Geopolitical mosaic: LAS is going to officially arm the Syrian opposition, and North Korea is preparing to strike at the United States
"Air Bridge" from the CIA. The CIA created an “air bridge” for the supply of weapons to terrorists in Syria, reports IA "REGNUM" with reference to the New York Times.
Citing an American responsible source, the newspaper reported that the CIA had organized an “air bridge”, through which more than 160 flights were made to Turkey and Jordan. The New York Times emphasizes that CIA officers advised Arab regimes on weapons selection and helped carry out an arms procurement transaction in Croatia. Expert Hugh Griffiths from the International Research Institute in Stockholm stated that "according to preliminary estimates of these deliveries, the weight of military equipment exceeded 3500 tons".
Meanwhile, let us add, officially, the USA is doing everything to prove its peacefulness and adherence to diplomatic methods of resolving the conflict in Syria. The policy is quite flexible. And here is the newest example.
Rebel request rejected. The White House rejected the request of the Syrian opposition to shoot down planes and helicopters of the Syrian Air Force, used by the government to fight armed insurgents. Told about it correspondent RIA "Novosti" Denis Voroshilov.
Rebel representatives asked the Secretary of State John Kerry a few days ago, during his trip to the Middle East.
Yesterday, the "rebels" received a response from White House spokesman Jay Carney - through journalists. “We are aware of this request and at the moment NATO does not intend to introduce armed forces into Syria. I think that the batteries of the Patriot missiles that are stationed in Turkey ... can only serve as a means of protection, and the Turkish air force can protect its own territory, ”said Mr. Carney.
Thus, we note, the Americans continue to implement the old strategy: to fight in the Middle East by proxy.
The Arab League is going to officially arm the Syrian opposition. As reported correspondent RIA "Novosti" Nadim Zuaui and Margarita KislovaThe Arab League last night announced the right of the organization’s member states to provide military assistance to the Syrian opposition seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
The second most important decision of the 24-th summit of the Arab League, held in Doha, was to provide the Syrian National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary forces with a place in the League of Syria, which was empty from November 2011 after the official Damascus was expelled. According to the resolution, NKRS will represent Syria in the League of Arab States "until the holding of elections, as a result of which a government will be formed."
It is curious that supporters of the Syrian opposition recognize: both decisions contradict the statutes of the Arab League. The eighth article of the Charter of the Arab League states that it is necessary to respect the current state structure in all member countries of this pan-Arab organization and the inadmissibility of any actions aimed at changing regimes. The decisions are justified, according to the rebels, by an “exceptional” situation.
“The situation in Syria and in the region is exceptional, then, it was President Bashar Asad who grossly violated international legality,” said Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al-Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar, at a press conference following the summit.
According to the Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi, the arming of the opposition will balance the forces of the opponents in Syria and will eventually accelerate the achievement of a political solution.
A very simple way to politically solve something: to give weapon. This method, we note, is great for those who see only one solution. And seers understand that it will be quietly approved overseas.
Says Comrade Churkin. The decision of the Arab League to give NKORS a place of Damascus at the 24-th summit of the organization "does not render any assistance" to a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the SAR, said Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin.
“This means that the Arab League finally pulled itself out of the process of finding a political solution to the crisis,” he told Itar-Tass yesterday. The diplomat recalled that in the Syrian issue, the LAS "from the very beginning was influenced by certain extremist forces and well-known states that have their own agenda" in efforts to end the conflict.
Comrade Churkin drew attention to other steps of the Arab League, which caused bewilderment in Moscow. For example, in December 2011, the League decided to send an observer mission to the SAR, which did not work even a month there. “As soon as she began to give objective information, she was immediately turned off,” the diplomat noted.
LAS site hacked. Syrian hackers broke into the website of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States and posted on the webpage of a message addressed to Nabil al-Arabi, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
The message notes that the Arab League lost its “Arab identity on the day when it suspended Syria’s participation”. The inter-Arab organization was accused of “completely subordinating itself to the interests of the mini-state, Qatar, which illegally provided Syria with a place in the organization for illegal unification called the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces.”
The text ends with the signature: "The Syrian citizen, whose only head is Bashar Assad, and the Syrian Arab army is the only representative."
A party of weapons has been intercepted. Iraqi special forces detained a large batch of weapons and explosives destined for the militants of the Dzhebhat al-Nusrah group associated with Al-Qaeda. The cargo was intercepted in the area of the checkpoint of Er-Rabia on the border with Syria; "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
"Dzhebhat an-Nusra" is in the forefront of armed resistance to Syrian government forces. The backbone of the group are foreign mercenaries, jihadists.
Israel and Turkey will reconcile Syria. The Israeli Prime Minister told Facebook on the main reason for the normalization of relations with Turkey. His words are quoted MIGnews.com: “... Over the past three years, Israel has made repeated attempts at reconciliation with Turkey. The fact is that for me the main factor was the Syrian crisis. ”
He continues: “Syria is falling apart, and its huge weapon arsenals are beginning to fall into the hands of various groups. The reality in Syria is such that various forces, including global jihad, are already entrenched in the Golan Heights. This is a big challenge for our defense establishment. Therefore, it is important that Israel and Turkey - the states bordering on Syria, can communicate with each other. ”
How does the same MIGnews.com, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister said on Monday that Turkey entered into negotiations with Israel regarding compensation for families of victims of the raid on flotilla in the Gaza Strip in 2010. “Officials delegated by the two sides will work on compensation issues. This is a great success for Turkish foreign policy, ”said Bulent Arinch after meeting with officials.
He added that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey agrees to negotiations with the other side and expresses the need to quickly resolve this issue.
The newspaper Ha'aretz publishes details of the negotiations for compensation that will be paid to the families of those killed during the interception of the cruise camp Mavi Marmara 31 in May 2010.
The compensation will be paid to a special fund created by the Turkish government. Source Haaretz claims that "we are talking about tens of millions of dollars." However, the payment of compensation may be complicated. As a condition for the payment of compensation, Israel demands that all claims against the soldiers and officers of the IDF who participated in the raid be withdrawn, while the Turks say that there are no problems with state lawsuits, but they cannot force private individuals - relatives of the victims - to withdraw the claims.
Do you have a radio? You will disappear. Zimbabwe police confiscated hundreds of radio sets from local residents, reports Anton Urinovsky ("Voice of Russia").
Zimbabweans were forbidden to receive signals from 19 foreign radio stations in February 2013. A police spokeswoman, Charity Charamba, said that radio receivers were disguising foreign humanitarian organizations under the guise of humanitarian aid to rural residents of the country, “sowing discord” before the upcoming elections.
According to the BBC, the Zimbabwean police organize night raids in villages and selects radios and cheap smartphones from residents. In the area of Chinamora, 30 radios were requisitioned from local residents. Investigators are searching houses and warning that people who find radio receivers may soon "disappear."
President Robert Mugabe and his supporters, recalls the correspondent. Voices of Russia hold a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Zimbabwe. According to foreign media reports, only the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation, a government-loyal newspaper The Herald and a radio channel owned by one of the businessmen close to the ruling party, the African National Union of Zimbabwe Patriotic Front, have government permits for broadcasting in the country.
Earlier, a spokesman for Mugabe said that radio receivers with solar panels or hand-driven smuggling enemy agents into the country to organize a violent change of government.
Many Zimbabweans prefer to listen to short-wave "Radio Africa", "Voice of America", "Studio 7" and "Voice of the People", broadcasting to the territory of the country from abroad.
Cypriot story through the eyes of an American journalist. Max fisher from «The Washington Post» (translation source - "Inopressa") writes about the geopolitical failure of Russia in the Cyprus issue.
“Cyprus and the European Union reached an agreement on financial assistance to a small eurozone state with an exhausted economy. It's good news for Cyprus (even if the deal turns out to be a failure, at least it will put an end to the uncertainty) and for the EU. But the end of the epic with financial assistance to Cyprus was bad news for Russia: it signaled Moscow’s unsuccessful attempt to act as an alternative to the EU, ”Mr Fisher writes.
At the same time, the journalist notes that Cyprus is "the vassal state of Moscow, a small useful ally in such matters as sending weapons to Syria."
But Nicosia’s negotiations with Moscow last week were unsuccessful. Russia, the author admits, probably tried to force Cyprus to conclude the most profitable deal for itself.
“Cyprus had a choice: either to become an errand boy of Russian illegal capital, or to finally turn its face to Europe,” the author cites the opinion of Paul Murphy, an observer at The Financial Times.
"According to the agreement, investors who have more than 130 thousand dollars in Cypriot banks (many of them are Russian oligarchs hiding money in Cyprus) will lose even more than previously thought ... Cyprus as a state will be more indebted to the EU,” writes Fisher
“By the way, Russia will probably get a lesson in the Middle East: it can send as many weapons as possible to its faithful ally Bashar Assad, but it will not be able to stop the Arab Spring,” the journalist rejoices.
Hanged on a scarf. As the Interfax, Scotland Yard published the results of the autopsy of Boris Berezovsky. The report states: “The results of the autopsies carried out by the pathologist of the Ministry of the Interior are such that the cause of death was hanging. The pathologist did not find anything that would indicate a violent struggle. ”
The fact that Berezovsky most likely died from strangulation was reported earlier by his friend Nikolai Glushkov (in Russia he is accused of embezzling money).
The fact is that Mr. Glushkov managed to talk with the ex-wife of Berezovsky Galina Besharova, who arrived at the house in Ascot, when the medical team was examining the body of an entrepreneur. The police refused to let Besharov, but she unlocked the doors with her keys and went inside. She could not be hindered: she is the owner of the house in which B. A. Berezovsky lived. Besharova then told Glushkov that the police had discovered a scarf next to the body of her ex-husband. Glushkov told the Guardian newspaper: “Boris was strangled. Or he did it himself, or with the help of someone. ”
The long arm of the Kremlin? In the review "Foreign Press" on the topic of B. Berezovsky’s death, among other things, there is a retelling of the article by Luke Harding from The Guardian, which deals with the Kremlin’s “ugly reputation”.
“What if Putin really silences his opponents living in the UK?” The journalist wonders. Nevertheless, the circumstances of Berezovsky’s death look obvious: "... a person who was depressed, a locked bathroom, bruises on his neck." "All the conclusions set forth in the cautious form peculiar to the police, indicate more suicide than violent death."
But the deceased’s close friend Nikolai Glushkov, also a Russian emigrant, says: “I will never believe in the natural death of Boris Berezovsky. The idea that he could lay hands on himself is nonsense. ”
Berezovsky's friends mentioned other deaths of Russian exiles in Britain. In 2008, Berezovsky’s business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili died suddenly. Pathologists concluded that the cause was a heart attack. But Glushkov and others do not believe. The author of the article recalls the attempt on the banker Herman Gorbuntsov and the unexplained death of Alexander Perepilichny.
“People who are suspicious by nature notice that the Kremlin has unusually well prepared its reaction to the sudden demise of Berezovsky,” writes Harding. Putin’s press secretary, Peskov, said that Berezovsky had written a penitential letter to the Russian president, the Forbes journalist said that Berezovsky missed Moscow and said he overestimated the West. Berezovsky's friends dismiss these messages in the press, inspired by Moscow, and call them selfish nonsense. Harding writes: “In essence, these messages are Kremlin's moralizing story. It says that if you are against the legitimate Russian authorities, you will end up in exile, you will be ruined, you will lose friends and eventually you will die. "
Infection reached Croatia. A candidate from the Croatian Labor Party for the European Parliament, Damir Hrsak, admitted adherence to same-sex love. He was the first politician in the country who decided to publicly declare his non-traditional sexual orientation, reports from Belgrade correspondent RIA "News" Nikolay Sokolov.
In an interview with the online edition of H-alter, Hrshak said: “I do not brag and am not ashamed. But I am proud of my activism to protect the rights of sex minorities in good and bad times. I consider it my moral duty to fight for all people who want to become recognized, more creative and happy. ”
When asked about the reaction of political supporters to his unconventional orientation, Hrshak said that he was a member of “the modern left party, where work, truth and knowledge are valued, and homophobia is punishable.”
Symbol of strength, courage and perseverance. The reader of the Latvian newspaper Latvijas avize, Artur Friedenbergs, criticized the new coat of arms of the Kandava region, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Mixnews.
The fact is that the boar on the coat of arms caused him to associate with the "Soviet occupation." “Authors of the coat of arms and deputies of the local government should have a look into the history of the Kandava region,” Friedenbergs writes indignantly. - After the second Soviet occupation, a pork production complex was created in the Ababa Valley. At the end of the 40, a swine plague reached the complex. ” Noting that the remains of dead animals were thrown into the valley, he suggested that “an armada of crows be drawn onto the boar.”
The new emblem of Kandava region was approved by the heraldry commission last week. It depicts flowers and black boar on a red background. Boar is a symbol of strength, courage and perseverance.
"Russian stuffing." The Ukrainian Svoboda Party will not allow the tomorrow's march of pro-Russian activists in Nikolaev, when they will celebrate the next anniversary of their liberation from the German occupation there. About this "New Region" said a member of the "Freedom" in the Verkhovna Rada Yuri Mikhalchishin, reports "Lenta.ru".
He declared: “In Nikolaev there will be no Russian march, but Russian mincemeat! Believe it! Such an event is definitely another provocation of the fifth column, which continues to operate on our territory. ”
The nationalist did not specify what measures are being prepared by the supporters of Freedom, noting that "it is better to do it and then speak, than vice versa."
"Lenta" reminds that the leader of the Russian Bloc party, deputy of the City Council of Sevastopol Gennady Basov, informed about the intention to hold a rally and march last week in Nikolaev. He voiced one of the slogans of the upcoming event: “Fascism stopped then, we stop fascism now,” explaining that we are talking about the nationalists from Freedom. After this statement, the leader of "Freedom" Oleg Tyagnibok promised to "adequately respond" to this action. Verkhovna Rada deputy from the nationalists Pavel Kirilenko, in turn, called the planned march "provocation".
Spring aggravation in Kyrgyzstan. Egamberdy Kabulov ("Fund of Strategic Culture") spoke about the spring offensive of the nationalist opposition in Kyrgyzstan. The main demands of the opposition are reduced to three points.
1. To release the opposition deputy Kamchybek Tashiev and his supporters accused of trying to overthrow the government by force last fall, when the mob led by them tried to take the Government House by storm.
2. Nationalize a Canadian company developing the Kumtor gold deposit.
3. Revise previously signed Kyrgyz-Russian contracts for the construction of large hydropower plants and the sale to Gazprom of Kyrgyzgaz.
The opposition press began to play the "Moscow" card. Anti-Russian slogans become the main ones. The accusations against the president that he “sold” Kyrgyzstan to Moscow are heard more and more often.
However, until recently, the analyst writes, Atambaev managed to maneuver and beat down the passions, using contradictions within the opposition. According to the journalist, the scenario of the opposition’s actions was not written in Kyrgyzstan itself.
The main thing in the new messages is to force the leadership to refuse to cooperate with Russia, to prevent the accession of Kyrgyzstan to the Customs Union, to preserve the US airbase “Manas”, and to turn the republic into a full-fledged springboard for Washington in Central Asia after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
The Japanese got rich. In the exclusive economic zone of Japan, near the Minami-Torishima islands in the Pacific, geologists discovered the richest deposits of rare-earth metals. They are more than 100 times the volume of all the explored rare earth elements on Earth, reports Natalia Kasho ("Voice of Russia").
Mining can be done at minimal cost, says Yasuhiro Kato, a professor at the University of Tokyo. He also said that exploration will continue for about two years, and then production will begin.
A revolution is coming on the market for rare earth metals. This opinion is shared by the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Kistanov:
Japan learned a bitter lesson from the 2010 events of the year when, due to aggravation of relations with China because of the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu), China stopped exporting rare earth metals to Japan, being practically a monopoly supplier of this raw material. ”
The new field will help Japan get rid of Chinese dependence. After all, only one platform for the extraction of rare metals in the Minami-Torishima zone in the Pacific Ocean will provide the country's demand for this raw material throughout the year. This is a lot, considering that Japan imports half of the total world production of rare metals.
Kim Jong-un took aim. According to Interfax, the North Korean command brought all the missile and artillery units of the armed forces of the country into full combat readiness. This was reported by the Central Telegraph Agency of Korea.
The order, in particular, concerns strategic missile units and long-range artillery. The missile units are ordered to prepare not for anything but for striking the continental territory of the United States, as well as the islands of Guam and Hawaii.
The message from the CTC says: "From this point on, the high command of the Korean Peoples Army puts into full combat readiness all long-range artillery units, including strategic missile units, which will target all enemy bases on the continental United States, Hawaii and Guam."
On the eve of Kim Jong-un was present at the artillery firing and watched the actions of the artillery to prevent the landing of the amphibious assault. Addressing the gunners, the leader emphasized the need to "destroy all enemies to the last man ..."
South Korea fears invasion. The troops of South Korea in the region bordering on the DPRK today were put on high alert for a few hours after the South Korean border guard threw a grenade at an “unidentified object” moving in the border zone, reports RIA News" with reference to the South Korean agency "Renhap".
This incident occurred around 2.30 local time (21.30 Tuesday Moscow time) when a South Korean soldier was on duty at one of the border posts in Hwachon district, 118 kilometers northeast of the capital Seoul. After that, the combat readiness of the troops in the county was increased to the level of “Chindoge-1”, an unnamed source told the agency, explaining that this level is introduced when there is a threat of an armed invasion from the territory of the DPRK.
Then the military conducted reconnaissance of the territories adjacent to the border post and, “without detecting any signs of a threat of invasion of the DPRK, canceled the alarm” in 09.20 (04.20 Moscow time).
A Chinese spy went to an American prison. Chinese citizen 49-year-old Sisin (Steve) Liu was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally transferring US military technology to compatriots, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Reuters.
The Chinese, who worked at the Pentagon’s leading contractor, L3 Communications, transmitted data about the device that allows the UAV to hit targets without communicating with the satellite. Liu sent thousands of files with descriptions and device data to China. He conducted presentations at universities in the People's Republic of China and at conferences organized by the government, where he spoke in detail about the technology of the device. Why did he do it? Expected to get a good job in China!
According to the Washington Post, the losses from theft of technology for the American defense ministry could be hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the US Secret Service, a woman will restore order. For the first time, a woman has become the head of the US Secret Service responsible for guarding the country's top leadership. Barack Obama chose yesterday her head Julia Pearson, who recently headed the intelligence apparatus, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Denis Voroshilov.
This woman will have to restore the reputation of the secret service, shaken after a series of scandals with her employees. The largest occurred a year ago, during the preparation of the visit of the US President to Colombia. Special agents drank, brawled, met with prostitutes.
Sequester - yes, "default" - no. The President of the United States signed a law extending the financing of the federal government. This was announced yesterday by White House spokesman Jay Carney, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
The signed document maintains automatic budget cuts in the amount of 85 billion dollars. At the same time, its provisions make it possible to limit the influence of sequestration on various areas of administrative activity.
Corr. ITAR-TASS recalls that the US Congress passed the bill last week. It provides for the funding on a daily basis of all government departments until the end of the current fiscal year. In addition, the document allows you to allocate 87 billion to foreign military operations.
Too many rounds. Tim Brown ("Freedom Outpost"source of translation - Mixednews.ru).
Congressman Leonard Lance (Republican, New Jersey) and Rep. Timothy Hewleskamp (Republican, Kansas) demanded the government to answer the question of why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needed so much ammunition - taking into account that the agency does internal service . Following these two comrades, a letter was sent to DHS by Congressman Doug La Malfa (Republican, California), along with other 14 House representatives who wanted to know why the federal agency was purchasing such quantities of ammunition.
Comrade La Malfa drew attention to the fact that MVB made a request for proposals for 2 of a billion rounds enough for an 24-year war: "In the light of these events, there are questions about these purchases and insufficient transparency is found."
The American "hovercraft" passed the sea trials. The Americans completed the test run of the T-MLP-1 amphibious assault ship, which looks like a tanker, but can carry three hovercraft, says Konstantin Kerubov ("Voice of Russia").
The new ship T-MLP-1 was built as part of the project to create a Mobile Landing Platform under a contract in 500 of billions of dollars concluded in 2011 year. In early March of this year, the ship received the name "Montford Point" in honor of the US Marine Corps base of the same name.
The 255-meter ship allows you to carry on board three LCAC-class air cushion landing boats that can carry 12 Hammer armored vehicles or two combat tank. The ship has a landing pad for a helicopter, 2300 square meters for storage of military vehicles or equipment and a capacity for 1,4 million liters of fuel. The design of the ship provides for its quick conversion into a floating hospital or tactical control center. The US military plans to get the first floating base, which can be called "hovercraft carrier" (from the English name for the hovercraft - hovercraft).
By the end of the year, the new ship will be accepted by the military, and it will be delivered on combat duty in 2015 of the year. In total, the US military wants to order the 3-4 of this type of ship.
Marx was resurrected in the 21st century. Michael Schumann in a magazine "Time" (translation source - "InoSMI") writes that recently we thought that capitalism fulfills a promise to raise the standard of living of everyone to new heights of prosperity. But what about the protracted crisis in the global economy? What about unemployment around the world? And debt and no income growth? This is where sharp criticism of capitalism by Marx comes to mind. The theorist warned: the capitalist system is unfair and self-destructive. He wrote that it would inevitably lead to the impoverishment of the masses, since all the wealth of the world would be concentrated in the hands of a greedy minority: “The accumulation of wealth at one extreme is at the same time the accumulation of poverty, the torment of labor, slavery, ignorance, coarsening and moral degradation at the opposite pole ".
The author of the article, to put it cautiously, notes that the growing number of evidence suggests that, perhaps, Comrade Marx was right. After all, we are increasingly faced with statistics confirming that the rich are getting richer, but the middle class and the poor are not.
Yes, the dictatorship of the proletariat did not work as it was intended. But the consequences of growing inequality are exactly what Marx predicted: the class struggle is back. The workers of the whole world, Schumann writes, are increasingly angry and demand the rightful share of the world economy.
Communists "openly declare that their goals can be achieved only by destroying all existing social conditions," Marx wrote. “Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.” Currently, the journalist notes, there are signs that workers around the world are becoming more and more outraged. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid and Athens, protesting against widespread unemployment and austerity measures. In France, Hollande is ready to suffocate the rich in 75%. Capitalism’s prospects are rather bleak, says Schumann: if lawmakers do not find ways to guarantee fair economic opportunities, the workers of the whole world can unite.
In the meantime, we note, the capitalist state, in exact accordance with Orwell's dystopia, comforts the poor with lotteries. How to transmit "Vesti", in the USA 338 million dollars jackpot was won. Pedro Quesada, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, father of five children, a poor fellow and a loser, will receive it: thieves recently robbed his apartment, and then his grocery store burned in which he worked 18 hours a day.
True, for all the other participants of the draw, their hope will be replaced by bitter disappointment and envy.
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