>Blogger’s Note: Your resident blogger on vacation for next two weeks

>If open warfare erupts between Israel and her enemies during that time we will endeavor to post late-breaking news. Shalom.

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Iranian President to attend SCO meeting in Bishkek on August 16; summit coincides with Peace Mission 2007 war game

>News reports over the last year or more insist that Iran will not seek full member status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at this time, although in May Nikolai Bordyuzha, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the Commonwealth of Indendent States, floated the idea that Iran might join the CSTO. However, state-run Novosti reveals in the article below that Iran has indeed submitted an application for full membership in the SCO. Notwithstanding the conflicting information, the southern tier of states in Asia is well on its way to becoming integral components of the Moscow-Beijing Axis and fulfilling KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn’s 25-year-old prediction about the Communist Bloc’s “one clenched fist.” The SCO’s Bishkek summit is scheduled for August 16 and coincides with the alliance’s Peace Mission 2007 war game in Russia.

And so, while Iran and Syria prepare to annihilate Israel, President Mahmoud (“Iwannajihad”) Ahmadinejad scurries to the Not-So-Former Soviet Union to consult his masters. Pictured above: Iran’s neo-Hitlerian dictator confers with neo-Soviet Tyrant Vladimir Putin at the last SCO conference in Beijing, June 2006.

Iranian leader to join Shanghai Six summit in Kyrgyzstan
18:4124/ 07/ 2007

TEHRAN, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – Iran’s president will take part in the August 16 summit of a security cooperation grouping dominated by China and Russia, to be held in Kyrgyzstan, a senior Iranian diplomat said Tuesday.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China – was set up to collaborate on security-related issues, but increasingly focuses on economics and transportation. The SCO runs a joint anti-terrorism center in Shanghai and has India, Pakistan, and Iran as observers.

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Mahdi Safari said: “According to our information, the heads of SCO member states, the Mongolian president, and the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will participate in the session in [Kyrgyz capital] Bishkek.”

“As Iran was represented by our president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] at the last summit in Shanghai, we will try to participate in the Bishkek session to as great an extent as possible,” Safari said.

Safari said he had submitted in April an application to the president of Kyrgyzstan, which currently chairs the SCO, for full-fledged participation in the organization.

“We are waiting for a decision from the SCO member countries with whose representatives we have already held serious consultations,” he said.

Source: Novosti

>Latin America File: Ortega hosts Sao Paulo Forum, condemns US over blockade of Cuba, Cuban Five, Posada release, and funding Nicaraguan opposition

>Following its annual meeting in San Salvador in January, the narco-communist-terrorist Sao Paulo Forum convened for a mid-year meet-and-greet in neo-Sandinista Managua. There Latin America’s Red Axis uttered its usual fulminations against the USA and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega revealed himself to be the unrepentant Marxist that he is. Pictured here: Venezuelan President/Dictator Hugo Chavez during his recent trip to Managua, in celebration of the 28th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.

Sao Paulo Forum for Cuba

Managua, Jul 22 (Prensa Latina) The Sao Paulo Forum reiterated in this capital support to Cuba, faced with the US blockade, and requested the release of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in that northern nation for fighting terrorism.

“We back the Caribbean island’s people faced with the US blockade, and declare our solidarity and immediate freedom of these five Cuban heroes,” states the resolution.

The solidarious support to the island’s people and government was the first agreement inked by representatives from 19 political organizations of 13 countries, who concluded a two-day working meeting in Managua Saturday night.

Participants in the forum also condemned the “impunity committed by the Empire, by releasing Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind and perpetrator of innumerable crimes against Cuba.”

“We express gratitude to Fidel and Raul Castro for their examples of dignity, humanism and internationalist solidarity, as well as their contribution to integration of our peoples,” concludes the agreement on the island.

Source: Prensa Latina

Not content to lambaste Washington over its four-decade economic blockade of Cuba, characterized by President of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada as “genocide,” Comandante Ortega blasted the USA for secretly funding Nicaragua’s pro-business opposition parties. Cold War ala Central America redux?

Ortega: US Finances Nica Opposition

Managua, Jul 22 (Prensa Latina) Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega charged the US government of colluding with local conservatives and funding anti-Sandinista political and media drive.

They finance and guide groups that claim to represent the Nicaraguan people, said Ortega speaking to Latin American progressive leaders from the Forum of Sao Paulo meeting in this capital.

Ortega said US diplomats in Managua are holding secret meetings with government opponents whom he calls puppets. They are told to act against two of the government-led plans, Consejos del Poder Ciudadano and Zero Hunger Program.

The statesman says those campaigns, that also involve some local media, are aimed at confusing the people and undermining government programs.

Ortega reminded to representatives of 19 political organizations from 13 Latin American countries that the US organized the 2002 failed coup against President Hugo Chavez.

The Nicaraguan president warned the audience not to be overconfident because “they -the US government- are permanently conspiring.”

Source: Prensa Latina

No doubt, the region’s Communist International plotted the demise of the “neo-liberal” regimes in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru. Neo-liberalism is a communist codeword for capitalism. In an effort to unseat social democratic President Alan Garcia, for example, labor unions, leftists, and failed crypto-communist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala initiated a general strike that recently brought Peru to its knees. On July 15 the BBC reported: “It began as a national strike by the left-wing Peruvian education workers’ union. But as construction workers, farmers and miners joined, it grew in size and became more widespread.” The Peruvian left’s target: neo-liberal policies.

The next annual meeting of the FSP, according to the Sandinista National Liberation Front website, will occur in Montevideo, sometime during the first four months of 2008.

>USSR2 File: Belarusian dictator Lukashenko endorses Russian Communist leader Zyuganov’s presidential candidacy, praises Belarusian KGB’s role

>On July 11 Ivan Melnikov, spokesentity for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), announced in a media release that the power behind the throne in Russia, that is, the communists themselves as we have ably documented here, would employ various international communist heads of state/government to promote Chairman Gennady Zyuganov’s presidential candidacy in March 2008.

Among the world leaders who are ready to endorse Russia’s desperate Communist Party is Belarusian President/Dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Pictured above: Neo-Stalinists Zyuganov and Lukashenko. On July 13 Belarusian state media reported that Comrade Alex was “not against the use of his name in political campaigns in Russia.” President Lukashenko, a long-time advocate of the restoration of the Soviet Union who hosted a congress of Soviet communists in Minsk in 1997, declared: “This indicates that your president has enormous authority abroad. If this is good for Belarus, and I think there is no harm, let them [Zyuganov and his propagandists] use my name.” This is the same man, by the way, who only several days before praised the role of the Belarusian secret police, which is still called the State Security Committee, or KGB:

Our life changes fast but the main tasks the Committee should address remain the same. Two and a half years ago when introducing the former newly appointed KGB chief we agreed that the main thing in the work of the Committee was to ensure state security, the Belarusian leader said. I have never directed the Committee to provide security to my personal power. I do not need that. KGB officers should protect not so much the president but the people. [The KGB] should act efficiently but at the same time quietly. So that our people could proudly speak of the KGB officers as the people loyal to the state and characterized by complete moral honesty. At that I warned that I would keep an eye on the work of the Committee as I value highly its work.

“Too what extent is Lukashenko popular in Russia?” asks the Belarusian version of Komsomolskaya Pravda. “In terms of ratings,” answers the CPRF interviewee, “he lags only a little behind Putin! Belarus [unlike Russia] is viewed as a stable country with large social safeguards. Leftist attitudes in Russia are being strengthened. Lukashenko is a very close and clear example [of communism]. The nucleus of our electorate relates to him with enormous respect.”

The pro-Lukashenko Communist Party of Belarus and the CPRF, it should be added, will jointly host the next International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in the Belarusian capital, in November 4-5, 2007.

Without circumventing the law, such as plastering Lukashenko’s mugshot on Russian billboards, Melnikov indicated that the CPRF’s name dropping campaign extends to Cuban President/Dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President/Dictator Hugo Chavez. In June Comrade Hugo made his pilgrimage to the Third Rome, Moscow, where he strategized with Comrade Czar Vladimir Putin, Russia’s putative head of government, and Chairman Zyuganov, who rules the neo-Soviet state from behind the scenes, in conjunction with “man in the shadows” Oleg Shenin, leader of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

>Middle East File: Top Syrian Ba’athist: Guerrillas will launch attacks on Golan by summer’s end, Scuds deployed; war with Israel imminent

>Syria has learned from the Hezbollah experience last summer and we can have hundreds of missiles hitting Tel Aviv that will overwhelm Israel’s anti-missile batteries.

Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions [in the Golan Heights].
– Anonymous Syrian Ba’athist official, interviewed by World Net Daily, July 8, 2007

The communist noose is not only tightening around North America, the Islamo-Arab noose is also tightening around Israel. Over the last several months we have noted that Syria is increasing its military presence along the Golan Heights. Israel is now responding with defensive measures. Pictured above is the Damascus-Quneitra road, Syria’s main approach to Golan. Last month military checkpoints were removed and the highway was opened to civilian traffic for the first time since the 1967 Six Day War. Short of divine intervention, that civilian traffic might give way to Syrian tank columns. In the article below a top Syrian Ba’athist official warns that the guerrilla force known as the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights is preparing to re-take the region from Israel. Be assured that this organization has been trained and funded by Damascus to “soften up” Golan for a full-scale military invasion.

Unlike the 1973 Yom Kippur War, now the Islamo-Nazi Republic of Iran is part of the equation. Last week Iranian President Mahmoud (“Iwannajihad”) Ahmadinejad traveled to Damascus where he confered with co-terrorist Bashar al-Assad. At the time Ahmadinejad threatened: “We hope that the hot weather of this summer would coincide with similar victories for the region’s peoples, and with consequent defeat for the region‘s enemies.” World Net Daily observes that “any conflict with Syria could degenerate into a larger war involving Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border and Palestinian terror groups [like Hamas] launching attacks from Gaza in the south and the West Bank toward the center of Israel.” Without question, this is the intention of the Tehran-Damascus-Gaza/Hamastan Axis.

The people of Israel, however, can take comfort in the prophecy of Zechariah: “And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (12:9).

Israel, Syria boost military presence along border
Escalating moves from both sides amid war warnings from Damascus’ officials
Posted: July 23, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein

GOLAN HEIGHTS – Israel has visibly beefed up its military presence here in the Golan Heights while neighboring Syria reportedly has placed its army on high alert and – for the first time in 30 years – has opened a strategic border road to civilian traffic in a move some Israeli security officials worry could help facilitate guerilla attacks against Golani Jewish communities.

The escalating military moves on both sides come as a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Baath party warned in an interview if Israel doesn’t vacate the strategic Golan Heights by August or September, Syrian guerrillas will launch “resistance operations” against the Golan’s Jewish communities.

The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli population centers captured by Israel after Syria twice used the territory to attack the Jewish state.

A tour of the Golan Heights yesterday found multiple Israeli army positions local residents and soldiers stationed here say were established within the past few weeks. More tanks have been patrolling the area, with several tanks setting up shop in strategic positions looking down on Syria. Makeshift military outposts have been erected and Golan checkpoints fortified.

Several old Israeli Defense Forces military installations in the Golan were reopened the last two months. According to local soldiers, the installations have been largely unused since the 1980s.

In several Golan positions near the Syrian border, IDF tractors cleared the way in recent weeks so that tanks can amass in the area if needed, said soldiers stationed here.

On the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, multiple moves have been made Israeli security officials say are “concerning.”

The security officials confirmed the stepped-up military presence of Syrian troops deployed near the Syrian side of the Golan Heights with strengthened forces after carrying out increased training the past few months. The security officials said Syria recently increased production of rockets and acquired missiles capable of hitting central Israeli population centers.

Last month, Syria removed a series of military checkpoints blocking off a main Damascus-Golan road to the border town of Quneitra, opening the road to civilian traffic for the first time since the 1967 Six Day War.

The road, visible from the Israeli side of the border, remained open to civilians yesterday with no presence of the Syrian military.

At a ceremony at which the road was reopened for civilians, Quneitra’s governor, Nawaf al-Faris, a member of Assad’s Baath party, gave a speech explaining “resistance” works to restore land.

“The resistance is the guarantee to restore land, rights and facing challenges and pressures to which the Arab nation is exposed,” al-Faris stated, according to Syria’s SANA news agency.

Israeli security officials say they are concerned the road can be used by militants seeking to attack the border area. One tank yesterday was positioned on a hilltop directly facing the road.

Speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, a top Baath official said a new purported guerrilla group called the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights has been training and is ready to attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan in August or September.

The official said the Quneitra road is one of “many” routes in which the Committees can infiltrate the Golan.

In an interview last week, the Baath official warned Syria was preparing for war: “More and more of our units have undergone intensive trainings starting at 6 a.m. and finishing late into the evening. If the need arises, we are ready for a war,” said the official.

The official said Syria “learned from the Hezbollah experience last summer and we can have hundreds of missiles hitting Tel Aviv that will overwhelm Israel’s anti-missile batteries.”

He claimed Syria has “proof” Israel is also readying for a war.

“We hear about special Israeli trainings to take Damascus. We see that Israel is re-establishing bases of the Israeli army in the Golan that are unusual and not needed except for war. We believe the Israeli government has an interest in confronting Syria to rehabilitate its image of losing to Hezbollah,” he said.

He said Syrian war preparations are so specific, the Syrian government has given its officials and top contacts alternative phone numbers to key government ministries in case the Damascus phone system is knocked out during an Israeli aerial bombardment.

He warned Syria may launch eminent “resistance.”

“Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights),” the Baath official said.

Israel: Syrian war preparations serious

Israeli security officials confirmed Syria has been strengthening its forces and noted the movement of Syrian Scud missiles near the border with Israel.

The Syrian army has improved its fortifications, according to the Israeli security officials, and has received modern, Russian-made anti-tank missiles similar to the missiles that devastated Israeli tanks during the last Lebanon war, causing the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Syria also received from Russia advanced anti-aircraft missiles.

The security officials said any conflict with Syria could degenerate into a larger war involving Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border and Palestinian terror groups launching attacks from Gaza in the south and the West Bank toward the center of Israel.

The officials noted Syria stepped up the pace of weapons, including rockets, being shipped from the Syrian border to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

The security officials said the greatest threats Syria poses to the Jewish state are the country’s missiles and rockets. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles had.

In addition to longer-range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter-range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah.

Israel also has information Syria recently acquired and deployed Chinese-made C-802 missiles, which were successfully used against the Israeli navy during Israel’s war against Hezbollah one year ago. The missiles were passed to Syria by Iran, Israeli security officials told WND.

Israeli security officials said Syria is indeed preparing for a summer war. But they said there was an argument within the Israeli intelligence community whether the military buildup is for an attack or is meant by Syria to pressure Israel into vacating the Golan Heights. Some officials said Syria estimates the U.S. or Israel will attack Iran, and Syria will be drawn into a larger military confrontation by opening up a front against northern Israel. Also, the officials said, Syria may believe Israel will attack first and its preparations are defensive in nature.

The Israeli army is not taking any chances. The Israel Defense Forces last month reportedly carried out a mock attack on a “Syrian” village during a major exercise in the Negev. The Israeli soldiers besieged and occupied the village, designed to be similar to towns on the Syrian side of the Golan. Similar war exercises were carried out in Israel the past few months, including a mock attack on Damascus.

According to security officials, recent U.S. intelligence estimates also predict a strong possibility of war between Israel and Syria in the coming months.

Ahmadinejad: It’s going to be a ‘hot’ summer

The reports of preparations for possible confrontations also come as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned during a rare visit to Syria last week that this summer will be “hot” and will bring defeat for the “region’s enemies.”

“We hope that the hot weather of this summer would coincide with similar victories for the region’s peoples, and with consequent defeat for the region‘s enemies,” Ahmadinejad said, standing alongside Assad.

Ahmadinejad claimed unspecified “enemies of the region” have “plans to attack the interests of this region.” He urges those enemies to abandon their war plans “or they would be burned by the wrath of the region’s peoples.”

He described Syrian-Iranian relations as “amicable, excellent and extremely deep,” stating the two countries have common stands on regional issues and face common enemies.

Source: World Net Daily

Meanwhile, the Russian Armed Forces have assumed a Cold War posture, this time in conjunction with strategic ally China. The second Sino-Soviet military exercise Peace Mission 2007 is scheduled for August. The Kremlin’s response to the deployment of US missile defense in Central Europe, moreover, is bellicose. The chess pieces are moving into place for open confrontation between a resurgent Communist Bloc (Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America) and the Free World (USA, its communist-infiltrated ally NATO, and a few stragglers).

>Latin America File: Chavez visits Managua, attends 28th anniversary bash of Sandinista Revolution, pledges solidarity with Ortega

>We have to leave the 16 years of savage capitalism behind.
– Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s 2006 campaign slogan

Since Comandante Ortega reassumed the presidency of Nicaragua in January 2007, he and co-conspirator Hugo Chavez have visited the other’s country several times, with the intent of cementing Latin America’s Red Axis. While attendance at colorful ceremonies might appear to be only symbolic, such activities truly convey an ideological harmony between participants. Chavez’s presence in Managua, yet again, is more than symbolic. It entails Nicaragua’s political-economic-military absorption into the neo-communist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. Ironically, or perhaps not if one is cognizant of the “communism lite” doctrine of Catholic social teaching, the 28th anniversary bash for the Sandinista Revolution took place in Managua’s Plaza of Pope John Paul II. Note the presence of the ostensibly non-communist President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, who delivered a speech “stressing the great historic value of the celebration.” Capitalists with short memories are all too ready to strike hands with the communist adversary offering friendly grins and economic concessions.

President Chávez celebrated 28° anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution
ABN 20/07/2007

Managua, July 20th (ABN).- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chávez celebrated, along with his Nicaraguan counterpart and the Nicaraguan people, the 28° anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution.

Up to 200,000 Nicaraguans from different regions of the country gathered this July 19th in the Plaza of Pope John Paul II to hold a big celebration.

President Chávez arrived in Managua with five members of the presidential commission for the student popular power: Robert Serra, Libertad Velasco, Héctor Rodríguez, Yahir Muñoz and César Trompiz. After 17 years, the historic date was celebrated with the people in the power through the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Sandinista President Daniel Ortega delivered a speech to the crowd that was gathered in the square, located on the banks of Lake Xolotlán.

The revolution triumphed on July 19th 1979, but it ended on February 25th 1990, when Ortega lost the power at the polls to the other contender Violeta Chamorro.

However, the current Nicaraguan government stressed that Nicaragua lives a new revolution.

According to the First Nicaraguan Lady Rosario Murillo, the new arrival of the Sandinista Revolution on November 5th 2006, when Daniel Ortega took the power, is a justice situation in the Central American nation.

She stressed the need of rescuing President Ortega’ phrase during the electoral campaign: “We have to leave the 16 years of savage capitalism behind.”

Besides President Hugo Chávez, President of Panama, Martin Torrijos, and Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, also attended the celebration; each one of them delivered speeches to the crowd by stressing the great historic value of the celebration.

The Venezuelan leader arrived Thursday afternoon at the International Airport César Augusto Sandino, in Managua, aimed at strengthening the bilateral ties through the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba).

President Chávez was welcomed by the Nicaraguan President, commander Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo.

On Friday 20th July, President Chávez will attend, along with the leader of the Sandinista Front, the inauguration of several projects made through the Venezuelan cooperation.

Source: Bolivarian News Agency

>Africa File: Russia targets "former" Soviet allies for arms sales, Algeria’s $7.5 billion package advances strategic alliance with Moscow

>Since Comrade Czar Vladimir Putin assumed the Russian presidency, old alliances that never really went away are re-emerging and expanding. These anti-Western coalitions include the Moscow-Beijing Axis and its various sub-axes, including Hanoi, Havana, Caracas, Managua, Algiers, Tripoli, Pretoria, Harare, Damascus, Tehran, and many others. In January 2007, while attending “ex”-Marxist dictator Daniel Ortega’s inauguration, former Russian Prime Minister and Putin’s personal envoy Sergei Stepashin referred to the 1990s as the Kremlin’s “forfeited decade.” By this Stepashin meant that the “self-collapse” of communism in Eastern Europe afforded the Leninist masterminds in Moscow an opportunity to regroup and subvert the West without observation. It worked.

Russia and Algeria are united in their opposition to “American hegemony” through a strategic partnership. During a 2001 visit to Moscow Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stated: “Algeria stands for the establishment of a multi-polar world.” He urged “Russia to make more efforts for a settlement of the Middle East conflict.” For his part, Putin insisted that Algeria “absorb more Russian enterprises in its major construction projects” and, in line with the communist vision for the United Nations, “he also called for more UN dominant roles in solving regional problems.” Putin reciprocated Bouteflika’s visit, by traveling to Algiers in March 2006 (pictured above).

Russian military industries take aim at North Africa
Thursday, July 19, 2007

MOSCOW — Russia has targeted former Soviet allies in North Africa as potential military clients.

Officials and analysts said Moscow has been discussing major weapons deals with such countries as Egypt, Libya and Morocco. They said Russia has used the $7.5 billion arms deal to Algeria in March 2006 as the model for the rest of North Africa.

“The Algeria deal will trigger a pride race among the North African nations,” Ruslan Pukhov, an analyst with the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said.

Algeria agreed to purchase fighter-jets, air trainers, main battle tanks and air defense systems in exchange for the elimination of its $4.7 billion debt to the former Soviet Union, Middle East Newsline reported. Under the deal, Algeria must first pay for the weapons before Moscow writes off the debt.

Officials said Libya and other North African states also owe billions of dollars to Moscow from the Soviet era. They said Moscow has offered to write off their debt and develop their energy industries as part of a major weapons deal.

Libya owes Russia $4.3 billion from the Soviet era, officials said. They said Libya has sought to modernize its military, but has failed to reach agreement with Western suppliers.

“In absence of means to force some of its debtors to pay, the most logical thing Russia can do with such debts is to use writing them off as a fare to access local arms markets,” Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow branch of the Center for Defense Information, said.

Source: World Tribune

In May 2007 we blogged about the restoration of military relations between the neo-Soviet state and its reliable Libyan ally. Tripoli intends to purchase a US$2.2 billion weapons package from Moscow.

>Breaking News: Bear bombers probe British-Norwegian airspace 3 times in 1 week; Russian military activity in North Atlantic reaches Cold War level

>More Kremlin saber rattling under the guise of military exercises. Russian Bear bombers probed British airspace at the end of April 2007, a second time on July 17, and twice on July 20. In the wake of the second incident, Moscow denied everything. Three days later, Moscow is complaining about NATO interference: “The crews of the Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers on planned flights over the neutral water area of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans reported that they witnessed Tornado and F-16 interceptors of the British and Norwegian air forces approaching them. British and Norwegian interceptors approached our strategic bombers four times,” Russian Air Force spokesentity Alexander Drobyshevsky affirmed.

The article below reports: “As part of the NATO preparedness agreement, Norway always has two fully armed jet fighters on full alert at the Bodoe Air Base, ready for take-off.” Two Norwegian fighter jets against the Russian Air Force? I hope NATO can muster a few more aircraft on Missile Day. Preps anyone?

Pictured above: Norwegian Air Force F-16 and F-5.

Increased Russian military activity in the North

Norwegian jet fighters were three times this week scrambled to meet Russian bombers which flew close to the Norwegian coast. The flights are seen as part of a Russian military exercise.

21.07.2007 07:59

On Tuesday the Russian Tupolev (Bear) bombers flew down to Troendelag before turning back north.

In the early hours of Friday morning they were escorted by Norwegian jet fighters as far down as the waters between Stavanger and Aberdeen, before returning to Russia.

On Friday morning another two bombers approached the coast of Finnmark, when they were met by Norwegian jet fighters, and turned back out to sea.

The Norwegian Defence has seen an increased activity by Russian military aircraft along the Norwegian coast over the last couple of years.

- There has been a gradual increase in the activity since the down-period of the Russian Defence in the middle of the 1990′s, says Defence spokesman John Inge Oeglaend.

- We must go back to the Soviet era to find such high (military) activity on land, sea and in the air, says Deputy leader of the Barents Secretariat, Thomas Nilsen.

Defence experts see this as a sign that the Russian military forces now have more money to spend on preparedness.

This week the Russians ended their annual summer exercise in the northern region.

As part of the NATO preparedness agreement, Norway always has two fully armed jet fighters on full alert at the Bodoe Air Base, ready for take-off.

(NRK) Rolleiv Solholm

Source: Norway Post

>Middle East File: Iran’s Islamo-Nazi dictator Ahmadinejad arrives in Damascus for 1-day visit with co-terrorist Assad; Olmert reverses stance on Golan

>If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!
– Adolf Hitler, statement made in 1922; quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler (London: Book Club Associates, 1977), p.116

With God’s help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine . . . By God’s will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future.
– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, quoted by the Fars News Agency; statement made on June 3, 2007

None of us and none of the Arabs trust Israel. It is natural that we should always expect an Israeli attack, even when it does not threaten. It should be known that Israel is based on treachery. This is a point to be considered thoroughly. We are dealing with treachery and threats, which accompanied the establishment of Israel. Since its very inception, Israel has been a threat. It is the Israeli nature, and for that Israel was established. Based on this understanding of Israel’s nature and role, we should deal with the possibility of protracted aggression . . . Israel does not care about the international public opinion. The U.S. is unable to reign it in; to the contrary, the Israelis are the ones who control [the U.S.] now through their lobby.
– Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, quoted by pro-Syrian Lebanese daily Al-Safir; statement made on March 30, 2003

So long as I am prime minister, the Golan Heights will remain in our hands, as it is an inseparable part of the State of Israel.
– Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel; statement made in August 2006

I am your partner for making peace between our countries. I know that a peace agreement with Syria requires me to return the Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty. I am willing to fulfil my part in this deal.
– Olmert, statement made on July 6, 2007

Weak leaders make desperate decisions in trying times. Meanwhile, dictators wax in power.

President Ahmadinejad arrives in Damascus
Damascus, July 19, IRNA

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Damascus on Thursday and was welcomed by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to officially welcome his Iranian counterpart within hours.

Ahmadinejad’s one-day visit takes place at the invitation of the Syrian president.

President Ahmadinejad is accompanied by a high-ranking political and economic delegation, including ministers of foreign affairs Manouchehr Mottaki and of housing and urban development Mohammad Saeedi-kia.

The visit coincides with inauguration of the Syrian president’s second term in office. Al-Assad took oath for the second term in office after his re-election to the post.

The two presidents will discuss issues of mutual interest, including ways to expand mutual cooperation as well as bilateral, regional and international issues.

The Iranian president will also pay pilgrimage to holy shrines of Hazrat Zeinab (SA), the noble grand daughter of holy prophet of Islam, and of Hazrat Roqayyeh (SA).

Source: Islamic Republic News Agency

>Middle East File: Olmert continues Sharon’s capitulationist foreign policy, sacrifices Golan; Arab-Islamic offensive looms: Ahmadinejad to visit Assad

>The allied fascist-communist regime in Damascus and genocidal Islamo-Nazi regime in Tehran have made their hostility toward Israel and their intent to destroy the tiny Jewish state very clear in past months and years. The Tehran-Damascus Axis is here personfied in this photo op for Iranian President Mahmoud (“Iwannajihad”) Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Thursday, July 19 the Don of the Iranian Mafia will make a one-day trip to Damascus where he will confer with strategic ally and co-terrorist al-Assad.

Many other “dots” suggest that war in the Middle East is fast approaching. Syria has augmented its military capabilities with Russian hardware, deployed its equipment toward the Golan Heights, and dropped hints through some of its parliamentarians that a ground offensive against Israel might materialize this summer. The capitulationist stance of the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (pictured below) to relinquish the Golan Heights, in exhange for the inconceivable idea of Syria severing its alliance with Iran and support for Palestinian terrorism, has no doubt emboldened Israel’s enemies. Iran is preparing yet another military exercise next month, the fifth to be held in 2007. Needless to say, Tehran’s spokesentities assure the West that Israel is not the target of these preparations.

Iran to hold renewed military manoeuvres
By DPA Jul 18, 2007, 10:15 GMT Tehran

Iran is to hold renewed military manoeuvres next month, Defence Minister Mostafa Najar said Wednesday.

News agency Mehr quoted the minister as saying that the manoeuvres would be held by ground forces, while the domestically-produced fighter jet ‘Azarakhsh’ would also be exhibited.

The minister reiterated that the Iranian armed forces were no threat to any country and rejected reports that its missile arsenal represented a threat to arch-foe Israel, but stressed Iran would at the same time resolutely react against any military aggression.

Iran has already held four series of military manoeuvres this year aimed at highlighting its readiness to confront any possible strikes by the United States in the Persian Gulf and against the Islamic state’s nuclear sites.

Iranian leaders do not believe a US attack is imminent and regard any threats as elements in a ‘psychological war,’ but insist that the armed forces are ready for any possible confrontation.

Source: Monsters and Critics

Another curious dot might be the unusual activity, or lack thereof, of Israel’s Arab population. An American poster at the FreeRepublic forum who lives in Israel offers the following information:

Something brewing in Israel
eye on the ground July 18 2007 American in Israel

Posted on 07/17/2007 10:56:59 PM PDT by American in Israel

Just a freeper observation, but there are strong indications that next week, during the time of the 9th of AV, that there will be a serious Arab attack on Israel.

The word on the street from the local Palestinians is to quote from a few “There will no longer be a Zionist problem in Palestine this month.” Nobody is really talking, but I am getting veiled warnings from Palestinian friends. One such warning was a rather cryptic answer to a pointed question about war with Israel; “Do you know what the 9th of Av is? Every time Israel fights a war on the 9th of Av it looses”… People refuse to talk about war or answer any direct questions. This is very uncharacteristic for Palestinians; usually they are very verbally expressive. The following is what got me to finally write this note to you all. It is an excerpt from an email sent to me by a friend.

Today we had business to do in Jerusalem, so we left our home at 7 am and traveled down the east side of the Galilee, through Bet Shean and past the check point at Sede Trimot in the Jordan Valley.

Once we entered the Jordan Valley as we passed through the Arab agricultural areas we noticed the following which is most unusual;

1. There were no people visible working the in the fields.
2. There were no children along the side of the road.
3. There were no tractors or other farm vehicles anywhere to be seen.
4. All of the vegetables had been completely harvested and the fields were 100% empty.
5. No preparation of the fields was evident for the next planting…Plastic was everywhere from the prior crop.
6. The greenhouses had no plants in them…..
7. The vegetable stands that are normally filled to the brim from the harvest were completely vacant.
8. This is the peak season for growing vegetables in the Jordan Valley, yet everything had been harvested and nothing was growing waiting to be harvested or picked.

We concluded our business in Jerusalem and got back on the road again about 2:45 pm heading north up the Jordan Valley. Again, no people, no fruit stands, no crops, nothing! Do these Arabs know something is about to happen that we do not know is coming? The 9th of Av is on July 23rd, which is the exact day both Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed hundreds of years apart…

This is just not how things are this time of year normally. The entire valley is the best land for growing crops in Israel and completely under the control of the Arabs. This land is the Palestinian food supply. For some reason they do not believe they need the food this year!

A friend of mine that is politicaly connected mentioned that he was thinking that the first attack date for the Arab League may be the 9th of AV, and the Sept/Oct period as the backup date. He does not believe that Syria will be ready by next week, so he thinks they will use the fall back date. However Hamas/Fatah have their people totally prepared for the first date. They may jump, even if Syria gives the no signal.

As a Biblical side reference, Isaiah 14 28-33, and Zephaniah 2 refer I believe to the destruction of the modern day Palestinians. Interestingly enough it says: ” I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant..” Zehpaniah 2 indicates that the industrial city of Ashkelon, (third largest city in Israel I believe), will be wiped out, but that a smoke cloud from its direction will go over Gaza, and I think kill most of the inhabitants there. Ashkelon is due north of Gaza and just a kassams throw away.

This is just a few various observations I am bringing together, but they ominously point to the same thing, a major Palestinian ground offensive may take place just next week.

The cowardly and treasonous foreign policy of Israel’s leaders is not restricted to the administration of Prime Minister Olmert, but continues a pattern of capitulationist stances by previous governments, such as Olmert’s mentor Ariel Sharon, who enforced the expulsion of Jewish settlers from Gaza in August 2005. The withdrawal of both settlers and Israeli troops created a political vacuum that Hamas exploited in June 2007 when it established its Islamic enclave in the Strip. Notwithstanding the weak-kneed postures of Sharon and Olmert, the Israeli government is expecting the worst. In February it conducted a first-ever civil defense drill to prepare its population for the consequences of a nuclear attack.

The position of the Communist Party of Israel in the midst of the political intrigue agitating for Israel’s downfall harmonizes with fraternal parties worldwide: 1) Israel must co-exist peacefully side by side with an Islamo-Marxist Palestinian state, and 2) the USA and Israel must establish peaceful relations with Syria and Iran. “We abhor the aggressive military plans of the Bush-Sharon governments against Syria and Iran,” laments the CPI leadership. “These plans, if they materialize, will draw the peoples of the region into yet another destructive war.” Clearly, the CPI stands with Israel’s foes. As such, Israel’s communists have embraced President Shimon Peres since the latter supports the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority. The CPI website features a link to the Peres Center for Peace. Tellingly, the CPI website also features links to fraternal parties such as the African National Congress (South Africa, ruling), Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (El Salvador, opposition), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Mexico), and Workers’ Party of Korea (North Korea, ruling).

>Asia File: Pakistan bolsters troops in North West Frontier Province to thwart jihad, USA urges offensive; suicide bomber kills 15 in capital

>Pakistan’s descent into chaos: more fall out from the Red Mosque Siege of July 10. Restless tribes in North West Frontier Province. Suicide bomber in Islamabad kills 15. Constitutional flap over anti-government chief justice. The “pro”-USA military regime of President General Pervez Musharraf is facing a crisis of legitimacy with Pakistan’s Islamic population, but the general is showing remarkable restraint in refusing to declare a state of emergency. Pictured here: Residents of Islamabad grieve over the deaths of relatives in suicide blast, July 17, 2007.

Pakistan to Deploy Additional Troops in Tribal Belt
‘Pakistan Times’ Wire Service
July 17, 2007

RAWALPINDI: A high level meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf here on Monday decided to deploy additional forces in NWFP and tribal areas and enhance the capacity building of the forces in these areas to effectively combat the terrorism activities and militancy.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, the Governor NWFP and others attended the meeting at the presidential camp office.

Pakistan condemns all forms and manifestations of the terrorism and is desirous for peace and stability in Afghanistan, he said while addressing the meeting.

Source: Pakistan Times

Utilizing their favorite method of bloodshed, Pakistan’s Islamic extremists sew more discord, while the lawyer for Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, against whom President Musharraf, incidentally, has dropped the main charge of professional misconduct, characterizes the suicide bombing as an act of the government’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.

Suicide bomber kills 15 people in Pakistani capital ahead of rally supporting top judge
SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer
July 17, 2007 2:18 PM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)

A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday before a rally supporting Pakistan’s chief justice against the president, killing 15 people in the latest attack in a spate of violence since the army stormed a mosque held by Islamic extremists.

The bloodshed has heightened tensions, with religious radicals calling for more revenge attacks on the government and troops moving into militant strongholds on the border with Afghanistan – a move welcomed by Washington as a help in the fight against terror groups.

The bombing in Islamabad underlined the antagonism as various parties sought to place blame.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf condemned the blast as a ”terrorist act,” and officials said they were trying to determine responsibility. A security official said the bomber’s severed head had been found.

Supporters of judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry accused the government of being behind the mayhem, while an opposition party thought to be considering joining a coalition government with Musharraf after year-end elections said the attack was aimed at its loyalists.

Chaudhry, whose fight against Musharraf’s effort to oust him has fueled opposition to the president extending his rule, was a few miles away when the attacker struck about 8:30 p.m. outside the Islamabad district court building.

The judge arrived a short time later and police ushered him into a tent set up for a rally by lawyers who have led frequent protests against his suspension. He spoke briefly with the lawyers, who said he offered prayers for the victims, but canceled his speech and left.

Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official, said the explosion killed 15 people and wounded 44. Opposition party activists, police officers and bystanders were believed to be among the victims.

The attacker blew himself up on a tree-lined street leading to the large tent just as hundreds of people converged on the area, which was also busy with evening shoppers. Pools of blood, pieces of flesh and scattered shoes lay on the asphalt next to a blood-spattered car.

”I was not far away from the stage set up for the chief justice when I heard a big bang,” said Tahir Abbas, a lawyer at the rally.

Three security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, called it a suicide attack and said the severed head of the bomber had been recovered.

The bomb went off next to stalls set up by Pakistan’s two main opposition parties, led by exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

Shah said it was too early to ”raise a finger at someone” in connection with the attack.

One of Chaudhry’s attorneys, Munir Malik, accused Pakistani intelligence agencies. ”This was an attack on the chief justice,” he said.

However, Raja Pervez Ashraf, a leader of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, said the attacker targeted her activists. ”Most among the dead and injured are our supporters,” Ashraf said.Musharraf ”condemned in the strongest terms the latest terrorist act which took place in Islamabad,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

The president ordered an immediate inquiry and appealed to the public ”to remain calm, vigilant and assist the authorities in unearthing the culprits and bringing them to justice,” the report said.

Some analysts and diplomats expect Bhutto to team with Musharraf in a power-sharing government after elections due late this year. She was the only opposition leader to voice strong support for the crackdown on the Red Mosque, which caused more than 100 deaths during eight days of fighting.

Taliban and al-Qaida leaders and other militants have called for attacks to avenge the mosque’s defenders, and a suicide blast killed three soldiers in the volatile North Waziristan region Tuesday. Bombings and suicide attacks have killed more than 100 people in the northwest since the mosque battle.

Government officials continued their effort to salvage a 10-month-old peace accord in North Waziristan, a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaida militancy on the Afghan frontier where some leaders renounced the deal after the Red Mosque fighting.

Musharraf argues it is important to retain the accord, which saw the army scale back military operations in return for pledges from tribal elders to expel foreign fighters and prevent cross-border attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Washington pledged $750 million over five years to help develop the impoverished region and dry up support for Islamic extremism as part of the accord. But U.S. officials are pressing for more military strikes on extremists.

”Now, having dealt with the mosque, it’s pretty much crossing a line and there’s no going back,” Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said Tuesday.While a civilian ”hearts and minds campaign” may offer the best long-term solution to combating militants in the region, ”some elements have to be dealt with militarily,” he said.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, became a key U.S. ally after the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. and has said he will ask lawmakers for another five-year term this fall. But his domestic standing has been damaged by the fight over ousting the top judge.The president suspended Chaudhry in March, accusing him of nepotism and other abuses of his post, charges the judge denies.

Musharraf insists he has no political motive, but opponents accuse him of trying to remove an independent-minded judge who might uphold legal challenges to the president’s plan for extending his rule.

The Supreme Court, which has been hearing an appeal by Chaudhry, is expected to announce a verdict soon, perhaps by Friday.

—Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad and Stephen Graham in Islamabad and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: Newspress.com

In response to Pakistan’s descent into the hell hole of Islamic terrorism, the product of many decades of funding and training by the Soviet Union, Moscow’s neo-KGB terrorist regime offers platitudes. State-run Novosti reports: “Russia hopes that Pakistan’s political and religious groups will pool their efforts in the fight against terrorism following the recent Red Mosque siege in Islamabad, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday. ‘We expect Pakistan’s political and religious leaders to display solidarity in the face of the challenge issued by terrorists,’ Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement posted on the ministry’s official Web site. He said Russia resolutely condemns terror in all forms and practices, adding that the use of troops against Islamic militants at the Red Mosque was a forced measure, designed to save innocent lives.” Russia will “resolutely” condemn “terror in all forms and practices” when the Kremlin’s crypto-communist regime is exposed for what is is and politically and economically isolated by the West.

Meanwhile, in an effort to prosecute the War on Terror, Washington is urging the Musharraf regime to launch an offensive in the Al Qaeda- and Taliban-infected areas of North Waziristan, with the promise of military support. Pictured below: Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.

US asks Pakistan to launch military offensive against extremists
by P. Parameswaran 50 minutes ago

The United States on Tuesday prodded Pakistan to launch a military offensive against fighters hiding in tribal areas after Washington hinted at a lack of commitment from its ally to hunt down violent extremists.

US officials said Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf should send his troops into the tribal border region with Afghanistan to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, following the collapse of a 10-month peace accord between Islamabad and tribal elders.

“I think first and foremost we have to remember that some military action is necessary, and will probably have to be taken,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said.

The United States, he said, was also prepared to help upgrade the Pakistan military, particularly its “frontier corps” that forms the bulk of the estimated 85,000 military forces in the tribal and border regions.

Boucher spoke after a week of violence in North Waziristan, a remote frontier region where militant leaders over the weekend renounced a September accord with Islamabad.

The peace pact in the stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants had been heavily criticized by the United States and Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities have made intense efforts to shore up the peace accord since the Taliban pulled out on Saturday, knowing that without it, they risk fresh violence in a region thought to contain many militants.

Boucher said Washington was less concerned about whether the agreement worked or not, pointing out that “it’s the facts of what happens.

“There are elements in these areas that are extremely violent and are out to kill government people, out to kill government leaders, and will not settle for a peaceful way forward,” he said.

“Whether it is through an agreement or through the imposition of government will or whatever, they remain the key: no Talibanization, no cross-border activity, no Al-Qaeda plotting and planning from the tribal areas,” he said.

“And we’re going to help the government of Pakistan achieve that through whatever — all these different means that might be necessary,” he said citing joint US-Pakistan plans to develop the isolated areas in tandem with possible military action. The United States has promised 150 million dollars a year for the next five years to develop the tribal areas on top of a Pakistani funding of about 100 million dollars a year.”

US officials said it would be timely for Musharraf to step up his offensive against extremists hiding in the tribal areas, especially after he had ordered an assault on a pro-Taliban mosque compound in Islamabad last week.

The assault resulted in the deaths of 11 soldiers and 75 people inside the compound, mainly militants.”We think the time is now,” one official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We think with the movement on the Red Mosque, Musharraf feels a sense of momentum and he’s got the tools in place — he’s got the construction money, he’s got the military starting to creep forward into forward positions,” the official said.

“Whether the peace deal (in the tribal areas) is on or off, it doesn’t matter.”Amid US concerns over the militants’ presence in the tribal areas, President George W. Bush’s top counter-terrorism aide said Tuesday Washington rarely got all of the help it wanted from allies like Pakistan in efforts to hunt down violent extremists.

“When people ask me about our counterterrorism cooperation, our allies around the world, the suggestion is: ‘Do they give you everything you want?’ That is almost never the case,” said Bush’s homeland security and counterterrorism advisor, Frances Townsend.

“And you know what? If I only cooperated with those who gave me 100 percent of what I thought I needed or wanted, I wouldn’t have a whole lot of allies around the world,” she said during a briefing at the White House on the latest National Intelligence Estimate of terrorist threats to the United States.

Source: YahooNews.com

>Breaking News: Two Russian "Bear" bombers probe British airspace, second time since April; RAF fighters scramble to intercept; Moscow denies incident

>Pictured here: Royal Air Force Tornado F3 fighter escorts Russian “F” Tu-142 “Bear” bomber away from Royal Navy exercise near Outer Hebrides, week of April 30, 2007. The latest attempt by Russian bombers to probe British airspace occured on July 17. The Times (below) insists that “there was no evidence to suggest it was linked to Britain’s planned expulsion of four diplomats over Russia’s stance on the Alexander Litvinenko affair.”

UK fighters ‘sent to meet Russian bombers’
From correspondents in London July 18, 2007

ROYAL Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers heading for British airspace, The Times said today, prompting fierce denials of brinkmanship from Moscow.

The newspaper said two RAF Tornados from its rapid reaction force took off from RAF base Leeming in northern England to confront the two Tu95 “Bear” bombers after they were shadowed by F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

An unnamed RAF spokesman was quoted as saying that the Russian bombers, based near the northern port city of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, turned back before they reached British airspace.

The Times, which said the incident happened yesterday, said there was no evidence to suggest it was linked to Britain’s planned expulsion of four diplomats over Russia’s stance on the Alexander Litvinenko affair.

Russia yesterday promised a “targeted and appropriate” response to Britain’s move, prompted by Moscow’s refusal to extradite an ex-KGB agent suspected of poisoning the outspoken dissident in London last year.

But the daily said it smacked of “old-fashioned sabre-rattling” on the part of the Russian military and revived “the spirit of the Cold War” in the North Atlantic.

No-one at the defence ministry in London was immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP but there were swift denials from Russia.

Air force colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky was quoted by the news agency Interfax as saying: “Claims that Russian bombers were headed for British airspace don’t correspond with reality.

“Long-distance planes were making planned flights over international waters. These kind of flights have been and are carried out to train long-distance flight crews.”

Air force general-colonel Alexander Zelin told Interfax that long-distance planes hold regular flight exercises, including bomb and rocket launches.

But he added: “We plan our bomber flights in international airspace according to our military preparation programme at least six months in advance. And we warn the relevant countries in advance.

“These aren’t shows of force or sabre-rattling, but planned military preparations. What’s more, we make timely applications to use international air corridors.”

Source: The Australian

>Feature: New world religion: Latin America’s Catholic bishops meet in Havana for first time; Pastors for Peace coordinates "Cuba Caravan"

>In past months we have documented the successful attempt by the Soviets to subvert the interfaith/ecumenical movement into a communist-controlled “new world religion.” We have also extensively documented the capitulation of the Latin American Catholic hierarchy to the region’s Red Axis. Rather than lend legitimacy to the paleo-communist dictatorship in Havana by utilizing its facilities, the Latin American Episcopal Council should be exposing the Communist Party of Cuba’s “unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). Pictured here: Deceased Pope John Paul II and former (?) son of the church, the Jesuit-educated Fidel Castro, in Havana, January 21, 1998.

Cuban leaders meet with Latin American bishops in Havana
By Francisco Forteza

HAVANA, July 13 (World Data Service).- High-ranking leaders of the Cuban government met cordially with Catholic bishops who were visiting Havana for the 31st General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council, it was announced today.

An official news source today said Carlos Lage and Esteban Lazo Hernández, both vice presidents of the Council of State, and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez were among those attending.

“On July 11, comrades Carlos Lage Dávila and Esteban Lazo Hernández, vice presidents of the Council of State and members of the Political Bureau, together with other leaders of the Cuban Party and government, held a meeting at the San Juan María Vianney Rectory with several of the participants in the 31st General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council, led by Monsignor Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil, president of the Council, and Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, archbishop of Havana,” Granma daily newspaper reported.

“Their meeting, which took place in a cordial and constructive atmosphere, served to exchange viewpoints with their visitors on the national reality, challenges facing our country, the negative effects of the blockade (imposed by the United States) on the population and the economy, and cooperation programs with Latin American countries, which we carry out in Cuba and abroad,” the article said.

“Those present agreed on the need for the training of Latin American professionals in Cuba to continue strengthening human values and the preservation of their beliefs, traditions and customs, so that they can return to their home communities to serve the neediest,” the article continued.

It also added that the Council’s representatives and Episcopal conferences “expressed thanks for the facilities provided for their general assembly in Cuba, which concludes today with a mass at Havana Cathedral and during which its new leadership was elected.”

This leadership is comprised of its president, Monsignor Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil; Monsignor Baltazar Porras Cardozo, archbishop of Mérida, Venezuela, first vice president; Monsignor Andrés Stanovnik, bishop of Reconquista, Argentina, second vice president; Monsignor Emilio Aranguren Echeverría, bishop of Holguín, Cuba, president of the economic committee, and as general secretary, Monsignor Víctor Sánchez Espinosa, auxiliary bishop of México, the article noted.

This is the first time the Council has held a meeting in Cuba. The Assembly was attended by 71 delegates from Latin America, including four cardinals. It was reported that the closed-door meeting discussed the way in which to carry out the pastoral letters issued by the Fifth General Conference held in the Brazilian city of Aparecida in mid-May, and that each country’s situation was reviewed.

Source: Granma

Liberation theology, which consists of a Marxist spin on the Gospel whereby Jesus’ compassion for the poor is transformed into a strident call for “social and economic justice” (communism), has not only corrupted the Catholic Church via its social teachings and the agitation of the Jesuit Order, but infects numerous Protestant denominations as well. Pastors for Peace, a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, is an example of the latter.

Pastors For Peace Caravan Will Try To Cross Mexican Border on Tuesday

Havana, July 16 (acn) Activists of the US’s inter-religious and humanitarian organization Pastors for Peace arrived in McAllen, Texas, on Friday and will try to cross the Mexican border on Tuesday in an effort to bring 90 tons of aid to Cuba.

This 18th edition of the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan includes 150 activists from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and several European countries.

Reverend Lucius Walker, executive director of the Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), denounced that American authorities stopped medical aid on the Maine-Canada border, although they allowed it from Vancouver and Winnipeg.

“Anything can happen in the border,” warned the religious leader.

The aid includes medicines, seven vehicles, school buses, and two trucks.

“On our way through the United States, many people showed interest in knowing more about the Cuban health system, especially after seeing Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’,” said Ellen Bernstein, a member of the caravan.

For his part, Walker noted that “our work strengthens the bonds of friendship and the cultural and family exchanges between our two countries.”

“This caravan will be another blow to the over-45-year-old US blockade that has been condemned by almost the entire planet,” he concluded.Upon their arrival in Cuba, the group will attend the first graduation of US students at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.

Source: Cuban News Agency

>Latin America File: Oaxaca rocked by worst violence since November, 200 leftist protestors dispersed by police; Mexican reds support April LA protest

>Barely a week after the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) blew up pipelines operated by Pemex, sympathizers of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), the communist-backed counter-government of the state of Oaxaca, converged on a stadium hosting the international folk festival known as Guelaguetza. Last October the EPR released a communique proclaiming its solidarity with APPO as federal and military police broke up the insurgent occupation of the state capital.

Running street battles with police and torching vehicles were the order of the day. In the wake of the riot, the usual left-wing legal types shouted “Police brutality!” The article below reports: “The Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights, which has sided with Oaxaca protesters in the past, accused police of “brutally beating” the demonstrators and roughing up several reporters.” Big deal. I am no apologist for the institutional corruption of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that controls the government of Oaxaca, however, rioters should expect to be “roughed up” for fomenting rebellion.

The Communist Party of Cuba’s coverage of the latest Oaxaca riots can be found at Prensa Latina.

Mexican police round up protesters
Dozens detained by authorities
ABC12/AP

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) – (07/17/07)– Police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since November.

Protesters hurled rocks and burned vehicles on Monday as they sought to march to a stadium where the renowned Guelaguetza festival is scheduled to start July 23.

Police responded with tear gas and rocks.

Sergio Segreste, Civil Protection Chief for Oaxaca state, said police have detained dozens of people. “At the moment, we have detained 42 people and fifteen people are injured. It seems like things have calmed down at this point,” Segreste said.

Some protesters said they only wanted access to the stadium to hold an “alternative,” non-commercialized version of the festival, while others vowed to block the event entirely.

The picturesque colonial city was paralyzed by political upheaval for five months in 2006, when demonstrators essentially seized control of the downtown and prevented the Guelaguetza festival from being held.

The state government has vowed to defend the stadium and put on this year’s Guelaguetza, an annual week-long celebration of Indian music, artisan crafts and cuisine that dates back to the 1700s and draws tens of thousands of tourists from around the world.

“About 200 people wearing masks and carrying sticks, stones and bottle rockets began to provoke the police,” the Oaxaca state government said in a statement.

The police repelled the attack using tear gas.

The Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights, which has sided with Oaxaca protesters in the past, accused police of “brutally beating” the demonstrators and roughing up several reporters.

The league said about seven people were detained, and eyewitnesses said several were hit by flying rocks and tear gas canisters.

The unrest began as a teachers’ strike in May 2006, but quickly evolved into a broader protest as a coalition of leftist groups demanded the ouster of Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Ruiz denies allegations of rigging his 2004 election and sending armed thugs to attack his enemies.

Twelve people were killed, mostly protesters shot by gunmen, before federal police retook the city centre in October. There was a resurgence in protests on November 2, when holdouts manning barricades around a local university tossed gasoline bombs at police, and dozens were injured.

In May, the National Human Rights Commission blamed both authorities and protesters for “excesses” during the conflict.

Source: ABC12.com

APPO, like many left-wing governments and organizations in Latin America, sports a cheering squad in the USA. In April, for example, the Oaxaca Libre website advertised a pro-illegal alien invasion protest in Los Angeles that was sponsored by a number of US leftist groups such as ANSWER Coalition and APPO-Los Angeles, as well as the Mexican communist formation that has infiltrated APPO in Oaxaca itself, the Popular Revolutionary Front. This “March for Zapata in East Los Angeles” champions the Zapatista Army of National Liberation’s “Other Campaign” and specifially targets the Arizona- and California-based Minutmen organizations that are attempting to obstruct the unhindered northward flow of illegal aliens across the US-Mexican border. The International Left’s support for the dismemberment of the USA is therefore obvious.

>China File: Communist Party claims 12 million recruits in 5 years, consolidates power with pseudo-capitalism, floods West with dangerous products

>Beginning in the 1980s the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China skilfully employed pseudo-capitalist reforms to bolster their failing command economies and deceive the West with the notion that “communism is dead.” In Russia these money-minded communists were known as “Komsomol capitalists” and later became the notorious “oligarchs,” like jailbird Mikhail Khodorkovsky and exile Boris Berezovsky. The “China-Mart” regime has been particularly adept at utilizing bogus capitalism to subjugate the West into a pathetic economic dependence that has flooded the shopping mall regimes with cheap but toxic food, pet food, toothpaste, toys, and numerous other products. Pictured above: Delegates discuss the report delivered by former Chinese Tyrant Jiang Zemin at the 16th National Congress of the CPC, in 2002.

2.86 mln CPC members work in private sector

15:37, July 16, 2007

About 2.86 million members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were working for private enterprises by the end of 2006, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

There were also 810,000 CPC members among the ranks of the self-employed, said a document released by the department here Thursday.

There were a total of 178,000 CPC organs in private firms in 2006, a rise of 79.8 percent over 2002, and 94.2 percent of them had at least three Party members.

At its 16th National Congress held in Beijing in 2002, the CPC took a significant step forward by including in its constitution provisions relating to party organs in the private sector.

Early this year the organization department said that about 330,000 Party workers have been sent to private enterprises to help organize party organs and recruit members.

The CPC now has 70 million members.

Source: People’s Daily Online

The presence of nearly three million CPC members in China’s “private sector” not only harmonizes with the resolutions of the 16th Central Committee, which occurred in 2004 and supported the concept of a “socialist market economy,” but also might be the source of the glut of dangerous Chinese products on Western store shelves. Think sabotage.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) will adhere to the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological field and constantly improve its capabilities in building advanced socialist culture, says a decision on enhancing the Party’s governance capabilities adopted at the recent Fourth Plenum the 16th CPC Central Committee.

The document emphasizes that the Party should greatly develop socialist culture and ceaselessly consolidate the common ideological base on which the whole Party and the whole people unite and fight, in order to lead the people in pushing forward the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics . . .

It also calls for deepening the restructuring of cultural undertakings to liberate and develop productivity in the cultural field. “To meet the requirements of the socialist market economy, we must further eliminate structural blockages that have hampered cultural development.”

The West perceives China as a country that is communist in name only. Indeed, in 2005 Asia News, citing the Falun Gong religious movement, reported that one million CPC members “decided not to renew their membership to protest against corruption, tyranny and repression of human and religious rights.” Notwithstanding this alleged setback, the CPC, by its own estimates, claims to have have recruited 12 million new members since 2002.

CPC recruits almost 12 million members in five years

15:37, July 16, 2007

The Communist Party of China (CPC) recruited 11.85 million members from 2002 to 2006, an average of 2.37 million per year, according to the organization department of the CPC Central Committee Monday.

“Departments all over the country made significant achievements in recruiting Party members from workers, farmers, intellectuals, soldiers and cadres in the last five years,” said Wang Zigui, assistant head of the China Executive Leadership Academy in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province.

Statistics from Shandong University showed that 91.9 percent of undergraduates had applied for Party membership, of whom 13.5 percent were admitted. Meanwhile, 40 percent of graduates were admitted.

The CPC had launched recruitment drives in “new social strata”, said Wang.

Figures from the organization department indicate that 2.86 million employees or employers of private enterprises and 810,000 self-employed people had been recruited by the end of 2006.

About 178,000 grassroots Party committees had been established in non- state companies by 2006, up by 79.8 percent from 2002.

“Recruitment and the establishment of Party committees in private enterprises will help broaden and consolidate the Party’s ruling foundation and be new source for long-term development,” said Prof. Liu Pingqing, an expert on the non-public economy at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

The CPC also started to establish a migrant member network both in urban and rural areas to improve the management of “migrant” Party members.

The CPC has more than 70 million Party members. Most government-related organizations have Party branches.

However, members who moved overseas or worked in private companies has difficulty maintaining connections with the Party.

Under the CPC Constitution, members must belong to a branch and participate in the Party’s regular activities. Members who fail to participate for six consecutive months or fail to pay membership fees without good reasons can be deemed to have voluntarily abandoned their membership.

Party committees have set up 8,031 hotlines to provide assistance to migrant Party members. “They can connect with the Party at any time, no matter where they are,” said Wang Zigui.

Source: People’s Daily Online

Few if any Western businessmen with operations in China have probably considered the possibility that a CPC cell might be recruiting under their very noses. While independent verification of CPC statistics might be next to impossible, one thing is clear: the Bolsheviks of Beijing are shrewd businessmen.

>Feature: Alleged Soviet agent Henry "Bor" Kissinger, former KGB/SVR head and PM Primakov hold secret meeting in Putin home, group to report to Bush

>

Since the Bolshevik Revolution the Western capitalist elite, diligently pursuing the Fabian Society’s utopian dream of global government concurrently with the Stalinists of the world, has used financial, diplomatic, and military instruments to facilitate the spread of communism in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Cuba. Conservative author and John Birch Society stalwart Gary Allen (deceased since 1986) exposed Henry Kissinger’s alleged Soviet connections more than 30 years ago. We first published news about the new, secretive Kissinger-led US-Russian working group in April. At the time, citing Russian state media, we reported that “Kissinger, U.S. secretary of state from 1973 to 1977, has been a frequent guest in Russia since Putin took office in 2000.” Indeed.

Neo-Soviet Tyrant Vladimir Putin and “Dr. K” are pictured above.

Kissinger-led U.S. group attends closed debate at Putin home
21:3913/ 07/ 2007

NOVO-OGARYOVO (Moscow Region), July 13 (RIA Novosti) – A group of Russian and U.S. dignitaries gathered Friday at the presidential residence near Moscow behind closed doors in a bid to repair shattered ties.

The panel called “Russia-USA: A Look Into the Future,” led by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, declined to comment on the first Moscow session, but said it was a successful beginning to a series of high-level meetings.

“We discussed many issues. Our goal was not to get media coverage, score public relations points, or press home any propaganda messages. We came here to solve problems,” Primakov said.

“We agreed to hold the next meeting in mid-December in Washington, D.C.,” where the panelists will meet with President George W. Bush, he added.

Kissinger thanked Putin for his hospitality and praised the Russian leader for his realistic and open approach.

“We appreciate the time that President Putin gave us and the frank manner in which he explained his point of view,” he said.

When asked whether U.S. unilateral interventionism was on the agenda, Kissinger said that “nuclear proliferation” and “nuclear threats,” rather than U.S. policies, are the biggest danger to world peace.

“I do not think that [U.S.] expansion is a problem of the period. The problem of the period is how to avoid nuclear conflict and in this case we believe that Russia and America should have common objectives.”

Addressing the panel’s first meeting, Putin thanked its participants for their quick response to the idea to set up such a high-level group, first aired during his April meeting with Kissinger and Primakov, and urged them to keep the debate as close to the ground as possible.

“[Your findings] should not be brought to our foreign ministries to gather dust there. They should be treated as something of practical use,” he said.

He stressed that the idea was to set up a broad panel that would be open-minded when discussing issues.

“We cannot afford having a Russia-U.S. relationship that depends on the current political situation inside both our countries. We cannot allow our relationship to serve such narrow issues, as, for example, election campaigns in Russia or the U.S.,” Putin said.

Apart from Kissinger, the U.S. team includes former Secretary of State George Schultz; former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; former Special Representative for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.; former Senator Sam Nunn; and Chevron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David O’Reilly.

Apart from Primakov, the Russian team includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; former Ambassador to the U.S. Yuly Vorontsov; Deputy Board Chairman of UES Russia Leonid Drachevsky; UC Rusal Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Livshits, and former Soviet Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mikhail Moiseyev.

Source: Novosti

A resume of the US membership of the Kissinger-Primakov group reads as a “who’s who” of American Nepmen, replete with the obligatory secret society memberships that would satisfy the hankerings of any faux rightist conspiracymonger:

1) Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State (1973-1977), Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Grove, Council on Foreign Relations, Pilgrims Society
2) George Schultz, Secretary of State (1982-1989); J.P. Morgan Chase, Chairman, International Advisory Board; Bohemian Grove, Council on Foreign Relations, Pilgrims Society
3) Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary (1995-1999), London School of Economic (founded by Fabian Society)
4) Thomas Graham, Jr., Special Representative of the President for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament (1994-1997); Council on Foreign Relations
5) Sam Nunn, former Senator (1972-1997), Nuclear Threat Initiative (in cooperation with Ted Turner, founder of United Nations Foundation)
6) David O’Reilly, Chevron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum, North American Forum

Dr. K’s accommodationist attitude toward communist powers is evident in an article that he penned for The Washington Post in 2005: “Despite substantial U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, Sino-American relations have steadily improved based on three principles: American recognition of the one-China principle and opposition to an independent Taiwan; China’s understanding that the United States requires the solution to be peaceful and is prepared to vindicate that principle; restraint by all parties in not exacerbating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.” Here Kissinger praises the Bush Administration for accepting Beijing’s main demands: a one-China policy, peaceful coexistence, and capitulationism with respect to Taipei.

Primakov has held many posts, but the more sinister ones demonstrate that he is well connected to the Russian security and intelligence apparatus, as well as a power player among Russia’s “post”-communist elite: Pravda journalist and US/Middle East-based KGB operative, 1956-1970; First Deputy Chairman, Committee for State Security, 1991; Director of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (international component of “defunct” KGB), 1991-1996; Russian Foreign Minister, 1996-1998; and Russian Prime Minister, 1998-1999.

One is hard pressed to understand how a secretive working group moderated by an alleged Soviet agent and a former head of the KGB can promote the national security interests of the USA vis-a-vis the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. The success of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s long-range strategy for the conquest of the West, with or without war, is apparent.

>Latin America File: Ecuador’s Correa moving ahead with socialist policies; Economy Minister: "National economy at the service of the people"

>President Rafael Correa’s Chavez-backed neo-communist coup d’etat in Ecuador is moving ahead full steam, the people and the opposition be damned. Pictured here: Ecuador’s Economy Minister Ricardo Patino employs the usual, worn-out communist rhetoric to justify the new Correa dictatorship in “the name of the people.” The editors of ECrisis, which monitors Ecuadorian politics, write: “No one should be fooled either that the due process, human rights abandoning government of Ecuador is in any way responsible for law and order either. As we all know- and could have predicted with any pea sized brain around- the Correa Congress will merely punish Ricardo Patiño for his crimes with a for show only censure when he should be facing prison. In fact, the entire Correa administration should be removed for its crimes against Ecuadoreans.”

Ecuadorian Gov’t for Socialism
Quito, Jul 16 (Prensa Latina)

The Ecuadorian government currently moves forward the construction of a 21st century’s socialism, solidary in the country and nothing will take it back, Economy Minister Ricardo Patino stated.

“The executive has the commitment to put the national economy at the service of people, of the most vulnerable class,” said Patino in a speech broadcast by the national TV channels.

He pointed out that the most important thing is the social aspect, but highlighted the need of making transcendental changes in the legislation, so the State budget benefits all Ecuadorians.

The minister talked of a law imposed in 2002 by the International Monetary Fund that prohibits investing more resources in health, education and social welfare.

Patino advocated for reforming the law and fulfilling people’s mandate so that the fund destined to those spheres grow over $200 million next years.

The official stressed the wish of reducing the amount destined to pay off financial obligations and stated that from each $100 of the budget the country will pay $25 this year and expects to use $12 in 2010.

Source: Prensa Latina

>Africa/Latin America Files: Venezuela to host 2nd South America-Africa Summit in 2008; Chavez promotes "South-South Axis"

>The socialist/communist-dominated African Union and newly formed Union of South American Nations, along with the venerable United Nations, represent stepping stones to the red goal of world government. In the article below Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez refers to the South America-Africa Summit (SAS) as the “South-South Axis.” The first summit occured in Nigeria, in November-December 2006. There Chavez floated a number of new ideas that are rapidly consolidating the power of Latin America’s Red Axis: Bank of the South, Petrosur, University of the South, Telesur, and Radio of the South. The pro-Chavez Venezuelanalysis.com reports in connection with last year’s meeting: “The South America-Africa summit sets a new stage in inter-continental relations. There are vast areas for cooperation, and a plan of action will no doubt utilise the expertise of both continents. In this respect, a tangible form of South-South cooperation will become a real possibility.” Pictured above: Comrade Hugo buds around with Robert Mugabe, genocidal paleo-communist, dictator of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia.

Caracas welcomes today South America-Africa Summit’s coordinators
ABN 16/07/2007
Caracas, Distrito Capital

Caracas, July 16th (ABN).- From July 16th to 18th, the First Meeting of coordinators for the II South America-Africa Summit (ASA) to be held on November 2008 in Venezuela, takes place in Caracas. The Ministers’ meetings and the logistics for the experts’ encounters are planned to be disccused in this previous meeting, a communiqué issued by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. Brasil’s coordinators (for South Africa), Nigeria (for Africa), African Union Commission (UA), Bolivia ( country that holds the Pro tempore Presidency of the South American Nations Union) and Venezuela ( Preparatory National Committee) will attend this first meeting.

Venezuela’s candidature as host country for the II ASA Summit was approved unanimously for the participating countries during the first edition held in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2006. Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Africa Reinaldo Bolívar said that this meeting shows the international projection that Venezuela has reached through the promotion of the four cooperation axis South-South.

During the First Meeting, President Hugo Chávez proposed to the African Union the four cooperation axis: financing cooperation (Bank of the South), energy cooperation (Petrosur), education cooperation (University of the South) and cooperation in the communication area (Telesur and Radio of the South).

Source: Bolivarian News Agency

>USSR2 File: Kremlin builds case against US missile defense, Belarus busts Polish spy ring; Russia’s top general to Poles: "Got gas masks?"

>Czech Republic’s “pro-Western” crypto-communist government gives green light to USA: Go ahead, install National Missile Defense. Irritate Russia. See if we care. Belarus busts “pro-Western” Polish spy ring allegedly stealing information on the United State of Russia and Belarus’ integrated air defense system. Russia’s top general to Poles, who are also considering US program: Got gas masks?

In the first article note that the Belarusian secret police are still refered to as the “KGB,” or Committee for State Security.

Belarus exposes Polish spy ring – TV
13:1216/ 07/ 2007

MINSK, July 16 (RIA Novosti) – Belarus has detained four members of a Polish spy ring that allegedly gathered classified data on Belarusian and Russian air defenses, a state security official said on the national television.

Deputy Chairman of the State Security Committee Viktor Vegera said the ring comprised four Belarusians and a Russian citizen, who had already surrendered to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

“They were interested in gathering classified information about the missile defenses of the Belarus-Russia Union State, particularly the S-300 air defense systems,” Vegera said, adding that their espionage activities had been “fully proven.”

A special analytical program aired on Belarus ONT TV channel Sunday showed footage of a confession made by the alleged ringleader, former Belarus officer Vladimir Russkin.

Russkin confessed that he was recruited by Polish intelligence when he was caught at a border checkpoint in an attempt to smuggle alcohol. He later recruited four other officers who had access to classified information.

The spies gathered data on S-300 complexes deployed on combat duty in Belarus and passed the information on computer disks to Polish handlers.

Vegera said criminal cases had been submitted to court, but “no damage was inflicted to the defense capacity of Belarus and Russia.”

The defendants may face prison terms from seven to 15 years if convicted, ONT TV said.

Source: Novosti

Even though the Kremlin admits that the US missile defense shield will not stop a barrage of Russian missiles, Russia’s crypto-communist leadership persists in portraying Washington as “Cold War” aggressor, while Moscow pretends to pursue “convergence.”

Army chief warns Poles: if you want U.S. shield, buy gas masks
20:3416/ 07/ 2007

MOSCOW, July 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s highest-ranking military officer condemned Monday U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Europe, and jokingly warned Poles that they might need to prepare themselves by buying gas masks.

When a journalist from Trybuna, a Polish daily, suggested that Poles might need to think about buying warm clothes to prepare for being sent to Siberia in the case of a Russian retaliation to the missile shield project, General Yury Baluyevsky, Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said it wasn’t warm clothes they would need, but protective equipment.

“The decision to place [the shield] on Polish soil was taken by the Polish government. It seems to fully realize what kind of retaliation this may lead to… What they really should be concerned about is what will happen in the event that the shield works at all,” Baluyevsky said.

“Intercepted missiles will disperse over your territory, and you will need to think not about warm clothes, but about acquiring gas masks and other protective equipment,” he said.

The chief of staff dismissed the Pentagon’s justification for the shield plans.

“As for the arguments [in favor of the shield], they can be described very simply – non-existent,” he said in the interview, which was re-published on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website.

He said that even the architects of a Europe-based U.S. anti-missile solution had already dropped their assertion that North Korea ever posed a missile threat to U.S. or Europe, and that “talk of a hypothetical Iranian threat takes a leaf from the same book,” adding that this claim was also likely to be dropped soon.

When asked why Russia, with its powerful nuclear arsenal, is afraid of a handful of U.S. missiles in Poland, he said Russia was worried about the “third site” as an element of a much broader agenda.

“Of course a dozen such missiles as the Americans are planning to deploy in Poland – unproven and untested as they are – are not seen as a direct threat to Russia’s deterrent capability,” he said. “However, the U.S. doctrine treats missile defense as part of a broader ‘strategic triad,’ which also includes offensive strategic weapons.”

“We are sure that U.S. missile defense capability, including a proposed European site, would develop, and its anti-Russian capability would grow in the future,” Baluyevsky said. “In such an environment, we would be forced to take appropriate countermeasures.”

He said Washington’s decision to deploy a missile shield in Europe was “logical, but only under a logic that belongs to a past era.”

“You have Russia and the United States, and both have to reduce their nuclear capabilities. What you want is to be able to deliver a first strike while minimizing your potential enemy’s ability to do so. To achieve that, you need to encircle the enemy’s territory with offensive and missile-defense bases. . . This is normal military logic. The only problem is that this is the logic of a past era – the Cold War, and standoffs between blocs in Europe.”

“During that era, there were ideological grounds. . . Today, there is no such confrontation, but the ideas of that era seem to be alive and well. This is where the logic breaks,” Baluyevsky said.

During the interview, Baluyevsky took a global map of U.S. anti-missile sites and said that “all these sites are close to Russian borders, all are looking toward Russia. This is the reason why we have said our country is being militarily encircled.”

When asked about Europe’s apparent indecision over the shield, Baluyevsky praised the EU for its readiness to discuss all difficult issues.

“The issue affects all Europeans and must therefore be discussed on a multilateral basis,” he said.

“It is dangerous to make decisions of such seriousness without even talking to your neighbors,” he added.

Baluyevsky denied that Russia’s recent reaction to missile plans was “knee-jerk,” and said that historically, cooperation between Russia and the West was always more effective than fighting. He declined to give his personal assessment of Poland’s policies concerning the shield and other issues.

“Assessments of the actions of a foreign government is not my territory. The Poles have elected this government and only they are in a position to decide whether its course is satisfactory and whether the alliances this government makes are good. What makes me sad is the current relationship that we have with Poland – on the state as well as military level,” he said.

“I think what is happening now in Russian-Polish relations will also become history, albeit one with an unpleasant aftertaste. I am optimistic; I believe that good sense will prevail eventually,” Russia’s top general said.

Source: Novosti

>Asia File: FSB agent Zawahiri calls for Musharraf’s ouster, militants avenge Red Mosque cleric’s death, kill 70; Pakistan deploys troops to halt jihad

>YUSUFALI: The Jews call ‘Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!
PICKTHAL: And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!
SHAKIR: And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!
– Koran, Chapter 9; USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts

The elusive lieutenant commander of Al Qaeda, who has no scruples working with the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Service (KGB), is demanding the removal of President General Pervez Musharraf in view of the latter’s responsibility for the death of radical cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi (pictured here), who perished in the storming of Islamabad’s Red Mosque on July 10. “Given Zawahiri’s travels to Russia and China, given the full context of Russia’s double game in Chechnya,” writes American geopolitical analyst Jeff Nyquist, “we ought to entertain the possibility that China and Russia secretly supported the terrorists who attacked America on 9/11.”

Revolt against Mush, says Qaida
13 Jul, 2007 l 0103 hrs IST l AGENCIES

DUBAI/ISLAMABAD: Al Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called for revenge over the Pakistani government assault on Islamabad’s Lal Masjid that left at least 73 rebels and nine soldiers dead and turned the heart of the capital into a battleground.

Branding Tuesday’s storming of the mosque as “criminal aggression”, Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, urged Pakistanis to revolt against President Pervez Musharraf. He told Pakistanis Musharraf “rubbed your honour in the dirt.”

“This crime can only be washed by repentance or blood,” he said in an audiotape posted on websites used by Islamists.

“If you do not revolt, Musharraf will annihilate you. Musharraf will not stop until he uproots Islam from Pakistan,” he said.

“Muslims in Pakistan: no salvation for you except through jihad. Rigged elections and politics will not help you…. You should now support the mujahedin in Afghanistan,” he said.

“I call upon the ulema (Muslim clergy) in Pakistan…. Musharraf and his hunting dogs have tarnished your honour in service of the crusades and the Jews,” Zawahiri said.

“Are there no honourable men in Pakistan?” he added.

Source: Times of India

Looking for an excuse to overthrow Musharraf, Pakistan’s Al Qaeda-infiltrated North West Frontier Province “goes jihad” (the Islamic equivalent of going postal).

Bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan kill 70 over weekend
July 16, 2007

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP): Militants in northwest Pakistan tore up a peace pact with the government and launched suicide attacks and bombings that killed at least 70 people, in a dramatic escalation of violence in the al-Qaida infiltrated region.

The weekend attacks followed strident calls by extremists to avenge the government’s bloody storming of Islamabad’s Red Mosque and a declaration of jihad, or holy war, by at least one pro-Taliban cleric.

Termination of the peace treaty, the hopeful handiwork of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, puts even greater pressure on the military leader as he wrestles with both Islamic extremists and a gathering pro-democracy movement.

There is concern in Pakistan that the gathering sense of crisis could prompt Musharraf to cancel elections due later this year and declare a state of emergency – despite his repeated denials.

However, Musharraf can also use the turbulence to convince Washington, his key backer, that he remains a vital bulwark against extremists in the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear state.

The U.S. national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, expressed concern Sunday about the threat from militants in Pakistan, but supported Musharraf’s recent moves to respond.

In a separate interview on the Fox news network Sunday, Hadley acknowledged that the United States had been dissatisfied with Musharraf’s policies.

“The action has at this point not been adequate, not effective,” Hadley said. “He’s doing more. We are urging him to do more, and we’re providing our full support to what he’s contemplating.”

Abdullah Farhad, a militant spokesman, said the 10-month-old cease-fire pact was being terminated in North Waziristan, a remote area on the Afghan border where the U.S. worries that al-Qaida has regrouped.

He said Taliban leaders took the decision after the government failed to abide by their demand that it withdraw troops from checkpoints by 4:00 p.m. (11:00 GMT) Sunday and accused authorities oflaunching attacks and failing to compensate those harmed.

“The peace agreement has ended,” Farhad told reporters in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. (***)

Source: The Jakarta Post

Islam’s violent response to the Pakistan government’s killing of Ghazi is predictable, but a response that nevertheless threatens to install a Tehran-like Islamo-Nazi regime in Islamabad.

Troops sent to northwest Pakistan to avert call for jihad
Published: 07.14.07, 13:21 / Israel News

Thousands of troops were deployed to Pakistan’s northwestern frontier to try to dissuade outlawed Islamic militants from launching a holy war against the government for its bloody attack on a radical mosque, military officials said Saturday.

As the troop movement proceeded in at least five areas of the North West Frontier Province on Saturday, a suicide bomber struck in another border region, his explosives-laden vehicle killing at least eight soldiers in a military convoy, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. (AP)

Source: YNetNews.com

>USSR2 File: Kremlin: NATO must ratify adapted CFE Treaty within 5 months or Russia will withdraw; tests new air defense system

>The only reason that NATO has refused to ratify the adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, drawn up in Istanbul in 1999, is the continuing presence of Russian troops in Moldova (Transistria) and Georgia. However, as usual, the Kremlin plays the aggrieved party. Pictured here: The first Russian troops to leave Georgia, July 2005.

NATO has five months to ratify CFE, or Russia will withdraw from treaty -Kosachyov
Jul 16 2007 3:07PM

MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) – NATO member states have five months to consider ratifying the adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), head of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachyov said.

“After our NATO partners are formally notified of the Russian president’s decree suspending our participation in the CFE, they will have 150 days to decide whether or not to ratify the adapted treaty of 1999,” Kosachyov said in an interview with Interfax.

Source: Interfax

The withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia began in 2005 and continues today: “The 11th troop train will leave the 12th Russian military base in Batumi (Georgia) for Russia on July 12, 2007. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the train is to carry 44 vehicles of over 400 tonnes. The next train is expected to depart in the second half of July 2007. All in all, 8 trains and a motor column are to be dispatched from the military base to Russia or the 102nd military base in Gyumri, Armenia, before the year-end. The 12th Russian military base in Batumi is to be closed in 2008.”

Meanwhile, with typical communist hypocrisy, not content to denounce the USA for intending to install its National Missile Defense system in Central Europe, Russia is modernizing its own air defense system.

Russia successfully tests new S-400 air defense system
15:3313/ 07/ 2007

MOSCOW, July 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has successfully conducted the first live firing tests of its new S-400 Triumf air defense complex at a testing ground in southern Russia, the Air Force said Friday.

A basic firing exercise was conducted July 12-13 at the Kapustin Yar firing range in the Astrakhan Region by an air defense regiment that will soon assume combat duty outside the Russian capital.

“The exercise was a success,” the Air Force press service said in a statement. “The system destroyed all designated targets.”

The S-400 (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) is a new air defense missile system developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family.

It has been designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), or twice the range of the U.S. MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2.

Lieutenant General Alexander Gorkov, the Air Force air defense chief, said last week that Russia planned to deploy new air defense systems primarily around all strategically important administrative and political centers in two stages by 2015.

During the second stage, which starts in 2010, Russia will add modernized versions of the S-400 with enhanced characteristics in comparison to the current model, he said.

The system is reportedly highly capable of destroying stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles with an effective range of up to 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and a speed of up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per second.

The Russian Air Defense Forces, which are part of the Air Force, currently deploy more than 30 regiments equipped with S-300 (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) missile complexes, which will be gradually replaced with S-400 systems.

Source: Novosti

>USSR2 File: Former PM and Yeltsin croney Kasyanov endorses Zyuganov candidacy, withdraws from Other Russia; "coalition served its mission"

>Virtually all the characteristics of a modern democratic state have disappeared [in Russia]. The government and parliament cannot function without everyday instruction from the top. The judiciary cannot be said to have any sign of independence. Responsibility at the regional level of power has been totally destroyed by abolishing the direct election of governors.
– Mikhail Kasyanov, former prime minister of Russian Federation; speaking at International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, June 26, 2006

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) website announced on July 12 that ex-Soviet apparatchik, former prime minister, and Yeltsin croney Mikhail Kasyanov is throwing his name behind Gennady Zyuganov’s candidacy for the presidency: “Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of the People’s Democratic Union, recently stated that he was ready to support the presidential bid of Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, as the united candidate for the country’s whole opposition.” Although Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked Kasyanov in 2004, both men were aligned with the deceased dictator of post-communist Russia, Boris Yeltsin.

Zyuganov is CPRF chairman and Oleg Shenin’s marionette. Shenin, who also announced his intention in August 2006 to run for the Russian presidency, is chair of the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of which the CPRF is the Russian section. Shenin was responsible for masterminding the faux anti-Gorbachev coup that convinced the West that the hardliners within the old CPSU were issuing their last gasp, as well as secreting the party’s vast treasury into Swiss bank accounts before the Soviet Union conveniently collapsed on Christmas Day 1991. The exact relation between the Zyuganov and Shenin candidacies is still not clear.

At the same time Kasyanov is withdrawing his party, the People’s Democratic Union, from its participation in the Other Russia coalition, which also contains the youth section of the restored CPSU, the Red Youth Vanguard. Kasyanov’s party website reports that Other Russia has “carried out its mission” in preparation for the December 2007 Duma and March 2008 presidential elections. That Other Russia has not been averse toward working with Stalinists is evident in a July 2 statement by United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov, who declared: “We also welcome the names of the leaders of traditional Russian parties which proclaim themselves to be in opposition. For example – the leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko.”

In the same article Kasparov explains the reason for Kasyanov’s departure from Other Russia: the former prime minister opposed the selection of candidates in an open congress and, instead, advocated the secretive selection of a unified opposition candidate who would oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand-chosen successor. Kasparov elaborates:

Already in the spring of this year, the directors of the People’s Democratic Union, headed by Mikhail Kasyanov, declared they would “cease participation in Dissenters’ Marches.” They never provided convincing explanations for this posture to their partners in the coalition.

The People’s Democratic Union has categorically disagreed with such a script. Mikhail Kasyanov has presented especially sharp criticism of the idea of promoting the candidates in an open Congress. In the opinion of our colleagues from People’s Democratic Union, the list of candidates should be limited to one representative from each of the four organizations that participate in the Political Council of The Other Russia. (Those directed by Kasyanov, Ryzhkov, Limonov, and myself.) To increase the quota to two representatives, the People’s Democratic Union insisted on abolishing regional conferences. The Congress would then turn into an assembly of citizens who would simply stamp the decision made by unknown persons to select a generic unified opposition candidate.

It appears that Zyuganov is that unified opposition candidate to which all Russian leftists will gravitate come election day. Since co-Stalinist Shenin prefers to operate away from the political limelight, he may very well lend his “good name” to Zyuganov and not the other way around, as we previously speculated. This, according to the CPRF article linked above, is the very strategy of the Soviet communists who have used the “corruption” of the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist regime to validate the restoration of an overt communist regime in the Kremlin.

>Asia File: Gunbattle in East India Leaves 24 policemen and 25 Maoist rebels dead, 2,000 killed in last two years of insurgency

> Like the Clandestine Communist Party of Colombia-Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Communist Party of India-Maoist, otherwise known as the Naxalites, does not hesitate to recruit youngsters (pictured here) into its insurgent army. No life is too precious to waste in the drive to establish a communist dictatorship in India. “After festering for decades with scattered small attacks,” the article below reports, “the insurgency is now spread across 13 of India’s 28 states and the rebels are believed to have 10,000-15,000 fighters in an increasingly well- armed force.” The latest confrontation between Indian authorities and communist guerrillas is the deadliest since the March ambush that wiped out 55 policemen and government-backed militiamen.

Communism might be dead in the minds of many duped inhabitants of the West’s shopping mall regimes, but the red virus has given no indication that it has given up its objective of eradicating political, religious, and economic freedom everywhere.

Gunbattle in East India Leaves 49 Dead
Jul 11 01:02 AM US/Eastern
By ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI, India (AP) – Maoist rebels using mortars and machine guns battled police in eastern India in an hours-long fight that left 24 policemen and 25 rebels dead, a police official said Wednesday.

The rebels ambushed more than 100 policemen and the gunbattle lasted more than five hours in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh state, said Rajendra Kumar Vij, inspector general of state police.

At least 25 communist rebels were also killed in the gunbattle Monday night, but their bodies were yet to be recovered, he said.

The rebel assault was the latest in a series in the region, where widespread poverty has fueled a lengthy insurgency by militants who demand land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor. The movement claims inspiration from Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong.

After festering for decades with scattered small attacks, the insurgency is now spread across 13 of India’s 28 states and the rebels are believed to have 10,000-15,000 fighters in an increasingly well- armed force.

There’s little fear the insurgency could destabilize all of India. But the Maoists have proven to be a major force stretching from India’s central hinterlands to its east coast, and their attacks are growing more deadly.

In March, 55 policemen and government-backed militiamen were killed when up to 500 rebels descended on an isolated Chhattisgarh police station. Over the past two years, nearly 2,000 people have been killed.

Monday’s fighting took place in Elampatti-Regadgatta jungle of Dantewada district, nearly 350 miles south of Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh state.

The police team had gone to attack suspected rebel hideouts, but they were ambushed by the insurgents, Vij said.

The rebels refuse entry to government forces and most outsiders into their territory, where they are effectively the government.

The rebels, known as Naxalites because of the Naxalbari region where the movement was born, are mainly active in six of India’s 28 states—Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa and Chattisgarh.

While India’s economic boom has created immense amounts of wealth, the prosperity hasn’t reached most of India’s 1.1 billion, two-thirds of whom are farmers. It’s those peasants who have joined the insurgents in their fiery calls for land and jobs.

Source: Breitbart.com

>Latin America File: Chavez-backed Mexican insurgents used "sophisticated" explosives, army patrols damaged pipelines, Calderon slow to admit sabotage

>The article below notes that Mexican security analysts are puzzled by the activities of the resurgent Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR): “Why the Popular Revolutionary Army, a Marxist rebel group with roots in Guerrero State in the south, chose to attack now and whether it signaled the start of a long campaign remained a mystery.”

The EPR was organized in 1996, carried out a number of terrorist attacks that year and in 1997, and went underground for nearly a decade before a splinter group, the Popular Army of the Insurgent Revolution, terrorized last year’s post-election mayhem. In October 2006 the EPR released a communique in support of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca and in condemnation of Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz: “To the oligarchs and administrators in turn, Fox, Calderón, Ulises, Abascal, we say that the story is still unfinished, for us it is only the beginning of new stages and forms of struggle, the final victory will be that of our heroic and dignified people.” A July 10 communique that accept responsibiilty for the pipeline bombings again refered to the EPR’s opposition to “the interests of the oligarchy and of this illegitimate government.”

If the EPR attacks against Pemex’s pipelines herald a new campaign of revolutionary violence, then one might only have to look as far as Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov’s April visit to Mexico for a rationale. With respect to the “sophisticated” explosives that the EPR guerrillas allegedly used to sever the pipelines, Mexican authorities might only have to look as far as Havana or Caracas for the supplier. According to Mexican journalist Francisco Resendiz, as we documented yesterday, the Popular Revolutionary Army/Popular Army of the Insurgent Revolution is receiving funding and training from the Venezuelan government.

Pictured above: Smoke rises from a fire in a pipeline of the state oil monopoly Pemex as soldiers stand guard, in Queretaro, Mexico, July 10, 2007.

Mexico plants still shut; army patrols pipelines after blasts
By James C. Mckinley Jr.
Thursday, July 12, 2007

MEXICO CITY: Dozens of factories remained shut down and soldiers patrolled pipelines on Wednesday, a day after leftist rebels announced that they were behind the explosions that crippled the flow of natural gas to several large Mexican cities.

The country’s airwaves were filled with news about the attacks. Leaders in Congress criticized President Felipe Calderón for not informing the public of the bombings until after the rebel group, the Popular Revolutionary Army, took responsibility on Tuesday for the unexplained explosions that day and on July 5.

Calderón again denounced the violence. “What we should do is set aside differences and attend to social needs through dialogue,” he said in a speech on Wednesday morning at a signing ceremony for the first stage of a commuter railroad project. “There are others that dedicate themselves to destroying what we have all built.”

The rebel group said in its communiqué that it had blown up two 36-inch natural gas pipelines supplying Querétaro, Salamanca and Guanajuato as part of a campaign “against the interests of the oligarchy and of this illegitimate government.”

The group also demanded the release of two of its members, who it maintains disappeared on May 25 in Oaxaca, the scene of many violent antigovernment protests last year. State and federal officials insist that the men are not in custody.

The attacks have added to public jitters in Mexico, which has had an unprecedented wave of drug-related violence in the last two years and a close, polarizing presidential election last year in which the leftist candidate never conceded defeat.

“What these types of actions show is how easy it is to paralyze the country with a few people and get a lot of attention,” Ana María Salazar, an author and radio host who has written about security threats in Mexico, said in an interview.

Why the Popular Revolutionary Army, a Marxist rebel group with roots in Guerrero State in the south, chose to attack now and whether it signaled the start of a long campaign remained a mystery, security analysts said.

More than a dozen smaller rebel groups united to form the Popular Revolutionary Army in 1996. They announced themselves to the world at Aguas Blancas in Guerrero State, a spot where the police killed 17 people the year before in a crackdown on a movement for the rights of poor farmers.

Espousing a Leninist view, the group called in its founding remarks for the “restitution of sovereignty by the people” and the punishment of those behind the “repression, corruption, misery and hunger” afflicting the poor.

Since then, however, the rebel group has carried out few acts of sabotage or terrorism, according to the Center for the Documentation of Armed Groups, which tracks rebels throughout Latin America. Like the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, the Popular Revolutionary Army’s main weapon has been a propaganda campaign on the Internet.

But the rebel group is widely believed to be behind the kidnappings of at least three well-known businessmen to raise money for its cause, among them Alfredo Harp Helú, the former owner of Banamex bank. All were eventually released. The rebels maintain in their communiqués that they have had more than 30 gun battles with the army in the last decade.

In 1999, Mexican authorities arrested Jacobo Silva Nogales and charged him with being a founder of the rebel faction. He remains in prison, along with three others accused of being leaders of the group.

A splinter group, known as the Popular Army of the Insurgent Revolution claimed responsibility for a series of minor bombings in Mexico City during the election campaign last year. The pipe bombs exploded at the headquarters of the former governing party, in the basement of the electoral tribunal and outside a bank.

But it was not until July 5 that the main rebel group built bombs powerful enough to blow apart a steel pipeline for natural gas, prosecutors said. Three bombs exploded that day, two of them along the main 36-inch pipe between Mexico City and Salamanca in Guatemala State, said officials of Pemex, the state oil monopoly.

Though Pemex officials informed the federal government of the bombings, the Calderón administration kept the information secret. Then a fourth bomb went off Tuesday at 1:10 a.m., severing another 36-inch steel pipeline near Querétaro. Because of the use of powerful bombs, investigators are still not entirely convinced that the rebel group is behind the blasts, even though that remains a main line of investigation, said an official in the attorney general’s office, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is not over.

What is known, he said, is that a relatively sophisticated explosive was used. He would not say which one.

Carlos Ramírez, the spokesman for Pemex, said it would take at least two days to repair the pipeline and resume supplying gas to Querétaro, Guadalajara, Aguascalientes and León. More than 90 factories were forced to reduce or suspend production, among them the glassmaker Vitro and the cereal maker the Kellogg Company, Querétaro State’s industrial trade group said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

>USSR2 File: Serbia and ally Russia decisively reject UN Security Council resolution supporting Kosovo independence; Ukraine reds protest NATO exercise

>The KGB-managed collapse of the Soviet Union and the East Bloc provided a window of opportunity by which Moscow lured EU/NATO into the political vacuum of Central and Southeastern Europe (Balkans), thereby creating a pretext for defending itself against the “aggressive” North Atlantic alliance. The ruse worked. Fast forward to NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia over the issue of Kosovar separatism, the current deployment of the USA’s National Missile Defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and Russia’s moratorium over the implementation of the old Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

On July 5, 2007 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned: “We do not think NATO’s expansion is necessary, and believe the policy is a relapse into the Cold War.” The Soviet position is very clear: “The USA is guilty of re-starting the Cold War.” Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s Western propagandists, like Justin Raimondo, lambaste opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin for “wishing the Soviet Union back into existence.”

Pictured above is Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, who holds membership in the Democratic Party of Serbia (DPS) and has no apparent connection to old communist regime. Nevertheless, Koštunica does not spurn Russia’s patronage and, indeed, is carefully following the Kremlin line, which insists upon the territorial integrity of its Slavic cousin. Moscow’s rationale is evident in the article below: “Russia has said granting Kosovo sovereignty would violate Serbia’s territorial integrity, setting a precedent for other breakaway regions, including in the former Soviet Union.”

The putatively conservative DPS governs in coalition with conservative ally New Serbia, monarchist ally Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement, and United Serbia. The war-mongering Socialist Party of Serbia, formerly League of Communists of Serbia, holds the balance of power in parliament.

Serbia decisively rejects draft resolution on Kosovo status
19:0311/ 07/ 2007

BELGRADE, July 11 (RIA Novosti) – Serbia decisively rejects a new draft resolution on the status of Kosovo introduced by Washington for UN Security Council approval as the draft has independence for the province as its main aim, the prime minister said Wednesday.

“Kosovo will not gain independence. And no U.S. officials making daily statements in support of Kosovo’s independence can obviate that fact,” Vojislav Kostunica said, adding that Belgrade will never agree to a 15% reduction of his country’s territory.

Kostunica said Kosovo would remain a component and integral part of Serbia, as written in the UN Charter and the country’s Constitution.

The UN Security Council has been holding closed debates on a resolution drafted by Britain, the United States and France giving Belgrade and Pristina four months for more talks before automatically granting independence to Kosovo.

It is the third draft resolution based on special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan to grant Kosovo independence without the prior consent of Serbia.

Russia, a longtime ally of fellow Slavic Serbia, has insisted on a decision that would satisfy both Belgrade and Pristina, and threatened to veto a resolution setting the province on a path to independence.

Russia has said granting Kosovo sovereignty would violate Serbia’s territorial integrity, setting a precedent for other breakaway regions, including in the former Soviet Union. It has also expressed concern about the future of the impoverished province’s Serbs and other minorities, who number about 180,000 in all.

Kosovo Albanians have meanwhile warned they will take independence unilaterally.

Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since NATO’s unsanctioned 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999.

Source: Novosti

With the same context in mind, Soviet communists perceive East-West military cooperation, such as the joint Ukraine-NATO naval exercise Sea Breeze-2007, as an attempt by the West to subjugate the Not-So-Former Soviet republics when, in fact, East-West convergence advances Moscow’s Plan A: conquest without war. (Plan B, of course, is Missile Day.) Will Soviet communists protest the second Sino-Soviet military exercise in August, Peace Mission 2007? Not likely.

According to Kommersant, the protest in Odessa drews supporters of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Progressive Socialist Party (communist), United Fatherland, and the Black Sea Cossacks. New Europe reports that authorities had banned the protest against Sea Breeze-2007. “When courts ban peaceful assemblies and rallies for all political parties and public organizations,” complained Odessa Communist Party leader Yevgeny Tsarkov stated on July 6, “and when they do not allow people to express their view on aparticular event, then Ukraine under [President]Yushchenko has turned into a police state.” And yet again, Soviet communists are portrayed as the valiant underdogs, while the “pro-Western” regimes in Moscow and Kiev are depicted as oppressing the Soviet peoples.

Ukraine-NATO exercises draw protests
11.07.2007, 16.48

ODESSA, July 11 (Itar-Tass) – The Odessa region’s administrators and chiefs of the NATO information and documentation center discussed Ukraine’ s integration in NATO at a roundtable meeting in the regional administration on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, several hundreds of supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party picketed the building of the regional administration with posters “Hands away from Ukraine”, chanting: “We will not let NATO lead the Ukrainian people to slaughter!”

The protests against the conduction of NATO-Ukraine exercises Sea Breeze-2007 in have been continuing for the sixth day.

Main rallies moved to the Chabanka Range located 25 kilometers from Odessa.

The protesters set up a tent compound at which over 1,500 citizens of Lugansk, Sevastopol, Lvov, Poltava, Odessa, Kharkov, Simferopol and Kiev are staying.

Organizers expect more supporters to come from all regions of Ukraine.

Opponents of the exercises suspended their protest actions for two daysi in Odessa, because the Ukrainian football supercup is held, drawing great crowds of fans from Donetsk and Kiev, the chief of the anti-NATO committee, Valery Kaurov said.

However, the protests of a still larger scale will resume on Thursday, he said.

Members of the public organization Oko also take part in pickets near a sea terminal in Odessa.

The organization’s press secretary Anatoly Petrov said provocateurs were constantly sent to the protesters. “They tried to provoke a fight with the protesters, but nothing came of it. The picketers are law-abiding people and will not take provocations,” he said.

Source: ITAR-TASS

>Latin America File: Popular Revolutionary Army blows up pipelines in central Mexico; Latin American Left’s plan to oust Calderon moves ahead slowly

>We must fight against the interests of global capitalism and the empire that still do not share and work for a just world, in solidarity, peace, democracy and freedom.
– Daniel Ortega, Sandinista President of Nicaragua; statement made in Mexico City, June 27-28, 2007; quoted by Nicaragua Network website

Following the defeat of former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in last year’s presidential election, the Mexican Left–consisting of Obrador’s national counter-government known as the “Legitimate Government of Mexico,” the counter-government of the state of Oaxaca known as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, the Zapatista National Army of Liberation, and assorted terrorist formations such as the People’s Revolutionary Army (EPR)–pledged themselves to overthrow the pro-USA regime of President Felipe Calderon. Leftists marched and protested, scuffles erupted in the Mexican Congress, a few landmarks were bombed, but Calderon assumed the presidential sash on December 1, 2006 without further disruption. La Revolucion, if Obrador’s website is any indication, appeared to primarily consist of numerous photo ops for AMLO among Mexico’s destitute.

Notwithstanding AMLO’s electoral humiliation, regional leftist leaders continued to plot and scheme.

For example, we documented the covert support, stridently denied by the leftists themselves, that Venezuela’s neo-communist dictatorship was directing to Mexico’s terrorist cells and Chavezista cheering squads. In March 2006 one Mexican source reported: “Violent groups and political organizations related to the PRD that supports Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have been infiltrated since 2001 by ‘Bolivarian cells’ financed by the government of Venezuela, to build a structure of ‘promotion’ and ‘self-defense’ in case of a possible triumph of the Mexican left in the next presidential electoral day.” WorldThreats.com founder Ryan Mauro confirms: “Venezuelan intelligence is also claimed [to] be providing weapons, specifically AK-47s, to the People’s Revolutionary Army of Mexico. Cuban embassy officials are involved in the transfers; money reportedly makes its way to Venezuela, via Havana. According to a report (Geostrategy-Direct.com, 6/7/05), Venezuela and Cuba are also backing members of the Party of Democratic Revolution in Mexico.” The neo-communist Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) is the main coalition partner in Obrador’s counter-government.

In May 2006, furthermore, Gordon Thomas published an article at WorldNetDaily.com in which he presented information linking the EPR with Al Qaeda: “Another Pakistani document shows the links between al-Qaida and Mexico’s Popular Revolutionary Army, EPR. The documents reveal that al-Qaida sees EPR as collaborators in attacks in Mexico on foreign targets – ‘especially those of the United States and Britain.’ It also says that EPR can play a key role in allowing al-Qaida operatives to enter the United States through the busiest land crossing in the world – Tijuana.”

More recently, in January 2007 the narco-terrorist Sao Paulo Forum, revolutionary offspring of Fidel Castro and “moderate leftist” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, convened in San Salvador. This communist meet-and-greet was followed several weeks later by the still-unsolved murders of three rightist Salvadoran politicians in Guatemala, as well as their alleged assassins, four anti-gang unit police officers. Salvadoran President Tony Saca has complained about the slow pace of the government of Guatemala’s official investigation.

On June 27 and 28 Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega visited his “neo-liberal” Mexican counterpart, during which meeting he promoted the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, the organizational manifestation of the Havana-Caracas Axis. At a follow-up press conference, Comandate Ortega, an unrepentant Marxist skilled in the art of ideological camouflage, declared that Nicaraguans and Mexicans must “fight against the interests of global capitalism and the empire that still do not share and work for a just world, in solidarity, peace, democracy and freedom.”

Pictured above: Fire resulting from pipeline bombing near town of Coroneo, Mexico, July 10, 2007.

Mexico Confirms Attacks on Pipelines
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 11, 2007
Filed at 12:59 a.m. ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government on Tuesday called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to the nation’s democratic institutions and vowed to step up security after a guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The Interior Department said it would take measures to protect ”strategic installations” across Mexico after an explosion Tuesday at a pipeline run by the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and two other blasts that rocked gas ducts on Thursday.

”The Mexican government categorically condemns the attacks against Pemex facilities. This criminal conduct aims to weaken democratic institutions, the patrimony of Mexicans and the safety of their families,” the statement said.

While officials said investigations were continuing into the cause of the blasts, the statement by the Interior Department — responsible for domestic security — came a short time after a small guerrilla group said its members had planted explosives on the pipelines.

Late Tuesday, Mexico’s attorney general’s office also ruled out an accidental cause and said in a statement that an investigation had determined the explosions last week were set off outside the ducts, in a similar manner and simultaneously.

“This indicates (the explosions) were set intentionally,” it said, adding that it was trying to determine if the guerrilla group’s claims were authentic.

The rebel statement said ”three combined squads of urban and rural units … have carried out surgical harassment actions by placing eight explosive packs on the Pemex pipelines.” Posted on a Web site that serves as a clearinghouse for bulletins from armed groups, the statement demanded the release of two men detained in southern Oaxaca state in May, and others it identified as ”political prisoners.”

The city was seized by leftist groups for five months in 2006 before federal police broke up barricades and protest camps in October and arrested dozens.

While guerrilla groups in Colombia have regularly attacked energy facilities, the tactic hasn’t been used much in Mexico until now.

It was impossible to independently confirm the claim, made by the ”military zone command of the People’s Revolutionary Army,” or EPR, a tiny group that has largely been inactive in recent years. However, a breakaway faction of the same group had issued similar demands in a communique sent to The Associated Press in June.

Tuesday’s explosion forced the evacuation of communities around the town of Coroneo, near the central city of Queretaro, but caused no damage outside of the pipeline’s installations, Pemex said in statement.

Service was suspended on the 36-inch pipeline that runs between Mexico City and Guadalajara. The company didn’t say when it would be restored.

On July 5, two explosions at another Pemex pipeline in the nearby Guanajuato state forced evacuations but caused no injuries.

That blast forced the temporary suspension of work at a Honda car plant in the city of Guadalajara, the government news agency Notimex reported Tuesday.

The EPR staged several armed attacks in southern Mexico in the 1990s. Tuesday’s statement was signed both by the EPR and a splinter group known as the People’s Democratic Revolutionary Party.

Source: The New York Times

In April Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and key player in Moscow’s long-range strategic deception, traveled to Mexico where he conferred with leaders of the Party of Labor, which belongs to Obrador’s coalition known as the National Democratic Convention, and, according to the CPRF website, met Obrador himself. The Party of Labor also belongs to the Sao Paulo Forum. Zyuganov then traveled to Cuba, where he huddled with Castro, and Venezuela, where he strategized with leaders of the pro-Chavez Communist Party of Venezuela. In June Chavez himself traveled to Moscow where he met both President Vladimir Putin and Zyuganov.

In light of the fact that the Venezuelan dictator is openly consorting with the power behind the throne in Russia, the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation/Soviet Union, that Zyuganov himself recently visited his ideological brethern in Latin America, and that the Red Mafiya and “renegade” elements in the Russian military are supplying weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, one should not be faulted for speculating that Moscow is also pushing for red revolution in Mexico.

While it is possible that communists could seize the reins of power in some of Mexico’s impoverished, conflict-ridden southern states, the likelihood that armed revolution could topple such a geographically large, federal state appears low. Nevertheless, terrorist actions supported by Moscow, Havana, and Caracas can reduce the legitimacy of the current regime, permitting Obrador’s counter-government to obtain more seats in the next congressional elections, scheduled to occur in 2009. Otherwise, AMLO and his henchentities in the Mexican Left can foment a constitutional crisis before then, forcing their way into government.

>Asia File: Pakistani commandos storm Red Mosque, Al Qaeda-linked cleric Ghazi killed, Musharraf thwarts latest Islamist plot against military regime

>My martyrdom is certain now.
– Abdul Rashid Ghazi, statement made by Red Mosque cleric, Islamabad, Pakistan; July 9, 2007

The leader of Islamabad’s local chapter of Al Qaeda is mercifully deceased, but I rather suspect that he is not enjoying the company of 72 virgins. Virgins? What virgins?

Not to be deterred, the Islamist forces of Pakistan will continue their plotting and conniving against the military government of President General Pervez Musharraf. Whether a nominal or radical Islamic regime, Pakistan will remain an appendage of the Moscow-Beijing Axis. In November 2004 President Musharraf visited Beijing where he signed a joint declaration affirming Sino-Pakistan economic cooperation. At the time more than 3,000 Chinese workers were assigned to major projects in Pakistan. In 2003 the two countries held their first joint naval exercise off the coast of Shanghai.

The article below reports that the Red Mosque militants were “well trained” and armed with machine guns, rocket launchers, gasoline bombs and booby traps.

Radical Cleric of Besieged Pakistani Mosque Killed in Raid
Tuesday , July 10, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A radical cleric whose besieged mosque sought to impose strict Islamic morality on the Pakistani capital was killed Tuesday after refusing to respond to troops who demanded his surrender, officials said.

About 50 militants and eight soldiers died when the military stormed the sprawling Red Mosque compound.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the public face of the pro-Taliban mosque that challenged the government’s writ in Islamabad, had vowed to die rather than give himself up.

An army official said Ghazi had received bullet wounds and when he was told to surrender, he gave no reply. Commandos then fired another volley of bullets and found Ghazi dead, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.

Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed Ghazi’s death and said the cleric’s body was still lying in the compound, and that “battle hardened” militants were defending themselves.

Officials, who earlier said the military held back on an all-out assault on Ghazi because there were children being held in the basement as hostages, offered no details on who was with him when he died.

“The government is using full force. This is naked aggression,” Ghazi said hours before his death. “My martyrdom is certain now.”

Troops had stormed the sprawling mosque compound in the capital before dawn after efforts to bring a peaceful end to a weeklong standoff with security forces failed.

Ghazi and his brother Abdul Aziz, the mosque’s chief cleric, had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to “re-educate” them at the mosque.

Khalid Pervez, the city’s top administrator, said as many as 50 women were the first to be freed by the militants and had emerged from the complex following the escape of 26 children.

Mohammed Khalid Jamil, a reporter for the local Aaj television network, was among journalists who said they saw dozens of women and girls walking on a road away from the mosque. They were wearing burqas, he said.

A military official who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the women included the wife and daughter of Abdul Aziz, who was arrested while trying to flee the complex last week.

It was not clear how many noncombatants were being held hostage or were staying behind because they believed in the mosque’s cause. Last week, a number of those who left the mosque, including young women, said their colleagues were there of their own free will and prepared to die.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said hostages were still being held and that fighting was intense: “We are fighting room by room.” He added that stun grenades were being used to avoid casualties among the hostages.

He said about 50 militants have been killed in Tuesday’s assault, while eight soldiers had died and 29 were wounded.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, head of the private relief agency Edhi Foundation, told reporters that the army had asked him to prepare 400 white shrouds used for covering the dead.

The siege of one of the capital’s most prominent mosques was prompted by clashes last Tuesday between security forces and supporters of the mosque’s hardline clerics. More than 80 people have been killed in the fighting since July 3.

The vigilante anti-vice campaign has proved an embarrassment to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, and underlined his administration’s failure to control extremist religious schools.

But a major loss of life at the Red Mosque could further turn public opinion against the president, who already faces mounting opposition for his bungled attempts to fire the country’s chief justice.

To protest the siege, more than 100 armed tribesmen and religious students near the northwestern town of Batagram temporarily blocked a road that leads to neighboring China, police officials said.

And in the eastern city of Multan, more than 500 Islamic religious school students rallied, chanting “Down with Musharraf” and blocking a main road by burning tires.

The U.S. Embassy recommended that Americans in Pakistan to limit their movement in the area of the northwestern city of Peshawar, warning that “terrorist elements” were threatening attacks on Pakistani government, police and army institutions in retaliation for the Red Mosque siege.

The army raid began about 4 a.m. after a government-backed effort led by ex-premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to try and negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff failed. One cleric in the mediation team, Rehmatullah Khalil, accused Musharraf of sabotaging a draft agreement with the mosque’s chief cleric, which the government denied.

Soon after the mediators left the environs of the mosque, commandos attacked from three directions and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said.

Besides the women, Arshad said about 50 suspected militants, some of them youngsters, have been captured or emerged from the mosque since fighting began Tuesday.

Arshad said the army attack was now focused on the women’s school. He said the entire compound included 75 rooms, large basements and expansive courtyards. About 80 percent of it had been cleared, he said.

An officer, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said troops had demanded four times that Ghazi surrender, but his followers responded with gunfire. Ghazi said he was ready to die rather than give up, the officer said.

Arshad said the well-trained militants were armed with machine guns, rocket launchers and gasoline bombs and had booby-trapped some areas.

Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq said foreign militants were among those fighting with the mosque defenders, quoting Ghazi.

Ghazi told the private Geo TV network in a telephone interview about two hours after Tuesday’s assault began that his mother had been wounded by gunshot. One of Ghazi’s aides, Abdul Rahman, later said she had died.

Source: FoxNews.com

Islamabad’s Red Mosque: An Al Qaeda Recruiting Center?

In the interest of acknowledging other viewpoints, it should be pointed out that South Asia Analysis Group denies that government reports concerning the presence of Al Qaeda affiliate Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami at the Red Mosque were accurate: “Some Ministers of the Government of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have been claiming that some armed militants of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) are also inside and participating in the firing. But reliable police sources say that while the presence of about 20 armed members of the LEJ is confirmed, the presence of militants of the JEM, the JUD and the HUJI is still a matter of conjecture. All these organisations are members of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF) formed in 1998. ” The LEJ refers to the Sunni extremists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Even if Ghazi cannot be characterized as an Al Qaeda-linked cleric, Pakistan serves as a major recruiting ground for Islamic terrorist groups, nearly all of whom are ideologically united with Osama bin Laden. Even the pro-communist globalist outfit Council on Foreign Relations admits as much in a 2005 report:

Does Pakistan’s government support terrorism? It has, and experts say that Pakistan’s military and Interservices Intelligence (ISI) both include personnel who sympathize with—or even assist—Islamist militants. ISI has provided covert but well-documented support to terrorist groups active in Kashmir, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed, which investigators linked to the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament and the February 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

>USSR2/Latin America Files: Chavez to purchase Russian transport aircraft, praises progress of his new ruling party; Putin to visit Caracas

>Even during communism’s “forfeited decade” of the 1990s, to quote former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, Cuba remained an outpost of the Communist Bloc 90 miles south of Florida and an extension of the Soviet Union. This arrangement has not changed but, as we documented in our Red World profile of Cuba, only been revitalized since Comrade Czar Vladimir Putin assumed the presidency of Russia. Now Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez has transformed Venezuela into another extension of the USSR2. In April one of the powers behind the throne in Russia, Communist Party of the Russian Federation leader Gennady Zyuganov traveled to Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela to confer with his red brethren. The other power behind the throne, Oleg Shenin, August 1991 coup plotter and chair of the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, has praised the communization of both Venezuela and Bolivia.

In June President Chavez made yet another trip to Moscow, the second in less than a year, to meet both President Putin and Zyuganov. As a result of his encounter with the Venezuelan dictator, Chairman Zyuganov refered to Chavez as “comrade” and a “reliable ally.” Putin, who serves as a frontman for the CPSU, is now scheduled to visit Venezuela at the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008 to further consolidate the Moscow-Caracas strategic alliance.

Not content to purchase Russian fighter jets, military helicopters, diesel submarines, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, and the rights to establish a plant that will assemble more of the same rifles, Tyrant-in-Training Chavez intends to obtain transport aircraft from Moscow. The latter purchase is troubling since one of the main functions of transport aircraft is, obviously, to transport troops and military hardware to other countries. While we cannot imagine the Venezuelan Armed Forces taking on its US counterpart, we have speculated before that the Chavezista regime might be offering logistical and/or material support to the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, with which it is semi-clandestinely allied. In February 2006 FARC spokesentity Raúl Reyes declared that his guerrilla force is unwaringly devoted to Chavez: “If the US war hawks used Colombia as a platform to invade the friendly Venezuelan people, the FARC would voice their strongest rejection and offer their unconditional support to the Bolivarian process.”

The first article below, published by Venezuela state media, reports that 100 Venezuelans are currently undertaking military training in Russia.

Venezuela to continue strengthening military agreements with Russia
ABN 04/07/2007
Caracas, Distrito Capital

Caracas, July 4th (ABN).- The President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez, said Thursday that the country will continue reinforcing the military-technical signed agreements with Russia. He pointed out that during his recent visit in Russia, both governments reviewed the agreements signed in the technical cooperation sector. The Head of State said that around 100 Venezuelan young people are in Russia taking training military courses.

«There in Russia, I found the first pilot woman of helicopter of our Army. She is taking the course for the biggest helicopter of the world,» the President said. Furthermore, he expressed the Venezuela’s intention of purchasing transport planes to Russia. «We said Putin that we have old airplanes, the Hercules aircrafts, which we keep with an extraordinary effort due to they deny us the parts, which have American technology.»

Concerning this matter, President Chávez denounced that the United States has retained the Hercules aircrafts’ motors, which violates the contracts and agreements. «They do not send us the motors, the parts. It also happens with the F-16 parts.»

He also pointed out that Moscow and Caracas working on the military issue with transport airplanes, «much better than the Hercules aircrafts. We also are evaluating submarines, new helicopters and other military equipments.» «But there’s no need to worry, we will not to attack other country; the equipments are for defend our country,» Chávez stressed.

He said that among the agreements signed between both nations are the creation of an economic workshop in Moscow, on July; the visit of a Venezuelan delegation and businessmen to Russia, on August; the visit of a Russian delegation in Caracas, on October, and the possible visit of President Vladimir Putin to the country at end of the year or early 2008.

President Chávez also underlined the creation of a bi-national bank, Russia-Venezuela energy deals in petrochemistry, gas and oil.

Source: Bolivarian News Agency

In addition to transforming Venezuela into a client state for Russian armaments, Putin has urged Chavez to join the Kremlin in forming a bank that will finance bi-national projects:

Venezuela and Russia will work to set up a bank for bi-national projects
ABN 03/07/2007

Caracas, July 3 (ABN).- The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Russian Federation will work together to set up a bank in order to finance bi-national projects. The statements were made by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, during a simultaneous speech in radio and television offered from the Ayacucho Hall of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, where he made a balance about his recent tour to Russia, Iran, and Belarus. Chávez announced that the bank was a proposal made by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Chávez added that, this month, a Venezuelan delegation will travel to the Russian Federation in order to exchange experiences and deepen in the subject about the creation of the institution mentioned above, oriented to finance public and private projects. He underscored that this commission will have among its duties to advance in issues like the establishment of mixed companies in diverse areas, starting with gas and oil. The referred commission will be led by the Vice-presidency.

In addition, President Chávez invited national businessmen to be part of a delegation aimed, among other objectives, to detect areas of common interests and elaborate projects according to it. «We want to put our products in the foreign countries, petrochemichals, metalurgicals, etc, because our economy has a low exporting level», Chávez said.

He started his speech making an analysis about the international context in which the tour was made including the visit to the Russian Federation, where he held meetings with Putin, representatives from the Legislative power, and businessmen, among others. Chávez also commented that the President of the Russian Federation is well informed not only about Venezuela reality but Latin America.

«I could not forgive me, I told him, when my time to leave comes, to leave Venezuela depending only on oil incomes. It is too risky to depend only on it, because there are elements that could destabilize the economy as it has already happened», President Chávez explained.

Furthermore, he urged all Venezuelan people to incorporate in the construction of a country economy, under an own socialism model and not the capitalism that «makes unfeasible our national project and slave us».

Source: Bolivarian News Agency

The new ruling party of Venezuela, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), received Comrade Zyuganov’s endorsement during President Chavez’s Moscow meeting with the CPRF leader in June. The pro-Chavez Venezuelanalysis.com reports that nearly six million people have registered to join the PSUV. Twenty thousand “socialist battalions” comprised of 300 party members each will be established throughout the country. Indoctrination classes will be mandatory for party members. “The battalions and candidates will discuss important topics for the process of the foundation of the party such as its structural basis and concepts like democracy, socialism, sovereignty, and anti-imperialism,” Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Rodriguez affirmed. President Chavez has clearly adopted the Marxist-Leninist model for the PSUV, in which the ruling party occupies the role of sole revolutionary vanguard. “The party must be eternal, the most powerful revolutionary motor,” the neo-communist dictator insisted in a recent party conclave. He then admitted that the success of Venezuela’s socialist revolution is intimately tied to his own person: “If I die this revolution will be carried away in the wind because we don’t have a party, a big political machine, a big political direction.”

United Socialist Party of Venezuela Enters New Phase
Monday, Jun 25, 2007
By: Chris Carlson – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, June 25, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— The formation of the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) entered its second phase this past weekend as officials and party militants met for the National Meeting of Candidates for PSUV Militants in Caracas. Record numbers of Venezuelans have registered to be members of the new party and the grassroots process continues with wide participation in the formation of what will soon be the unified party of the Bolivarian Revolution.

In a process that began last April, the formation of the new united party has entered a new phase after having registered 5.7 million people in just over one-month’s time. Vice-president Jorge Rodriguez explained that the second phase will be characterized by the formation of more than twenty thousand assemblies across the country to debate and discuss the political program of the new party. Party members will then elect representatives across the country over the next few months to form the party’s founding congress.

“Another battle is upon us and I have no doubt that we will come out victorious. I’m referring to the formation across national territory of more than 20,000 socialist battalions, made up of 300 (party) candidates each,” said Rodriguez, explaining that the new phase has the purpose of “advancing the formation process and calling for the founding congress.”

It will be the task of more than 25,000 party “promoters” to organize and hold the assemblies in communities across the country. But first the party’s technical committee must swear in 9,000 more promoters in addition to the 16,000 existing promoters already sworn in by President Hugo Chavez himself. The promoters will receive courses starting next weekend about the methodology of the assemblies and will have the responsibility of locating the place to hold the assembly and informing the party members in the community.

According to plans, the socialist battalions will start to meet in community assemblies beginning on Saturday, July 21st, when President Chavez himself will attend his neighborhood assembly in central Caracas. Each battalion will hold a total of three community assemblies before electing a battalion spokesperson to participate in the elections for the founding congress that is expected to be convened in August and last for three months.

The Vice-president also explained that those registered to be members of the party must study and debate the topics related to the creation of the new party during the battalion assemblies.

“The battalions and candidates will discuss important topics for the process of the foundation of the party such as its structural basis and concepts like democracy, socialism, sovereignty, and anti-imperialism,” he said.

And according to Rodriguez, the battalion assemblies should continue to work after the founding of the party as the new centers of debate for the millions of pro-Chavez party militants. These new community assemblies could possibly be converted into the new nuclei of political discussion inside the revolution after the formation of the PSUV is complete.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also spoke at the event in Caracas stressing the importance of the formation of the united party. In front of some 15,000 party militants, Chavez explained that one important reason for the united party was to consolidate the revolution and not rely on the leadership of only one man but rather make a party that can last forever.

“Human beings are transitory,” he said. “The party must be eternal, the most powerful revolutionary motor.”

Chavez recalled his recent visit to Havana and that Castro had explained why he (Castro) can die and the Cuban Revolution will continue. On the other hand, Castro apparently said that without Chavez the Venezuelan “revolution would be carried away in the wind.”

“I realize that unfortunately he is right,” said Chavez on Saturday. “If I die this revolution will be carried away in the wind because we don’t have a party, a big political machine, a big political direction,” he said.

Announcing the official registration numbers of the new party, Chavez celebrated the success of the party formation thus far. Due to the high participation in the party replacing 24 smaller pro-Chavez parties, the president assured it would be “the biggest party not only in Venezuelan history, but in all of Latin America.”

“It will be a party of organized masses, of organized fronts, of mass movements, of big groups and of different political blocks,” he said.

PSUV Registration Numbers

Participation in the formation process has been remarkably high. Of the 7.3 million people who voted for Hugo Chavez in last December’s presidential elections, 5.7 million, nearly 80%, have already registered in the new party. Of the 5.7 million, 2.88 are men and 2.78 million are women, according to the numbers announced by Chavez.

The numbers also indicate that nearly one-third of those registered are younger than 30 years old, around 100,000 are only 18 years old, and more than 42,000 of the new members are over 80 years old. Chavez also is going to allow the entry of thousands of youth under the age of 18 after receiving a letter signed by thousands of teenagers asking for the right to join the new party.

Also among the millions of newly-registered are 285,000 housewives, 1.4 million laborers, and 745,000 professionals.

The states with the highest percentage of registered members are Apure, Cojedes, and Delta Amacuro where the number of registered members actually reached more than half of the total electorate. In Apure more people registered for the PSUV party than actually voted for President Chavez in the December elections. And in Cojedes the same amount as voted for Chavez in December also registered in the party.

Some of the lowest turnouts were in the states of Monagas, Nueva Esparta (Margarita), and Sucre where 78%, 64%, and 59% of those who voted for Chavez in December’s elections have registered in the PSUV party.

Source: Venezuelanalysis.com

By entering a strategic alliance with Caracas, replete with military and economic perks, Moscow is clearly resolved to assist Comrade Hugo in the communization of Venezuela.

>Asia File: Islamists prepare coup in Pakistan, ex-PM calls for Musharraf’s ouster, Al Qaeda-linked mosque besieged, president’s aircraft under fire

>You must all get training for jihad because it is binding on every Muslim, just like prayers and fasting.
– Inayat-ur Rehman, mujahedin commander, statement made to tribesmen near Khar, Pakistan, July 9, 2007

Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America.
– US President George W. Bush, statement made to reporters during meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in The Oval Office, Washington, DC; November 13, 2002

Militant Islam, President Bush’s so-called religion of peace, is on the move throughout Asia and Africa. The two quotes above demonstrate that the Bush Administration’s assessment of the threat of Islam is either delusional or dishonest. I suspect the latter.

In January 2007 the Islamic Courts Union, which seized power in Mogadishu seven months before, was routed by the neo-communist Transitional Federal Government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, with the moral support of the African Union and the military support of Ethiopia and the USA.

Unlike anarchic Somalia, Pakistan is an “Islamic republic” in name only. However, the prospect of an Islamist coup against the nuke-tipped military regime in Islamabad is truly frightening. While terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda possess flexibility and invisibility, a state actor under the control of Al Qaeda would possess far more firepower.

In an effort to preempt his radical Islamist opponents, who insist upon imposing a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign upon Pakistan, on July 2 President General Pervez Musharraf ordered the siege of the Red Mosque, which orchestrated the kidnapping of six Chinese prostitutes. The mosque is currently being defended by Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami and sympathetic students. Founded in 1980 to resist the Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan, this Al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization is allegedly responsible for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Daniel’s captors used his Jewishness as a rationale for his beheading. Pakistan’s prophets of the “Global Caliphate” are now using the latest government action as a pretext to push for Musharraf’s ouster.

Pictured above: Pakistani soldiers impose a curfew near the Red Mosque in Islamabad, July 8. On the same day, the sixth of the mosque siege, a senior Pakistani army commando was shot dead by the Al Qaeda-linked militants.

Cleric: 70 Killed at Pakistan Mosque
Jul 7 06:00 AM US/Eastern
By ZARAR KHAN
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) The top cleric at a besieged mosque in Pakistan’s capital accused security forces on Saturday of killing more than 70 of his students but said he and his supporters preferred martyrdom to capture.

Explosions and intense gunfire continued into Saturday as thousands of troops ringing Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, attempted to end a five-day standoff but held back from an all-out assault.

Although the government says only 19 people have died since Tuesday, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque’s defiant cleric, told the local Geo TV channel that more than 70 of his students had been slain by government gunfire.”

There are 70 to 80 bodies of our students,” he said, a claim that could not be independently verified.

The siege has added to the woes of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who faces a gathering storm of domestic Islamic extremism as well as a popular backlash from his bungled attempt at firing the country’s chief justice.

Authorities on Saturday were investigating what may have been the fourth attempt on his life.

Shots rang out as Musharraf took off from a military base near the capital Friday morning, apparently fired from a neighborhood directly under the flight path, officials and witnesses said.

There have already been three attempts to assassinate Musharraf since his decision to side with the United States in its war on terror.

It was not clear whether the incident was linked to the siege, but radical Islamic groups have staged daily street protests throughout the standoff.

Troops surrounded the mosque and an adjoining women’s seminary on Tuesday after deadly clashes between government security forces and Islamic students who have sought to impose Taliban-style rule in the city.

Militant students had streamed out of the mosque to confront security forces deployed there following the kidnapping of six alleged Chinese prostitutes. The brief abduction, which drew a protest from Beijing, was the latest of provocations by the mosque stretching back six months.

While more than 1,200 people, mainly students from the mosque’s two Islamic schools, have fled the complex, officials say up to 100 armed militants and an unknown number of students remain inside.

Ghazi, who has sought safe passage for himself and his followers, reiterated Saturday that he would not surrender.

“We are ready to lay down arms, but we should not be arrested,” he said, adding, “We are ready to be martyred.”

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao rejected those terms, insisting that Ghazi would have to face the courts.

Security officials deployed near the mosque said they were continuing to demolish sections of the mosque’s perimeter. A dozen loud explosions rocked the area Saturday, and gunfire rang out as a delegation of clerics headed towards the mosque in hopes of persuading Ghazi to surrender.

Syed Bilal, one of the delegates, told reporters that Ghazi was ready to meet with them but that security officials had stopped them from going inside because of the intense gunfire.

After Bilal insisted on going inside the mosque, police pushed him into a car and sped away, said Samia Qazi, a lawmaker at the scene. She condemned the police action, saying the government was trying to avoid giving clerics a role in ending the siege.

Several female lawmakers from extremist parties rallied near the Parliament building Saturday, urging the government to hold talks with Ghazi to peacefully resolve the standoff. They also asked that women and children be allowed to leave the mosque.

Before dawn, police seized control of one of Ghazi’s seminaries in another area of Islamabad.

Source: Breitbart

Following at least three failed assassination plots against President Musharraf–whose support for the War on Terror is only nominal since Pakistan is closely allied with China, which protested the abduction of its sex trade workers in Islamabad–Islamic militants again attempted to eliminate the despised general.

Musharraf’s Plane Fired Upon as Mosque Standoff Continues
By SALMAN MASOOD and CARLOTTA GALL
July 7, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 6 — A burst of gunfire went off as President Pervez Musharraf’s plane took off Friday morning from an airfield in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, near the capital, as the government’s siege of a militant mosque entered its fourth day.

Security officials said they recovered two antiaircraft guns and one submachine gun with a telescopic sight from the rooftop of a house barely a mile from the airport where the shooting had apparently taken place. It was not immediately clear if there was a link between the shooting and the siege at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, complex in the heart of the capital, where the leader of the rebellion vowed to fight to the death. But the gunfire was a reminder of the presence of militants across many districts, as were two roadside bombs that exploded in northwestern Pakistan, one of them killing four soldiers and critically wounding a fifth.

Pakistani officials denied that the president’s plane had come under fire or that a rocket had been fired. “At the moment there does not appear to be any linkage between the incident and the president’s flight to Turbat,” General Musharraf’s destination in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, a government statement said. The president arrived safely to inspect relief efforts for thousands of people affected by catastrophic floods across that region.

Residents living near where the shooting occurred said they heard a loud bang around 10 a.m. Soon after the gunfire, which lasted less than three minutes, two men chanting “God is great” pulled away on a motorbike, said Muhammad Ali, 19, a student who lived nearby.

Pakistani military officers, along with intelligence officials, cordoned off the house, which is located on a dead-end street, and three military sniffing dogs were brought in. Syed Kamal Shah, the interior secretary, said the antiaircraft guns had not been fired and the matter was under investigation.

The siege of the mosque, where several hundred students and militants remain holed up, seemed to be entering a more tense period after the government rejected the conditions for surrender offered Thursday evening by the leading cleric, Abdur Rashid Ghazi. “We will not surrender,” Mr. Ghazi told GEO television, an independent channel. “We will be martyred, but we will not surrender. We are more determined now.”

The mood inside the mosque has grown more dangerous, said Tariq Azim Khan, minister of state for information and broadcasting. People inside appeared more determined and were using heavier weapons, he said.

Mr. Khan said the government had learned from one of the students who surrendered that land mines had been laid inside the complex. Although it was not clear if the information was true, it made things more dangerous, he said. Militants also fired a rocket from inside the mosque complex at an armored personnel carrier. It damaged the vehicle, and one soldier received minor injuries, Mr. Khan said.

Ten parents tried to go to the complex to get their children, as many have in previous days, but were fired upon by the militants, officials said. One father was shot in his leg. Two students who were among a group who tried to escape from the mosque were shot and killed in cross-fire when shooting erupted around them.

Nevertheless, another hundred students have come out of the mosque and surrendered in the past 24 hours, Pakistani officials said. A total of 1,221 students had left by Friday evening.

“Among them, 795 are male students while 426 female students,” Mr. Shah, the interior minister, said at a news briefing in Islamabad, adding that the death toll remained at 19, according to hospital figures. “If there are any bodies inside, we have no information,” he said.

Officials urged the militants to hand over the wounded and sick to the medics while offering to send ambulances.

Muhammad Ali Durrani, the Pakistani information minister, urged Mr. Ghazi, the cleric, to surrender and give up arms. “This problem can be solved in half an hour if he hands over the females and children,” Mr. Durrani said.

Mr. Shah, echoed the remarks. “It is their moral obligation to let children and female students come out rather than using them as human shield,” he said.

Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Source: New York Times

Meanwhile, the Israeli media reports that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom the general removed from power in 1999, is calling for the resignation of Musharraf: “He must quit, otherwise the nation of 160 million people of Pakistan will force him to step down.” The general’s opponents among Pakistan’s tribesmen are also agitating for his removal. RTT News reports that on July 9 20,000 tribesman rallied near Khar, vowing to take revenge against President Musharraf. Protestors armed with Russian-made Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers shouted “We are ready for jihad,” “Death to Musharraf,” “Death to America,” and “Those who are friends of America are traitors.” Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammed addressed the protestors: “We beg Allah to destroy Musharraf and we will seek revenge for the atrocities committed at the Red Mosque. Musharraf should immediately end his atrocity against the mosque.” Mohammed boasts connections with a madrassa, or Islamic religious school, that was bombed by Pakistani forces in October 2006. Eighty people perished in that incident. Another mujahedin commander, Inayat-ur Rehman, instructed the tribesmen: “You must all get training for jihad because it is binding on every Muslim, just like prayers and fasting.”

Clashes between Red Mosque defenders and security forces, as the article below reports, continued yesterday.

Pakistani commando killed by mosque militants
Mazhar Abbas
AFPJuly 8, 2007

ISLAMABAD Islamic militants led by an Al Qaeda-linked group shot dead a senior Pakistani army commando Sunday during fierce clashes with troops on the sixth day of a siege at an Islamabad mosque.

The military said Colonel Haroon Islam died after an operation to blast through part of the wall surrounding the fortified Red Mosque complex, to free some of the women and children allegedly being used as human shields.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said another army officer was injured in the fighting with the Islamists led by firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

“Rashid Ghazi and his militants were responsible for the murder of a senior army officer,” information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said. “The operation will continue and Ghazi has to surrender.”

President Pervez Musharraf has warned the militants to give up or be killed. The military ruler also told the hard-line students late Saturday to immediately free all women and children.

“I request these people to come out and surrender, and I say this, here: that they will be killed if they do not surrender,” Musharraf, wearing his army uniform, told reporters in his first public comments on the confrontation.

Pakistani forces have held back from raiding the now bullet-pocked mosque, but there have been intense clashes around the perimeter, including early Sunday when giant blasts echoed around the city.

Ghazi told local television that 335 people inside the mosque were killed in Sunday’s latest fighting, but Durrani dismissed the claim, saying that only the soldier died, and putting the toll for the entire siege at 20. Concerns for women and children in the mosque grew after security officials said militants from a group linked to Al Qaeda and to the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl were now leading the mosque fighters.

“We believe there are militants from Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, which was involved in the Pearl murder. Based on intelligence, we suspect that two commanders from the group are in there,” one senior official said.

“They have taken control and they are putting up fierce resistance.”

Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami provided shelter for Al Qaeda militants who fled Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. It has been linked to Pearl’s 2002 beheading and a 2003 attempt to assassinate Musharraf.
“There are fears that the militants may start killing women and children inside, and then blame it on the government. They know they have no escape route,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.

Those inside the compound who wished to leave risked being shot by hard-line students if they attempted to climb the wall, which is 2.1 to 2.4 meters (seven to eight feet) high, officials said.

Ghazi said he and his followers had enough rations, arms, and ammunition inside the compound to “fight for another 25 to 30 days, and we will do that, God-willing.”

Ghazi, 43, also signaled his defiance by saying that he was telephoned by a man who claimed to have shot at Musharraf’s aircraft Friday in revenge for the siege.

Security officials said earlier they were probing possible links between the mosque operation and the failed bid to shoot down the president’s plane as it took off from Chaklala military airbase at Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

Students affiliated to the mosque have irked the government since January with a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign, which has involved the abduction of several people they linked to prostitution, including seven Chinese.

Musharraf’s tough stance has boosted his popularity after months of being embroiled in a crisis over his suspension of Pakistan’s chief justice, but he is now under pressure to end the six-day mosque siege.

Source: Middle East Times

>Latin America File: Iran to hold observer status in ALBA, Chavez wraps up trip to Moscow, Minsk and Tehran; Colombia considers dumping US ties

>The Islamo-Marxist nexus is rapidly drawing its tentacles around North America. The Israeli media is reporting that the Islamo-Nazi Republic of Iran is seeking observer status in Latin America’s neo-communist political-military-cultural bloc, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas: “Iran plans to join a Latin American initiative designed to counter US-led efforts for free trade in the region, the official Web site of Iran’s president office reported on Sunday. The report said visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez welcomed Iran’s observer membership in the Cuban-Venezuelan-backed alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas.” This not-so-surprising revelation comes shortly after Venezuelan Tyrant-in-Training and Castro clone Hugo Chavez dutifully trekked to Moscow, Minsk, and Tehran, where he conferred with his ideological buddies, neo-Soviet Tyrant Vladimir Putin, pro-Soviet Hitler-look-alike Alexander Lukashenko, and pro-Soviet Persian Hitler wanna-be Mahmoud (“Iwannajihad”) Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, apparently ignoring the fact that US financial and military support is the only obstacle preventing a major Moscow-backed communist insurgency from consuming his country, the President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe indicated that his government plans to “reconsider” its close ties with Washington if the Democrat-dominated US Congress fails to ratify a bilateral trade agreement with Bogota. “We don’t ask for consideration (from the U.S.) because we’re one of its few allies in the region. We ask for respect because we’re a respectful ally,” Uribe stated in a recent interview. “To say that because of issues over the paramilitaries or the killing of trade union members means that the free trade agreement can’t be approved is an insult.”