Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology

The Imam’s Deceived Woman – K. M. Lessing – On the Most Brazen of Lies

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Posted to YouTube June 3, 2015; first viewed as a “Video Greeting” on author K. M. Lessing’s web site.

Reference: Qur’an 3:54

According to the Qur’an, Allah is the “best of deceivers” (3:54; 8:30). The phrase is often translated into English as “best of planners,” “best of schemers,” or “best of plotters,” but the root word (makr) means “deception.” Hence, the following Qur’an verses should be rendered as follows:

Qur’an 3:54—And they (the unbelievers) planned to deceive, and Allah planned to deceive (the unbelievers), and Allah is the best of deceivers.

Qur’an 7:99—Are they then safe from Allah’s deception? No one feels safe from Allah’s deception except those that shall perish.

Qur’an 8:30—And (remember) when the unbelievers plotted deception against you (O Muhammad), to imprison you, or kill you, or expel you. They plotted deception, but Allah also plotted deception; and Allah is the best of deceivers.

Wood, David.  “Is Allah the Best of Deceivers?”  Answering Muslims, March 2, 2014.

With reference to Qur’an 3:54:

The historical background for the verse is that the Jews ‘planned’ evil in order to get Jesus arrested and crucified. And Allah in the verse says as they planned evil, so too Allah planned to thwart their wicked plan. Christian missionaries have an issue with the words used for both the Jews and Allah. They prefer to translate this way:

“and [they] deceived and Allah deceived and Allah is the best of deceivers”

The above translation does not exist. It is only made up by crazy deluded missionaries in order to lead people astray. Arabic word(s) makr, Makara can be used negatively and for good.  So when the Jews planned to get Jesus arrested and crucified, that was evil, whereas when Allah thwarted their evil plan by saving Jesus, this was good.

Discover the Truth.  “Response to Critics Claim ‘Allah is A Deceiver’ – Quran 3:54.”  January 24, 2015.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Pope Paul VI.  “Nostra Aetate: Declaration on The Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions Proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965.”  Vatican.

Verily methinks the woman was deceived, the Jews were libled — the whole lot, and the post-Holocaust Vatican compelled to clarify the truth of its position in relation to the Jewish People.

Ironically related reference on the Soviet framing of WWII’s Pope Pius XII as “Hitler’s Pope”: Pacepa, Ion Mihai and Rychlak, Ronald J. Disinformation. Washington, D.C.: WND Books, 2013.  (BackChannels readers will find more of similar in “The Russian Section” of the resident library).

Further related and more conveniently accessed: Akin, Jimmy.  “How Pius XII Protected Jews.”  Catholic Answers, n.d.: “Hochhuth’s fictional image of a silent (though active) pope has been transformed by the anti-Catholic rumor mill into the image of a silent and inactive pope—and by some even into an actively pro-Nazi monster. If there were any truth to the charge that Pius XII was silent, the silence would not have been out of moral cowardice in the face of the Nazis, but because the Pope was waging a subversive, clandestine war against them in an attempt to save Jews.”

As people lie — engage in deception — either to hide something or to get something, we know, this according to Ms. Lessing, what the ignoble imam was after; and according to Jimmy Akin as well as the breathtaking revelations of Pacepa and Rychlak (2013), we know what the noble Pope Pius XII was hiding for good cause.

The Discover the Truth blog goes on to note the moral ambiguity involved in the term “makr” this way: “The word, makr in Arabic denotes a subtle and secret move or plan. If this is for a good purpose, it is good; and if this is for a bad purpose, it is bad.”

The argument places the determination of good deed or evil beyond the declaration of Surat 3:54: “And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah” (Yusuf Ali’s translation).

Again: “The word, makr in Arabic denotes a subtle and secret move or plan. If this is for a good purpose, it is good; and if this is for a bad purpose, it is bad.”

It would appear that “being the best of planners” — being the most proficient among the makers of subtle and secret moves or plans — would be a thing separate from being either good or evil, i.e., the statement is about facility in the making of “subtle and secret moves” and neutral about ethical and moral virtue, plain dealing, and straight talk as behaviors civil, desirable, good, and lawful in and of themselves.

Given so much encouragement and license for the making of “subtle and secret moves”, who then — or what — determines the qualities of good cause?

I’ll leave that question rhetorical.

One might suppose that had Lessing’s imam been honest with her, Lessing may yet be wearing her hijab with pride.

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Old “King Code” – A Note on The Long War for Cybercrimefighters

09 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Journal

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Start with the good guys’ white hats —

http://surveillance.rsf.org/en/hacking-team/ – n.d.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/hacking-team-leaks-reveal-spyware-industrys-growth — 7/8/2015.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/07/08/hacking-team-iphone-android-malware/ – “Hacking Team’s $175,000 Apple Store And Google Play Surveillance Apps Flirt With Illegality” – 7/8/2015.

And let’s got on to the bad guys’ black hats (who could be the same guys or white-hat guys who have had their ideas / methods / products / processes stolen) —

According to the documents, 400GB of which have been published, Hacking Team has also been working with numerous repressive governments – something it has previously explicitly denied doing. It has not been possible to independently verify the veracity of the documents.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/06/hacking-team-hacked-firm-sold-spying-tools-to-repressive-regimes-documents-claim — 7/6/2015.

As with other tools, like axes and guns, software has itself has neither consciousness nor conscience.  It doesn’t know who’s using it or how or for what noble or ignoble purpose, and the sawing will go this way: “Software doesn’t destroy, shield, or steal digital assets: programmers and end-users do.”

And now return to the good guys — so I freely presume the avatars of the lawful to be themselves lawful — and another electronic-communicating aspect of their problem with the bad guys of the certifiable kind:

The director of the FBI has warned that criminals and terrorists will be able to talk ‘with impunity’ if encryption goes too far.

James Comey said that anti-surveillance measures being deployed by the likes of Apple and Google will ‘inexorably affect my ability to do that job’ if they continue to expand.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3152226/Is-web-security-putting-DANGER-Criminals-terrorists-communicate-impunity-encryption-sophisticated-FBI-warns.html#ixzz3fP58ZMC5 – 7/7/2015.

Related: FBI – Cybercrime Page: “We are building our lives around our wired and wireless networks. The question is, are we ready to work together to defend them?”

  • What is being hidden from whom?
  • What would be exploited by whom were it not kept safe?
  • Where is the war?

One of my distant correspondents noted of a small community project beneath his wing that he dared not display too much of physical improvements online for there were those in his village that might want a cut just because.

Those guys.

Wiseguys.

Greedy, jealous, suspicious.

Thugs.

Scale it up:

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1 – 11/11/2013.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-russia-mafia-kleptocracy – 12/1/2010.

Or scale it back down:

On May 1, 2014, a grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania indicted five members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for 31 criminal counts, including: conspiring to commit computer fraud; accessing a computer without authorization for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain; damaging computers through the transmission of code and commands; aggravated identity theft; economic espionage; and theft of trade secrets.

First paragraph description of one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Cybercriminals (as viewed in July 2015).

It appears that not so many decades ago, technologists went to work on eliminating space as an impediment to forming basic social relationships while migrating the digitally empowered away from paper-based banking, gasoline-enabled shopping, and family-room television: mission accomplished.

In the process of eliminating so much work while producing incalculable savings, the same have done away with troves of evidence of physical bother: who needs cash, or even a courier, when numbers shuttled between computers move wealth?

Who needs a theater and ticket counter when the talented — whatever the talent — may put on a show, flash mob or flash bang, with the distribution of a signal from a cell phone?

What army is needed where one gunman — recruited online, minimally “handled” — can walk a weapon into some space and inside of a few minutes commit mass murder, damage a state’s tourist industry, or destroy a community’s sense of security in relation to racial or religious harmony?

For the west and geopolitical space integrating with the western mind (of the lawful), all of the traffic, however massive, ultimately educates, informs, or entertains while facilitating either comparatively healthy private and social behavior or behavior not yet codified.

A few of quite another mind — feudal, malignantly narcissistic, plainly malign by normative standards — diverge to disagree in expression and action.

Given free expression (short of direct conspiracy or incitement to crime), conflict between the lawful and the lawless has now long been moved to an electronic boundary between publically empowered and trusted investigators and privately enfranchised criminals, and along that boundary on both sides, software — code is king wherever it “wins” and for as long as it works — has become shield and sword.

Those of us who spend a fair part of our day online reading, writing, shopping, and watching YouTube videos, are going to be witness to and monitors of this challenge to the lawful control of information for some time to come.

Related on BackChannels: “FTAC — On the Opposition of the Lawless to the Influence of Israel” (June 19, 2015).

Related in the News: Reuters.  “FBI says thwarted Islamic State-inspired attacks on July 4.”  July 9, 2015.

Update – Reference – July 10, 2015

Levine, Mike and Jack Date.  “22 Million Affected by OPM Hack, Officials Say.”  ABC News, July 9, 2015.

Waddell, Kaveh and Dustin Volz.  “OPM Announces More Than 21 Million Affected by Second Data Breach.”  National Journal, June 9, 2015.

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Nukes and Empire: The West is on the Brink of Giving Iran Everything it Wants

09 Thursday Jul 2015

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KyleWOrton's avatarKyle Orton's Blog

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on July 6, 2015

In this photo released by official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech for the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year on the Iranian calendar. (AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader)

The United States and Iran are seemingly days from signing an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program that has been brought about by a series of American concessions. If the deal is signed on the present terms it will effectively dismantle the sanctions against Iran and the international legal regime that recognizes the Iranian regime as an outlaw, will leave Iran on the threshold of nuclear weapons, and will provide legitimacy for, and billions of dollars toward, Iranian hegemony in the Middle East.

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FTAC – Twitter Choice

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Journal, Middle East, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Yemen

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Following, for a while. As with so many others incapable of rejecting a sect (in its entirety) within a religion of which one is not a part and over a conflict that is distant and — and I will assign blame to Khamenei and others of feudal mind and ambition — archaic, I don’t want to weigh on the scales. I’ve found the same divide in Shiite and other circles where claim is made about being “the Jews of islam” (and persecuted by Sunni Muslims). Nonetheless, one understands: where this kind of conflict is hot — the bullets are flying and the bombs are going off and lives are being ended, shattered, or threatened in the most direct ways — polarization is as unavoidable as it is destructive and seemingly impossible to repair.

The place where the bullets are flying: Yemen.

The drift of sympathy: against the Houthis as representative of Ayatollah Khamenei’s War by Proxy that in turn defends feudal absolutism and seeks to expand the regime’s power against Sunni interests.

In another and now increasingly distant age — even 25 or 50 years ago may now seem like centuries — the Yemeni part of the Islamic Small Wars would been played as a clipping in the back of the “A” section of the newspapers, a remote tribal war to be overlooked by western indifference.

Those days are gone.

Our Facebook friends are either there or have family and friends who are close to live fire — not only in Yemen but everywhere being razed and ruined by these forces — and we’re watching without recourse to choosing a good and bad side except against the “al-Qaeda Typicals” and the “Hezbollah Virus”, i.e., operations with military wings so awful that the good of the planet would seek to shut down regardless of other disagreements stemming from nominal affiliations and associated cultural, political, and religious self-concept.

Instead, some of us seem to be standing by friends on both sides and hoping the theme of “The Medieval vs The Modern” will catch on before the medieval world, which some are working hard to sustain, swallows the modern.  That outcome may not be possible across continents, but it seems to be proving possible in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe (with Putin-Khamenei as the hub from which so much chaos, destruction, and political confusion emanate).

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FTAC – of Flights and Slights

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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Referencing the Back-Channels zeitgeist — on the greater web: https://conflict-backchannels.com/ — and this has been as much a journey in cultural and political navigation as it has been for others sailing together through time — both Putin and Khamenei have emphasized their devotion to feudalism and absolute power (for them, that’s the good side) and (the bad side) the validation of mafia-style governance and outright internal piracy.

Periodically, Iranian naval forces have tweaked the British Navy by capturing a patrol boat and forcing Great Britain into a predictable round of negotiations ending with, so one might say, faces saved.

Putin’s neo-feudal rig in Russia extends the privileges of the police state known in the Soviet Era (reference: Karen Dawisha’s work) and certainly harks back to the 19th Century’s Age of Empire (so I might wag “colonel, President, EMPEROR Putin” at times). With the invasion of Crimea most in evidence (western governments are the only entities acquiescing, albeit perhaps superficially, in various levels of denial), Putin similarly takes swipes at western resolve,

Much amounts to political theater (like the $52 billion Sochi Olympics show covering the butchery and degradation taking place in Syria with Putin’s military deliveries), but these feints may at any point become more pressed, more earnest, more deadly.

That Putin would call Obama to exchange Independence Day sentiment while this was taking place of course tells of the kind of mentality represented by the Russian President and how that differs from the still dominant American manner on the topside of international politics.

The thread starter: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/06/officials-us-jets-scramble-to-intercept-russian-bombers-off-california-alaska/ (July 6, 2015).

The Big Boys with The Big Toys play around the world this way —

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201506290076 – “Joint exercise in South China Sea reflects Japan’s ‘strong concern’ about Beijing” – 6/29/2015

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/gordon-g-chang/cycle-north-korean-provocations (1/30/2014)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032300574.html – “Iran Seizes 15 British Seamen” (3/24/2007)

And so it goes – and probably goes on every day in ways that simply compile into military activity statistics.

What made the story played by Fox News compelling were, of course, the date, the phone call, and the required scramble.

Newsweek has got it right for this day: “Putin’s War on Ukraine is More Important Than Greek Debt” (July 6, 2015):

. . . the Kremlin opted for a third strategy, identified with Putin’s diabolic aide Vladislav Surkov: a limited but bloody war in the eastern and southern part of only two of Ukraine’s 25 regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, known as the Donbas.

The destruction has been horrendous. The territory now occupied by Russian troops or their subordinates once harbored 3.3 million people, but most have since fled—1.3 million to other parts of Ukraine, 500,000 to Russia, and 100,000 to other countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Only pensioners, the destitute and criminals remain.

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From Correspondence – On (Swedish) Nationalism and Ethnolinguistic Cultural Survival and Self-Determination

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Northern Europe, Philology, Politics, Regions, Sweden

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Posted to YouTube June 15, 2015.

While one may wish not to endorse a racist national socialism – one that seeks the destruction or subjugation of all others everywhere – I’ve always stood behind the prerogatives of ethnolinguistic cultural survival and self-determination. The possession of culture (with beliefs, calendar, customs, institutions, and rituals) suspended in and transmitted through language is a precious gift, and one that man cannot create except in the natural course of living together in some human space and in limited numbers, i.e., a social subset of the species in its totality.

American multiculturalism works partly because of the English-borne classical liberalism passed down through its constitution through time and a combination of privacy, resources, and space such that every cooperating culture may and has found some place to plant itself and struggle along or thrive on the American quilt. Most other states, if not all, including those of the British Commonwealth, have a legitimate part of old feudal interest in the survival of, indeed, both a national way of life (x beliefs, calendar, customs, institutions, and rituals) and the adjusted survival of indigenous contributing cultures within.

The correspondent had shared the video with BackChannels.  Plainly, the complaint devolves to geospatial cultural realities — Let Sweden be Swedish! — and how those interests may be handled today.

In Sweden, the Church of Sweden has been separated from the state since 2000 — the state has become secular — and political navigation has proceeded from the fundamentally changed premise.

En Arg Blatte Talar, AKA “Angry Foreigner” on YouTube, and the spokesman in the above video is himself a Bosnian immigrant to Sweden.  As much surfaces in a related video (by Sargon of Akkad, June 10, 2015, time: 1:37:23).

Among other observations, Talar notes on his Angry Foreigner page, “I don’t hate blacks, arabs and jews. No idea why some of the comments are like that. I am not against immigration as a phenomenon. Of course Im not saying that every country should close it’s borders. Im just asking that other countries take more responsibility with asylum seekers so that we in Sweden don’t have to take as much. It’s fucking killing us. Our politicians are too scared to integrate immigrants properly and it’s causing problems for both the ethnic population and us who have come here over the past years.”

Pat Condell, “Sweden – Ship of fools” (posted to YouTube October 13, 2014):

On the other side of asylum and immigration issues of serious scale are conditions in other lands.  Mexico’s ever lumbering economy and narcoterrorism literally drives its population to border-running desperation.  The same may be noted where mass lowest-level employment draws labor into foreign enslavement.  In other quarters — but I have Syria and Iraq immediately in mind (however, watch out for an increase in Ukraine’s newly dispossessed) — open conflict (poorly addressed) has produced “internally displaced” and “refugee” (homeless, either way) numbers ranging far into the million (by way of Syria alone, above nine million).

Swedish good nature and goodness may account for folly in acts of grace that would take in the immigrant (tired, poor, wretched, and culturally militant), but the challenge to the world (perhaps: get the coming numbers down; get resources up; and move internal economies and trade into strong development) dwarfs even its best potential gestures.

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Ukraine – Orphan?

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eurasia, Europe, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Ukraine

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Posted to YouTube June 30, 2015.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has prepared a dossier laying out evidence for what it calls “Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

The report alleges there are some 9,000 Russian troops deployed in Ukraine, forming 15 battalion tactical groups. The force includes about 200 tanks, more than 500 armored fighting vehicles, and some 150 artillery systems, according to the dossier.

Coalson, Robert.  “Who Are The Russian Generals That Ukraine Says Are Fighting In The Donbas?”  Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, July 3, 2015.

In today’s Washington Post, Jackson Diehl notes Russia’s suspension of gas deliveries to Ukraine and the west’s distractions with Greece and Iran, asking at the end of his piece “Will this be remembered as the summer when the West let Ukraine die?”

I won’t give away his answer.

My hope: I hope not.

Remember Yanukovych Leaks and the state-borne internal piracy that drove Ukrainians to give Putin’s stooge the boot.

Remember Putin’s $52 billion Sochi Winter Olympics, which obscene spending ignored and masked off the hundreds of thousands dead in Syria and the nearly 10 million displace while Putin-Assad-Khamenei fairly cultivated “The Terrorists” for Assad’s Big Political Theater and Khamenei’s teleological commitment to bringing forth the Great Shiite vs Sunni Battle.

Remember Yulia Marushveska — says Anna Nemtsova recently, “She’s a Beautiful, Passionate Voice for Ukraine, But That’s Not Enough” (The Daily Beast, June 28, 2015):

“I want you to know why thousands of people all over my country are on the streets,” she said to the global audience, her voice full of feeling. “There is only one reason: They want to be free from a dictatorship. … We are civilized people but our government are barbarians. This is not a Soviet Union.” The video has since been seen by more than 8.3 million people.

Remember “Syndicate Red Brown Green” and the smaller feudal and mafia-style relationships: Putin-Assad-Khamenei; Putin-Khamenei; Jobbik-Iran; Putin-Orban; Putin-Erdogan, which looks shaky today.

Remember how Assad nurtured Syria’s al-Qaeda Typicals.

Remember Milan Kundera’s famous statement about remembering: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

The main purpose of keeping the Donbas conflict in a smoldering state is to let Putin remain in power. The Donbas war will distract the Russians and help Putin stay in power, the ex-FSB officer said.

Zik.  “Ex-FSB officer throws light on Putin’s games around Donbas.”  July 6, 2015.

The BackChannel’s term for what Putin (and Putin and Khamenei together) represent in contemporary political possibility: “21st Century Neo-Feudalism”.

Dzerzhinsky may be a Communist saint, but the symbolism of the prince’s statue is inescapable. It will celebrate the new Vladimir, not just the old one. This may be obvious, but the subject is avoided in polite conversation.

There are other topics — rising prices, the fighting in Ukraine, the shape of things to come — that people don’t like to think about, even though these subjects are at times unavoidable. The economy is entering “a full-fledged crisis,” former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told Parliament recently. He warned that Russia’s gross domestic product is forecast to be 4 percent lower this year than it was in 2014. Meanwhile, food prices are rising. Official figures indicate a 23 percent jump for the year ending in March, but an informal survey of grocers in my neighborhood suggests a 30 percent jump is more realistic.

Trudolyubov, Maxim.  “Russia’s Virtual Universe.”  The New York Times, July 5, 2015.

But Vyrypaev’s wider summing-up was admirably succinct: “This means that [the state] has the right to intervene, to control, direct, grow, regulate, monitor, and finally to develop the cultural process. It means that the state assumes the role of a kind of spiritual and educational shepherd for the people.”

Birchenough, Tom.  “theartsdesk in Moscow: Free thought vs cultural politics
How heavy is the official hand bearing down on Russian culture today?”  The Arts Desk, July 5, 2015.

While Obama has for the public paired Putin with Soviet revanche, it’s not the Soviet that Putin (and the KGB cum FSB organization) have brought to Russia: “feudalism”, “state capitalism”, “neo-feudalism” better describe what Putin has done — is doing —  to the Russians.

Related Reference

AP. “Land mine explosion in eastern Ukraine kills 5 soldiers, wounds 3 as fighting grinds on.”  Fox News, July 5, 2015.

Avedissian, Karena.  “The power of Electric Yerevan.”  Open Democracy, July 6, 2015: “The corruption and mismanagement of ENA reflect wider problems of governance and the political environment in Russia. When Russian state-owned companies (in which theft is not the exception but the norm) take over infrastructure in neighbouring countries, this is, in effect, ‘exporting corruption’.”

Batchelor, John.  “Obama’s ultimatums to Putin fall on deaf ears.”  Al Jazeera, July 3, 2015.

BBC.  “Nemtsov daughter condemns Russian media ‘propaganda’.”  June 9, 2015.

Castner, Jennifer.  “In Putin’s Russia, Environmentalists Face Stiff Repression.”  Earth Island Journal, June 30, 2015.

Center for Transatlantic Relations.  “This Week in Ukraine” (viewed as compiled July 2, 2015).

Connolly, Kate.  “Obama lambasts Putin: you’re wrecking Russia to recreate Soviet empire.”  The Guardian, June 8, 2015.

Gray, Rosie.  “Pro-Putin Think Tank Based in New York Shuts Down.”  BuzzFeed News, June 30 2015.

Gutterman, Steve.  “Russia blocks internet sites of Putin critics.”  Reuters, March 13, 2014.

Horvath, Ani.  “Hungary’s Viktor Orban antagonizes European Union with border fence, Russia embrace.”  The Washington Times, July 2, 2015.

Isachenkov, Vladimir.  “Putin: Russia is going to spend $400 billion upgrading its military.”  AP via Business Insider, June 26, 2015.

Popova, Polina.  “Freedom of speech under fire in Ukraine.”  The Hill, June 16, 2015.  (The story becomes convoluted as official Ukraine responds to the assault of Russian propaganda: writes Popova, “Some journalists fear that the ministry was actually created to muffle internal opposition, rather than tackling Russian propaganda. It’s not surprising that it has earned the Orwellian nickname “the Ministry of Truth”).

Not a few Russian intellectuals, depressed by the Orwellian state of Russian public discourse, have come to see Ukrainian cities as the hope for the future of Russian culture. In this light, the Russian invasion of Ukraine to protect freedom of speech in the Russian language is perhaps better compared to America invading Canada to save the welfare state or North Korea invading South Korea to protect capitalism.

Snyder, Timothy.  “Ukraine’s easy, misunderstood Babel.”  Politico, July 2-3, 2015.

The Chosunilbo.  “Russia Bans Internet Database Archive.”  July 6, 2015.  (The story concerns the “Wayback Machine” and, indeed, the suppression of questionable material).

Vasilyeva, Nataliya.  “Russian opposition star campaigns against apathy, but Kremlin media drowns him out.”  U.S. News & World Report, July 1, 2015.

Weiss, Michael.  “The Kremlin’s $220 Million Man: Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s deputy prime minister, is supposed to have the cleanest hands in the Kremlin. So where’d he get a quarter of a billion dollars?”  Foreign Policy, October 29, 2014.

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Links – From Defense One – Pakistan’s Potemkin War

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Links

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With increasing annoyance, I exclaimed “Who would want their celestial virgins cleaning their clothes and doing their laundry? Is it their mothers they want in heaven, or vixens?” Clearly these women were not painted on these walls to lure the young men to the gates of paradise. Other paintings suggested a more plausible explanation: this partially bombed out building had probably been a guesthouse.

Fair, C. Christine.  “I Play Make-Believe With the Pakistani Military.”  Defense One, July 2, 2015.

In the above cited article, far more provocative paragraphs await!

The French government will continue to fund a militantly anti-Israel NGO, despite its involvement in last month’s flotilla to break the Israeli army’s blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza, France’s Embassy in Israel as well as the French Foreign Ministry told Arutz Sheva.

As revealed by an Arutz Sheva investigation in June, one of the leading sponsors of the Freedom Flotilla III – the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine (Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine) – has received more than half a million euros in grants from the French government since 2010.

Soffer, Ari.  “French Gov’t Will Continue Funding Radical Gaza Flotilla, NGO.”  Israel National News, July 5, 2015.

Oy vey!

“They have high tech; they have drones; they have so many things,” said Jama. “We are really benefiting.”

McCormick, Ty.  “Exclusive: U.S. Operates Drones From Secret Bases in Somalia
Two decades after “Black Hawk Down,” U.S. special operations forces are back in East Africa’s most troubled nation. FP provides a rare window into their shadowy operations.”  Foreign Policy (blog), July 2, 2015.

Ukraine says it is not as reliant on Russian gas as it once was. Its representatives at the Vienna talks said it has imported no more than one-third of its gas from Gazprom so far this year because it has found less expensive gas from other countries in Europe.

That gas, in fact, was originally supplied to these nations by Russia, and the customers were reselling it to Ukraine. Moscow, however, says it is illegal for its customers to sell these “reverse supplies,” as they are called.

Tully, Andy.  “EU Pushes Russia and Ukraine to Resolve Gas Dispute.”  Oil Price, July 5, 2015.

Posted to YouTube 6/30/2015.

Related: Wiser, Daniel.  “Drone Captures Video of Russian Base Inside Ukraine.”  Washington Free Beacon, July 1, 2015.

There is this idea that the Greeks got themselves into this current mess because they paid themselves too much for doing too little. Well, maybe. But it’s not the complete picture. For the Greeks also got themselves into debt for the oldest reason in the book – one might even argue, for the very reason that public debt itself was first invented – to raise and support an army.

Fraser, Giles.  “Throughout history, debt and war have been constant partners.”  The Guardian, July 3, 2015.

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