No Agenda Episode 612 - "Cradle to Career"
- Direct [link] to the mp3 file
- New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com
- Executive Producers: Sir David Foley Arch Duke of Silicon Valley, Samir Bhatti
- Associate Executive Producers:Teresa Huxley, Justin Geering
- 612 Club Member:Sir David Foley Arch Duke of Silicon Valley
- Become a member of the 613 Club, support the show here
- Knighthoods: Jim -> Knight of Far Hills Steeplechase
- Titles:Sir Robert Goshko -> Viscount (adding the protectorate of Stathcona County, Candanavia)
- New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com
-
- TODAY
-
- United Nations News Centre - On World Intellectual Property Day, UN celebrates movies, filmmaking
- 26 April 2014 '' Film tastes are as varied as the people around the world watching them, and as cinematic excellence sprouts up in dozens of countries, the United Nations and the global intellectual property (IP) system are helping to keep the reels rolling by supporting filmmaking through this year's theme for World Intellectual Property Day –“Movies – A Global Passion.”
- “Movies have always attracted global audiences'...from the very first silent movies,” said General Francis Gurry, Director of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in a message for World IP Day 2014.
- “We have witnessed the growth not only of global audiences, but also of global production,” pointed out Mr. Gurry, noting that while Hollywood was once the dominant player, film industries around the world now flourish.
- “Be it Bollywood in India, Nollywood in Nigeria, or in Scandinavia, North Africa, China or other parts of Asia – movies really are a global passion,” Mr. Gurry evinced.
- To mark the Day, WIPO is helping to facilitate events in dozens of countries. Via the IP Day Facebook page, movie lovers around the world can learn about the history of film, the latest trends and how intellectual property helps to promote creativity and innovation.
- In a video message, the WIPO chief said movies are a direct product of intellectual property. “You start with a script, which is the intellectual property of an author or screenwriter. Then there are the actors, whose performances are their intellectual property. Then there is music, in which the composers and the performers have intellectual property,” he said, adding:” IP underlies the whole film industry.”
- “On World IP Day this year, I invite movie lovers everywhere, when next you watch a movie, to think for a moment about all the creators and innovators who have had a part in making that movie,” said Mr. Gurry in his message.
- The WIPO Director also urged everyone to think about the digital challenge that the Internet presents for film.
- “I believe it is the responsibility not just of policy-makers but of each of us to consider this challenge, and to ask ourselves: How can we take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to democratize culture and to make creative works available at the click of a mouse, while, at the same time, ensuring that the creators can keep on creating, earning their living, and making the films that so enrich our lives?” Mr. Gurry asserted.
- In Geneva, WIPO is screening the Swiss premiere of the Nigerian/British co-production of author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's “Half of a Yellow Sun,” a story of Nigeria's civil war with an international cast featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and others.
- World IP Day, 26 April, was initiated in 2000 to raise public awareness on the role of IP in daily life and to celebrate the contributions of innovators and creators in the development of societies worldwide. WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and the leading global forum to promote intellectual property as a force for positive change.
-
- Presidential Proclamation -- Workers Memorial Day, 2014
- WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY, 2014
- BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- America is built on the promise of opportunity. We believe that everyone should have a chance to succeed, that what matters is the strength of our work ethic, the scope of our dreams, and our willingness to take responsibility for ourselves and each other. Yet each year, workplace illness and injury threaten that promise for millions of Americans, and even more tragically, thousands die on the job. This is unacceptable. On Workers Memorial Day, we honor those we have lost, and in their memory, affirm everyone's right to a safe workplace.
- With grit and determination, the American labor force has propelled our Nation through times of hardship and war, and it laid the foundation for tremendous economic growth. Workers risked life and limb to turn the gears of the Industrial Revolution, raise our first skyscrapers, and lay railroad track that connected our country from coast to coast. The injured, as well as families of the dead, received little or no compensation.
- It was only after decades of organizing, unionizing, and public pressure that workers won many of the rights we take for granted today. Finally, with the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Federal Government required employers to provide basic safety equipment. Just 1 year prior, the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 established comprehensive safety and health standards for coal mines, increased Federal enforcement powers, and provided compensation to miners with black lung.
- My Administration remains dedicated to building on this progress. We are improving standards to protect workers from black lung and reduce their exposure to dangerous substances. We are helping employers provide safe workplaces and holding those who risk workers' lives and health accountable. And we are empowering workers with information so they can stay safe on the job.
- We must never accept that injury, illness, or death is the cost of doing business. Workers are the backbone of our economy, and no one's prosperity should come at the expense of their safety. Today, let us celebrate our workers by upholding their basic right to clock out and return home at the end of each shift.
- NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 28, 2014, as Workers Memorial Day. I call upon all Americans to participate in ceremonies and activities in memory of those killed or injured due to unsafe working conditions.
- IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
-
- Pee in the water email
- I work at a water treatment plant in upstate New York. I just listened to show #612 and had to laugh about the municipality dumping their reservoir full of treated water for someone peeing in it.
- First of all, finished (potable) water is usually treated with chlorine and is required to have a residual amount of available chlorine to keep the water clean as it travels through the distribution system. So it would have killed any bacteria added to the water by the urine.
- Second, the dilution factor of the urine to treated water would make the contamination undetectable by most any equipment used by public water systems.
- Third, John is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about birds pooping in reservoirs! When our reservoir was open to the air/elements, we had hundreds of birds nesting under our pump house, which hung over our reservoir. These birds provided a nearly constant stream of excrement into the water (now our water is in closed tanks, so this is no longer an issue for us). No outbreaks of any diseases (avian or otherwise) were ever contracted through our water. Chlorine works kids!
- Keep up the amazing work! Love to all!
- Chlorine gas can DEFINITELY kill you, even in relatively small doses if exposed for too long.
-
- F-Russia / Ukraine
- Finish NL Ambassador on Kings day - War in a coupe of weeks
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Unrest with shitizens, figuring it out
- War is good for the economy
- Proxy war in Ukraine masked as a civil war
-
- Does this sound familiar?
- The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 6 April 1992[12][13][14] and 14 December 1995. The war involved several factions. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia, who were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia respectively.[15][16][17]
- The war came about as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was inhabited by Muslim Bosniaks (44 percent), Orthodox Serbs (31 percent) and Catholic Croats (17 percent), passed a referendum for independence
- on 29 February 1992. This was rejected by the political representatives
- of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum and established
- their own republic. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence (which had gained international recognition), the Bosnian Serbs, supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army
- (JNA), mobilized their forces inside the Republic of Bosnia and
- Herzegovina in order to secure Serbian territory, then war soon broke
- out across the country, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the
- Muslim Bosniak and Croat population, especially in eastern Bosnia and
- throughout the Republika Srpska.[18]
-
- Putin is working on his own Silk Road with with China, through Russia to Germany:
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- NYTimes: Sanctions Revive Search for Secret Putin Fortune
-
- Oud-adviseur Poetin: "Hij wil nu ook Finland inlijven" - HLN.be
- Bewaar artikelWilleke Tersteeg31/03/14 - 17u00 Bron: Svenska Dagbladet; The Moscow Times; The Independent"Huidige sancties werken juist in voordeel van Russische leider"Andrej Illarionov was zes jaar lang hoofd economisch advies voor Poetin. Archiefbeeld van de twee uit 2004. (C) AFP.Een voormalig economisch adviseur van Vladimir Poetin heeft in een interview met een Zweeds dagblad uit de doeken gedaan wat de Russische president volgens hem nu van plan zou zijn. "Hij zal niet stoppen voor hij Wit-Rusland, de Baltische Staten en Finland heeft veroverd."
- Dat laat Andrej Illarionov weten in een gesprek met Svenska Dagbladet. "Poetin vindt dat hij beschermt wat hem en zijn voorgangers toebehoort," zo vertelt hij.
- Landen veroveren"Hij vindt dat Georgi, de Oekra¯ne, Wit-Rusland, de Baltische Staten en Finland hem toebehoren. Het lijkt erop dat de westerse leiders helemaal vergeten zijn dat er sommige wereldleiders zijn die andere landen willen veroveren."
- Illarionov werkte van 2000 tot 2005 als hoofd economisch advies op het Kremlin en maakte de Russische leider jaren van nabij mee. Hij vertrok na zes jaar, omdat er regelmatig onenigheden waren. Illarinov zelf zegt dat hij vertrok "vanwege het gebrek aan liberale beleidsvoering". Momenteel werkt hij als adviseur in Washington voor de liberale denktank 'Cato Institute'.
- Geen invasieRusland heeft al meerdere keren laten weten niet van plan te zijn de Oekra¯ne binnen te vallen, laat staan Finland. Dit ondanks het feit dat ze wel de Krim hebben geannexeerd en de grote hoeveelheid legertroepen die zich hebben verzameld aan de grens in het oosten.
- "We zijn absoluut niet van plan om de grens naar de Oekra¯ne over te steken," aldus minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Sergei Lavrov.Een reactie waar Illarionov, een bekend Kremlin-criticus, erg sceptisch over is. Hij gelooft dat er een grote kans is dat de Russische president andere Europese landen ook zal inlijven.
- Surveilleren Baltische ZeeFinland is geen Navo-lid, wat betekent dat een eventuele invasie niet als een aanval tegen de alliantie zal worden gezien. Een commandant van de Finse luchtmacht heeft laten weten dat er meer gesurveilleerd is bij de Baltische Zee in de afgelopen weken.
- 108 jaar lang was Finland een onderdeel van het Russische rijk, het was een autonoom groothertogdom. Op de vraag of er al sprake is van een directe dreiging voor het land zegt Illarionov: 'Het staat niet vandaag of morgen op Poetins agenda.'
- "Maar als hij niet wordt gestopt, zal het probleem zich vroeg of laat voordoen. Poetin heeft meerdere malen gezegd dat de bolsjewieken en de communisten grote fouten hebben gemaakt. Hij zei regelmatig dat de bolsjewieken verraad tegen Rusland hebben gepleegd door het toekennen van onafhankelijkheid aan Finland."
- Sancties werken averechtsOp de vraag of er nog iets gedaan kan worden om Poetin en zijn expansie-plannen te stoppen, stelt Illarionov dat de huidige sancties de Russische leider eerder helpen dan belemmeren. Rusland mocht niet aanwezig zijn tijdens de nucleaire top in Den Haag. Na de annexatie van de Krim werd het land namelijk tijdelijk verbannen uit de G8.
- "Dergelijke maatregelen bevestigen zijn beeld van de wereld. Ze zijn in lijn met hetgeen waar het Kremlin al jaren propaganda over voert. Namelijk dat de Verenigde Staten en westerse landen de vijand zijn die Rusland willen omsingelen en het land klein willen houden. Ook nu wordt het volk er op gewezen dat de sancties het bewijs zijn dat Poetin al die jaren gelijk had."
- Militair ingrijpen gewenst"We moeten weerstand bieden met alle mogelijk middelen," klinkt het advies. "Ik ben geen bloeddorstig persoon, maar soms is militair ingrijpen de enige manier om een tegenstander te stoppen. Het enige antwoord tegen pure agressie is de bereidheid te tonen om collectief te willen verdedigen."
- Rapporteer een fout in het artikel aan onze redactieMeer overgerelateerd nieuwsMeer over(C) 2014 De Persgroep Digital - Alle rechten voorbehouden.Lees de gebruiksvoorwaarden.
- Onze Franstalige nieuwssite www.7sur7.be.Volg het nieuws op onze zustersite in Nederland www.ad.nl. Nieuws: Nederlands nieuws, buitenlands nieuws, bizar nieuws, gezondheid en wetenschaps nieuws, economisch nieuws
-
- South Steam Pipeline via Turkey?
- April 16th, 20146:11pmPosted In: Pipelines, Natural Gas, News By Country, South Stream Pipeline, Russia, TurkeyNew possibilities have emerged for the South Stream pipeline with Turkey offering to consider passage through its territory.
- Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz commented that Turkey would consider granting access for the Russian gas pipeline if a formal request was presented.
- ''We are open to assessing any request for the line to pass through Turkey's territory," said Yildiz.
- Russian officials including Gazprom deputy head Alexander Medvedev will be meeting next week in Ankara to discuss energy related issues including gas supply and pricing.
- "It is said that there could be such a demand. If there is a request, we will consider it," said Yildiz, due to hold talks with Alexander Medvedev, deputy head of Russian state-controlled Gazprom, in Ankara on Monday.
- Potential scenarios could see South Stream shift its route from a crossing under the Black Sea with landfall in Bulgaria to an overland passage to northwest Turkey, providing supply to regions such as the Marmara region, which has high levels of gas demand.
- Alternatively, the undersea leg of the pipeline could remain with gas then routed from Bulgaria to western Turkey, instead of to Italy.
- The former-CEO of Italy's Eni Spa, Paolo Scaroni, recently commented that the on-going crisis in Ukraine could come with some complications for the South Stream pipeline project.
- According to Scaroni, the Crimea crisis could undermine the permitting process for the pipeline. Eni holds 20% of the company in charge of the offshore section.
- Italian gas demand peaked around in 2005 and has returned to the levels seen in 2000. The situation is dramatically different in Turkey, with gas demand more than tripling since 2000.
- Turkey has already requested that Russia consider increasing the capacity Blue Stream that brings Russian gas via the Black Sea to central Turkey. Turkey is seeking an increase of 3.5 billion cubic metres annually in addition to the current 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year.
-
- Obama: World must unite over Ukraine
- OSCE team leader says the inspectors are being held against their willSelf-declared mayor of Slavyansk stages event with captured inspectorsObama wants to avoid the perception that the U.S. is trying to wrest Ukraine from MoscowRussian state news says 15,000 Ukrainian troops in eastern UkraineKiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- The world must unite to show Russia disapproval of its actions in Ukraine, U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday.
- Rather than going with sanctions alone and making it a United States versus Russia issue, "it's important for us to make sure that we're part of an international coalition in sending that message and Russia is isolated, rather than (the perception that) the U.S. is trying to pull Ukraine out of his orbit," he said, speaking from Malaysia, where he is on a diplomatic visit.
- "Russia has not lifted a finger to help -- in fact, there's strong evidence that they've been encouraging the kinds of activities that have taken place," Obama said, referring to the actions of armed pro-Russian protesters.
- A team of European and Ukrainian military observers seized Friday by pro-Russian separatists in Slavyansk remains in their control despite international pressure for the inspectors' release.
- At least seven of the inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe appeared before journalists at a news conference staged Sunday by the self-declared mayor of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev -- who referred to them as "prisoners of war."
- The head of the OSCE delegation, which includes eight Europeans and several Ukrainians, said they were being held in the cellar of a building. No indication was given of when, or if, the team will be released.
- The observers said that although they have diplomatic status, they went along with the news conference because the mayor asked them to -- the implication being that they may have been forced to make this appearance. The OSCE inspectors also said they agreed to the news conference so that their families could see them.
- Axel Schneider, leader of the delegation, said, "We are held here; I cannot go home on my free decision ... and it is logical in the eyes of the mayor, Ponomarev, that he can use us to present his positions."
- Holger Schmuck, one of four German members of the delegation, said the conditions in which they are being held had significantly improved in the past 24 hours.
- He said they were always guarded by armed men but had not been threatened.
- Schmuck added that the Swedish member of the team had diabetic issues but that their captors had ensured he has all the water and sugar he needs, and were taking particular care of him.
- All indications suggest that a second OSCE delegation has now arrived in Slavyansk to discuss ways to free the team seized Friday.
- A CNN team on the ground saw a white OSCE-marked SUV outside the administration building where the seized team was paraded before the cameras earlier Sunday.
- Mayor: Observers are NATO spies
- Despite their role as OSCE representatives, the inspectors are accused by Ponomarev of being spies for NATO.
- The mayor said Saturday he would exchange them for pro-Russian activists held by Kiev but that there had been no negotiations so far.
- Another OSCE delegation is due to arrive in Slavyansk on Sunday and is expected to discuss ways to free the imprisoned group, a spokeswoman for the mayor, Stella Khorosheva, told CNN.
- The interim government in Kiev has said the OSCE inspectors are being held by terrorists.
- Militants in the town of Gorlivka have also captured Ukrainian Security Service officers who were seeking to arrest a Russian citizen suspected of murdering a pro-Kiev lawmaker, the security service said Sunday.
- A day earlier, it said the OSCE group was being kept under "inhumane conditions" by the militants.
- The German Foreign Office said it had set up an emergency task force to find out what has happened to the team members. The others are from Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, Russian state media said.
- The OSCE mission in Ukraine is tasked with helping to implement an international agreement signed nine days ago in Switzerland, which called for illegal militia groups to disarm and leave occupied buildings, among other provisions.
- The perilous face-off intensified Saturday when Russian state news complained that Ukraine had mobilized 15,000 troops in the suburbs of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine "in order to wipe out the city and its residents."
- Quoting a Russian Defense Ministry source, RIA Novosti said satellite photos showed the force forming around the city that has become a friction point between the Ukraine military and pro-Russian militants.
- The Defense Ministry source said the number of Ukrainian troops put the pro-Russian militants at a disadvantage because the latter are "armed only with small amount of pistols and shotguns." Many eastern Ukraine residents have Russian roots and sympathize with Moscow.
- The source said the photos showed about 160 tanks, 230 infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, mine throwers and multiple-launch rocket systems.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly criticized what he says is Kiev's use of force against Ukrainian civilians.
- Developments in Ukraine have come at a rapid pace in recent days:
- -- Russia, which already had 40,000 troops on its side of the border, started new military drills Thursday after Ukrainian forces said they killed five pro-Russian militants. A day later, Ukraine launched the second stage of an "anti-terrorist operation" against militants in Slavyansk.
- -- Russian military aircraft "crossed and violated" Ukrainian airspace seven times, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters in Rome on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation, according to the state news agency ITAR-Tass.
- -- Yatsenyuk met with Pope Francis while in Rome on Saturday. The meeting has been seen as a sign of support from the Vatican for his government.
- -- G7 leaders said they would impose new sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis. EU and U.S. measures are expected to be announced in the coming days.
- The Ukrainian prime minister urged Russia to pull back its security forces and not to support pro-Russian militants in eastern and southern Ukraine. "We urge Russia to leave us alone," he said in televised remarks.
- Ukraine's government has promised constitutional reforms and protections for Russian speakers in a bid to ease the tensions in its eastern regions.
- CNN's Gul Tuysuz reported from Kiev and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. CNN's Andrew Carey and Nick Paton Walsh in Slavyansk and journalist Victoria Butenko in Kiev contributed to this report. CNN's Alex Felton, Bharati Naik, Ben Brumfield and Boriana Milanova also contributed.
-
- Bosnian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Bosnian War of IndependencePart of the Yugoslav WarsThe executive council building burns after being hit by artillery fire in Sarajevo May 1992; Ratko MladiÄ with Army of Republika Srpska soldiers; a Norwegian UN soldier in Sarajevo.Date6 April 1992 '' 14 December 1995(3 years, 8 months, 1 week and 1 day)LocationBosnia and HerzegovinaResultDayton AccordsInternal partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the Dayton AccordsDeployment of NATO-led IFOR to oversee the peace agreement.Massive civilian casualties for the Bosniak ethnic group.More than 100,000 combatants and civilians of all ethnicities killedBelligerents1992:Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia
- 1992:SFR Yugoslavia Republika SrpskaRepublic of Serbian Krajina
- 1992''94:Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaaSupported by:Turkey(arms and volunteers)[1][2][3][4]
- 1992''94: Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
- 1992-1994: Republika SrpskaRepublic of Serbian KrajinaAP Western Bosnia(from 1993)Supported by:FR Yugoslavia
- 1994''95:Republic ofBosnia and Herzegovinab
- NATO(bombing operations, 1995)
- 1994-1995 Republika SrpskaRepublic of Serbian KrajinaAP Western BosniaSupported by:FR Yugoslavia
- Commanders and leadersAlija IzetbegoviÄ(President of Bosnia and Herzegovina)Sefer HaliloviÄ(ARBiH Chief of Staff 1992''1993)
- Rasim DeliÄ(ARBiH Commander of the General Staff 1993''1995)
- Enver HadžihasanoviÄ(ARBiH Chief of Staff 1992''1993)
- Leighton W. Smith(Commander AFSOUTH)...and others
- Franjo TuÄman(President of Croatia)Janko Bobetko(HV Chief of Staff 1992''1995)
- Mate Boban(President of CR Herzeg-Bosnia)
- Milivoj PetkoviÄ(HVO Chief of Staff)
- Dario KordiÄ(Vice president of CR Herzeg-Bosnia)...and others
- Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ(President of Serbia)Radovan KaradžiÄ(President of Republika Srpska)
- Ratko MladiÄ(VRS Chief of Staff)
- Vojislav Å eÅelj(paramilitary leader)
- Fikret AbdiÄ(Acting President of AP Western Bosnia)...and others
- StrengthARBiH:110,000 troops100,000 reserves40 tanks30 APCs[5]HVO:45,000''50,000 troops[6]75 tanks200 APCs200 artillery pieces[7]HV:15,000 troops[8]VRS:50,000''80,000 troops300 tanks400 APCs800 artillery pieces[9]AP Western Bosnia:4,000''5,000 troops[10]Casualties and losses31,270 soldiers killed33,071 civilians killed[11]5,439 soldiers killed2,163 civilians killed[11]20,649 soldiers killed4,075 civilians killed[11]a The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time was not supported by the majority of Bosnian Croats and Serbs (who each had their own hostile entities). Consequently, it was representative the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. The post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina encompasses all three Bosnian ethnic groups. The death toll table is derived from direct combat or killings and does not include those who died from starvation, exposure, or wartime conditions or remain missingb Between 1994 and 1995, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was supported by, and was representative of, both ethnic Bosniaks and ethnic Bosnian Croats. This was primarily because of the Washington Agreement.
- The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 6 April 1992[12][13][14] and 14 December 1995. The war involved several factions. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia, who were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia respectively.[15][16][17]
- The war came about as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was inhabited by MuslimBosniaks (44 percent), OrthodoxSerbs (31 percent) and CatholicCroats (17 percent), passed a referendum for independence on 29 February 1992. This was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum and established their own republic. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence (which had gained international recognition), the Bosnian Serbs, supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mobilized their forces inside the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure Serbian territory, then war soon broke out across the country, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Bosniak and Croat population, especially in eastern Bosnia and throughout the Republika Srpska.[18]
- It was principally a territorial conflict, initially between the Serb forces mostly organized in the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) which was largely composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian.[19] The Serb and Croat political leadership agreed on a partition of Bosnia with the KaraÄorÄevo and Graz agreements, resulting in the Croat forces turning against the ARBiH and the Croat-Bosniak war.[20] The war was characterized by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape, mostly led by Serb and, to a lesser extent, Croat[21] forces. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre would become iconic of the conflict.
- The Serbs, although initially superior due to the vast amount of weapons and resources provided by the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied themselves against the Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Washington agreement. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war.[22][23] The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995. Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were finalized on 21 December 1995. The accords are now known as the Dayton Agreement.[24] A 1995 report by the Central Intelligence Agency found that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for 90% of the war crimes committed during the conflict.[25] As of early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs, 12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia.[26] The most recent figures suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war.[27][28] In addition, an estimated total of 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped,[29] and over 2.2 million people were displaced,[30] making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.
- Background[edit]Breakup of Yugoslavia[edit]The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communist system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national Communist party, officially called the Alliance or League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency. Meanwhile nationalism, after violence broke out in Kosovo, experienced a renaissance in the 1980s.[31] While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation and the decentralisation of the state.[32]
- In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution that allowed the government of Serbia to impose dominance over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina.[33] Until that point, Kosovo and Vojvodina's decision-making had been independent and both autonomous provinces also had a vote at the Yugoslav federal level. Serbia, under newly elected President Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ, thus gained control over three out of eight votes in the Yugoslav presidency. With additional votes from Montenegro, Serbia was thus able to heavily influence decisions of the federal government. This situation led to objections in other republics and calls for the reform of the Yugoslav Federation.
- At the 14th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, on 20 January 1990, the delegations of the Republics could not agree on the main issues in the Yugoslav federation. As a result, the Slovenian and Croatian delegates left the Congress. The Slovenian delegation, headed by Milan KuÄan demanded democratic changes and a looser federation, while the Serbian delegation, headed by MiloÅeviÄ, opposed it. This event is considered to have been the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia.
- Moreover, nationalist parties attained power in other republics. Among them, the Croatian Franjo TuÄman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was the most prominent. On 22 December 1990, the Croatian Parliament adopted a new Constitution, taking away some of the rights of the Serbs granted by the previous Socialist constitution. This created grounds for nationalist action among the indigenous Serbs of Croatia. Closely following the adoption of the new constitution, Slovenia and Croatia began the process towards independence. On 25 June 1991, both Slovenia and Croatia declared independence which led to a short armed conflict in Slovenia called the Ten-Day War, and an all-out war in Croatia in the Croatian War of Independence in areas with substantial Serb populations. The Croatian War of Independence would result in U.N. Security Council Resolution 743 on 21 February 1992, which created the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in accordance with the Secretary-General's report S/23592 of 15 February 1992.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina[edit]Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim (Bosniak), 32.5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav.[34]
- In the first multi-party election that took place in November 1990 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the three largest nationalist parties in the country won, the Party of Democratic Action, the Serbian Democratic Party and the Croatian Democratic Union.[35]
- Parties divided the power along the ethnic lines so that the President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a Bosniak, president of the Parliament was a Serb and the prime minister a Croat.
- On 13 October 1991 Bosnian Serb leader Radovan KaradžiÄ expressed his view about future of Bosnia and Bosnian Muslims: "In just a couple of days, Sarajevo will be gone and there will be five hundred thousand dead, in one month Muslims will be annihilated in Bosnia and Herzegovina".[36]
- KaraÄorÄevo agreement[edit]Discussions between Franjo TuÄman and Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ included "...the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Croatia."[37] were held as early as March 1991 known as KaraÄorÄevo agreement. Following the declaration of independence of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbs from B&H with support[citation needed] from Serbia, attacked different parts of the country. The state administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively ceased to function having lost control over the entire territory. The Serbs wanted all lands where Serbs had a majority, eastern and western Bosnia. The Croats and their leader Franjo TuÄman also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. The policies of the Republic of Croatia and its leader Franjo TuÄman towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and always included Franjo TuÄman's ultimate aim of expanding Croatia's borders.[38] Bosniaks were an easy target, because the Bosnian government forces were poorly equipped and unprepared for the war.[39]
- Independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina[edit]On 15 October 1991, the parliament of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo passed a "Memorandum on the Sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina" by a simple majority.[40][41] The Memorandum was hotly contested by the Bosnian Serb members of parliament, arguing that Amendment LXX of the Constitution required procedural safeguards and a 2/3 majority for such issues, but the Memorandum was debated anyway, leading to a boycott of the parliament by the Bosnian Serbs, and during the boycott the legislation was passed.[42]
- The Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia in its 11 January 1992 Opinion No. 4 on Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be recognized because the country had not yet held a referendum on independence.[43]
- On 25 January 1992, an hour after the session of parliament was adjourned, the parliament called for a referendum on independence on 29 February and 1 March.[40]
- The Bosnian Serbian assembly members invited the Serb population to boycott the referendums held on 29 February and 1 March 1992. The turnout to the referendums was reported as 63.7%, with 92.7% of voters voting in favour of independence (implying that Bosnian Serbs, which made up approximately 34% of the population, largely boycotted the referendum).[44] The Serb political leadership used the referendums as a pretext to set up roadblocks in protest.
- Independence was formally declared by the Bosnian parliament on 3 March 1992 and received international recognition the following month on 6 April 1992.[45][46] The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was admitted as a member State of the United Nations on 22 May 1992.[47]
- Establishment of the Republika Srpska[edit]The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of the Serb Democratic Party members, but also including some other party representatives (which would form the "Independent Members of Parliament Caucus"), abandoned the central parliament in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 October 1991, which marked the end of the tri-ethnic coalition that governed after the elections in 1990.[48]
- On 7 January 1992, the Serb members of the Prijedor Municipal Assembly and the presidents of the local Municipal Boards of the SDS proclaimed the Assembly of the Serbian People of the Municipality of Prijedor and implemented secret instructions that were issued earlier on 19 December 1991. The "Organisation and Activity of Organs of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Extraordinary Circumstances" provided a plan for the SDS take-over of municipalities in BiH, it also included plans for the creation of Crisis Staffs.[49]Milomir StakiÄ, later convicted by ICTY of mass crimes against humanity against Bosniak and Croat civilians, was elected President of this Assembly.[50]
- On 9 January 1992, the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a declaration proclaiming the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("SR BiH").[51] On 17 January 1992, the Prijedor Serb Assembly endorsed joining the Serbian territories of the Municipality of Prijedor to the Autonomous Region of Bosnian Krajina in order to create a separate Serbian state in ethnic Serb territories.[50] On 28 February 1992, the Constitution of the SR BiH declared that the territory of that Republic included "the territories of the Serbian Autonomous Regions and Districts and of other Serbian ethnic entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the regions in which the Serbian people remained in the minority due to the genocide conducted against it in World War II", and it was declared to be a part of Yugoslavia.[49] On 12 August 1992, the name of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was changed to Republika Srpska (RS).[49][51]
- [edit]The objectives of the nationalists from Croatia were shared by Croat nationalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[52] The ruling party in the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), organized and controlled the branch of the party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the latter part of 1991, the more extreme elements of the party, under the leadership of Mate Boban, Dario KordiÄ, Jadranko PrliÄ, Ignac KoÅtroman and local leaders such as Anto Valenta,[52] and with the support of Franjo TuÄman and Gojko Å uÅak, had taken effective control of the party. This coincided with the peak of the Croatian War of Independence. On 18 November 1991, the party branch in Bosnia and Herzegovina, established the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and its founding document said: 'The Community shall respect the democratically elected government of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina as long as Bosnia-Herzegovina remains an independent state in relation to former or any future Yugoslavia. Herzeg-Bosnia was not only Croat community on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian Community of Bosanska Posavina was also established to "unify all political activities in the defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to strengthen the Croatian population in it".[54]
- Carrington-Cutileiro Plan[edit]The Lisbon Agreement, also known as the Carrington-Cutileiro plan, named for its creators Lord Carrington and Portuguese Ambassador Jos(C) Cutileiro, resulted from the European Economic Community-hosted conference held in September 1991 in an attempt to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina sliding into war. It proposed ethnic power-sharing on all administrative levels and the devolution of central government to local ethnic communities. However, all Bosnia and Herzegovina's districts would be classified as Bosniak, Serb or Croat under the plan, even where ethnic majority was not evident.
- On 18 March 1992, all three sides signed the agreement; Alija IzetbegoviÄ for the Bosniaks, Radovan KaradžiÄ for the Serbs and Mate Boban for the Croats.
- However, on 28 March 1992, IzetbegoviÄ, after meeting with the then-US ambassador to Yugoslavia Warren Zimmermann in Sarajevo, withdrew his signature and declared his opposition to any type of ethnic division of Bosnia.
- What was said and by whom remains unclear. Zimmerman denies that he told Izetbegovic that if he withdrew his signature, the United States would grant recognition to Bosnia as an independent state. What is indisputable is that Izetbegovic, that same day, withdrew his signature and renounced the agreement.[55]Arms Embargo[edit]On 25 September 1991, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 713 imposing an arms embargo on all of the former-Yugoslavia territories. The embargo hurt the Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina the most because the Republic of Serbia inherited the lion's share of the Yugoslav People Army's arsenal and the Croatian Army could smuggle weapons through its coast. Over 55% of the armories and barracks of the former Yugoslavia were located in Bosnia owing to its mountainous terrain, in anticipation of a guerrilla war, but many of those factories were under Serb control (such as the UNIS PRETIS factory in VogoÅÄa), and others were inoperable due to a lack of electricity and raw materials. The Bosnian government lobbied to have the embargo lifted but that was opposed by the United Kingdom, France and Russia. US proposals to pursue this policy were known as lift and strike. The US congress passed two resolutions calling for the embargo to be lifted but both were vetoed by President Bill Clinton for fear of creating a rift between the US and the aforementioned countries. Nonetheless, the United States used both "black" C-130 transports and back channels including Islamist groups to smuggle weapons to Bosnian-Muslim forces via Croatia.[56]Inter Services Intelligence played active role during 1992-1995 and secretly supplied the Muslim fighters with arms, ammunition and guided anti tank missiles to give them a fighting chance against the aggression.
- In his book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President from 2009, historian and author Taylor Branch, a long-time friend of former United States president Bill Clinton, made public more than 70 recorded sessions with the president during his presidency from 1993 through 2001.[57][58] According to a session taped on 14 October 1993, it is stated that:
- Clinton said U.S. allies in Europe blocked proposals to adjust or remove the embargo. They justified their opposition on plausible humanitarian grounds, arguing that more arms would only fuel the bloodshed, but privately, said the president, key allies objected that an independent Bosnia would be "unnatural" as the only Muslim nation in Europe. He said they favored the embargo precisely because it locked in Bosnia's disadvantage. [..] When I expressed shock at such cynicism, reminiscent of the blind-eye diplomacy regarding the plight of Europe's Jews during World War II, President Clinton only shrugged. He said President Fran§ois Mitterrand of France had been especially blunt in saying that Bosnia did not belong, and that British officials also spoke of a painful but realistic restoration of Christian Europe. Against Britain and France, he said, German chancellor Helmut Kohl among others had supported moves to reconsider the United Nations arms embargo, failing in part because Germany did not hold a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
- '--Taylor Branch, excerpt from his book- The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President[59]Course of the war[edit]Summary[edit]The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officially left Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 May 1992 shortly after independence was declared in April 1992. However, most of the command chain, weaponry, and higher-ranked military personnel, including general Ratko MladiÄ, remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Army of Republika Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske, VRS) as the armed forces of the newly created Bosnian Serb republic. The Croats organized a defensive military formation of their own called the Croatian Defense Council (Hrvatsko VijeÄe Obrane, HVO) as the armed forces of Herzeg-Bosnia. The Bosniaks mostly organized into the Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine, ARBiH) as the armed forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initially, 25% of the ARBiH was composed of non-Bosniaks, especially in the 1st Corps in Sarajevo. Sefer HaliloviÄ, the Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Territorial Defense, claimed in June 1992 that his forces were 70% Muslim, 18% Croat and 12% Serb.[60] The percentage of Serb and Croat soldiers in the Bosnian army was particularly high in cities such as Sarajevo, Mostar and Tuzla.[61] The deputy commander of the Bosnian Army's Headquarters, was general Jovan Divjak, the highest-ranking ethnic Serb in the Bosnian Army. General Stjepan Å iber, an ethnic Croat was the second deputy commander. President IzetbegoviÄ also appointed colonelBlaž KraljeviÄ, commander of the Croatian Defence Forces in Herzegovina, to be a member of Bosnian Army's Headquarters, seven days before KraljeviÄ's assassination, in order to assemble a multi-ethnic pro-Bosnian defense front.[62] This diversity was to reduce over the course of the war.[60][63]
- Various paramilitary units were operated during the Bosnian War: the Serb "White Eagles" (Beli Orlovi), Arkan's "Tigers", "Serbian Volunteer Guard" (Srpska DobrovoljaÄka Garda), Bosnians "Patriotic League" (Patriotska Liga) and "Green Berets" (Zelene Beretke), and Croatian "Croatian Defence Forces" (Hrvatske Obrambene Snage), etc. The Serb and Croat paramilitaries involved volunteers from Serbia and Croatia, and were supported by nationalist political parties in those countries.[citation needed] Allegations exist about the involvement of the Serbian and Croatian secret police in the conflict. Forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina were divided in 5 corps'. 1st Corps operated in the region of Sarajevo and Gorazde while a stronger 5th Corps was positioned in the western Bosanska Krajina pocket, which cooperated with HVO units in and around BihaÄ.
- The Serbs received the support of Christian Slavic fighters from countries including Russia.[64][65]Greek volunteers of the Greek Volunteer Guard are also reported to have taken part in the Srebrenica Massacre, with the Greek flag being hoisted in Srebrenica when the town fell to the Serbs.[66]
- Some radical Western fighters as well as numerous individuals from the cultural area of Western Christianity fought as volunteers for the Croats including Neo-Nazi volunteers from Germany and Austria. Swedish Neo-NaziJackie Arkl¶v was charged with war crimes upon his return to Sweden. Later he confessed he committed war crimes on Bosnian Muslim civilians in Croatian camps Heliodrom and Dretelj as a member of Croatian forces.[67]
- The Bosnians received support from Muslim groups. According to some US NGO reports, there were also several hundred Iranian Revolutionary Guards assisting the Bosnian government during the war. Muslim fighters also joined the ranks of the Bosnian Muslims, most notably being fighters from the Lebanese guerilla organisation Hezbollah. These were however reserved for duties requiring close combat engagements, simply because their skill and experience was too valuable to be wasted in other less complicated duties.[68]
- At the outset of the Bosnian war, Serb forces attacked the Bosnian Muslim civilian population in eastern Bosnia.[69][70] Once towns and villages were securely in their hands, the Serb forces '' military, police, the paramilitaries and, sometimes, even Serb villagers '' applied the same pattern: houses and apartments were systematically ransacked or burnt down, civilians were rounded up or captured, and sometimes beaten or killed in the process. Men and women were separated, with many of the men massacred or detained in the camps. The women and children were kept in various detention centers where they had to live in intolerably unhygienic conditions, where they were mistreated in many ways including being raped repeatedly. Serb soldiers or policemen would come to these detention centres, select one or more women or girls, take them out and rape them.[69][70] The Serbs had the upper hand due to heavier weaponry (despite less manpower) that was given to them by the Yugoslav People's Army and established control over most areas where Serbs had relative majority but also in areas where they were a significant minority in both rural and urban regions excluding the larger towns of Sarajevo and Mostar. The Serb military and political leaders, from ICTY received the most accusations of war crimes many of which have been confirmed after the war in ICTY trials.
- Most of the capital Sarajevo was predominantly held by the Bosniaks.[citation needed] In the 44 months of the siege, terror against Sarajevo residents varied in intensity, but the purpose remained the same: inflict suffering on civilians to force the Bosnian authorities to accept Serb demands.[71] The VRS surrounded it (alternatively, the Serb forces situated themselves in the areas surrounding Sarajevo the so-called Ring around Sarajevo), deploying troops and artillery in the surrounding hills in what would become the longest siege in the history of modern warfare lasting nearly four years. See Siege of Sarajevo.
- Numerous cease-fire agreements were signed, and breached again when one of the sides felt it was to their advantage. The UN repeatedly, but unsuccessfully attempted to stop the war and the much-touted Vance-Owen Peace Plan made little impact.
- Prelude[edit]On 19 September 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) moved extra troops to the area around the city of Mostar, which was publicly protested by the local government.
- The Herzegovinian village of Ravno was attacked in early October 1991 by JNA forces, which levelled the village on the way to attack Dubrovnik in the
- 1992[edit]The Sijekovac killings happened in late March 1992. The Siege of Sarajevo started in early April 1992.
- The timing of the start of the war and the first casualty is a point of contention between Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. Bosniaks and Croats consider the first casualties of the war after the independence declaration to be Suada DilberoviÄ and Olga SuÄiÄ, who were shot during a peace march by unidentified Serb gunmen on 5 April in a Holiday Inn hotel under the control of the Serbian Democratic Party.[72][73][74] Serbs consider Nikola GardoviÄ, a groom's father who was killed at a Serb wedding procession on the second day of the referendum, on 1 March 1992 in Sarajevo's old town BaÅÄarÅija, to be the first victim of the war.[75]
- In May 1992, the 1992 Yugoslav People's Army column incident in Sarajevo happened. The Graz agreement was signed between the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat leaders in early May 1992. The Croat-Bosniak war started in June 1992. Also in June, the Bosnian Serbs started Operation Vrbas '92 and Operation Koridor.
- During the months of April''May 1992 fierce attacks raged in eastern Bosnia as well as the northwestern part of the country. In April attacks by the SDS leaders, together with field officers of the Second Military Command of former JNA, were conducted in eastern part of the country with the objective to take strategically relevant positions and carry out a communication and information blockade. Attacks carried out resulted in a large number of dead and wounded civilians.[76]
- In June 1992, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) originally deployed in Croatia had its mandate extended into Bosnia and Herzegovina, initially to protect the Sarajevo International Airport. In September, the role of UNPROFOR was expanded to protect humanitarian aid and assist relief delivery in the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as to help protect civilian refugees when required by the Red Cross.
- 1992 ethnic cleansing campaign in Eastern Bosnia[edit]Initially, the Serb forces attacked the non-Serb civilian population in Eastern Bosnia. Once towns and villages were securely in their hands, the Serb forces '' military, police, the paramilitaries and, sometimes, even Serb villagers '' applied the same pattern: Bosniak houses and apartments were systematically ransacked or burnt down, Bosniak civilians were rounded up or captured, and sometimes beaten or killed in the process. Men and women were separated, with many of the men detained in the camps.[70]
- Prijedor region[edit]On 23 April 1992, the SDS decided inter alia that all Serb units immediately start working on the takeover of the Prijedor municipality in co-ordination with JNA. By the end of April 1992, a number of clandestine Serb police stations were created in the municipality and more than 1,500 armed Serbs were ready to take part in the takeover.[50]
- A declaration on the takeover prepared by the Serb politicians from SDS was read out on Radio Prijedor the day after the takeover and was repeated throughout the day. In the night of the 29/30 April 1992, the takeover of power took place. Employees of the public security station and reserve police gathered in Cirkin Polje, part of the town of Prijedor. Only Serbs were present and some of them were wearing military uniforms. The people there were given the task of taking over power in the municipality and were broadly divided into five groups. Each group of about twenty had a leader and each was ordered to gain control of certain buildings. One group was responsible for the Assembly building, one for the main police building, one for the courts, one for the bank and the last for the post-office.[50]
- Serb authorities set up concentration camps and determined who should be responsible for the running of those camps.[50]Keraterm factory was set up as a camp on or around 23/24 May 1992.[50] The Omarskamines complex was located about 20 km from the town of Prijedor. The first detainees were taken to the camp sometime in late May 1992 (between 26 and 30 May). According to the Serb authorities documents from Prijedor, there were a total of 3,334 persons held in the camp from 27 May to 16 August 1992. 3,197 of them were Bosniaks (i.e. Bosnian Muslims), 125 were Croats.[50] The Trnoplje camp was set up in the village of Trnoplje on 24 May 1992. The camp was guarded on all sides by the Serb army. There were machine gun nests and well-armed posts pointing their guns towards the camp. There were several thousand people detained in the camp, the vast majority of whom were Bosnian Muslim and some of them were Croats.[50]
- ICTY concluded that the takeover by the Serb politicians was as an illegal coup d'(C)tat, which was planned and coordinated a long time in advance with the ultimate aim of creating a pure Serbian municipality. These plans were never hidden and they were implemented in a coordinated action by the Serb police, army and politicians. One of the leading figures was Milomir StakiÄ, who came to play the dominant role in the political life of the Municipality.[50]
- JNA under control of Serbia was able to take over at least 60 per cent of the country before 19 May official withdrawn all officers and troops that are not from Bosnia.[77] Much of this is due to the fact that they were much better armed and organized than the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces. Attacks also included areas of mixed ethnic composition. Doboj, FoÄa, Rogatica, Vlasenica, Bratunac, Zvornik, Prijedor, Sanski Most, KljuÄ, BrÄko, Derventa, ModriÄa, Bosanska Krupa, Bosanski Brod, Bosanski Novi, GlamoÄ, Bosanski Petrovac, ÄajniÄe, Bijeljina, ViÅegrad, Donji Vakuf, and parts of Sarajevo are all areas where Serbs established control and expelled Bosniaks and Croats. Also areas in that were more ethnically homogeneous and were spared from major fighting such as Banja Luka, Bosanska Dubica, Bosanska GradiÅka, BileÄa, Gacko, Han Pijesak, Kalinovik, Nevesinje, Trebinje, Rudo saw their non-Serb populations expelled. Similarly, the regions of central Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Zenica, Maglaj, ZavidoviÄi, Bugojno, Mostar, Konjic, etc.) saw the flight of its Serb population, migrating to the Serb-held areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- The Croat Defence Council take-overs in Central Bosnia[edit]Pressured and contained by heavily armed Serb forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, the major Croat force '' the HVO (Croatian Defence Council) shifted their focus from defending their parts of Bosnia from Serbs to trying to capture remaining territory held by Bosnian Army. It is widely believed that this was due to the KaraÄorÄevo agreement (March 1991) reached between presidents Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ and Franjo TuÄman to split Bosnia between Croatia and Serbia.
- To accomplish this, HVO forces would have to both quell dissent from the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) armed group and defeat the Bosnian Army, since the territory that they wanted was under Bosnian government control. HVO with great engagement from the Military of Republic of Croatia and material support from Serbs,[citation needed] attacked Bosniak civilian population in Herzegovina and in central Bosnia starting an ethnic cleansing of Bosniak populated territories.
- The Graz agreement of May 1992 caused deep division inside the Croat community and strengthened the separation group, which led to the conflict with Bosniaks. One of the primary pro-union Croat leaders was Blaž KraljeviÄ, the leader of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) armed group, which also had a Croatian nationalist agenda but unlike HVO it fully supported cooperation with the Bosniaks.
- In June 1992 the focus switched to Novi Travnik and Gornji Vakuf where the Croat Defence Council (HVO) efforts to gain control were resisted.
- On 18 June 1992 the Bosnian Territorial Defence in Novi Travnik received an ultimatum from the HVO that included demands to abolish existing Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions, establish the authority of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and pledge allegiance to it, subordinate the Territorial Defense to the HVO and expel Muslim refugees, all within 24 hours. The attack was launched on 19 June. The elementary school and the Post Office were attacked and damaged.[78] Gornji Vakuf was initially attacked by Croats on 20 June 1992, but the attack failed. (See: LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing)
- Vastly underequipped Bosnian forces, fighting on two fronts, were able to repel Croats and gain territory against them on every front. At this time, due to its geographic position, Bosnia was surrounded by Croat and Serb forces from all sides. There was no way to import weapons or food. What saved Bosnia at this time was its vast heavy industrial complex that was able to switch to military hardware production.
- In August 1992, HOS leader Blaž KraljeviÄ was killed by HVO soldiers, which severely weakened the moderate group who hoped to keep the alliance between Bosniaks and Croats alive.[79]
- The situation became more serious in October 1992 when Croat forces attacked Bosniak civilian population in Prozor burning their homes and killing civilians. According to Jadranko PrliÄ indictment, HVO forces cleansed most of the Muslims from the town of Prozor and several surrounding villages.[54]
- In October 1992 the Serbs captured the town of Jajce and expelled the Croat and Bosniak population. The fall of the town was largely due to a lack of Bosniak-Croat cooperation and rising tensions, especially over the previous four months.
- 1993[edit]On 8 January 1993 the Serbs killed the deputy prime minister of the RBiH Hakija TurajliÄ after stopping the UN convoy taking him from the airport.[80]
- Much of 1993 was dominated by the Croat-Bosniak war. On January 1993 Croat forces attacked Gornji Vakuf, again to connect Herzegovina with Central Bosnia.[54]
- On 22 February 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 808 that decided "that an international tribunal shall be established for the prosecution of persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law".
- On 15''16 May 96 per cent of Serbs voted to reject the Vance-Owen plan. After the failure of the Vance-Owen peace plan, which practically intended to divide the country into three ethnic parts, an armed conflict sprung between Bosniaks and Croats over the 30 per cent of Bosnia they held. The peace plan was one of the factors leading to the escalation of the conflict, as Lord Owen avoided moderate Croat authorities (pro-unified Bosnia) and negotiated directly with more extreme elements (which were for separation).[81]
- On 25 May 1993 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICYT) was formally established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council.
- In April 1993, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 816, calling on member states to enforce a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. On 12 April 1993, NATO commenced Operation Deny Flight to enforce this no-fly zone.
- Gornji Vakuf shelling[edit]Gornji Vakuf is a town to the south of the LaÅva Valley and of strategic importance at a crossroadsen route to Central Bosnia. It is 48 kilometres from Novi Travnik and about one hour's drive from Vitez in an armoured vehicle. For Croats it was a very important connection between the LaÅva Valley and Herzegovina, two territories included in the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia. The Croat forces shelling reduced much of the historical oriental center of the town of Gornji Vakuf to rubble.[78]
- On 10 January 1993, just before the outbreak of hostilities in Gornji Vakuf, the Croat Defence Council (HVO) commander Luka Å ekerija, sent a "Military '' Top Secret" request to Colonel Tihomir BlaÅkiÄ and Dario KordiÄ, (later convicted by ICTY of war crimes and crimes against humanity i.e. ethnic cleansing) for rounds of mortarshells available at the ammunition factory in Vitez.[78] Fighting then broke out in Gornji Vakuf on 11 January 1993, sparked by a bomb Croats placed in a Bosniak-owned hotel used as a military headquarters. A general outbreak of fighting followed, and there was heavy shelling of the town that night by Croat artillery.[78]
- During cease-firenegotiations at the Britbat HQ in Gornji Vakuf, colonel AndriÄ, representing the HVO, demanded that the ARBiH forces lay down their arms and accept HVO control of the town, threatening that if they did not agree he would flatten Gornji Vakuf to the ground.[78][82] The HVO demands were not accepted by the ARBiH and the attack continued, followed by massacres on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the neighbouring villages of Bistrica, UzriÄje, DuÅa, Ždrimci and Hrasnica.[83][84] During the LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing it was surrounded by the Croatian Army and HVO for seven months and attacked with heavy artillery and other weapons (tanks and snipers). Although Croats often cited it as a major reason for the attack on Gornji Vakuf, the commander of the British Britbat company claimed that there were no Muslim holy warriors in Gornji Vakuf (commonly known as Mujahideen) and that his soldiers did not see any. The shelling campaign and the attacks during the war resulted in hundreds of injured and killed, mostly Bosnian Muslim civilians.[78]
- LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing[edit]The LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniak civilians was planned by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership from May 1992 to March 1993. Fighting by the HVO which erupted the following April, was meant to implement objectives set forth by Croat nationalists in November 1991.[52] The LaÅva Valley's Bosniaks were subjected to persecution on political, racial and religious grounds,[85] deliberately discriminated against in the context of a widespread attack on the region's civilian population[86] and suffered mass murder, rape, imprisonment in camps, as well as the destruction of cultural sites and private property. This was often followed by anti-Bosniak propaganda, particularly in the municipalities of Vitez, BusovaÄa, Novi Travnik and Kiseljak. AhmiÄi massacre in April 1993, was the culmination of the LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing, resulting in mass killing of Bosnian Muslim civilians just in a few hours. The youngest was a three-month-old baby, who was shot to death in his crib, and the oldest was an 81-year-old woman. It is the biggest massacre committed during the conflict between Croats and the Bosnian government (dominated by Bosniaks).
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has ruled that these crimes amounted to crimes against humanity in numerous verdicts against Croat political and military leaders and soldiers, most notably Dario KordiÄ.[78] Based on the evidence of numerous HVO attacks at that time, the ICTY Trial Chamber concluded in the KordiÄ and Äerkez case that by April 1993 Croat leadership had a common design or plan conceived and executed to ethnically cleanse Bosniaks from the LaÅva Valley. Dario KordiÄ, as the local political leader, was found to be the planner and instigator of this plan.[78] According to the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC), around 2,000 Bosniaks from the LaÅva Valley are missing or were killed during this period.[87]
- War in Herzegovina[edit]The Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia took control of many municipal governments and services in Herzegovina as well, removing or marginalising local Bosniak leaders. Herzeg-Bosnia took control of the media and imposed Croatian ideas and propaganda. Croatian symbols and currency were introduced, and Croatian curricula and the Croatian language were introduced in schools. Many Bosniaks and Serbs were removed from positions in government and private business; humanitarian aid was managed and distributed to the Bosniaks' and Serbs' disadvantage; and Bosniaks in general were increasingly harassed. Many of them were deported into concentration camps: Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela, Vojno and Å unje.
- Up until 1993 the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) had been fighting side by side against the superior forces of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in some areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though armed confrontation and events like the Totic kidnappings strained the relationship between the HVO and ARBiH the Croat-Bosniak alliance held in BihaÄ pocket (northwest Bosnia) and the Bosanska Posavina (north), where both were heavily outmatched by Serb forces.
- According to ICTY judgment in NaletiliÄ-MartinoviÄ case HVO forces attacked the villages of Sovici and Doljani, about 50 kilometers north of Mostar in the morning on 17 April 1993.[39] The attack was part of a larger HVO offensive aimed at taking Jablanica, the main Bosnian Muslim dominated town in the area. The HVO commanders had calculated that they needed two days to take Jablanica. The location of Sovici was of strategic significance for the HVO as it was on the way to Jablanica. For the ARBiH it was a gateway to the plateau of Risovac, which could create conditions for further progression towards the Adriatic coast. The larger HVO offensive on Jablanica had already started on 15 April 1993. The artillery destroyed the upper part of Sovici. The Bosnian Army was fighting back, but at about five p.m. the Bosnian Army commander in Sovici, surrendered. Approximately 70 to 75 soldiers surrendered. In total, at least 400 Bosnian Muslim civilians were detained. The HVO advance towards Jablanica was halted after a cease-fire agreement had been negotiated.[39]
- Siege of Mostar[edit]The Eastern part of Mostar was surrounded by HVO forces for nine months, and much of its historic city was severely damaged in shelling including the famous Stari Most bridge.[54]
- Mostar was divided into a Western part, which was dominated by the HVO forces and an Eastern part where the ARBiH was largely concentrated. However, the Bosnian Army had its headquarters in West Mostar in the basement of a building complex referred to as Vranica. In the early hours of 9 May 1993, the Croatian Defence Council attacked Mostar using artillery, mortars, heavy weapons and small arms. The HVO controlled all roads leading into Mostar and international organisations were denied access. Radio Mostar announced that all Bosniaks should hang out a white flag from their windows. The HVO attack had been well prepared and planned.[39]
- The HVO took over the west side of the city and expelled thousands of Bosniaks from the west side into the east side of the city.[54] The HVO shelling reduced much of the east side of Mostar to rubble. The JNA demolished Carinski Bridge, Titov Bridge and Lucki Bridge over the river excluding the Stari Most. HVO forces (and its smaller divisions) engaged in a mass execution, ethnic cleansing and rape on the Bosniak people of the West Mostar and its surroundings and a fierce siege and shelling campaign on the Bosnian Government run East Mostar. HVO campaign resulted in thousands of injured and killed.[54]
- The ARBiH launched an operation known as Operation Neretva '93 against the HVO and Croatian Army in September 1993 to end the siege of Mostar, and recapture areas of Herzegovina that were included in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.[88] The operation was stopped by Bosnian authorities after it received information about the massacre against Croat civilians and POWs in the villages of Grabovica and Uzdol.
- The HVO leadership (Jadranko PrliÄ, Bruno StojiÄ, Milivoj PetkoviÄ, Valentin ÄoriÄ and Berislav PuÅiÄ) and the Croatian Army officer Slobodan Praljak are presently on trial at the ICTY on charges including crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war.[54]Dario KordiÄ, political leader of Croats in Central Bosnia was convicted of the crimes against humanity in Central Bosnia, i.e. ethnic cleansing and sentenced to 25 years in prison.[78] ARBiH commander Sefer HaliloviÄ was charged with one count of violation of the laws and customs of war on the basis of superior criminal responsibility of the incidents during Operation Neretva '93 and found not guilty.
- In an attempt to protect the civilians, UNPROFOR's role was further extended in May 1993 to protect the "safe havens" that United Nations Security Council had declared around Sarajevo, Goražde, Srebrenica, Tuzla, Žepa and BihaÄ in Resolution 824 of 6 May 1993. On 4 June 1993 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 836 authorized the use of force by UNPROFOR in the protection of the safe zones.[89] On 15 June 1993, Operation Sharp Guard, a naval blockade in the Adriatic Sea by NATO and the Western European Union, began but was lifted on 18 June 1996 on termination of the UN arms embargo.[89]
- 1994[edit]"Without Serbia, nothing would have happened, we don't have the resources and we would not have been able to make war."
- Markale massacre[edit]On 5 February 1994 Sarajevo suffered its deadliest single attack during the entire siege with the first Markale massacre, when a 120 millimeter mortar shell landed in the center of the crowded marketplace, killing 68 people and wounding another 144.
- On 6 February, UN Secretary-GeneralBoutros Boutros-Ghali formally requested NATO to confirm that future requests for air strikes would be carried out immediately.[91] On 9 February 1994, the North Atlantic Council (NATO) authorised the Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH), US Admiral Jeremy Boorda, to launch air strikes'--at the request of the UN'--against artillery and mortar positions in or around Sarajevo determined by UNPROFOR to be responsible for attacks against civilian targets in that city.[89][92] Only Greece failed to support the use of air strikes, but did not veto the proposal.[91]
- The North Atlantic Council also issued an ultimatum to the Bosnian Serbs demanding the removal of heavy weapons around Sarajevo by midnight of 20''21 February, or face air strikes.[91] On 12 February, Sarajevo enjoyed its first casualty free day since April 1992;[91] the war is widely considered to have begun on 6 April 1992.[93] The large-scale removal of Bosnian-Serb heavy weapons began 17 February.[91]
- Washington Agreement[edit]The Croat-Bosniak war officially ended on 23 February 1994 when the Commander of HVO, general Ante Roso, and commander of Bosnian Army, general Rasim DeliÄ, signed a ceasefire agreement in Zagreb. On 18 March 1994 a peace agreement'--the Washington Agreement'--mediated by the USA between the warring Croats (represented by the Republic of Croatia) and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Washington and Vienna.[94] The Washington Agreement ended the war between Croats and Bosniaks and divided the combined territory held by Croat and Bosnian government forces into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- This reduced the warring parties to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), and the Republika Srpska in the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS).
- UNPROFOR and NATO[edit]NATO became actively involved, when its jets shot down four Serb aircraft over central Bosnia on 28 February 1994 for violating the UN no-fly zone.[95]
- On 12 March 1994, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) made its first request for NATO air support, but close air support was not deployed, however, owing to a number of delays associated with the approval process.[96] On 20 March an aid convoy with medical supplies and doctors reached Maglaj, a city of 100,000 people, which had been under siege since May 1993 and had been surviving off food supplies dropped by US aircraft.[94] A second convoy on 23 March was hijacked and looted.[94]
- On 10 and 11 April 1994 UNPROFOR called in air strikes to protect the Goraždesafe area, resulting in the bombing of a Serbian military command outpost near Goražde by 2 US F-16 jets.[89][94][96] This was the first time in NATO's history it had ever done so.[94] This resulted in the taking of 150 U.N. personnel hostage on 14 April.[89][96] On 16 April a British Sea Harrier was shot down over Goražde by Serb forces.[94] On 15 April the Bosnian government lines around Goražde broke.[94]
- Around 29 April a Danish contingent (Nordbat 2) on peacekeeping duty in Bosnia, as part of UNPROFOR's Nordic battalion located in Tuzla, was ambushed when trying to relieve a Swedish observation post (Tango 2) that was under heavy artillery fire by the Bosnian SerbÅ ekoviÄi brigade at the village of Kalesija, but the ambush was dispersed when the UN forces retaliated with heavy fire in what would be known as Operation B¸llebank.
- On 12 May, the US Senate adopted S. 2042 from Sen. Bob Dole to unilaterally lift the arms embargo against the Bosnians, but was repudiated by President Clinton.[97][98]Pub.L. 103''337 was signed by the President on 5 October 1994 and stated that if the Bosnian Serbs had not accepted the Contact Group proposal by 15 October the President should introduce a UN Security Council proposal to end the arms embargo and that if it was not passed by 15 November only funds required by all UN members under Resolution 713 could be used to enforce the embargo, effectively ending the arms embargo.[99]
- On 5 August, at the request of UNPROFOR, NATO aircraft attacked a target within the Sarajevo Exclusion Zone after weapons were seized by Bosnian Serbs from a weapons collection site near Sarajevo.[89] On 22 September 1994 NATO aircraft carried out an air strike against a Bosnian Serb tank at the request of UNPROFOR.[89]
- On 12''13 November, the US unilaterally lifted the arms embargo against the government of Bosnia.[99][100]
- Operation Amanda was an UNPROFOR mission led by Danish peacekeeping troops, with the aim of recovering an observation post near GradaÄac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 25 October 1994.[101]
- On 19 November the North Atlantic Council approved the extension of Close Air Support to Croatia for the protection of UN forces in that country.[89] NATO aircraft attacked the Udbina airfield in Serb-held Croatia on 21 November, in response to attacks launched from that airfield against targets in the Bihac area of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[89] On 23 November, after attacks launched from a surface-to-air missile site south of Otoka (north-west Bosnia and Herzegovina) on two NATO aircraft, air strikes were conducted against air defence radars in that area.[89]
- 1995[edit]The war continued through most of 1995.
- In July 1995 Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) forces under general Ratko MladiÄ occupied the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia where around 8,000 men were killed in the Srebrenica massacre (most women were expelled to Bosniak-held territory and some of them were raped and killed).[102] The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), represented on the ground by a 400-strong contingent of Dutch peacekeepers, Dutchbat, failed to prevent the town's capture by the VRS and the subsequent massacre.[103][104][105][106] The ICTY ruled this event as genocide in the KrstiÄ case.
- In line with the Croat-Bosniak Split Agreement, Croatian forces operated in western Bosnia in Operation Summer '95 and in early August launched Operation Storm, taking over the Serb Krajina in Croatia. With this, the Bosniak-Croat alliance gained the initiative in the war, taking much of western Bosnia from the VRS in several operations, including: Operation Mistral and Operation Sana. These forces now came to threaten the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka with direct ground attack.
- VRS forces committed several major massacres during 1995: the Tuzla massacre on 25 May, the Srebrenica massacre and the second Markale massacre on 28 August. On 30 August, the Secretary General of NATO announced the start of in Operation Deliberate Force, widespread airstrikes against Bosnian Serb positions supported by UNPROFOR rapid reaction force artillery attacks.[107] On 14 September 1995, the NATO air strikes were suspended to allow the implementation of an agreement with Bosnian Serbs for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from around Sarajevo.
- On 26 September 1995, an agreement of further basic principles for a peace accord was reached in New York City between the foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the FRY.[108] A 60-day ceasefire came into effect on 12 October, and on 1 November peace talks began in Dayton, Ohio.[108] The war ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement signed on 21 November 1995; the final version of the peace agreement was signed 14 December 1995 in Paris.
- Following the Dayton Agreement, a NATO led Implementation Force (IFOR) was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina. This 80,000 strong unit, heavily armed and mandated to fire at will when necessary for the successful implementation of the operation, was deployed in order to enforce the peace, as well as other tasks such as providing support for humanitarian and political aid, reconstruction, providing support for displaced civilians to return to their homes, collection of arms, and mine and unexploded ordnance (uxo) clearing of the affected areas.
- Impact of the war[edit]Civil war or a war of aggression[edit]Because the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a consequence of the instability in the wider region of the former Yugoslavia, and due to the involvement of neighboring countries Croatia and Serbia, there was long-standing debate as to whether the conflict was a civil war or a war of aggression on Bosnia by neighbouring states. Academics Steven Burg and Paul Shoup argue that:
- From the outset, the nature of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was subject to conflicting interpretations. These were rooted not only in objective facts on the ground, but in the political interests of those articulating them.
- '--Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup, excerpt from their book- The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina[109]On the one hand, the war could be viewed as "a clear-cut case of civil war '' that is, of internal war amongst groups unable to agree on arrangements for sharing power".[109]David Campbell is critical of narratives about "civil war", which he argues often involve what he terms "moral levelling", in which all sides are "said to be equally guilty of atrocities", and "emphasize credible Serb fears as a rationale for their actions".[110]
- In contrast to the civil war explanation, Bosniaks, many Croats, western politicians and human rights organizations claimed that the war was a war of Serbian and Croatian aggression based on the KaraÄorÄevo and Graz agreements, while Serbs often considered it a civil war.
- '--Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup, excerpt from their book- The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina[109]Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats enjoyed substantial political and military backing from Serbia and Croatia, and the decision to grant Bosnia diplomatic recognition also has implications for the international interpretation of the conflict. As Burg and Shoup state:
- From the perspective of international diplomacy and law...the international decision to recognize the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina and grant it membership in the United Nations provided a basis for defining the war as a case of external aggression by both Serbia and Croatia. With respect to Serbia, the further case could be made that the Bosnian Serb army was under the de facto command of the Yugoslav army and was therefore an instrument of external aggression. With respect to Croatia, regular Croatian army forces violated the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, lending further evidence in support of the view that this was a case of aggression.
- '--Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup, excerpt from their book- The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina[109]Sumantra Bose, meanwhile, argues that it is possible to characterise the Bosnian War as a civil war, without necessarily agreeing with the narrative of Serb and Croat nationalists. He states that while "all episodes of severe violence have been sparked by 'external' events and forces, local society too has been deeply implicated in that violence" and therefore argues that "it makes relatively more sense to regard the 1992''95 conflict in Bosnia as a 'civil war' '' albeit obviously with a vital dimension that is territorially external to Bosnia".[111]
- In 2010, Bosnian Commander Ejup GaniÄ was detained in London due to a Serbian extradition request for alleged war crimes. Judge Timothy Workman, however, decided that GaniÄ should be released because Serbia's request was "politically motivated". In his decision, he also characterized the Bosnian War to have been an international armed conflict, since Bosnia declared independence on 3 March 1992.[112]
- Academic Mary Kaldor argues that the Bosnian War is an example of what she terms new wars, which are neither civil nor inter-state, but rather combine elements of both.[113]
- Casualties[edit]Calculating the number of deaths that resulted from the conflict has been subject to considerable and highly politicised debate.[114] There are large discrepancies between estimates of the total number of casualties, ranging from 25,000 to 329,000. These are partly the result of the use of inconsistent definitions of who can be considered victims of the war. Some research calculated only direct casualties of the military activity while other also calculated indirect casualties, such as those who died from harsh living conditions, hunger, cold, illnesses or other accidents indirectly caused by the war conditions. Original higher numbers were also used as many victims were listed twice or three times both in civilian and military columns as little or no communication and systematic coordination of these lists could take place in wartime conditions; one valid form of historical revision involves identifying where a given victim is separately identified in multiple primary lists, and correcting the resulting overcount; in particular, the RDC and ICTY's demographic unit performed such forensic revision.[115][116]
- The death toll was originally estimated in 1994 at around 200,000 by Cherif Bassouni, head of the UN expert commission investigating war crimes.[117] According to Prof. Steven L. Burg and Prof. Paul S. Shoup (1999),[118]
- The figure of 200,000 (or more) dead, injured, and missing was frequently cited in media reports on the war in Bosnia as late as 1994. The October 1995 bulletin of the Bosnian Institute for Public Health of the Republic Committee for Health and Social Welfare gave the numbers as 146,340 killed, and 174,914 wounded on the territory under the control of the Bosnian army. Mustafa Imamovic gave a figure of 144,248 perished (including those who died from hunger or exposure), mainly Muslims. The Red Cross and the UNHCR have not, to the best of our knowledge, produced data on the number of persons killed and injured in the course of the war. A November 1995 unclassified CIA memorandum estimated 156,500 civilian deaths in the country (all but 10,000 of them in Muslim- or Croat-held territories), not including the 8,000 to 10,000 then still missing from Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves. This figure for civilian deaths far exceeded the estimate in the same report of 81,500 troops killed (45,000 Bosnian government; 6,500 Bosnian Croat; and 30,000 Bosnian Serb).
- The Obermayer et al. research puts the figure of victims to 176,000 and Ewa Tabeau's research (Office of the Prosecutors at the Hague Tribunal) places the minimum number of victims to 89,186.[119][120][121] She notes that the numbers should not be confused with "who killed who", because thousands of Serbs were killed by Serb army during the shelling of the besieged Sarajevo, Tuzla and other multi-ethnic cities.[122] The authors of this report say that the actual death toll may be slightly higher.[119][123]
- Casualty figures according to the Demographic Unit at the ICTY[119][120][121]Total104,732Bosniaksc. 68,101Serbsc. 22,779Croatsc. 8,858Othersc. 4,995Total civilians36,700Bosniaks25,609Serbs7,480Croats1,675Others1,935Total soldiers68,031Bosniaks42,492Serbs15,298Croats7,182Others3,058Casualty figures according to RDC(as reported in June 2009)[124]Total97,214Bosniaks64,34166.2%Serbs24,72625.4%Croats7,6027.8%other5470.5%Total civilians39,685Bosniaks33,07183.3%Serbs4,07510.2%Croats2,1635.4%others3760.9%Total soldiers57,529Bosniaks31,27054.4%Serbs20,64935.9%Croats5,4399.5%others1710.3%unconfirmed4,000On 21 June 2007, the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center published the most extensive research on Bosnia-Herzegovina's war casualties titled: The Bosnian Book of the Dead '' a database that reveals "a minimum of" 97,207 names of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens killed and missing during the 1992''1995 war. The head of the UN war crimes tribunal's Demographic Unit, Ewa Tabeu, has called it "the largest existing database on Bosnian war victims"[125] and it is considered the most authoritative account on human losses in the Bosnian war.[126] More than 240,000 pieces of data have been collected, processed, checked, compared and evaluated by an international team of experts to produce the final number of over 97,000 victim's names of all nationalities. The research has shown that most of the 97,207[127] documented casualties (civilians and soldiers) during Bosnian War were Bosniaks (66 percent), followed by Serbs (25 percent), Croats (8 percent) and a small number of others such as Albanians or Romani people.[128] Bosniaks also suffered massive civilian casualties (83 percent) compared to Serbs (10 percent) and Croats (5 percent). At least 30 percent of the Bosniak civilian victims were women and children.[124] The proportion of civilian victims is, moreover, an absolute minimum because a considerable number of people had registered their dead loved ones as military victims in order to financially obtain veteran's benefits.[129]
- In a statement on 23 September 2008 to the United Nations Dr Haris SilajdžiÄ (a Bosniak), as head of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Delegation to the United Nations, 63rd Session of the General Assembly, said that "According to the ICRC data, 200,000 people were killed, 12,000 of them children, up to 50,000 women were raped, and 2.2 million were forced to flee their homes. This was a veritable genocide and sociocide".[130] However, the ICRC website only cites data on missing persons, not on the total number of casualties from the war. An ICRC book published in 2010 cites the total number killed in all of the Balkan wars in the 1990s (including Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo) as ''about 140,000 people.''[131] In addition, many remain unaccounted for. Out of the approximately 30,000 people that were reported as missing during the Bosnian war, the fate of an estimated 10,500 people, most of whom are Bosnian Muslims remains unknown.[132][133]
- There are no precise statistics dealing with the casualties of the Croat-Bosniak conflict along ethnic lines. The RDC's data on human losses in the regions caught in the Croat-Bosniak conflict as part of the wider Bosnian War, however, can serve as a rough approximation. According to this data, in Central Bosnia most of the 10,448 documented casualties (soldiers and civilians) were Bosniaks (62 per cent), with Croats in second (24 per cent) and Serbs (13 per cent) in third place. The municipalities of Gornji Vakuf and Bugojno also geographically located in Central Bosnia (known as Gornje Povrbasje region), with the 1,337 documented casualties are not included in Central Bosnia statistics, but in Vrbas region statistics. Approximately 70''80 per cent of the casualties from Gornje Povrbasje were Bosniaks. In the region of Neretva river of 6,717 casualties, 54 per cent were Bosniaks, 24 per cent Serbs and 21 per cent Croats. The casualties in those regions were mostly but not exclusively the consequence of Croat-Bosniak conflict. To a lesser extent the conflict with the Serbs also resulted in a number of casualties included in the statistics. For instance, a number of Serbs were massacred by Croat forces in June 1992 in the village of ÄipuljiÄ located in Bugojno municipality.[134]
- There were also significant casualties on the part of International Troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some 320 soldiers of UNPROFOR were killed during this conflict in Bosnia.[citation needed]
- The UNCHR stated that the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina forced more than 2.2 million people to flee their homes, making it the largest displacement of people in Europe since the end of World War II.[30]
- War crimes[edit]Ethnic cleansing[edit]Ethnic cleansing was a common phenomenon in the war. This typically entailed intimidation, forced expulsion and/or killing of the undesired ethnic group as well as the destruction or removal of the physical vestiges of the ethnic group, such as places of worship, cemeteries and cultural and historical buildings. Academics Matjaž KlemenÄiÄ and Mitja Žagar argue that: "Ideas of nationalistic ethnic politicians that Bosnia and Herzegovina be reorganized into homogenous national territories inevitably required the division of ethnically mixed territories into their Serb, Croat, and Muslim parts".[34]
- According to numerous ICTY verdicts and indictments, Serb[135][136][137] and Croat[39][78][138] forces performed ethnic cleansing of their territories planned by their political leadership to create ethnically pure states (Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia). Furthermore, Serb forces committed genocide in Srebrenica at the end of the war.[139] A 1995 report by the Central Intelligence Agency found Serbian forces responsible for 90 percent of the war crimes committed during the conflict.[25]
- Based on the evidence of numerous HVO attacks, the ICTY Trial Chamber concluded in the KordiÄ and Äerkez case that by April 1993 Croat leadership had a common design or plan conceived and executed to ethnically cleanse Bosniaks from the LaÅva Valley in Central Bosnia. Dario KordiÄ, as the local political leader, was found to be the planner and instigator of this plan.[78]
- Genocide[edit]A trial took place before the International Court of Justice, following a 1993 suit by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia and Montenegro alleging genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of 26 February 2007 indirectly determined the war's nature to be international, though clearing Serbia of direct responsibility for the genocide committed by the forces of Republika Srpska. The ICJ concluded, however, that Serbia failed to prevent genocide committed by Serb forces and failed to punish those who carried out the genocide, especially General Ratko MladiÄ, and bring them to justice.
- A telegram sent to the White House on 8 February 1994 and penned by US Ambassador to Croatia Peter W. Galbraith stated that genocide was occurring. The telegram cited "constant and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire" of Sarajevo by Karadzic's Yugoslav People Army; the harassment of minority groups in Northern Bosnia "in an attempt to force them to leave"; and the use of detainees "to do dangerous work on the front lines" as evidence that genocide was being committed.[140] In 2005, the United States Congress passed a resolution declaring that "the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide".[141]
- Despite the evidence of many kinds of war crimes conducted simultaneously by different Serb forces in different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in Bijeljina, Sarajevo, Prijedor, Zvornik, Banja Luka, ViÅegrad and FoÄa, the judges ruled that the criteria for genocide with the specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy Bosnian Muslims were met only in Srebrenica or Eastern Bosnia in 1995.[142] The court concluded that the crimes committed during the 1992''1995 war, may amount to crimes against humanity according to the international law, but that these acts did not, in themselves, constitute genocide per se.[143] The Court further decided that, following Montenegro's declaration of independence in May 2006, Serbia was the only respondent party in the case, but that "any responsibility for past events involved at the relevant time the composite State of Serbia and Montenegro".[144]
- Mass rape and psychological oppression[edit]Whereas rape and sexual assault are commonly sporadic events in armed conflicts, the ethnoreligious warfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina became the subject of a widespread implementation of rape as a systematic instrument of war. Estimates of the number of women and girls raped range from 20,000 to 50,000,[145] overwhelmingly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim).[146][147][148][149][150][151] This has been referred to as "Mass Rape"[152][153][154][155][156] and occasionally "Genocidal rape",[157][158][159][160] particularly with regard to the coordinated use of rape as a weapon of war by Serb armed forces.[153][154][155][156][161][162] For the first time in judicial history, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) declared that "systematic rape", and "sexual enslavement" in time of war was a crime against humanity, second only to the war crime of genocide.[153]
- Common profound complications among surviving women and girls include gynecological, physical and psychological (post traumatic) disorders, as well as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The survivors often feel uncomfortable/frustrated/sickened with men, sex and relationships; ultimately affecting the growth/development of a population and/or society as such (thus constituting a slow genocide according to some). In accordance with the Muslim society, most of the unmarried girls were virgins at the time of rape. Mass rapes were the most systematic in Eastern Bosnia (e.g. during the FoÄa massacres and ViÅegrad massacres), and in Grbavica during the Siege of Sarajevo. Women and girls were kept in various detention centres where they had to live in intolerably unhygienic conditions and were mistreated in many ways including being repeatedly raped. Serb soldiers or policemen would come to these detention centres, select one or more women, take them out and rape them. All this was done in full view, in complete knowledge and sometimes with the direct involvement of the Serblocal authorities, particularly the police forces. The head of FoÄa police forces, Dragan GagoviÄ, was personally identified as one of the men who came to these detention centres to take women out and rape them. There were numerous rape camps in FoÄa. "Karaman's house" was one of the most notable rape camps. While kept in this house, the girls were constantly raped. Among the women held in "Karaman's house" there were minors as young as 12 and 14 years of age.[70][163][164]
- Girls and women selected by convicted war criminalDragoljub Kunarac or his men, were systematically taken to the soldiers' base, a house in Osmana ÄikiÄ street no 16. There, girls and women, who Kunarac knew were civilians, were raped by his men or by the convicted himself. Serb soldiers demonstrated a total disregard for Bosniaks in general, and Bosniak women in particular. Serb soldiers removed many Bosniak girls from various detention centres and kept some of them for various periods of time, for him or his soldiers to rape.[70]
- The other example includes Radomir KovaÄ, convicted also by ICTY. While four girls were kept in his apartment, the convicted Radomir KovaÄ abused them and raped three of them many times, thereby perpetuating the attack upon the Bosniak civilian population. KovaÄ would also invite his friends to his apartment, and he sometimes allowed them to rape one of the girls. KovaÄ also sold three of the girls. Prior to their being sold, KovaÄ had given two of these girls to other Bosnian Serb soldiers who abused them for more than three weeks before taking them back to KovaÄ, who proceeded to sell one and give the other away to acquaintances of his.[70]
- Prosecutions and legal proceedings[edit]Radovan KaradžiÄ (left), former president of Republika Srpska, and Ratko MladiÄ (right), former Chief of Staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska, are currently on trial.The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993 as a body of the UN to prosecute war crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal is an ad hoc court which is located in The Hague, the Netherlands.
- According to legal experts, as of early 2008, 45 Serbs, 12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks were convicted of war crimes by the ICTY in connection with the Balkan wars of the 1990s.[26] Both Serbs and Croats were indicted and convicted of systematic war crimes (joint criminal enterprise), while Bosniaks were indicted and convicted of individual ones. Most of the Bosnian Serb wartime leadership Biljana PlavÅiÄ,[165]MomÄilo KrajiÅnik,[166]Radoslav BrÄanin,[136]DuÅko TadiÄ[167] were indicted and judged guilty for war crimes and ethnic cleansing. The former president of Republika Srpska Radovan KaradžiÄ is currently under trial.[168] The top military general Ratko MladiÄ is also under trial by the ICTY in connection with the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.[169]Paramilitary leader Vojislav Å eÅelj has been on trial since 2007 accused of being a part of a joint criminal enterprise to ethnically cleanse large parts of Bosnia of non-serbs.[170] The Serbian president Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ was charged with war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, including grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, crimes against humanity and genocide,[171] but died in 2006 before the trial could finish.[172]
- Some high-ranking Croat political leaders (Dario KordiÄ) were convicted of war crimes, while some (Jadranko PrliÄ, Bruno StojiÄ, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj PetkoviÄ, Valentin CoriÄ, and Berislav PuÅiÄ) are presently on trial at the ICTY.
- After the death of Alija IzetbegoviÄ, The Hague revealed that he was under investigation for war crimes; however the prosecutor did not find enough evidence in IzetbegoviÄ's lifetime to issue an indictment.[174] Other Bosniaks who were convicted of or are under trial for war crimes include Rasim DeliÄ, chief of staff of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment on 15 September 2008 for his failure to prevent the Mujahadeen members of the Bosnian army from committing crimes against captured civilians and enemy combatants (murder, rape, torture).[175]Enver HadžihasanoviÄ, a general of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was sentenced to 3.5 years for authority over acts of murder and wanton destruction in Central Bosnia.[176]Hazim DeliÄ was the Bosniak Deputy Commander of the ÄelebiÄi prison camp, which detained Serb civilians. He was sentenced to 18 years by the ICTY Appeals Chamber on 8 April 2003 for murder and torture of the prisoners and for raping two Serbian women.[177][178] Serbs have accused Sarajevo authorities of practicing selective justice by actively prosecuting Serbs while ignoring or downplaying Bosniak war crimes.[179]
- Genocide at Srebrenica is the most serious war crime that any Serbs were convicted of. Crimes against humanity (i.e. ethnic cleansing), a charge second in gravity only to genocide, is the most serious war crime that any Croats were convicted of. Breaches of the Geneva Conventions is the most serious war crime that Bosniaks were convicted of.[180]
- Reconciliation[edit]On 6 December 2004, Serbian president Boris TadiÄ made an apology in Bosnia and Herzegovina to all those who suffered crimes committed in the name of the Serb people.[181]
- Croatia's president Ivo JosipoviÄ apologized in April 2010 for his country's role in the Bosnian War. Bosnia and Herzegovina's then-president Haris SilajdžiÄ in turn praised relations with Croatia, remarks that starkly contrasted with his harsh criticism of Serbia the day before. "I'm deeply sorry that the Republic of Croatia has contributed to the suffering of people and divisions which still burden us today", President Ivo JosipoviÄ told Bosnia and Herzegovina's parliament.[182]
- On 31 March 2010, the Serbian parliament adopted a declaration "condemning in strongest terms the crime committed in July 1995 against Bosniak population of Srebrenica" and apologizing to the families of the victims, the first of its kind in the region. The initiative to pass a resolution came from President Boris TadiÄ, who pushed for it even though the issue was politically controversial. In the past, only human rights groups and non-nationalistic parties had supported such a measure.[183]
- In popular culture[edit]Film[edit]The Bosnian War has been depicted in a number of films including Hollywood films such as The Hunting Party, starring Richard Gere as journalist Simon Hunt in his bid to apprehend suspected war criminal and former Bosnian Serb president Radovan KaradžiÄ; Behind Enemy Lines, loosely based on the MrkonjiÄ Grad incident, tells about a downed US Navy pilot who uncovers a massacre while on the run from Serb troops who want him dead; The Peacemaker, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, is a story about a US Army colonel and a civilian woman investigating stolen Russian nuclear weapons obtained by a revenge-fueled Yugoslav diplomat, DuÅan GavriÄ; and In the Land of Blood and Honey, a 2011 American romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Angelina Jolie and starring Zana MarjanoviÄ, Goran KostiÄ, and Rade Å erbedžija. The film is Jolie's directorial debut and it depicts a love story set against the mass rape of Muslim women in the Bosnian War. It opened in the United States on 23 December 2011 in a limited theatrical release. There are a number of British films such as Welcome to Sarajevo, which is about the life of Sarajevo citizens during the siege, and the award-winning British television drama, Warriors, aired on BBC One in 1999 about the LaÅva Valley ethnic cleansing. Spanish film Territorio Comanche shows the story of a Spanish TV crew during the siege of Sarajevo. The Polish film Demony wojny wedÅug Goi ("Demons of War", 1998), set during the Bosnian conflict, portrays a Polish group of IFOR soldiers who accidentally come to help a pair of journalists tracked by a local warlord whose crimes they had taped.
- Bosnian director Danis TanoviÄ's No Man's Land won the Best Foreign Language Film awards at the 2001 Academy Awards and the 2002 Golden Globes. Bosnian film Grbavica, about the life of a single mother in contemporary Sarajevo in the aftermath of systematic rape of Bosniak women by Serbian troops during the war, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Bosnian film The Perfect Circle, directed by Ademir KenoviÄ, tells the story of two boys during the Siege of Sarajevo and was awarded with the Fran§ois Chalais Prize at the 1997 Cannes Festival. Bosnian-British film Beautiful People directed by Jasmin Dizdar portrays the encounter between English families and arriving Bosnian refugees at the height of the Bosnian War. The film was awarded the Un Certain Regard at the 1999 Cannes Festival. Serbian-American film Savior, directed by Predrag AntonijeviÄ and starring Dennis Quaid, tells the story of an American mercenary fighting on the side of the Bosnian Serb Army during the war. Serbian film Pretty Village, Pretty Flame directed by SrÄan DragojeviÄ presents a bleak yet darkly humorous account of the Bosnian War. Serbian film Life Is a Miracle, produced by Emir Kusturica, depicts the romance of a pacific Serb station caretaker and a Muslim Bosniak young woman entrusted to him as a hostage in the context of Bosniak-Serb border clashes; it was nominated at the 2004 Cannes Festival.
- Short films such as In the Name of the Son, about a father who murders his son during the Bosnian War, and 10 Minutes, which contrasts 10 minutes of life of a Japanese tourist in Rome with a Bosnian family during the war, received acclaim for their depiction of the war.
- Documentaries include Bernard-Henri L(C)vy's Bosna! about Bosnian resistance against well equipped Serbian troops at the beginning of the war, Slovenian documentary Tunel upanja (A Tunnel of Hope) about the Sarajevo Tunnel constructed by the besieged citizens of Sarajevo to link Sarajevo, which was entirely cut-off by Serbian forces, with the Bosnian government territory, "Sarajevo my love"(in a quest of Inela Nogic)about beauty queen of besieged Sarajevo Inela Nogic and her destiny after the war, produced by Serbian television station RTV B92,and British documentary A Cry from the Grave about the Srebrenica massacre, as well as BBC's lengthy series The Death of Yugoslavia, documenting the outbreak of the war from the earliest roots of the conflict, in the 1980s. The foreign point of view of Portuguese director Joaquim Sapinho's documental film diary Bosnia Diaries, generated much controversy, being an unengaged European look over the Bosnian conflict in the first person.[184]Silverbullet Films is currently working on a documentary titled, "Village of the Forgotten Widows" which aims to depict the suffering of women affected by the Srebrenica massacre.
- A number of Western films made the Bosnian conflict the background of their stories '' some of those include Avenger, based on Frederick Forsyth's novel in which a mercenary tracks down a Serbian warlord responsible for war crimes, and The Peacemaker, in which a Yugoslav man emotionally devastated by the losses of war plots to take revenge on the United Nations by exploding a nuclear bomb in New York. The Whistleblower tells the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a UN peacekeeper that uncovered a human-trafficking scandal involving the United Nations in post-war Bosnia. Shot Through the Heart is a 1998 TV film directed by David Attwood, shown on the BBC and HBO in 1998, which covers the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War from the perspective of two Olympic-level Yugoslavian marksmen, one whom becomes a sniper.
- Part 6 of the BBCMasterpiece Theatre mini-series Prime Suspect follows British DCI Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren) as she travels to the region to investigate the conflict.
- Series[edit]Many of the war events were depicted in the Pakistani drama series, Alpha Bravo Charlie, written and directed by acclaimed producer Shoaib Mansoor in 1998.[185] Produced by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the series showed several active battlefield events and involvement of Pakistan military personnel as their role in the UN Command of the of Pakistan military.[186] The Alpha Bravo Charlie was presented on Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) and is one of the most successful and famous Urdu-English Drama series that are produced by the PTV.[187] In addition, the Mavi Kelebekler is a Turkish TV Drama Series about Bosnian War.
- Books[edit]Aubrey Verboven's Border Crossings - An Aid Worker's Journey into Bosnia provides one of the most detailed chronicles of the war in the Bihac Pocket. Semezdin MehmedinoviÄ's Sarajevo Blues and Miljenko JergoviÄ's Sarajevo Marlboro are among the best known and critically praised books written during the war in Bosnia. Zlata's Diary is a published diary kept by a young girl, Zlata FilipoviÄ, which chronicles her life in Sarajevo from 1991 to 1993. Because of her diary, she is sometimes referred to as "The Anne Frank of Sarajevo".
- Plays about the war include Necessary Targets, written by Eve Ensler. It has also been suggested that "Caryl Churchill"'s Far Away is a response to the Bosnian War. A book on the Bosnian War called My WarGone by, I Miss it so by Anthony Loyd depicts the view of a freelance war photographer. Winter Warriors '' Across Bosnia with the PBI by Les Howard, is a factual account of a British Territorial (reserve) infantry soldier who volunteered to serve as a UN Peacekeeper in the latter stages of the war, and also during the first stages of the NATO led Dayton Peace Accord. This critically acclaimed work gives an in depth feel to the perils of peacekeeping, the harsh landscape and the resolve of the British soldier, a much overlooked quality that contributed to a lasting peace. Pretty Birds, by Scott Simon, depicts a teenage girl in Sarajevo, once a basketball player on her high school team, becomes a sniper. The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway, is a novel following the stories of four people living in Sarajevo during the war. Life's Too Short to Forgive, written in 2005 by Len Biser, follows the efforts of three people'--a courageous Bosnian woman soldier, a former UNPROFOR Lieutenant, and a private citizen'--who unite to assassinate Karadzic to stop Serb atrocities. Fools Rush In, written by Bill Carter, tells a story of a man who helped bring U2 to a landmark Sarajevo concert. Evil Doesn't Live Here, by Daoud Sarhandi and Alina Boboc, presents a large number of posters portraying the war, from all sides in the conflict and many regions throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Avenger by Frederick Forsyth. Balkan, In Memoriam, by Sandra Balsells, a testimonial stirred about the evolution of the old Yugoslavia since the disintegration of the country in 1991 until the fall of Milosevic in 2000. "Hotel Sarajevo" by Jack Kersh. Top je bio vreo by Vladimir KecmanoviÄ, a story of a Bosnian Serb boy in the part of Sarajevo held by Bosnian Muslim forces during the Siege of Sarajevo. I Bog je zaplakao nad Bosnom (And God cried over Bosnia), written by Momir KrsmanoviÄ, is a depiction of war that mainly focuses on the crimes committed by Muslim people. The war in eastern Bosnia is a subject of Joe Sacco's graphic novel Safe Area Goražde. Dampyr is an Italian comic book, created by Mauro Boselli and Maurizio Colombo and published in Italy by Sergio Bonelli Editore about Harlan Draka, half human, half vampire, who wages war on the multifaceted forces of Evil. The first two episodes are located in Bosnia and Herzegovina (#1 Il figlio del Diavolo) i.e. Sarajevo (#2 La stirpe della note) during the Bosnian War. "Blasted", by playwright Sarah Kane, is in part about the Bosnian War. Goodbye Sarajevo '' A True Story of Courage, Love and Survival by Atka Reid and Hana Schofield and published in 2011, is the story of two sisters from Sarajevo and their separate experiences of the war. Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maas, published in 1997 is his account as a reporter at the height of the Bosnian War. This book examines, with scathing inquiry, the horrors and desperation suffered by the Bosnian people. "Bluebird: A Memoir" By Vensa Maric are the recently published memoir's of the authors experiences as a refugee during the Bosnian war, when she was sent to England to escape the conflict.
- Music[edit]U2's Miss Sarajevo is among the best known pieces of music about the war in Bosnia. The song features Bono and Luciano Pavarotti, and is a song that Bono cites as his favourite.[188] Other songs include "Bosnia" by The Cranberries.
- Savatage recorded a concept album entitled Dead Winter Dead, which was set in the Balkan War. One of the songs from this album, "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo", also appears on the first album by the Trans Siberian Orchestra. In State Radio's album titled Let It Go, the song Bohemian Grove references the war, saying in the first verse, "Could've stopped Sarajevo, we must confess, but we were planning our next invasion." Nirvana had created a benefit show for the rape victims of Croatia. The bassist, Krist Novoselic is of Croatian background so this was personal. Frontman, Kurt Cobain had previously written a song regarding a rape victim (Polly) which was played at the show.
- Other media[edit]Niko Bellic, the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto IV, fought in the Bosnian War before his immigration to the United States. Bosnian War is also pictured in Pakistani Drama "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie".
- See also[edit]Sources[edit]^DemirtaÅ-oÅkun, Birg¼l. "Turkish Foreign Policy Toward the Bosnian War (1992 - 1995) : A Constructivist Analysis" (pdf). karam.org. p. 9. Retrieved 20 March 2014. ^http://arsiv.ntvmsnbc.com/news/148268.asp^http://www.netpano.com/turkiye-bosnaya-el-altinda-silah-gondermis/^http://www.dunyabizim.com/aliyaizzetbegovic/4142/savas-hl-devam-ediyor.html^Ramet 2010, p. 130^Christia 2012, p. 154^Ramet 2006, p. 450^Mulaj 2008, p. 53^Finlan 2004, p. 21^Ramet 2006, p. 451^ abc"Rezultati istraživanja "Ljudski gubici '91'''95"". Research and Documentation Center Sarajevo. [dead link]^Bose, Sumantra (2009). Contested lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka. Harvard University Press. pp. 124; After the official referendum the United States took the lead in sponsoring international recognition for Bosnia as a sovereign state, which was formalized in 6 April 1992. The Bosnian War began the same day. ^Rogel, Carole (2004). The Breakup of Yugoslavia and Its Aftermath. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 59; Neither recognition nor UN membership, however, saved Bosnia from the JNA; the war there began on April 6. ^Walsh, Martha (2001). Women and Civil War: Impact, Organizations, and Action. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 57; The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized by the European Union on April 6. On the same date, Bosnian Serb nationalists began the siege of Sarajevo, and the Bosnian war began. ^"ICTY: Conflict between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". ^"ICTY: Conflict between Bosnia and Croatia". ^"ICJ: The genocide case: Bosnia v. Serbia '' See Part VI '' Entities involved in the events 235''241" (PDF). ^"ICTY: The attack against the civilian population and related requirements". ^"ICTY: NaletiliÄ and MartinoviÄ verdict '' A. Historical background". ^Silber, L (1997), Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation. Penguin Books, p.185^Forsythe 2009, p. 145^Cohen, Roger (31 August 1995). "CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: THE OVERVIEW; NATO PRESSES BOSNIA BOMBING, VOWING TO MAKE SARAJEVO SAFE". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2011. ^Holbrooke, Richard (1999). To End a War. New York: Modern Library. p. 102. ISBN 0-375-75360-5. OCLC 40545454. ^"Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia". US Department of State. 30 March 1996. Retrieved 19 March 2006. ^ abC.I.A. Report on Bosnia Blames Serbs for 90% of the War Crimes by Roger Cohen, The New York Times, 9 March 1995^ abNew York Times '' Karadzic Sent to Hague for Trial Despite Violent Protest by Loyalists [1]^"Bosnia war dead figure announced". BBC. 21 June 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2013. ^"Bosnia's dark days - a cameraman reflects on war of 1990s". CBC. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2013. ^Stiglmayer (1994), p. 85^ ab"Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia". UNHCR. 6 April 2010. Retrieved 19 October 2010. ^Pavkovic, Aleksandar (1997). The fragmentation of Yugoslavia: nationalism and war in the Balkans. MacMillan Press. p. 85. ISBN 0-312-23084-2. ^Crnobrnja, Mihailo (1994). The Yugoslav drama. I. B. Tauris & Co. p. 107. ISBN 1-86064-126-1. ^Bethlehem & Weller 1997, p. 20^ abKlemenÄiÄ, Matjaž; Žagar, Mitja (2004). The former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 311. ISBN 1-57607-294-0. ^Campbell, David (1998). National deconstruction: Violence, identity, and justice in Bosnia. ISBN 978-0-8166-2937-4. ^Florence Hartmann (July 2007). "A statement at the seventh biennal meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars". Helsinki Charter No. 109-110. Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Retrieved 31 December 2010. ^"The prosecutor of the tribunal against Slobodan MiloÅeviÄ: Amended Indictment". UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 22 November 2002. Retrieved 14 August 2009. ^Klip, Andr(C); Sluiter, G¶ran (2005). Annotated leading cases of international criminal tribunals: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 2001. ISBN 978-90-5095-375-7. ^ abcde"ICTY: NaletiliÄ and MatinoviÄ verdict". ^ abTrbovich, Ana S. (2008). A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia's Disintegration. Oxford University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-19-533343-5. ^Cook, Bernard A. (2001). Europe Since 19451. Taylor and Francis. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-8153-4057-7. ^Trbovich, Ana S. (2008). A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia's Disintegration. Oxford University Press. pp. 220''224. ISBN 978-0-19-533343-5. ^Roland Rich (1993). "Recognition of States: The Collapse of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union" (PDF). European Journal of International Law4 (1): 48''51. Retrieved 12 April 2012. ^"The Referendum on Independence in Bosnia-Herzegovina: February 29 '' 1 March 1992". Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. 1992. p. 19. Retrieved 28 December 2009. ^Minahan, James (2000). One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 125. ^Bose, Sumantra (2009). Contested lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka. Harvard University Press. p. 124. ^D. Grant, Thomas (2009). Admission to the United Nations: Charter Article 4 and the Rise of Universal Organization. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 226. ^NikoliÄ-RistanoviÄ, Vesna (2000). Women, violence and war: Wartime victimization of refugees in the Balkans. ISBN 978-963-9116-60-3. ^ abchttp://sim.law.uu.nl/sim/caselaw/tribunalen.nsf/db2e2884b11f7cbbc125720a007af60b/8cc6f2501fe7c551c12571fe004d31cd?OpenDocument^ abcdefghi"ICTY: Milomir StakiÄ judgement". ^ abMcDonald, Gabrielle Kirk (June 1999). Documents and cases. ISBN 978-90-411-1134-0. ^ abc"ICTY: BlaÅkiÄ verdict". ^ abcdefg"ICTY: Jadranko PrliÄ, Bruno StojiÄ, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj PetkoviÄ, Valentin ÄoriÄ & Berislav PuÅiÄ". ^de Krnjevic-Miskovic, Damjan. "Alija Izetbegovic, 1925''2003". In the National Interest. Retrieved 28 August 2008. ^UK Guardian: America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims^"Presidential Confidential: Bill Clinton After Hours". The New York Times. 2009-09-24. ^"'The Clinton Tapes,' a New Book". The New York Times. 2009-09-21. ^Taylor Branch (2009). The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. Simon and Schuster. p. 31. ^ abKozar, Duro (2 August 1996). "Croats and Serbs are (un)suitable". Oslobodenje-Svijet. Retrieved 21 November 2010. ^PejanoviÄ, Mirko (2004). Through Bosnian Eyes: The Political Memoir of a Bosnian Serb. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. p. 86. ISBN 1-55753-359-8. ^Vjesnik: Je li Tuta platio atentatorima po pet tisuÄa maraka^Nettelfield, Lara J. (2010). Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Hague Tribunal's Impact in a Postwar State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 73. ISBN 0-521-76380-0. ^Thomas, Nigel; Mikulan, Krunoslav; PavloviÄ, Darko (2006). The Yugoslav Wars: Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia 1992''2001. Osprey Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 0-19-517429-1. ^"Srebrenica '' a 'safe' area". Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. 10 April 2002. Retrieved 17 February 2010. ^Helena Smith, Greece faces shame of role in Serb massacre, The Observer, 5 January 2003, Retrieved 25 November 2006^Karli, Sina (11 November 2006). "Å veÄanin priznao krivnju za ratne zloÄine u BiH" [Swede confesses to war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina] (in Croatian). Nacional (weekly). Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2010. ^United States Institute of Peace, Dayton Implementation: The Train and Equip Program, September 1997 | Special Report No. 25^ ab"ICTY: Blagojevic and Jokic judgement". ^ abcdef"ICTY: Kunarac, KovaÄ and VukoviÄ judgement". ^"ICTY: Greatest suffering at least risk". ^Donia, Robert J (February 2006). Sarajevo: A biography. ISBN 978-0-472-11557-0. ^Schmidt, Bettina; Schr¶der, Ingo; Anthropologists, European Association of Social (2001). Anthropology of violence and conflict. ISBN 978-0-415-22905-0. ^Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert; Jacobs, Steven L (2008). Dictionary of Genocide: A-L. ISBN 978-0-313-34642-2. ^Donia, Robert J (February 2006). Sarajevo: A biography. ISBN 978-0-472-11557-0. ^CCPR Human Rights Committee. "Bosnia and Herzegovina Report". United Nations. 30 October 1992 [2]^Pessimism Is Overshadowing Hope In Effort to End Yugoslav Fighting^ abcdefghijk"ICTY: KordiÄ and Äerkez verdict". ^Sarajevo, i poslije, Erich Rathfelder, M¼nchen 1998 [3]^LeBor, Adam (2006). Complicity With Evil. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11171-2. ^Angus Macqueen and Paul Mitchell, The Death of Yugoslavia^"SENSE Tribunal: Poziv na predaju". ^"SENSE Tribunal: Ko je poÄeo rat u Gornjem Vakufu". ^"SENSE Tribunal: "James Dean" u Gornjem Vakufu". ^"ICTY (1995): Initial indictment for the ethnic cleansing of the Lasva Valley area '' Part II". ^"ICTY: Summary of sentencing judgement for Miroslav Bralo". ^"IDC: Victim statistics in Novi Travnik, Vitez, Kiseljak and BusovaÄa". ^Thomas, Nigel; Mikulan, K. (2006). The Yugoslav Wars: Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia 1992''2001. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-84176-964-6. ^ abcdefghijNATO Handbook: Evolution of the Conflict. NATO ^"Weighing the Evidence (p. 32)". Human Rights Watch. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 5 November 2010. ^ abcdeBethlehem, Daniel L.; Weller, Marc (1997). The 'Yugoslav' Crisis in International Law. Cambridge International Documents Series 5. Cambridge University Press. p. liii. ISBN 978-0-521-46304-1. ^Carnes, Mark Christopher (2005). American national biography29. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-19-522202-9. ^"Bosnia marks war anniversary". BBC News. 6 April 2002. ^ abcdefgBethlehem & Weller 1997, p. liv^Economides, Spyros & Taylor, Paul(2007)."Former Yugoslavia". In Mats Berdal & Spyro Economides(Eds.), United Nations Interventionism, 1991''2004, p.89. New York: Cambridge University Press.^ abcReport A/54/549, Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to General Assembly resolution 53/35: The fall of Srebrenica^Bethlehem & Weller 1997, p. lvi^Simone, Ernest (2000). Foreign Policy of the United States1. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-56072-850-4. ^ abSimone 2000, p. 187^"U.S. Will Honor Bosnia Arms Embargo". Los Angeles Times (Reuters). 13 November 1994. "President Clinton ordered U.S. warships in the Adriatic to stop intercepting vessels suspected of smuggling arms for the Muslims beginning midnight Saturday." ^Danish Tanks at War^"ICTY: KrstiÄ verdict" (PDF). ^ICTY, Prosecutor vs Krstic, Judgement, Case No. IT-98-33, United Nations, 2 August 2001[4] PDF (685 KB), "Findings of Fact", paragraphs 18 and 26 [5]^"UN Srebrenica immunity questioned". BBC. 18 June 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2008. ^Comprehensive report of the proceedings, www.vandiepen.com^"Under The UN Flag; The International Community and the Srebrenica Genocide" by Hasan NuhanoviÄ, pub. DES Sarajevo, 2007, ISBN 978-9958-728-87-7[6][7]^Gazzini, Tarcisio (2005). The changing rules on the use of force in international law. Manchester University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-7190-7325-0. ^ abThe Europa World Year Book 2003. 2003. p. 803. ISBN 978-1-85743-227-5. ^ abcdBurg, Steven L.; Shoup, Paul S. (2000). The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention (2nd ed.). New York: M. E. Sharpe. pp. 190''191. ISBN 1-56324-309-1. ^Campbell, David (1998). "Metabosnia: Narratives of the Bosnian War". Review of International Studies24 (2): 261''281. doi:10.1017/S0260210598002617. JSTOR 20097522. ^Bose, Sumantra (2002). Bosnia after Dayton: Nationalist Partition and International Intervention. London: C. Hurst & Co. p. 21. ISBN 1-85065-585-5. ^Workman, Timothy (27 July 2010). "The Government of the Republic of Serbia vs. Ejup GaniÄ". City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. p. 3. Retrieved 4 March 2011. ^Kaldor, Mary (2007). New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 0-7456-3863-5. ^Nettelfield, Lara J. (2010). "Research and repercussions of death tolls: The case of the Bosnian Book of the Dead". In Andreas, Peter; Greenhill, Kelly M. Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 159''187. ISBN 0-8014-7618-6. ^Tabeau, Ewa; Bijak, Jakub (2005). "War-related Deaths in the 1992''1995 Armed Conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Critique of Previous Estimates and Recent Results". European Journal of Population (Springer Netherlands) 21 (2''3): 187''215. doi:10.1007/s10680-005-6852-5. ISSN 1572-9885. ^Patrick Ball & Ewa Tabeau & Philip Verwimp. "The Bosnian Book of Dead: Assessment of the Database (Full Report)", HiCN Research Design Notes 5, Households in Conflict Network.^"102.000 drept i Bosnia", NRK News, 14 November 2004, in Norwegian^The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention by Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup:^ abcICTY: THE 1992''95 WAR IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: CENSUS-BASED MULTIPLE SYSTEM ESTIMATION OF CASUALTIES UNDERCOUNT^ abICTY '' Casualties^ abNew War Demographics Feature on the ICTY website^OTP '' Casualties of Bosnian War^Hague Tribunal, http://www.icty.org/sid/10591^ abResearch and Documentation Center: Rezultati istraživanja "Ljudski gubici '91'''95"^"Bosnia war dead figure announced". BBC News. 2007-06-21. ^Roger D. Petersen (2011). Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 22 July 2013. , pp. 121^RDC '' Casualties Research Results '' June 2007^Bosnia's "Book of the Dead", Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 23 June 2007^Jay D. Aronson (2013). Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 July 2013. , pp. 121^Statement by Dr. Haris SilajdžiÄ Chairman of the Presidency Bosnia and Herzegovina, Head of the Delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. at the 63rd Session of the General Assembly on the occasion of the General Debate, Summary, 23 September 2008.^Missing Lives '' Book and Photo Exhibition, 7 June 2010^Amnesty International: "Balkans: Thousands still missing two decades after conflicts", 29 August 2012^ICRC Annual Report 2010, p. 345^RDC '' Research results (2007) '' Human Losses in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1991''1995 [8]^"Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Radivoje Miletic, Milan Gvero, and Vinko Pandurevic". "In the Motion, the Prosecution submits that both the existence and implementation of the plan to create an ethnically pure Bosnian Serb state by Bosnian Serb political and military leaders are facts of common knowledge and have been held to be historical and accurate in a wide range of sources." ^ ab"ICTY: Radoslav BrÄanin judgement". ^"Tadic Case: The Verdict". "Importantly, the objectives remained the same: to create an ethnically pure Serb State by uniting Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and extending that State from the FRY [...] to the Croatian Krajina along the important logistics and supply line that went through opstina Prijedor, thereby necessitating the expulsion of the non-Serb population of the opstina." ^"Prosecuter v. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic". "Significantly, the Trial Chamber held that a reasonable Trial Chamber, could make a finding beyond any reasonable doubt that all of these acts were committed to carry out a plan aimed at changing the ethnic balance of the areas that formed Herceg-Bosna and mainly to deport the Muslim population and other non-Croat population out of Herceg-Bosna to create an ethnically pure Croatian territory within Herceg-Bosna." ^ICTY; "Address by ICTY President Theodor Meron, at PotoÄari Memorial Cemetery" The Hague, 23 June 2004 [9]^Peter W. Galbraith. "Galbraith telegram". United States Department of State. ^A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995^"Courte: Serbia failed to prevent genocide, UN court rules". Associated Press. 26 February 2007. [dead link]^"Sense Tribunal: SERBIA FOUND GUILTY OF FAILURE TO PREVENT AND PUNISH GENOCIDE". ^Statement of the President of the Court^"Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict: A Framework for Prevention and Response". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2008. http://ochaonline.un.org/News/InFocus/SexualandGenderBasedViolence/AFrameworkforPreventionandResponse/tabid/4751/language/en-US/Default.aspx. Retrieved 30 June 2009.^Zuvela, Maya (19 December 2012). "Bosnian war rape victims suffer in silence, wait for justice". Reuters. Retrieved 26 December 2012. ^Nicole A. Dombrowski. Women and War in the Twentieth Century: Enlisted With Or Without Consent. Routledge, 2004, p 333.. ^Ivo Goldstein. Croatia: A History. McGill-Queen's Press, 1999, p 243.. ^Jahn, George (31 May 2005). "Bosnian children born of war rape asking questions". Associated Press; NBCNEWS. Retrieved 26 December 2012. ^Mary Zeiss Stange, et. al. Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World, Vol. 1. SAGE, 2011, p 1206.. ^Andrea Parrot, Nina Cummings. Sexual Enslavement of Girls and Women Worldwide. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, p 39.. ^"Report of the international tribunal for the prosecution of persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 18 September 1997. ^ abcOsborn, Andrew (23 February 2001). "Mass rape ruled a war crime". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-06-26. ^ ab"Hague court upholds rape charges". BBC. 12 June 2002. Retrieved 2009-06-30. ^ ab"Milosevic: Architect of Balkans carnage". CNN. 12 March 2006. Retrieved 2009-06-30. ^ ab"Opening Statement of Senator Dick Durbin Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law Hearing on "Rape as a Weapon of War: Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict"". United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-30. ^"Rape as genocide". New York Times. 3 November 2008. Retrieved 2012-12-26. ^Manijeh Mannani, Veronica Thompson. Selves and Subjectivities: Reflections on Canadian Arts and Culture. Athabasca University Press, 2012, p. 73. ^Emily Grabham, Doris Buss. Intersectionality and Beyond: Law, Power and the Politics of Location. Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 110. ^Susan Elaine Soric. The Debate on Genocidal Rape in Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, 1995. ^Stiglmayer, Alexandra; Marion Faber, Cynthia Enloe, Roy Gutman (1994). Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 85, 86, 198. ISBN 0-8032-9229-5. ^Booth, Ken (2001). The Kosovo tragedy: the human rights dimensions. Routledge. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-7146-5085-2. ^"The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV): Documentation about war crimes '' Tilman Z¼lch". ^030306IA^"Prosecutor v. Biljana Plavsic judgement". "Biljana Plavsic was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment." ^"Prosecutor v. Momcilo Krajisnik judgement". "Sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment" ^"Prosecutor v. DuÅko TadiÄ '' Judgement". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 14 July 1997. Retrieved 3 November 2009. ^"Prosecutor v. Radovan KaradžiÄ '' Second Amended Indictment". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 18 August 2009. ^"Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladic '' Amended Indictment". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 8 November 2002. Retrieved 18 August 2009. ^"Prosecutor seeks 28-year jail term for Vojislav Seselj". BBC News. 7 March 2012. ^"Milosevic charged with Bosnia genocide". BBC News. 23 November 2001. ^"Milosevic found dead in his cell". BBC News. 11 March 2006. ^Six Senior Herceg-Bosna Officials Convicted^Castle, Stephen (23 October 2003). "Bosnian leader was suspected of war crimes". The Independent. ^ICTY official web site: Case Information Sheet: DeliÄ^Hadzihasanovic i Kubura '' sažetak -^"Celebici case: the Judgement of the Trial Chamber '' press release". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 16 November 1998. Retrieved 13 May 2012. ^""ÄELEBIÄI CAMP" (IT-96-21) '' case information sheet". United NationsInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2009. ^"Bosnia Opens Trial of Muslims for War Crimes." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 19 Apr 2012. Web. 11 May 2012. .^ICTY cases, indictments and proceedings^Serb leader apologises in Bosnia^CBC "Croatian president apologizes to Bosnia over war". CBC. 14 April 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2012. ^"Serbian Declaration on Srebrenica Massacre an Imperfect but Important Step", International Center for Transitional Justice^Infos at rosafilmes.pt: click on "ENG", then on "DIRECTORS", then on "JOAQUIM SAPINHO"^"Seeking Rescue" on YouTubeAlpha Bravo Charlie Season 1. Episode 8. 1998. c. 43 min. PTV^"Missing in Action" Season 1. Episode 11. 1998. c. 43 PTV on YouTube^PTV award ceremony for best TV series^"Just the 2 of U". The Irish Times. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2009. References[edit]Books[edit]Bartos, Otomar J. (2002). Using Conflict Theory. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 4 May 2013. Christia, Fotini (2012). Alliance Formation in Civil Wars. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Finlan, Alastair (2004). The Collapse of Yugoslavia 1991-1999. Osprey Publishing. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Forsythe, David P. (2009). Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1.. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 4 May 2013. Harris, Paul (1995). Cry Bosnia. Canongate. ISBN 0862415640. Hoff, Lee Ann (2009). Violence and Abuse Issues: Cross-Cultural Perspectives for Health and Social Services. Routledge. Retrieved 18 February 2013. Mulaj, Klejda (2008). Politics of Ethnic Cleansing: Nation-State Building and Provision of In/Security in Twentieth-Century Balkans. Lexington Books. Retrieved 4 May 2013. Stiglmayer, Alexandra (1994). Mass Rape: the War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Ramet, Sabrina P. (2010). Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building And Legitimation, 1918-2005. Indiana University Press. Retrieved 16 February 2013. Why Bosnia? Writings on the Balkan War. Stony Creek, CT: The Pamphleteer's Press, Inc. 1993. ISBN 0963058797. External links[edit]Related films[edit]
-
- Exclusive: Putin Halts All Talks With White House
- Exclusive: Putin Halts All Talks With White House
- April 26, 2014 "ICH" - "Daily Beast" - As new U.S. sanctions against Russia loom, the Kremlin has shut down'--at least for now'--intensive high level communications between top U.S. and Russian officials.
- Since the "invasion of Crimea", President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama have had regular phone calls in an often half-hearted attempt to deescalate the ongoing crisis inside Ukraine. But as the U.S. and EU prepare to unveil new sanctions against Russia, Putin has decided the interactions should stop. The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to the diplomacy, for now.
- ''Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,'' said Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Development, a prominent Moscow think tank, and a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. ''It does not mean forever.''
- Obama and Putin last spoke over the phone on April 14, a call that the White House said was initiated at Moscow's request. Obama urged Putin in the call to end Kremlin support for armed, pro-Russian activists creating unrest in eastern Ukraine. Obama also warned that the U.S. would impose more ''costs'' on Russia if Putin continued his current course. According to the Kremlin's readout of the call, Putin denied Russian interference in eastern Ukraine and said ''that such speculations are based on inaccurate information.''
- Obama and Putin have spoken to each other about Ukraine regularly over the past weeks, including calls on March 28, March 16, and March 6. But that these calls are now on hold for the indefinite future, due to their lack of progress and frustration on both sides.
- On Friday, Kerry warned that new round of American financial assaults on Russia were on the way. ''We are putting in more sanctions, they will probably come Monday at the latest,'' he said in a private meeting in Washington, according to an attendee. Russian businesses and individuals close to Putin would be on the sanctions list, he added.
- Diplomatic sources close to the process confirmed that Putin is not interested in speaking with Obama again in the current environment. The two leaders might talk again in the future but neither side is reaching out for direct interaction, as they had been doing since the Ukraine crisis began. The failure of the agreement struck last week in Geneva between the contact group of the U.S., EU, Russia, and Ukraine has made further direct Washington-Moscow interactions moot.
- Other top U.S. officials are also now out of direct contact with their Russian interlocutors. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also getting the cold shoulder from his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu. Pentagon officials have reached out to Russia on Mr. Hagel's behalf within the past 24 hours but have not gotten any response, according to Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.
- That leaves the channel between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as the only semi-functioning high-level diplomatic channel between Washington and Moscow. But even that often-frosty relationship has further chilled as the two sides hurled insults and accusations this week.
- After speaking over the phone Monday and then again Tuesday about the now defunct Geneva agreement on Ukraine, Kerry and Lavrov are now conducting diplomacy through the press'--and leveling harsh and undiplomatic charges against one another.
- Kerry appeared at the State Department press room Thursday afternoon to declare publicly that Russia was not keeping its word.
- ''For seven days, Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction,'' Kerry scolded. ''Not a single Russian official, not one, has publicly gone on television in Ukraine and called on the separatists to support the Geneva agreement, to support the stand-down, to give up their weapons, and get out of the Ukrainian buildings. They have not called on them to engage in that activity. ''
- Kerry also lashed out at Russia Today, the Kremlin-sponsored television network, which Kerry said spends all its time ''to propagandize and to distort what is happening or not happening in Ukraine.''
- ''Instead, in plain sight, Russia continues to fund, coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement in Donetsk,'' Kerry accused.
- Lavrov publicly responded, ''The U.S. is trying to pervert everything that is going on in Ukraine.''
- On Friday, Kerry summed up his recent interactions with his Russian counterpart, ''I've had 6 conversations with Lavrov in the last few weeks. The last one was Kafka-esque... It was bizarre.''
- Pentagon: Hagel's Russian counterpart won't return his calls: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel cannot get his Russian counterpart to take his calls, the Pentagon said Friday -- amid a new report that the Kremlin has suspended high-level talks with U.S. officials.
-
- ALGERIA-With World Watching Ukraine, Russia Makes Energy Moves in Africa - US News
- Vladimir Putin, center, walks through a Russian gas facility in 2011 with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, right, and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, left. Russia has been expanding its gas projects in Africa.
- Call it a ''shale'' game.
- As the world watches Ukraine in the wake of Russia's armed takeover of the Crimean peninsula '' and, by extension, waits to see whether the Kremlin will follow through on threats to cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine and Western Europe '' Moscow also appears to be rekindling a lucrative Cold War-era relationship that may one day pose just as large a threat to the region's energy economy.
- Already, Russia provides about 30 percent of Western and Central Europe's natural gas, much of which is piped through Ukraine. But since invading, the Kremlin has raised prices on its neighbor and threatened to completely shut off gas supplies if Ukraine doesn't fork over roughly $2.2 billion that Russia says it owes the state-owned company Gazprom.
- The moves have prompted international indignation: warnings and economic sanctions against Russian leaders by the U.S. and European Union, a vote last month by the Group of 8 industrialized democracies to expel Russia from the trade group, and '' as President Barack Obama warned this week during a visit to Japan '' perhaps more sanctions to come.
- But more than 1,600 miles away, Russia's been making comparatively quieter moves into the energy sector, and to far less notice.
- Over the past decade, and especially in recent months, the country has been ramping up natural gas exploration and production in Algeria and other corners of the African continent, including Nigeria, Egypt and Mozambique. The country is seeking "a stranglehold on Western Europe" that it could tighten '' or threaten to tighten '' anytime it wishes, says Assis Malaquias, a defense economics expert at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C.
- [READ: Europe, Russia Ensnared in 'Energy Cold War,' Experts Say]
- By 2015, experts say, Moscow's control of Europe's gas supply could leap by as much as 10 percentage points to 40 percent. Moreover, Southern European countries like Italy and Spain, which draw much of their natural gas from North Africa, would join the list of those affected by an increased Russian presence on the continent.
- ''Western Europe should be very concerned," Malaquias says. "Very."
- With nearly half of the continent's gas supply in its grip, Russia's leverage on the world stage would become enormous and subsequently limit European and American options on any number of issues, from the ongoing civil war in Syria, to the fuel supplies Russia provides for American troops in Afghanistan, to another Ukraine-style land-grab in Europe.
- For years, most of Moscow's mining activity in Africa has involved production of minerals like platinum, chrome, manganese and diamonds. Natural gas, though, presents new opportunities.
- Italy gets a large portion of its natural gas from Algeria. Pictured, a facility near Milan.
- Unlike minerals, Russia doesn't need the energy supply for traditional purposes '' it's already one of the world's largest exporters of oil and natural gas, and it earns more than half of its revenue from energy sales. Europe, however, "especially needs North African gas," Malaquias says. "What the Russians are doing is a very clever strategic ploy, because the bigger they are in terms of their presence in the energy sector internationally, the more leverage they have on everybody."
- Algeria, meanwhile, was once one of the Soviet Union's closest African allies, and it is the third-largest supplier of natural gas to the 28-nation European Union, behind Russia and Norway. Egypt, Mozambique and Nigeria are also home to ''a hell of a lot of energy,'' says Chester Crocker, a professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University and a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
- ''Already, we've seen the European Union hemming and hawing over sanctions to Russia for its conduct in Ukraine,'' says J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, who wrote last month about Russia's advances in Africa. ''This would add another reason to pause for Europeans if, in some future crisis, they face not only cutoffs of supplies from Russia, but potentially cutoffs from alternative supplies in Algeria.''
- [ALSO: U.S. Sends Airborne Infantry to Russian Front Door]
- Russia already boasts booming trade relations with Algeria, especially in the area of weapons and military equipment. From 2003 to 2012, Algeria spent almost $54 billion abroad on military sales, nearly 91 percent of which went to Russia, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In fact, those purchases accounted for 10 percent of Russia's total arms exports, making Algeria one of the Kremlin's best customers after only China and India.Those arms sales appear to be paving the way for other lucrative trade arrangements, especially in the world of energy. Earlier this month, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who just won his fourth term in office, promised during his campaign he would implement economic reforms and loosen restrictions on foreign investment.
- Natural gas has figured prominently in those plans.
- "Shale is important as we have some of the world's biggest reserves. French and American firms are interested," Bouteflika campaign spokesman Amara Benyounes told Reuters earlier this month. "We don't have a [financial] resources problem. It's about getting partnerships with foreign firms as we lack knowledge and technology."
- Russia is a particularly attractive partner. The first country to recognize Algeria's independence from France in the 1960s, it became one of Algeria's closest allies during the Cold War, and the recent arms sales have helped to renew those ties. In February, Algeria made an offer: After eight years of negotiations, it invited Russia's Gazprom to join a large gas exploration project.
- President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, sitting, votes on April 17 in Algiers.
- ''Those ties between Algeria and Russia are slightly starting to expand into the realm of energy,'' says Michael Nayebi, a North Africa analyst with Stratfor, a private geopolitical intelligence firm. ''This is just Gazprom trying to diversify a little bit and expand into other markets after investing only in domestic gas fields.''
- Russia still faces hurdles before it can truly monopolize the European energy market. Cornering a sector that large is far more difficult than, for example, monopolizing minerals production, Crocker says. What's more, transporting natural gas requires plenty of expensive trains, ships, pipelines and import and export terminals, all of which will take time and loads of cash to build.
- ''There's a lot of infrastructure that stands in front of all this,'' Crocker says. ''That's not to say that people talking about a squeeze play on Europe are wrong '' it's just a very indirect squeeze play and may be a very long time coming.''
- [MORE: Ukraine Crisis Forces 'Wait-and-See' Approach to Arctic Oil]
- Still, others warn Russia's moves should serve as a wake-up call to American and European leaders. "You don't have to have a very cold winter in Western Europe before citizens start getting upset," Malaquias says. "Gas is a commodity, but it's a special commodity. It's not chocolate or coffee. You get a bit grumpy if you don't have a cup of coffee, but you'll survive. Gas is different."
- It's for this reason some urge Europe and the U.S. to act now '' both by investing in natural gas resources in Africa and by easing restrictions on exports of American natural gas.
- ''Just because the situation isn't going to be immediate doesn't mean the solution should be put off forever,'' Pham argues. ''This is exactly how Europe ended up in the vulnerable position it is now.''
- U.S. News national security reporter Paul D. Shinkman contributed to this report.
-
- Putin calls internet a 'CIA project' renewing fears of web breakup | World | The Guardian
- Vladimir Putin at media forum in St Petersburg. The Russian president has long hinted that he wants a Russian-run alternative to the internet. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentiev/Ria Novosti/EPA
- Vladimir Putin gave his clearest signal yet that he aims to break up the global nature of the internet when he branded the network a "CIA project" on Thursday.
- The Russian president told a media conference in St Petersburg that America's overseas espionage agency had originally set up the internet and was continuing to develop it.
- Putin has long hinted that he wants a Russian-run alternative. The idea of breaking up the internet has gained ground in Germany, Brazil and elsewhere round the world in the light of the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent to which the US National Security Agency has infiltrated Facebook, Skype and other social media.
- Snowden's critics say that an unintended consequences of his revelations has been to undermine the global nature of the web as well as playing into the hands of dictators. His supporters counter that it is the NSA rather than Snowden that has damaged trust in the service.
- During a recent national televised question and answer session, Putin batted away a question from Snowden '' who won temporary asylum in Russia after having his US passport revoked '' about whether Russia also intercepted and stored communications harvested from the internet, as the US did. "I hope we don't do that," he said to applause from the studio audience. "We don't have as much money as they do in the US."
- Putin acknowledged that there was surveillance of criminals and potential terrorists but denied there was mass surveillance of citizens.
- A purely Russian-run system could make it easier for the Russian intelligence services to monitor and control traffic. The Kremlin already has powerful tools in place for this, but nonetheless the internet offers a platform for Russian opposition groups denied a voice on the country's television and radio. At the same media conference, Putin also referred directly to the most popular search engine in Russia, Yandex '' a reference that caused its shares to plummet.
- Putin's St Petersburg comments could herald the most serious challenge yet to the world wide web, which was founded by the British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
- Putin claimed the "CIA project" was still developing and that Russia needed to be protected from it. The nation had a duty to resist that influence and fight for its interests online, he said.
- His remarks come in the wake of a law passed by the Russian parliament this week requiring foreign social media websites to keep their servers in Russia. The law also requires them to save all information about their users for at least six months.
- Business executives close to Putin now control Russia's leading social network, VKontakte.
- Putin, in referring to Yandex, criticised the company for its registration in the Netherlands, "not only for tax reasons but for other considerations too". He was responding to a questioner who complained that Yandex was storing information on servers abroad, potentially compromising Russian security.
- Snowden has previously faced criticism from within America for accepting asylum in Russia but failing to speak out against the authoritarian nature of the regime. After addressing Putin last week, he was accused of putting a softball question to him.
-
- Netherlands to become net gas importer in 10 years '' IEA '-- RT Business
- Published time: April 24, 2014 11:20The LNG carrier, a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas, "Arctic Voyager" is setting for sail in the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands (AFP Photo)
- Europe's second largest gas producer, the Netherlands, could shift from exporter to importer within a decade, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). The study suggests seeking alternative energy sources in nuclear, unconventional fuels or renewables.
- Declining production at the large Groningen gas field will turn the Netherlands into a net importer of natural gas, the IEA report says.
- The IEA sees opportunities for developing indigenous resources, as well as re-assessing its energy security and looking at different cost-effective paths.
- Since 2005 the Netherland's consumption of renewable energy has increased from 2.3 percent to 4.5 percent in 2013 and is expected to reach 14 percent by 2020 and 16 percent by 2023, the IEA says.
- ''Promoting lower-carbon energy use, especially in industry and transport, makes economic sense and can improve both sustainability and competitiveness,'' said Maria Van der Hoeven, IEA Executive Director.
- She says the Netherlands can benefit from cooperating with its neighbors in competitive electricity markets, particularly for combining reserves to meet demand peaks at the regional level.
- ''Integrating the electricity systems across borders with new interconnections ensures resource efficiency. Europe's energy markets need to be efficient and make renewable energy an integral part,'' Van der Hoeven said.
- Meanwhile the Netherlands remains one of the most fossil-fuel-intensive economies among IEA members. The share of fossil fuels in the Netherlands energy mix is above 90 percent.
- The IEA says the country needs to develop a longer term energy policy up to 2030, which would involve huge investment into, and the promotion of, green projects like energy efficient buildings.
-
- US and Europe push confrontation with Russia toward war - World Socialist Web Site
- By Stefan Steinberg and Barry Grey26 April 2014US President Barack Obama and allied leaders in Europe pushed the standoff with Russia over Ukraine further to the brink of war on Friday. As troops of the Western-backed, ultra-nationalist regime in Kiev, supplemented by fascist paramilitary forces, continued to mass against pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine, and Russia launched military exercises on its border with Ukraine, Obama held a conference call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Fran§ois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to secure agreement on new sanctions against Russia.
- The sanctions threat is joined by a further push of US and NATO military forces up to or near Russia's borders. US and NATO war planes are flying over the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; US troops have arrived in Poland; and more US war ships are entering the Black Sea.
- Obama and the other leaders claimed the Kiev regime had taken ''positive steps'' to uphold the four-party agreement to ''deescalate tensions'' reached April 17 in Geneva, but Russia had ''not reciprocated.''
- British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said: ''The five leaders agreed that in the light of Russia's refusal to support the process, an extension of the current targeted sanctions would need to be implemented, in conjunction with other G-7 leaders and with European partners.''
- At a press conference following discussions with Polish President Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Merkel said she told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call that Germany was ready to impose further sanctions should tensions increase. Merkel's press spokesman declared, ''Nobody should be deceived. We are willing to act.''
- These statements only underscore the hypocrisy and cynicism that have pervaded the actions of Washington and its imperialist allies since they provoked the confrontation with Russia and the largely pro-Russian population of eastern Ukraine by organizing a coup, led by fascist Right Sector militiamen, to overthrow the Russia-aligned, elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, last February 22.
- The regime's ''positive steps'' include throwing thousands of troops, armored vehicles and attack helicopters against protesters in the east occupying buildings to protest the new regime and demand greater autonomy, independence or incorporation into the Russian Federation. On Thursday, five protesters were killed by Ukrainian forces in Slavyansk, a center of resistance to the regime in Kiev. That brings to at least eight the number of protesters killed, in two separate attacks, since Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan made a secret trip to Kiev to advise the US puppet government.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday denounced Kiev's so-called ''anti-terrorist'' operation in the east as a ''bloody crime.'' He said pro-Russian militants would lay down their weapons only if the Ukrainian government first disbanded its own ultra-nationalist protesters in Kiev and disarmed the Right Sector.
- The Geneva agreement calls for all illegal paramilitary groups to be disarmed and disbanded, but Kiev, with the full support of the US and the European Union, has mobilized fascist thugs of the Right Sector against anti-government protesters in the east. On Thursday, thirty Right Sector operatives armed with baseball bats stormed buildings held by protesters in the city of Mariupol.
- Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh has announced he is moving to the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk to direct attacks against anti-regime protesters. He boasts of state support for his forces, telling the German publication Spiegel Online, ''Our battalions are part of the new territorial defense. We have close contact with the intelligence services and the general staff.''
- The propaganda pumped out by the Obama administration and its European allies, uncritically promulgated by the media, attributes the current crisis to Russian aggression and expansionism. This reached a new height Friday, when Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting in Kiev that ''Russia wants to start World War III.''
- But the responsibility rests overwhelmingly with the US and Germany. Washington, in particular, seems bent on goading Russia into intervening militarily in Ukraine.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking to secure the security interests of the Russian oligarchs whom he represents, has threatened to intervene to defend ethnic Russians in the east against attacks from the Kiev government and its fascist allies.
- Alongside the military buildup, the US is waging economic warfare and threatening to collapse the Russian economy. On Friday, the credit rating firm Standard & Poor's downgraded Russian credit from BBB to BBB-, one notch above junk bond status. The credit agency said it would further downgrade Russia if new sanctions were imposed.
- The Russian central bank was forced to raise the key interest rate from 7 percent to 7.5 percent in an attempt to stem the fall in the ruble and the flow of capital out of the country. The ruble has already plunged nearly 9 percent against the US dollar so far this year and Russian stock prices have dropped sharply.
- US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Friday that the next round of sanctions against Moscow would go well beyond the penalties targeting individuals thus far imposed. ''We are working with our international partners to make sure that when we do it, we do it in an effective way,'' he said in a radio interview.
- On the ground, anti-regime protesters continue to occupy government buildings in a dozen cities, and they have reestablished checkpoints that were attacked Thursday in Slavyansk. The Kiev regime says it is blockading the city.
- A Ukrainian military helicopter exploded Friday on the tarmac of a base near Kramatorsk. Ukrainian officials blamed the blast on pro-Russian militants.
- There are signs that the civil violence is spreading beyond southeastern Ukraine. Seven people were injured early Friday at a pro-Ukrainian checkpoint near the Black Sea port of Odessa when an explosive device blew up. Residents have built checkpoints aimed at stopping pro-Russian separatists entering from Moldova's breakaway territory of Transdniestria.
- With tensions growing and the chances mounting of a war between Ukraine and Russia, which could rapidly draw in the United States and NATO, Russian officials seem to be looking for a way to defuse the situation and find some accommodation with Washington. The Interfax news agency reported Friday that in a telephone call, Russian Gen. Valery Gerasimov warned US Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Ukraine had a ''substantial group of forces'' near the Russian border, including troops intent on conducting sabotage.
- However, there is no indication from the American side of a desire to deescalate the crisis. Comments made by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk confirmed that the US, the EU and the International Monetary Fund are providing funds to build up Ukrainian security forces.
- In an interview with the Washington Post published Friday, Yatsenyuk was asked: ''Is the US giving you enough military aid to build up the army?'' Yatsenyuk replied: "The US supplies us with non-lethal support.'' When asked where his government will find the money to buy military equipment, the Ukrainian premier answered: ''The US issued $1 billion in loan guarantees. The IMF supports us. We are getting support from the EU.''
- In the same interview, Yatsenyuk declared that only a small minority in eastern Ukraine supported Russia and implied there was widespread support for his government.
- A confidential report by NATO tells a very different story. According to an article published by Der Spiegel on Friday, the NATO report warns of a possible ''failed-state scenario'' in Ukraine and the ''possible collapse'' of the state. The report, made available to the German Foreign Office, places responsibility for the disintegration of Ukraine on the regime in Kiev, which is ''manifestly unwilling or unable to seriously clarify key issues regarding the future state structure of Ukraine.''
- The Spiegel article also refers to a survey by the International Republican Institute from the second half of March, which reports that 48 percent of the population in eastern Ukraine ''strongly oppose'' the head of state Alexander Turchinov, with just three percent expressing ''strong support.'' A total of 59 percent of eastern Ukrainians in the survey expressed positive feelings for Russia, with 45 percent of respondents rejecting the parliament in Kiev.
- Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
-
- Putin is working on his own Silk Road with with China, through Russia to Germany:
-
- Net Neutrality
-
- The US Net Neutrality Debate; Sleepwalking into Walled Gardens | ratpie
- Being an outsider to the US Net Neutrality debate, I don't feel the pain of cable monopoly, or the blight caused by expensive and poor quality broadband. Over here in the UK we hear more about Verizon FiOS and Google Fibre, and mobile investments and megadeals, than we do about coax. In the UK, and increasingly in Europe, our regulators manage markets with perhaps too much diligence.
- The usual way regulators deal with monopoly is to encourage or mandate competition. I have been surprised by the number of US states banning muni wifi '' though I can understand the argument that common property should not be preferentially available to private interests. In many cases it seems to me that the public interest should clearly override, and that monopoly providers who gained their own wayleaves and easements under different regulatory and technological environments should not be considered adequate provision for the next 20 years. Susan Crawford seems to agree with me (!) according to an article she wrote for the FT this week (Feb, 2014).
- Perhaps, though, the problem is as much about what content and services might be available over new competitor access networks, and on what terms, rather than how an incumbent should be obliged to manage their business and network.
- Here's a simple question which illustrates in some ways how difficult the regulation challenge is. Should an aspiring competitor to Netflix or any other content or service provider, which does not yet have the subscribers or the bandwidth requirement of its competitors, be able to force a consumer broadband provider (CBP) to purchase public peering capacity at parity with whatever private arrangements the CBP (I avoid the term ISP deliberately) has made with competitor content or service providers?
- If your answer is no, they should not, then you are setting the bar higher for the Internet as an engine of competition and innovation; the new entrant will have to overcome market inertia as well as poor quality of service in order to grow. And that will be true of all networks, not just the problematic incumbents, be they monopolistic or competitive.
- The complex balance between colocation, private peering, and public peering seems to me very poorly understood by many content companies '' sleepwalking into walled gardens in my opinion '' and regulators, who have bought the narrative without looking at the grammar or semantics of what they were sold. It is very well understood by a very small number of highly successful content and services companies, who, not an accidental coincidence, are getting off the public internet as fast as they can.
- Whether or not a CBP tweaks its packets in favour of one content or service provider or another could be well covered by fair trade regulations; it could be dealt with completely outside the scope of telecoms regulation. How your CBP connects to the Internet is an entirely different matter, and one that only a telecoms regulator can really be concerned with.
- It is very tempting to gravitate towards one lobbying platform or another, and it sure gets a reaction from the crowd if a journalist or lobbyist can work up a good foam. Through my strongly sceptical filter, however, the US Net Neutrality debate looks as much about content and service providers trying to open CBPs to uncompensated private and colocated access, as it does about CBPs trying to use their control of the last mile to extract rents. It's not as if there is anything to preserve '' NN as it seems to be deployed by commentators and lobbyists was never adopted by the broadband industry, but emerged out of the evolution of the technology and business models of telcos, only to retreat as content and service providers became able to influence CBP profitability by stressing their networks.
- Framed in those terms, profitability will be a key metric of the relative success of the contestants over 'connected world' business models, as will their share price relative to current earnings as the market collectively decides who it thinks is winning. Again, none of this is a regulatory matter, beyond the usual fairness arbitration.
- This is not to say that telco regulators have no place. Far from it. If any of this analysis proves apt, regulators need to consider the connectivity and openness of the Internet itself, being how networks connect, who can connect to them, and the capacity, capability and status of that connection vis a vis any other ways that content and services get carried to people.
- But that is not neutrality by any ordinary definition of the term. What I think the progressives are saying in this debate is that we should use regulation to create an Internet governance policy which is sustainably open, and which has the capacity and capability to support the innovation and churn we need to remain healthy. This I wholeheartedly would support, but what Comcast or Verizon do to your Netflix or Google packets has no relevance at all to any of it.
- Wake up America! Thinking that it is all about whether Verizon throttles Netflix, or whether AT&T has 'provider pays' QoS, will just hand more advantage to incumbent content and service providers at the expense of new entrants, as colocation, caching, and private peering dig deeper into the CBPs' networks. No wonder that the popular content and services companies are bleating about how much they need Net Neutrality; as currently framed it would be a great way to keep out competition.
- It is probably too much to ask that CBPs should be obliged to maintain a public Internet at parity, as posited in my simple question above. It's not too much to ask that between them they maintain an adequate public Internet, even if their customers are blissfully ignorant of whether their 21st Century couch/remote combo ever touches the it on the way through.
-
- Net Neutrality: Now cures all wickedness - and Loompa scurvy, too ' The Register
- Top three mobile application threats
- Delicious news from the United States, where 'Net Neutrality' is again being recast for a new political purpose.
- The term long since ceased to mean anything - it now means anything you want it to mean. But as a rule of thumb, advocating Neutrality means giving your support to general Goodness on the internets, and opposing general Badness. Therefore, supporting Neutrality means you yourself are a Good Person, by reflection, and people who oppose Neutrality are Bad People.
- This is a wonderful thing, and the beauty is, it's all so simple. It's like the Good Guys Wearing White - the Bad Guys oppose Neutrality. And because Neutrality is anything you want it to be, you have an all-purpose morality firehose at your disposal. Just point it and shoot at Baddies.
- But best of all is that you get to define the Baddies, raise a lynch mob, catch them and hang them - before somebody has had a chance to ask "Where's the harm, exactly?".
- This time the accusation of Neutrality Violations is being turned on copyright holders, minority groups - and anyone who wants a network to run the way they want it to.
- Rights for some, but not allNow you may be thinking that it's strange that in an age when we keep being told that thanks to technology "we're all creators", creators' rights must go out of the window. Surely these digital rights should be being strengthened - as new sources of money are available to the talented, and as old middlemen melt away? Has a technology ever been invented that when allied to copyright, makes creators less independent, or poorer? Not until now.
- But not everybody sees it this way. Copyright messes up the smooth running of the networks, it's a spanner in the machine-driven cybernetic utopia. It also costs network operators money - paying the pesky talent who create the stuff that generates the demand. And it's impossible for a machine to do: an algorithm is unable to spot and nurture creative talent, in the way a studio boss or a publisher or a label could find and nurture acting writing or performing talent. The machine can't compute that. And of course, the machine can't create art: when algorithms are set to write a composition (or when, say, Cory Doctorow attempts to create readable prose) you can tell instantly something is missing.
- So Google's front groups such as Public Knowledge and FreePress - they fly under the flag of "citizens groups" or "consumer rights" groups, but are really two of Google's most potent arrows in its lobbying quiver - are now deploying the morality firehose on copyright.
- Anyone policing the internets for copyright infringement will be violating neutrality, say the groups. Therefore it shouldn't be permitted. Presumably the same logic can be applied to policing the internets for anything: a paedophile "neutrality" maybe being violated somewhere - which would be awful.
- It's economically and technically illiterate of course, just as you'd expect. Nobody at Public Knowledge or FreePress has ever done a day's honest toil at a business in their lives - their prejudices are evident. But the groups have also rolled out ethnic minorities, alarming them that without Neutrality, they'll be erased. The National Hispanic Media Coalition, for example, is standing right behind the Neutrality firehose.
- But imagine these two examples.
- Combat fraud and increase customer satisfaction
-
- Setting the Record Straight on the FCC's Open Internet Rules | FCC.gov
- There has been a great deal of misinformation that has recently surfaced regarding the draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that we will today circulate to the Commission.
- The Notice proposes the reinstatement of the Open Internet concepts adopted by the Commission in 2010 and subsequently remanded by the D.C. Circuit. The Notice does not change the underlying goals of transparency, no blocking of lawful content, and no unreasonable discrimination among users established by the 2010 Rule. The Notice does follow the roadmap established by the Court as to how to enforce rules of the road that protect an Open Internet and asks for further comments on the approach.
- It is my intention to conclude this proceeding and have enforceable rules by the end of the year.
- To be very direct, the proposal would establish that behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted.
- Incorrect accounts have reported that the earlier policies of the Commission have been abandoned. Two points are relevant here:
- The Court of Appeals made it clear that the FCC could stop harmful conduct if it were found to not be ''commercially reasonable.'' Acting within the constraints of the Court's decision, the Notice will propose rules that establish a high bar for what is ''commercially reasonable.'' In addition, the Notice will seek ideas on other approaches to achieve this important goal consistent with the Court's decision. The Notice will also observe that the Commission believes it has the authority under Supreme Court precedent to identify behavior that is flatly illegal.It should be noted that even Title II regulation (which many have sought and which remains a clear alternative) only bans ''unjust and unreasonable discrimination.''The allegation that it will result in anti-competitive price increases for consumers is also unfounded. That is exactly what the ''commercially unreasonable'' test will protect against: harm to competition and consumers stemming from abusive market activity.
- To be clear, this is what the Notice will propose:
- That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers and users all relevant information as to the policies that govern their network;That no legal content may be blocked; andThat ISPs may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.
-
- Mark's Musings on the Telecommunications Industry
- Federal Communications Chairman Thomas Wheeler (Brian Fung/The Washington Post)
- After a few months of comments by the Chairman of the F.C.C., Thomas Wheeler, that the Commission would consider allowing companies to pay for special arrangements for access to their customers. They will propose a new set of rules in their May meeting that will allow content providers to pay broadband carriers for better access to customers. In this statement they included another proposed rule that would prevent any carrier from inhibiting, limiting, or denying access that would limit the openness of the Internet. The Commission was not specific on how the details of this so-called fast lane could be implemented, but most likely it will be increased bandwidth at peering points, improved content caching, and traffic prioritization (i.e. Quality of Service). The F.C.C. was specific in stating that broadband providers ''may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.''
- The F.C.C.'s action is based on a January decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columba Circuit that struck down the FCC's 2010 net neutrality rules. This still left the commission with the authority under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to regulate broadband services. The F.C.C. would still have to look at each agreement on a case-by-case basis as required by the D.C. court. Also they will act on any broadband company that engages in harmful conduct that threaten the openness of the Internet.
- The F.C.C. has properly covered its' bases here by preserving the value of the Internet that allows any device to freely connect to any other device, but they also wisely recognize that all bits are NOT created equal. Since the arrival of Thomas Wheeler at the commission, the analysis and reports from the staff engineers have triumphed over the politics of the bureaucrats and outsiders. They realize that best-effort Internet access is not sufficient to promote true content competition.
- Since divestiture we have strived for a competitive telecommunications market in this country, but we have been unable to achieve it because the business case is untenable for each service provider to build high bandwidth fiber networks to homes and small businesses. It is affordable to run fiber to business customers that spend thousands of dollars a month on services which is why we have approximately 40% of all businesses now served by fiber. For the residential subscriber that spends less that $50 per month the cost is prohibitive. This fact is why we now have triple-play services offered by a duopoly with an ARPU over $100 per month offered by the incumbent broadband carriers. Service providers need at least a 40% market share to provide a reasonable ROI to build a network which is why you don't see small start-ups building alternative networks. Investors are smart enough to realize that it takes too much capital to build these networks and it is a losing proposition to take on the incumbents.
- Fledgeling startups like Vonage or Netflix could never afford to build their own network, but they can leverage the Internet to provide competing services to the incumbent carriers. The incumbent carriers control the quality of their services by utilizing bandwidth outside of their Internet service to deliver their voice and video services. Over-the-top (OTT) service providers do not have any ability to control the quality of their services since currently the Internet is a best-effort where all bits are created equal. Before delay and jitter critical services like voice and video traversed the Internet, best-effort was good enough because no one really tell if their web page or e-mail was arriving a few milliseconds later than it did last time. Slow performance was usually related to the last-mile access bandwidth. Throw a few more Mbit/s at a customer and the problem was gone.
- Now that video dominates the Internet, the backbone frequently becomes saturated at peering points and access; thereby, affecting all traffic. Customers of OTT companies are complaining that the quality of the service is poor, and they eventually go back to the incumbent service provider. The OTT loses while the incumbent wins. The customer loses too because there is less competition in the market.
- The conclusion is that best-effort packet delivery is not good enough for services like voice and video. Businesses have known that for over a decade which is why they purchased managed Ethernet services where they can prioritize their voice traffic over video over web surfing and e-mail. There are two standards by which traffic can be prioritized end-to-end and several implementation agreements that the industry uses for interoperability. These same mechanisms can be applied to the Internet to level the playing field for OTT service providers.
- The F.C.C. is smart to recognize that true service provider competition will take a few more decades to come to the residential market. Of course open-access municipal broadband could deliver true competition as I have written about many times, but allowing content providers to negotiate special peering arrangements and traffic prioritization will offer consumers a real choice in services other than that forced upon them by the duopolies. OTT service providers like Netflix, Hulu+, Amazon, Google, Vonage, etc. will soon be able to deliver the same quality of service as the incumbent carriers at competitive prices.
- Unfortunately this common sense technical solution to enable capitalism has been extremely politicized. Many of the articles written over the past few months are vehemently against this proposed change in policy, but their fears are fueled by their ignorance and vested interests. Surprisingly The New York Times and PC World each wrote very good and non-biased articles on today's announcement that accurately presented the F.C.C.'s proposed new rules. The usual tripe was spewed by outlets such as The Verge, NPR, The L.A. Times, and CBS' own CNET decrying the end of the Internet and quoting any number of Soros funded front groups.
- Their arguments are based on the egalitarian philosophy that all bits should be treated equal. They trot out anti-capitalist rhetoric and class-warfare arguments. What they do not realize that while they think they are sticking up for the little-guy (the consumer and OTT providers) they are actually supporting the big guy (the incumbent). Maybe I am not giving them enough credit and their support is intentional.
- A prime example of the the misinformation that is propagated was on today's The 404 Show hosted by CNET. Bridget Carey (@BridgetCarey) incorrectly states that the little guy cannot afford to pay the toll to Comcast that the large companies could easily pay. Well Netflix was and still is a little guy compared to companies like Comcast, but they charge an order of magnitude less than the big guy so adding a couple of bucks a month for superior quality of service insignificantly impacts their value. She leaps to the conclusion with the support of her cohort Jeff Bakalar (@JeffBakalar) that there will be an Internet ghetto for those companies and people that cannot afford to pay. What they are missing is that only companies with time-sensitive content will want to pay for prioritization, and that companies just serving up web pages like Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. can still survive on a best-effort service. Jeff believes that the Internet should be free and that all service and content providers are inherently evil. Their arguments were thinly veiled slams at Comcast which is no surprise since they are paid by Viacom/CBS. This is the problem when you have journalism majors applying their political philosophies to the technical domain. They certainly should not be issued a journalism license.
- The problem is that arguments like these will be presented as opposition to the common sense rules proposed by the F.C.C. They will be guided by emotions and fear and not facts which seems to dominate today's political domain. Thomas Wheeler is the first Commissioner in more than a decade that actually understands the industry that he is attempting to regulate. Let's hope that the rest of the Commission understands reason so we can have a truly competitive content market.
-
- Common Core
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- California High School Email NEW PLAYERS
- I'm a recent addition to the No Agenda community, and I thought you might appreciate the scale of the LGBBTQQIAAP/Common Core/STEM take over I'm experiencing as a junior in a California high school!
- Beginning on Monday of this week, you can find these (see attachment) photos posted in every hallway and on every bathroom. *cringe* I didn't check the locker rooms.... but I wouldn't be surprised to see them there!
- In STEM and Common Core news, my schools district has recently signed a contract with a company called 'New Tech Network' -- and who are the 'partners' of this company? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation... my school's being invaded!
- Additionally, my school administered a test for the first time this week as well. It's a replacement for the SAT. The organization is called 'Smarter Balanced'... I'm sure you will appreciate the ethnic children posted on the front page. It's STEM/Common Core incarnate, plus a technology requirement to take the test (it's online) -- likely leaving the poorer high schools who can't afford tech in an even worse light.
- A few weird details surrounding this invasion have surfaced from teachers bold enough to speak up about Smarter Balanced and New Tech (3 teachers have been fired for protesting the contract between New Tech and my district -- the superintendents assistant to my district used to be a board member for New Tech *gee what a surprise*), I got a tip from a teacher about how New Tech received legal control over all curriculum developed using their support (iPads)... interesting. I foresee a complete 'legal' take over of the curriculum in the not so distant future - who knows, if it's happening in my district, it could by happening anywhere.
- It pains me to hear of the consistently low donation amounts for the past few episodes, and I'll be contributing ASAP to compensate for all the VALUE I've been receiving!
- I thank you both for your time, as it is an invaluable addition to my education, and I can assure you that I will propagate the formula to any SLAVES who will listen at my SLAVE school!
-
- Our Story | New Tech Network
- We began in the mid-90s in Napa, California. The local schools were meeting education standards, and the community thought of Napa High School as a good school. However, local business leaders remained concerned that meeting basic standards would not be enough to ensure that students were graduating with the skills needed to meet the needs of the new economy.
- These business and community leaders decided to make a difference. Working with the local school district, they began researching innovations in education to re-imagine what a truly great school might be like. In 1996, the Napa Valley Unified School District established Napa New Technology High School with the first class of 100 students.
- As Napa New Technology High School thrived, local business leaders and education advocates came together to ensure the school's long-term success and sustainability by establishing the New Tech Foundation. In 2001, New Tech was awarded a $6 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With this funding, New Tech was charged with launching 14 schools over three years.
- From this initial launch, New Tech has continued to grow. In the 2006-07 school year, New Tech opened 23 new sites with clusters in Los Angeles, North Carolina, Texas, and Indiana, supported by an online learning system. In 2009, New Tech became a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks, allowing New Tech to further expand its reach. In 2010, New Tech had its greatest growth ever, opening 27 new schools.
- Today, our name is New Tech Network and we support 135 schools in 23 states and Australia. New Tech schools leverage what research tells us about how people learn to create an exceptional teaching and learning environment. Based on this research and our own experience, we create a rigorous and engaging high school experience that features Project-based learning, the seamless use of technology, and a positive and empowering school culture.
- Learn about New Tech Network results.
-
- Sharing a passion for change | New Tech Network
- Support from philanthropic partners and donors fuel the success, sustainability and growth of our schools.
- We are grateful to partners and donors that share our vision for innovative high schools. Together, we have made great progress toward our goals.
- Join us and make a difference in students' lives.
- Read our powerful results >>
-
- KnowledgeWorks | College and Career Readiness | Creating sustainable improvement in student readiness for college and careers.
- EDWorks releases infograph touting Early College High School successes
- Have a "A Glimpse into the Future of Learning" through our new Infographic
- Federal Innovation Competitions: A Catalyst for Competency Education, our new policy brief and second in the competency education series.
- KnowledgeWorks publishes policy brief on Competency Based education
- New Tech Network High School Graduates Achieve Higher College Persistence Rates Than National Average. Read the 2013 Report.
- Explore KnowledgeWorks recommendations for the 10 essential elements of a successful High School Race to the Top competition.
- Educational Priorities for the President's Second Term, A Federal Transition Memorandum
-
- Chad P Wick-ACT
- Chad Wick is driven by a desire to create equity of educational opportunity in order to effectively prepare students for college, work, and citizenship. As the founding President and CEO, he led the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, headquartered in Cincinnati, to achieve its mission by providing not only seed grants and operating funds but extensive technical assistance and training that promotes and supports sustainable, system-wide changes.
- Under his leadership, the Foundation has worked actively to create partnerships with other funders and community organizations, often opening dialogue and enabling collaboration among entities that have not traditionally worked together.
- In Ohio, Wick led the development of the Ohio College Access Network which assists the college aspirations of more than 165,000 students each year, the concept of turning urban neighborhood schools into Community Learning Centers, and the redesign of many low performing urban high schools. Nationally, Wick led the creation of the National College Access Network and the New Tech Network, a group of nearly 130 high schools in23 states.
- As a dedicated community leader, Wick has worked to achieve equity and respect for diversity inside and outside the education arena. He also serves on the boards of numerous organizations that work in education, the arts, and public health.
- Wick has received honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from both University of Cincinnati and Youngstown State University. Prior to leading the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, he was President and CEO of RISE Learning Solutions. He has also served as President of Mayerson Company, CEO of Southern Ohio Bank, and Executive Vice President of the PNC Bank.
-
- Our Team | KnowledgeWorks | College and Career Readiness
- Judy PepplerPresident and Chief Executive Officer
- Judy Peppler is President and Chief Executive Officer of KnowledgeWorks, leading the social enterprise that is working in more than 40 states to improve the numbers of students who graduate ready for college or career. Prior to joining KnowledgeWorks, Peppler was a consultant for the Broad...read more
- Catherine AllshouseChief Information Officer
- Catherine Allshouse joined KnowledgeWorks in August 2012 as Director of Software Development. In this role, she leads a team that develops and supports a large-scale, high-volume SaaS Learning Management System used in hundreds of schools, as well as technologies that enable the analysis of...read more
- Holly A. BrinkmanVice President and Controller
- Holly A. Brinkman has served as the Vice President and Controller of KnowledgeWorks since January 2002. Responsibilities include management of the financial responsibilities of the Foundation and its subsidiaries, preparation and analysis of financial reporting, budget forecasting, grantor...read more
- Shannon HeraldHuman Resources Manager
- Shannon Herald currently serves as the Human Resources Manager for KnowledgeWorks Foundation. In this role, she is responsible for all HR functions for the Foundation and its subsidiaries. She also serves as Benefits Manager/Advisor for the staff and Board members and is liaison with insurance...read more
- Greg LandsmanExecutive Director, The Strive Partnership
- Greg Landsman currently serves as the Executive Director for The Strive Partnership, an education consortium of local providers and funders working together to improve academic achievement along the education continuum '' kindergarten readiness, proficiency scores, graduation rates, and...read more
- William McNeeseSenior Vice President & CFO
- As senior vice president and CFO for KnowledgeWorks Foundation, William L. McNeese manages the Foundation's investment portfolio and all aspects of accounting and finance. McNeese brings significant experience in both for-profit and non-profit organizations to his CFO position.
- ...read moreDepartment Staff:
- Meredith MeyerVice President of Strategic Planning and Chief of Staff
- As Vice President of Strategic Planning and Chief of Staff, Meredith Meyer is responsible for strategic planning, evaluating new opportunities and strategic initiatives for the foundation, internal operations and people strategy.
- Cris MulderVice President Communications and Marketing
- Cris Mulder serves as the Vice President of Communications and Marketing. Prior to joining KnowledgeWorks, Mulder served as the Deputy Secretary of Communications for the North Carolina Department of Transportation where she led all communication efforts for the second largest transportation...read moreDepartment Staff:
- Matt WilliamsVice President, Policy and Advocacy
- Matt Williams currently serves as the Vice President of Policy and Advocacy for KnowledgeWorks. In this role, he is responsible for directing both federal and state relations on behalf of the Foundation. Matt assists the various divisions, subsidiaries, and major investments of KnowledgeWorks in...read more
-
- Our Board | KnowledgeWorks | College and Career Readiness
- PrincipalWashington Partners, LLCJohn Dean is founder and a principal of the Washington, D.C. public affairs firm of Washington Partners, LLC. The firm specializes in federal education programs and represents educational and...read more
- Dr. Jacquelyn M. BelcherVice Chair
- President EmeritusGeorgia Perimeter CollegeIn 1995, Dr. Jacquelyn M. Belcher became president of the metro-Atlanta, multi-campus district of DeKalb College, now known as Georgia Perimeter College. Her service as a college...read more
- Honorable Nathaniel R. JonesRetired Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th DistrictBlank Rome LLPOf CounselRecently, Judge Nathaniel R. Jones retired from his position as a United States Circuit Judge for...read more
- Lucie Lapovsky, Ph.DPrincipal, Lapovsky ConsultingFormer President of Mercy CollegeLucie Lapovsky is an economist who consults, writes, teaches and speaks widely on issues related to higher education finance, strategy, leadership, governance and...read more
- Steven MinterExecutive-In-ResidenceCleveland State UniversitySteven Minter was appointed Interim Vice President for University Advancement on May 1, 2010. He had been an Executive-In-Residence at Cleveland State University in September...read more
- Richard W. Riley, Esq.Former United States Secretary of EducationSenior PartnerNelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLPEducationCounsel, LLCWhen Riley was Governor of South Carolina,...read more
- Eileen M. RuddenBoard Chair of SoundBite Communications (NASDAQ: SDBT)
- Ms. Rudden is a seasoned general manager and board member in both the technology and education sectors, with deep experience developing and marketing new products and technologies. She recently completed a tour of public service as Chief Officer, College and Career Preparation at Chicago Public...read more
- Barry SchulerChairman of Raydiance, Inc.Managing Director DFJ Growth FundAn acclaimed Internet pioneer, Barry Schuler has developed emerging technologies into successful enterprises for the last 25 years. A serial entrepreneur, his career...read more
- Dean Joseph P. TomainChair Emeritus
- Dean EmeritusWilbert and Helen Ziegler Professor of LawUniversity of Cincinnati College of Law Cincinnati, OhioJoseph P. Tomain is a Dean Emeritus and the Wilbert and Helen Ziegler Professor of...read more
- Timothy C. TuffInterim Chief Executive Officer
- Former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Tim Tuff was the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of John H. Harland Company...read more
- Chad WickFounder and Director
- Chad Wick is an innovator who seeks to create equity of education opportunity in order to prepare learners to thrive in the 21st century. Recognized by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley as ''one of the outstanding education leaders in the country,'' Wick led KnowledgeWorks in its...read more
-
- Barry Schuler | KnowledgeWorks | College and Career Readiness
- Chairman of Raydiance, Inc.Managing Director DFJ Growth FundAn acclaimed Internet pioneer, Barry Schuler has developed emerging technologies into successful enterprises for the last 25 years. A serial entrepreneur, his career spans breakthroughs in early video games, computer graphics, interactive media, e-commerce, consumerization of the Internet and most recently Ultrashort Pulse Lasers.
- Schuler spent eight years with AOL, where he was the architect of the consumer experience that brought the Internet into the lives of more than 25 million households. After performing in several roles of increasing responsibility during AOL's explosive growth, Schuler ultimately served as Chairman and CEO during the height of the company's reach and influence.
- Prior to AOL, Schuler was CEO and co-founder of multimedia development firm Medior Inc. until its acquisition by AOL in 1995. Under his leadership, Medior pioneered the use of interactive multimedia for applications such as electronic commerce, entertainment, and corporate information systems. The company designed the America Online interface that ultimately made AOL leading consumer online service. Schuler is a graduate of Rutgers University and a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium
- 02/19/14 '' Joe Willhoft, Executive DirectorFrom the beginning, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has been dedicated to helping students succeed. In an article published today on the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's ''Common Core Watch'' blog, we reaffirm our commitment to students, parents and educators as we continue to develop a reliable, valid and fair assessment system. ''This is a big moment for our schools '' a moment in which we can deliver a system of tools that will help teachers and parents truly understand where students are excelling and more clearly identify where they need help.''Read more
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Scrap Paper email
- In the morning Adam and John,
- I just finished listening to episode 612 where bar codes on scrap paper handed out to students during
- common core standardized testing. I currently work a temporary job at a testing company based on Dover, New
- Hampshire that is also a non-profit but not connected to a publishing company (at least, not that I know
- of). This is the third time I have worked for them.
- I work in the department where we receive boxes filled with completed tests, booklets and scrap paper from
- schools in states we have contracts with. So far this year, I have worked on contracts with Massachusetts,
- New Mexico, New York and Nevada. My main job is to sort through all of the paper the schools send us so
- that it can be stored in a warehouse and ultimately destroyed. At the end of the day, I am required to fill
- out a timesheet where I bill my hours (for which I earn $10 per) directly to that states who’s contracts I
- I’m sure that when the bill gets to the respective state, I am worth a lot more than $10 a hour. I’m sure
- that the company as well as the agency I’m employed through triple the amount and take their pound of
- flesh. This non-profit has a lot of brand-new BMWs and Lexuses in their parking lot during business hours.
- Meanwhile, our break room has a vending machine from which you can buy instant mac n’ cheese from.
- Thank you for hitting me in the mouth and making me see my own status as a slave for the Common Core cabal.
- In a few weeks, the assignment will be over and I hope never to have to return.
- And as always, thank you for your courage,
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- War on Men
- NYTimes: The Media Has a Woman Problem
-
- boys more allowance than girls - Google Search
- Study: Little Boys More Likely to Get an Allowance Than Little Girlsjezebel.com/study-little-boys-more-likely-to-get-an-allowance-than- 1566765213- Cached3 days ago ... This is so perfectly perfect you'll rage-laugh about it for the rest of the day: Boysare more likely to get an allowance than girls. Men are literally ...There's Even A Gender Gap In Children's Allowances | ThinkProgressthinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/23/.../gender-gap-allowance/- Cached3 days ago ... But unfortunately, it's not likely because boys do more chores. One study foundthat girls do two more hours of housework a week than boys, ...Allowance gap: Boys are making more money than girls even before ...www.slate.com/.../allowance_gap_boys_are_making_more_money_than_ girls_even_before_they_re.html- Cached2 days ago ...Boys are more likely to get an allowance, with 67 percent of boys polled sayingthey get an allowance versus 59 percent of girls. Even when ...So much for girl power! Parents are MORE likely to give their sons...www.dailymail.co.uk/.../So-girl-power-Parents-MORE-likely-sons-allowance- daughters-teenage-boys-expect-larger-incomes.html
- 2 days ago ... Parents are more likely to give their sons an allowance than their daughters,according to a new study; 12 per cent more likely to be precise.The Wage Gap Even Affects Kids: Boys Get More Allowance Than...elitedaily.com/women/the-allowance-gap-childrens-allowances-are-even- affected-by-the-gender-wage-gap/- Cached2 days ago ... You might be thinking the wage gap applies to women in corporate environments, but sadly this is not the case'--an unequal payout even ...Study: Boys More Likely to Get Allowance Than Girls - NY1www.ny1.com/.../study--boys-more-likely-to-get-allowance-than-girls- Cached5 days ago ... A new survey on teens and money says that boys are more likely to get anallowance than girls, which experts say is disappointing because an ...Why the gender gap in children's allowances matters - Feministingfeministing.com/.../why-the-gender-gap-in-childrens-allowances-matters/- Cached2 days ago ... But unfortunately, it's not likely because boys do more chores. One study foundthat girls do two more hours of housework a week than boys, ...Liberals Claim Allowance Is Sexist, 'Pay Gap' Favors Boys // Mr ...www.mrconservative.com/.../39929-liberals-claim-allowance-is-sexist-pay- gap-favors-boys/- Cached2 days ago ... ... allowances are sexist, and tend to favor boys more than girls. ... to treat boys asif they're a little more adult than girls at the same age.''.NBC Uses Gender 'Pay Gap' Myth To Complain That Boys Get More...cnsnews.com/.../nbc-uses-gender-pay-gap-myth-complain-boys-get-more- allowance-girls- CachedNBC Uses Gender 'Pay Gap' Myth To Complain That Boys Get More AllowanceThan Girls. April 24, 2014 - 11:40 AM. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter ...Searches related to boys more allowance than girls
-
- About - Junior Achievement
- Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.
- ProgramsJunior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities.
- ApproachJA's unique approach allows volunteers from the community to deliver our curriculum while sharing their experiences with students. Embodying the heart of JA, our 202,000 classroom volunteers transform the key concepts of our lessons into a message that inspires and empowers students to believe in themselves, showing them they can make a difference in the world.
-
- Shut Up Slave!
-
- Feds ask Supreme Court to reject case on reporter's privilege to shield source '-- RT USA
- Published time: April 26, 2014 03:56US Supreme Court.(AFP Photo / Karen Bleier)
- Obama administration lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to not hear testimony from a New York Times reporter who argues that the First Amendment protects him from revealing his sources, a claim the Justice Department seems to find dubious at best.
- In July 2013 a federal appeals court decided by a 2-1 margin that James Risen would be forced to reveal a source who provided information about a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) effort to subvert the Iranian nuclear program. Risen, a Pulitzer-Prize winner and veteran of the New York Times, has asserted that he should be protected from doing so because of a legal precedent known as reporter's privilege, which applies in a variety of situations where press freedom is perceived to be at risk.
- The constitutional argument began in this case when Risen was subpoenaed to testify in the federal trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who was charged with illegally providing information that later appeared in Risen's book, ''State of War.'' Risen has consistently refused to testify, undaunted even by the aforementioned federal appeals decision.
- Politico reported Friday that the Department of Justice has formally asked the Supreme Court not to hear Risen's appeals to the previous appeals court decision, saying that even if the Supreme Court believes journalists have a right to reporters privilege in criminal cases, Risen's case presents a poor example.
- ''While the question presented does not warrant this court's review, this case is a particularly unsuitable vehicle,'' the government argued Friday.
- Journalist Josh Gerstein explained that the Justice Department was once willing to proceed in the Sterling trial but now seems intent on forcing him to take the witness stand. Other options include dropping the case entirely or entering into a plea deal with Sterling, as forcing the high court's hand could have major implications.
- ''If the Supreme Court does not take up Risen's appeal, he could be held in contempt in district court and might be sent to jail or fined if he refuses to identify his sources or testify about other details of his reporting,'' Gerstein wrote.
- ''He has said repeatedly that he will not divulge details about his sources. That could place President Barack Obama in the awkward position of presiding over the jailing of a journalist in an administration the president has vowed to make the most transparent in history.''
- In the brief filed Friday, the Justice Department cited as a precedent Branzburg v. Hayes, which found no privilege for media personnel called as grand jury witnesses in certain criminal investigations. Prosecutors also claimed that, because Risen's case concerns national security, his case is extraordinary when compared to the protections afforded to journalists who work under different laws in various states throughout the US.
- ''Although many states recognize a reporter's privilege of some sort in some circumstances, no 'consensus' exists about who qualifies for such a privilege, what types of communications are covered, and the circumstances in which it may be invoked,'' the brief said. ''Importantly, none of the state laws or decisions petitioner cites addresses the uniquely federal interest in preventing the unlawful disclosure of classified national-defense information.''
- Coincidentally, on the same day the Justice Department essentially asked the Supreme Court to send Risen to jail, the US State Department announced the beginning of its third annual ''Free the Press'' initiative, an attempt to recognize ''journalists or media outlets that are censored, attacked, threatened, or otherwise oppressed because of their reporting.''
-
- Are You Ready for a Driver's License for the Internet?
- Government is raising its expectations. While it hasn't been uncommon in the past for governments to consider money wasted by fraud, mismanagement or inefficiency as an expense of doing business, times are changing. New technologies are preventing such waste and initiating cultural change in the public sector. At the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), that transformation is being realized through the adoption of an online authentication tool the agency is using to ensure that the benefits it issues, like food assistance, are going to the right people.
- Such incarnations of online authentication technology are sprouting up in state government agencies around the country, led by a White House vision of a new, central form of identification, what some are calling ''a driver's license for the Internet.''
- The DCF reported that in 2013 it saved about $14.7 million through the use of an online authentication tool, with an initial investment of about $1 million and a total contract of just under $3 million. The tool and subscription service was purchased from LexisNexis and operates similarly to the systems used by financial institutions to verify the identity of loan or mortgage applicants. Now when people apply for various programs online, they are prompted with identity verification questions about their previous employers or the names of streets where they lived.
- The DCF says the technology is saving so much money because it saves staff the time of verifying identities manually, and even better, there's been a reduction in cases of identity fraud.
- The agency began its move to online services in 2012, said Andrew McClenahan, director of the Office of Public Benefits Integrity at DCF. ''It's changing the way that people are looking at public assistance fraud and how to maintain the integrity of these public benefits systems," he said. "[It's] changing the mindset that fraud is no longer considered a cost of doing business. These modernizations, data analysis and predictive modeling and now this customer authentication tool that works with identity verification, these are all realities that we as a state and other states are having to face, and I think it's here to stay.''
- The move away from authenticating people in person began two years ago when the state started centralizing its physical offices to one per county. That move, McClenahan said, prompted more online usage, but also introduced a new problem: The state had no reliable way of verifying identity online and the result was a lot of waste '' wasted time and wasted benefits issued to illegitimate applicants. So the agency began piloting the system in Orlando, and in August 2013, the system was spread throughout the state.
- It was important to get away from the old model, McClenahan said, and it's easy to see why. Fraud and abuse of government services in general has been common for years, and especially so in Florida. In 2007, federal officials randomly visited 1,600 businesses in Miami that had billed for ''durable medical equipment'' and found that 481 of those businesses didn't even exist, accounting for $237 million of fraud in just one year.
- In 2012, the attorney general announced that the Medicare Fraud Strike Force had arrested more than 100 people, including doctors, nurses and other health professionals, accounting for more than $452 million in fraud across seven cities.
- These instances of fraud, enabled for decades by a lack of government oversight or technological wherewithal, has cost taxpayers untold sums. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report in which it identified $48 billion in ''improper payments'' for the previous year.
- But, of course, fraud doesn't only happen in Florida. In 2011, the White House started looking at the issue differently when it released the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). The program outlines a framework for an online identity verification system that would attempt to reduce fraud, while creating a convenient way, federal officials say, for Internet users to prove their identity, without the need to remember passwords. The New York Timescalled it ''a driver's license for the Internet.'' Even better, the White House reported that such a system would improve the Web economy by bolstering public confidence in security and authentication of online businesses and services.
- In fall 2013, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the agency overseeing the program, awarded $1.3 million and $1.1 million in pilot funding to Michigan and Pennsylvania, respectively. Rather than develop entirely new systems or even some form of comprehensive Internetwide identification system, the implementations in each state look at how existing systems can be used to simplify authentication across departments. These pilots are just the beginning '' NIST is awarding pilot funding to 10 additional organizations, which will be announced in August.
- Pennsylvania is developing an implementation that would allow users to operate a single identity across state departments, rather than requiring users to manage usernames and passwords for each department, which is the case today. In a pilot scheduled to run from this spring through September, Deloitte will bridge various departments and agencies, each of which would require varying levels of authentication on behalf of the user, according to GCN. For example, if a user only wants a fishing license, he could simply authenticate his identity at a low level, but if he later wanted to use that same online ID for welfare benefits, he would need to raise the authentication level by providing more information in order to access those services. But he would only need one set of credentials to access any state service.
- In a pilot scheduled to run May to September, Michigan will use the funding to establish an online authentication system for residents who use its MI Bridges portal to access services like food and cash assistance programs, the same kinds of services for which Florida developed its authentication system.
- Identity verification for MI Bridge is done manually today using several different types of identity proofing to verify each applicant. For that reason, there's little fraud in that program, according to an agency spokesperson. However, reducing the work needed to verify the identity of an online user could save the agency money.
- Michigan's project is expected to operate similarly to the system that was launched in Florida's DCF, asking the user various questions similar to what might be seen during an online application for a mortgage or loan.
- The success of the NSTIC pilots will be determined by analysis conducted by nonprofit RTI International, funded with $300,000 from NIST. The organization will compare the efficacy of the new system compared to the old manual processes of identity verification. If the pilots are successful, they could end up being the first step toward a single set of standardized credentials that Internet users provide to prove who they are.
- Identify Verification for the WebA single ID that can be used across the entire Internet is an idea that has been talked about for a long time, and since the 1980s, the technology world has known that the password model is inadequate, said technology analyst Rob Enderle. A single set of credentials that could be used to verify identity would be far superior to what's used today, he said, and the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace would lead the Internet toward that goal.
- ''Given that we don't have that on the Web and there is a substantial amount of fraud and identity theft going to the core of it, having a validatable ID is, you would think, a very high priority,'' Enderle said. ''It should be a higher priority than it is.''
- This isn't just a good idea, Enderle said, it's a necessity. ''If you can't create a method to ensure a person is who they say they are, then you really can't secure bank accounts, identities, anything that's done on the Web,'' he said. ''Moving to something else would seem to be decades overdue.''
- Though the White House created the program to begin research around such a system, the government is generally not good at developing these kinds of technologies or working within a fast timeframe, Enderle said '' a successful technology like this needs to come from the private sector.
- ''It has to be driven by the market. Remember, we were supposed to be on the metric standard decades ago and we aren't,'' he said. ''There have to be some penalties involved for not doing it. I think after a couple major breaches where the liability is passed to the organization that didn't properly assure the identities of the people that were accessing it, that motivation will probably drop into place.''
- The technology for this is here, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said, it's just a matter of getting the market properly aligned. ''People have been talking about it for years,'' Litan said. ''The main issue is you have to get identity providers standing behind it and backing up the identities, and you have to solve the business model. In other words, if they get the identity wrong, who's liable? It's a great concept, but it hasn't taken place because no one's willing to be the identity provider or issue the identity. It's not a technology issue, it's a business issue.''
- Proposed legislation in the United Kingdom shows that the market is demanding better authentication online, not just to curtail fraud, but to restrict access to certain content. The proposed law would require that websites hosting adult content take better measures of authenticating age than just using the honor system. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act is the existing legislation that requires U.S. websites hosting adult content to require the user to enter an adult's age before proceeding, a standard that websites in other countries also have adopted. But the problem is that it simply doesn't keep young users out. A quick lie is all that's needed to proceed. The thinking behind the proposed legislation is that the rules that apply offline should also apply online.
- Privacy ConcernsNot everyone thinks a driver's license for the Internet is a great idea. Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is skeptical whether the government's main motivation with such a program would even be fraud prevention '' and not tracking.
- ''We think it's a terrible idea,'' Tien said. ''The main substantive issue is that much of what we do on the Internet is plain old speech: writing comments, posting on blogs or whatever. And one of the things about speech in the United States, especially under the First Amendment of the Constitution, is that you have a right to speak anonymously. The EFF has long believed that it's really important to preserve and protect that right to speak anonymously on the Internet. Any mandatory type of ID online runs really directly counter to that.''
- Even a voluntary online ID could be problematic, Tien said. If the ID became popular, it could still become a de facto requirement that people would need to access a variety of services, and the result, again, would be loss of privacy and anonymity. The thing that's unclear about such a solution, he said, is how this form of authentication would prevent various types of fraud in a way that others cannot. If there is a difference, Tien said he doesn't know what it is.
- ''One of the great things about modern cryptography is that if it's implemented well, you can have highly secure transactions, and you can have cryptographic proof for verification as to whether or not a person is or isn't who they represent themselves to be in a mathematically secure manner,'' he said. ''A lot of times the issue is not fraud. The issue for government is that they want to track, regardless of fraud.''
-
- State Dept Launches 'Free the Press' Campaign While DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Force Reporter James Risen Into Jail
- JENNIFER PSAKI:One more announcement for all of you: With World Press Freedom Day around the world on May 3rd, the department will launch its third annual Free the Press campaign later this afternoon in New York at the U.S. U.N. mission. Beginning on Monday and all of next week, we will highlight emblematic cases of imperiled reporters and media outlets that have been targeted, oppressed, imprisoned or otherwise harassed because of their professional work. The first two cases will be announced by Assistant Secretary -- Assistant Secretary Tom Malinowski later at the -- at U.S. U.N. And we invite you of course to follow Tom at Twitter, who has -- on Twitter who, as you all know, was just confirmed several weeks, @Malinowski and to keep up with human rights issues on DRL's website.
- Q: Sure. Just on that, reporters who are, what, harassed? I'm sorry --
- MS. PSAKI: Targeted, oppressed, imprisoned or otherwise harassed.
- Q: Otherwise harassed. Does that include those who may have been targeted, harassed, imprisoned and otherwise whatever by the United States government?
- MS. PSAKI: I think you're familiar with our Free the Press campaign, Matt, but --
- Q: Fair enough. So it does not include those who might have been harassed by --
- MS. PSAKI: We highlight, as we often do, where we see issues with media freedom around the world.
- Q: Right, I understand. But you would say that you don't -- the U.S. does not believe that it has a problem with press freedom, or if it does, that it's not nearly as severe as the problems in other countries.
- MS. PSAKI: We do not. I think we can look at many of the problems --
- Oh. Go ahead. And then we'll go to you, (Paul ?).
- Did you have another question on media press freedom, or --
- Q: If I could just go back to the overall, in general, the administration does not regard attempting to prosecute American journalists as an infringement of press freedom?
- MS. PSAKI: I'm not sure which case you're -- what you're referring to.
- Q: Well, there's several cases that are out there right now. The one that comes -- springs to mind is the James Risen case, where the Justice Department is attempting to prosecute. I just want to be clear. I'm not trying to --
- MS. PSAKI: Well, Matt, I --
- Q: I just want to know if you regard that as an infringement on press freedom or not. And I suspect that you do not, but I want to make sure that that's the case.
- MS. PSAKI: As you know, and I'll, of course, refer to the Department of Justice, but the leaking of classified information is in a separate category. What we're talking about here, as you all know and unfortunately we have talk about on a regular basis here, is the targeting of journalists, the arrests, the imprisonment for simply exercising their ability to tell the story.
- Q: Right. I understand that. And we're all, I'm sure, myself and all my colleagues, we're very appreciative of that.
- But the reporters in question here have not leaked the information; they simply published it. So is it correct, then, that you don't believe -- you don't regard that as an infringement of press freedom?
- MS. PSAKI: We don't. I don't have anything more to say on that case.
- MS. PSAKI: Do we have a new topic?
-
- Fake Peoria mayor Twitter account prompts house raid | Fox News
- Police trying to find out who was behind a fake Twitter account set up in the name of Peoria's mayor have raided a home and seized computers.
- Three people at the home were taken for questioning, as were two others who were met by police at their workplaces.
- The (Peoria) Journal Star reports that the raid was carried out Tuesday by seven plainclothes officers.
- No arrests were made in connection with the Twitter account, but one of the residents was charged with possession of marijuana.
- "They brought me in like I was a criminal."
- "They just asked me about the Twitter account, if I knew anything about it," Michelle Pratt, 27, a resident who was in the shower when officers arrived at the door, said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. "They brought me in like I was a criminal."
- The Twitter account was set up recently under the handle @Peoriamayor. It included a photo of Mayor Jim Ardis and tweets about sex and drugs.
- Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard says officers were investigating it as a possible case of impersonating a public official.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report
-
- Ministry of Truth
-
- European elections: Ukip under repeated fire '' but it's not putting off the voters, say the polls - UK Politics - UK - The Independent
- The Ukip leader endured what was one of the toughest weeks of his political career and yet support for his party was sustained. Mr Farage could even come first in the elections in less than four weeks.
- A series of Ukip posters that warned "26 million people are looking for work '' and whose jobs are they after?" and "British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour" were condemned by opponents but a YouGov poll showed that the majority of voters '' 57 per cent '' believe the ads were a "hard-hitting reflection of reality", and 59 per cent said they were not racist.
- With the European poll Labour's to lose, Ed Miliband will launch his party's campaign this week when he will be forced to take on directly the challenge from Ukip. Mr Farage is targeting Labour voters by touring northern England. If Ukip comes first, Mr Miliband is certain to face questions over his campaign for Downing Street in a year's time.
- On a visit to the West Midlands yesterday, Mr Farage insisted that the three main political parties were trying to "smear" his MEP candidates and that they were running scared.
- However, there were fresh claims about one of Ukip's candidates when it emerged that a former Conservative council leader '' who resigned after a scandal over expenses '' is to stand for the party at the next general election.
- David Parsons, who previously led Leicestershire County Council, denied any wrongdoing but agreed in February this year to pay back nearly £2,400 relating to 26 car journeys that a council report concluded were "not sufficiently connected with his role" and two others that were too short given the waiting time for the driver. Details of the journeys were not given.
- Mr Parsons, who left the Conservative Party in 2012, is to stand for the North West Leicestershire seat in the election next year. He told the Leicester Mercury that he had "witnessed first-hand how in recent years the local Conservative Party has wilfully disregarded the interests of local people".
- "At a time when so many of us are struggling to make ends meet, we are left to the whims and fancies of a Tory/Liberal coalition, both locally and nationally," he added. "I believe Ukip is now the only political party which truly represents the hopes and aspirations of the people in our constituency."
- Mr Parsons said the seat was one of Ukip's top 25 targets and promised to focus on a "positive message" rather than "the negative stuff churned out by the other, old parties".
- The sitting Conservative MP, Andrew Bridgen, said that when he heard who was standing for Ukip he "couldn't stop laughing". Neither Ukip nor Mr Parsons would respond to requests for comment yesterday.
- In the European elections, the Olympic gold-medal-winning rower James Cracknell is standing as a Conservative candidate for the South-west. Tory insiders predict that, if he is not elected an MEP on 22 May, he will be put forward to fight for a winnable Westminster seat for the Tories.
- In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Mr Cracknell did not rule this out, but added: "There's a job to do in Brussels. I haven't gone the traditional route into politics. Whatever route I take, it's all going to be new to me. Will the frustration be too much or drive me mad? I genuinely don't know.
- "All I know is that in the next five years we will see a massive change in Europe and I want to be there to make sure Britain and Europe get the best deal. We're better off being in Europe if it's done the right way and at the moment it's not."
- Mr Cracknell questioned Mr Farage's commitment to his job, saying: "In spite of all his expense claims, Farage just does not turn up. Ukip may be getting the profile over here, but you've got to deliver on the things that make a difference, and Ukip won't be able to do that."
- Meanwhile, an anti-nuclear campaigner has been barred from running in the European elections after a bureaucratic error caused him to miss an application deadline.
- Richard Cottrell, who has fought against the development of a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, Somerset, had intended to stand alongside North Somerset councillor Geoff Coombs as the newly formed Campaign West Independent party.
- The Electoral Commission wrote to the party stating that the closing date for applications was 23 April and did not inform them of changes published online that moved the deadline forward by a day. Mr Cottrell is now seeking a judicial review.
- The former MEP for Bristol accused the commission of "lacking a duty of care to all the candidates in the election".
- He said: "This year there has been huge confusion. They should have notified all parties of all or any changes in procedure and this was not the case."
- The change of application deadline took place due to a miscalculation of the differing bank holidays held in the South-west and Gibraltar, which was ceded with the constituency in 2004.
- Mr Cottrell said that the inclusion of Gibraltar in the South-west was the direct cause of his exclusion and that the island should be able to elect its own MP, as is routine in the Falklands and French overseas dependencies.
-
- Blog: Wow! Emails expose CNN's propaganda series on Rahm Emanuel
- Does CNN stand for ''Corrupt News Network''? It might as well, considering a blatant propaganda effort that has been uncovered by The Chicago Tribune.Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, is a man with limitless ambition, high intelligence, and utter ruthlessness. With little doubt, he has his eye on the Oval Office, and because he has served as Chief of Staff to President Obama and also served in the Clinton White House, he knows the ins and outs of the presidency. There is just one little problem: Chicago is in deep trouble, facing a fiscal black hole, wracked by levels of violence that make Iraq look good, and unable to get much help from the state of Illinois which has its own serious problems.
- photo from CNN via Chicago Tribune
- But, if his image is managed carefully with the help of media friends, he can be portrayed as heroic, facing the issues and helping people. And CNN seems to have signed up with that effort to produce a President Emanuel.Tthe Chicago Tribune, through an open records request, reviewed emails (some of them redacted) between City Hall on the production company that made the CNN series ''Chicagoland.'' Bill Ruthhart of the Tribune writes:
- More than 700 emails reviewed by the Tribune reveal that the production team worked hand in hand with the mayor's advisers to develop storylines, arrange specific camera shots and review news releases officially announcing the show.
- Producers asked the mayor's office to help them set up key interactions in what the cable network has billed as a nonscripted eight-part series, including Emanuel's visits with the school principal who emerged as a star of the show, emails show.
- City Hall's frequent correspondence with the producers illustrates how senior aides to a mayor known for shaping his media image managed how CNN would portray their boss to a prime time national audience.
- The producers come from an outfit named Brick City TV, which ''teamed up with actor and producer Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn's Sundance Productions to pitch the 'Chicagoland' project to CNN.'' All very incetstuous:
- The team got access through friendly channels:
- The "Chicagoland" producers got the green light for access to Emanuel and City Hall after a meeting arranged by the Chicago public relations firm Jasculca Terman, records show.
- That firm's chairman and CEO, Rick Jasculca, is a friend of Emanuel's dating back decades, and both worked together in the Clinton White House. When Emanuel announced he would run for mayor in 2010, it was Jasculca and his daughter Aimee Jasculca who fielded media calls on behalf of the budding campaign.
- And everyone stood to benefit. One hand washes the other:
- Prior to "Chicagoland," Levin and fellow executive producer Mark Benjamin both had been represented by William Morris Endeavor, the Hollywood agency run by the mayor's brother, Ari Emanuel. The producers said they were not represented on the project by William Morris to avoid any conflict of interest, but Levin said they likely would be represented by the firm in the future.
- The very origin of the series lies with a PR effort on the part of Mayor Emanuel's team:
- The "Chicagoland" producers got the green light for access to Emanuel and City Hall after a meeting arranged by the Chicago public relations firm Jasculca Terman, records show.
- That firm's chairman and CEO, Rick Jasculca, is a friend of Emanuel's dating back decades, and both worked together in the Clinton White House. When Emanuel announced he would run for mayor in 2010, it was Jasculca and his daughter Aimee Jasculca who fielded media calls on behalf of the budding campaign.
- In February 2013, records show, Rick Jasculca contacted Tarrah Cooper, the mayor's press secretary, to set up a meeting with Levin and Benjamin, whose Brick City TV teamed up with actor and producer Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn's Sundance Productions to pitch the "Chicagoland" project to CNN.
- An example of the fawning emails sent by CNN:
- "We look forward to working with you and your office to capture the citizens of Chicago and their mayor in a sustained and determined effort to improve the education, safety and economic well-being of all Chicagoans."
- One of the major issues recently faced by Emanuel is the closing of over 50 schools for budgetary reasons. Not a happy process, and one that generated much protest. So how did the documentary handle it?
- While 53 schools were on the chopping block, the documentary crew ended up following two that were saved. Asked how that happened, Levin said he and fellow producers have asked themselves the same question.
- "I don't know the answer to that," Levin said. "But we did go, 'Wow. That is unusual.'"
- Emanuel's office declined to discuss the issue.
- The producers even consulted the mayor's office over their PR releases:
- City Hall worked closely enough with CNN that drafts of the network's news releases about "Chicagoland" were shared ahead of time. When the network prepared to announce the series in the spring of 2013, Jasculca Terman's Foley twice forwarded copies of CNN news releases to Emanuel's office.
- "This version is considered final for CNN. Thoughts?" Foley wrote to Emanuel press aides, to which Cooper responded, "Thanks! I'll have edits for you shortly!" Foley wrote back, "Perfect! Thank you!"
- To be fair, a certain degree of cajoling is necessary int he first place to get access:
- "Everything in documentary that is character-driven is a matter of access, and the filmmakers did what every filmmaker does with time and money constraints, they tried to make their life easier with those kinds of requests," [University of Southern California film school documentary expert Mitchell] Block said. "And if they can get access, they have footage, and if they have footage and interesting characters, they have a story."
- True enough. But by offering to polish Emanuel's image and by the editorial choices made to carry out that offer, this effort has degenerated into blatant propaganda. I have not watched the series, but Chicagoan Ed Lasky, who started to watch, comments, ''I stopped watching after 2 episodes -- it was boring and repetitive and clearly biased to present a sensitive, empathetic and supremely effective Emanuel. It was clearly a snow job. The producers could have presented a much more realistic view of Chicago: corruption, fudging of crime stats to make Emanuel look better, racial politics, a blue city dying via liberalism.
- Update: CNN has sent the following statement to us:
- The mayor's office was never granted editorial control over the content or the press communications for Chicagoland, and no agency was ever granted authority to offer the mayor's office editorial approval for the content or the promotional materials for the series.
- Does CNN stand for ''Corrupt News Network''? It might as well, considering a blatant propaganda effort that has been uncovered by The Chicago Tribune.
- Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, is a man with limitless ambition, high intelligence, and utter ruthlessness. With little doubt, he has his eye on the Oval Office, and because he has served as Chief of Staff to President Obama and also served in the Clinton White House, he knows the ins and outs of the presidency. There is just one little problem: Chicago is in deep trouble, facing a fiscal black hole, wracked by levels of violence that make Iraq look good, and unable to get much help from the state of Illinois which has its own serious problems.
- photo from CNN via Chicago Tribune
- But, if his image is managed carefully with the help of media friends, he can be portrayed as heroic, facing the issues and helping people. And CNN seems to have signed up with that effort to produce a President Emanuel.
- Tthe Chicago Tribune, through an open records request, reviewed emails (some of them redacted) between City Hall on the production company that made the CNN series ''Chicagoland.'' Bill Ruthhart of the Tribune writes:
- More than 700 emails reviewed by the Tribune reveal that the production team worked hand in hand with the mayor's advisers to develop storylines, arrange specific camera shots and review news releases officially announcing the show.
- Producers asked the mayor's office to help them set up key interactions in what the cable network has billed as a nonscripted eight-part series, including Emanuel's visits with the school principal who emerged as a star of the show, emails show.
- City Hall's frequent correspondence with the producers illustrates how senior aides to a mayor known for shaping his media image managed how CNN would portray their boss to a prime time national audience.
- The producers come from an outfit named Brick City TV, which ''teamed up with actor and producer Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn's Sundance Productions to pitch the 'Chicagoland' project to CNN.'' All very incetstuous:
- The team got access through friendly channels:
- The "Chicagoland" producers got the green light for access to Emanuel and City Hall after a meeting arranged by the Chicago public relations firm Jasculca Terman, records show.
- That firm's chairman and CEO, Rick Jasculca, is a friend of Emanuel's dating back decades, and both worked together in the Clinton White House. When Emanuel announced he would run for mayor in 2010, it was Jasculca and his daughter Aimee Jasculca who fielded media calls on behalf of the budding campaign.
- And everyone stood to benefit. One hand washes the other:
- Prior to "Chicagoland," Levin and fellow executive producer Mark Benjamin both had been represented by William Morris Endeavor, the Hollywood agency run by the mayor's brother, Ari Emanuel. The producers said they were not represented on the project by William Morris to avoid any conflict of interest, but Levin said they likely would be represented by the firm in the future.
- The very origin of the series lies with a PR effort on the part of Mayor Emanuel's team:
- The "Chicagoland" producers got the green light for access to Emanuel and City Hall after a meeting arranged by the Chicago public relations firm Jasculca Terman, records show.
- That firm's chairman and CEO, Rick Jasculca, is a friend of Emanuel's dating back decades, and both worked together in the Clinton White House. When Emanuel announced he would run for mayor in 2010, it was Jasculca and his daughter Aimee Jasculca who fielded media calls on behalf of the budding campaign.
- In February 2013, records show, Rick Jasculca contacted Tarrah Cooper, the mayor's press secretary, to set up a meeting with Levin and Benjamin, whose Brick City TV teamed up with actor and producer Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn's Sundance Productions to pitch the "Chicagoland" project to CNN.
- An example of the fawning emails sent by CNN:
- "We look forward to working with you and your office to capture the citizens of Chicago and their mayor in a sustained and determined effort to improve the education, safety and economic well-being of all Chicagoans."
- One of the major issues recently faced by Emanuel is the closing of over 50 schools for budgetary reasons. Not a happy process, and one that generated much protest. So how did the documentary handle it?
- While 53 schools were on the chopping block, the documentary crew ended up following two that were saved. Asked how that happened, Levin said he and fellow producers have asked themselves the same question.
- "I don't know the answer to that," Levin said. "But we did go, 'Wow. That is unusual.'"
- Emanuel's office declined to discuss the issue.
- The producers even consulted the mayor's office over their PR releases:
- City Hall worked closely enough with CNN that drafts of the network's news releases about "Chicagoland" were shared ahead of time. When the network prepared to announce the series in the spring of 2013, Jasculca Terman's Foley twice forwarded copies of CNN news releases to Emanuel's office.
- "This version is considered final for CNN. Thoughts?" Foley wrote to Emanuel press aides, to which Cooper responded, "Thanks! I'll have edits for you shortly!" Foley wrote back, "Perfect! Thank you!"
- To be fair, a certain degree of cajoling is necessary int he first place to get access:
- "Everything in documentary that is character-driven is a matter of access, and the filmmakers did what every filmmaker does with time and money constraints, they tried to make their life easier with those kinds of requests," [University of Southern California film school documentary expert Mitchell] Block said. "And if they can get access, they have footage, and if they have footage and interesting characters, they have a story."
- True enough. But by offering to polish Emanuel's image and by the editorial choices made to carry out that offer, this effort has degenerated into blatant propaganda. I have not watched the series, but Chicagoan Ed Lasky, who started to watch, comments, ''I stopped watching after 2 episodes -- it was boring and repetitive and clearly biased to present a sensitive, empathetic and supremely effective Emanuel. It was clearly a snow job. The producers could have presented a much more realistic view of Chicago: corruption, fudging of crime stats to make Emanuel look better, racial politics, a blue city dying via liberalism.
- Update: CNN has sent the following statement to us:
- The mayor's office was never granted editorial control over the content or the press communications for Chicagoland, and no agency was ever granted authority to offer the mayor's office editorial approval for the content or the promotional materials for the series.
-
- Rahm's Rule: 'Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste' | PERC '' The Property and Environment Research Center
- "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Those words, according to the latest article from Bruce Yandle in The Freeman, capture the essence of what could be considered Rahm's Rule, after Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. As Bruce explains, when it comes to crisis management, opportunistic politicians such an Emanuel never miss a chance to convert crises into political pork for special interests:
- "Rahm's Rule is a useful accessory to a body of theory that seeks to explain the political economy of regulation. The rule tells us that major crises can provide cover for distributing benefits to targeted special interest groups. The greater the magnitude of a given crisis and the shorter the interval for forming legislation to deal with it, the larger the spread of pork that can be packed into the final legislation. Rahm's Rule is a guarantee that efforts to resolve a deadline-based crisis will go on to the very last minute."
- The rule serves as an important footnote to our understanding of regulation '-- a body of work to which Bruce has contributed immensely. Yandle's 1983 Regulation article on "Bootleggers and Baptists" provided an explaination for the curious coalitions that succeed in extracting favorable regulations. He later summarized his theory this way:
- "[D]urable social regulation evolves when it is demanded by both of two distinctly different groups. 'Baptists' point to the moral high ground and give vital and vocal endorsement of laudable public benefits promised by a desired regulation. Baptists flourish when their moral message forms a visible foundation for political action. 'Bootleggers' are much less visible but no less vital. Bootleggers, who expect to profit from the very regulatory restrictions desired by Baptists, grease the political machinery with some of their expected proceeds. They are simply in it for the money."
- Taken together, the Bootleggers and Baptist theory of regulation, along with Rahm's Rule, go a long way to explaining the massive amount of regulatory favors doled out to special interests in legislation such as Dodd-Frank, TARP, and the fiscal cliff deal. In each case, Rahm's Rule enabled Bootlegger-Baptist coalitions to eke out favors as the nation was distracted by political crises. As Bruce says, "We might keep this in mind for the next deadline-driven crisis."
- For more, read "Rahm's Rule of Crisis Management: A Footnote to the Theory of Regulation" by Bruce Yandle in the The Freeman.
-
- NA-Tech
-
- lulzlabs/AirChat · GitHub
- README######################################################## _ _ .__ .__ __ __| || |_______ |__|______ ____ | |__ _____ _/ |_ \ __ /\__ \ | \_ __ \_/ ___\| | \\__ \\ __\ | || | / __ \| || | \/\ \___| Y \/ __ \| | /_ ~~ _\(____ /__||__| \___ >___| (____ /__| |_||_| \/ \/ \/ \/ ########################################################## VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/92651272 ##########################################################Why Airchat?Because we strongly believe communications should be free,Free as much as the air itself and all the waves should be.Free for everyone everywhere, free for those oppressed, free for the poor,free for the dissident, free for those living out of the boundariesof the infrastructure created for those who were lucky enough to have more than others.And free...well... because sometimes the non-free infrastructure itself fails.Several thousands years ago, we started shouting into the air tocommunicate, to build our first communities and to survive.Since then the power of our voices has travelled through the air,carrying poetry, intelligence, knowledge, art, emotions, science,revolutions, philosophy, faith, evil, war,Transmitting all those ideas, good or bad, which define us as human.We freely shouted to the air our very own existence.We shouted to the wind we were alive.Several thousands of years after we started this adventure, we have builtamazing and technologically sophisticated networks to serve usto communicate everywhere,Now the fire of our freedom is burning away.Our voices, once free, are subject to uncountable controls, financialfees, patents, rights, regulations, government censorship, etc.Today, we have acknowledged that, even after all these years of technology advance,we still need to meet in common public places to continue expressing ourselves in a free way,to build up our sense of community and stand up for our future and rights.Our so advanced communication infrastructure has failed to make us a better family, to make us better humans,to bring us openness, democratic access and freedom to think nor to speak.Our pay-to-participate infrastructure identifies us, targets us, monitors us, controls us.so then, we will try to go to the origin of all and try to scale up all these really very human voicesto cover not only those tiny public spacesbut a whole community, a neighbourhood,a big town, a huge city, a remote region... the world.So...That's why Airchat,because next time you want shout your freedom to the wind, perhaps someone will hear you.WTF is AirChat then?!?!Airchat is a free communication tool, free as in 'free beer' and free as in 'jeremy hammond must be freed'.It doesn't need the internet infrastructure, nor does it need a cellphone network,instead it relies on any available radio link (or any device capable of transmitting audio -we even made a prototype working with light/laser based transmissions).This project was conceived not only from our lessons learned in the Egyptian, Libyan and Syrian revolutions,but also from the experience of OccupyWallStreet and Plaza del Sol.We have considered the availability of extremely cheap modern radio devices (like those handhelds produced in China),to start thinking about new ways in which people can free themselves from expensive, commercial,government controlled and highly surveilled infrastructure.AirChat is not only our modest draft or proposal for such a dream, but it is a working PoC you can use today.we hope you will enjoy it and we also hope that you too will be able to feel the beauty of free communications,free communications as in 'free beer' and free communications as in 'free yourself and your people forever'.User casesPeople who were protesting against their govt resulting in the their internet being cut off.Even worse govt decided to fuck with their cellphones networks too.They need basic communication tools to spread news and updates about their conditions,and with the aim to eventually relay that information to/from the internetwhen at least one of them is able to get a working internet connection.NGOs and medical teams working in Africa under poor conditions who want to build somebasic communication's infrastructure to coordinate efforts like the delivery ofmedication and food or to update on local conditionswithout being intercepted by regional armed groups etc.Dissident groups who mistrust the normal communication infrastructure and who want to coordinateregional activity and share updates about oppressive actions carried out by the authorities.Disaster response, rescue and medical teams who are working in devastated zones without the availabilityof standard telecommunication infrastructure. They want to keep updating their statuses,progress and resource availability between teams when there may be large overage zones between them.Yacht owners who are sailing and who wish to obtain news updates from some approaching coastlineor another ship which has internet access. There may just be a simple exchange of informationabout news, weather conditions, provisions, gear etc.Local populations who want to keep in touch with each other on a daily basis with the goal of developinga strong community capable of maximizing their resources,food or manpower to help improve sustainability and their quality of life.Street protests or any other street event where people would like to share their thoughts,anonymously and locally without relying on the internet. They may also wish to share themwith the world as a single voice using a simple gateway such as a unique Twitter account made for the occasion.Expedition basecamps who need a simplistic solution to build a common gateway for establishingradio communication and messaging service links with camps, remotely located basecamps and/orrescue teams to coordinate tasks such as logistics, rescue efforts, routes and schedules.Background: Dilemmas and decisionsEvery project is a fractalized representation of infinite dilemmas sparkling other new ones,glued to the futile decisions we make, to try to address all of them.Many ideas have crossed our minds when we tried to make this thingie.We experimented broadcasting UDP packets inside mesh network solutions.We experimented using patched wireless network card drivers to inject crafted wifi management frames.We also considered crafting TDMA packets via cellphones RF hardware.We thought about those many different possibilities. we saw there's so much potential on them.Sadly we found out how locked down and overregulated our communication devices are.So, we thought: 'Well some solutions would require that we ask people to root their phones or routers, andto then install custom firmwares with patched drivers, with the risk of getting people mad cause theywere bricking them'we also thought about a Wifi interconnected cellphone net approach, but the coverage range was frustrating.We saw people working on different mesh related projects and we thought'One solution shouldn't discard another one but it should try to complement it,to add interoperability and to allow heterogeneous systems'.As different serious projects are looking for solutions based on 802.11 standards we said,'WTF lets try to reinvent the wheel for exploration and fun'.But to reinventing the wheel you need freedom. a freedom which we don't have much of in on our worldof telecommunications, which is over-regulated by evil organizations like the FCC and similars shits around the world.So we choose the good ol' trusted ancient technology to start free.Radio transceivers.yeah, these shits rock.we chose to sacrifice bandwidth for freedom.Tune the frequency.Define a protocol.Transmit.Enjoy.So yeah we connected our 897Ds to our computers, we shouted out to our bros to tune in and then we started playing around.Initially AirChat used code from 'minimodem' and then from 'soundmodem' sources but after suggestionsfrom the ham radio people involved in ARES, we decided to make it modular to use the Fldigi software,a broadly deployed solution for use with ham radios.Fldigi is controlled by means of XML-RPC calls which can be made even between remote systems(example: One workstation, connected to radio equipments is dedicated to listening to the radio frequenciesconstantly while another system is running AirChat etc.)We are open to feedback about this decision, and we will offer different implementations if they're needed.We ended up with a simple protocol packet: the Lulzpacket. This simple packetcontains information to verify there was no corruption during the transmissionand a random code to pseudo-identify the packet. We define the addresses ofnodes in the net by their ability to decrypt a given packet. Addresses arederived from the hashes of asymmetric encryption keys, Every radio nodedefines its own address by the pair of keys it has generated for itself andthe addresses change if users choose to regenerate their keys. Each node onlycares for what is being received. No hardware identification, no transmitterplain identification. only packets matter. transmissions are anonymous. wheneveran address is needed to reply to a packet, it is encrypted inside the packet.Packets targetting specific addresses are encrypted and they must be decryptedby the private key only the target possesses. Anyone trying to spoof anaddress will not be able to decrypt the packet.Symmetrical encrypted packets are available also and can be used as an extralayer too. General non-encrypted packets also available by default for generalbroadcasting and community discussion. (also for those people on some countrieswhere laws forbid encryption on certain radio frequencies, etc).Disclaimer:we dont give a fucking shit about prohibitions over the use of encryption. fuck you NSA.So the choice is yours. You can use it with encryption or without.Encryption is part of the routing solution approach, non encrypted packets are linkedto general broadcast.(remember that when you are in the middle of a massive crisis you probably wouldn't care much about the stupid FCC)Airchat is our first service which implements this protocol. The current release right now focuses onmessaging and it can be used as a simplistic message board inside a LAN and to rely communicationsbetween radio nodes. It has built-in internet gateway capabilities to offer users access to some basics such as tweeting,retrieving twitter streams, downloading news, community related articles, etc.This gateway can can be used whenever an Airchat running station gains a working internet connection and choose to share it.(this internet access can be anonymized via Tor and the built in proxy support).The first release will be a minimal set of useful functionality, so that we can see what peoplecan do with it and what they would like to be able to do. We will continue to add more features based on your feedback.So far we have played interactive chess games with people at 180 miles away. we have shared picturesand established encrypted low bandwidth digital voice chats. We have 3D printed over distances of 80 miles andtransmitted medical orders at distances of over 100 miles.All without phones or internet access.So how does it feel when you are communicating freely?it feels great...fucking great.Quick StartSoftware SetupFreeBSD 10from a fresh server install:# pkg install make# pkg install perl-5.16.xx# perl install-modules-airchat-freebsd.plthen...# cpanpCPAN Terminal> i Net::Server --skiptestCPAN Terminal> i HTTP::Server::Simple::CGI::PreForkthat will get you the airchat server running,keep in mind installing fldigi requires a graphical environment aka Xso,1: you setup airchat to connect with a remote station running fldigi2: install X and then:# pkg install fldigi-3.xx.xxWindowsInstall Strawberry Perl >= 5.18 (the portable zip version fits well for example)from http://strawberryperl.com/Direct link:http://strawberryperl.com/download/Once you get perl installed, run in your perl shell:# perl install-modules-airchat-windows.plThen install these modules via the cpanplus terminal:# cpanpCPAN Terminal> i Net::Server --skiptestCPAN Terminal> i HTTP::Server::Simple::CGI::PreFork --skiptestThen install fldigi from:http://www.w1hkj.com/download.htmlLinux (Debian / tested also on Ubuntu Trusty)Install some needed stuff:# apt-get install make libcpanplus-perl libhttp-server-simple-perl libcrypt-cbc-perl libcrypt-rijndael-perl librpc-xml-perl libxml-feedpp-perl liblwp-protocol-socks-perl libnet-twitter-lite-perl libnet-server-perl(There's an optional and commented "use Net::SSLGlue::LWP" before "use LWP::UserAgent" on airchat.pl (# apt-get install libnet-sslglue-perl),This magically fixes LWP for https requests issues, when for example you want to include feeds only available via proxy to a https address,if you don't have the updated libwww-perl 6.05-2 and liblwp-protocol-https-perl 6.04-2 available from repositories(should be available from the jessie repos thou)) but...We strongly recommend you look to update libwww-perl and liblwp-protocol-https-perl to their latest versions,cause using SSLGlue will eventually break https access to the twitter API.Check if you have updated packages for 'libnet-twitter-lite-perl' because you will need the Twitter API v1.1 support.run:# perl install-airchat-modules-linux.pl^ this will install 'HTTP::Server::Simple::CGI::PreFork' (needed) and 'Net::Twitter::Lite::WithAPIv1_1'If you want to install Fldigi on the same machine than Airchat then:# apt-get install fldigi(running fldigi requires a graphical environment)MacOS XGet XCode.Launch XCode and bring up the Preferences panel. Click on the Downloads tab. Click to install the Command Line Tools. Check you got 'make' installed.run:# perl install-airchat-modules-macosx.pl# cpanpCPAN Terminal> i Net::Server --skiptestCPAN Terminal> i HTTP::Server::Simple::CGI::PreFork --skiptestGeneral NotesAirchat runs by default on port 8080, connect your browser to (for Example: http://localhost:8080). READ THE CODE.If you find some problem running airchat,please try updating modules and linked libraries.we've found some issues related to outdated implementations.(like '500 Bad arg length for Socket6::unpack_sockaddr_in6, length is 16, should be 28'happening in Ubuntu Precise when enabling the Twitter gateway)Fldigi Setuprun fldigi.skip everything if you want butyou must configure audio devices to make it work with your capture deviceand your audio output device. test if it's working capturing audio signals and playing audio.and that's all.(Note: keep your fldigi updated always)Hardware SetupRadio transceivers usually come with many different interfaces,Each brand deploys different connectors even within their own range of models andsadly there's usually no standard which they follow.We understand that some people have experience using more expensiveradio equipments and will know how to link those transceivers to their computers.As such we will focus on supporting the cheapest and most accesible models which are ableto offer the democratization of this solution worldwide even in the poorest regions.We have considered cheap chinese vhf/uhf fm handheld transceiversavailable worldwide at as low as $40 bucks each.These devices come with a Kenwood 2-pin connector composed by a 2.5mm jack and a 3.5mm one.The 2.5mm jack transports the speaker signal and the 3.5mm serves as the microphone input.We will make a very simple setup using the VOX function on the transceiver to avoid more complex PTT setups.First connect some 2.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable between the speaker output on the radio and themicrophone input on your computer.Then take a stereo 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable and cut all of the smallcables inside except the red one (It should be a red cable which is connected to the middle ring of the jack).Only the red cable with the signal coming from the ring of the 3.5mm jack should be connected and nothing else.(neither the tip, nor the ground (ground will be provided by the 2.5mm jack cable)).Once you are done, connect this customised cable to the microphone input on theradio transceiver and then to the speaker output of your computer.Finally, set the frequency everyone will use on the transceiver,Don't forget to enable the VOX function (adjust the sensitivity to medium).Modify the transmission timer to more than 2 minutes, set the radio speaker volume to approx. 50%,tune the microphone sensitivity on your computer to base levels with medium boost (if needed) and finalyset the computer headphones volume to around 70% or so and then you are ready to go. keep testing tillgetting the best audio quality for your transmission.Be careful about the quality of cables and soldering used, test the audio quality until getting themost optimal conditions possible, that will directly improve your transmissions.Some Questions...Audio transmission?Almost every single home in this world has a common AM and/or FM radio.In such cases when not everyone is able to get some cheap radio transceiver,everyone at least will be able to decode packets being transmitted via a pirate FM stations (or AM)AM doesn't suffer the capture effect of FM. so under certain circumstances people could accomodatearound 18 or 20 parallel different packet transmissions on the same bandwidth used for voice transmissions.also it turned out to be cheap and simple to link laptops and radios via the soundcard.simple enough to allow easy-to-make road warrior RF enabled mobile stations.Bandwidth?We traded bandwidth for freedom, or to be more exact we traded bandwidth for freedom, simplicity and low cost.which indeed are the real conditions needed to democratize this solution. so yeah. sorry about thebandwidth but we do not regret it. We will be looking for solutions to this in the future but keep in mind that'freedom, simplicity and low cost' won't be given up.Is 4K video streaming coming soon?no, like...no.and pics?We love pix. pix support is coming ofc. We have tested image transfers using Google's WebP formatto try conserve bandwidth as much as possible, but the lack of support in several browsershas given us second thoughts. We will looking for further feedback about it.I want to cyber my girlfriend (who lives 20 miles away) without having NSA agents fapping to it, can I use this for it?ofc, man. thou we require your girlfriend to deliver tits or gtfo. (sorry but it's needed to help us on the datamining of frequenciesusage and transmission mode performance raw data through our Hadoop cluster of ARM servers, all those pix will be used for the datalink test..err...derp)What happened to Sabu?He ended up working as a male prostitute for FBI, he usually wears a pinkish silk kimono in the evenings and he resides in Chattanooga.He recently betrayed his male prostitute co-workers cause he was jelly they were getting more attention than him.His sentencing is still being delayed by FBI.Should Molly get on Jabber?Yes.FBI has been going after our bittie$. If you want to help, drop some penniez here:1Kx4wVYBvbL6khNhA3SmJKnT8ZLeJHPBxA^ bitcoins#lulzlabs2014. Anonymous. All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
-
- Anonymous' Airchat Aims to Allow Communication Without Needing Phone or Internet Access
- Anonymous is testing Airchat, a free communications tool for the world that uses only radio wavesLulz Labs
- Online hacktivist collective Anonymous has announced that it is working on a new tool called Airchat which could allow people to communicate without the need for a phone or an internet connection - using radio waves instead.
- Anonymous, the amorphous group best known for attacking high profile targets like Sony and the CIA in recent years, said on the Lulz Labs project's Github page: "Airchat is a free communication tool [that] doesn't need internet infrastructure [or] a cell phone network. Instead it relies on any available radio link or device capable of transmitting audio."
- The idea is that people all over the world, including those in rural areas and developing countries, will one day be able to communicate for free without the need for a mobile phone network, phone line or internet access.
- While the project is workable at the moment, it is simply a proof of concept at this stage and Anonymous has revealed Airchat in the hope to get more people involved in developing the technology as well as raising funds.
- Despite the Airchat system being highly involved and too complex for most people in its current form, Anonymous says it has so far used it to play interactive chess games with people at 180 miles away; share pictures and even established encrypted low bandwidth digital voice chats.
- In order to get Airchat to work, you will need to have a handheld radio transceiver, a laptop running either Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, and be able to install and run several pieces of complex software.
- Anonymous says that a cheap radio transmitter costs as little as $40 (£23.80) meaning the system should be affordable to most people or communities.
- However because the system isn't working with a specific make or model of transmitter, connecting them to your laptop is a little tricky as there is no standard connector on these devices.
- "Almost every single home in this world has a common AM and/or FM radio. In cases where not everyone is able to get [a] cheap radio transceiver, [they can] at least be able to decode packets being transmitted via a pirate FM station" Anonymous said.
- The video above shows the Airchat tool in use, evening managing to pull up Twitter search results for the keyword "Ukraine". While it is clearly not as fast and graphically rich as a standard internet browser, for someone looking to get crucial information fast, it could prove a vital tool.
- Anonymous says that Airchat has numerous use cases other than preventing government agencies like the NSA from spying on citizens, ranging from people living in countries where the internet has been shut down or censored, such as Twitter being banned in Turkey or the telecommunications network being shut down in Crimea by Russian forces.
- NGOs and medical teams working in Africa or disaster zones who need to coordinate aid efforts or explorers at expedition basecamps who want to communicate from rural areas or with rescue teams would also find the solution useful.
- This is not the first time that Anonymous has tried to create free communications to connect the world.
- Since the Arab Springs began in 2010, Anonymous has opened up communication channels in countries when they have been closed, creating internet access points and producing "care packages" that include information about everything from first aid to how to access dial-up internet, for example, in Syria in 2012.
- The hacktivist collective has also worked together with the dissident group Telecomix to help activists access banned websites in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, and Zimbabwe.
-
- Tech Titans Pay Out Just $300 Mil for Giant Wage-Fixing Conspiracy
- After a protracted legal battle, Reuters reports Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe will settle a lawsuit claiming they conspired to pay their employees far less than they deserved. These companies got a very good deal.
- The suit, which represented over 60,000 tech workers over many years of potential wage losses, alleges that top tech executives'--including Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt'--agreed to leave employees alone at rival companies in order to artificially deflate competitive hiring offers. Vanity Fair explains:
- A non-poaching agreement hurts employees by preventing them from seeking the best jobs at the available highest wages. By conspiring together, Apple, Google, Adobe, and Intel, clearly among the biggest tech firms in the country, would have reduced the need to counter competitive offers or aggressively compensate employees to keep them happy.
- Aggressive compensation was something these same execs never had to worry about. Reuters India notes the $324 million payout is significantly less than the roughly nine billion dollar damages these companies could've been subject to had the suit gone to trial. It's also only around $100 million or so more than the chief executives of those companies make in a single year.
-
- Apple, Google agree to settle antitrust lawsuit over hiring deals-filing
- Apple, Google agree to settle antitrust lawsuit over hiring deals-filingTop News
- Apple, Google agree to settle antitrust lawsuit over hiring deals-filing
- SAN FRANCISCO, April 24 (Reuters) - Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to settle a large antitrust lawsuit over no-hire agreements in Silicon Valley, according to a court filing on Thursday.
- Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc , Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired not to poach one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. Trial had been scheduled to begin at the end of May on behalf of roughly 60,000 workers in the class. (Reporting by Dan Levine)
-
- SpaceX sues US Air Force over satellite contracts (Update)
- SpaceX sues US Air Force over satellite contracts (Update)7 hours ago by Kerry SheridanCEO and chief designer of SpaceX Elon Musk in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2014
- SpaceX on Friday filed suit against the US Air Force for awarding billions of dollars to a single company for national security launches, and said the contracts might even violate sanctions against Russia.
- The US military spends billions yearly with United Launch Alliance, a joint operation of aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to launch government satellites.
- The Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are powered by Russian engines, which has raised concern among some lawmakers that such reliance is dangerous in a time of escalating tensions over Ukraine.
- "This is not right," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters, describing the policy of "uncompeted procurement" by the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
- "SpaceX has decided to file suit and protest the Air Force EELV block buy," Musk said.
- The process "essentially blocks companies like SpaceX from competing for national security launches," said Musk at a press conference in the US capital.
- The suit was filed in the US Court of Federal Claims, he added.
- Musk said ULA rockets cost four times the amount of SpaceX's.
- "To add insult to the wound, the primary engine is made in Russia," said Musk.
- The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is pictured just prior to being released by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm on May 31 to allow it to head toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA
- "The person who heads Russian space activities is (deputy prime minister) Dmitry Rogozin, who is on the sanctions list. So it seems pretty strange, like, you know, how is it that we are sending hundreds of millions of US taxpayer money at a time when Russia is in the process of invading Ukraine?" Musk asked.
- "It would be hard to imagine some way in which Dmitry Rogozin is not benefiting personally from the dollars that are being sent there," he added.
- "On the surface of it is seems there is a good probability of some sanctions violation."
- An Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, Musk has gained a high profile in the business world with SpaceX and his electric car company, Tesla.
- In 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first unmanned spaceship made by a private US company to reach the International Space Station. A version that could carry crew is expected by 2017.
- "This is not SpaceX protesting and saying these launches should be awarded to us. We are just protesting and saying these launches should be competed," Musk said.
- "If we compete and lose that's fine."
- His California-based firm is also working on a novel rocket, called the Falcon 9 reusable, that could return to Earth from a space launch intact and be used again and again for space launches.
- The latest test of the rocket showed it was able to land upright with all legs deployed, but SpaceX was unable to retrieve it intact from its ocean landing, due to stormy seas and lack of access to a big enough boat, he said.
- Still, Musk said he hoped the next ocean test landing would go more smoothly, since it would splash down closer to land.
- If that goes well, he said he was "optimistic" that the reusable rocket's first land-test return could happen at Florida's Cape Canaveral later this year.
- Explore further:SpaceX launches second commercial satellite
- More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy
- Related StoriesSpaceX launches second commercial satellite Jan 07, 2014
- US company SpaceX said Monday it had deployed a commercial Thai satellite, in its second successful launch in weeks.
- SpaceX postpones first satellite launch Nov 29, 2013
- Private US company SpaceX postponed the launch of a rocket carrying its first telecommunications satellite on Thursday after two unsuccessful attempts at take-off.
- SpaceX's next-generation reusable rocket roars in tie-down test Apr 02, 2014
- As SpaceX pursues its quest of rocket reusability, it recently subjected the first stage of its next generation Falcon 9 rocket (called the Falcon 9-reusable or F9R) to a tie-down test ahead of some more ...
- After two delays, SpaceX counts down to satellite launch (Update) Dec 03, 2013
- Private US company SpaceX was Tuesday poised for a third attempt to launch its first commercial satellite, after repairs were made to the Falcon 9 rocket.
- SpaceX reschedules space station resupply launch Apr 04, 2014
- A delayed supply run to the International Space Station is now set to launch April 14.
- Third time a charm: SpaceX launches commercial satellite (Update 3) Dec 03, 2013
- The private US company SpaceX said it successfully launched on Tuesday its first commercial satellite, designed to provide telecommunications services to China and other Asian countries.
- LADEE sees zodiacal light before crashing into moon, but Apollo mystery remains 11 hours ago
- NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) literally 'saw the light' just days before crashing into the lunar farside last Thursday April 17. Skimming just a few kilometers above the ...
- First JPSS-1 satellite instrument is ready for installation 12 hours ago
- The first of five instruments that will fly on JPSS-1, NOAA's next polar orbiting environmental satellite, successfully completed pre-shipment review last week. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System ...
- Curiosity spies asteroids from Mars surface for the first time 12 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.
- Traces of recent water on Mars 13 hours ago
- New research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The results have been published in Icarus ( International Journal for Solar System Studies). "We have discover ...
- Equipped with new sensors, Morpheus preps to tackle landing on its own 13 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--A test flight later this week will challenge a set of sensors to map out a 65-yard square of boulder-sized hazards and pick out a safe place to land.
- NASA tests Orion's parachute performance over Arizona 13 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--The team designing the parachute system for NASA's Orion spacecraft has demonstrated almost every parachute failure they could imagine. But on April 23, they tested how the system would perform ...
- User comments : 3Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank
- Display comments: newest first
- Scottingham5 / 5 (3)7 hours ago
- SpaceX didn't bribe the right people I guess.
- Modernmystic5 / 5 (2)6 hours ago
- SpaceX didn't bribe the right people I guess.
- Hey, they're new to dealing with the government...they'll learn....
- Protoplasmix5 / 5 (1)5 hours ago
- it's rare that I hope my guess is wrong:I'm guessing that due to the sensitive nature of the typical payload and the NSA's recent experience with private contractors, SpaceX may lack both the necessary clearance and the need to know. Hopefully not. But peaceful ventures are better in the long run, whence the mind always beats the sword (according to Napoleon, anyway).
- Star is discovered to be a close neighbor of the Sun and the coldest of its kind(Phys.org) '--A "brown dwarf" star that appears to be the coldest of its kind'--as frosty as Earth's North Pole'--has been discovered by a Penn State University astronomer using NASA's Wide-field Infrared ...
- Curiosity spies asteroids from Mars surface for the first time(Phys.org) '--A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.
- NASA tests Orion's parachute performance over Arizona(Phys.org) '--The team designing the parachute system for NASA's Orion spacecraft has demonstrated almost every parachute failure they could imagine. But on April 23, they tested how the system would perform ...
- Traces of recent water on MarsNew research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The results have been published in Icarus ( International Journal for Solar System Studies). "We have discover ...
- Equipped with new sensors, Morpheus preps to tackle landing on its own(Phys.org) '--A test flight later this week will challenge a set of sensors to map out a 65-yard square of boulder-sized hazards and pick out a safe place to land.
- US court weighs police use of cellphone tower dataA U.S. appeals court is wrestling with whether law enforcement has the authority to obtain and use records from cellphone towers, in a case that weighs the importance of people's right to privacy in the age of digital technology.
- Researchers generate immunity against tumor vessel proteinSometimes a full-on assault isn't the best approach when dealing with a powerful enemy. A more effective approach, in the long run, may be to target the support system replenishing the supplies that keep your foe strong and ...
- Specialized yoga program could help women with urinary incontinenceAn ancient form of meditation and exercise could help women who suffer from urinary incontinence, according to a new study from UC San Francisco.
- Japan kicks off first whale hunt since UN court rulingA Japanese whaling fleet is set to leave port Saturday in the first hunt since the UN's top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.
- Nissan develops first 'self-cleaning' car prototype (w/ Video)Washing a car can be a chore '' and a costly one at that. In response, Nissan in Europe has begun tests on innovative paint technology that repels mud, rain and everyday dirt, meaning drivers may never have ...
- Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.(C) Phys.org' 2003-2013, Science X network
- SpaceX sues US Air Force over satellite contracts (Update)7 hours ago by Kerry SheridanCEO and chief designer of SpaceX Elon Musk in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2014
- SpaceX on Friday filed suit against the US Air Force for awarding billions of dollars to a single company for national security launches, and said the contracts might even violate sanctions against Russia.
- The US military spends billions yearly with United Launch Alliance, a joint operation of aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to launch government satellites.
- The Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are powered by Russian engines, which has raised concern among some lawmakers that such reliance is dangerous in a time of escalating tensions over Ukraine.
- "This is not right," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters, describing the policy of "uncompeted procurement" by the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
- "SpaceX has decided to file suit and protest the Air Force EELV block buy," Musk said.
- The process "essentially blocks companies like SpaceX from competing for national security launches," said Musk at a press conference in the US capital.
- The suit was filed in the US Court of Federal Claims, he added.
- Musk said ULA rockets cost four times the amount of SpaceX's.
- "To add insult to the wound, the primary engine is made in Russia," said Musk.
- The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is pictured just prior to being released by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm on May 31 to allow it to head toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA
- "The person who heads Russian space activities is (deputy prime minister) Dmitry Rogozin, who is on the sanctions list. So it seems pretty strange, like, you know, how is it that we are sending hundreds of millions of US taxpayer money at a time when Russia is in the process of invading Ukraine?" Musk asked.
- "It would be hard to imagine some way in which Dmitry Rogozin is not benefiting personally from the dollars that are being sent there," he added.
- "On the surface of it is seems there is a good probability of some sanctions violation."
- An Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, Musk has gained a high profile in the business world with SpaceX and his electric car company, Tesla.
- In 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first unmanned spaceship made by a private US company to reach the International Space Station. A version that could carry crew is expected by 2017.
- "This is not SpaceX protesting and saying these launches should be awarded to us. We are just protesting and saying these launches should be competed," Musk said.
- "If we compete and lose that's fine."
- His California-based firm is also working on a novel rocket, called the Falcon 9 reusable, that could return to Earth from a space launch intact and be used again and again for space launches.
- The latest test of the rocket showed it was able to land upright with all legs deployed, but SpaceX was unable to retrieve it intact from its ocean landing, due to stormy seas and lack of access to a big enough boat, he said.
- Still, Musk said he hoped the next ocean test landing would go more smoothly, since it would splash down closer to land.
- If that goes well, he said he was "optimistic" that the reusable rocket's first land-test return could happen at Florida's Cape Canaveral later this year.
- Explore further:SpaceX launches second commercial satellite
- More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy
- Related StoriesSpaceX launches second commercial satellite Jan 07, 2014
- US company SpaceX said Monday it had deployed a commercial Thai satellite, in its second successful launch in weeks.
- SpaceX postpones first satellite launch Nov 29, 2013
- Private US company SpaceX postponed the launch of a rocket carrying its first telecommunications satellite on Thursday after two unsuccessful attempts at take-off.
- SpaceX's next-generation reusable rocket roars in tie-down test Apr 02, 2014
- As SpaceX pursues its quest of rocket reusability, it recently subjected the first stage of its next generation Falcon 9 rocket (called the Falcon 9-reusable or F9R) to a tie-down test ahead of some more ...
- After two delays, SpaceX counts down to satellite launch (Update) Dec 03, 2013
- Private US company SpaceX was Tuesday poised for a third attempt to launch its first commercial satellite, after repairs were made to the Falcon 9 rocket.
- SpaceX reschedules space station resupply launch Apr 04, 2014
- A delayed supply run to the International Space Station is now set to launch April 14.
- Third time a charm: SpaceX launches commercial satellite (Update 3) Dec 03, 2013
- The private US company SpaceX said it successfully launched on Tuesday its first commercial satellite, designed to provide telecommunications services to China and other Asian countries.
- LADEE sees zodiacal light before crashing into moon, but Apollo mystery remains 11 hours ago
- NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) literally 'saw the light' just days before crashing into the lunar farside last Thursday April 17. Skimming just a few kilometers above the ...
- First JPSS-1 satellite instrument is ready for installation 12 hours ago
- The first of five instruments that will fly on JPSS-1, NOAA's next polar orbiting environmental satellite, successfully completed pre-shipment review last week. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System ...
- Curiosity spies asteroids from Mars surface for the first time 12 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.
- Traces of recent water on Mars 13 hours ago
- New research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The results have been published in Icarus ( International Journal for Solar System Studies). "We have discover ...
- Equipped with new sensors, Morpheus preps to tackle landing on its own 13 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--A test flight later this week will challenge a set of sensors to map out a 65-yard square of boulder-sized hazards and pick out a safe place to land.
- NASA tests Orion's parachute performance over Arizona 13 hours ago
- (Phys.org) '--The team designing the parachute system for NASA's Orion spacecraft has demonstrated almost every parachute failure they could imagine. But on April 23, they tested how the system would perform ...
- User comments : 3Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank
- Display comments: newest first
- Scottingham5 / 5 (3)7 hours ago
- SpaceX didn't bribe the right people I guess.
- Modernmystic5 / 5 (2)6 hours ago
- SpaceX didn't bribe the right people I guess.
- Hey, they're new to dealing with the government...they'll learn....
- Protoplasmix5 / 5 (1)5 hours ago
- it's rare that I hope my guess is wrong:
- I'm guessing that due to the sensitive nature of the typical payload and the NSA's recent experience with private contractors, SpaceX may lack both the necessary clearance and the need to know. Hopefully not. But peaceful ventures are better in the long run, whence the mind always beats the sword (according to Napoleon, anyway).
- Star is discovered to be a close neighbor of the Sun and the coldest of its kind(Phys.org) '--A "brown dwarf" star that appears to be the coldest of its kind'--as frosty as Earth's North Pole'--has been discovered by a Penn State University astronomer using NASA's Wide-field Infrared ...
- Curiosity spies asteroids from Mars surface for the first time(Phys.org) '--A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta.
- NASA tests Orion's parachute performance over Arizona(Phys.org) '--The team designing the parachute system for NASA's Orion spacecraft has demonstrated almost every parachute failure they could imagine. But on April 23, they tested how the system would perform ...
- Traces of recent water on MarsNew research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The results have been published in Icarus ( International Journal for Solar System Studies). "We have discover ...
- Equipped with new sensors, Morpheus preps to tackle landing on its own(Phys.org) '--A test flight later this week will challenge a set of sensors to map out a 65-yard square of boulder-sized hazards and pick out a safe place to land.
- US court weighs police use of cellphone tower dataA U.S. appeals court is wrestling with whether law enforcement has the authority to obtain and use records from cellphone towers, in a case that weighs the importance of people's right to privacy in the age of digital technology.
- Researchers generate immunity against tumor vessel proteinSometimes a full-on assault isn't the best approach when dealing with a powerful enemy. A more effective approach, in the long run, may be to target the support system replenishing the supplies that keep your foe strong and ...
- Specialized yoga program could help women with urinary incontinenceAn ancient form of meditation and exercise could help women who suffer from urinary incontinence, according to a new study from UC San Francisco.
- Japan kicks off first whale hunt since UN court rulingA Japanese whaling fleet is set to leave port Saturday in the first hunt since the UN's top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.
- Nissan develops first 'self-cleaning' car prototype (w/ Video)Washing a car can be a chore '' and a costly one at that. In response, Nissan in Europe has begun tests on innovative paint technology that repels mud, rain and everyday dirt, meaning drivers may never have ...
- Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.(C) Phys.org' 2003-2013, Science X network
-
- Syria
-
- Elections and US embassy closing email
- hi Adam , I'm few shows behind so I don't know if you've figured this out already ...
- since the registration for the presidential elections in Syria started 4 days ago we have two candidates so far :
- - Mr. Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar (43 years old, Aleppo)
- - Mr. Hassan Abdullah al-Nouri (54 years old, Damascus)
- (President Bashar Al-Assad has not yet declared his candidacy.)
- the presidential elections will take place on June the 3rd in Syria as well as overseas (since there are about 2 million people abroad)
- a democratic elections is very bad for the image Obama's administration is trying to create about a the Syrian government as a dictatorial regime.
- this is why the United States can't let the Syrian embassy do its work in front of the media and the American people ...
- this is the only reason Mr. John Kerry decided to shutdown the Syrian embassy last month , not in the first year of the crisis ,not the second or the third ....LAST MONTH , cause he knows well that the Syrian elections will happen and it will be very hard to convince the word of its "false results" (as the US is judging it event before it starts) in case part of the elections was on American soil and open to the whole world to see.
-
- Hillary 2016
-
- DYING BILL CLINTON'S BABY HEARTBREAK - Globe Magazine
- Former President Bill Clinton's joy over becoming a first-time grandfather is being tainted by heartbreaking panic that he will die before the baby is born. In this world exclusive, you'll learn about daughter Chelsea's happy pregnancy announcement and, also, why the family is so alarmed over Bill's health '' ONLY in the new issue of GLOBE.
-
- Bombshell: White House Knowingly Allowed Al Qaeda Arms Deal That Facilitated Benghazi Attack
- After a seven-month study of the events surrounding 2012'²s Benghazi attack, the Citizens Commission on Benghazi determined that it could have been prevented if the United States hadn't allowed $500 million in weapons to be transported to Al Qaeda militants in Libya a year earlier.
- 'The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,' Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.
- She blamed the Obama administration for failing to stop half of a $1 billion United Arab Emirates arms shipment from reaching al-Qaeda-linked militants.
- 'Remember, these weapons that came into Benghazi were permitted to enter by our armed forces who were blockading the approaches from air and sea,' Lopez claimed. 'They were permitted to come in. '... [They] knew these weapons were coming in, and that was allowed..
- The report stated that top officials, including those from the White House and Congress, knowingly and deliberately allowed the weapons, which were originally intended for Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, to be delivered to al Qaeda militants in Libya in an attempt to overthrow Gaddafi.
- The report's sources, including Retired Admiral Chuck Kubic, said that Gaddafi was actually willing to negotiate stepping down peacefully, but that the White House refused to let the Pentagon negotiate with Gaddafi.
- Had the Obama administration done so and blocked the weapons from entering al Qaeda's hands, the attack on Benghazi may never have happened, and countless lives would have been spared.
- So, what difference does it make? In my opinion, quite a bit.
- You can view the entire report here.
- 10 Failures on the Growing List of Those Who Can't Pass 'Name a Hillary Accomplishment' ChallengeHT Daily Mail
-
- Native Advertising
-
- John Paul II canonization sponsored by banks, oil giant
- He has railed against the "tyranny" of global capitalism and the "idolatry of money" but even Pope Francis needs a little corporate coin sometimes '' as proven by the list of sponsors for Sunday's canonizations.
- An oil and gas giant, several banks and Switzerland-based food megacorp Nestle are among more than a dozen financial backers of the Rome event.
- Hundreds of thousands of people are due to come to the Eternal City to see Pope John Paul II, who reigned from 1978 to 2005, and Pope John XXIII, who was pontiff from 1958 to 1963, canonized as saints.
- The list of sponsors is dominated by Italian corporations, including energy firms Eni and Enel, banking company Intesa SanPaolo and railway network Ferrovie Italiane.
- It's perhaps an unlikely roll call of names to be associated with a Vatican event, six months after Pope Francis launched an attack on the global economic system as part of his call for a greater focus on the needs of the world's poor.
- Father Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with the National Catholic Reporter, said as such events brought income to businesses including hotels and restaurants it was "appropriate that they help."
- He added: "As one archbishop told me, 'You can't pay bills with holy cards.' Having an event to which hundreds of thousands of people attend, is expensive. Better to get some corporate sponsors than to take money out of the poor box for it."
-
- The Cool New Way to Get High Is Apparently To Rub Burt's Bees Lip Balm On Your Eyelids | TIME.com
- Beezin Teens Reportedly Getting High By Rubbing Burt's Bees On Eyelids - TIMEYour browser, Internet Explorer 8 or below, is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites.
- Learn how to update your browser
-
- Vaccine$
-
- Take this autism test to find out if you're one of rising number with condition | Mail Online
- The Autism-Spectrum Quotient was created as measure of the extent of autistic traits in adultsQuiz below contains 50 simplemultiple choice questions about your outlook on lifeEngineers were most likely to get a high score, and teachers the lowestBy Anna Hodgekiss
- Published: 06:40 EST, 22 April 2014 | Updated: 07:19 EST, 22 April 2014
- Do you struggle in social situations, hate making small talk and changes in routine?
- These are all key questions in a quiz designed to identify symptoms autism and its milder form, Asperger syndrome.
- Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults.
- This quiz below contains 50 simple multiple choice questions about your outlook on life - judged by how much you agree with certain statements.
- Examples include: 'I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own', 'I am fascinated by numbers' and whether or not you enjoy doing things spontaneously.
- Others are: 'I usually notice car number plates or similar strings of information', 'I enjoy doing things spontaneously' and 'if I try to imagine something, I find it very easy to create a picture in my mind'.
- The quiz was designed for the Channel 4 show Embarrassing Bodies to help those possibly living with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
- Figures last month released in the U.S. showed that Autism Spectrum Disorder is on the rise, with 1 in 68 children now diagnosed. In the UK, it is estimated ASD affects one per cent of the population.
- To date, the quiz has been taken by 150,000 people and according to the website, a score of 26 or lower 'effectively discounts the possibility of a diagnosis of autism'.
- The average score for the original control group of the test was 16.4.
- To date, the quiz (right) has been taken by 150,000 people and according to the website, a score of 26 or lower 'effectively discounts the possibility of a diagnosis of autism'. The highest scoring profession for autism was engineering, while those in the South of the UK were also more likely to score higher
- Nationwide, the highest scoring occupation is engineering and the lowest is teaching, while people in the South had on average, higher scores than those in the North .
- According to NHS Choices, Autism Spectrum Disorder can cause a wide range of symptoms, which are often grouped into two main categories. Firstly, problems with social interaction and communication.
- This includes difficulty understanding and being aware of other people's emotions and feelings and/or problems taking part in, or starting, conversations.
- Patterns of thought are another key area, namely restricted and repetitive patterns of thought or physical movement, such as hand tapping or twisting, and becoming upset if these set routines are disrupted.
- Note: The quiz creators stress the test is not diagnostic - so even a high score does not categorically mean you have autism or Asperger's. If you have any concerns, see your GP.
- Share or comment on this article
-
- SnowJob
-
- U.S. judge rules search warrants extend to overseas email accounts | Reuters
- NEW YORKFri Apr 25, 2014 6:41pm EDT
- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet service providers must turn over customer emails and other digital content sought by U.S. government search warrants even when the information is stored overseas, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
- In what appears to be the first court decision addressing the issue, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis in New York said Internet service providers such as Microsoft Corp or Google Inc cannot refuse to turn over customer information and emails stored in other countries when issued a valid search warrant from U.S. law enforcement agencies.
- If U.S. agencies were required to coordinate efforts with foreign governments to secure such information, Francis said, "the burden on the government would be substantial, and law enforcement efforts would be seriously impeded."
- The ruling underscores the debate over privacy and technology that has intensified since the disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about secret U.S. government efforts to collect huge amounts of consumer data around the world.
- "It showcases an increasing trend that data can be anywhere," said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who studies computer crime law.
- The decision addressed a search warrant served on Microsoft for one of its customers whose emails are stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland.
- In a statement, Microsoft said it challenged the warrant because the U.S. government should not be able to search the content of email held overseas.
- "A U.S. prosecutor cannot obtain a U.S. warrant to search someone's home located in another country, just as another country's prosecutor cannot obtain a court order in her home country to conduct a search in the United States," the company said. "We think the same rules should apply in the online world, but the government disagrees."
- The company plans to seek review of Francis' decision from a federal district judge.
- Microsoft has recently emphasized to its customers abroad that their data should not be searchable by U.S. authorities and said it would fight such requests.
- In a company blog post in December, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, said it would "assert available jurisdictional objections to legal demands when governments seek this type of customer content that is stored in another country."
- The search warrant in question was approved by Francis in December and sought information associated with an email account for a Microsoft customer, including the customer's name, contents of all emails received and sent by the account, online session times and durations and any credit card number or bank account used for payment.
- It is unclear which agency issued the warrant, and it and all related documents remain under seal.
- Microsoft determined that the target account is hosted on a server in Dublin and asked Francis to throw out the request, citing U.S. law that search warrants do not extend overseas.
- Francis agreed that this is true for "traditional" search warrants but not warrants seeking digital content, which are governed by a federal law called the Stored Communications Act.
- A search warrant for email information, he said, is a "hybrid" order: obtained like a search warrant but executed like a subpoena for documents. Longstanding U.S. law holds that the recipient of a subpoena must provide the information sought, no matter where it is held, he said.
- (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Dan Grebler)
- Link thisShare thisDigg thisEmailPrintReprints
-
- The DOJ Wants to Hack Your Webcam
- (Photo via Shutterstock)This story could not have been published without the support of readers like you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout and fund more stories like it!
- At a meeting April 7 and 8 in Louisiana, a group of lawyers and academics prepared the rules for when law enforcement is allowed to hack people's computers for a dramatic, and troubling, expansion. Government hacks - the FBI's secretly accessing your hard drive, email, webcam, and more - which have unfolded in headlines as a push and pull between privacy-concerned judges and activists and secrecy-obsessed law enforcement, appear poised to see the strict judicial restrictions on their use loosened. As is often the case with wide-reaching changes to the criminal law, the law at issue is not a big-name bill, like the Affordable Care Act, but rather one more closely held to the legal system - here, Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
- The Federal Rules are the procedural guidelines for courts, lawyers, and investigators guiding important parts of investigations and trials. They determine, for example, who gets to take a plea, and how, or who gets screwed, and how, by a federal grand jury. Currently, they place limits on warrant authority in addition to constitutional protections and other restrictions, generally requiring that for the FBI to receive a warrant to perform a domestic hack, computers to be infected must be inside the jurisdiction of the court issuing the warrant and must each receive a warrant. This concern for place and emphasis on conservativism in warrant authorizations is one of the many ways a colonial memory abhorring general warrants has refracted into the set of legal protections that, inadequate as they are, provide safeguards on privacy today.
- Federal hacking, while not a wholly new phenomenon, is of rising interest in domestic policing. In the past decade, well-publicized domestic instances of law enforcement use of malware have not provided a clear set of standards for the technology's use, and - typical of questions of police procedure and technology - find transparency at the center of the fight about the operation of the law.
- Last year, the debate went into overdrive when Federal Magistrate Judge Steven Smith, of the Southern District of Texas, denied an FBI warrant application to hack a suspect's computer, and, challenging the normal secrecy that surrounds domestic hacking, rendered the decision publicly.
- The order laid bare the FBI's plans to use quasi-targeted spam email to install a Remote Administration Tool, or RAT, capable of activating the webcam, searching messages and the hard drive and logging location to further a fraud investigation. One of Magistrate Judge Smith's many reasons for denying the application, in a thoughtful, vitally important opinion, was the fact that the FBI had no idea of where the computer it wanted to hack was, and had no guarantee that the hack or even the search of the contents itself would take place within his authority. Recognizing that malware-aided electronic searches do not "take place in the airy nothing of cyberspace," he denied the warrant, chiding the agency along the way for the lack of detail it provided about the operations of its hacking units. Magistrate Judge Smith noted, particularly, that video surveillance is known as "a potentially indiscriminate and most intrusive method of surveillance." Worth remembering in the context of this debate is that federal judges have jurisdiction over clearly delineated geographic areas only - judicial authority in a region does not mean the extension of that authority over the country writ large.
- All of this, then, leaves the agency in something of a quandary. Assuming it as simultaneously true that a) federal law enforcement fundamentally operates in good faith and with respect for constitutional and other safeguards and b) that there may be legitimate uses for forms of remote exploitation less invasive than webcam spying, the ruling presents an invitation to rethink the way that Rule 41(b) - the portion of federal criminal procedure that limits warrant authority to a single judicial district - works on the web. And indeed, just months after the decision in In Re Warrant to Search a Target Computer, the government began to do just that.
- The Department of Justice's Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules, one of many judicial sub-bodies whose internal deliberations contribute to the patchwork of American regulation and legal procedure, has for almost a year considered the question, via subcommittee, recently arriving - though with subcommittee membership divided - at proposed language that would vastly expand judicial authority to authorize the use of invasive malware in routine law enforcement. Removing the requirement that warrants be limited to a given magistrate judge's district, the proposed change, Rule 41(b)(6) would expand existing regulation to allow magistrate judges "... to issue a warrant to use remote access to search electronic storage media and to seize electronically stored information located within or outside that district."
- Things Unwritten, Things Unsaid
- There are three telling things about the proposed change. First is the language itself, which removes the traditional territorial restriction in the rules, an expansion of federal power. Currently, with concerns both constitutional and other in mind, investigators seeking to prosecute in many districts must obtain authorization everywhere they seek to execute search warrants. Criminal law is crucially and irreconcilably tied to geography - without these restrictions, rules of the most permissive jurisdiction would, de facto, be the rules of the land. Second, and as important, are the DOJ's asserted justifications for such an expansion, which allow a valuable look at potential uses for this expanded power.
- In addition to computers whose whereabouts are in fact unknown because of anonymizing technology or otherwise, the DOJ envisions having authority to search "computers in many districts simultaneously," giving as an example a botnet controlling computers in many places at once. In a different and similarly asserted justification, the DOJ foresees that a single warrant could provide probable cause for searches of data held in different districts by multiple cloud-based services, a leaping end-run around established warrant practices already in place in, for example, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). These rationales are considerably more expansive than the question raised by the In Re Warrant to Search a Target Computer RAT denial ... the subcommittee is trying to backdoor the law in favor of more back doors.
- Third, sample warrant materials provided in the subcommittee's reportings to aid in deliberations lack specificity as to the means of malware deployment, couch the agency's planned hacking in euphemism, and - importantly - showcase forms of malware far less invasive than ones that the FBI has already publicly attempted to use. In this way, the asserted justifications do not address Magistrate Judge Smith's concerns about recklessness in malware installation - arising partially due to agency omission in its applications - that simply emailing a malicious link to an email address may violate the privacy of more people than the suspect only and indeed may not hack the correct person or computer at all! The DOJ examples also vastly downplay the nature of what the agency and the DOJ actually seek to turn loose - in secret, in many cases(1) - on citizens. Although the FBI has and has previously sought to use tools allowing for the remote activation of webcams, the committee is treated to a heavily sanitized, choirboy set of promises for its deliberations about Rule 41 expansion - nowhere in their example materials does the DOJ describe remote webcam activation, even as it was a warrant for precisely that technology that precipitated proposed changes in the first place.
- A primary reason these changes are so dangerous: By expanding authority for a single judge to issue warrants for computers and data located outside of their district, prosecutors and feds can "forum shop," seeking out a court where its arguments are likely to be received favorably due to known biases or predispositions of magistrate judges there. So, even as the committee repeatedly ensured that the changes to the rule do not affect constitutional protections, by allowing the FBI to forum shop in its applications - and for warrants applying not to one, but up to all 94 judicial districts - the proposed change is a drastic blow to the constitutional safeguards in place for privacy and other civil liberties. The ACLU noted the many problems with the proposed changes in a memo.
- Together, the language and justifications presented in favor of the expansion of the practice of state hacking presage a radical expansion in police power and a blow to privacy. Americans are in danger of being subject to more remote access policing, more virtual invasions of privacy, and more omissions on the part of law enforcement. Non-singular, non-territorially-linked warrant authority makes government malware for domestic policing the new normal, anywhere and everywhere people use computers. Offered law professor and author Lori Andrews of the constitutional problems posed by using a RAT to activate a computer's webcam without knowledge of its location, "If there's one thing the Fourth Amendment protects, it is your privacy in your home. The DOJ's desire to secretly view you at home through your webcam runs contrary to one of the basic principles of our democracy."
- Whether the proposed changes are adopted will depend in part on how much sun these deliberations see as they make their way to Congressional bodies, and how much rancor greets their consideration. For now, keep your eyes open.
- (1) Another aspect of the DOJ's proposal was tweaking the notice requirements under Rule 41, arguably lowering the effort law enforcement must make to inform a user that their computer is subject to remote-access search.
-
- Agenda 21
-
- Al Gore: 'Extreme weather events are 100 times more common than 30-years ago' | Intellihub News
- Former Vice President Al Gore made some amazing claims about global warmingBy Michael Bastasch(INTELLIHUB) '' The failed presidential candidate told Politico Magazine that extreme weather events are 100 times more common today than they were 30 years ago due to global warming.
- But Gore's claims actually run counter to mounting scientific evidence that global warming is not making the weather more ''extreme.''
- ''The game changer for the first question is the extreme weather events related to climate that are now 100 times more common than they were just 30 years ago,'' Gore told Politico. ''This is having a huge impact. And they're getting more frequent. More common. Bigger. More destructive. And people are looking at their hole cards.''
- ''The extreme weather events and the knock-on effects with the stronger ocean-based storms, the bigger downpours, more floods, mudslides, the saturation of that hillside in Snohomish County, for example '' these things are way more common now, because the extremes are more extreme and they are more frequent,'' Gore added.
- Gore's claims, however, are not even in line with evidence presented by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change '-- a group often cited by Gore as evidence that global warming could be catastrophic.
- The IPCC found that there ''is limited evidence of changes in extremes associated with other climate variables since the mid-20th century'' and current data shows ''no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century. '... No robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes counts have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin.''
- The IPCC also said ''there continues to be a lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency of floods on a global scale'' adding ''that there is not enough evidence at present to suggest more than low confidence in a global-scale observed trend in drought or dryness (lack of rainfall) since the middle of the 20th century due to lack of direct observations, geographical inconsistencies in the trends.''
- Extreme weather has been a major talking point for environmentalists and Democrats who want to show evidence that the planet is warming. Last year, politicians jumped on the devastating typhoon that hit the Philippines, saying it was more evidence that human activity was making the weather worse.
- ''This is all over the world,'' Gore said. ''In the Philippines, there were four million homeless refugees and still are. That's twice as many as the Indian Ocean tsunami. The Philippines has always been hit hard by typhoons, but this is something different and the warmer ocean is connected to it. And all over the world, people are saying, 'Whoa, this is getting pretty crazy.'''
- But the IPCC isn't the only body to counter Gore's claims. University of Colorado scientist Roger Pielke, Jr. has also presented evidence that weather has not gotten more extreme.
- ''It is misleading, and just plain incorrect, to claim that disasters associated with hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or droughts have increased on climate timescales either in the United States or globally,'' Dr. Pielke told the Senate last summer. ''It is further incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases.''
- ''Hurricanes have not increased in the U.S. in frequency, intensity or normalized damage since at least 1900,'' Pielke added. ''The same holds for tropical cyclones globally since at least 1970.''
- So far this year, the United States has experienced a record-low number of tornadoes, according to Pielke, and the number of deaths and the amount of property damage from tornadoes has decreased dramatically in the past six decades.
- ''The average annual U.S. property losses caused by tornadoes, from 1950 to 2013, is $5.9 billion in today's dollars,'' Pielke wrote in the Wall Street Journal. ''However, for the first half of the data set (1950-81), the annual average loss was $7.6 billion, and in the second half (1982-2013), it was $4.1 billion'--a drop of almost 50%.''
- This article originally appeared on Freedom Outpost.*Viewed by 269 people who like Intellihub News, 269 visits today*
-
- California eyes plan to speed bullet train using cap-and-trade program proceeds | Fox News
- Five months after a judge in Sacramento halted state financing for California's bullet train dead in its tracks, Democrats are eyeing a plan that would fund the high-speed-rail line with proceeds from the state's cap-and-trade program on carbon emissions.
- As envisioned, California's $68 billion bullet-train system, the nation's first, would take passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of more than 200 miles an hour. The project, though, has been beset by planning delays, fluctuating cost estimates and court challenges that have threatened to kill or delay it indefinitely.
- Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using one-third of funds raised annually through cap-and-trade auctions to help pay for high-speed rail. State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has proposed using one-fifth of those funds. If some version of those proposals passes the Democrat-dominated legislature in coming months, the state says it will use the guaranteed funding to leverage various new sources of financing to quicken the pace of construction.
- "An ongoing revenue stream is very important to us, because that would allow us to use financing, whether it is some type of revenue bond or some other financing mechanism," said Dan Richard, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. "We could build simultaneous sections, and when you are looking at a project that is of this magnitude'...anything you can do to shorten that time frame or do things in parallel as opposed to in sequence is going to mean big savings."
- The state's cap-and-trade program, created in 2006, requires businesses that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to purchase credits for excess pollution. Through auctions, the state has sold more than $1.5 billion worth of carbon credits, raising $663 million for the state's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, set aside for projects that reduce pollution and other goals.
- As the auctions grow, and more businesses are required to take part, they could raise anywhere between $12 billion and $45 billion through 2020, according to the state legislative analyst's office.
- That office, however, has raised questions about using cap-and-trade dollars for the train, pointing out that during construction, the project would generate emissions rather than reduce them. Mr. Brown, a Democrat, has said using cap-and-trade dollars on the train is "very appropriate."
- Click for more The Wall Street Journal.
- Daily must-read stories from the biggest name in politics
-
- Bank$ters
-
- 52 Year-Old French Banker Jumps To Her Death In Paris (After Questioning Her Superiors) | Zero Hedge
- There have been 13 senior financial services executives deaths around the world this year, but the most notable thing about the sad suicide of the 14th, a 52-year-old banker at France's Bred-Banque-Populaire, is she is the first female. As Le Parisien reports, Lydia (no surname given) jumped from the bank's Paris headquarter's 14th floor shortly before 10am. FranceTV added that sources said "she questioned her superiors before jumping out the window," but the bank denies it noting that she had been in therpapy for several years.
- FranceTV and Le Parisien reports,
- An employee of the Bred-Banque Populaire has committed suicide, Tuesday, April 22 in the morning at the headquarters of the bank. On her arrival at headquarters, quai de la Rapee, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris...
- The incident occurred shortly before 10 am, 200 meters from the Ministry of Finance.
- According to our sources, she questioned his superiors before jumping out the window, that formally denies the direction of the Bank.
- "There is absolutely no evidence for designating his relationships with his hierarchy as responsible or letter or message " insists the direction of the communication FranceTV info.
- It also speaks of a "very painful moment for the company" .
- In an email to all employees consulted by FranceTV info, the management of the bank confirms the "death by suicide" and said "severely affected." It shows have established a psychological unit.
- "For the moment, nothing puts the company in question, says the majority union SUNI-Bred/UNSA. The employee got along very well with her new team, her superior is very nice.
- "According to a close," Lydia lived alone, in a difficult environment.
- The human resources department states that this inhabitant of Ivry was in therapy for several years. Each describes a "secretive" but "very well known and popular" woman, but "never spoke of it."
- This is the 14th financial services exective death in recent months...
- 1 - William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th.
- 2 - Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th.
- 3 - Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th.
- 4 - Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.
- 5 - Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun.
- 6 - Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown.
- 7 - Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago. No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice.
- 8 - Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week.
- 9 - James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say whatcaused the death
- 10 - Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown's Vertical Group, commited suicide by jumping in front of LIRR train
- 11 - Kenneth Bellando, 28, a trader at Levy Capital, formerly investment banking analyst at JPMorgan, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment.
- 12 - Jan Peter Schmittmann, 57, the former CEO of Dutch bank ABN Amro found dead at home near Amsterdam with wife and daughter.
- 13 - Li Jianhua, 49, the director of China's Banking Regulatory Commission died of a sudden heart attack
- 14 - Lydia _____, 52 - jumped to her suicide from the 14th floor of Bred-Banque Populaire in Paris
- Average:Your rating: NoneAverage: 4.9(14 votes)
-
- Chase closing accounts of porn stars: Report
- Chase Bank is closing the accounts of hundreds of people who work in the adult industry, according to multiple reports
- Gossip blogger Perez Hilton posted images of the letters reportedly sent to stars in the adult industry. Hilton reported that the accounts would be closed on May 11, 2014.
- Adult industry publication XBIZ also reported on the account closings, including an interview with one of the women whose account is slated for termination, porn star Teagan Presley.
- XBIZ reported that they had not been able to reach Chase for comment.
- JPMorgan Chase faced a lawsuit last year from the founder of soft porn studio MRG Entertainment that alleged the bank violated fair lending laws for refusing to underwrite a loan on the grounds of "moral reasons."
- The outcome of the case was not clear Saturday.
-
- Drone Nation
-
- Stunning aerial photos from the Long Grove home explosion | Voices
- By Sun-Times | Get In Touch: @suntimes | staff@suntimes.comBy Sun-TimesPhoto/Video - April 26, 2014 6:30 pmAerial photographer Lee Hogan captured these stunning photos of the scene Saturday.
- Residents of the northwest suburbs were jostled awake after a late night explosion in Long Grove. A natural gas leak is suspected, but the investigation is on-going.
- Miraculously, no one was hurt in the explosion.
- Neighbor Joyce Link, who lives two blocks away from the home that exploded said she understood that her neighbor, Sheryl Sheiner, the owner of the home that was leveled to the ground, saw flames coming out of an outdoor generator around 10:30 Friday night.
- Sheiner, who was home alone, walked out of her home to call 911 and within three minutes it went up, said Link, who used to have house dinners with the Sheiners and other local couples.
- Aerial photographer Lee Hogan captured these stunning photos of the scene Saturday.
- Lee Hogan/For Sun-Times Media
- Lee Hogan/For Sun-Times Media
- Lee Hogan/For Sun-Times Media
- Lee Hogan/For Sun-Times Media
-
- Obama Will Finally Have to Explain Why the US Can Kill Americans with Drones | Motherboard
- An MQ-9 Reaper drone in Nevada in 2007. Image: USAFIn the years-long conversation about President Barack Obama's incredible drone wars, we've heard opaque, albeit scintillating, references to threat matrices and kill lists. But there's one thing we've never heard: What is the president's legal rationale for extrajudicial killing of Americans with drones?
- Finally, we can expect to find out soon. Today, US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the New York Times and the ACLU in a Freedom of Information Act case levied against the Department of Justice, Defense Department, and CIA. The case was initially filed after the above agencies refused to comply with a FOIA request "seeking documents relating to targeted killings of United States citizens carried out by drone aircraft."
- The order from a three-judge panel requires the government to release a raft of documents regarding drone strikes, including the classified Department of Justice memo that initially authorized the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American al-Qaeda imam, and Samir Khan, the Pakistani American publisher of the al-Qaeda affiliated Inspire magazine, who were killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. (Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son was killed two weeks later in another drone strike. Both strikes were just a part of the US's long drone war in the country.)
- Crucially, the court ruled that all correspondence pertaining to both the legal and factual bases for the strikes must be released. Most importantly, this includes the rationale the Department of Justice, at the direction of the White House, approved for the killing of American citizens without due process, and especially the criteria used for classifying the two men and a teenager as enemy combatants.
- The ruling is especially crucial as, just a month and a half ago, we learned of Abdullah al-Shami, the next American'--and alleged militant'--that the White House would like to execute by drone. It's unclear how the legal framework for al-Awlaki's killing might apply to al-Shami.
- A White House memo released in May of last year explained that the "United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to US persons. It is simply not the case that all terrorists pose a continuing, imminent threat to US persons; if a terrorist does not pose such a threat, the United States will not use lethal force."
- With that in mind, the bar for killing an American abroad seems to have been lifted higher since 2011. But it's also important to note that the classification of the al-Awlakis and Khan as "imminent threats" is a key piece of evidence the NYT-ACLU suit is trying to uncover.
- It's important to note, as Circuit Judge Jon. O. Newman does in the ruling, that the "lawsuits do not challenge the lawfulness of drone attacks or targeted killings." Instead, they simply seek information about how the government argued'--in secret, mind you'--that it could legally kill three Americans abroad without due process.
- As the justices noted, it's vital information for the public, especially considering the conversion of the CIA into a drone-powered paramilitary organization, as well as the Obama Administration's continued reliance on targeted killings. And as Ars Technica notes, the ruling may also have key knock-on effects for other FOIA cases. But at its most simple, the ruling is monumental: Finally, the public will learn'--barring more legal wrangling, of course'--how the government approves its drone kills.
-
- TPP
-
- U.S., Japan unlikely to wrap up trade deal by May TPP talks: Japan official | Reuters
- TOKYOSat Apr 26, 2014 10:46pm EDT
- U.S. President Barack Obama (L) attends a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) at the Akasaka guesthouse in Tokyo April 24, 2014.
- Credit: Reuters/Junko Kimura-Matsumoto/Pool
- TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and the United States have found "common ground" to forge a two-way trade deal, but may not be able to resolve remaining sticking points in time for a mid-May meeting of top negotiators seeking a broad regional deal, a senior Japanese official said.
- Marathon talks during U.S. President Barack Obama's state visit to Tokyo last week yielded progress - hailed by the two sides as a "key milestone" - but the two sides stopped short of announcing a deal vital to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation bloc that would extend from Asia to Latin America.
- The upbeat tone, however, was a contrast to the emphasis on "gaps" after previous rounds of talks on a bilateral deal that has been stalemated by differences over access to Japan's agriculture market and both countries' car markets.
- "What Obama's visit produced after many lengthy negotiations was a common ground on which the two sides believe we can continue to work to find a mutually acceptable solution," the senior Japanese official told Reuters. He declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.
- "We no longer have to worry that the lack of a Japan-U.S. pathway is going to block negotiations with other countries. This is a very important landmark Obama was able to produce," he said. But he added he was "not optimistic" that Washington and Tokyo could work out remaining issues "in a month or two".
- Negotiators from the 12 TPP countries are to meet in Vietnam in mid-May, followed by a gathering of Asia-Pacific trade ministers in China on May 17-18. Obama and Abe will likely meet next at an Asia-Pacific summit in China in November.
- Both Obama and Abe have domestic constituencies keen to see their leaders stick to rival stances: a U.S. demand that Japan scrap all tariffs and Japan's pledge to protect politically powerful farmers in five sectors including rice, beef and pork.
- Yet both leaders are keen for a deal - Obama because TPP is central to his "pivot" of military, diplomatic and economic resources to Asia and Abe because he has touted the trade deal as a key element of reforms needed to generate economic growth.
- Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported over the weekend that the two sides had in fact reached a "basic agreement" in last week's talks, but that Tokyo wanted to avoid announcing it for fear of hurting the ruling party's prospects in a Sunday by-election for a seat in parliament's lower house.
- Obama faces opposition from a wary Congress and farm good exporters worried that Washington will settle for "TPP-Lite".
- Commenting on the Yomiuri report, the Japanese official said both sides had offered significant compromises, with the United States dropping insistence on scrapping all tariffs and Tokyo offering bolder market access improvements than previously.
- But he said no deal would be reached until all elements were in place.
- "Nobody is dreaming that we have concluded everything," he said.
- "All professional trade negotiators know that unless everything is agreed, everything is open," he said, adding stakeholders in both countries had to be brought on board.
- Among the issues yet to be thrashed out are the period of time over which tariffs will be reduced and what sort of steps Japan can take to soften the blow on farmers.
- "There are a lot of uncertainties we need to resolve, either technically or politically," the Japanese official said.
- Both sides expressed optimism that progress on a U.S.-Japan deal will breathe momentum into the push for a regional pact covering 40 percent of the world economy and creating a rule-based framework that could entice Asian giant China to join.
- The Japanese official echoed that view but said there was no timetable set for when exhausted U.S. and Japanese negotiators would meet, nor could he predict when a long-delayed broader deal would be reached.
- "That part is not in sight right now," he said.
- (Additional reporting by Krista Hughes in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill)
- Link thisShare thisDigg thisEmailPrintReprints
-
- Real News
-
- The Larger Your Penis, The More Likely Your Wife Will Cheat Says New Study
- Men often view having a large member as a symbol of strength and sexual prowess. But it turns out, when it comes to keeping a woman satisfied, bigger may not be better.
- Contrary to popular belief, a new study out of Kenya found that husbands with larger penises were more likely to be cheated on by their wives (shocking, we know).
- For the study -- published this month in PLOSOne -- researchers interviewed 545 married couples in Kenya in order to better understand their relationship habits and, more specifically, to identify factors which contributed to women having extramarital affairs.
- Researchers asked both partners to self-report the male's erect penis size (they had a 15 inch ruler on hand for reference). Then, if there were differences between the estimates (which there were), they either took the average of the two or went with the estimate from the partner who was less likely to fib.
- What they found was rather shocking:
- "Every one inch longer penis increased the likelihood of women being involved in extra-marital partnership by almost one-and-half times," the researchers wrote. "Women associated large penises with pain and discomfort during sex which precludes the enjoyment and sexual satisfaction that women are supposed to feel."
- In fact, one woman interviewed for the study told the researchers the following: "Some penis may be large yet my vagina is small, when he tries to insert it inside, it hurts so much that I will have to look for another man who has a smaller one [penis] and can do it in a way I can enjoy."
- According to the study, 6.2 percent of the 545 females had affairs during the six-month study. Other factors that increased the likelihood of women straying outside the marriage included domestic violence, being denied sex or denied preferred sexual position, being under age of 25 and a lack of sexual satisfaction.
- Researchers focused on female infidelity specifically because of the prevalence and spread of HIV among women in the region. Researchers felt if they could identify reasons for unprotected sex, they might better prevent it.
- Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Divorce on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our newsletter here.
-
- War on Weed
-
- AirTHC website offers Colorado tourists marijuana-friendly accommodations - UPI.com
- DENVER, April 25 (UPI) -- Some Colorado homeowners are trying to cash in on the state's recent legalization of marijuana by turning their homes into 4/20-friendly accommodations for tourists who want to toke up.By partnering with airTHC, which is like Airbnb but with marijuana-friendly accommodations, locals like Tracey Smith are trying to make some green by letting guests from out of state get high.
- ''We know people are going to come up here and do it anyway, so we just figured, why not?'' Smith told CBS Denver. ''I think people are going to feel comfortable coming to the site and saying that's why they're here.''
- Colorado law doesn't permit pot-smoking in public places and most hotels don't allow smoking in general.
- ''We can provide places like this where they can come, they can ski for the day and enjoy cannabis legally, and not necessarily bring a bad image to Colorado,'' said airTHC co-founder Jordan Conner.
- Dozens of people have listed their homes with the site since the law went into effect.
- ''The legalization of marijuana in Colorado not only represents a gigantic step forward in the movement to have the versatile plant decriminalized nationally, but it presents great opportunities for those who enjoy unwinding with a good smoke,'' according to the airTHC website.
-
- Sience!
-
- Scientists have built an 'off switch' for the brain - Science - News - The Independent
- In 2005, Stanford scientist Karl Deisseroth discovered how to switch individual brain cells on and off by using light in a technique he dubbed 'optogenetics'.
- Research teams around the world have since used this technique to study brain cells, heart cells, stem cells and others regulated by electrical signals.
- However, light-sensitive proteins were efficient at switching cells on but proved less effective at turning them off.
- Now, after almost a decade of research, scientists have been able to shut down the neurons as well as activate them.
- Mr Deisseroth's team has now re-engineered its light-sensitive proteins to switch cells much more adequately than before. His findings are presented in the journal Science.
- Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, said this improved ''off'' switch will help researchers to better understand the brain circuits involved in behavior, thinking and emotion.
- In the upper left opsin, the red color shows negative charges spanning the opsin that facilitated the flow of positive (stimulatory) ions through the channel into neurons. In the newly engineered channels (lower right), those negative charges have been changed to positive (blue), allowing the negatively charged inhibitory chloride ions to flow through. ''This is something we and others in the field have sought for a very long time,'' Mr Deisseroth, a senior author of the paper and professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioural sciences said.
- ''We're excited about this increased light sensitivity of inhibition in part because we think it will greatly enhance work in large-brained organisms like rats and primates."
- The new techniques rely on changing 10 of the amino acids in the optogenetic protein.
- ''It creates a powerful tool that allows neuroscientists to apply a brake in any specific circuit with millisecond precision, beyond the power of any existing technology,'' Mr Insel explained.
- This technique could help scientists develop treatments for patients with some brain diseases as it could allow problematic parts of the brain to be switched off with light and tackled with minimal intrusion.
- Merab Kokaia, PhD, a professor at Lund University Hospital in Sweden who has used optogenetics to study epilepsy and other conditions praised the research.
- "These features could be much more useful for behavioral studies in animals but could also become an effective treatment alternative for neurological conditions where drugs do not work, such as some cases of severe epilepsy and other hyper-excitability disorders," he said.
-
- VIDEO-CLIPS-DOCS
-
- VIDEO- Russian president warns his people against using Internet - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-John Kerry Blasts 'Propaganda Bull Horn' RT...
- Not to be confused with U.S. mainstream media U.S. propaganda bull horns, such as the New York Times.
-
- VIDEO-Secretary Kerry Ukraine | Video | C-SPAN.org
- April 24, 2014Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to reporters about the situation in Ukraine.'He accused Russia of violating the terms agreed upon in Geneva and of committing destabilizing acts in eastern Ukraine.
- Javascript must be enabled in order to access C-SPAN videos.
- *The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
- People in this videoHosting OrganizationMore Videos FromState DepartmentRelated VideoMarch 28, 2014State Department Daily BriefingMarie Harf briefed reporters and responded to questions on a variety of international issues.'Topics included'...
- March 27, 2014State Department Daily BriefingMarie Harf briefed reporters and responded to questions on a variety of international issues.'Topics include'...
- March 3, 2014Russian Intervention in UkraineSecretary of State John Kerry spoke to reporters following a meeting with Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leancato'...
- August 9, 2013U.S.-Russia RelationsU.S. and Russian counterparts spoke about relations between the U.S. and Russia.'Among the topics they addressed'...
-
- VIDEO-Standing O-Secretary Kerry Economic Partnerships | Video | C-SPAN.org
- April 24, 2014Secretary of State John Kerry delivered the keynote address at the Export-Import Bank of the United States' 2014 Annual Conference at the'... read more
- Secretary of State John Kerry delivered the keynote address at the Export-Import Bank of the United States' 2014 Annual Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.'Topics included the State Department's efforts to create global economic partnerships, and the prospects for economic growth in the U.S. and abroad.'He also talked about his experience as a small-business entrepreneur making cookies. close
- Javascript must be enabled in order to access C-SPAN videos.
- *The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
- People in this videoHosting OrganizationMore Videos FromExport-Import Bank ConferenceRelated VideoApril 24, 2014Export-Import Bank ConferenceFred Hochberg delivered the opening address at the Export-Import Bank of the United States' 2014 Annual Conference at'...
- April 25, 2014Export-Import Bank Annual ConferenceLarry Summers spoke at the 2014 Export-Import Bank Conference in Washington, D.C. Mr.'Summers talked about the'...
- April 13, 2012International Trade IssuesCommerce Secretary John Bryson and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke about funding for the Export-Import Bank.'They'...
- April 12, 2012Export-Import Bank ConferenceFred Hochburg spoke about objections from some members of Congress to renewing the Export-Import Bank charter on the'...
-
- VIDEO- State Dept's Jen Psaki grilled over 'infringement of press freedom' - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-NBC Uses Gender 'Pay Gap' Myth To Complain That Boys Get More Allowance Than Girls | MRCTV
- MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
- MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
- Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
-
- VIDEO-Nigel Farage attacked as 'racist' | MRCTV
- MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
- MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
- Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
-
- VIDEO- "Are YOU Fearful Of Another 9/11?" Wolf Blitzer Asks Tony Blair - YouTube
-
- VIDEO- Netanyahu "THESE PEOPLE Are Openly OPENLY! Calling For The Killing Of Jews!" - YouTube
-
- VIDEO- CNN: RUSSIA WANTS WORLD WAR 3! - YouTube
-
- VIDEO- Albuquerque Cops KILL AGAIN! This Time A 19 year Old Female! BECAUSE THEY CAN! - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-The Growing Perils of the Cashless Future
- Of course, it's not just companies that want to make a buck. A recent episode of "The Good Wife" showed how a fictional (we hope) NSA might operate. The agency had been listening to the "good wife's" phone conversations at the office as well as her estranged husband, the governor. Therefore, the governor had an aide post a "for sale" notice at a local mosque for an incredible deal on a pre-owned car '-- the number to call was that of the local head of the NSA. Dozens of men with Arabic names called the man at his office, and he was fired.
- Read MoreBitcoin boss Karpeles easily led, not dishonest - mother
- Privacy experts suspect that if the NSA is capable of recording information about people's phone calls, it is certainly monitoring electronic purchases. "That is a civil liberties concern," says Scott Shay, chairman of Signature Bank. "When governments have information they are sometimes tempted to use it, and sometimes they attempt to use it in ways that are not fully vetted by due process."
- Since electronic payments can be traced, authorities may be able to curtail or even eliminate crime, including everything from prostitution to terrorism. But constant government monitoring could turn everyone into a potential suspect, creating distrust between government and citizens that could lead to "vast consequences," economist Domagoj Sajter of the University of Osijek in Croatia wrote in a research paper published in March 2013 titled "Privacy, Identity, and the Perils of the Cashless Society."
- Individuals and organizations may be unwilling to promote unpopular or unconventional ideas if they know their transactions are being monitored. "Ultimately, this would lead to a weaker form of democracy, in which certain voices could not be heard and lobbied for."
- Read MoreWhy bitcoin needs a marketing campaign
- It is possible that the government could monitor electronic purchases in an attempt to police crime, says David Stearns, a historian and sociologist specializing in electronic payments at the University of Washington. From a technological standpoint, the feat would be relatively easy. But whether it will happen remains uncertain, he says.
- Even it does happen, criminals would simply use a different currency, be it digital or physical, he added. For instance, in times of hyperinflation in the past, people bartered with cigarettes. "The idea that it will eliminate all fraud and crime is a little optimistic."
- Stearns sees a cash-limited society as far more likely than a cashless society.
- Read MoreMt. Gox suitors seek creditor support to save bitcoin exchange
- "There are a number of cultural rites that we use cash for today," he says, citing small donations, tips, religious contributions, and gifts. "It's a lot more meaningful for grandma to send a crisp $20 bill than a piece of plastic. If we went to a cashless society, that's what we'd have to figure out."
- '--By Michael Kling of The Fiscal Times
-
- VIDEO-Girl gives jobless dad's r(C)sum(C) to first lady Michelle Obama
- First lady Michelle Obama takes questions from Executive Office employees' children during an event to mark the White House's annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House on April 24, 2014 in Washington, DC.
- The first lady seemed taken aback. Then Mrs. Obama explained to the other children, who might not have heard the girl's comment, that it was a private matter but the girl was "doing something for her dad." Mrs. Obama promised to deal with the matter later.
- Read MoreWho has the best job?
- When the event ended, Mrs. Obama gave the girl a hug and then reached back to grab the r(C)sum(C) off a table as she left the East Room.
- '--By The Associated Press
-
- VIDEO-Who We Are | KnowledgeWorks | College and Career Readiness
- OUR VISIONEvery student experiences meaningful personalized learning that enables him or her to thrive in college, career and civic life.
- OUR MISSIONBy offering a portfolio of innovative education approaches and advancing aligned policies, KnowledgeWorks seeks to activate and develop the capacity of communities and educators to build and sustain vibrant learning ecosystems that allow each student to thrive.
-
- VIDEO-Redefining The Classroom: New Tech High Schools | New Tech Network
- FORT WAYNE, Ind. (21Alive) '' They are redefining the classroom. Teens, who instead of having to memorize what may seem like useless information, are learning things they can apply in their immediate future.New Tech high schools are booming in Northeast Indiana. The specialty high schools cater their curriculum to the needs of the community.
- Since Northeast Indiana is known for its defense and manufacturing industries, in order to retain those industries, these schools have found a way to keep young talent by teaching skills that will create opportunities and career advancement within the community.
- ''That's what we're facing with public education. The world is changing and we're not keeping up with it," said Liz Bryan, the Director of New Tech Academy at Wayne High School in Fort Wayne.
- And so enters the new world of new tech high schools.
- Having been around for almost two decades, the concept of a new tech high school isn't exactly ''new''.
- But in 2006, a federal grant allowed for the development of six new tech high schools, and two middle schools in Northeast Indiana.
- ''Northeast Indiana in having our six New Tech high schools and two New Tech middle schools, actually has one of if not the largest concentration of these schools in the nation, or in the world, frankly," said Ryan Twiss the Director of Big Goal Collaborative with the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership,
- The schools are called "new tech"'--meaning they place an emphasis on STEM curriculum: science, technology, engineering and math.
- ''Really what it's about is instilling students with the 21st Century skills employees are looking for. So rather than doing worksheets and taking tests, they work through a project to try and solve a real life problem," said Twiss.
- Those 21st century skills are: problem solving, communication, analytical thinking, and team work.
- ''We really teach how does that apply to you in your everyday life, and how you'll use that outside of our doors," said Bryan.
- Bryan is the Director of New Tech Academy at Wayne High School'--the first to open in the region. She says new techs are about changing the face of public education.
- ''We have some great things in place, but the instruction has to adapt to what the kids are facing in the real world. We have to use technology as a tool. We have to make sure that kids find relevancy in what they're learning," said Bryan.
- That applies to the students' daily structure where they work in teams on numerous projects, instead of individually.
- ''I wouldn't be as open and outgoing," said Terrence Caldwell a Junior at New Tech Academy.
- ''It's like we're one big family,'' said Tristan Byall a Senior at New Tech.
- Although it is its own entity, new tech academy is housed in Wayne High School, which allows students to participate in traditional high school activities.
- One of those students is Terrence Caldwell who plays for Wayne's basketball team. When he graduates next year he plans to study law.
- ''If it wasn't for New Tech I don't think I would've found it as interesting as I do now," said Terrence.
- Terrence credits new tech's professional partnerships for exposing him to life at a downtown law firm. ''I went down there and talked to a lady and she talked about how her daily schedule goes, and what happens with her life and everything. I found it so interesting that I just really wanted to do it.''
- New tech also partners with Ivy Tech Community College by offering dual-credit courses.
- Tristan takes advantage of the program by attending classes at Ivy Tech in the mornings, and New Tech in the afternoons. After graduation, he plans to attend Purdue, become an engineer and join the Air Force Academy.
- ''I've been approached and recommended for an internship at BAE Systems. I think I just showed that I was proficient in the science and math segments of my learning. I don't think I'd have that at a traditional high school, so it's definitely a nice thing," said Tristan.
- Not only do Terrence and Tristan praise New Tech for better preparing them for college, but also for preparing them to lead better lives.
- ''You build lifelong bonds and relationships with people. You make lifelong friends," said Terrence. "Somewhere down the road you might need a job and your friend from high school might be an employer, so they can help you out."
- ''If there's a place where you want to be considered an actual person and not just a number, then New Tech in Wayne is really stepping its game up," said Tristan.
-
- VIDEO-Social Media Moment w Primero Systems E1 SMMW14 - YouTube
-
- VIDEO- TNW - David Shing - The Art of Storytelling - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-DOUCHEBAG- U.S. Government Killed OUR Internet Today - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-State Dept's Psaki sharply refuses RT reporter's question on Ukraine - YouTube
-
- VIDEO-Weekly Address: Congress Needs to Act on Minimum Wage | The White House
- April 26, 2014 | 3:56 | Public Domain
- In this week's address, the President highlights small business owners across the country acting to raise wages for their workers, and calls on Congress to give America a raise so more hard-working Americans have the opportunity to get ahead.
- Download mp4 (146MB) | mp3 (4MB)
-
- VIDEO-Pizzled: AOL 'digital prophet' Shingy dazzles conference with 'insane gibberish' lecture - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
- With his gravity-defying hair, David Shing cut a flamboyant figure at the Next Web Europe Conference in Amsterdam26 April 2014
- A ''digital prophet'' hired by AOL has been accused of spouting pure gibberish after delivering a baffling lecture at a major conference.With his gravity-defying hair, David Shing (''creative inventor of ideas for the future, influenced by the now'') cut a flamboyant figure at the Next Web Europe Conference in Amsterdam.
- His presentation confirmed Shing's reputation as the go-to guy for digital paradigm technogibberish.
- Describing the potential for ''awesome'' wearable devices delivering ''pictures that explode'', AOL's prophet threw out buzzphrases including ''fail forward foundation'' and ''embrace always logged in''.
- Gawker's Valleywag tech site hosted a video of the speech and accused Shing of ''yelling insane gibberish'' for 20 minutes and making up words.
- Shingy, as he is known, introduced a new term, ''pizzled'', to describe a mode ''somewhere between pissed off and puzzled'' which is ''a whole other scene''.
- Shingy clarified: ''Is always on always good? 'Always on' is important versus 'always relevant' is more important.''
- Described by one website as a ''tech Zoolander'', Shingy calls himself a ''storyteller'' who ''inspires people''. His more prosaic daily role at AOL is to meet clients and advise them on a digital advertising strategy.
- His speech, received with enthusiastic applause by delegates, concluded with a plea to ''remix our budgets and embrace the fact that our brands are being utilised''.
- ''Storytelling is about what we are empowered to do. Be provoked. Be provoking.''
- Shingy began working at AOL in 2008 in the marketing department and later awarded himself the title Digital Prophet because ''it was fun and funky. And it's polarising.''
- Advertisers say Shingy is an asset for the struggling web portal and he insists that his observations, which often provoke a welter of web ''snark'', appear less outlandish in context.
- Valleywag called Shingy's high-profile role at AOL ''the face of a dying corporation, convulsing as it goes down.''
- His Amsterdam presentation, titled ''The Art of Storytelling'' provoked a mixed reaction on Twitter. ''I have seen Shingy spout this gibberish in person. I wanted to chew off my own arm by the end,'' wrote one. Shingy was called a ''clown'' and compared to the satirical character Nathan Barley.
- ''What's irritating about this tryhard is he's supposed to be a rebel but he's a PR hack for corporate America,'' said another.
- But a more favourable response claimed ''Shingy is the greatest piece of performance art since Andy Kaufman'' and another wrote ''this Shingy guy actually made some really good points.''
- Shingy speaks - but what's he saying?''When we're having intimate conversations and we're stuck on our screens, dude, it's a whole other scene, man and it's puzzling.''
- ''Lots of audio. Love, love, love. We love sound. I think sound in the future is very, very important.''
- ''We're freaky for video, man.''
- ''Remix Culture. Participate authentically. Fail Forward Foundation.''
- ''I'm an artist'... For your digital palettes I want you to think about three colours: Technology, content, distribution.''
- Most Read in this section
-
- VIDEO-Remarks for USA Science and Engineering Festival
- SECRETARY KERRY: Hi, everybody. I wish I could be there with you for the USA Science and Engineering Festival. This is the first year that the State Department is participating, and let me tell you from our point of view: We're just getting started. Science and technology are obviously central to America's diplomacy. And our diplomacy is central to advancing American science and technology. That's why President Obama and I are absolutely committed to making sure that our risk-takers and innovators can dream big and reach higher than ever before.
- This cause is actually deeply personal for me. I'll never forget in the summer of 2006, speaking on the Senate floor with an intern from my office. She was a college student from Massachusetts named Beth Kolbe. bad car accident had left Beth paralyzed from the chest down when she was just 14 years old. Beth came to Washington in order to fight for the scientific research that held untold promise for her, and for tens of millions of Americans. And you know what she told me? She said that wanted to be "a face that Senators can see so that they can see what they're voting for."ã
- I really think of Beth every time I think about how we advance science and innovation. Because more and more, the most important progress in our world is driven by all of you: young people with the courage to think big and change things for the better; the willingness to actually go out and try something new even if it meant failure along the way.
- Each and every day, I see how we use science and technology to advance our diplomacy. I see it on the environment, where we use ocean mapping technology to chart our extended continental shelf. And I see it on international security, where we use the latest advances in nuclear physics, chemistry, biology, and emerging technologies to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. And I see it on diplomatic security, where we use cutting-edge explosive detectors and armored vehicles to protect our facilities overseas.
- In fact, the way I'm even talking to you today wouldn't be possible without our scientists, engineers, and technicians pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
- More than ever, we need to use our diplomacy to unleash innovation and ingenuity. And we're doing exactly that. Just last month, we hosted a "CoderDojo at State" event to teach 21st century coding skills to kids, and we've helped to bring this volunteer-led movement to kids in Africa. We're empowering women and girls to become scientists and engineers through "TechGirls," which prepares 15 to 17 year olds from the Middle East and North Africa for careers in STEM. And we've launched the State Department's first "STEM at State" web page to showcase how science, technology, and innovation are central to our global mission.
- President Obama and I are committed to empowering the next generation of risk-takers and innovators in our diplomacy. By using your imagination in the classroom, all of you are making a difference in boardrooms and treaty rooms across the nation and around the world. That is our goal, and that's what diplomacy is all about.
- So I tell you, I'll never forget standing next to Beth that day on the Senate floor, fighting for greater investments in science and technology. Everywhere there is an opportunity to make a difference, there are students like you ready to be the Beth Kolbes of your moment '' not by having to endure a terrible accident, but simply because you are able to inspire and able to push the limits. This is your moment. So let's get to work and make these great things happen. Thank you.
-
- VIDEO-EconomicPolicyJournal.com: EXPOSED: The NYT Distortion of Cliven Bundy's Comments; Video Tape Emerges
- Bundy was damn libertarian in his comments. His comments were just put through the NYT distortion machine.Here's the full clip of what Bundy said:
- Here's the edited version of Bundy's remarks as promoted by the left-wing Media Matters and as reported in by NYT.
-
- VIDEO-Remarks on Ukraine
- It has now been a week since the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine met in Geneva. We did so after a phone call between President Putin and President Obama, in which both leaders expressed a desire to avoid further escalation in Ukraine. We met in Geneva with a clear mission: to improve security conditions and find political solutions to the conflict threatening the sovereignty and unity of Ukraine. And right there in Geneva, EU High Representative Ashton and I made clear that both Russia and Ukraine had to demonstrate more than good faith. They needed to take concrete actions in order to meet their commitments.
- The simple reality is you can't resolve a crisis when only one side is willing to do what is necessary to avoid a confrontation. Every day since we left Geneva '' every day, even up to today, when Russia sent armored battalions right up the Luhansk Oblast border '' the world has witnessed a tale of two countries, two countries with vastly different understandings of what it means to uphold an international agreement.
- One week later, it is clear that only one side, one country, is keeping its word. And for anyone who wants to create gray areas out of black, or find in the fine print crude ways to justify crude actions, let's get real '' the Geneva agreement is not open to interpretation. It is not vague. It is not subjective. It is not optional. What we agreed to in Geneva is as simple as it is specific.
- We agreed that all sides would refrain from violence, intimidation, and taking provocative actions. We agreed that illegal groups would lay down their arms and that, in exchange for amnesty, they would hand over the public buildings and spaces that they occupied. We agreed that to implement these objectives '' and this is important, to implement this '' monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would have unfettered access to parts of Ukraine where they were needed most. And we agreed that all parties would work to create that access and to provide help to the OSCE in order to do this. We agreed that the OSCE would report from the ground whether the rights, security, and dignity of Ukrainian citizens was being protected.
- From day one, the Government of Ukraine started making good on its commitments '' from day one. From day one, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has kept his word. He immediately agreed to help vacate buildings. He suspended Ukraine's counterterrorism initiative over Easter, choosing de-escalation, despite Ukraine's legitimate, fundamental right to defend its own territory and its own people. From day one, the Ukrainian Government sent senior officials to work with the OSCE, in keeping with the agreement, to send them to work in regions where Russia had voiced its most urgent concerns about the security of Russian speakers and ethnic Russians. And on day one, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk went on live television and committed his government publicly to all of the people of Ukraine that '' and these are his words '' committed them to undertake comprehensive constitutional reform that will strengthen the powers of the regions. He directly addressed the concerns expressed by the Russians, and he did so on day one.
- He also made a personal appeal to Russian-speaking Ukrainians, pledging to support '' and again, these are his words '' a special status to the Russian language and the protection of the language. And in keeping with his Geneva commitments, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has publicly announced amnesty legislation '' once more, in his words '' for all those who surrender arms, come out of the premises and will begin with the Ukrainian people to build a sovereign and independent Ukraine. That is a promise made by the interim government to the people of Ukraine.
- And by complying with actions requested by Russia, like removing the barricades in the Maidan and cleaning up the square and ensuring that all ongoing demonstrations in Kyiv are actually government-approved and peaceful, Ukraine is thereby taking tangible, concrete steps to move beyond the division of the last months. That is how a government defines keeping your word. That is leadership that upholds both the spirit and the letter of a Geneva agreement.
- The world has rightly judged that Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and the Government of Ukraine are working in good faith. And the world, sadly, has rightly judged that Russia has put its faith in distraction, deception, and destabilization. For seven days, Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction. Not a single Russian official, not one, has publicly gone on television in Ukraine and called on the separatists to support the Geneva agreement, to support the stand-down, to give up their weapons, and get out of the Ukrainian buildings. They have not called on them to engage in that activity.
- In fact, the propaganda bullhorn that is the state-sponsored Russia Today program, has been deployed to promote '' actually, Russia Today network '' has deployed to promote President Putin's fantasy about what is playing out on the ground. They almost spend full time devoted to this effort to propagandize and to distort what is happening or not happening in Ukraine. Instead, in plain sight, Russia continues to fund, coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement in Donetsk.
- Meanwhile, Russian leaders are making increasingly outrageous claims to justify their action '' that the CIA invented the internet in order to control the world or that the forces occupying buildings, armed to the teeth, wearing brand new matching uniforms and moving in disciplined military formation, are merely local activists seeking to exercise their legitimate rights. That is absurd, and there is no other word to describe it.
- But in the 21st century, where every citizen can broadcast messages, images, and video from the palm of their hand, no amount of propaganda is capable of hiding such actions. No amount of propaganda will hide the truth, and the truth is there in the social media and across the pages of newspapers and in the video of televisions for all of the world to see. No amount of propaganda can withstand that kind of scrutiny today.
- The world knows that peaceful protesters don't come armed with grenade launchers and automatic weapons, the latest issue from the Russian arsenal, hiding the insignias on their brand new matching military uniforms, and speaking in dialects that every local knows comes from thousands of miles away. The world knows that the Russian intelligence operatives arrested in Ukraine didn't just take a wrong turn on the highway. In fact, we have seen soldiers wearing uniforms identical to the ones Russian soldiers wore in Crimea last month.
- As international observers on the ground have borne witness, prior to Russia's escalation, there was no violence. There was no broad-scale assault on the rights of people in the east. Ukraine was largely stable and peaceful, including in the south and the east. Even as we were preparing to meet in Geneva, we know that the Russian intelligence services were involved in organizing local pro-Russian militias. And during the week leading up to the Geneva meetings, separatists seized at least 29 buildings. This is one more example of how Russia is stoking the very instability that they say they want to quell.
- And in the weeks since this agreement, we have seen even more violence visited upon Ukrainians. Right after we left Geneva, separatists seized TV and radio stations that broadcast in the Ukrainian language. The mayor of Slovyansk was kidnapped the very day after the parties committed to end the violence and intimidations. Two days ago, one journalist was kidnapped and another went missing, bringing the total number of kidnapped journalists into the double digits. That same day, two dead bodies were found near Slovyansk. One of them was a city councilmember who had been knocked unconscious and thrown in a river with a weighted backpack strapped to him.
- The Government of Ukraine has reported the arrest of Russian intelligence agents, including one yesterday who it says was responsible for establishing secure communications allowing Russia to coordinate destabilizing activities in Ukraine. And then, just this morning, separatist forces tried to overrun another arms depot.
- Having failed to postpone Ukraine's elections, having failed to halt a legitimate political process, Russia has instead chosen an illegitimate course of armed violence to try and achieve with the barrel of a gun and the force of a mob what couldn't be achieved any other way. They've tried to create enough chaos in the east to delay or delegitimize the elections, or to force Ukraine to accept a federalism that gives Russia control over its domestic and foreign policies, or even force Ukraine to overreact and create an excuse for military intervention. This is a full-throated effort to actively sabotage the democratic process through gross external intimidation that has brought inside Ukraine, and it is worse even.
- We have seen this movie before. We saw it most recently in Crimea, where similar subterfuge and sabotage by Russia was followed by a full invasion '' an invasion, by the way, for which President Putin recently decorated Russian special forces at the Kremlin.
- Now Russia claims that all of this is exaggerated, or even orchestrated, that Ukrainians can't possibly be calling for a government free of corruption and coercion. Russia is actually mystified to see Ukraine's neighbors and likeminded free people all over the world united with Ukrainians who want to build a better life and choose their leaders for themselves, by themselves.
- Nobody should doubt Russia's hand in this. As NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe wrote this week, ''What is happening in eastern Ukraine is a military operation that is well planned and organized and we assess that it is being carried out at the direction of Russia.'' Our intelligence community tells me that Russia's intelligence and military intelligence services and special operators are playing an active role in destabilizing eastern Ukraine with personnel, weapons, money, operational planning, and coordination. The Ukrainians have intercepted and publicized command-and-control conversations from known Russian agents with their separatist clients in Ukraine. Some of the individual special operations personnel, who were active on Russia's behalf in Chechnya, Georgia, and Crimea have been photographed in Slovyansk, Donetsk, and Luhansk. Some are even bragging about it by themselves on their Russian social media sites. And we've seen weapons and gear on the separatists that matches those worn and used by Russian special forces.
- So following today's threatening movement of Russian troops right up to Ukraine's border, let me be clear: If Russia continues in this direction, it will not just be a grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake. Already the international response to the choices made by Russia's leaders is taking its toll on Russia's economy. Prime Minister Medvedev has alluded to the cost Russia is already paying. Even President Putin has acknowledged it.
- As investors' confidence dwindles, some $70 billion in capital has fled the Russian financial system in the first quarter of 2014, more than all of last year. Growth estimates for 2014 have been revised downward by two to three percentage points. And this follows a year in which GDP growth was already the lowest since 2009. Meanwhile, the Russian Central Bank has had to spend more than $20 billion to defend the ruble, eroding Russia's buffers against external shocks. Make no mistake that what I've just described is really just a snapshot and is also, regrettably, a preview of how the free world will respond if Russia continues to escalate what they had promised to de-escalate.
- Seven days, two opposite responses, and one truth that cannot be ignored: The world will remain united for Ukraine. So I will say it again. The window to change course is closing. President Putin and Russia face a choice. If Russia chooses the path of de-escalation, the international community '' all of us '' will welcome it. If Russia does not, the world will make sure that the cost for Russia will only grow. And as President Obama reiterated earlier today, we are ready to act.
