our country or any organized society or nations because it has the risks for all the obvious reasons,'' he said.
  - ''And it's particularly insidious because it is stealthy, it's unseen '-- you can bring down literally an economy of a country, wipe out an electric grid, or paralyze your banking system; You can go after computers on national security platforms with ships and planes.''
  - The problem is that the source of cyberattacks is difficult to identify.
  - ''There's not one bullet fired and it is a very dangerous prospect,'' he said. ''That's a new kind of threat that's very real.''
  - On the problem of multibillion dollar defense cuts, Mr. Hagel said the budget agreement reached in December will help stabilize Pentagon spending.
  - The agreement pared back scheduled cuts of $40 billion this year and $50 billion next year to $30 billion this year and about $40 billion in 2015.
  - ''It gives us some budget certainty for two years,'' he said, noting the funding problem will return under the Budget Control Act in 2016.
  - U.S.' 'fatal weakness'
  - A Chinese military analyst this month revealed one of the People's Liberation Army's secrets for defeating the U.S. in a future conflict: space warfare.
  - Yang Minqing, an analyst at the World Affairs Research Center of the state-run Xinhua News Agency, said despite its advanced weaponry, the U.S. military overly relies on ''protection and support from its infrastructure in space.'' He called this over-reliance the United States' ''fatal weakness.''
  - As a result, nations like China, Russia and advanced nations in Europe are ready to take advantage of the weakness and could ''crush'' the U.S. military in ''localized attacks'' on space systems, communications links and ground facilities.
  - China has developed several space weapons, including anti-satellite missiles, lasers and directed energy guns, and maneuvering satellites.
  - U.S. officials have said the military could be crippled in operating over long distances if up to 20 of its communications, intelligence and navigation satellites were knocked out.
  - ' Contact Bill Gertz at @BillGertz.
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- Shooting the Messenger: The Case of ADHD
  - Link to Article
  - Archived Version
  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 00:04
  - J Contemp Psychother.2014;44: 43''52.
  - PMCID:PMC3918118
  - Safety and Learning Solutions, Norfolk, VA USA
  - University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, NV USA
  - Cardiff University, Bangor, Wales UK
  - Gretchen LeFever Watson,Email:gblefever/at/gmail.com, Email:gwatsonphd/at/gmail.com.
  - Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
  - AbstractMedicating ADHD is a controversial subject that was acutely inflamed in 1995 when high rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment were documented in southeastern Virginia. Psychologists in southeastern Virginia formed a regional school health coalition to implement and evaluate interventions to address the problem. Other professionals with strong ties to the pharmaceutical industry launched ad hominem attacks on the coalition's research and work. These attacks contributed to the work being terminated in 2005. In the ensuing years, ADHD drug treatment continued to escalate. Today, the national rate of ADHD diagnosis exceeds all reasonable estimates of the disorder's true prevalence, with 14 % of American children being diagnosed before reaching young adulthood. Notable key opinion leaders continue to claim that there is no cause for concern, but with a message shift from ''the prevalence is not too high'' to ''high prevalence is not too concerning.'' This paper provides an object lesson about how innovative research can be derailed to the detriment of sound medical and mental health care of children when industry interests are threatened. Tenure may be the only option for protecting innovative research from specious attacks. The authors offer a summary of the data on ADHD drug treatments, suggest judicious use of such treatments, and add their voices to others who are once again sounding a cautionary alarm.
  - Keywords:ADHD, Overdiagnosis, Behavioral intervention, Prescription drug abuse, Conflict of interest, Academic freedom, Key opinion leader, Child development, Public health psychology
  - OverviewIn the mid-1990s, a practicing psychologist in southeastern Virginia, Gretchen LeFever [i.e., Gretchen LeFever Watson], began a program of ADHD research that included epidemiologic surveys. This research documented exceptionally high rates of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment in her community. With support from Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), LeFever formed a regional school health coalition to improve ADHD treatment. Based on community input, she and her colleagues developed a systematic public health approach to improving the identification and care of children with behavioral problems in the region.
  - In the course of this work, LeFever was repeatedly attacked for reporting high rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment. One of the attacks came in the form of an anonymous allegation of scientific misconduct and resulted in the premature termination of LeFever's work, including her part of a multi-site, multi-million dollar study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Lenzer 2005a, b). The anonymous letter alleged that LeFever had falsely reported high rates of ADHD diagnosis to suit her own personal anti-medication agenda. Besides the outright fallaciousness of the anonymous charge, there was then'--and is now'--ample evidence to support LeFever's findings regarding high rates of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment. Nonetheless, the ad hominem attacks had a damaging impact.
  - First, the attacks contributed to the suppression of a large and unique dataset of risk and protective factors associated with ADHD diagnosis and treatment. Second, the attacks led to the total dismantling of a school health coalition and associated behavioral and public health interventions that showed promise for improving ADHD care.
  - LeFever's ''Controversial'' FindingsThe long-standing ADHD debate had experienced a period of relative quiet until LeFever and colleagues documented high rates of ADHD drug treatment in the mid-1990s. They found that 8''10 % of children in southeastern Virginia, including 17 % of white boys, were being medicated in school for ADHD (LeFever et al. 1999). In one district, 63 % of children who were young for their grade were medicated for ADHD'--suggesting a widespread failure to distinguish between disorder and developmentally normal variation. These findings were based on a large-scale and rigorous epidemiologic study of 29,734 children and were published in a prestigious journal'--the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) (LeFever et al. 1999). The study drew national and international media attention. LeFever and colleagues conducted a follow-up study that was expanded to include rates of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment that were not captured by school nurse records (LeFever et al. 2002).
  - Whether relying on school nurse records or parent report, approximately 9 % of students received a dose of ADHD medication in school during regular school hours (LeFever et al. 2002). However, twice as many children had ADHD according to parent report compared to school nurse records'--namely, 17 % of all students in grades two through five and 19 % in grades one through five (LeFever et al. 2003). Among the 17 % of students whose parents said they had ADHD, 84 % had also taken medication for the disorder. Over one-quarter of these students were taking two or more types of psychotropic drugs simultaneously'--the most common drug combination involved a psychostimulant like Ritalin or Adderall and an antidepressant like Prozac. Rates were three times as high among boys compared to girls, and twice as high among white children compared to black children. As such, 33 % of white boys (grades 2''5) were purported to have ADHD.
  - Despite high rates of drug treatment among children identified as having ADHD, their educational outcomes were poor. The students who with reported ADHD were 3''7 times more likely than their peers to experience adverse educational outcomes as defined by repeating a grade, needing special education services, and being expelled and/or suspended. Outcomes were significantly worse among students who had been medicated for ADHD compared to those with ADHD and never medicated for the condition (LeFever et al. 2002). As provocative as these findings might seem, it was ultimately LeFever's reporting of high rates of drug treatment that were called into question.
  - Summary of the Dismantled Public Health Approach to Improving ADHD CareThe School Health Initiative for Education (SHINE) was a regional coalition that LeFever formed in partnership with diverse providers, policy makers, parents, and other community members (LeFever et al. 1999). Through regular meetings that were open to the public, the coalition facilitated and conducted parent, teacher, and provider surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, and analysis of new and extant databases. Based on an extensive community needs assessment, the coalition identified four major gaps in ADHD care: (1) systematic behavior management, (2) school-provider communication, (3) teacher training and education, and (4) parent training and support (LeFever et al. 2000). LeFever obtained local, state, and federal grant support to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for each of the community's self-identified gaps.
  - With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, LeFever and colleagues implemented a school-wide positive discipline program that resulted in ADHD symptoms decreasing among an elementary school population from the beginning to the end of the school year. This study also documented that teachers who adopted positive classroom management strategies'--as evidenced by objective behavioral ratings that achieved a 95 % inter-rater reliability'--had students who scored significantly higher on every subject area of the Standards of Learning tests administered to public school students across the state of Virginia (LeFever and Allen 2004; LeFever et al. 2004).
  - With funding from the Virginia Department of Education, LeFever and colleagues developed a program to facilitate communication'--with parental permission'--between parents and providers of children who were diagnosed with and/or treated for ADHD. The coalition also developed a single-page ADHD Diagnostic Checklist to remind or apprise parents, school personnel, and providers of the necessary steps to completing a comprehensive ADHD diagnostic assessment process. SHINE members also successfully developed a bill that was passed by the Virginia legislature that prohibited teachers from recommending ADHD medication to parents (LeFever 2008).
  - Interestingly, parents in the region reported greater satisfaction with behavioral interventions than drug treatment, although their children were far more likely to receive drug treatment than other interventions (LeFever 2008). To expand participation in parent training, LeFever and colleagues used local, state, and federal funding to develop and implement a unique approach to marketing parenting classes. The program'--the A+ Behavior Program: Helping Your Student Excel in School and at Home'--experienced unprecedented levels of parent participation. It was so well received that five school districts in southeastern Virginia arranged for their psychologists to receive training and supervision to deliver the program across the region. Some of the participants in this train-the-trainer program were affiliated with a clinical psychology internship that offered a public health psychology tract that LeFever, along with Virginia Beach City Public Schools, spearheaded and led to become the first-ever public health psychology internship in the country'--a program that was approved by the American Psychological Association (APA).
  - These community-oriented interventions appeared to be making a difference. Between 1998 and 2004, southeastern Virginia witnessed a significant (32 %) decrease in the rate of ADHD diagnosis. Among children in first through fifth grade, it declined from a high of 19 % in 1998 to 13 % in 2004 (LeFever and Allen 2004). Unfortunately, the APA-approved internship in public health psychology, the SHINE Coalition, and projects described above were terminated as a result of unjustified attacks on LeFever's research findings.
  - The Allegation of Scientific MisconductAlthough LeFever was never allowed to see the anonymous and type-written allegation of scientific misconduct that was lodged against her, she was informed that the gist of the allegation was that she had intentionally inflated rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment to suit her own anti-medication agenda. Reportedly, the allegation made reference to a figure of 17 % that was reported in one of her publications. The figure of 17 % appears in more than one publication and it was never made clear which publication was being called into question. The anonymous complaint also reportedly alleged that LeFever was conducting research without proper consent. All of LeFever's research had been properly submitted to and reviewed by the Institutional Review Board at EVMS where she was employed. For the record, LeFever did not have an anti-medication agenda and had been involved with the referral of many children for medication evaluations.
  - As outlined below, the allegation and corollary repercussions led the medical school to threaten to fire LeFever. Thirty-nine psychiatrists and psychologists responded in outrage by signing a petition expressing to the EVMS Dean that LeFever should have been commended and promoted for having the courage to be among the first to sound the alarm (Lenzer 2005b). LeFever was eventually cleared of all charges of scientific misconduct, honored with a sabbatical, and supported by the Dean for promotion to Full Professor (Lenzer 2005a). Nonetheless, the ''chopping block'' experience ''derailed'' LeFever's career (Whitaker 2010).
  - Orchestrated Attacks on Health ResearchersAttacks on health researchers who are at odds with the pharmaceutical industry are not new (Healy 2002). As noted in a New England Journal of Medicine article (Deyo et al. 1997), there is a pattern to such attacks. Individuals who initiate them have financial interests in maintaining the legitimacy of a medical model of illness or a particular treatment. They have used allegations of scientific misconduct and the media, as well administrative and legal assaults, to malign the integrity of researchers and their findings'--all of which LeFever experienced. The authors noted that in one documented case, a trial lawyer sponsored a workshop promoting the use of allegations of scientific misconduct as a weapon for disputing unwelcome research findings.
  - Regarding ADHD research, LeFever is not the only scientist who experienced malicious attacks. Nadine Lambert, a renowned school psychologist, endured a similar experience. Lambert created a stir when she reported to the National Institutes of Health that children who were treated with stimulant medications like Ritalin started smoking cigarettes earlier, smoked more heavily, and were more likely as adults to abuse cocaine than were those not taking ADHD medications (Lambert 1999). These results were based on the culmination of a 30-year longitudinal study of 492 children'--about half of which had been diagnosed with ADHD. Like LeFever, Lambert was falsely accused of scientific misconduct (Diller 2005). Although eventually cleared, the allegation derailed her research'--research that was never resurrected before Lambert died in a tragic 2006 head-on collision with a truck.
  - These are not isolated incidents. There are many other examples of scientists who have been harassed, bullied, or had their jobs threatened because they stood up to industry and refused to let data be buried our spun (Blumsohn 2006; Healy 2002, 2008; Marks et al. 1993; Monbiot 2002; Nathan and Weatherall 2002; Thompson et al. 2001).
  - Industry Support for LeFever's Most Outspoken National CriticOver the years, LeFever's most outspoken national critic has been clinical psychologist Russell Barkley, Ph.D. Barkley is known in the field as a key opinion leader. An industry-sponsored 'opinion leader', or 'key opinion leader' refers to someone who is an active media user and who interprets the meaning of subject-specific information for the broader public (Elliott 2010). The pharmaceutical industry makes liberal use of key opinion leaders, and Barkley may be the best-known ADHD key opinion leader the industry has courted. Although such individuals can be patient advocates, they run the risk of becoming a marketing spokesperson for the industry'--unwittingly or otherwise.
  - Barkley repeatedly criticized LeFever based on what he has expressed to be the unpalatable nature of her findings rather than offering substantive criticism of her research methodology or data analysis. Given Barkley's prominence as an established and leading scientist and clinician in the field of ADHD, his comments about exaggerated emerging prevalence trends carried weight. It is unclear how many people knew then (or realize now) the significance of the fact that a sizeable proportion of Barkley's taxable income came from the pharmaceutical industry. Barkley's own website once showed, for example, that approximately 8 % of his taxable income came from Eli Lilly alone. Eli Lilly manufactures Strattera, a commonly prescribed medication for ADHD. Other income categories that were explicitly tied to the pharmaceutical industry accounted for approximately 19 % of his income (LeFever 2007). Like other ADHD opinion leaders, Barkley also has had extensive support from Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders (CHADD)'--a prominent advocacy group that is supported with funds from the manufacturers of ADHD medications.
  - Attacks on LeFever's Research (1996''2004)Barkley's criticism of LeFever began as early as 1996 when LeFever first shared her findings of high ADHD drug treatment rates (findings that would eventually be published in AJPH) with leading healthcare providers in southeastern Virginia. In response to growing concerns about ADHD treatment trends, EVMS pediatric faculty invited Barkley to address the topic as the keynote speaker for the region's annual pediatric meeting. The annual professional meeting included a talk that was open to the public. As a recognized authority on a topic of great concern to the general public, Barkley drew a huge crowd for his public address. Barkley contended that ADHD was a genetic disorder that was not being overdiagnosed or overtreated, but that most children with ADHD were not receiving medication when they should have been (Tennant 1996).
  - Not long thereafter, LeFever's supervisor'--a pediatrician whose medical practice involved extensive ADHD referrals'--attempted to intimidate LeFever by abruptly cancelling all her patients, informing LeFever's coworkers that she no longer worked at the hospital, and presenting her with an unsanctioned request that she resign immediately. Having caught wind of the event, the medical school leadership required the physician to provide LeFever with a written and verbal apology and invite her back to practice with him. Instead, she accepted an offer from the medical school's Center for Pediatric Research to assume a full-time research faculty position. Thus began the campaign to discredit and silence LeFever.
  - Barkley returned to Hampton Roads in 2000 to debate LeFever on the topic of medicating ADHD. She was allotted 15 min to present; Barkley was given 45 min. Barkley began his talk by asserting that LeFever was not a scientist, summarily dismissing her research out of hand. Just a few months later, Barkley again attempted to discredit LeFever when LeFever was invited to join an APA panel discussion on ADHD treatment solutions. The panel was comprised of experts who had been working in the field of ADHD much longer than LeFever, including Drs. Peter Jensen who had recently stepped down from a lead position at the National Institutes of Health, William Pelham (MTA investigator and Professor at SUNY Buffalo), Larry Diller (pediatrician and author of Running on Ritalin), Charles Cunningham (Professor at McMaster University and ADHD researcher), and, of course, Barkley (perhaps the most widely recognized name in the ADHD field). What ensued was not so much of a planned discussion of treatment solutions but, rather, a debate about ADHD drug treatment trends.
  - The following year, in 2002, Barkley published a paper declaring that individuals who questioned the rising rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment represented ''social critics and fringe doctors.'' He invited at least 85 psychologists and psychiatrists to co-sign the paper. In the paper, which he titled the International Consensus Statement on ADHD, Barkley dismissed people who expressed a point of view that was contrary to his as ''tantamount to declaring the earth [Earth] flat, the laws of gravity as debatable, and the periodic table a fraud'' (Barkley and 84 other behavioral scientists 2002, p. 3).
  - The following year (2003) another international group of mental health professionals responded by publishing a critique of Barkley's statement (Timimi et al. 2004). Their critique began by asking why a group of eminent psychiatrists and psychologists would produce a consensus statement that sought to forestall debate on the merits of widespread ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment. They asserted that shutting down debate prematurely was completely counter to the spirit and practice of science and reminded readers that one generation's most cherished therapeutic ideas and practices are often repudiated by the next generation, but not without leaving countless victims in their wake. This critique referenced LeFever's AJPH study findings as evidence against Barkley's ongoing assertion that less than half the children who need ADHD medication are receiving medications (Timimi et al. 2004). Barkley responded strongly with a published rebuttal (Barkley et al. 2004).
  - A Call for Investigating LeFever's Findings through the Academic Press (March 2004)Barkley's rebuttal to the Timimi et al. critique of his consensus on ADHD (Barkley et al. 2004) failed to cite numerous studies that supposedly supported his argument. The one study that he did choose to identify was Tim Tjersland's doctoral dissertation. This dissertation study was methodologically flawed and remains unpublished nearly a decade after completion (Tjersland 2004). Barkley misrepresented the dissertation research as a replication study of LeFever's AJPH research and inaccurately reported that it found prevalence rates near three percent in southeastern Virginia. Not only was Tjersland's study not a true replication study, it did not produce the findings that Barkley described. If anything, Tjersland's results corroborated LeFever's findings. Of note, Barkley himself was part of Tjersland's dissertation committee. Based on this methodologically flawed and unpublished study, Barkley claimed that LeFever's findings from multiple peer-reviewed and published studies were so questionable that they ''deserve investigation'' (Barkley et al. 2004, p. 68).
  - Investigative Call was Answered (April 2004)Within weeks of Barkley's call for an investigation of LeFever's findings, someone submitted an anonymous complaint about LeFever's work to EVMS (i.e., the complaint described above). In response, EVMS conducted an internal investigation of LeFever's past and current research. Against EVMS policy and common protocol for investigation of allegations of scientific misconduct, the medical school confirmed to the media that LeFever was under investigation.
  - Before LeFever was aware of the allegation of misconduct, the medical school had conducted a review of more than a decade of her research. The process identified that there might be a typo between the wording of a survey item and the manner in which the survey item was described in the appendix of a published article. Until the reported typo was brought to LeFever's attention, neither she nor any of her three co-authors had ever noticed the discrepancy.
  - Definition of Scientific MisconductScientific or research misconduct is defined as fabrication or falsification of research, plagiarism, or other practices that deviate significantly from what is commonly accepted within the scientific community research. It does not pertain to honest error or differences in interpretations or judgments of data (Office of Research Integrity 1997, p. 3).
  - LeFever Cleared of Misconduct Charges (July 2004)LeFever felt that it was important to explore how the identified error had occurred and what, if any, impact it had on reported outcomes. She researched reasons for the discrepancy and detailed them in a written report that was submitted to the EVMS scientific misconduct committee that had been convened for her case. She met with the committee and medical school attorneys for several hours of testimony'--all of which was tape-recorded. Later that day, LeFever was informed that the committee had unanimously determined that there was no evidence of scientific misconduct and that the typo appeared to be an honest error that had no impact on research conclusions. No finding of misconduct was ever reported to the Office of Human Research Protection, as would have been required if LeFever had violated consent procedures.
  - The EVMS committee did ask LeFever to inform the journal where the study with the typo had been published to disclose the error. She did so forthwith and in writing. The journal's Editor determined that the typo was too minor to warrant any corrective action. The matter should have been dropped, but instead inquiries about consent procedures and reported findings escalated.
  - Reporter-Generated ''Evidence'' of ''Misconduct''Although the journal determined that the error in LeFever's publication was too minor to warrant a corrective statement, the Editor subsequently contacted LeFever to share that a reporter (Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot) had repeatedly asked her to publish the error statement. Phelps lamented to LeFever that she and her co-Editor, who also felt that the error was too minor to warrant any action, finally decided to turn the matter over to the publishing house. The journal's publishing house decided for the sake of public relations/business reasons'--not for reasons pertaining to scientific integrity'--that they would publish a brief error statement in the next issue of the journal (Phelps, personal communication, January 2005; April 2007), which appeared in a subsequent issue (LeFever et al. 2005).
  - Relentless and Prejudiced External Interference (April 2004''January 2005)LeFever endured months of waiting for her name to be cleared and research to be re-approved for continuation. EVMS eventually cleared her of all charges of scientific misconduct and re-approved her research for continuation. However, that LeFever was under investigation became common knowledge among the medical school staff and faculty, community collaborators, city leaders, and the press. The day after LeFever's research was finally re-approved for continuation, the approval was rescinded. Apparently, this news also leaked out, and more complaints about her research reportedly surfaced. LeFever never learned exactly who complained about what, but she was informed that all the concerns were investigated and dismissed as unfounded.
  - Eventually, a ''research ethicist'' by the name of Felix Gyi, M.D. who had been communicating with EVMS was asked to express his opinion directly to LeFever during a conference call with her and EVMS administrators and attorneys. Gyi was CEO of Chesapeake Research Review, which is a for-profit company whose primary clients are major pharmaceutical companies and universities conducting research funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Chesapeake Research Review was involved with at least one ADHD drug trial involving both EVMS faculty and Barkley. Gyi asserted that LeFever's CDC-funded research represented more than minimal risk to subjects and, therefore, proper consent procedures had not been used. In response, EVMS halted LeFever's work.
  - On or about December 9, 2004, a Virginia Beach school district official reportedly complained to the EVMS Dean that LeFever had misled her about procedures to obtain parental consent for her CDC-funded epidemiologic survey study that was underway in area school districts. This allegation was false and wholly unsupported by the record. Fear on the part of school officials of possible legal action and press scrutiny apparently created an atmosphere in which the self-preservation instinct overcame solid factual analysis of what transpired. The unsubstantiated claim by a school official that she had been misled about LeFever's research protocol and consent procedures was the straw that broke the camel's back. The ordeal and looming threat of a scandalous newspaper expose about local ADHD research had the potential to become a public relations nightmare for the medical school and collaborating school districts. On December 14, 2004, the very newly appointed and Interim Dean of the medical school (under advisement from attorneys who may not have appreciated the full academic impact of their legal positions) permanently terminated LeFever's research, placed her on administrative leave (Lenzer 2005b) and wrote to public school officials promising that the study data would never be used for any purpose.
  - LeFever was Defamed in the Public Press (January 2005)A long-anticipated newspaper ''expose'' of LeFever's ''wrongdoing'' was finally published on January 25, 2005 (Sizemore 2005). The reporter failed to mention his role in pressuring the journal to publish the statement despite the fact that the editor had determined that it was unnecessary and was inconsequential to the study's findings and conclusions. This public relations fiasco effectively extinguished any chances of LeFever re-kindling relationships that were vital to the continuation and success of her work.
  - As such, the article brought an end to ADHD research and community-based interventions in southeastern Virginia'--work that might have served as a model for improving mental health care in other communities dealing with high rates of diagnosis and drug treatment. The newspaper story quoted a local psychologist with ties to CHADD who was concerned that LeFever's work frightened parents away from seeking appropriate treatment for their children and Barkley who described LeFever's findings as ''highly suspicious'' (Sizemore 2005). The net effect was that a decade of LeFever's research and community work described earlier was dismantled, and the ADHD debate was significantly quieted in the ensuing years.
  - Landslide Victory for Big PharmaThe pharmaceutical industry and its key opinion leaders were apparently successful in quelling our nation's concerns about high rates of ADHD drug treatment. Since 2005, we have witnessed a message shift from ''the rate of ADHD drug treatment is not too high'' to ''a high rate of ADHD drug treatment is not too concerning'' (Scudder 2011).
  - In the years following the shutdown of LeFever's work, CDC reports documented continual increases in the rate of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment (CDC 2010; Sondik et al. 2012). The CDC has reported that 11 % of American children are currently diagnosed with ADHD (CDC 2013) and that 14 % will receive a diagnosis of ADHD before the end of childhood (i.e., by 15''17 years of age) (CDC 2010). This national rate of ADHD diagnosis is now up to 50 % higher than the rate that was reported by LeFever in AJPH over a decade ago (8''10 %)'--the rate that once sparked national and international debate. Calculations based on 2010 CDC data also suggest that nearly 20 % of American boys are now diagnosed with ADHD by 15''17 years of age (CDC 2013). Similar trends were found in 2011 (Sondik et al. 2012). These reports and the most recent CDC data (CDC 2013) also documented that ADHD diagnosis and treatment rates continue to vary widely by geographic region as documented more than a decade ago (e.g., Morrow et al. 1998). The most recent CDC data indicate that ADHD is now the most prevalent mental health diagnosis among children 3''17 years of age, with rates that vary substantially by state (from a low of 5.6 % in Nevada to a high of 15.6 % in North Carolina) (CDC 2013). Due to within state variation, some communities probably have experienced rates of diagnosis that are notably higher than the national average of 14 % or the state high of 15.6 %. Yet, there has been limited professional or public outcry about the ever-rising rate of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment.
  - Rise of Ritalin is Replaced by the Rise of RisperdalMore disturbing than the high level of psychostimulant drug treatment is the growing numbers of children who are being prescribed an ever-widening formulary of powerful psychotropic drugs to treat ADHD. For example, prescriptions for antidepressants (which are often added to psychostimulant treatment regimens for children with ADHD have increased over 400 % in recent years (Pratt et al. 2011). Antipsychotic drug prescriptions'--prescriptions for drugs like Risperdal that historically have been reserved for treatment of adults with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders'--increased eight-fold among children during the last two decades (1993-2009) (Olfson et al. 2012) with the nation's poorest children among the most common recipients (e.g., Zito et al. 2013). Data collected between 2005 and 2009 reveal that, of all children's physician office visits, almost 2 % result in the prescription of an antipsychotic drug. The rate is almost 4 % for adolescents and skyrockets to 30 % when the visit involves a psychiatrist (Olfson et al. 2012). Between 2005 and 2007, the state of Florida witnessed a 250 % increase in the prescription of antipsychotic drugs for children (Farley 2007). This included 1,100 Medicaid children as young as 3 years of age. Many such prescriptions are specifically for children carrying a diagnosis of ADHD (Matone et al. 2012); others are likely prescribed for iatrogenic effects of ADHD drug treatment (Whitaker 2010).
  - As alarming as these trends are in and of themselves, there is yet another (and more disturbing) layer to the story of ADHD treatment trends. Many children are being treated with more than one psychotropic drug at a time (Mojtabai and Olfson 2010; Zonfrillo et al. 2005). If one drug is dangerous on its own, certainly combining two drugs increases the risk of harm exponentially. There is little research clearly investigating these effects, but emerging data suggests significant risk (Mojtabai and Olfson 2010; Zonfrillo et al. 2005). The documented rate of diagnosis is now so high and the use of a host of psychotropic drugs so prevalent that it should raise concern among all healthcare professionals, child advocates, and parents.
  - What's the Harm of Casually Diagnosing and Aggressively Medicating ADHD?The more a drug is prescribed, the more it is available for diversion and abuse. Research has shown that as early as 15 years ago in some communities, up to 16 % of elementary through high school students had been approached by classmates to share or sell their ADHD medications (Musser et al. 1998); 5 years later, up to 23 % of middle and high school students had been approached (McCabe et al. 2004). By 2006, 34 % of students attending a large southeastern college reported using ADHD drugs illegally (DeSantis et al. 2008). The ubiquitous availability of ADHD medications on high school and college campuses has led many teens and young adults to perceive drugs like Adderall to be benign for academic enhancement (e.g., Desantis and Hane 2010; DeSantis et al. 2008, 2010; Wish et al. 2005). They also view these drugs as relatively safe for recreational use and freely mix them with alcohol (e.g., Desantis and Hane 2010; DeSantis et al. 2008)'--a potentially lethal combination. Growing numbers of students are now sharing, swapping, stealing, and abusing ADHD medications. Not surprisingly, increases in ADHD prescriptions have been associated with a parallel escalation in abuse of ADHD drugs.
  - Analysis of national poison control data for 1998''2005 showed a sharp increase in the number of children between 13 and 19 years of age who were reported to poison control due to ADHD medication abuse'--an increase that was disproportionately higher than drug abuse generally or for teen substance abuse in particular (Setlik et al. 2009). The severity of cases also increased over time, particularly for amphetamines (e.g., Adderall) compared to methylphenidates (e.g., Ritalin) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 2013). Nationwide, emergency department visits for adverse reactions to prescription use of such drugs as well as illicit use of such drugs also increased between 2005 and 2009 (National Institute of Drug Abuse 2011).
  - Even when used as prescribed, ADHD drug treatment often brings with it adverse side effects. The side effects may include undermining of an individual's motivation to take other steps to address behavioral issues, deflating of one's sense of self-efficacy, and/or flattening of one's affect or natural exuberance. ADHD drugs also carry the potential for side effects such as sleep disturbance and growth suppression, as well as more serious side effects like elevated risk for drug dependence, psychosis, cardiac arrest, and violence against oneself or others (Moore et al. 2010). Between 2004 and 2011, there were more than 11,000 cases of psychotropic drug side effects related to violent actions reported to the FDA's MedWatch system. And these are only the side effects that are reported to the FDA, which constitute only an estimated 1''10 % of actual occurrences.
  - Despite the fact the FDA requires that mainstream ADHD stimulant drugs carry a ''black box'' warning label noting the drugs' risks for addiction, psychosis, and cardiac arrest, many professionals, parents, and patients underestimate the power of prescription pills due to ''successful'' marketing campaigns (e.g., Lacasse and Leo 2009). Popular media have also aided the pharmaceutical industry's overselling of the benefits of ADHD drugs (Gonon et al. 2012). Findings that emerged from our country's epic MTA Study (Kollins et al. 2006; Richters et al. 1995)'--a large-scale, longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes of Health'--showed that: (a) the benefits of drug treatment (even carefully monitored drug treatment) faded over time while the benefits of behavioral treatment endured (Pelham and Fabiano 2008); (b) drug treatment was not effective as delivered as part of routine community care (Greenhill et al. 2001); (c) drug treatments did not result in better academic outcomes (Molina et al. 2009); (d) over time, behavioral interventions were more effective than drug treatment (Pelham and Fabiano 2008) and (e) when behavioral interventions were implemented prior to the initiation of drug treatment, 75 % of children fully resolved their ADHD symptoms (Pelham 1999). Yet, the pervasive public message was that ADHD drugs work and should be the first line of defense (Pelham and Fabiano 2008). In fact'--as is also the case with depression (Antonuccio 2008; Antonuccio et al. 1995, 1999, 2002)'--the scientific evidence indicates that psychosocial interventions for ADHD are at least as effective as ADHD drug treatment when long-term outcome is considered (for a review, see Pelham and Fabiano 2008).
  - In addition to overselling drug benefits, the pharmaceutical industry minimizes drug risks (Lacasse and Leo 2009). Individuals who experience the side effects are portrayed as biologically predisposed and/or otherwise vulnerable to emotional breakdowns (e.g., Sizemore 2012). Such generalizations can lull clinicians and parents into a false sense of security and belief that the side effects will not occur for otherwise ''normal'' children.
  - SummaryADHD experts with ties to the pharmaceutical industry and/or CHADD repeatedly launched ad hominem attacks on work by a psychologist whose research findings conflicted with drug industry interests. These attacks ultimately led to a decade of significant ADHD research and community-based interventions being mischaracterized in professional venues and media outlets. The net effect was that research on psychosocial interventions that also raised questions about the effectiveness of ADHD drug treatment was terminated and study findings were suppressed. This helped pave the way for continued escalation and expansion of ADHD diagnosis and drug treatment among American children, youth, and adults. The rate of ADHD diagnosis now exceeds all reasonable estimates of the true prevalence of the disorder. As a consequence, ADHD drugs are readily available on American high school and college campuses where they are increasingly abused with serious and sometimes lethal consequences.
  - A Professional Call to ArmsWith mounting evidence of serious risks associated with widespread use of psychotropic drugs, the case of the attack on LeFever and suppression of the data she generated can serve as a wake-up call for mental health professionals. This case provides an object lesson about why tenure is so important in protecting academic freedom. Without tenure, the risks to the independent academician can be great if billions of industry dollars may be threatened (Antonuccio et al. 2003). It is up to independent scientists to address the inflation of benefits of drug therapies and the minimization of risk (Healy 2002, 2008; Leo and Cohen 2003). Prominent Psychiatrist Allen Frances and Psychologist Alan Stroufe have recently again sounded the alarm about ADHD being overdiagnosed, medications being overused, and the lack of long-term benefit from these medications (Frances 2013; Stroufe 2012). The authors would like to add their voices to their call.
  - Contributor InformationGretchen LeFever Watson,Email:gblefever/at/gmail.com, Email:gwatsonphd/at/gmail.com.
  - Andrea Powell Arcona,Email:aarcona/at/tcc.edu.
  - David O. Antonuccio,Email:dantonuccio/at/medicine.nevada.edu.
  - David Healy,Email:david.healy54/at/googlemail.com.
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International consensus statement on ADHD. Clinical Child and Family Psychology 5,89''111. [PubMed]Barkley, R. & 35 other behavioral scientists. (2004). Critique or misrepresentation? A reply to Timimi et al. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7(1), 65''69.Blumsohn A. Authorship, ghost-science, access to data and control of the pharmaceutical scientific literature: Who stands behind the word? Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science Professional Ethics Report; 2006.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Increasing prevalence of parent-reported attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among children'--United States, 2003 and 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly. 2010;59(44):1439''1443.[PubMed]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mental health surveillance among children-United States, 2005''2011. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2013;62(02):1''35.[PubMed]Desantis A, Hane A. ''Adderall is Definitely Not a Drug'': Justifications for the illegal use of ADHD stimulants. Substance Use and Misuse. 2010;45(1''2):31''46. doi: 10.3109/10826080902858334.[PubMed][Cross Ref]DeSantis A, Noar S, Webb E. Speeding through the frat house: A qualitative exploration of nonmedical ADHD stimulant use in fraternities. Journal of Drug Addiction. 2010;40(2):151''171.[PubMed]DeSantis A, Webb E, Noar S. Illicit use of prescription ADHD medications on a college campus: A multimethodological approach. Journal of American College Health. 2008;57(3):315''324. doi: 10.3200/JACH.57.3.315-324.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Deyo RA, Psaty BM, Simon G, Wagner EH, Omenn GS. The messenger under attack'--Intimidation of researchers by special-interest groups. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997;336(16):1176''1180. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199704173361611.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Diller, L. (2005). Bitter pills: Ritalin and the growing influence of Big Pharma. Psychotherapy Networker, 55''61.Elliott C. The secret lives of Big Pharma's 'thought leaders'. Washington DC: The Chronicle of Higher Education; 2010.Farley R. The ''atypical'' dilemma: Skyrocketing numbers of kids are prescribed powerful antipsychotic drugs. Saint Petersburg: St. Petersburg Times; 2007.Frances A. Saving Normal: An insider's revolt against out-of-control psychiatric diagnosis, DSM-5, big pharma, and the medicalization of ordinary life. New York: HarperCollins; 2013.Gonon F, Konsman J-P, Cohen D. Why most biomedical findings echoed by newspapers turn out to be false: The case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(9):e44275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044275.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]Greenhill LL, Swanson JM, Vitiello B, Davies M, Clevenger W, Wu M, Arnold LE, Abikoff HB, Bukstein OG, Conners CK, Elliott GR, Hechtman L, Hinshaw SP, Hoza B, Jensen PS, Kraemer HC, March JS, Newcorn JH, Severe JB, Wells K, Wigal T. Impairment and deportment responses to different methylphenidate doses in children with ADHD: The MTA titration trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2001;40(2):180''187. doi: 10.1097/00004583-200102000-00012.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Healy D. The creation of psychopharmacology. London: Harvard University Press; 2002.Healy D. Academic stalking and brand fascism. In: Turk J, Thompson J, editors. Universities at risk: How politics, special interests and corporatization threaten academic integrity. Toronto: Lorimer Press; 2008. pp. 108''137.Kollins S, Greenhill L, Swanson J, Wigal S, Abikoff H, McCracken J, Riddle M, McGough J, Vitiello B, Wigal T, Skrobala A, Posner K, Ghuman J, Davies M, Cunningham C, Bauzo A. Rationale, design, and methods of the preschool ADHD treatment study (PATS) Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2006;45(11):1275''1283. doi: 10.1097/01.chi.0000235074.86919.dc.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Lacasse J, Leo J. Consumer advertisements for psychostimulants in the United States: A long record of misleading promotion. Psychiatric Times. 2009;26(2):12.Lambert, N. (1999). Stimulant treatment as a risk factor for nicotine use and substance abuse. Paper presented at the NIH Consensus Development Conference on Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Bethesda, MD.LeFever, G. (2007). Shooting the messenger. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.LeFever, G. (2008). Closing the ADHD research to practice gap. Paper presented at the Virginia Academy of Special Education, Virginia Beach, VA.LeFever, G., & Allen, K. (2004). Working with communities: Challenges and success of the multi-site CDC collaborative study. Paper presented at the Annual CHADD Conference, Nashville, TN.LeFever, G., Allen, K., & Plasden, E. (2004). Piloting a school-wide intervention. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Washington, DC.LeFever G, Arcona A, Antonuccio D. ADHD among American schoolchildren: Evidence of overdiagnosis and overuse of medication. Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. 2003;2(1):49''60.LeFever G, Butterfoss F, Vislocky N. High prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Catalyst for development of a school health coalition. Family and Community Health. 1999;22(1):38''49. doi: 10.1097/00003727-199904000-00006.[Cross Ref]LeFever G, Dawson K, Morrow A. The extent of drug therapy for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder among children in public schools. American Journal of Public Health. 1999;89(9):1359''1364. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.89.9.1359.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]LeFever, G., Parker, J., & Morrow, A. (2000). Understanding ADHD issues in a community with a high ADHD prevalence rate: Parent, teacher, and provider perspectives. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Boston, MA.LeFever G, Villers M, Morrow A, Vaughn E. Parental perceptions of adverse educational outcomes among children diagnosed with ADHD: A call for improved school/provider collaboration. Psychology in the Schools. 2002;39(1):63''71. doi: 10.1002/pits.10000.[Cross Ref]LeFever, G., Villers, M., Morrow, A., & Vaughn, E. (2005). [Erratum]. Psychology in the Schools, 42(2), 227. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pits.20099/pdf.Lenzer, J. (2005a). Researcher cleared of misconduct charges. BMJ, 331, 805. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1255828/.Lenzer, J. (2005b). Researcher to be sacked after reporting high rates of ADHD. BMJ, 330, 691. [PMC free article][PubMed]Leo J, Cohen DA. Broken brains or flawed studies? A critical review of ADHD neuroimaging research. The Journal of Mind and Behavior. 2003;149:1539''1542.Marks I, Swinson R, Basoglu M, Noshirvani H, Kuch K, O'Sullivan G, Lelliott P. Reply to comment on the London/Toronto study. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1993;162:790''794.Matone M, Localio R, Huang Y, dosReis S, Feudtner C, Rubin D. The relationship between mental health diagnosis and treatment with second-generation antipsychotics over time: a national study of U.S. Medicaid-enrolled children. Health Services Research. 2012;47(5):1836''1860. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2012.01461.x.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]McCabe S, Teter C, Boyd C. The use, misuse, and diversion of prescription stimulants among middle and high school students. Substance Use and Misuse. 2004;39(7):1095''1116. doi: 10.1081/JA-120038031.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Mojtabai R, Olfson M. National trends in psychotropic medication polypharmacy in office-based psychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2010;67(1):26. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.175.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Molina B, Hinshaw S, Swanson J, Arnold L, Vitielli B, Jensen P, et al. The MTA at 8 years: Prospective follow-up of children treated for combined-type ADHD in a multisite study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2009;48(5):484''500. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31819c23d0.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]Monbiot G. The fake persuaders: Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the internet. London: The Guardian; 2002.Moore T, Glenmullen J, Furberg C. Prescription drugs associated with reports of violence towards others. PLoS ONE. 2010;5(12):e15337. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015337.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]Morrow R, Morrow A, Haslip G. Methylphenidate in the United States, 1990 through 1995 [Letter to the editor] American Journal of Public Health. 1998;88(7):1121. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.88.7.1121.[PMC free article][PubMed][Cross Ref]Musser C, Ahmann P, Theye F, et al. Stimulant use and the potential for abuse in Wisconsin as reported by school administrators and longitudinally followed children. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. 1998;19(3):187''192. doi: 10.1097/00004703-199806000-00006.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Nathan D, Weatherall D. Academic freedom in clinical research. New England Journal of Medicine. 2002;347:1368''1371. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsb020394.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Drug-related hospital emergency room visits. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Drug Abuse; 2011.Model policy for responding to allegations of scientific misconduct. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 1997.Olfson M, Blanco C, Liu S, Wang S, Correll C. National trends in the office-based treatment of children, adolescents, and adults with antipsychotics. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2012;69(12):1247''1256. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.647.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Pelham W. The NIMH multimodal treatment study for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: just say yes to drugs alone? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 1999;44:765''775.[PubMed]Pelham W, Fabiano GA. Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 2008;37(1):184''214. doi: 10.1080/15374410701818681.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Pratt L, Brody D, Gu Q. Antidepressant use in persons aged 12 and over: United States, 2005''2008. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2011.Richters JE, Arnold LE, Jensen PS, Abikoff H, Conners CK, Greenhill LL, Hechtman L, Hinshaw SP, Pelham WE, Swanson JM. NIMH collaborative multisite multimodal treatment study of children with ADHD. I. Background and rationale. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1995;34(8):987''1000. doi: 10.1097/00004583-199508000-00008.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Scudder L. The changing epidemiology of ADHD: An expert interview with Suzanna Visser. Parsippany: Medscape; 2011.Setlik J, Bond G, Ho M. Adolescent prescription ADHD medication abuse is rising along with prescriptions for these medications. Pediatrics. 2009;124(3):875''880. doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-0931.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Sizemore, B. (2005). Did ADHD study miss the mark. Norfolk: The Virginian-Pilot, pp. A1, A5''A6.Sizemore B. After Navy vet's suicide, sister sues VA. Norfolk: The Virginian-Pilot; 2012.Sondik E, Madans J, Gentleman J. Summary of health statistics for U.S. children: National health interview survey, 2011 ((PHS) - 2013-1582) Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2012.Stroufe LA. Ritalin gone wrong. New York: New York Times; 2012.The DAWN report: Emergency department visits involving attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder stimulant medications. Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality; 2013.Tennant, D. (1996). Combating ADD expert says children are not being overdiagnosed or overtreated for disorder, which is genetic(p. E1). Norfolk: The Virginian-Pilot.Thompson J, Baird P, Downie J. The Oliveri report. Toronto: James Lorimer and Company; 2001.Timimi, S., Moncrieff, J., Jureidini, J., Leo, J., Cohen, D., Whitfield, C., & other Co-endorsers. (2004). A critique of the international consensus statement on ADHD. [Comment]. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7(1), 59''63; 65''59. [PubMed]Tjersland, T. (2004). School-identified AD/HD and psycho-stimulant prevalence in southeastern Virginia. Dissertation. Department of Psychology, Regent University, Virginia Beach.Whitaker R. Anatomy of an epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs, and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America. New York: Crown; 2010. [PubMed]Wish E, Falls B, Nakamura E. College students' perceptions of nonmedical use of prescription stimulants by their peers: Findings from the April 2005 administration of the Student Drug Research Survey. College Park, MD: University of Maryland, Center for Substance Abuse Research; 2005.Zito J, Burcu M, Ibe A, Safer D, Magder L. Antipsychotic use by Medicaid-insured youths: Impact of eligibility and psychiatric diagnosis across a decade. Psychiatric Services. 2013;64(3):1''3. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201200081.[PubMed][Cross Ref]Zonfrillo M, Penn J, Leonard H. Pediatric psychotropic polypharmacy. Psychiatry. 2005;2(8):14''19.[PMC free article][PubMed]
- Violent Media and Children's ADHD-Related Behavior: Testing a Disposition-Content Congruency Model
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  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:25
  - Violent Media and Children's ADHD-Related Behavior: Testing a Disposition-Content Congruency ModelAbstract | Word Stems | Keywords | Association | Citation | Get this Document | Similar TitlesAbstract:The aim of this study was to investigate children's genetic susceptibility to the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors. Therefore, we proposed and tested a model hypothesizing the joint occurrence of a gene-environment correlation (i.e., genetic predisposition increases the consumption of media violence) and a gene-environment interaction (genetic predisposition moderates the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors). This model was tested using questionnaire and DNA data of 1,208 children between five and eight years. The examined gene was the 5-HTT gene, which has often been associated with ADHD. Findings demonstrated a gene-environment correlation, in that the ''long'' allele of the 5-HTT gene was associated with greater violent media use, which in turn was linked to more ADHD-related behaviors. The 5-HTT gene did not moderate the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors. Our findings illustrate the importance of including differential susceptibility variables when studying media effects.
  - Most Common Document Word Stems:media (136), behavior (124), adhd (117), violent (108), children (108), relat (101), adhd-rel (85), use (82), gene (60), studi (56), doi (55), effect (43), j (42), m (39), 5 (36), genet (33), p (31), environ (31), relationship (30), d (29), c (28),
  - ConventionSubmission, Review, and Scheduling! All Academic Convention can help with all of your abstract management needs and many more. Contact us today for a quote!Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf.Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets!Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more!Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering.Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more!Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches!Click here for more information.Association:Name: International Communication AssociationURL: http://www.icahdq.org
  - Citation:MLA Citation:Nikkelen, Sanne., Valkenburg, Patti., Vossen, Helen. and Huizinga, Mariette."Violent Media and Children's ADHD-Related Behavior: Testing a Disposition-Content Congruency Model" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, Phoenix, AZ, May 24, 2012 . 2014-01-09 APA Citation:Nikkelen, S. , Valkenburg, P. M., Vossen, H. and Huizinga, M. , 2012-05-24 "Violent Media and Children's ADHD-Related Behavior: Testing a Disposition-Content Congruency Model" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, Phoenix, AZOnline . 2014-01-09 from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p553021_index.htmlPublication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptReview Method: Peer ReviewedAbstract: The aim of this study was to investigate children's genetic susceptibility to the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors. Therefore, we proposed and tested a model hypothesizing the joint occurrence of a gene-environment correlation (i.e., genetic predisposition increases the consumption of media violence) and a gene-environment interaction (genetic predisposition moderates the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors). This model was tested using questionnaire and DNA data of 1,208 children between five and eight years. The examined gene was the 5-HTT gene, which has often been associated with ADHD. Findings demonstrated a gene-environment correlation, in that the ''long'' allele of the 5-HTT gene was associated with greater violent media use, which in turn was linked to more ADHD-related behaviors. The 5-HTT gene did not moderate the effects of media violence on ADHD-related behaviors. Our findings illustrate the importance of including differential susceptibility variables when studying media effects.
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- 'Violence gene': Researchers discover genetic variant linked to children who seek out violent games and movies - Science - News - The Independent
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  - Archived Version
  - Sat, 22 Feb 2014 20:23
  - Dutch academics linked a gene variation to young people who sought and and engaged with violent media.
  - 1,612 parents of children aged five to nine noted how much violent TV their children viewed, as well as how long they spent playing violent video games, as part of the study.
  - DNA samples collected at the children's birth were then analysed to identify the gene variant.
  - The researchers found that children carrying a specific variant of the serotonin-transporter gene on average consumed more violent media.
  - Those with the gene were also more likely to display ADHD-related behaviors.
  - Sanne Nikkelen of the University of Amsterdam's School of Communication Research said: "Our results indicate that children's violent media use is partly influenced by genetic factors.
  - "This could mean that children with this gene variant are more likely to seek out stimulating activities, such as violent television viewing and video game playing.
  - She added: "It is important to study the relationship between media use and ADHD-related behaviors because children who show increased ADHD-related behaviors often face peer and academic difficulties and are at increased risk for substance abuse.
  - "Examining factors that may contribute to the development of these behaviors is essential."
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- Sexual difficulty reported in NZ anti-depressant study | Voxy.co.nz
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  - Fri, 21 Feb 2014 19:03
  - Sexual difficulties and feeling emotionally numb are the two most commonly-experienced side effects reported by people taking antidepressants, according to a new study by University of Auckland researchers.
  - Sexual difficulties and feeling emotionally numb are the two most commonly-experienced side effects reported by people taking antidepressants, according to a new study by University of Auckland researchers.
  - In an online survey of 1,829 New Zealanders prescribed antidepressants in the past five years - the largest sample ever surveyed - high rates of emotional and interpersonal adverse effects were reported by study participants.
  - The research, just published in the international journal Psychiatry Research, also found that over two fifths reported gaining weight.
  - "We know from previous research that weight gain and nausea are reported by people taking antidepressants but what is new in this study is that antidepressants have also been found to have substantial emotional and interpersonal adverse effects," says Dr Claire Cartwright of the University's Clinical Psychology Programme in the Department of Psychology.
  - The study found:
  - - 62% of people reported experience sexual difficulties
  - - 60% reported feeling emotionally numb
  - - 52% reported feeling not like myself
  - - 42% reported a reduction in positive feelings
  - - 39% reported caring less about others
  - - 39% reported feelings of suicidality
  - - 55% had withdrawal effects
  - Eight of the 20 adverse effects were reported by more than half the participants.
  - Study co-author Dr Kerry Gibson said with the rise in use of anti-depressants in recent years, the study findings are a concern.
  - "One in nine adults and one in six women in New Zealand are prescribed these drugs every year yet our study found potential side-effects are more common than previously thought and those effects can seriously impact on people's well-being and quality of life."
  - While overall 39% of study participants reported feeling suicidal, that figure rose to more than half - 55% - for people aged 18-25.
  - "Our finding that over a third of respondents reported suicidality 'as a result of taking the antidepressants' suggests that earlier studies may have underestimated the problem," says researcher Professor John Read, formerly of the University of Auckland, now at the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool.
  - Dr Cartwright said the high frequency of reported adverse effects raised the issue of whether people dissatisfied with their medication were more likely to have participated in the survey but an overwhelming majority - 82.8% - of people in the survey reported that they believed the drugs had reduced their depression.
  - "That's a higher rate than many studies of anti-depressants so that if this survey had attracted a disproportionate number of people not satisfied with their medication then you would have expected that figure to be much lower."
  - The research was funded by the University of Auckland's Faculty Research Development Fund.
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Turkey
- Is Fethullah Gulen A Sufi? - G¼len Movement and Fethullah G¼len
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  - Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:32
  - ?"Is Fethullah Gulen a sufi? "
  - Asked by Anonymous
  - Answer:First of all, it depends on what you mean by sufi, or Sufism. There are several different defitions and approaches to Sufism.
  - In order to answer your question, we refer to two academic articles that were presented in different conferences.
  - First article is Fethullah Gulen and Sufism by Mustafa Gokcek.
  - G¼len and Sufism by Mustafa Gokcek
  - G¼len has attracted attention through the activities of his followers mainly in education and interfaith dialogue. i The media network and other financial and commercial institutions established by his followers have helped publicize his views and make his community ii more publicly visible. While the secular and modern education model which intends to promote cultural tolerance and moral values exemplified in role-model teachers and to grow an international network of Turkish speaking intellectuals raised in Turkish schools, interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities aim to establish connections among various cultural and religious communities emphasizing tolerance, peaceful coexistence and religious broadmindedness. G¼len leads the community by designing and proposing new areas of action for his followers as well as persistently revitalizing Islamic consciousness and spirituality in daily and personal lives of his followers and presenting an understanding of Islam which is practicable in contemporary world. While the political and social implications of the activities of the G¼len community has been dealt with in various scholarly works, the religious aspect of G¼len and his community still needs to be analyzed iii .
  - It is of utmost significance to examine the extent of the impact of Sufism on G¼len's views in order to fully comprehend G¼len's religious philosophy and the actions of his community. It is not in the scope of this paper to find a correct definition for Sufism iv , or to comprehensively analyze G¼len's thought and his community, neither have we enough space to discuss to the fullest extent G¼len's stance on various issues within Sufism. The purpose of this paper is to search for the roots of G¼len's Sufism both in his life and in the historical Sufi tradition. A historical analysis of the factors that shape G¼len's Sufi understanding necessitates looking at Fethullah G¼len's personal background. A review of his Sufi masterpiece Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri (hereafter referred to as The Emerald Hills of the Heart) is essential for a chronological and comparative analysis of his views and for locating G¼len in an historical context within the history of Sufism.
  - A close study of G¼len's Sufi aspect proves that G¼len is a contemporary Sufi scholar, who, while far from establishing a Sufi order, aims to revive and combine the activism of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, the asceticism of the first generation Sufis, and the Sufi terminological knowledge and consciousness of the later Sufi scholars. At a time when the gap between Sufis and their major critique salafis increase, G¼len's main goal is to reestablish Sufism on the basis of Quran and Sunna. G¼len's most significant contribution to the Sufi literature is his emphasis on religious activism. In G¼len's Sufi approach the passivism, asceticism and exclusive focus on inner world under the guidance of the sheikh in many of the early Sufi works are replaced with purification of the self through continuous struggle and action within the community under the direct guidance of Quran and Sunna. This approach offers a new equilibrium within the Muslim world and promotes a peaceful and tolerant understanding of Islam coexisting peacefully with the non-Islamic communities.
  - An autobiographical interview of G¼len published as Fethullah G¼len Hocaefendi ''K¼§¼k D¼nyam'' (or ''My Little World'') provides many examples of powerful influence of Sufism on G¼len during his very childhood. This should not be surprising considering the first Muslim presence in Anatolia took place thanks to the Sufi dervishes of Central Asia and that Sufi orders have always been influential in Asia Minor. Especially Erzurum, the birthplace of G¼len, is known for its conservative and spiritual atmosphere.
  - According to G¼len the leading authoritative figure in his family was his great grandfather, Molla Ahmed (Erdogan, 1995, pp. 15-18). The qualities which venerate him in G¼len's memory are all Sufi attributes: asceticism, combining knowledge and piety, living on a few olives a day throughout all his life, never sleeping in bed, and sufficing with a few minutes of nap. G¼len mentions his strong attachment to his grandfather, Samil. G¼len reveres his grandfather for not taking off his turban all his life, respecting the genuine scholars, not laughing at all but rarely smiling. He also emphasizes the influence of his grandmother on himself with her spirituality. G¼len mentions his father with deep respect as having a major influence on himself and recalls his passion for knowledge, love of the companions of the Prophet, and high manners.
  - While these instances hint the reverence of Sufi qualities in G¼len's family, a local Sufi sheikh Mehmed Lutfi or Alvarli Efe as known by the locals had the most influence on G¼len in terms of establishing Sufi qualities in his life (Erdogan, 1995, pp. 27-29). Lutfi paid frequent visits to their house and was highly respected in the family. G¼len memorized all the poems Lutfi read in his sermons and many of his teachings have remained strong in G¼len's memory. Lutfi passed away when G¼len was sixteen. Therefore, as can be observed in G¼len's writings on Sufism, it can be argued that Mehmed Lutfi did not have much philosophical impact on G¼len. The references to Mehmed Lutfi are only some couplets, poems and sayings, and they are used only to reinforce a meaning and idea that G¼len argues in his works. However, certainly his experiences in Sufi lodges, or tekye, in this time period of his life left a deep impact on G¼len and this impact is reflected in G¼len's philosophy. G¼len argues that a perfect community combines three characteristics in itself: the discipline of the army, the knowledge of the madrasa/school, and the manners of the tekye (G¼len, 2003, para. 1).
  - The major philosophical influence on G¼len's thoughts, not only about Sufism but on overall approach to religion and its application in modern life, comes from Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and his works collected as Risale-i Nur. It would not be an exaggeration to state here that Risale-i Nur forms the philosophical basis of Fethullah G¼len's thought and life. He reminisces when he first met with Risale-i Nur as an adolescent at the age of sixteen and shortly after he began praying to be among the students of Risale-i Nur all his life. Indeed in his speeches and writings he very frequently makes references to Risale-i Nur and often refers to Said Nursi as ''our mind maker'' (in Turkish ''beyin yapÄ±cÄ±mÄ±z''). In his writings on Sufism too, his stance and thoughts on fundamental issues are shaped by Said Nursi. In many cases even when he does not make an explicit reference to Risale-i Nur we find Said Nursi's approach as the overarching stance of G¼len.
  - In most essential issues of Sufism G¼len follows Nursi's line of thought. One very significant example is his definition of the steps that lead the seeker (murid, he who has made up his will) to the right path. In the second volume of The Emerald Hills of the Heart under the title ''Seyr-u S¼luk'' (Wayfaring) G¼len describes the stages of mystical journey such as seyr ilallah (journeying to God), seyr fillah (journeying in God), seyr maallah (journeying with God), seyr anillah (journeying from God), and several stages of improving the Self (nafs) in the classical Sufi understanding (G¼len, 2001, pp. 255-273). Later on under the title ''Another Line in Seyr-u S¼luk'' he examines and evaluates the approach of Said Nursi. Nursi's most explicit explanation of his mystical formulation is described in the Addendum of the Twenty sixth Word in The Words collection:
  - ''The ways (tarikat) leading to Almighty God are truly numerous. While all true ways are taken from the Qur'an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. Of these ways taken from the Qur'an is that of impotence (acz), poverty (fakr), compassion (Åefkat), and reflection (tefekk¼r), from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited'' (Nursi, 2001, p. 221).
  - Besides these four steps, Nursi presents a slightly different list in the Fourth Letter of The Letters collection: ''On the way of impotence four things are necessary: absolute poverty, absolute impotence, absolute thanks (Å¼kr), and absolute ardor (Åevk), my friend'' (Nursi, 2001, p. 354). G¼len brings these two formulations together and lists six essentials of this alternate path: impotence, poverty, compassion, reflection, ardor, and thanks. He praises this way as ''the reflection of the truth of Prophethood and flourishing of the path of the Companions'' (G¼len, 2001, p. 288).
  - It is significant to note here that Nursi did not write out his thoughts on Sufism and Sufi terminology in a separate book. He occasionally makes references to these issues and offers his own position on certain aspects of Sufism. The teachings of Risale-i Nur constitute a part of G¼len's ''subconscious attainment''. v G¼len adopts Nursi's ideas on Sufism and through the perspective of Nursi re-evaluates the traditional Sufi literature. G¼len takes on where Nursi left and takes his teachings to a further step of educating his followers in Sufism as a discipline. Thus while G¼len does not deviate from the line of Nursi, his writings on Sufi terminology are definitely distinctive. G¼len follows the example of the earlier Sufi scholars in defining and describing each concept in the terminology of Sufism, and this constitutes G¼len's difference from Nursi.
  - The historical development of Sufism can be periodized in many ways. The most common periodization is as such: following the Age of Happiness (the time of the Prophet and His companions), the period of asceticism, period of tasawwuf, period of ''unity of Being'', period of tariqa (orders), and today (Kara, 1985, p. 77). While in the period of asceticism, the terminology of Sufism was not fully formulated, during the tasawwuf period, Sufi scholars described their understanding of Sufism, biographies of major Sufi scholars in the early period, and explained certain concepts and terminology of Sufism. Thus while in the period of asceticism Sufis strived to ''live'' and refresh the mystical aspect of Islam, in the period of tasawwuf scholars started also to ''speak'' about Sufism. They handled Sufism as a separate discipline, just like fiqh (jurisprudence) or hadith, with its own rules, methodology, and terminology. These scholars did have followers and students; however they did not institutionalize their approaches in the form of orders, which were established after the 12th century. Sufi scholars of the tasawwuf period critically analyzed and reshaped the fundamentals of Sufism, while in the period of orders, in most of the cases, imitation prevailed over critical thinking in a strictly structured master-disciple mystical relationship.
  - The Sufi scholars that G¼len follows in his Emerald Hills of the Heart mostly belong to the period of tasawwuf. A close study of G¼len's views reveals strong parallels between his approach and the views of leading scholars such as Qushayri, Muhasibi, Tusi, Kelebazi, Ebu Talib Mekki, Hujviri, Gazali, and Ibn'ul Kayyim el-Cevziyye. A common characteristic of these scholars is that they all strive to bring together Sufism and sharia. In their works, on the one hand they criticize the out-of-sharia practices that start to emerge within Sufi circles and on the other hand they try to defend basic tenets of Sufism by referring to the Quran and Sunna.
  - G¼len follows the tradition of these scholars in describing and re-evaluating the terms of Sufism. While he does not create new meanings and concepts, he reassesses the Sufi terminology to present a practical approach for the modern day Muslims. He endeavors to refresh spirituality. He sets the aim of writing Emerald Hills of the Heart as ''raising the believers to the level of the heart and the spirit'' (G¼len, 2004, Bir Demet Yol Mulahazasi). Thus I argue that by following this group of earlier Sufi scholars G¼len endeavors to promote a Sufi approach within the confines of sharia and in strict accordance with the Quran and Sunna. This conveniently protects his approach against criticisms towards Sufism. G¼len makes a connection between Bediuzzaman's line of strict adherence to the Quran and the line of the earlier scholars of the tasawwuf period.
  - How, then, did G¼len develop his Sufi rhetoric? When did he start talking about Sufism? As it is obvious in his personal background Sufism always played a significant role in G¼len's life and thought. However he did not write about it until early 1990s. In 1970s when he first distinguished himself from other Risale-i Nur communities, the focus of his sermons was mostly the basic concepts of faith and Islam, such as oneness of God, Prophethood and the life of Prophet Muhammad, prayers, fasting etc. He did not handle Sufism as a distinct discipline, but the content of his sermons included examples from the lives of earlier ascetic. Sufi conceptualization became much more noticeable in his sermons resumed in 1986. In these sermons which lasted until 1992, rather than the basic concepts of faith, G¼len focused on the spiritual characteristics that an ideal Muslim community should carry. Besides portraying the heroic instances from the lives of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, he presented even more examples from the lives of early Sufis. The themes were more spiritual: love of God and his Prophet, the aspects of the spirit and the heart, piety, hope vs. despair, sacred sorrow, culture of conscience, etc.
  - The community's monthly magazine Sizinti, which is the first publication established by the community did not include any article focused on Sufism until October 1990, when G¼len wrote the first of the series of articles under the general title of ''On the Emerald Hills of the Heart''. These articles were, and are still, published in the middle pages of the magazine on a higher quality paper and with an attractive design that distinguishes them from the rest of the magazine. When these articles make up enough volume the community's press house publishes them under the title The Emerald Hills of the Heart, the third volume of which to be published in 2006.
  - Since October 1990, every month G¼len has been focusing on a different concept in Sufi terminology. In each one of these articles, more often than not he commences with a generic definition of a concept and explains its meaning in Sufism. He always lists the relevant Quranic verses and sayings of the Prophet. Then he discusses various interpretations of the concept by different Sufi scholars, and elaborates on different stages or aspects of it. G¼len enriches his articles with couplets from famous Sufi poets, most frequently from Rumi, Mehmed Lutfi, and Yunus Emre. Where possible he concludes his articles with a message to the contemporary Muslims and describes how the concept should be understood and practiced in today's daily life.
  - In his writings on Sufi concepts, G¼len does not create new approaches nor does he bring new definitions to concepts already discussed in detail by earlier Sufi scholar. Rather G¼len benefits from certain scholars to present a reasonable and practical Sufi way to his followers. Thus I think it is significant to understand G¼len's choices of views and the earlier scholars that he most refers to. By comparing his views to the approaches of earlier scholar it is possible to situate G¼len within the long historical Sufi tradition. Therefore I will focus on selected concepts and endeavor to find out G¼len's stance within Sufism.
  - G¼len titled his first Sufi article in Sizinti Hal, ''state''. When published in the first volume of The Emerald Hills of the Heart it appeared as Hal-Makam (State-Station). In this short piece G¼len describes state and compares it with station to present how they are understood within Sufism. These spiritual states and stations are persistently dealt with by all Sufi treatises because of ''the fundamental significance of the knowledge of spiritual states for anyone who aspires to pass through them and beyond them to the Divine Presence'' (Nasr, 1972, p. 68). On this fundamental issue G¼len's approach is in line with the classical descriptions made by earlier authorities of Sufism. For G¼len state is the disciple's experience and consciousness of the divine feelings that appear in the heart beyond his will, and station is the continuity and stability of these feelings through the disciple's efforts and striving. This definition is very much in line with Qushayri's description of state in his famous Risale: ''States are gifts of God while stations are gained by effort. States are from God's generosity, but stations take place with efforts and striving'' (Kuseyri, 1978, p. 150). Jurjani too emphasizes this point: ''The states are gifts from God while the stations are acquired'' (Jurjani, p.56). Another significant aspect of state that G¼len mentions is its passing nature. While states are like waves that constantly come and go, appear and disappear, stations are unwavering and stable. Qushayri also mentions the argument of some Sufis, such as Muhasibi, that state is not passing but stable and he supports this argument (Muhasibi, p.109). However the overall tendency among the Sufis to define station as passing is obvious and Hujviri presents a detailed description of this tendency (Hucviri, 1982, p. 290). Gazali too makes this distinction between station and state: ''When an attribute settles and becomes stable it is called state, but when it quickly passes it is called station'' (Gazali, 1974, V. IV, p. 260). Thus on the issue of station G¼len follows the mainstream Sufi position.
  - Another issue which is a dividing line among the Sufi scholars is sekr (mystical intoxication, drunkenness) and sahv (mystical sobriety). G¼len states that in Sufi terminology intoxication is when the wayfarer loses himself in ecstasy upon experiencing divine rays (G¼len, Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri, Sekr-Sahv). On the other hand sobriety is the wayfarer's coming back to his/her senses from the state of intoxication. G¼len calls intoxication a ''station'', thus it cannot be reached by the will of wayfarer, but it is only a bounty of God. While sobriety is a ''state'' in which the wayfarer strives to stay. G¼len argues that sobriety should be preferred to intoxication, which is not a path as stable and healthy as sobriety. Preferring intoxication or sobriety has been a major dividing line among the Sufis. Bayezid Bistami and his followers favored intoxication because it eliminates human attributes, while Junayd of Baghdad and his followers considered sobriety as the highest and preferable state (Shimmel, 1975, p. 58). Although G¼len prefers sobriety, he does not criticize being in the station of intoxication. In fact he defends this station against those who argue that it is venerating a concept which is denounced by Islam. G¼len argues that it is an inevitable station which is not controlled by the wayfarer but a gift of God. Therefore G¼len is tolerant towards ''theopatic locutions'', the so-called shathiyyat, in which the mystic utters words that he should not say, such as Hallaj's ''I am the Truth (God)'' or Bayazid's ''Praise be to Me!''. For G¼len in a state of mystical ecstasy only prophetic foresight and will could prevent such lapses (G¼len, 2001, Sekr-Sahv). Otherwise it is natural that the Sufi might overflow at times when he is intoxicated with the rays of divine love. He also mentions that such mistaken utterances should not be taken at face value and should be interpreted within the limits of Quran and Sunnah (G¼len, 2001, Fena Fillah).
  - G¼len shows the same tolerance towards the adherents of vahdet-i vucud or unity of Being. He argues that the idea of unity of Being and the utterances related with it are consequences of a certain mystical station, of a state of ecstasy, therefore tolerable. If this thought is formulized in a sober way as a philosophy, and takes the shape of vahdet-i mevcud, unity of existence, then it is unacceptable (G¼len, 2001, V¼cud).
  - One characteristic of G¼len's Sufism is the emphasis on following the Quran and the Sunna. In each one of his articles he presents Quranic verses and Hadiths relevant to the topic to support his argument. He constantly stresses the significance of taking the Quran and Sunna as the only criterion in deciding the reliability of any argument (G¼len, 1998, Seyr-u S¼luk). For him the knowledge of Quran and Sunna is essential for any progress on the Sufi path. Therefore he prefers sobriety to drunkenness, because the wayfarer should be awake in all stations and states to stay away from any deviation from the path of the Quran and Sunna.
  - Another characteristic of G¼len's approach to Sufism is his tolerance on issues most criticized by orthodox Muslims. Especially salafis and wahhabis criticize Sufism harshly because of the seemingly deviations from the basic teachings of Islam. The erroneous utterances of Sufis in ecstatic stations are unacceptable for such Muslims. Even El-Cevziyye, who wrote one the most significant treatises on Sufism, harshly criticized the adherents of ''unity of Being'' and even accused some of them of infidelity (El-Cevziyye, 1985, p. 159). Ibn Cevziyye was a student of Ibn Teymiyya, who is known as the father of Salafiyya, and therefore he did not show any tolerance for any deviation from Quranic principles. G¼len, ont he other hand, is more lenient towards such errors only if they were consequences of mystical ecstasy.
  - I argue that G¼len's most significant contribution to the Sufi literature is his emphasis on action. For G¼len action is as vital as belief and belief can be sustainable only if it is supported with action. Action is an inseparable aspect of Sufism and contemporary Muslims who are willing to live according to the principles of Sufism should be actively involved in the community, share his/her experience with others, strive to help others and bring peace to the community. In his article on ile, Suffering, G¼len first describes in detail the approach of earlier Sufi scholars, that is the dervish's period of retirement and abstention from all worldly deeds, and fasting which lasts forty days. In the last section of his article, G¼len adds his own understanding and states:
  - ''In fact, instead of the troublesome disciplining of the self which includes retirement, and full devotion to worship, abstention from all comfort and wishing for torment, cile, for the inheritors of the Prophetic mission, comprises of being with God (while being) among the people, representing Islam in the best way, and thus initiating religious feelings in others, developing feelings of belief in everyone; this is the way of the Sahabi, companions of the Prophet'' (G¼len, 2001, ile).
  - In one of his recent writings, at the end of a detailed discussion of kabz vs. bast (strain/spiritual pressure vs. spiritual expansion/relief) he concludes the issue with the following statements: ''Today there is need for people who are sensitive enough to be burnt with the fire that falls anywhere in the world. There is need for people who will feel fire in his heart about an oppressed child in some forgotten part of the world'' (G¼len, 2002).
  - Thus G¼len does not foresee a Sufi life as an ascetic, living on the mountains. Today's ideal Sufi should live among the people and manage to be with God, should strive in the way of God and at the same time represent Islam in the best way.
  - To conclude, G¼len Sufi approach emphasizes the central role of Quran and Sunna, it has a tolerant and non-rigid style, and it emphasizes activism. This approach can bring about a rapprochement between the Sufi Muslims and the salafi tradition. At the same time this approach could reinvigorate dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. Thus, G¼len lives as an ascetic, leads his community to the activism of the Prophet and His companions, and draws the framework of a heightened level of spirituality.
  - Works Cited
  - El-Cevziyye, Ibn'ul Kayyum. (1985). Medaric us-salikin. Istanbul: Dergah Yayinlari.
  - Gazali. (1974). Ihyau Ulumi'd Din. Istanbul: Bedir Yayinevi.
  - G¼len, Fethullah. (1998). Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri. Istanbul: Nil Yayinlari.
  - G¼len, Fethullah. (2001). Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri-2. Istanbul: Nil Yayinlari.
  - G¼len, Fethullah. (forthcoming 2006). Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri-3. Istanbul: Nil Yayinlari.
  - G¼len, Fethullah. (2003, October 25). Askerlik ok nemlidir. Kirik Testi. Retreived September 2nd, 2005, from http://www.herkul.org/kiriktesti/index.php?article_id=64
  - G¼len, Fethullah. (2002, January 31). Kabz Bast Ä°le Havf u Reca. Kirik Testi. Retreived September 2nd, 2005, from http://www.herkul.org/kiriktesti/index.php?article_id=14
  - G¼len,