Potential Foul Play in Polish Air Disaster?

The Russian government prevented the Polish president's plane from landing four times to divert him from a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, according to an MP.

Artur Gorski said the Russians 'came up with some dubious reasons' that the aircraft couldn't land because they feared President Leck Kaczynski's presence would overshadow a similar event hosted by the Russian prime minister a few days before.

Read more...

My comments: At this point, the evidence for Russian foul play is scarce but Russian benefits from a leadership disaster in Russia's former satellite state could potentially be high. Though its worth mentioning that Europe and the USA could also benefit from this. More on this as it develops.

Russian supported rebellion in Kyrgyzstan

"Kyrgyzstan’s self-proclaimed new leadership said on Thursday that Russia had helped to oust President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and that they aimed to close a U.S. airbase that has irritated Moscow.

Their comments set Wednesday’s overthrow of Mr. Bakiyev, who fled the capital Bishkek as crowds stormed government buildings, firmly in the context of superpower rivalry in Central Asia."

More here...

My Comments: Take a look at the map and notice Kyrgyzstan's proximity to the Afghanistan. It's no wonder the US might lure the small nation into its sphere of influence with promises of aid and support in exchange for a small air base for use in operations in Afghanistan.

But lets zoom out for a second.

Kyrgyzstan is also within very close proximity to Russia, a world power and was a former Soviet Republic of the Soviet Union. In placing an air base in Kyrgyzstan the US under the Bush II administration made a threatening move to Russian security, and now Russia is using its growing influence, and a weakened US influence in the region, to claim the territory back.

However, it should be noted that the air base was a transit base, as opposed to a base supporting war aircraft or housing troops and it was primarily used to pour men into Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Obama administration failed to negotiate new terms for the base and it was scheduled for closing in 2009. Apparently, negotiations had been ongoing since 2007.

Russia is on the rise again to secure it's borders. With a Moscow led Economic Union in the works for 2012, including Kazakhstan as a keystone member, Kyrgyzstan's neighbor, and the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Russia, its no wonder Putin is seeking to re-establish Russian dominance in its former Soviet Republics.

US Foreign Aid and the CIA (part 1)

Like the intelligence arms of other major nations, the American CIA found it crucial to use a multitude of fronts -- institutional disguises and intermediaries -- in order to effectively pursue its covert operations. The CIA actually had some specialization in this tactic from the beginning. The Agency was largely founded and staffed by Wall Street elites who were very familiar with using shell companies to manipulate or hide assets.

In this context, a front is an organization of some kind whose public mission has no official relationship to US intelligence. Secretly, however, the CIA will use the front as cover to accomplish clandestine objectives. Note that several organizations hosting a CIA presence may be legitimate, fairly independent, and generally unaware of the fact. Whereas front businesses which the CIA virtually owns are what the US Senate Church Committee exposed as 'proprietaries', such as the most infamous example from the Vietnam era: the drug-smuggling Air America company (for an introduction to the CIA-drug connection, refer to this or this, or dozens of other articles and books). A more recent example of a CIA proprietary front is the firm Brewster-Jennings & Associates, which was exposed in 2003 during the Plame-Yellowcake Affair.

Since its inception with the signing of the National Security Act of 1947, the CIA has used thousands of fronts right to the present day. As a matter of course, the organizations selected to be fronts naturally have activities in foreign countries. They include various corporations, diplomatic embassies, other agencies of the federal government, non-profit charities, private NGOs, media organizations, and so forth.

A large bureaucratic organization long-suspected and finally proven to act as a CIA front is USAID, or the United States Agency for International Development. Run by the State Department, USAID is the main federal entity responsible for dispensing foreign aid.

Each year, USAID allocates billions of dollars in funding to selected nations across the globe. To most American taxpayers, it is an organization to be proud of. Indeed, many of its projects have produced positive humanitarian results and local employment, even if the projects are considered diplomatic rewards and instruments of US foreign policy. Nonetheless, a handful of the projects and a very small number of the personnel are in fact CIA-related, with missions far outside of the official mandate of USAID. These missions are launched to forward the blunt geopolitical interests of the US government (and undoubtedly to forward the special interests that influence that government). The missions have involved instances of corruption, subversion, espionage, and horrible violence. Some will be described here, and other modern examples will be described in Part Two.

Skeptics of the theorized CIA-USAID connection fell silent when, in 2007, the Agency itself released thousands of top secret documents -- the "Family Jewels", as they are called -- which included descriptions of its close working relationship with USAID. This admission is fascinating. While partially censored, the primary documents plainly show that CIA officers had worked abroad under USAID cover. The Office of Public Safety (OPS), a USAID bureau disbanded in 1974 by Congress for its inappropriate activities, served as a front for training and arming foreign police in counterinsurgency methods.

The formerly top secret documents show that, between 1963 and 1974, thousands of police officers and troops were trained by the OPS arm of USAID. In turn, the recipients then trained hundreds of thousands of others in total. It doesn't sound too heinous until we learn that the countries receiving the weapons and counter-insurgency training were very repressive police states in the process of cracking down hard on their own citizens, unions, and rebel groups. Training involved spying, torture, explosives, assassination, riot-control, and so forth.

Wikipedia has a toned-down yet still informative article on the matter. Excerpts:

The United States has a long history of providing police aid to Latin American countries. In the 1960s the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Office of Public Safety (OPS) provided Latin American police forces with millions of dollars worth of weapons and trained thousands of Latin American police officers. In the late 1960s, such programs came under media and congressional scrutiny because the U.S.-provided equipment and personnel were linked to cases of torture, murder and "disappearances" in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

In Washington, D.C., the Office of Public Safety had remained immune to public embarrassment as it went about two of its chief functions: allowing the CIA to plant men with the local police in sensitive places around the world; and after careful observation on their home territory, bringing to the United States prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees.

The OPS had formed a million policemen in the Third World. Ten thousands of them had undertook training courses in the US. $150 millions' worth in material had been sent to foreign police forces.

The massive training-arming program in Central and South America led to a hemispheric-wide human rights disaster. It escalated rapidly to the death squad era of Operation Condor. The destructive, multi-faceted operation was ultimately supervised by leaders in the CIA and US National Security Council, especially the-then Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.

OPS police-training teams and 'aid projects' were not only sent to several repressive nations in Latin America, but also to South Vietnam, Iran, Taiwan, Greece, and others. According to award-winning journalist John Pilger, apparently USAID funds were even spent by the millions to assist the Thais and genocidal Khmer Rouge in building roads to lucrative gem mines.

Basically everywhere the US was propping up a repressive, corrupt client-state in the name of anti-communism, the USAID-CIA connection could be found. Some of the most brutal pages of Cold War history can be found in the Phoenix program in South Vietnam and the crack-downs of SAVAK, the secret police of then US ally, the Shah of Iran.

The Sears Tower Set-up

In June of 2006, seven Florida men were charged with plotting to destroy FBI offices in Miami and to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago. FBI Director Muller informed the nation that his agency had successfully interdicted a catastrophic 'home-grown' terrorist plot linked to Al Qaeda. No doubt, if terrorists had managed to bring down the tallest skyscraper in America, standing at 1,451 feet (442 m), the human and material costs would have been immeasurable.

The problem with this heinous story is that virtually none of it is true. The seven suspects didn't so much as own a fire-cracker between them, let alone any explosives or any knowledge whatsoever on how to destroy a colossal 110-story building. They were so poor that they didn't even have the means to travel to Chicago, and didn't have a car to drive about Miami looking for targets. They actually hailed from Liberty City, the black neighbourhood of housing projects outside of downtown Miami. Thus in the press they were swiftly nicknamed the "Liberty City Seven" or LC7.

It gets worse. Just like the Bronx Bombers (see Part 1 and Part 2), the LC7 were infiltrated, bribed to consider committing terror plots, and finally ensnared thanks to two undercover FBI informants. Funded and directed by the FBI, the two Middle Eastern "confidential witnesses" presented themselves to the LC7 as members of Al-Qaeda. They were no doubt assigned to the LC7 because they stood out like a sore thumb of odd balls in the area.

The members of the LC7 — five Afro-American citizens, one legal Haitian immigrant, and one Haitian illegal alien — defined themselves as "Black Muslims". Some wore turbans and hid their faces. Their leader, Narseal Batiste, was described as a Moses-like figure, walking the streets in a long robe and carrying a wooden staff. Known as "Prince Manna" or "Brother Naz", Batiste called his cult-like group the "Seas of David". He preached a blend of religious and political views that included angry criticism of the US government. The deeper reality was that the Seas of David was a ragtag group of mainly unemployed, down-and-out, wanna-be rebels. Some were homeless; some arguably had mental problems. Their background interests included martial arts, carpentry, street-preaching, community work, petty crimes, and smoking lots of marijuana. Above all, they were in need of money to scrape by.

Batiste couldn't believe his luck when the two FBI informants — Abbas al-Saidi and Elie Assad — provided them with a warehouse all to their own, rent-free, as a new base of operations. The warehouse was named the 'Temple'. Of course, the Temple happened to be rigged full of hidden audio and video surveillance equipment. Here, after almost a year of under-cover infiltration, al-Saidi and Assad offered the LC7 $50,000 to swear allegiance to Al-Qaeda and begin a new life as terrorists. Beclouded in marijuana smoke, unknowingly bugged, the LC7 finally agreed, swore their oath, and took the money. Batiste was caught on tape saying he admired bin Laden's 'work', and also wished to kill 'American devils'. Batiste was given a rental car and a camera to take pictures of certain Miami buildings. Describing himself as "financially exhausted", Batiste made lofty requests for black uniforms, squad cars, guns, and knee-high boots for his 'Islamic Army' of six men. The informant bought them the boots. The rest of the shopping list was promised for later.

Batiste's father, a Christian pastor, said his son was "not in his right mind" and needed psychiatric assistance. Other family members and neighbourhood acquaintances of the LC7 said they were poor, misguided, and yet not dangerous. Some witnesses said they were helpful to others in the community.

Whatever the case, the FBI raided the Temple and dragged away its occupants. The corporate media hyped the foiled plot, caught in its "planning phase", as possibly being on the order of 9/11. No firearms or explosives were found, although a few machetes, hatchets, and some amounts of marijuana were. When asked how serious the plot was, the FBI publicly conceded that it was "more aspirational than operational", adding that Al-Qaeda was in fact not involved. Nevertheless, the LC7 were charged with giving material support to Al-Qaeda, conspiring to destroy federal buildings, and for conspiring to "levy a full ground war" against the USA. After two trials ending in a hung jury and then a third trial, six of the seven LC7 members were sentenced with long prison terms. Defense attorneys plan to launch a fourth trial. All along the defense argued that no such plots could have been realized without the involvement of the government; and that several of the LC7 knew nothing of the terror plans, and had neither means nor knowledge to commit them. Furthermore, Batiste and some others weren't actually going to commit the terrorism they bragged of, but were in fact trying to con the FBI informants of cash and equipment.

Between them, FBI informants Al-Saidi and Assad received $120,000 to $130,000 for their services in "saving" Miami offices and the Sears Tower from obliteration. To make matters even more outrageous, both informants had checkered pasts (the knowledge of which withheld by the judges). One failed a FBI lie detector test and yet against protocol was still allowed to operate. The other extorted $7,000 from the man who raped his girl friend. Both informants also had histories with illegal drugs and both did jail time for assaulting their own girl friends.

Source Articles: Global Research, Miami New Times, Mahalo, Prison Planet, Washington Post 2006, Washington Post 2008, MotherJones, CNN, Wikipedia, LA Times

Naval battle off the coast of Korea

The sinking of a South Korean naval vessel Friday is raising fears that North Korea is once again rattling its sabers, though there is so far no evidence that Pyongyang had a role in the incident.

The South Korean ship, navigating in disputed waters in the Yellow Sea, was sunk Friday, and perhaps dozens of sailors were killed. But the cause of the sinking is unclear at time of writing.The South Korean ship, navigating in disputed waters in the Yellow sea.

More here.

My Comments: I'm starting to become of the opinion that North Korea's days are numbered. Very few of the great powers have anything to gain from North Korea any more and ruling party is losing power. Personally, I think the crisis point will come with Kim Jong-Il's death and succession of his son, who does not nearly have as much political clout as his father. While its hard to say what will likely happen after Jong-Il's death, one thing seems certain: this relic conflict of the Cold War will likely end.

Over the next couple of posts, I'm going to take a look at the history of North Korea to show how it's value to the great powers has deteriorated.

Is China's Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America?

China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.

More here...

Comments: Personally, I'm quite wary of the Chinese-American rivalry and, what many scholars and commentators point to, its path to conflict and possibly war. While the US and China may publicly differ on a number of subjects I think that these two countries have far more in common than they, or their people, would like to admit. Furthermore, they're economically dependent on each other as this article has astutely pointed out.

The article offers an interesting and largely accurate analysis of the current relationship, but comparing China to Wilhelmine Germany is perhaps too far at this point in time.

Russia's economic union

The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire.

The latest evidence emerged in a suggestion by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister in Mr Putin’s Government, that Russia may abolish the rouble and create a common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

The three states have already established a customs union and plan to form a single economic market by 2012. Mr Shuvalov said that he would not rule a currency union as “the next logical step”, adding that it would be modelled on the euro.

Read more here...

My comments: This article caught my attention because it seems to indicate things to come int he diplomatic arena. Russia is on the rebound and the world is shifting to a multi-polar diplomatic arrangement and from what this article indicates, economic union is replacing the political union. The question that lingers in my mind is: where does that leave politically based unions such as United States?