Radioactive Europe, Inside Fukushima, US Sells to China, French Nuke Waste




Uploaded by NukeNews on Nov 12, 2011

http://NukeNe.ws – 11/11/2011 Radiation Levels Up in Europe, Depleted Uranium & More: Infowars Nightly News :: To make money, USA to sell nuclear technology to China nuclear weapons company

To counter China, USA to set up another military base in Australia

France grapples with the eternal unsolved problem of nuclear wastes

Radiation standards for children made stricter in Japan

Legal actions against oil companies on effects of global warming?

Scathing criticism of Koch brothers and climate change denialists

Climate Change has cost $14 billion in health toll

Scene inside wrecked nuclear reactor in Japan

Fukushima nuclear disaster: how it was for the workers when it happened

Mystery of radioactive iodine particles in Europe

Fire at Idaho National Nuclear Laboratory

Bob Brown, possibly Australian government’s only sane member, wants scrutiny about USA military bases

While USA sells nuclear technology to China, Australia gets USA military base against China

NY Times reporter detects 300 microsieverts per hour while inside bus

USA to sell nuclear technology to Chinese company involved in nuclear weapons

Maralinga’s hidden legacy of radioactivity AND asbestos

Australia’s Maralinga veterans and Aboriginals paid the price for nuclear bomb testing

Malcolm Turnbull makes a strong case against Climate Change Denialists, and Koch brothers

Climate change events leading to legal action against oil companies

Marathon uranium miner to sue South Australian government

Now Poland and Denmark report “radioactive dust” — IAEA official: “We are a little concerned”

Fallout forensics hike radiation toll: Global data on Fukushima challenge Japanese estimates

Fukushima Lets Media In (VIDEO)

Fukushima Update — Day 247

Fukushima man reports seeing yellow flash when Reactor No. 3 exploded… from over 30 miles away (VIDEO)

Fukushima, Japan update 11/10/11

Former Tepco employee: Plutonium and uranium in Reactor No. 3 has all been blown out — This was no ordinary explosion — Gov’t is concealing truth (VIDEO)

Hydrogen explosion at Idaho nuke facility? INL Engineer: Sodium released hydrogen… the reaction “can range in magnitude from a flash to an explosion”
First glimpse into Fukushima graveyard (VIDEO)

Japanese Government updates radiation maps with data on six new prefectures -8 Months after Nuclear Meltdown – 12th Nov 2011

Japan Times: Official told of extremely bad conditions at Fukushima — Workers often abandoned after exceeding radiation limit

Mysterious radiation levels detected across Europe, says UN nuclear agency – 12th Nov 2011

#Radioactive “Ekiden” Road Race: High Radiation Detected in the Stadium, on the Course

AP: Anonymous IAEA official says iodine-131 release appears to be continuing across Europe

U.S. NRC approves restart of quake-hit North Anna nuclear plant — Smart move?

EDF fined millions and its senior officials sentenced to years in prison for spying on Greenpeace France

UCS questions NRC on status of shield building prior to Davis-Besse restart

Radioactive basketballs

Idaho National Laboratory experiences second on-site emergency this week

http://NukeNe.ws
http://NukeNe.ws/Contributors
Live Headlines: http://NukeNe.ws/headlines
Audio Credits: http://soundaudiomusic.com
NukeNe.ws is a current and comprehensive nuclear news site.

 

November 17 2012,Suicidal Greece in Pictures

An employee at the state-run Workers’ Housing Organization (OEK) crouches on a ledge while threatening to jump as a colleague speaks to her, in central Athens, Wednesday, February 15, 2012. The woman was fired as the agency was due to be shut as part of sweeping new austerity measures demanded by Greece’s EU-IMF rescue creditors. After hours of negotiations, the woman was brought to safety as she came in from the balcony. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Looking for a Police State to blow your Whistle? Here you are! The ex- cradle of democracy the current cradle of Tyranny #tapwire  is nothing comparing to what Greek State has become. THIS IS NOT A STATE OF THE PEOPLE BUT OF THE EXTREMES,THE FASCISTS AND THE POLICE INTIMIDATING CIVILIANS

Λέγομαι Αντώνιος Περρής. Εδώ και 20 χρόνια φροντίζω την 90 χρονών Μητἐρα μου(την γεροντοκομώ). Τώρα τα 3- 4 χρόνια έχει πάθει Αλτζχάϊμερ και τελευταία την πιάνουν και κρίσεις σχιζοφρένειας και έχει κι᾽ άλλα προβλήματα υγείας, Και τα γηροκομεία δεν δέχονται τὀσο επιβαρυμένους ασθενείς.
Το πρὀβλημα είναι ότι δεν είχα προβλέψει να έχω αρκετό ρευστό στο λογαριασμό μου, διότι έπιασε ξαφνικά η οικονομική κρίση. Παρόλο που έχω αρκετή περιουσία, και τα πουλώ όλα όσο όσο τόσο καιρό, έχω μείνει χωρίς ρευστό(χρήματα) και δέν έχουμε πια να φάμε, κι´η πιστωτική μου κάρτα με 22% επιτόκιο γεμάτη κι´ας δανείζονται με 1%, κι´άλλα έξοδα που τρέχουν. Ζω πια συνέχεια μιά ζωή δράμα.

2) Τώρα τελευταία δυστυχώς έχω νέα σοβαρότατα δικά μου προβλήματα υγείας.

Δεν έχω καμμία λύση μπρος μου. Περιουσία αρκετή αλλά ρευστό καθόλου, οπότε χωρίς φαγητό τι γίνεται ? Μήπως ξέρει κανείς καμμία λύση.

Ισχυροί της γης γιά την οικονομική κρίση που δημιουργήσατε θέλετε κρέμασμα
και σας είναι λίγο.

Μη μείνει απ´ αυτούς κανείς.

1) Τον κόσμο αυτό αν θες να φτιάξεις
πρέπει ν΄αλλάξεις τη δομή,
πρωτού λόγω της απραξίας μας
μας αφανίσει η παρακμή,
μας κυβερνούν οι λωποδύτες,
οι τραπεζίτες κι´ οι αγιογδύτες
κι´ όλοι τους οι υποτακτικοί.

R. Δίχως έλεος λοιπόν, δίχως οίκτο,
κτύπα τους πριν αφανιστείς,
γιατί αλλιώς μεσ´ στη μιζέρια
και μεσ´ στο άδικο θα ζεις,
δίχως έλεος λοιπόν, δίχως οίκτο,
μη μείνει απ´ αυτούς κανείς.

2) Λέει η εντολή ου αυτοκτονήσεις,
μα κατ´ ανάγκη αυτοκτονείς,
χτύπα τους πριν σε αφανίσουν,
εγκληματείς που αδρανείς,
της ηθικής μας απραξίας
όπως και της νωθρότητάς μας
πια ας μην είμαστ´ ασθενείς.

MNA–Unprecedented, for Greece, percentages of depression and suicidal tendencies have been recorded in the Greece society, as well as anxiety and despair, in the past two years due to the economic recession, unemployment and the sense of insecurity, psychiatrists told a press conference on Thursday evening ahead of the 38th annual Panhellenic Medical Congress to be held in Athens next week.

Suicides climbed by 22 percent in the two-year period 2009-2011, while the number of people seeking help in support services have jumped by 20-30 percent.amna

According to Professor Eleftherios Lykouras, director of the Psychiatric Clinic of Attikon Hospital, children, even pre-schoolers, have been affected by the heavy climate, with the number of children requiring psychiatric care increasing by 10-15 percent in the two-year period. He said that most of the children are taken to hospital pediatric departments with intense headaches and stomach pains and pains in their extremities, with the diagnosis resulting from test results indicating a psychological, stress-related factor.amna

He said the reduction in incomes, unemployment and financial difficulties are risk factors for the occurrence of depression symptoms, while the debt is proving to be a critical factor in the link between financial difficulty and depression.amna

Further, fear, insecurity and uncertainty for the future are psychological effects connected with the economic parameters and can also lead to depression.

(Reuters) – On Monday, a 38-year-old geology lecturer hanged himself from a lamp post in Athens and on the same day a 35-year-old priest jumped to his death off his balcony in northern Greece. On Wednesday, a 23-year-old student shot himself in the head.

In a country that has had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, a surge in the number of suicides in the wake of an economic crisis has shocked and gripped the Mediterranean nation – and its media – before a May 6 election.

The especially grisly death of pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself in the head on a central Athens square because of poverty brought on by the crisis that has put millions out of work, was by far the most dramatic.

Before shooting himself during morning rush hour on April 4 on Syntagma Square across from the Greek parliament building, the 77-year-old pensioner took a moment to jot down a note.

“I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for sustenance,” wrote Christoulas, who has since become a national symbol of the austerity-induced pain that is squeezing millions.

Greek media have since reported similar suicides almost daily, worsening a sense of gloom going into next week’s election, called after Prime Minister Lucas Papademos’s interim government completed its mandate to secure a new rescue deal from foreign creditors by cutting spending further.

Some medical experts say this form of political suicide is a reflection of the growing despair and sense of helplessness many feel. But others warn the media may be amplifying the crisis mood with its coverage and numbers may only be up slightly.

“The crisis has triggered a growing sense of guilt, a loss of self-esteem and humiliation for many Greeks,” Nikos Sideris, a leading psychoanalyst and author in Athens, told Reuters.

“Greek people don’t want to be a burden to anyone and there’s this growing sense of helplessness. Some develop an attitude of self-hatred and that leads to self-destruction. That’s what’s behind the increase in suicide and attempted suicide. We’re seeing a whole new category: political suicides.”

Police said the geology lecturer, Nikos Polyvos, who hanged himself, was distraught because a teaching job offer had been blocked due to a blanket hiring freeze in the public sector.

A blind protester shouts against anti-austerity measures during a protest near the Prime Ministers office in Athens, on February 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

NATION IN SHOCk

Experts say the numbers are relatively low – less than about 600 per year. But increases in suicides, attempted suicides, the use of anti-depressant medication and the need for psychiatric care are causing alarm in a nation unaccustomed to the problems.

Before the financial crisis began wreaking havoc in 2009, Greece had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world – 2.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. There was a 40 percent rise in suicides in the first half of 2010, according to the Health Ministry.

There are no reliable statistics on 2011 but experts say Greece’s suicide rate has probably doubled to about 5 per 100,000. That is still far below levels of 34 per 100,000 seen in Finland or 9 per 100,000 in Germany. Attempted suicides and demand for psychiatric help has risen as Greece struggles to cope with the worst economic crisis since World War Two.

Nikiforos Angelopoulos, a professor of psychiatry, has a busy psychotherapy practice in an upmarket Athens neighbourhood. He said the crisis has exacerbated the problems for some already less stable people and estimates that about five percent of his patients have developed problems due to the crisis.

“We’re a nation in shock,” he said, even though he suspected that it was the media coverage of suicides that had increased dramatically rather than the actual numbers of suicides. He nevertheless says the crisis is behind a notable rise in mental health problems in Greece.

“I had one patient who came in with a severe depression – he owns a furniture making company that got into financial trouble and he had to lay off 20 of his 100 workers,” he said. “He couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat because of that. He said his good business was being ruined and he couldn’t cope anymore.”

The furniture maker spent four months in therapy and was also helped by anti-depressants, Angelopoulos said.

“He’s better now. He realised what happened just happened. But there are many others who are unstable or psychotic to begin with and the crisis is increasing their anxiety and insecurity.”

Angelopoulos, 60, has also suffered himself because about 20 percent of his patients can no longer afford his 100 euro ($130) per hour sessions. Some have asked for a half-price discount while others tell him they simply can’t afford to pay anything.

“I never turn people away,” he said. “If a patient says to me ‘I have no money’, I couldn’t tell them to go away. I tell them okay you don’t have to pay now but remember me later.”

HAPPY GREEKS?

There are several possible explanations for Greece’s low suicide rate that go beyond the fact that the country has an abundance of sunshine and balmy weather.

To avoid stigmatising their families, some suicidal Greeks deliberately crash their cars, which police often charitably report as accidents. Families often try to cover up a suicide so their loved ones can’t be buried because the Greek Orthodox church refuses to officiate at burials of people who commit suicide.[…….]

Another important factor behind the low suicide rate is that Greeks have extremely close knit families as well as a highly communicative and expressive culture.

“Greece is a country where everyone will talk to you,” said Sideris, the Athens psychoanalyst. “You’ll always find someone to share your suffering with and someone’s always there to help.

“It’s not only the good weather. It’s the powerful network of support that has made the suicide rate in Greece so low. It’s still there but this crisis is still too much for some people.”

Πολυτεχνείο 73-σπάνιο βίντεο -Greece Uprising against the Junta 17/11/1973 rare document

Feel free to share/reblog /repost.Thanks

H Δικη των υπαιτιων της Χουντας στην Ελλαδα documentary

The trial of the colonels in charge of the Junta Militar in Greece 1967-1974

Πρόκειται για μια ταινία ντοκιμαντέρ η οποία αναφέρεται στην δίκη των πραξικοπηματιών της 21ης Απριλίου του 1967. Προβάλλονται ντοκουμέντα από την εν λόγω δίκη με τις απολογίες του Παπαδόπουλου, του Αγγελή, του Πατακού κ.ά.
Ο σκηνοθέτης ενδιάμεσα απ’ τις σκηνές της δίκης παραθέτει ιστορικά ντοκουμέντα που φανερώνουν πως φτάσαμε στην Χούντα του 1967 (μεταξικό καθεστώς, Δεκεμβριανά, Εμφύλιος, δίκη Μπελλογιάννη, δολοφονία Λαμπράκη κ.ά.).
Από τον φακό περνάνε σχεδόν όλοι οι πρωταγωνιστές εκείνης της ταραγμένης περιόδου όπως ο τέως βασιλιάς Κωνσταντίνος, ο Μίκης Θεοδωράκης, ο Ιωάννης Μεταξάς, ο Γεώργιος και ο Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, η Μελίνα Μερκούρη και πολλοί άλλοι.
Πρόκειται για ένα πολύ καλό ιστορικό ντοκιμαντέρ που παραχωρεί στην κρίση του θεατή πρωτογενές ιστορικό υλικό προς μελέτη.

Η ταινία είναι σκηνοθετημένη από τον Θεοδόση Θεοδοσόπουλο. Η μουσική είναι του Γιώργου Γιαννουλάτου με βασική ερμηνεύτρια την Άλκηστις Πρωτοψάλτη.
Κυκλοφόρησε το 1981.

So where is Greece right now? Where is Democracy right now?Right in the hands of the extremist party of Golden Dawn

Merkel Outraged about Greeks on Strike; She May Consider to Impose Curfew

Posted by keeptalkinggreece

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stunned 200 parliamentarians and journalists in Europe Parliament when she fiercely opposed Greeks launching strikes and protests.

“You have to tell them, ‘It is not right, that every time I go on strike when a privatization is due,  it is not right that a railway company is not able to pay its employees due to the ticket fares, it is not OK if the government ministries do not cooperate with each other, it’s not OK if one has a taxation system, but not paying taxes.”

I assume, that the aversion and the lack of understanding for the frustration and anger of austerity-ridden Greeks, have very much to do with the former DDR-mentality of Frau Merkel, where even basic labour rights were forbidden and hardly one dared to whisper “b” when Honnecker was singing ”A”.

Nevertheless, Angela Merkel was sharply criticized by her own German people, with leader of European Socialists, Hannes Swoboda telling her:

“Together with the Troika you demand something, you would never demand in Germany: namely, the destruction of social networks”

Left MEP Gabi Zimmer told her: “Austerity kills! What is good to be more competitive if it takes people to perish?”

Green Party chairman Rebecca Harms spoke of  “enslavement of  the innocent” and of  “Merkel’s Greek disgrace.” (Full story Tageblatt GER)

Rumors that Merkel considers to impose curfew on days of scheduled protests and to send her own tax-collectors to invade each and every home in Greece are not confirmed. At least, not yet.

No Greeks, No Strikes!

Lagarde List “Burn After Reading” Leaked,Greek Journalist Arrested

“Democracy” Today: Pictureshack storing wasn’t working after the journalist’s arrest by the greek ” law” enforcement so I had to re-upload the files of the list and the names contained in there.Greece has turned out to be the most fascist country .Sorry for the inconvenience ,it was a 404 error: democracy not found

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE & READ THE NAMES.

Journalist Kostas Vaxevanis Arrested for Publishing Lagarde-List

Source:Keep  Talking Greece

Greek Journalist Kostas Vaxevanis was arrested on Sunday morning at his home for publishing 2,059 names of Greek HSBC-account holders whose names were on so-called Lagarde-List.

The journalist wrote on his Twitter account during his arrest:

“@KostasVaxevanis They’re coming in the house with a prosecutor now. They are arresting me. Spread “

He was arrested at 11 o’ clock in the morning, the moment the military parade was starting in Thessaloniki to  commemorate the NO Greeks said to Axis Forces on 28. October 2012.

An hour before his arrest Vaxevanis had Tweeted:

“Outside my home are 15 policemen. Let them come in and arrest me like German collaborators.”

A closely-kept secret by the Greek government – the names of 1,991 people who made $1.95 billion in deposits in the Geneva, Switzerland HSBC bank branch – has been released by a Greek investigative journalist and immediately went viral on the Internet, listing several politicians, an advisor to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, well-known businessmen, journalists, doctors, lawyers and engineers, actors and civil servants – some of them working at the Finance Ministry.

The list contains also the names of three former ministers, of whom one died sometime ago. Also the names of owners of enterprises that have gone bankrupt. But also students studying abroad, pensioners and housewives.

Former Minister George Voulgarakis is on the list

The names were said to come from an original list given by former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde – now the head of the International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s Troika of international lenders – to former Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou who said he lost them.

That prompted his successor, Evangelos Venizelos, now the current head of the PASOK Socialists, to produce a copy he said he had on a memory stick and set off an investigation by Greek prosecutors as to whether any of those listed had evaded taxes. It’s not unlawful for Greeks to have accounts in another country as long as they are declared and taxes are paid on them.

Greek authorities did not confirm that the list printed on Oct. 27 in Hot Doc, a weekly magazine published by investigative journalist Costas Vaxevanis, were those on the Lagarde list, given to Greece in 2010 as part of a longer list on a CD that came from stolen records from the bank, the reason Venizelos said he never acted on it, although Lagarde said other countries who found names of their citizens have used it to prosecute tax cheats.

Neither Papaconstantinou nor Venizelos indicated there were any politicians on the list and the government wanted the names kept secret as Samaras is proceeding with a $17.45 billion spending cut and tax hike plan while tax evaders who owe the country $70 billion have largely escaped Greece’s crushing economic crisis. The plan includes more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions affecting workers, pensioners and the poor while Greece’s politicians, rich elite and tax heats have been relatively unaffected.

The embarrassing release came only a day after Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Nikos Pantelis asked for Parliament to be briefed regarding any politicians on list. Former minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, from Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives, whose name is on the list, said it was “disinformation” and “mudslinging” and declared via his Twitter account, “Neither my wife nor I have any offshore companies or foreign bank accounts.”

BURN AFTER READING

Not only Greeks but also name of foreign nationals are on the list – apparently having transferred money to HSBC from Greek banks. Hot Doc stressed that people on the list should not be considered tax evaders unless it is proved they did not pay taxes on the deposits.

But it said: “It is apparent that a large portion of deposits are not justified with the income of depositors. Proof is that most accounts were closed after the bank briefed on the data leaking.” Vaxevanis wrote that he had received the list content on a USB memory stick “by somebody” who wrote to HOT DOC that s/he “believed that the list has been misused for political and economic purposes for two years.”

The HSBC data were stolen by former bank employee Herve Falciani in 2007.  While countries like France, UK and Germany pursued tax evaders, Greece kept moving it from one place to another until Papaconstantinou said it was lost, and he blamed his aides and it became apparent that no politician wanted to get involved.

There was no immediate reaction from the government, which is rushing to finalize the new austerity plan and ram it through Parliament before a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on Nov. 14 so that a pending $38.8 billion loan installment can be released.

The Hot Doc website stated:  “Our controls led to the conclusion that this is the list of Greek depositors to HSBC until 2007 when the leak started. So this list was identical to the Lagarde-List. But we cannot check if this is the (original) list received by Papaconstantinou or a list being formed later after the removal of some names in an potential attempt to hide evidence.”

Until now, one journalist said that he had no bank account abroad and a well-known lawyer declared that his family had transferred money abroad in the late 1980’ss to cover surgery expenses for a family member. Another journalist said he had no money abroad at that time, while a former New Democracy minister and his wife dismissed any connection to the list. While the Hot Doc list did not show how much money was deposited by each individual, that information was reportedly on the original list.

Read the original article here

7 Groups the FBI and Corporations Have Classified as “Terrorists”

Today you’ll hear the annual chorus of “we will never forget.” But we have forgotten. We have forgotten the uproar against the Patriot Act, which was passed in the middle of the night. We have forgotten that Guantanamo Bay was once treated as an aberration, which Obama promised to close. And we have forgotten what freedoms have been sacrificed in the name of an ever-growing threat.

As an illustration of that, consider these 7 examples of the types of people the government and corporations now routinely label as “terrorists.”

1. Undercover investigators. Corporations have lobbied for “Ag Gag” bills to criminalize undercover investigations of animal abuse. And U.S. Congressmen compare investigators to arsonists and terrorists.

2. Tim DeChristopher. As an undergraduate student, DeChristopher disrupted an illegal oil and gas lease auction by placing bids (when he knew he didn’t have the money). For his act of non-violent civil disobedience, he was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Politicians called him an “eco-terrorist.”

3. Muslim communities were disproportionately targeted in the aftermath of 9/11, and through surveillance, harassment, infiltration (not to mention physical violence) the attacks continue. This has become so institutionalized within law enforcement that they continue even when they have not generated a single lead.

4. Anarchists. In the Northwest, more than 60 FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided homes and subpoenaed activists to a federal grand jury. The warrants listed, among other generic items, “anti-government or anarchist literature.”

5. Animal rights protesters. The Center for Constitutional Rights is in court challenging a law called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which is so broad that it labels a wide range of First Amendment conduct as terrorism if it threatens corporate profits.

6. Anti-war and international solidarity activists. In the Midwest, the FBI raided homes and a political group’s office, and served subpoenas for a federal grand jury. The fishing expedition has been fruitless for the FBI, but it has brought together a broad range of groups opposed to the political attacks.

7. Journalists. The Counter Terrorism Unit has kept files on my work (including a book report!) and the work of other journalists critical of government counter-terrorism operations.

You know who is not on this list? Anti-abortion extremists who have actually murdered people.   [source]

A group of men is awoken sharply at four in the morning. Each one thinks to himself, “I wish I could sleep just a little longer.” Anyone not awake, on his feet and ready for morning exercises can expect a strike with a board in his stomach or groin, or some other punishment to be meted out later.

It is winter, and each man hurries to pull on his stiff and frozen boots. In summer, the smell of manure from the animals housed below permeates the loft where they sleep, but the cold weather keeps the aroma of the animals they live with at bay.

A war veteran leads forty-five minutes of grueling exercises, including two hundred pushups and one hundred fifty sit-ups. A quick two-mile run ensues, with each man carrying a staff or club. After the run, all the men file into the animals stalls to urinate–no one had wanted to waste even a minute of their precious sleep time getting up early to urinate before exercises.

They file into the warm house where their leader sits; he will lead everyone in prayer and their daily devotion to God. Many begin to nod off as soon as they are seated, but a jab in the ribs and the fear of being caught sleeping when they should be worshipping God keeps everyone on edge.

The women in the compound serve the men breakfast; and their leader sits as a commoner among them at the table, which is soon enveloped in raucous laughter. The shared hardships of their life bind the men in a camaraderie they all cherish.

Breakfast ends and the men file out of the warm house. All spend the next half-hour tending to the numerous animals. It is now 6:45 a.m.

Some will stay in the compound all day, tending animals, repairing buildings, and working in the fields. Most will leave the compound to hitchhike to jobs in the city or suburbs. The select few who own broken-down vehicles struggle mightily to stay awake as they drive. Each remembers that three of their members have already died from falling asleep at the wheel, and they are determined not to be the next. Each man struggles hour after hour with his friend and enemy, sleep.

It is five-o’clock in the afternoon and the men begin their trek back to the compound. The vagaries of their modes of transport mean some will arrive back as late as 6:30 in the evening. As soon as they reach the compound, they begin their work tending to the animals. Dinner follows for most, but some are fasting, they believe fasting will help bring them closer to God.

After dinner, the lieutenants have lists–lists of arduous work to be performed, and lists of punishments to be handed out for the previous day’s infractions. For most, their fate is assignment to a work crew, but others are not so lucky. One will be forced to run ten miles for the crime of not washing the goats properly before milking, another, five miles for failing to wake up on time.

Then it is out to the fields for more work. Each one secretly hopes it will be only work this evening–drudgery that may last until twelve, one, or two-o’clock in the morning. But tonight a meeting for worship and political instruction is called. Even though they revere their leader as a great prophet, inwardly, they fear him.

No one will admit it, but the hard labor is preferable to sitting in a meeting where they listen to lessons on their Holy Book from their leader, lessons and harangues that can last up to four or five hours. Individuals are singled out for criticism in front of the group. One is sentenced to forty lashes with a bullwhip. His crime? –wearing dirty socks to prayer.

Everyone struggles to stay awake. Finally the meeting ends at 1:00 AM.

The watch list is posted: eight unlucky men have drawn guard duty. The little sleep they have remaining will be interrupted by a twenty-minute guard duty between now and 4:00 a.m. Some wash before retiring, others fall filthy and exhausted into their makeshift beds.

A group of men is awoken sharply at four in the morning. Each one thinks to himself, “I wish I could sleep just a little longer.”

The foregoing is an account of what my life was for nearly four years, not in some Middle Eastern terrorist training camp but on a farm forty-five minutes from Cleveland, Ohio in the mid 1970’s.

Since leaving this fundamentalist Christian cult in 1977, I have spent considerable time and effort in gaining an understanding of how I could have been led to sacrifice everything, my time, family, money, and health, to follow a messiah into a living hell. The answers I discovered are dreadfully relevant today. It is the same way a terrorist is created to sacrifice everything to achieve his mad leader’s goals.

In order not to spread any more fear than already exists in our country, let me point out that while our group believed in a coming apocalypse, we did not subscribe to any notion of terrorism. We did believe we must be ready to fight a foreign invader and that our group would emerge as a holy remnant on the other side of a coming conflagration. While there are literally thousands of cults in the United States today, only a small percentage are of a paramilitary nature, and even fewer advocate terrorist activity.

Obstacles to understanding

“It is odd that despite their current widespread use and looming future importance, most of us know very little about our automatic behavior patterns. …Whatever the reason, it is vital that we clearly recognize one of their properties: They make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work,” warns Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., in his landmark work, Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion.

There is a deep-seated and widespread denial of the reality that we all have behavior patterns that can be manipulated by others. An example of a milder form of this manipulation occurs in sales situations. How many of us have bought something that we really didn’t want or at a price that wasn’t really fair? Another more extreme form is what is termed thought reform or mind control.

It is a difficult concept to understand how one individual can manipulate another to such an extent that he will believe and behave in a manner that is harmful to him or herself and/or society. This article will attempt to explain this phenomenon. I have lived it.

When I give a presentation regarding my experiences in the cult, I am usually met with some version of the same question: “What was wrong with your own psychological makeup that you were vulnerable to manipulation?”

Pursuing the answer to this question diverts our attention from the core problem, the source of the manipulation.

Suppose I venture into a bad neighborhood and am beaten and robbed by a neighborhood thug. I may have behaved foolishly for walking in a dangerous area, but to concentrate on my behavior leads us away from our core problem: the neighborhood thug.

Dr. Louis J. West, a psychiatrist who studied thought reform for more than four decades states: “no single personality profile characterizes those who join cults. Many well-adjusted, high-achieving persons from intact families have been successfully recruited by cults. So have individuals with varying degrees of psychological impairment.”

We have missed what should be one of the most self-evident, looming lessons of history: that the millions of Germans who blindly followed Hitler could not have all been emotionally unbalanced or defective. The denial mechanism may work as follows: only defectives can be led and manipulated, I am not a defective, therefore I cannot be manipulated.

The denial that maintains that normal people cannot be taken in by a totalitarian system of belief was evident in the FBI’s mistaken profile of a terrorist recruit. Each was thought to be very young, without a family, poor, uneducated, and psychologically unstable.

However, the terrorists responsible for the September 11th disaster proved to be quite unlike the FBI’s profile.

It is this deep-seated denial that prevents us from understanding and countering the most dangerous trend of the 20th Century: the spread of cultic totalitarian governments and organizations that use thought reform or mind control.

The Charismatic leader

If we reject the notion that only psychologically defective individuals succumb to mind control, we must use a new model to explain what happens when ordinary people follow the leadership of a new messiah.

Rudolf Odom in his 1933 biography of Hitler, addressed the question; Does Hitler understand what he is doing? Meaning, does he understand how he is manipulating the people? He compared Hitler to a comedian or football player.

Ask the comedian how he makes people laugh and he probably has no idea. Nonetheless, he is very good at it. Likewise, the typical cult leader has an innate ability to manipulate and control people, and many couple this innate ability with a shrewd theoretical understanding of psychology to further entrap their victims.

Cult leaders may also use or appropriate long-standing thought reform methodology developed over decades or even hundreds of years that are embedded in the culture. Arkon Daraul in his Secret Societies: Yesterday and Today, describes in detail this centuries-old Arabic mind control system from which much of the modern terrorist thought reform system has evolved.

“These cults are led by a charismatic leader who actively anticipates an apocalyptic event that will purify the world. Often they invite altruistic killings to accomplish this,” said Professor Robert J. Lifton in his November 3, 1999 presentation of his book, Aum Shinryko, Destroying the World to Save It, to the Commonwealth Club of California.

Lifton further describes a cult leader in a 1989 introduction to his seminal 1961 work, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: “[The cult leader] tends increasingly to become the object of worship in place of more general spiritual principles that are advocated.”

Evidence of this phenomenon is the proliferation of large photos and statues of the leaders of totalitarian states. Osama bin Laden has certainly reached the status of worship. His photo is ubiquitous and in Pakistan it is reported that one in five boys born is named Osama.

The evil wrought by madmen serial killers Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, or Ted Bundy pales in comparison to what has been perpetrated by leaders skilled in manipulating ordinary men.

The great crimes of history were carried out by men convinced they were doing the right thing, or serving the only God, their world-view warped by forces outside themselves.

“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities”–S.R. Krishnan

How does a cult leader ensure that his followers will carry out his wishes? The tragedy of September 11th provides us with some terrible illustrations of how the process works.

Unlike passengers on the other three hijacked planes, the passengers of flight 93, hijacked over Cleveland and pointed towards Washington, resisted their attackers.

Why?

Simply because they were in possession of a different understanding of their fate than the passengers on the other three planes. Through conversations on cell phones, the passengers of flight 93 understood they were going to die at the hands of their hijackers. Consequently, they heroically rushed their attackers, minimizing any additional loss of life. They were behaving logically based on their understanding of their situation.

The passengers on the other three flights did not resist. Until this point in history, most hijackings had ended in negotiations with minimal loss of life. Standard procedure was not to resist. These passengers were also behaving logically based on their understanding of the situation.

In similar fashion, the cult member’s world-view, not necessarily his capacity for judgment, is what is distorted and impaired. He behaves logically according to his world-view.

This is why the cult member can seem quite rational and capable of functioning in many levels of society, but the consequences of him following his conscience or world-view can be barbarous and insane.

When the cult’s world-view is successfully inculcated in its victim it does not necessarily need to be closely regulated and the desired behavior will follow. An example is the Nazis’ depiction of the Jews as sub-human. Once this view was accepted by a significant percentage of Germans, the anti-Semitic behavior of the populace logically followed.

Cult-ure

The totalitarian cult leader in a free society is faced with two tasks: recruitment of followers, and retention of followers.

Once a sufficient mass of people have been indoctrinated and support the leader, and political and police power have been established within the movement, those who continue to resist the mind control apparatus of the state can be dealt with through the physical power of the government.

In Nazi Germany, the remaining portion of the populace that had not succumbed to the mind control system was either cowered into submission through fear, imprisoned, or murdered.

Once the cultic thinking becomes pervasive in the culture, it follows that there are two types of members in the totalitarian system, those who are recruited into the system, and those who grow up in the system. The methods used to convert someone can be exceedingly complex, and space prohibits a detailing of all of them.

However, by examining someone who has absorbed the cult’s philosophy and world-view during their formative years, we will also encounter some of the principles used against the convert.

Travel is one method of becoming aware that human beings in every culture hold to beliefs that are quite irrational and bizarre. By doing some time-travel we can explore our own culture and see practices that were unquestionably wrong, but universally upheld at the time.

Before 1840, the notion that bacteria caused disease was unknown. Cleanliness with regard to medical procedures was considered unnecessary and the results in terms of public health were catastrophic.

Why did we tenaciously hold onto these quite mistaken notions?

There are two reasons: contradictory information was unavailable and this is the way everyone else thought. The tribesman who grows up eating roasted grasshoppers for a snack would be shocked at our spraying them with pesticides, and vice versa. So we all can grow up with some odd beliefs with absolutely no awareness of their irrationality, simply because they are accepted by our parents, community, government, or, in short, our culture.

One method a cult leader uses to maintain irrational beliefs is by ensuring that contradictory information is unavailable.

In a closed society, this is easier to accomplish than in an open one. In both open and closed societies, mind control measures instituted from the top typically present their victims with a plausible reason that attempts to hide the measure’s true purpose. When the state directs that citizens can no longer listen to foreign broadcasts because they promote the interests of the state’s enemies; the true reason is to ensure that no contradictory information is available to counteract the process of mind control.

For example Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership issued a “break your (TV) set now” ruling, claiming that television was impeding prayer.

In Nazi Germany from 1933 until the end of the war in 1945, the Hitler Youth, the bad-guy equivalent of being a Boy Scout, were bombarded with the message of how glorious it is to die for the Fatherland. The official title of Hitler’s elite military units, The SS Storm Troopers, was “The Order of the Death’s Head.”

Germany was steeped in a cult-ure of glorification of death.

Japan had the centuries-old tradition of the Samurai, from which the concept for the kamikaze suicide attacks evolved.

The parallels between the homicidal and suicidal nature of Nazism, Japan’s Samurai, and Islamic terrorist cults are not difficult to draw. Pakistan has numerous religious schools called madrasas, which Jeffrey Goldberg of the New York Times characterizes as nothing more than jihad factories, or schools of indoctrination.

The Islamic extremist culture is infused with the glorification of death.

One of the most difficult concepts for people to believe is that mind control can be maintained in an open society.

I physically left the group I was in for two years after being drafted into the Army. I returned to the group after my discharge. I still believed I was doing God’s will, and it made sense to return to duty with God, no matter how distasteful.

How is the control kept over the mind of the cult member even when he is not under the direct control of the group?

The adherent is taught to separate himself from the evil world, which typically translates to not socializing with non-believers.

Mass media is often portrayed as being co-opted by Satan, and so television, movies, magazines, and newspapers are avoided.

Though not the case with the Islamic terrorist sleeper agents, the mind control victim is often taught to evangelize friends and relatives so aggressively that he is either successful recruiting them or he alienates them.

There is thus no meaningful human interaction between the cultist and non-believers. The only contact with non-believers permitted is that which furthers the interests of the cult.

“Humans use logic not to solve problems in the first instance, but to check the work and put it in presentable order after the insight has been attained.”–Edmund Cohen

Something that has continually impressed me is the fact that highly intelligent people come to widely differing conclusions about all manners of things in life. There are intelligent Democrats and Republicans; conservatives and liberals; religionists of all creeds, atheists, etc.

The divergence of opinion regarding crucial issues suggests that reason and logic may play a minor role in how people arrive at their philosophies about life. This suggests that people have an emotional reaction or experience about an issue, and then go about finding facts and intellectual arguments to support that position.

The danger the cult leader represents is that he typically understands not only how to create an emotional experience for an individual, but also then how to go about wedding a group of facts and arguments to the emotional experience.

For example, Hitler carefully planned the Nuremberg rallies with lavish pageantry and torches, and understood the additional psychologically manipulative power they would carry by always staging them at night. The pageantry was then combined with Hitler’s charismatic delivery of the Nazi philosophy.

I will illustrate with a scenario that is similar to my experience in the Bible cult. Let’s suppose a person attends a religious service. A friend has invited him. The friend sits next to him and hopes that he will have the same wonderful experience he’s had at these services. The service is carefully calculated to heighten the emotions through music and ceremony. The leader may take the participants on an emotional roller coaster, first inducing euphoria and then guilt and shame. Healings and miracles might be part of the scheme, usually effected by either the power of suggestion, deception, or magic tricks. An invitation is made to surrender the will to a higher power and join this loving family. Prayer, shouting and emotion may ensue. There is joy; a new convert has been born into the group.

What we have now is a contrived emotional experience, almost entirely crafted and orchestrated by the leader of the group. The group now will strive to link the emotional experience of the convert to their doctrine and philosophy.

In the cult I was in, we were taught the importance of follow through with this new “babe in the faith.”

We had a set of Bible study doctrines that we were instructed to teach the convert, many of which purported to explain in doctrinal terms his experience. In order to cement the convert’s relationship with the group, the system proceeds to wed the doctrine of the group to the emotional experience of the convert. The cult creates the pseudo-spiritual experience, and then anchors its doctrine and cosmology to the experience they induced in their victim.

The emotional experience can be one that is contrived as pointed out previously, or it also can be a real-life scenario, such as growing up in poverty in a refugee camp, losing a relative to an act of violence, or fighting an oppressor, etc. The cult leader seeks to capitalize on that experience and wed it in the mind of his victim to the cult’s philosophy or doctrine.

In a normal environment, an individual may educate him or herself with additional information that supports his world-view and associate with others of like mind. We can call this an educational process.

However, what the cult strives not for education, but indoctrination.

In education, information is processed with the student’s understanding and consent, while indoctrination sneaks in the back door of the mind without its victim’s approval.

Those involved in the education of students are typically not threatened by opposing points of view; in fact, the classical idea of the university is to encourage and test competing theories.

But those who seek to indoctrinate do everything within their power to separate the cult member from information that is critical of their cause. Since it is not always possible to separate cult members from negative information about their group and philosophy, they are trained to effectively close their senses to any information that contradicts its philosophy.

A chilling example of this is related by Jeffrey Goldberg in a September 16, 2001 New York Times article, “Jihad spins out from a corner of Pakistan.” Goldberg was visiting a madrasa, a Muslim religious seminary where students range in age from 8 to 35. When Goldberg quoted passages from the Muslim Hadith forbidding the killing of women and children in a Jihad (an armed struggle), the students began chanting, Osama, Osama, Osama. The students then took turns defending Osama bin Laden.

This episode illustrated that when presented with an idea that directly contradicted everything they had been indoctrinated in, the tension became too great and they launched into thought-stopping chanting. They then went on the offensive with what were likely stock arguments they had been drilled on beforehand.

Cult leaders use many different techniques to indoctrinate their followers, including thought-stopping, rhythmic breathing, fear, sleep deprivation, supplying a deficient diet, repetition, charismatic leadership, peer and social group pressure, magic, isolation, guilt inducement, proselytizing, and revealed knowledge, among others. Most of these techniques work to place the mind in an altered state, a state wherein the victim is unable to critically process and filter information. In effect, these techniques are opening the back door to the mind without the victim’s awareness or consent.

For example, the cult leader might present rhythmic breathing as the path to better health, while the true purpose is to place his victim in a suggestible state for indoctrination.

How well do you think when you are angry, tired, or fearful?

The connection between the cult victim’s emotional experience and the group’s doctrine or philosophy is strengthened to a frightening degree through this multi-front psychological manipulation. This bond is far stronger than any tie that could be achieved through education and takes on a sinister power.

Remember that the cult member experienced an emotional event through his own senses. Now any attack on the philosophy is experienced by the cult member as the same as an attack on his personal experience. That the information perceived by his senses was wrong is difficult to believe and too emotionally painful to contemplate. The cult victim cannot and will not deny the experience he knows his senses have told him are real, so the linked doctrine stands like a rock, impenetrable to any rational argument.

This is why the cult member clings to ideas and arguments that are clearly illogical; any information that attacks his doctrine and threatens to prove it false threatens to prove his powerful experience false as well.

The war against self

In the previously mentioned Times article, Goldberg dispels some misconceptions regarding jihad: “‘Jihad’ is misunderstood in the West. It does not mean ‘holy war.’ It essentially means ‘struggle’ and there are two types of jihad: greater and lesser. ‘Greater Jihad’ is the struggle within the soul of a person to be better, more righteous — the fight against the devil within. ‘Lesser Jihad’ is the fight against the devil without: the military struggle against those who subjugate Muslims.”

The Biblical fundamentalist cult of which I was a member also had what they termed a war against self, or a war against one’s own ego.

One manifestation of this struggle was the treatment of women and sexuality. Women were required to wear ankle length dresses, have their hair covered, and were not to look anyone directly in the eye.

There was also a considerable amount of preaching advocating the suppression of sexual thoughts for unmarried believers, not an easy task for a group of people who were mostly in their early twenties.

In retrospect, I believe nearly every person there failed at this task of suppression, and probably experienced the same requisite guilt, fear, sense of failure, and self-loathing that I did.

The game is: convince people their natural impulses are sinful and then set them at war against their own personality and nature. The cult victim then continually works at suppressing his own “unholy” personality, and his self-doubt drives him to further surrender his will and judgment to his leaders.

The fundamentalist extremist Muslims are at work at the same game.

Women are required to dress in the burqas, clothing that obscures their face and bodily form. Men are warned of the dangers of looking upon a woman.

Evidence that the hijackers were in this sexual double bind is found in a story recounted by the Florida motel owner who had rented a room to some of the hijackers. The hijackers had complained about a painting in their room that showed an uncovered shoulder of a woman. They requested that the painting be either removed or covered.

However, after they moved in, the motel owner marveled at how often they were seen watching women in bikinis at the motel pool.

Each look probably filled them with guilt and a sense of failure, and perhaps renewed purpose and resolve after each lapse in morality.

Ironically, in what may be a deadly harnessing of the sex drive, the Islamic martyrs are promised in heaven what they are denied on earth: marriage in paradise with 72 beautiful virgins. In a fantasy that is the height of hypocrisy, they are rewarded in paradise with an orgy that they would roundly condemn on earth.

The foregoing does not represent the entire gamut of the mind control or thought reform process, but hopefully can serve as a framework to illustrate how these powerful forces can be used to enslave the mind.

Is there a way out?

There is a loose-knit association of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, sociologists, clergy, parents, ex-cult members, and most importantly, exit-counselors, which has studied and combated cultism and mind control in this country over the last three decades.

Exit-counselors assist those who are trapped in mind control cults, and understand how to break through the barriers of thought reform.

These individuals have stared in the face of totalitarianism and developed tactics to free minds from its grip. This expertise could be used to reach suspected terrorists our government has in custody and possibly transform them into useful sources of information.

In addition, the government and intelligence community can benefit from the other professionals who have studied this problem in helping to develop strategies for dealing with the cultic organizations in the Middle East.

The political situation we are currently in can be seen accurately through the lens of the thought reform and mind control models. And our leaders must develop a true picture of the forces arrayed against us in order to combat them more effectively.

Will this understanding allow us to avoid war or military action? Probably not.

But without a precise understanding of the psychological dynamics of cult leaders and their followers, our government’s actions may lead to disaster.

The government misread the situation with the Waco cultists. We cannot afford to misread this new threat. We must not turn Afghanistan or a Middle Eastern country into a Waco disaster. If we do, there will be dire consequences.

It is popular for those wishing to sound a warning to quote George Satayana when he said, “Those that do not remember history, are condemned to repeat it.”

We don’t have a problem remembering the events of World War II, but I do think there is a problem with comprehending how the minds of millions of Japanese and Germans were turned to mass murder, destruction, and suicide.

My warning is to misquote Satayana by saying: “Those who do not understand history, are condemned to repeat it.” [source]

Lawyer gets threats for defending gays

Yaounde – Cameroon lawyer Alice Nkom, who is known for defending gays and lesbians in a country where homosexuality is outlawed, said on Tuesday that she has been receiving death threats from anonymous callers over her stance.

“Since October 18, I have become the victim of anonymous death threats,” she said, adding that she has been warned to stop defending homosexuals.

“In the beginning, there were calls at 04:00 in the morning. Now they are sending SMSes,” she said, adding that she received the latest text message at 03:00 on Tuesday.

She said one such SMS read: “Lesbian whore, it’s your turn to suffer. Watch your back well as your security is very weak. We will give you a demonstration when the moment comes. No respite for gays in our country.”

Nkom said that the threats also targeted her children, but she vowed that they “cannot discourage me from my fight”.

 

– AFP

Ambam – Two women on trial in Cameroon for homosexuality pleaded not guilty on Thursday as their lawyers sought an annulment of the trial over alleged rights abuses.

“Not guilty”, said Esther, 29, and Martine, 26, whose full names are being withheld to protect them in a country where homosexuality is illegal.

The two are charged with “having intercourse with a person of the same sex”.

Their lawyer, gay activist Alice Nkom, asked the court in Ambam in south Cameroon to annul the case as investigators had failed to inform her clients of their right to legal counsel or to remain silent.

“Since this case began, we have been the laughing stock of our town. We are being treated as witches,” Esther told AFP on leaving the courtroom, which was packed with curious onlookers and supporters

“I do not see what they did wrong to deserve this,” onlooker Fabrice Ngningha told AFP.

But another passerby, who refused to give her name, said: “It is not normal that two women sleep together. They must be condemned, as an example to their children.”

Martine has two children and Esther one.

– SAPA

Liberia’s senate to consider anti-gay bill

2012-02-24 07:50

Monrovia – Liberia’s senate will consider a bill to strengthen the nation’s existing anti-gay laws, a senator said, as another West African nation, Cameroon, announced the arrest of 10 women suspected of being lesbians.

Cameroon Radio Television reported on Thursday that the 10 women are being detained in Ambam, about 300km south of the capital of Yaounde, until they go to trial.

Consensual same-gender sex is considered criminal in Cameroon and punishable by a jail sentence from six months to five years and a fine. Gay rights defender and founder of the Association for the Defence of Homosexuals, Alice Nkom, says detainees in Cameroon are frequently tortured in police stations to force them confess.

Meanwhile, Liberia’s former first lady, Senator Jewel Taylor, submitted a bill last week that would prohibit same-sex marriage and make homosexuality a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“We are only strengthening the existing law,” she said. “Some media are reporting that I said anyone found guilty of involvement in same sex should face the death penalty, I did not say so, I am calling for a law that will make it a first degree felony,” she told the Associated Press.

The current law considers gay relationships a first-degree misdemeanour, which carries a punishment of up to a year in prison.

“We are looking at it critically” and will put it before the entire Senate “during our next sitting on Thursday”, Senator Joseph Nagbe, chairperson of the Judicial Committee, told The Associated Press.

Wave of intense homophobia

If passed by the Senate, the strengthened bill would then go the House and then the president.

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a recent Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said she will not sign any such bill into law.

“Liberia is a member of the global community and therefore cannot kick against the rights of others to do what they choose to do,” said Archie Ponpon, chairperson of the newly-formed gay rights advocacy group the Movement for the Defence of Gays and Lesbians in Liberia.

Ponpon and his family have already faced hostility because of his fight for gay rights in Liberia. Weeks ago, his mother’s house was set on fire and he and another advocate, Abraham Kamara, were mobbed by angry students while campaigning at the University of Liberia.

“We will not relent,” he said. “People will come to the realisation that in this day and age, individuals should be free to practice what they wish.”

A wave of intense homophobia has been washing across Africa in the past few years, where homosexuality is already illegal in many countries.

“It’s getting worse,” Cameroon gay rights defender Nkom said of homophobia.

“People accused of homosexuality are put in jail straight away” she told reporters in November after three men were each sentenced to five years in prison for homosexual acts.

Death threats

International rights groups, including Amnesty International, have frequently lambasted Cameroon’s homosexuality law, demanding its abolition.

But the authorities have turned a deaf ear to such requests. Last year, the government demanded and successfully obtained the withdrawal of grants allocated the Association for the Defence of Homosexuals by the European Union.

Nkom said she has received numerous death threats from fellow lawyers and Cameroonians, as well as a threat from the Ministry of Justice to dismiss her from the country’s roster of legal practitioners.

Contempt for homosexuals has led to anti-gay legal measures elsewhere in Africa. Last year, Nigeria’s Senate voted in favor of a bill that would criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection. Two years ago, Ugandan legislators introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians, though it has yet to become law.

In January, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said African nations should stop treating gays as “second-class citizens, or even criminals”. Ban told African leaders that discrimination based on sexual orientation “had been ignored or even sanctioned by many states for far too long”.

– SAPA

Uganda raids gay rights workshop

2012-02-15 07:53

Kampala – A Ugandan minister on Tuesday raided and shut down a workshop run by homosexual rights activists in Entebbe, Amnesty International reported, days after a draconian anti-gay bill was reintroduced.

The London-based rights watchdog said in a statement that Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo, also a priest, raided the workshop flanked by police and expelled its participants from the Entebbe hotel where it was being held.

“This is an outrageous attempt to prevent lawful and peaceful activities of human rights defenders in Uganda,” Amnesty International said.

Ugandan police spokesperson Asuman Mugenyi said: “Gay activities are illegal activities under our law and our law has not been amended.”

Homosexuality is already punishable by life imprisonment in Uganda but a recently reintroduced bill proposes to toughen the law, notably by criminalising acts aiding or abetting homosexuality.

The bill, which enjoys wide support in the east African country’s parliament, initially envisioned making certain homosexual acts punishable by death.

But the bill’s author, MP David Bahati, said last week after an international outcry that he wanted to drop the death sentence clauses.

Gambia president will cut off gay’s head

2012-02-14 22:34

Banjul – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday reiterated his stance that he would never accept homosexuality in his country, after recent pressure from abroad on African states to respect gay rights.

“We know what human rights are. Human beings of the same sex cannot marry or date,” Jammeh said while swearing in 15 ministers of his new government.

“If you think it is human rights to destroy our culture, you are making a great mistake because if you are in the Gambia, you are in the wrong place then,” he added.

In 2008, Jammeh gave an ultimatum to homosexuals to leave the country and vowed to “cut off the head” of any homosexual found in the Gambia.

In the west African nation homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment, for men and women. Jammeh has threatened to introduce even stricter laws.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently told leaders at an African Union summit they must respect gay rights.

“If we Africans are to build our societies based on outside dictates and structure, our cultures based on alien cultures, we will be the losers,” said Jammeh.

– AFP

Classified Nord-Ost Unknown Details [updated]

Written by newtimes.ru

Вторник, 23 Октябрь 2007

Exactly 5 (10 now,23/10/2012) years ago, on October 23rd, 2002, ‘Nord-Ost’ took place Terrorists seized the theatrical center on Dubrovka Street, located eight kilometers from the Kremlin, right in the middle of a show. On stage was the super-popular Moscow musical ‘Nord-Ost’, based on the novel ‘Two Captains’ by Benjamin Kaverin. Several dozen terrorists burst into the auditorium and took 912 spectators and performers hostage. The gunmen shot five. The tragedy lasted for 57 hours, while the terrorists demanded that President Putin withdrew his troops from Chechnya and stop the war. At dawn on October 26th, the federal headquarters gave the order to start a gas attack. Poison gas was used. The terrorists were eliminated: they were shot both during and after the gas attack. During the assault 67 hostages were killed, and 58 more died in buses and hospitals. One of the reasons for this was the gas was kept secret, and the doctors were not prepared to provide effective medical care. Tatiana Klokova, Elena Fedorova, and Olga Shorin prepared this material. October 23rd, 2002 10:45 pm REN-TV telephone interview with the producer of ‘Nord-Ost’, Alexei Ivashchenko: “They came onto the stage at the beginning of the second act. They started shooting, not blanks, but real bullets, because we saw how the bullets hit the wall. The actors rushed helter-skelter around the dressing room. Some managed to climb through a window. There was a lot of shooting.” 11:16 pm REN-TV breaking news: According to latest information, the terrorists warn security forces not to storm the building and are threatening to shoot for 10 people for every casualty on their side. This information was confirmed by radio station ‘Echo of Moscow’. On the Chechen separatist website kavkaz.org, they allege that the concert hall was seized by a Chechen suicide squad led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of field commander Arbi Barayev, who was killed in Chechnya. October 24th, 2002 4:11 am REN-TV breaking news, reporter Anna Fedotova speaking by cell phone with hostage Maria Shkolnikova, who called during a live broadcast REN-TV: “What’s going on with you?” Hostage: “What’s happening is that people are waiting for the government to start negotiations to free them, but not through aggressive action, since this is impossible. The auditorium is completely booby-trapped. People will suffer if there is an assault. There must not be an assault! That’s how we on the inside feel, and you, of course, must decide this, I mean, those who will make this decision, but there are a lot of people here, about a thousand people. They are all very tired and very worried. There are children and a lot of women and a lot of old people, and we must now do something so that these people are released. We expect you to use a peaceful solution to the problem, not a military solution, because the people sitting here in this hall, they also condemn the war in Chechnya.” REN-TV: “Mariya, is there any change somehow in the mood of the criminals?” Hostage: “No. Right now we are listening to what radio ‘Mayak’ is saying, that the women, children, and foreigners will be released. That is not true! Only those who are going to storm the building are saying that. The women are here, the children are here, and the foreigners are here. Don’t make the situation out to be what it isn’t. There are a lot of people here, and a lot of children.” REN-TV: “Can the (hostages’) families speak by mobile phone? We got information that they were forbidden.” Hostage: “Relatives could speak by mobile phone, because there are a lot of mobile phones. Then the communications were jammed from the outside. I understand that it was jammed by the security services. They didn’t take away the phones, but now the batteries have started to go dead on us, and phones are going dead.” REN-TV: “Can you confirm that the terrorists have explosives?” Hostage: “Absolutely. There are women who left year-old children home and came here, and men. They are set up very powerfully. More than…” REN-TV: “Mariya, hang on!” Hostage: “We very much want to avoid an assault on the building. We want to see this problem resolved through negotiations, and we, as I said, we condemn what is happening in Chechnya.” REN-TV: “But what did the terrorists tell the people? Have they talked with you?” Hostage: “They said they have lost loved ones, and that they have nothing against us personally. This is simply their cry of despair, to draw attention and to try to solve the problem.” REN-TV: “I understand that this is a totally impossible situation, but would it possible now to speak with one of the hostage takers?” Hostage: “One second! (You can hear her asking: “Do you want to say something live on REN-TV?”) Now they’re giving me some figures. (She reads dictation.) During three years of the war in Chechnya there have been 3,000 children under the age of 10 killed. I’m repeating what they’re telling me. 4,500 children under 15 are disabled. 18,000 people are missing. Young people go missing! I’m repeating the words that they are saying. There is cleansing going on, they pick up young people and they disappear.” REN-TV: “Communications were lost. I would like to make the statement that, of course, we have no legal right to give terrorists a podium, but so far as this now affects the lives of so many people, women and children, we thought that in this case it could be possible.” 4:30 am Communications with hostage Mariya Shkolnikova are restored REN-TV: “Mariya, can you try to discuss the issue with some of the militants?” Hostage: “You try it! (You can hear her say: “This is the REN-TV television group.”) Militant: “Yes!” REN-TV: “Hello! We had a tentative agreement that you’d let into the building a film crew, and in return release some of the hostages. Is it possible to do this now? We couldn’t find any representatives from foreign embassies until now. Now we’re ready to find them, that is, they’re already here, we can call them and they’re willing to drive over.” Militant: “We’re not letting foreigners go in exchange for something. We’re just letting them go, understand? Because they are foreigners. Because this isn’t their business. Because this is our business: Russians and Chechens! Understand? Journalists, we’ll let in.” (The connection is lost.) 6:00 am Communications with hostage Mariya Shkolnikova are restored Hostage: “We need here the Red Cross, and ‘Doctors Without Borders’, and that the representatives of these organizations are only foreigners. They may negotiate with them.” REN-TV: “Seven ambassadors are now standing at the entrance to the building.” Hostage: “Listen to me carefully, take a piece of paper and write this down. From Belarus there are two people, Turkmenistan — three people, Germany — seven, Great Britain — three people, Switzerland — two people, the United States — four people, Ukraine — 18. Further on, Canada — one person, Bulgaria — one person, Australia — two people, Latvia — three people, Netherlands — two persons, Moldova 1 person, Yugoslavia — two people, add another person to Belarus, Azerbaijan — five people, Armenia — one person, Georgia — three people. Pass along that from the UK are some very important people, they have K-2 and K-1 visas, whatever that means.” REN-TV: “Mariya, how many kids in the auditorium?” Hostage: “A lot.” REN-TV: “How many is a lot?” Hostage: “Yes, add another three Ukrainians, please.” REN-TV: “Ukraine has 21 people.” Hostage: “Please, there should be representatives of these embassies, and representatives of ‘Doctors Without Borders’ and the Red Cross, but only if there were no people with Russian citizenship, because they will only negotiate with representatives from other…” REN-TV: “So, they want ‘Doctors Without Borders’ and the Red Cross. Mary, please pass along the following: there are now, we can even give their names, four ambassadors and two chief consuls from several countries, in particular, the British consul, the ambassador from the Netherlands, and the ambassador from Australia. It was hard to gather up these people, who are now standing at the entrance along with a film crew. So, now we’ll call and ask that representatives from the Red Cross and ‘Doctors Without Borders’ join us.” Hostage: “Representatives of Red Cross and ‘Doctors Without Borders’. Call them right now. Maybe you can try to bring out the people who are foreign nationals, and then you’ll just monitor as a film crew.” REN-TV: “We’ll do everything, we are now in touch with all the television stations. Mariya, I have a request: I beg you, don’t hang up if we will call you.” Hostage: “I’m not hanging up, but the fact is our battery is giving out.” REN-TV: “Tell me, are there any wounded?” Hostage: “No, no wounded.” REN-TV: “There wasn’t any shooting?” Hostage: “If there was shooting, it was only as a warning.” REN-TV: “But what about food, the condition of the people, water, what’s happening?” Hostage: “The people ate food and there was chocolate, and they drank water and juice.” REN-TV: “As a doctor, can you see what the situation is there, is anyone doing poorly…” Hostage: “Yes, (we need) mostly heart medicines, and analgesics.” 7:00 am Hostage Mariya Shkolnikova on REN-TV REN-TV: “Mariya, we’re bringing you phone batteries just in case, because it could turn out that our only communications may be through you.” Hostage: “Now there’s another issue: we really need for Aslanbek Aslakhanov (ed: at the time the Chechen Member of the Russian Parliament) to call me on the phone.” REN-TV: “Aslanbek Aslakhanov will contact you on this phone, we’ll do it now. Mariya, tell me, if the doctors can bring in some drugs, and what medicines are needed?” Hostage: “Yes, mostly sedatives, valerian, that’s all.” REN-TV: “They can bring them in, yes?” Hostage: “Yes, we only need that there’s nothing extra.” REN-TV: “Mariya, we understand everything.” Hostage: “Analgesics, valerian, heart medicines.” REN-TV: “Mariya, hang in there.” 7:30 am Hostage Mariya Shkolnikova on REN-TV REN-TV: “So, at this time the situation is this: representatives from the Red Cross are driving over… they’ve arrived.” Hostage: “Yes.” REN-TV: “Representatives of ‘Doctors without Borders’ cannot come, they are in the Caucasus, there are none in Moscow.” Hostage: “Okay.” REN-TV: “Ask them how this procedure should be performed. There’s a proposal. The ambassadors… Mariya, could these people take the phone? (Audible are several people speaking, the voice of the hostage and a militant. Mariya Shkolnikova gives the phone to the militant.) Militant: “Let her come alone without a camera. She comes close and they’ll open the door.” REN-TV: “Wait, who?” Hostage: “Politkovskaya.” REN-TV: “Politkovskaya, okay, this is new information. How about the ambassadors and representatives of the Red Cross, and the journalists, two film crews are standing there.” (The militant dictates to the hostage) Hostage: “When Politkovskaya comes up, she should yell that it is her, and hold her ID in her hand.” REN-TV: “What about the foreign ambassadors who came? They’ve already been waiting since six in the morning.” Hostage: “The ambassadors will have to wait.” REN-TV: “They keep changing their demands. We worked hard to gather several ambassadors and representatives of the Red Cross.” Hostage: “The response to that, is that the situation for everyone is dire.” REN-TV: “Okay, I’ll try to do it all. Thank you, once again hang in there.” 7:45 am REN-TV starts to search for Politkovskaya. She is in America. REN-TV: “Hello, Mariya…” Hostage (Anna Andrianova): “Mariya walked away.” REN-TV: “We have some information for you that is very important.” Hostage: “What?” REN-TV: “So, the militants put forward a demand that Politkovskaya should come to the building. Politkovskaya is currently in the U.S.” Hostage: “We have found this out.” REN-TV: “So, the ambassadors and the representatives of the Red Cross are standing here, everything that was demanded.” Hostage: “You know, there was some talk that they’re willing, as a matter of fact, to have at least some dialogue with Mr. Yavlinsky, if he can somehow…” REN-TV: “If it’s possible. These people every 15 or 20 minutes make new demands. I’m not a representative of the government or a representative of the headquarters, I represent a private television station.” Hostage: “But if you can, you have, as a private broadcaster, some outlets…” REN-TV: “We, of course, have outlets, but understand this: is it somehow still possible to directly engage them in dialogue, so that we don’t have to explain everything through you?” Hostage: “I’ll explain that, but they behave as though they’re not very interested, they’re operating from a position of strength, they condescendingly refer to our calls to you. They’ll make contact, but we must do something to make sure contact is not lost.” REN-TV: “Tell me, are they drugged, or something?” Hostage: “No. They’re acting from a position… They have one clear demand: the withdrawal of troops from their country. (Pause) …I have to ask you something, if you can come up with something with Yavlinsky.” REN-TV: “We’ll be sure to pass your request along to the headquarters.” Hostage: “And another request: not to use force. Here they say, let Yavlinsky and Hakamada come, they’re ready to talk with Hakamada.” REN-TV: “Understood, I’ll pass along your request.” Hostage: “And the old request, we’ve repeated it many times: everything is booby-trapped. That is to say no, absolutely no… So that they don’t scare them in anyway.” REN-TV: “I understand.” REN-TV and representatives of operational staff REN-TV: “Mitrokhin and Hakamada. I asked in what condition they were, if they were under the influence of drugs or not. She said no. They are working entirely from a position of strength… and since she said it in front of them, that means they were all standing close around her, not a very good feeling… They agreed… Medicines, understood… So, I’m calling Hakamada so that she can go there… Agreed, in touch… Okay. But could you send someone from the headquarters to our company, so that a man was sitting here, so that we could actively coordinate activities? (Hangs up.) …So, the headquarters says okay, Hakamada is ready to come, but not Yavlinsky, it’ll be his deputy, if they agree… So, you all just stand and wait, while we’ll send these members of parliament… And Sergey Yastrzhembsky said that they’ve prepared a suitcase full of medicines, so if you aren’t allowed in right away, give the whole suitcase full of medicine to Hakamada… That’s all, until the next call.” 10:00 am REN-TV and hostage Anna Andrianova REN-TV: “Across from the building are standing two Red Cross representatives, a foreign journalist, Mr. Franchetti, and Mr. Kobzon. They’re standing next to the building. They’re ready to start negotiations immediately.” Hostage: “I passed it on.” REN-TV: “Can these people enter the building, and how?” Hostage: “When I say that these people can go in, next to me is standing the man who says they’re allowed to enter. If this happens a half hour later, then this man will already be gone and it’ll be necessary to find him and repeat the order again. So do everything they say to do quickly, that’s the thing.” REN-TV: “Understood, we’ll do everything possible.” Hostage: “Yes, I understand that they need individuals who can influence government policy… to fight, and fight for the liberation of Chechnya, and whose opinion is important in the country.” REN-TV: “We’re doing everything possible, everything you say, but the demands keep changing, the names keep changing. Right now…” Hostage: “These aren’t demands, you understand, this is the position of these people. These people want the liberation of their country. Their demand is to stop the war, and all the rest are just the means. Those means suit the people here right now, because they need people with spotless, as it were, reputations in this matter.” REN-TV: “They can negotiate with these people, those whom they requested for negotiations, but how are these people, whom they demanded to for negotiations, how are they to enter the building?” Hostage: “The people who now came, I reported that they had come to them now, and I think they’ll go get them. Yes, they’re going to them.” REN-TV: “So what should they do, should they approach?” Hostage: “Stand outside the building.” REN-TV: “In what place by the building?” Hostage: “Let them go in and climb to the second floor.” REN-TV: “Go through the main entrance…” Hostage: “Through the main entrance, hands up, and climb to the second floor.” Militant: “They don’t have to have their hands up. Have them show their ID.” REN-TV: “Anya, ask them if it’s okay to bring the suitcase with the medicines that you requested.” Hostage: “The medications can come in, but they’ll be inspected.” 11:00 am From a statement by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov: “All night we tried to establish contact with the bandits. There was one telephone conversation between Member of Parliament Aslakhanov and one of the bandits. The conversation at first started quietly, but then got excited, then further telephone communication was interrupted… Our attempts to call phones that we know to be in the theater, and which belong to these bandits, were unsuccessful. They will not communicate.” 1:57 pm From a statement by the head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev: “During the course of the day there were a series of talks with chiefs of foreign intelligence services, who provided us with valuable information. The operational headquarters is acting with confidence, and decisively, firmly, and clearly predicting their actions.” 2:00 pm REN-TV and Mariya Shkolnikova REN-TV: “Mariya, what’s going on right now?” Hostage: “We’re assisting people who are getting worse and worse. There are a lot of them.” REN-TV: “The Chechen Diaspora is willing to negotiate. Which of them are their countrymen willing to let into the building?” Militant: “It’s not necessary to see the Chechen Diaspora here. They can speak with us at any time. If people want to show themselves here, let them come of their own initiative. I don’t think they’ll be harmed. You tell them that they must be credible people.” REN-TV: “Understood…” Hostage: “We’re waiting, because they promised that Nemtsov would be here, and it is our request, the people’s request, because so many people voted for Yavlinsky.” REN-TV: “I beg you, tell all those around you that everyone is doing everything possible to help you all.” Hostage: “Understand, there aren’t any results. So please, we’d really like to appeal to the people and to Putin, if there is a possibility for them just to take some serious measures.” REN-TV: “Now they want to see Nemtsov?” Hostage: “They don’t want to see Nemtsov, they agreed to conduct negotiations with Nemtsov, not negotiations, but to express to him their demands. Nemtsov, Yavlinsky and Hakamada are the people they hate the least.” REN-TV: “We spoke with Yavlinsky. He’s flying here, he’s making an effort to come here.” REN-TV: “Mary, tell me, were you given the medicines?” (The connection is lost.) 3:00 pm REN-TV and Mariya Shkolnikova REN-TV: “Hakamada is arriving.” Hostage: “Hakamada is arriving, that’s good. We want our government to make some kind of a decision, so that the crowd, if possible, would chant ‘pull out the troops’, otherwise they’ll shoot us now. They said this.” REN-TV: “A crowd will not chant this, there’s no crowd here, everyone’s very far away, and there’s a fence, they can see all this from the building. So, pass along the following, if possible: Hakamada is arriving and she is ready to enter into…” Hostage: “They won’t talk with just one woman.” REN-TV: “Understood, just pass along what I’m saying, you can just peacefully, in the same voice, calmly pass it along.” Hostage: “I just finished talking with them.” REN-TV: “No one is nearby?” Hostage: “No, they are far away.” REN-TV: “Very good. Anechka, I beg of you, I understand everything perfectly. So, Hakamada is ready to participate in negotiations. Yavlinsky is in Tomsk right now, his deputy is here, Mr. Mitrokhin, he is standing close by. Here Mitrokhin and Hakamada are ready to negotiate.” Hostage: “Mitrokhin isn’t suitable. They don’t know Mitrokhin. We need Nemtsov.” REN-TV: “Nemtsov?” Hostage: “Yes. If not Yavlinsky, them Nemtsov.” REN-TV: “But what about Hakamada?” Hostage: “Without them, she cannot enter.” REN-TV: “They’re in an aggressive mood, yes?” Hostage: “Now, yes. They want to shoot groups of ten people already. They said: start withdrawing troops, why isn’t your government doing anything to save you?” REN-TV: “Right now the headquarters is taking all actions, they are ready to make contact, not through you, because that’s not how negotiations are conducted. The authorities are now willing to negotiate.” 4:07 pm Josef Kobzon and Irina Hakamada leave the building. A representative of the terrorists, named Abu Bakar, spoke with the MPs. He was not wearing a mask. The terrorists’ promise to release 40 hostages was not fulfilled. 4:47 pm Mariya Shkolnikova is released from the theatrical center, carrying an appeal from the hostages to the President: “We ask you to make the sensible decision, to cease hostilities in Chechnya. You are at the top, and decide these issues, while we just watch. Enough of war, we want peace. Today we are in a life and death situation. We have parents, brothers, sisters, and children. Our lives are on your conscience. We ask you to resolve the issue peacefully, or too much blood will be spilled.” 5:20 pm REN-TV and Anna Andrianova REN-TV: “Anna, what’s going on there right now?” Hostage: “I won’t answer the question, what’s going on here… Can you tell me something about where Yavlinsky and Nemtsov are?” REN-TV: “Yavlinsky in Tomsk, he’s flying to Moscow, as far as I know.” Hostage: “When will he be here?” REN-TV: “At 9:30 pm, according to our information, the aircraft with Yavlinsky arrives in Moscow.” Hostage: “You know, it’s a long flight from Tomsk…” 9:17 pm From news reports: “Negotiations with the terrorists in Moscow are today being conducted by representatives of the Russian presidential administration. The terrorists have refused an offer to exchange hostages for members of parliament who volunteered. Earlier, the leader of the terrorists, who called himself Abu Said, communicated with the operational headquarters and said that inside the building are 50 terrorists: 25 men and 25 women.” 11:00 pm From REN-TV news: “In accordance with a decision by the operational headquarters for the hostage rescue operation, Grigory Yavlinsky has begun negotiations with the terrorists. The negotiators are asking the terrorists to initially release the children and foreign nationals. According to the headquarters, there are about 30 children. Inside the theatrical center building there is only drinking water and chocolate.” October 25th, 2002 3:00 am The director of the Center for Disaster Medicine, Leonid Roshal, and newly arrived from the U.S., Anna Politkovskaya, are allowed into the building. Roshal assisted several hostages and said that the situation is calm, no panic. Most of the hostages have health problems. There are serious illnesses, and four children remain held hostage by the terrorists. 9:00 am From REN-TV news: “Now on Melnikov Street a rally is being held. Relatives of the hostages have gathered by the theatrical center with banners reading ‘No to War in Chechnya’, ‘Down with the Russian army’. The desperate hostage relatives tried to break through a police cordon and enter the building. Among the hostages held by the terrorists are many children. There are continuous negotiations for their release, but no agreement could be reached.” 11:50 am Representatives of the Red Cross leave the building on Dubrovka with eight children. They were released without conditions. 3:04 pm From a statement by Vladimir Putin: “I believe that one of the goals of terrorists is to sow ethnic strife… In no case must we allow this to happen. We must not succumb to provocations from the criminals, and we have no right to allow any illegal acts.” 7:45 pm From REN-TV news: “Yevgeny Primakov entered the building. A half-hour later, Ruslan Aushev, then Alla Pugacheva entered. The negotiators refuse to speak with the press. 11:55 pm Shots are heart in the theatrical center building. October 26, 2002 4:45 am REN-TV breaking news: “In the area of the theatrical center building on Dubrovka, where it is already the third day that terrorists have been holding about 700 hostages, intense gunfire was heard. Three powerful explosions were heard. The police cordon was reinforced and special units have lined up in front of the building.” 5:30 am Gas is released into the building. 7:05 am The operation is complete. 11:00 am From REN-TV news: “A few minutes ago in the Kremlin, a meeting between the President of Russia, FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, and Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, ended. At the meeting it was said that a coordinated operation was conducted and the work of all agencies involved in the release of the hostages had been assessed as competent and coherent. The FSB director reported to the President that the operation would not end there. The Federal Security Service has a number of materials that they are ready to act upon.” *** During the assault on ‘Nord-Ost’ there were 57 awards handed out: 5 Hero of Russia stars. Soldiers from ‘Alfa’ and ‘Vympel’, who participated in the operation to destroy the militants, only received two of the stars. Two other stars were given to the operational headquarters: FSB General Vladimir Pronichev, the commander of the hostage rescue operational headquarters, and FSB General Alexander Tikhonov, commander of the FSB special forces center. The fifth Gold Star was awarded to the chemist who released the gas into the theatrical center. This became an open letter from the commandos of ‘Alfa’, who told about the classified presidential award decree. 2 Orders of Courage were awarded, to Leonid Roshal and Josef Kobzon. 50 ‘Nord-Ost’ memorial medallions were awarded to members of the Moscow city government and the Moscow city parliament, including those who were on vacation or on business trips outside Moscow during the hostage crisis. The medallions included the phrase ‘for empathy’. Maria Shkolnikova is the head of the Russian Association of Pediatric Cardiology, a doctor of medical science, a professor and chief pediatric cardiologist for the city of Moscow, and deputy director of the Moscow Institute of Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery Medical University. Maria Shkolnikova was released on the second day after her capture, on October 24th, in order to pass along an appeal from the hostages. She is now continuing to work as the chief cardiologist for the city of Moscow. Anna Andrianova is the chief of the advertising service for the newspaper ‘Moskovskaya Pravda’. She was among the hostages for all of the 57 hours, right up to the assault. At 5:30 am, she phoned to report that the gas had been put into operation. Under the influence of gas, she lost consciousness. She came to the evening of October 26th in the 13th Municipal Hospital. She survived. She continues to head the advertising service for ‘Moskovskaya Pravda’. The terrorists took 912 people hostage. 42 were released before the assault. Of these, Yosef Kobzon brought out four women and three children, while doctors from the Red Cross brought out an Englishman and 8 children. The remaining hostages that the militants released for various reasons were mostly children and foreign nationals. Of the latter, four citizens of Azerbaijan left the building on the night before the assault. On July 11th, 2007, the ‘Nord-Ost’ organization sent the Prosecutor General’s Office a request for criminal proceedings to be initiated against members of the operational headquarters in charge of the hostage rescue. In their statement, ‘Nord-Ost’ noted that the organization of medical assistance to the victims during the hostage rescue was not up to standard. In particular, the gas used to neutralize the terrorists, and which in turn affected the hostages, had no antidote, according data of ‘Nord-Ost’. This is not the first lawsuit against the leaders of the operation. In November of 2002, the first group of plaintiffs filed their suit in the Tver district court, against the Moscow city government. They stated that the rescue operation was poorly planned and organized. The court rejected the claims. On April 28th, 2003, Moscow city court considered an appeal. The court stated that the investigation into the events of October 23–26, 2002, were still ongoing, and that a causal relationship between the special operation and the loss of life had not been established, nor was any guilt found on the part of those responsible for the operation. As a result, the applicants’ claims were rejected. The Russian Supreme Court found no actions by the district and city courts to be in violation of the law. Foreign nationals sued the federal government in the Basmanny Court. The court also rejected their claims. In early April of 2007, proceedings in the ‘Nord-Ost’ case began in the Strasbourg court. The Russian government has already submitted its objections and comments on the suit. The plaintiffs received nearly fifteen hundred pages recently, for their information. They have until November 12th to send to the European Court of Human Rights their response to the Russian government’s arguments. Russian law enforcement authorities have denied the victims access to materials from the criminal cases, examinations, and witness interviews. newtimes.ru

As Novaya Gazeta reported in its previous issue, the Strasburg court has advised the lawyers Igor Trunov and Karinna Moskalenko about the fact the consideration of the Nord-Ost complaint will be classified.

No doubt, such a decision must be met with joy by Russian authorities who have done all their best to classify the circumstances of the terrorist act and the reasons that caused the death of the hostages. Anna Politkovskaya, who in person carried out talks with terrorists, tried to destroy this curtain of secrecy and carried out her own journalist investigation.

February 2003

The judge Gorbacheva from the Tverskoi inter-municipal court considered the tragic story of death of Timur Khaziev, 27, the member of the orchestra in Nord-Ost. The general number of lawsuits was 61. As of today, three first applications have been dismissed.

“When Timur came to work on his last day, he had 10 different IDs with him: the one proving that he is an artist at the Nord-Ost orchestra, the passport, driver’s license… But in the end, when the family received his corpse with a rubber label on his hand, there was a sign there “#2551 Khamiev, unknown”…The family are sure that the death was caused with the fact that no medical aid was given to him, as most likely, his body was taken for that of some terrorist… Khaziev’s family only has certificates of death where no cause of the death is pointed. There is just a blank space. And there is no mention that there was any terrorist act at all”.

April 2003

“The taking of over 800 hostages in the Theater Center on Dubrovka Street in Moscow might have been controlled by Russian special services…Such a conclusion is possible to be made after an interview with Khanpash Terkibaev, 30.

<…> Apparently, this Khanpash has been the man looked for by all those involved in the Nord-Ost tragedy. The man, who secured the terrorist act from inside. According to the information by Novaya Gazeta (and this vainglorious man does not even try to deny it!), Khanpash is the planted by special services agent. He entered the building together with terrorists, as a member of their group. According to him, he had been securing the passage in Moscow and to the Nord-Ost building. <…> Not waiting till the attack made by special unit, he just left the building. He had the map of the place, while either Baraev the nephew, who commanded the terrorist group, or the special unit preparing for the attack, did not have such a map. If there has been such an agent in Nord-Ost that means the authority had been aware of the planned terrorist act. <…> That changes the general course of events of a half a year ago.

August 2003

Anna Politkovskaya has been visited by some representative of a “special group under Moscow Prosecutor’s office, investigating the Nord-Ost case”.

“Naturally, this man turned out to be an FSB investigator. Of course, I know his name, but it does not matter. His appearance itself and his behavior was an indication of HOW all that was done – the check and examination. He said he only had 15-20 minutes and so I had to be laconic. He said the case was about to be dismissed, and now it was no good idea to deal with this “information”, and actually they had found nothing like that during their investigation. He asked a few formal questions and he was not interested to know any special details. He did not even include that into protocol, saying it did not matter much. The only thing he was interested in was that after our publication Basaev threatened to deal shortly with Terkibaev as with traitor. And that interest was put into protocol exactly in accordance with the Criminal Code. So what did this FSB worker come for? Just to find the way of protecting one’s agent and take him out of danger posed by Basaev.  <…> And soon it was announced about closing the Nord-Ost case, considering there were no members of the terrorist group to remain alive and dismissing the investigative group.”

January 2004

A month before the investigation was finished a meeting was held in Moscow Prosecutor’s Office where the investigator from the Investigative Department for Gangsterism and Murders Vladimir Kalchuk met the former hostages and families of those killed in the terrorist act.

“Mr. Kalchuk was asked main questions worrying the involved people, but he did not answer any. However, he told about many other tings…

Q: Do you consider that the video published by Novaya Gazeta might have shown the destruction of some hostages (this is about issue #90 of Novaya Gazeta for 2002. The pictures shot on 26 October 2002 at 6:51 on the threshold of the Theater Complex on Dubrovka Street where a camouflaged woman is aiming and probably shoots at a man with his hands cuffed on his back).

A: No one terminates anyone at that video. This is how journalists want it to look like. We have made an expertise. There a dead body was shifted from one place to another and the woman just shows where it is. We know whose corpse it is.

Q: Whose?

A: I won’t tell you. I tell you something and you will write it is all a lie.  <…>

Q: A question about Terkibaev (one of the terrorist group members, who had left the building before the assault started. – note by editorial board).

A: Terkibaev was not there. And Politkovskaya did not help us. She refused giving any information on Terkibaev. She said “I don’t know anything”.

At the end of the two-hour meeting I had to remind to Mr. Kalchuk the truth about Terkibaev’s case. The matter is that after repeated requests by us, an investigator Timoshin (Kalchuk’s subordinate) came finally to our office and collected all the information we had. That was done and registered with protocol.

Reaction by Mr. Kalchuk to that remainder was inadequate. He told I should stop writing about the topic, otherwise he would hint to the victims of Nord-Ost that my phone number was found in the data base of the terrorists’ phone, and “then we shall see what they will do to you… And actually one may get interested what related you personally to terrorists”. <…> “It was necessary to carry out talks with the terrorists, and so I did”.

February 2004

“During a year and four months only fathers and mothers, not the community, convinced the investigator Kalchuk to allow them to see the materials of cases about the causes of the deaths of their relatives. Finally, he allowed that to some of them under condition they would not copy it officially. <…> so that no further court proceedings followed.  <…>

The parents write out the forensic conclusions about deaths of their children. Here is a one of them, the initial one: “The diagnosis: poisoning with a toxic substance”. It’s clear that it was a poison and not a harmless gas. The initial forensic diagnosis establishes that almost all the killed died from a “toxic” or “unknown” toxic substance. <…> The investigative group, having received over a hundred similar forensic expertises, did not do what it had to. It did not try to establish what exactly gas was it.  <…> Instead, the investigators set about the opposite. They decided that repeated indirect expertises should be done to everyone who died.  <…> The “commissions” established; all those who died (with the exception of 6 persons who died due to non-administering the medical aid) had come to the performance suffering the inner diseases (!), actually they were just seriously ill people, and their diseases had not stood the stress caused by a group of Chechen terrorists. <…> Once special services blabbed out accidentally: “With a purpose of prevention of mass death of innocent people…a special recipe was applied on the basis of derivatives of Fentanil. <…> In accordance with the effective law the data about the composition used in the course of the special counter-terrorist operation cannot be published… (Signed by the head of FSB for Moscow and Moscow region V.N.Zakharov, # 1/1471 dated 03.11.2003)” Mr. Kalchuk looked at that paper, brought to him by the victims, and said (I heard that myself) “I didn’t see that. I don’t know it. Fentanil? Never heard of it”.

April 2004

«<…> 129 killed. All the terrorists destroyed. One accomplice to terrorists (recognized by the court), Zaurbek Talkhigov, got sentenced to 8 years. Another accomplice, Khanpash Terkibaev was killed in a car accident under odd circumstances. Official investigation by Vladimir Kalchuk is going on sluggishly, while all the attempts for a parallel investigation are just ridiculed. What gas was used? Who is responsible for its composition? Who gave the order? Who did not give the order to administer specialized help to those suffered form this gas?  <…> One year and a half after, all those questions are only asked by victims and not by officials.”

July 2004

“All the victims, as it is reported officially, died from their own numerous diseases at the background of dehydration and stress and only slightly due to the use of “non-identified chemical substance”. But why during two years no one has been able to recognize THIS substance? No answer ever was given to that”.

November 2004

A sensation happens in Nord-Ost case: it’s been for the first time after two years that the victims were able to read the decision by the prosecutor’s office about refusing to start a separate criminal case. At the third attempt the judge Susina managed to make the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office submit to the court the materials of criminal case #229133.

…”According to explanation by A.Y.Alabov (his position is not pointed; it appears that this is a special service officer – A.P.)  <…> he saw with his own eyes the doctors light into eyes of the victims, and then the victims were made injections in the gluteal region. <…> What doctors? Officially, there were no doctors in the lobby at 6:30 a.m. Then who could have lit with the flashlights? Was it about mysterious chemists who kept on their experiments and made hastily injections to their still-alive victims, using antidotes known to them only?”

“From the account by the chief physician of Hospital #13: no official information explaining the reasons of the state of the arrived patients was given”. Even these words by the doctor were ignored by investigators: why those who must have informed and who knew what the people had been poisoned with, why didn’t they tell that to the doctors? Investigation did not even try to ask such a question”.

Outcome: “To refuse starting a criminal case in relation to absence of crime in the act <…> by officials responsible for organization of administering medical aid”. This decision was dated 31 December 2002. Over two years have been spent on concealment the main state secrecy.”

April 2005

The victims have managed to get the head of the investigative group Vladimir Kalchuk summoned to the court proceeding. Anna Politkovskaya quotes the dialogs by the lawyer Karinna Moskalenko and Mr. Kalchuk.

M: Where and when did Alexander Letyago die? In hospital? Or in the auditorium?

K: (getting annoyed and beginning to speak in informal tone) Why are we beating the air again? I’ve got many similar cases. Letyago’s death? I just don’t remember.

M: Has the investigative group established the substance used by the special unit during assault made?

K: I was based on official expertise. There was no mentioning any gas there. That all was made up by the media.

M: Then why the page 13 of your report says that the use of Nalaxon (a strong medication used for blocking the drugs with the treatment of addiction of the opium type – A.P.) did not play significant role in the state of the victims?

K: Why do you keep asking? That’s because the victims had been taking this substance constantly. (It’s necessary to explain this statement by the investigator: he affirms that as the unrecognized chemical substance was found with practically all the 129 killed victims, that means all of them had been taking drugs – A.P.).

M: Did the investigation make enquiries so that to identify the substance?

K: Are you teaching me how to work? What else do you want to know? I’m not going to say you anything more!

M: But you are standing before the court.

K: (speaking without the judge’s permission): I’m not going to say anything, you won’t learn anything from me. And I’ll never come here again. I don’t want it.”

December 2005

“This turned out after it had been managed to copy the materials for 60 killed persons, including the forensic expertises. It is pointed there that 40 out 60 persons had not been administered medical aid. The victims wrote a letter to Putin saying that “the materials of investigation have allowed to correct the number of killed – that’s no less than 174 people. The figure of 129 is the frozen figure of three years ago! It is not clear who did this mistake and hid the 45 killed people during three years! The forensic expertises enabled the opportunity of estimating the properties by “harmless” gas. All the vitally important organs were affected with the dead victims after the assault made, which was mortal for them: “sudden heart death”, “syndrome of fast death” – these are just variations of the causes of collective fatal outcome, that may be read in the forensic protocols.”

“Nord-Ost victims have taken every possible step. They placed actions and got refusals in Tverskoi, Zamoskvorezky, Nikulinsky Courts of Moscow, in the Court of Moscow City, in the Constitutional Court. There is only hope for Strasburg, where the case is waiting for its turn being titled as ‘Chernetsova and others versus the Russian Federation’ “.

 

By Marina Daineko

July 13th, 2007

In MZ

http://www.newswe.com/Exclusive/ex1.php#pa118

 

 

 

The face of a little girl who will never grow up.

 

 

But who will answer for this and many other broken lives?

Bright is her memory. Hers, and the memory of all who died at Dubrovka.

The face of a little girl, for whose death old men received medals.

“Happiness is a philosophical concept, and every family has its own happiness. Happiness in our family was Sashenka.” So wrote her aunt, Roza Ishchenko. Look at the Memorial Book, reader. Look at the bright face of this little girl who will forever remain 13. The face of a little girl, who, perhaps, while still alive, was tossed onto the steel floor of a medical service UAZ van by her so-called rescuers, and then covered by the bodies of 12 other hostages.

She was born in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in 1989. The web site created and maintained by her mother, Svetlana Gubareva, has a memorial book with a page dedicated to every hostage of the Dubrovka theatrical center. Sasha’s address is: http://nord-ost.org/kniga-pamyati/letyago-aleksandra.html.

“Knowing our laws and the work of our Prosecutor General, the connections between that office and the government, we cannot count on anything. ‘Nord-Ost’ is a forbidden theme and it is not advantageous for our prosecutors or the government to investigate this. We have received so much information that the prosecutor would have to work too hard to disprove the evidence against those in charge of the operation at Dubrovka. We, however, do not even rule out the personal responsibility of even the president,” declared Tatiana Karpova, coordinator for the ‘Nord-Ost’ public organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“At the very bottom was a 13-year-old girl…”

 

By Svetlana GUBAREVA for NEWSWE.COM

 

The hostage rescue operation could be divided into two parts. The first part covered the actions of the special forces. This part was considered to be a success, and the general consensus is that the actions of the special forces prevented the explosion of the building, and the use of the ‘special substance’ led to a quick knockout of the terrorists. The facts we have gathered from the criminal case and the media, however, attest to the preconceived nature of this assertion.

 

 

 

In her book, ‘Through the eyes of a former hostage’, T. Popova recounts the words of one of the hostages, who told about what went on at that moment in the auditorium: “We all saw white smoke coming from above, and noticed a smell. A woman terrorist was sitting next to me. She said, ‘this is a gas attack — go wet something and breath through this cloth, head for the exit and the ambulances will come for you soon’. My friend and I went to the exit and we told other hostages along the way, but no one came with us. They were afraid to walk past the bomb. We decided that if they were going to blow us up, then it didn’t matter where we were, and we got to the exit. I passed out right at the door.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are more than enough facts that attest to the negligence in organizing medical assistance. Many have viewed scenes from the video chronicle in which one can see the process of carrying people from the theater, piling them on the steps, and loading them into buses without providing enough medical workers or drugs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Referring to this article, I sent a petition to the prosecutor’s office demanding that they investigate and determine the details of what occurred, but I was refused the satisfaction of my legal desire. The investigator did not acquaint me with any kinds of materials that would answer my questions, but did not forget to ask for my signature on a non-disclosure agreement. I consider this an attempt to force me to silence.

Right away it was clear that several persons had were already dead in the vehicle. Not from the gas, but from being crushed under other bodies. At the very bottom was a 13-year-old girl. Diagnosis: crushed to death.”

The first assignment for the intensive-care workers was to unload the vehicle. Fortunately, it was a good time. 9 a.m. was shift change, and there were twice as many workers as usual. They were brought to bear, including this reporter who at first tried to work in his specialty, but after a look from the chief of the department, began to help.

The doors were finally opened, while they, in turn, opened the doors of their vehicle. The department workers’ hair stood on end. Inside the 12-seat UAZ were 30 (THIRTY!) casualties, stacked on top of each other like cordwood (you cannot describe it any other way). Motionless. Without any gunshot wounds. Those who were in the front of the microbus could say nothing about the nature of the injuries.

“…No one even paid attention to the khaki-colored UAZ van that drove up to the department’s doors at about 9 a.m. Those who brought the UAZ did not know that around the side was a door that was always open, for service personnel, and so for a long time they beat against the locked reception doors.

Not long ago I learned how they rescued Sasha. While putting together materials for the web site, I found an old article with a detailed description of the events: http://nord-ost.org/vospominaniya/rasskazyivaet-zhurnalist-ochevidets-sobyitiy.html

I believe that whoever made the decision to use the gas (whether it was the chief of the headquarters staff or V. V. Putin personally) could not help but know that, in making such a decision, he was sentencing us to death. While those who carried out the orders conducted a combat operation at first, they later, in full kit, carried hostages out of the theater because at that moment there was no one else to do it. One of them carried my daughter.

 

Sasha Letyago in the arms of a special forces soldier, a frame from the video chronicle

The use of the ‘special substance’ under conditions where they could not control the individual dosage for each hostage, or provide immediate medical assistance to the casualties, significantly increased the chances of a lethal finale for the hostages.

One can divide ‘siloviki’ into two types: those who made the decision and gave the orders, and those who carried out these orders. The former head of the KGB’s 3rd Directorate (military counter-intelligence), Vice Admiral Alexander Zhardetsky, in an interview with Interfax on October 24th, 2002, stated that it would be impossible to use a gas attack, since children, and adults with illnesses, would “undoubtedly come to a fatal end”.

The facts presented prove that the use of the ‘special substance’ in the theater did not correspond with the reasons for its use: the gunmen were not rendered motionless, and they were able to actively resist.

“Literally right after entering the building, the special forces as one Alfa group member puts it, ‘met counter-fire from assault rifles’. One of the terrorists was shot down in the corridor, and when they entered the room where Barayev and his comrades had given their interview two days before, they again met with fire. Return fire with assault rifles and grenades destroyed the gunmen. According to a ‘Vympel’ team member, the special units entered the auditorium from the direction of the stage and the main entrance. He stated that the bandits on stage fired on the special forces, but were destroyed by return fire. A female terrorist was killed by the hall entrance while she was trying to throw a grenade and fire on the special forces men. The ‘V’ team man stated, ‘in one hand she had a pistol and in her other hand was a grenade with the pin pulled, but she never managed to release the handle’.”

Following the operation, representatives of the special forces gave an interview on television station ‘Rossiya’. Not long ago I managed to view this interview and read an article on it. The special forces soldiers told how a large number of terrorists were conscious and brought frantic, armed resistance to bear: http://nord-ost.org/2002/terroristyi-okazali-ozhestochennoe-vooruzhennoe-soprotivlenie-2.html

From an analytical report on the results of the hostage interrogations (case volume 1, pages 95-6): http://nord-ost.org/prilozheniya-k-dokladu/prilozhenie-14.-analiticheskaya-spravka-po-rezultatam-issledovaniya-protokolov-dop.html “…At the moment of the assault, when the gas was released, Barayev began running around the auditorium and shouting for the windows to be opened. Several terrorists opened fire from the stage, but the hostages were unable to say in which direction they were shooting. The female terrorists did not try to blow themselves up. They covered their faces with their shawls and lay down on the floor among the hostages. In ten minutes everyone was unconscious.”

“ANDRIANOVA: I don’t know what kind of gas it is, but I see the reaction, that these people don’t want the deaths of ours and theirs, but I think our ‘siloviki’ (military, police, and security services) have started doing something, I think they don’t want us to make it out of here alive and they’re ending the situation this way…”

From the transcript:

Radio station ‘Echo of Moscow’ has an audio recording of a telephone call made at 5:30 a.m. on October 26th, 2002; at the very moment the gas was released into the auditorium. You can listen to it (or read the transcript) on the web site: http://nord-ost.org/hronika-terakta/telefonnyiy-razgovor-s-zalozhnitsami-pered-samyim-nachalom-shturma-tts-na-dub.html. The conversation lasts about four minutes – time enough to connect the contacts of a bomb. None of the terrorists, however, made such an attempt.

For the sake of the future of a country whose leadership learned nothing from this tragedy.

For the sake of the memory of the 129 who died together with her.

For the sake of the memory of Sasha Letyago, who in three days would have been 18.

And so we do not keep quiet.

“I know that as long as ‘kangaroo courts’ reign in Russia our chances are minimal, or more precisely, exactly zero. I have already passed through the circles of Hell in court hearings, and I can well imagine what the result will be this time. The Prosecutor General will send the declaration to various agencies, and later there will be a refusal to satisfy the declared demands. I think that the prosecutor’s office will not labor too hard over the justification and the refusal will have some sort of general wording. Later, those who wrote the petition will appeal it in court. It will not be too hard to guess the court’s decision: another refusal. You say that I am a pessimist? No, I am a well-informed optimist; otherwise I would never have even tried ‘beat on a locked door’. After all, one cannot change the world if one does nothing. For most people it was an abstract number, a mere 130 people dying, but they were for us our loved ones, our ‘one and only’. If you have time to read some of the documents, then you will understand why it is impossible to keep quiet about the deaths of these ‘mere 130’.”

I asked her a question by e-mail: what does she think about the group of ‘Nord-Ost’ people who sent a declaration to the Prosecutor General demanding criminal charges against members of the hostage rescue headquarters (a petition that journalists at Grani.ru with their light touch have named ‘Dubrovka against the Lyubyanka’). Svetlana replied almost immediately:

“…Everything’s fine here,” Sveta writes. “I spend a lot of time on correspondence, since one has to talk people into things and direct the process of collecting information by long distance. To convince someone of something in a letter is a lot harder than in conversation. You must think out your arguments with care, and since I think slowly, writing letters is a long and tortuous process. Between letters I go outside the city. The strawberries are ripe and there are already raspberries, mulberries, and cherries along the way. There are a lot of strawberries this year…”

Svetlana Gubareva now lives in Karaganda, or, as she puts it, “a life apart from the Muscovites”. She actively works on bringing to life her idea of a memorial book, http://nord-ost.org/kniga-pamyati/3.html, in which there would be a page dedicated to every one of the 130 who died at Dubrovka.

Judging from the London precedent, however, there may be no objective answers from the Russian Prosecutor General.

Time will tell what sort of answers the Strasbourg court receives.

All these questions essentially coincide with the demands of the former hostages and the relatives of the dead, who for five years have been fighting for a normal investigation into the ‘Nord-Ost’ criminal case.

Were the courts independent and objective, considering the financial support the Moscow city government provides the courts?

Did the government pay attention to all circumstances in identifying and punishing those guilty of the violent operation?

With regards to the lack of medical assistance, were the hostages subject to humiliation and inhumane treatment during the hostage rescue operation?

Was the decision to end the crisis by force (using gas) absolutely necessary?

Did the authorities do everything possible to solve the hostage problem at Dubrovka through negotiations?

Secondly, in the beginning of April of this year, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has begun hearings on a complaint by 57 victims of the ‘Nord-Ost’ case, under the collective title ‘Chernetsova and others versus Russia’. The Russian government was sent a host of very embarrassing questions, such as, for example:

First off, the ‘Nord-Ost’ case, which has now been halted, has joined with other cases – the victims of the terror acts in Beslan and Volgodonsk.

The most important thing, in my overseas view, is this:

Now it is July of 2007. What has happened in all these years?

A bit later Svetlana says that all the decisions on the causes of death are identicle, like twin brothers, and are lies from beginning to end because, according to these specially instructed experts, the reason from the fatal outcome in each case was allegedly “a confluence of factors: a lack of water, stress, serous chronic diseases, and being seated in an uncomfortable position for a long time. The special substance, however, has merely a coincidental relationship with death”. (The name ‘special substance’, apparently, is understood to be the gas that poisoned people at Dubrovka.)

February of 2004. The fat packet of papers that arrived from Moscow has been sitting there a long time, unopened. Svetlana could not get here to Brooklyn from snowed-in New Jersey. Finally she arrives, the package is opened and, sitting on the old sofa in our living room, Svetlana reads the forensic medical decision regarding the death of her 13-year-old daughter, Alexandra Letyago-Gubareva. As she reads, I carefully pick up the awful pages as she finishes them and try to make out the printed lines through my tears.

When speaking at the third anniversary of the tragedy, Svetlana Gubareva addressed the dead: “Forgive us that we still haven’t found and punished the guilty. Justice is still mute, but sooner or later everyone must answer for all they have done in this life, answer before the highest court, which they even call celestial. This court grants no immunity, it is unprejudiced, cannot be bribed, and is inescapable. One day they will have to answer for your deaths, for ‘Nord-Ost’. Excuse us for not protecting you back then. We have no way to fix the past.”

From that phone call on, everything changed for me.

The ‘Nord-Ost’ tragedy entered my life almost 5 years ago, in October of 2002, when a reader called the offices of the newspaper I was working at and said that she knew Sandy Booker, the only American citizen who died during the hostage seizure in the theatrical center at Dubrovka.

 

It was this organization that filed a petition with the Russian Prosecutor General, demanding that a criminal case be brought against members of the hostage rescue headquarters. Directors of the organization declared this at a press conference on Wednesday, July 11th. They accuse FSB director Nikolai Patrushev and his assistant, Vladimir Pronichev, as well as the chief of the FSB special forces center, Alexander Tikhonov, and the former secretary of the president’s security council, Vladimir Rushailo. At the same time they made the petition to the Prosecutor General, the human rights advocates sent a similar letter to Vladimir Putin.

Are Neo-Nazis Aiding Greek Cops With “DIY Law Enforcement”?

The Guardian :

Vanna Mendaleni is a middle aged Greek woman who until now has not had vehement feelings about the crisis that has engulfed her country. But that changed when the softly spoken undertaker, closing her family-run funeral parlour, joined thousands of protesters on Thursday in a mass outpouring of fury over austerity policies that have plunged ever growing numbers of Greeks into poverty and fear.

“After three years of non-stop taxes and wage cuts it’s got to the point where nothing has been left standing,” she said drawing on a cigarette. “It’s so bad families can no longer afford to even bury their dead. Bodies lie unclaimed at public hospitals so that the local municipality can bury them.”

As Greece was brought to a grinding halt by its second general strike in less than a month, Mendaleni wanted to send a message to the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, and other EU leaders meeting in Brussels.

“We once had a life that was dignified. Now the country has gone back 50 years and these politicians have to be made aware that enough is enough.”

Greek demonstrations are not now marked by the vehemence or violence of the mass protests that occurred when Europe‘s debt drama erupted in Athens, forcing the then socialist government to announce pay and pension cuts, tax increases and benefit losses that few had anticipated. Anger and bewilderment have been replaced by disappointment and despair.

But the quiet fortitude that has been on display could soon run out in the country on the frontline of the continent’s worst crisis since the second world war. For on Thursday demonstrators were sure of one thing: if pushed too far they may be pushed over the edge.[Read the rest of the article]

Are Neo-Nazis Aiding Greek Cops With “DIY Law Enforcement”?

infowars

Zero Hedge
October 18, 2012

Forget the day-to-day images of riots and protests, the truth on the ground in Greece is far harsher. Just as we warned numerous times, social unrest is escalating rapidly and the extremists are gaining strength and power. One of Greece’s neo-nazi Golden Dawn party MPs says “there is already civil war, and Greek society is ready – even though no-one likes this – to have a fight.” The BBC’s Paul Mason reports on recent demonstrations surrounding the performance of a controversial play as tensions escalated and the Golden Dawn party “de-arresting” demonstrators – pulling them from police detention, as the police do nothing. The somewhat shocking clip below points out the incredible reality that is occurring on the streets of Greece – even as EU leaders claim Greece was not a topic at the EU Summit. The people ask “if we are in a democracy or a dictatorship?” and Golden Dawn (which has 18 seats in parliament) proclaims “On the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be; and on the other side illegal immigrants, anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times.” As Mason concludes: the social and political outcome of the IMF and EU austerity program, and of the implosion of mainstream politics in Greece, looks like a catastrophe for democracy.

Here is the clip of the theatre riot and Golden Dawn abuse “Wrap It Up You Little Faggots. You Albanian Assholes”

Via The BBC: Alarm at Greek police ‘collusion’ with far-right Golden Dawn

The full ‘must watch’ BBC video is not embeddable, but worth viewing, so click image for link:

Are Greek police colluding with far-right Golden Dawn?

Greece’s far-right party, Golden Dawn, won 18 parliamentary seats in the June election with a campaign openly hostile to illegal immigrants and there are now allegations that some Greek police are supporting the party.

“There is already civil war,” says Ilias Panagiotaros. If so, the shop he owns is set to do a roaring trade.

…

“Greek society is ready – even though no-one likes this – to have a fight: a new type of civil war,” he says.

“On the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be, and on the other side illegal immigrants, anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times,” he adds.

You hear comments like this a lot in Greece now but Ilias Panagiotaros is not some figure on the fringes: he is a member of the Greek parliament, one of 18 MPs elected for the far-right Golden Dawn in June’s general election.

Theatre attack

…Last week he led a demonstration that closed down a performance of the Terence McNally play, Corpus Christi.

…

“Wrap it up you little faggots. Yes, just keep staring at me you little hooker. Your time is up. “You Albanian assholes,” shouts Mr Panagiotaros in the YouTube clip.

Footage filmed inside the theatre, as rocks showered into its open-air auditorium, shows the manager making frantic calls to the chief of police, demanding protection from a mob that had begun to beat up journalists outside.

Other footage shows Golden Dawn MP Christos Pappas “de-arrest” a demonstrator, pulling him from a police detention coach, as the police do nothing.

…

“People went home with broken bones. Every day they phone me now, they phone the theatre, saying: your days are numbered.”

…

They phoned my mother, Golden Dawn. They said we will deliver your son’s body to you in a box of little pieces.

“I want to be told if we are in a democracy or a dictatorship?”

…

I ask Mr Panagiotaros: how can it be right for a party in parliament to have a uniformed militia that takes on, violently, the role of law enforcement, checking papers and overturning market stalls? He explains:

“With one incident, which was on camera, the problem was solved – in every open market all over Greece illegal immigrants disappeared.

“There was some pushing and some fighting – nothing extraordinary, nothing special.

“Now, only with one phone call saying Golden Dawn is going to pass by, the police is going there. That means the brand name of Golden Dawn is very effective.”

He confirms the party’s strategy is to force police action against migrants and to claim their right to make citizens’ arrests against those they suspect of criminality.

“It’s like fashion – our dress code is now extremely popular and more people want to follow it. The brand name is synonymous with order, law and order and efficiency.”

And if it projects fear among perfectly legal migrants? I ask.

“There are no legal migrants in Greece,” says Mr Panagiotaros “not even one.”

Now Golden Dawn is suddenly everywhere. Its eight local offices at election time have become 60 nationwide. It is polling consistently as the third most popular party at 12%.

…

“Rest assured we stand by the citizens and we try to prevent such situations.

…

And the issue driving support for Golden Dawn is clear: illegal migration.

…

“Golden Dawn is at war with the political system and those who represent it, with the domestic and international bankers, we are at war with these invaders – immigrants.

…

“If the European Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Greek parliament don’t intervene in this situation I am afraid to think what’s going to happen. Europe must do something if they don’t want a revival of the Third Reich again.”

Close up, in other words, the social and political outcome of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and EU (European Union) austerity programme, and of the implosion of mainstream politics in Greece, looks like a catastrophe for democracy.

Golden Dawn Immigrants-Fake NeoNazi’s

All those links were sent to me on Twitter and I am more than glad to post them,I do beleive I will find more on those people due time.No threats allowed according to the WP policy or the HR declaration. So please stay vigilant of what you are going to post :)I checked all blog categories so that the post can get the most views possible. Regards!

“##Spiros Macrozonaris## IMMIGRANT Golden Dawn Deputy leader in Montreal, Canada” :

Facebook profile :

INTERESTING FACEBOOK POST MR. MACROZONARIS, HE CANNOT EVEN WRITE GREEK! BAD NAZI BAD! :

His NON 100% PURE GREEK son’s Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/macrozonaris?ref=ts&fref=ts

1. Greek Immigrant who married a “foreigner” >>>>>French-Canadian Doris Morrissette, they bore a son, Nicolas Macrozonaris (World-Class Sprinter – CANADIAN Olympian 🙂 ..who unfortunately is not 100% Pure Greek…

2. Conversations with Nicolas on Twitter, lead to nothing, he is ‘pretending’ that he has NO knowledge of what Golden Dawn supports and believes YET he states that he does not condone his fathers “actions”

Twitter @Macrozonaris TWEETER CONVERSATIONS with Nicolas –>

###### MUST WATCH #####
Video from CBC Montreal, from week of Oct 12th – INTERVIEW with Spiros Macrozonaris – next to him sits LOOSER Ilias Hondronicolas : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3rbLI4K78

#Ilias Hondronicolas ———> on PHOTO second guy from the left :

#MORE HONDRONICOLAS:

(FRIENDS WITH ELENI ZAROULIA SHARING HER PHOTOS!)
( MUST SEE )

#MORE PAPAGEORGIOU: