>Useful Idiots Bin: Top Soviet/Russian general rubs elbows with Western leftist and faux rightist propagandists, promotes Moscow-Tehran line

>While the USA and Israel prepare to “smack” nuclear-tipped Iran, the neo-Soviet Union is going to bat for its chief client state by portraying Washington as aggressor. State-run Novosti quoted an anonymous “high-ranking security source,” who asserted: “The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran. The Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched. The Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost.” Novosti also quotes Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, who recently affirmed that “the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran’s military infrastructure in the near future.” General Ivashov was previously Chief of the Department of General Affairs in the Soviet Ministry of Defense, Secretary of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Chief of the Military Cooperation Department in the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Defense, and Joint Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Ivashov’s pro-Iranian writings have also appeared at the Canadian anti-globalization outfit, the Centre for Research on Globalization. There the general insists that “the US will use nuclear weapon against Iran. This will be the second case of the use of nuclear weapons in combat after the 1945 US attack on Japan.”

Ivashov (left) is pictured above with Webster Tarpley, Western leftist conspiracymonger and Lyndon LaRouche operative, at the 2005 “anti-imperialist” Axis for Peace Conference in Brussels. The Axis for Peace is an initiative of the Voltaire Network, a Paris-based non-profit organization that promotes “freedom of speech.” It operates under the leadership of Thierry Meyssan, a left-wing French journalist who published 9/11: The Big Lie, which asserts that the “US military industrial complex” orchestrated by September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC. Other Axis for Peace speakers include Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the wife of Lyndon. The Axis for Peace panel contains a veritable “who’s who” of the International Left and Faux Right, including Tarpley and assorted USA bashers from Syria and other Middle Eastern states, and Eastern Europe. Some specific personalities include: 1) Aram Aharonian, CEO of teleSUR, President Hugo Chavez’s pan-Latin American television platform, 2) Jaime Ballesteros, Spanish communist and president of the Havana-based Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and 3) Jesuit priest, Castro chum, Tricontinental Centre founder, and World Social Forum instigator Francois Houtart. Incidentally, in the picture above, behind Ivashov, take note of the poster for teleSUR.

The Axis for Peace disseminates pure Soviet propaganda by ascribing the world’s misfortunes to the neo-conservatives occuping the White House: “A military coalition has launched itself into an unbridled exploitation of the world’s resources and energy reserves. Fuelled by neo-conservatives, it has increased its attacks, practicing all forms of interference, from forcing changes in regimes to colonial-style expansionism. This coalition continually violates the principles of international law as they were established by the conference of the Hague and laid out in the San Francisco Charter.” After commending the United Nations as humanity’s “last, best hope,” the Axis of Peace commends Russia for acting as world “peacemaker”: “We salute the mediation of Russia who stands by the application of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and the presumption of innocence in international relations. We call upon the UN General Assembly to support Russia’s efforts in favor of the re-establishment of a multilateral dialogue; to support its strong stance against financing terrorism, double standards in international politics and the interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.”

In June 2006 Tarpley appeared at the 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Symposium in Los Angeles, organized by faux rightist conspiracymonger Alex Jones. The nexus between a top Soviet/Russian general and Western anti-USA propagandists provides eloquent testimony to the reality of Soviet manipulation of the Western Left and Faux Right. The fact that Jones, in particular, is only several “elbows” away from Ivashov should prompt all real patriots to consider the fact that “New World Order” doctrine, which adopts a critical analysis of capitalism, is little more than rehashed Marxism. In view of Ivashov’s participation in the Axis for Peace, moreover, we have included this body under the “Soviet Organs” category in this blogsite’s right column.

In addition to teleSUR, the Kremlin’s new European-wide television platform Russia Today, Al Qaeda’s unofficial mouthpiece Al Jazeera, Iran’s IRIB News Network, and the American Free Press–a neo-fascist Liberty Lobby spin-off–covered the Axis for Peace’s 2005 anti-USA rant-in. The Axis for Peace website features links to all of these news (disinformation) agencies. In the picture here Ivashov is pictured with American Free Press journalist Christopher Bollyn, who has appeared on the radio program of globe-trotting pro-Putin white supremacist David Duke and covered conferences of the so-called 9/11 Truth Movement. Bollyn is accused of Holocaust denial. He was also a member of the Axis for Peace panel. O, what a tangled web America’s enemies weave!

>Middle East File: UK Defence Ministry: Iranians seized navy crew in Iraqi waters; Vice-Admiral: sailors "ambushed"; London ends relations with Tehran

>The sailors were ambushed and their detention is unjustified and wrong.
— UK Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Charles Style, March 28, 2007

Fearing a preemptive US-Israeli attack on their Soviet-supplied “peaceful” nuclear capabilities, the genocidal Islamic megalomaniacs in Tehran have apparently assessed the political-military ramifications of the current US war games in the Persian Gulf and decided to pick up a few bargaining chips. The Associated Press reported yesterday: “While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday’s seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the navy’s military might was intended as a warning.”

Government-sponsored kidnapping appears to be SOP in the Middle East, where deceased dictator Saddam Hussein employed this trick of kidnapping foreign hostages during the First Gulf War (1990-1991). Like typical totalitarians, too, the Iranian government paraded their captives on state television, where the British navy crew was forced to mouth official propaganda. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency maintains that the Britons were in Iranian waters: “We have determined from the GPS surveys that the British marines had entered Iranian territory and we have offered the British officials with feed-back to that effect. A number of UK marines confirmed that they were in Iran’s territorial waters when they were arrested by Iranian coast guards, and expressed regret at the incident.”

Conversely, if one was inclined to be slightly anti-Western in one’s ideology, then one might speculate that the USA, using its British ally, is trying to provoke Iran into playing the “baddie.” Even if both scenarios painted here contain elements of truth, the neo-Hitlerian regime of President Mahmoud “Iwannajihad” Ahmadinejad is begging to be “whacked.”

Pictured above: Iranian TV shows footage of the seizure of the Britons in Iraqi waters.

Iran TV shows seized UK navy crew
Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 March 2007, 18:45 GMT 19:45 UK

Iranian state television has broadcast an interview with captured British female sailor Faye Turney and footage of the 14 servicemen seized with her.

Leading Seaman Turney, 26, said they had been seized in the Gulf because “obviously we trespassed” in Iranian waters – something the UK disputes.

She said her captors had been friendly and the 15 personnel were unharmed.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in a statement she was “very concerned” about the pictures.

‘Hospitable’

Earlier Iran said it would release Leading Seaman Turney “very soon”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said she would be released on Wednesday or Thursday.

The circumstances of the filming are unknown.

The footage showed the eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines, who were seized at gunpoint by Iranian Revolutionary Guards last Friday, in their uniforms sitting and eating a meal out of white trays.

There was separate footage of Leading Seaman Turney – wearing a black headscarf – smoking and speaking.
She said: “I was arrested on Friday March 23. Obviously we trespassed into their waters.

“They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, good people.

“They explained to us why we had been arrested. There was no aggression, no hurt, no harm. They were very, very compassionate.”

‘Unacceptable’

The video showed a letter, said to have been written by Leading Seaman Turney to her parents, in which she admitted that the navy personnel had “apparently” crossed into Iranian waters.

“I wish we hadn’t because then I would be home with you right now,” the letter said.

Mrs Beckett said she was concerned about “any indication of pressure on or coercion of our personnel” who she said were on a routine operation in accordance with international law.

She added: “I am particularly disappointed that a private letter has been used in a way which can only add to the distress of the families.”

Defence Secretary Des Browne said it was “completely unacceptable to parade our people in this way”.

‘Pressure’

Earlier on Wednesday the UK said it was suspending bilateral contacts with Iran amid the dispute over the personnel.

They were taken after searching a merchant vessel in the northern Gulf.

Iran has insisted the group, based on HMS Cornwall, which has its home port in Plymouth, were in its waters when they were taken.

Earlier Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was time for the UK to “ratchet up” pressure on Iran.

The Ministry of Defence issued data it said proved the navy group had been 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were seized.

Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Charles Style, gave detailed co-ordinates which he said proved that.

‘Ambush’

The co-ordinates were 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north, 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east.

The MoD also released a photograph of a handheld global positioning satellite device in HMS Cornwall’s Lynx helicopter as it flew over the searched merchant vessel.

Vice Admiral Style said the sailors had been “ambushed” and their detention was “unjustified and wrong”.

The UK government said the Iranians had initially said the merchant vessel had been at a point within Iraqi waters, before later providing a second, alternative position, within Iranian waters.

Iran’s embassy in London issued a statement in response to the UK data, in which it said the sailors and marines had been 0.5 km inside Iranian waters at the time they were seized.

The statement, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said “the governments of Iran and Britain have the ability to solve the incident through contacts and close co-operation”.

Source: BBC News Online

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Hu heads to Moscow in advance of Peace Mission 2007 war game; Kremlin holds aviation drill, "cracks down" on leftists

>Chinese President/Tyrant Hu Jintao’s visit to Russia in advance of the second Sino-Soviet war game, Peace Mission 2007, indicates that the Moscow-Beijing Axis is continuing its preparations for war against the West. This military game will be held on Russian territory and combine the armed forces of two communist blocs, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Moscow-Beijing Axis represents the “one clenched fist” mentioned by KGB defector in New Lies for Old, his 1984 warning to the West of communist strategic deception. The first article below notes: “Ties have improved steadily since China and Russia set aside decades of Cold War rivalry after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, growing closer amid a shared concern over US power around the world.”

Pictured here are the Neo-Soviet and Chinese Presidents/Tyrants at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Hanoi, in November 2006. At that time Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) Chairman Gennady Zyuganov secretly accompanied Putin in order to confer with Vietnam’s communist officials. This was reported nowhere in the Russian or Western media, except at the CPRF website.

Hu heads to Russia for closer diplomatic, trade ties
by Dan Martin
Sat Mar 24, 3:30 AM ET

Chinese President Hu Jintao heads to Russia on Monday for talks on growing energy, trade and diplomatic ties between the two countries that are posing a growing counterweight to US power in the world.

Hu’s three-day visit will include talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Iran nuclear issue and is expected to result in the signing of trade and investment deals worth at least two billion dollars, according to Chinese officials.

Russia and China, which both have energy interests in Iran, have sought to blunt US pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programmes.

Their closer cooperation comes as the United States is increasingly short of friends in the world, oil-rich Russia feels threatened by the West, and China seeks additional suppliers for its growing energy needs, analysts said.

“There’s a triangular relationship among China, Russia and the United States. If any two countries improve ties, it will have an influence on the third party,” said Shi Yajun, a professor of Russian Studies at Shanghai’s East China Normal University.

“So, as China-Russia ties get closer, the more concern US leaders will have.”

Ties have improved steadily since China and Russia set aside decades of Cold War rivalry after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, growing closer amid a shared concern over US power around the world.

In February, Moscow and Beijing signed a joint statement calling for a “democratisation of international relations” to build a multi-polar world.

“This is a very significant visit, for both political and economic relations between the two countries,” said Sergei Sanakoyev, head of Moscow’s Russian-Chinese Centre for Trade and Economic Cooperation, a lobby group.

Relations have received a further push from increasing trade, which reached a record 33.4 billion dollars in 2006, up nearly 15 percent from 2005, according to Chinese figures.

“As our relations and strategic interaction forges ahead, I am sure that the objectives we set with President Putin — to bring trade to 60-80 billion dollars by 2010 — will be met,” said Hu, who is making his third trip to Russia as president, in an interview with Russian media last week.

Russia’s energy resources and China’s insatiable hunger for fuel will lead the way in trade growth, experts believe.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui told a briefing last week that Hu and Putin would discuss long-delayed plans for a Siberian oil pipeline.

Russia in 2003 opted against plans for a single pipeline straight to China, choosing instead to skirt its neighbour with a line to Russia’s Pacific coast.

Since then, the talk has been of building a branch off that main route to China’s oil capital Daqing.

The prospect of closer Sino-Russian energy ties has caused some supply concerns in the West, but Li sought to ease those fears, while offering no specifics on next week’s talks.

“Energy cooperation between China and Russia… will not undermine the interests of other countries or impact (on) the world energy landscape,” he said.

Experts doubt the two countries, which once bitterly vied for domination of the communist world, will ever walk completely in step, but the current improvement in relations is expected to continue blossoming.

“Relations are the best they’ve ever been and this visit will make them even better,” Professor Shi said.

Source: Yahoo.com

Meanwhile, state-run Novosti reports that the Russian Air Force is conducting its own tactical exercises, openly acknowledging that Russia’s military command is “anxious” about the USA’s proposed deployment of a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as possibly the Caucasus. Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, Commander of Russia’s Strategic Air Force, has publicly stated that his forces are capable of applying electronic counter-measures to or “physically destroying” US missile shield components in Central Europe should Washington be so bold as to deploy its military assets there.

Russia’s strategic aviation conducts tactical exercises
MOSCOW, March 19, 2007 (RIA Novosti)

Russian strategic aviation has successfully completed five-day tactical exercises practicing interoperability with air force and air defense units, the Air Force commander said Monday.

“During the five-day exercises the crews of the strategic aviation have practiced interoperability with units of three air force and air defense commands,” Army General Vladimir Mikhailov said.

Bomber and fighter crews rehearsed penetration of air defenses, specifics of flights in the extreme North and in-flight refueling, the general said.

Russia, which has been anxious about NATO bases that have appeared in former Communist-bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, has also blasted the U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile systems in central Europe as a national security threat and a destabilizing factor for the region.

Commander of the 37th Air Army Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, who supervised the exercises, said on March 5 that Russia’s strategic aviation has sufficient potential to suppress elements of a U.S. missile defense shield should it be deployed in central Europe.

“Missile shield elements, which are located in silos, are very vulnerable and have weak defenses,” Khvorov said. “Therefore, all aircraft deployed by [Russian] strategic aviation can either apply electronic counter-measures against them or physically destroy them.”

Source: Novosti

Meanwhile, too, the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist regime, a contrivance of the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, plays the role of “Washington-Zionist-backed fascist-bourgeois oppressor” of Russia. Although Russian authorities have effectively banned the street-fighting National Bolsheviks, state prosecutors, the Moscow News reports, have requested that the Moscow City Court outlaw the party altogether. In a related development the Moscow News also reports that the Russian Federation Supreme Court has liquidated one of the country’s oldest “post”-communist parties, the Republicans. The same news source observes that the Republican Party (like all other “post”-communist parties) consisted of former members of the old CPSU: “The Republican Party, formed by pro-democracy defectors from the Soviet Communist Party, emerged in 1990 on the wave of liberalism encouraged by then-Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev.”

Authorities break up opposition rally in Russian city, detain hundreds of activists: organizers
The Associated Press
Published: March 24, 2007

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia: Russian authorities on Saturday broke up an opposition rally in a central Russian city, detaining hundreds of activists, organizers said.

It was the second major anti-government protest by liberal and leftist forces in recent months to be broken up by police.

Authorities had not given permission for the rally — dubbed the March of Those Who Disagree — in a central square in Nizhny Novgorod, instead allowing a gathering far from the city center and deploying hundreds of riot police in full gear to cordon off the square.

Organizer Natalya Morar said several hundred protesters nevertheless managed to hold a short rally in the vicinity of the square until police dragged them into detention buses and took them to police stations. Morar said several dozen journalists, including foreign reporters, were among those detained.

She also said hundreds of activists had been pulled off trains and buses and detained on their way to the rally, including Marina Litvinovich, an aide to liberal opposition figure Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion turned fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin. Morar said two other organizers also detained ahead of the rally are being held in custody on suspicion of terrorist activity.

Source: International Herald Tribune

CPSU Chairman Shenin, who is related through marriage to one of Comrade Czar Putin’s ministers, has the answer to Russia’s woes: “Vote Communist in the 2007 State Duma election and 2008 presidential election.” Perhaps the power behind the throne in Russia really means to say: “Vote Communist or else!”

>Latin America File: Chavez’s Ecuadorean "mini me" stages coup, pro-Correa tribunal fires lawmakers, installs alternates; Cuba supports Correa

>The two parties that supported President Rafael Correa during his November 2006 election bid, the Country Alliance Party and the Socialist Party-Broad Front, won no seats in Ecuador’s National Congress, which was elected in October. Nevertheless, Hugo Chavez’s “mini me” is pushing hard to form a “constituent assembly” that will minimize or eliminate the influence of Ecuador’s center and right parties. Pictured here are “The Three Amigos,” Comrades Hugo, Rafael, and Evo (otherwise known as the Presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia) at Dr. Correa’s inauguration on January 15, 2007.

Predictably, Granma, the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, attributed President Correa’s woes to right-wing forces in Ecuador: “The most recent maneuvers by members of the right-wing opposition and former Ecuadorian congress members are aimed at spreading rumors to cause a financial panic and blame it on the government.” Elsewhere, in the same article, the mouthpiece of Cuban Tyrant Fidel Castro warns: “Correa, whose has been in power for 60 days this Thursday, noted that it is simply about mafias with economic and political power, who refuse to die and are trying to destabilize his executive, while confirming that the economy is in excellent health.”

Ecuador’s political crisis deepens
By Gonzalo Solano
The Associated PressMarch 22, 2007

QUITO – Ecuador’s constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to replace some of the legislators fired by the country’s highest electoral court.

The 21 alternate lawmakers were shuttled to the congressional building before dawn Tuesday as hundreds of national police stood watch, allowing the 100-seat legislature to begin a session with a quorum for the first time in two weeks.

The crisis deepened in early March when a majority of congressmen voted to oust the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for approving President Rafael Correa’s version of an April 15 referendum plan on the need for a new constitution. The tribunal responded by dismissing 57 lawmakers, accusing them of trying to block the referendum.

Correa, a leftist whose party holds no seats in Congress, is pushing for a new charter to limit the power of traditional political parties, which he blames for the country’s corruption and political instability. Ecuador has had eight presidents in the past decade.

Correa has acknowledged that administration officials met with possible alternate congressmen to encourage them to take up the dismissed legislators’ posts, but it is unclear what effect they will have on Correa’s influence in Congress. The alternate lawmakers belong to the three major opposition parties.

Congress President Jorge Cevallos said the installation of the lawmakers was intended to “overcome the political crisis.” But he criticized the alternates for sneaking into Congress before dawn. “This is not a good start,” Cevallos said. “They should come in through the front door. No one has any reason to hide.”

The fired congressmen condemned the alternates as traitors.

“They have betrayed their political party,” said Alfonso Harb, an ousted Social Christian lawmaker. “We don’t recognize the legitimacy of today’s session.”

Although the 21 alternates allow for a quorum in Congress, many congressional decisions need a two-thirds majority — or 67 votes — to pass. That means if the remaining 36 empty seats are not filled, Congress may not be able to pass important legislation.

Cevallos hopes to have those alternates installed by next week.

Alvaro Noboa, the billionaire banana baron defeated in November’s presidential election runoff, accused Correa of offering the alternate lawmakers money or other favors to get them to take their posts in Congress, which Correa has called “a sewer of corruption.”

Correa’s administration has denied the allegation.

Source: Sun-Sentinel.com

>Red World: Macedonian "ex"-communists rule through Social Democratic Union, republic’s coat of arms retains red star

>Pictured here: “Post”-communist Macedonia’s coat of arms retains communism’s universal symbol, the red star. Macedonia is the only former Yugoslav republic to retain such symbolism.

We have now completed our profiles of Eastern Europe’s neo-/crypto-communist governments. Last year we profiled the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, December 2006; Western Europe, July 2006; Asia, May 2006; and Africa, March 2006. (See archives.) The only regions that we have yet to profile are North and South America (where neo-communism holds much of the continent in its grip), and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands).

Republic of Macedonia
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-September 8, 1991
Previous names of Slovenia: Socialist Republic of Macedonia
Names of Yugoslavia during Macedonia’s membership:
1) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: April 7, 1963-April 28, 1992
2) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia: November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (formerly League of Communists of Macedonia), Socialist Party of Macedonia, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991; Macedonian Conflict: National Liberation Army (ethnic Albanian) versus Macedonian Security Forces, 2001
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia), candidate for European Union
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (formerly League of Communists of Macedonia)
Communist government:
1) Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (crypto-communist, Christian democratic) in coalition with Democratic Party of Albanians, Liberal Party of Macedonia, New Social Democratic Party (founded by former member of “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia), Socialist Party of Macedonia (formerly communist-allied Socialist Alliance of Working People of Macedonia), and Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia: 2006-present
2) Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (formerly League of Communists of Macedonia: 2002-2006
3) Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (crypto-communist, Christian democratic) in coalition with Democratic Party of Albanians: 1998-2002
4) Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (formerly League of Communists of Macedonia: 1992-1998
5) Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (formerly League of Communists of Macedonia) in coalition with Party for Democratic Prosperity, Liberal Party, and People’s Democratic Party: 1990-1992
6) League of Communists of Macedonia (formerly Communist Party of Macedonia), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Macedonia (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
7) Communist Party of Macedonia, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Macedonia annexed by Italian-occupied Albania and German-allied Bulgaria: 1941-1945
Presidents of “post”-communist Macedonia:
1) Branko Crvenkovski (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): May 12, 2004-present
2) Ljupco Jordanovski (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia): February 26-May 12, 2004 (acting)
3) Boris Trajkovski (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity): December 15, 1999-February 26, 2004
4) Savo Klimovski (Democratic Alternative) November 19-December 15, 1999 (acting)
5) Kiro Gligorov (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): November 17, 1995-November 19, 1999
6) Stojan Andov (Liberal Party) October 4-November 17, 1995 (acting)7) Kiro Gligorov (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): January 27, 1991-October 4, 1995
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Macedonia:
1) Nikola Gruevski (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity): July 28, 2006-present
2) Vlado Bučkovski (“ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): December 17, 2004-July 28, 2006
3) Radmila Šekerinska (“ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Open Society Institute): November 18-December 17, 2004 (acting)
4) Hari Kostov (“nonpartisan”): June 2-November 18, 2004
5) Radmila Šekerinska (“ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Open Society Institute): May 12-June 2, 2004 (acting)
6) Branko Crvenkovski (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): November 1, 2002-May 12, 2004
7) Ljubco Georgievski (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity): November 30, 1998-November 1, 2002
8) Branko Crvenkovski (“ex”-League of Communists of Macedonia, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Union of Macedonia): August 17, 1992-November 30, 1998
9) Nikola Kljusev (nonpartisan, Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity): January 27, 1991-August 17, 1992
Parliament of “post”-communist country: Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia
Communist parties of “post”-communist Macedonia:
1) Communist Party of Macedonia: This party was founded in 1992.
2) League of Communists of Macedonia-Freedom Movement: Founded in 1992, this party represents the rump of the old SKM and associates with the League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia (SK-PJ) and the International Communist Seminar.
3) New Communist Party of Macedonia (NCPM): This Stalinist party associates with the Serbian-based New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) which, in turn, associates with the International Communist Seminar. The NKPJ considers China, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba socialist countries. The NKPJ opposes Titoism but intends to restore the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
4) Pan-Macedonian Workers’ Party: No information.
5) Socialist Party of Macedonia: This party was founded in 1990 by the Socialist Alliance of Working People, the mass organization associated with the old League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
6) Workers’ Party: This party was founded in 1990.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Macedonia:
1) Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE, or IMRO): The nationalist IMRO party was founded on June 17, 1990 in Skopje. Although IMRO claims an ideological heritage with the old revolutionary socialist IMRO, there is no apparent connection between the old and new parties. The original organization was founded in 1893 to liberate Macedonians from the Ottoman Empire and form a Greater Macedonia that included ethnic Macedonians in Greece. After the First World War, IMRO became a full-blown terrorist group based in Bulgaria, from which members attacked the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. — Later, some IMRO members joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), which was founded in 1919, and endeavored to establish a Balkan Federation in which Macedonia would be an autonomous member. IMRO conspired with the clerico-fascist Ustaša of Croatia to assassinate King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseilles on October 9, 1934. After communist Yugoslavia closed its border with Greece in July 1949 and terminated its support to the National Popular Liberation Army, IMRO abandoned any goals of obtaining territory for Greater Macedonia in Greece. — In 1924 IMRO explored the possibility of collaborating with the Communist International for the purpose of forming a united Macedonian movement. The Soviet Union endorsed the “May Manifesto” that emerged from these negotiations, viewing such collaboration as a means to spread communist revolution throughout the Balkans. The left wing of IMRO, known as IMRO (United), operated between 1925 and 1936 and was funded by and closely linked to the Comintern and the Balkan Communist Federation. When the Bulgarian Army, which was allied with Nazi Germany, occupied Macedonia in 1941, IMRO members facilitated the occupation by forming Bulgarian Action Committees, which seized power from local authorities. Former IMRO (United) members like Metodi Shatorov, who were now members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, did not view the Bulgarians as occupiers, contrary to the position of the KPJ leadership. As such, these former IMRO (United) members insisted upon the incorporation of Macedonian communist cells into the Bulgarian Communist Party. — Later, as Yugoslavia’s communist partisans drove out the Bulgarian Army, IMRO (United) switched sides and embraced the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia within the new Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Panko Brashnarov, a former IMRO revolutionary, became first speaker of the Antifascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia. Other IMRO members who participated in the new communist government were Dimitar Vlahov and Pavel Shatev. Later, the communist party purged IMRO from the government.
2) Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM): Renamed in 1989 the SDSM is the direct successor of the ruling League of Communists of Macedonia, the Macedonian section of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Macedonia. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists.

>Red World: Montenegro’s "ex"-communist Democratic Party of Socialists dominates politics, once slavishly allied to Socialist Party of Serbia

>Pictured here at an uncertain date and location are multi-termed, “ex”-communist Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović (right) with Russia’s KGB dictator Vladimir Putin (left). Djukanovic visited Moscow in 1999, when he met then Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and 2004, when he met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Djukanovic is not only alleged to be a boss in the Montenegrin mafia, but also to have covert links to the Serbian and Italian mafias. In December 2006 Djukanovic was accused, along with several other Montenegrin politicians and the Serbian mafia, also known as the Zemun Clan, for plotting the assassination of Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constituent Serb Republic. The Zemun Clan, which was allied with deceased Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević, was responsible for the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003.

Republic of Montenegro
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-April 28, 1992
Previous name of Slovenia: Socialist Republic of Montenegro
Names of Yugoslavia during Montenegro’s membership:
1) State Union of Serbia and Montenegro: February 4, 2003-June 5, 2006
2) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro): April 28, 1992-February 4, 2003
3) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: April 7, 1963-April 28, 1992
4) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia: November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (formerly League of Communists of Montenegro), Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991; Yugoslav Wars, 1991-2001
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Montenegro
Communist government:
1) Coalition for European Montenegro, consisting of Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (formerly League of Communists of Montenegro) and Social Democratic Party of Montenegro: 2006-present
2) Democratic List for a European Montenegro, consisting of Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (formerly League of Communists of Montenegro), Social Democratic Party of Montenegro, Civic Party of Montenegro, and nonpartisans): 2001-2006
3) Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (formerly League of Communists of Montenegro) in coalition with Social Democratic Party of Montenegro and People’s Party of Montenegro: 1998-2001
4) Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (formerly League of Communists of Montenegro): 1991-1998
5) League of Communists of Montenegro (formerly Communist Party of Montenegro): 1990-1991
6) League of Communists of Montenegro (formerly Communist Party of Montenegro), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Montenegro (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
7) Communist Party of Montenegro, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Montenegro under German military administration: 1943-1944
2) Kingdom, or Independent State, of Montenegro, Protectorate of Fascist Italy: 1941-1943
Presidents of “post”-communist Montenegro:
1) Filip Vujanović (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): November 25, 2002–May 19, 2003 (acting), May 22, 2003-present
2) Milo Đukanović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): January 15, 1998-November 25, 2002
3) Momir Bulatović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, ally of Slobodan Milošević): December 23, 1990-January 15, 1998
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Montenegro:
1) Milo Đukanović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): February 29, 2008-present
2) Željko Šturanović (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): November 10, 2006-February 29, 2008
3) Milo Đukanović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): January 8, 2003-November 10, 2006
4) Filip Vujanović (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): February 5, 1998-January 8, 2003
5) Milo Đukanović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): February 15, 1991-February 5, 1998
Parliament of “post”-communist country: Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro
Communist parties of “post”-communist Montenegro
1) League of Communists of Yugoslavia-Communists of Montenegro (SKJ-KCG): This party associates with the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia.
2) New Communist Party of Montenegro (NKPCG): This Stalinist party associates with the Serbian-based New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) which, in turn, associates with the International Communist Seminar. The NKPJ considers China, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba socialist countries. The NKPJ opposes Titoism but intends to restore the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
3) People’s Socialist Party of Montenegro (NSS): Founded in 2001 as a split from the Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, this party associates with the Yugoslav Left in Montenegro and the Serbian Radical Party (Montenegrin branch).
4) Socialist Party of Yugoslavia (SPJ): This party associates with JK, New Communist Party of Yugoslava, and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia-Communists of Montenegro.
5) Socialist People’s Movement (SNPO): Founded in 2001, this party operates under the leadership of Zoran Tadic.
6) Workers’ Party of Montenegro: No information.
7) Yugoslav Left in Montenegro (JUL): This pan-Yugoslav party associates with the People’s Socialist Party of Montenegro.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Montenegro:
1) Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS): Renamed in 1991 the DPS is the direct successor of the ruling League of Communists of Montenegro, the Montenegrin section of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. The DPS faithfully supported the union of Montenegro and Serbia within a united Yugoslavia, first as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and then the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The party’s first leader, “ex”-communist Momir Bulatović, slavishly followed the policies of “ex”-communist Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. In 1997 Bulatović defected from the DPS and founded a new party called the Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro. Since then the DPS pursued and successfully attained Montenegrin independence in collaboration with the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro. The latter was founded in 1993 through a merger of the Social Democratic Party of Reformists of Montenegro and the Socialist Party of Montenegro.
2) Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro (SNP): In 1997 “ex”-communist Milo Đukanović, a prominent leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, sought to distance the party from the policies of “ex”-communist Serbian President Slobodan Milošević. As a result, “ex”-communist Momir Bulatović, who was devoted to Milošević, defected from the DPS and founded the SNP, which continued to support Montenegro’s union with Serbia.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Montenegro. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists.

>Red World: Serbia: Warmongering neo-communist state, Socialist Party harbors war criminals; Milosevic’s widow and son live in Russia

>Pictured here: Serbia’s deceased and deposed communist husband-and-wife team: Slobodan Milosevic and Mirjana Markovic. Mirjana, who lives in exile in Russia with her son Marko, is known by Serbs as the “Red Witch.” The Kremlin refuses to extradite Mirjana back to Serbia, where she is wanted on charges for ordering the murder of a journalist.

Republic of Serbia
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-April 28, 1992
Previous names of Republic of Serbia:
1) State Union of Serbia and Montenegro: February 4, 2003-June 5, 2006 (Serbia and Montenegro declare independence from each other)
2) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro: April 28, 1992-February 4, 2003 (Yugoslavia formally defunct)
3) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including Republic of Serbia: 1990-April 28, 1992
4) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including Socialist Republic of Serbia: April 7, 1963-1990
5) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, including Socialist Republic of Serbia: November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
6) Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia, including Socialist Republic of Serbia: November 29, 1943 (proclaimed)- November 29, 1945
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia), neo-communist parties such as Yugoslav Left, communist-infiltrated parties such as Serbian Radical Party and Serbian Renewal Party, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Bulldozer Revolution, 2000; Kosovo War: Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, ethnic Albanian) and NATO versus Yugoslav Army, 1996-1999; Preševo Valley Conflict: Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (ethnic Albanian, including KLA veterans) versus Yugoslav Army, 2000-2001
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia and observer status as independent country)
Socialist International presence: Democratic Party (consultative), Social Democratic Party (consultative)

Pictured here: Communist war criminal Slobodan Milosevic on trial at The Hague.

Communist government:
1) Democratic Party (center-left) in coalition with Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia), G17 Plus, Party of United Pensioners of Serbia, Sandžak Democratic Party, Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak, and Serbian Renewal Movement: 2008-present
2) Democratic Party of Serbia (conservative) in coalition with New Serbia (conservative), Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement (monarchist), and United Serbia with non-coalition support from Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia): 2007-2008
3) Democratic Party of Serbia in coalition with Serbian Democratic Party (linked to fugitive war criminal Radovan Karadžić’s Serbian Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina), People’s Democratic Party, and Serbian Liberal Party, with non-coalition support from Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia): 2004-2007
4) Democratic Opposition of Serbia (including center-left Democratic Party, but minus center-right Democratic Party of Serbia): 2001-2004
5) Democratic Opposition of Serbia (originally consisting of Democratic Party (center-left), Democratic Party of Serbia (center-right, formerly wing of Democratic Party), Civic Alliance of Serbia, Demo-Christian Party of Serbia, New Serbia, Social Democratic League of Vojvodina, Socialdemocratic Union, Alliance of Hungarians from Vojvodina, Reformist Democratic Party of Vojvodina, Vojvodina Coalition, Socialdemocracy, Movement for Democratic Serbia, Sandžak Democratic Party, League for Šumadija, and Association of Independent Unions of Serbia) in alliance with DAN coalition (consisting of Democratic Alternative, New Democracy, and Democratic Center): 2000-2001
6) Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia) in coalition with Serbian Radical Party (“ex”-communist leader): 1998-2000
7) Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia) in coalition with New Democracy: 1993-1998
8) Socialist Party of Serbia (formerly League of Communists of Serbia) in coalition with Serbian Radical Party (“ex”-communist leader) and other parties: 1992-1993
9) Socialist Party of Serbia (merger of League of Communists of Serbia and allied mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Serbia): 1990-1992
10) League of Communists of Serbia (formerly Communist Party of Serbia), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Serbia (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
11) Communist Party of Serbia, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Pro-Axis Government of National Salvation, led by collaborationist General Milan Nedic and supported by Dimitrije Ljotić’s fascist Zbor National Movement and Serbian Volunteer Corps: April 17, 1941-October 20, 1944 (deposed by Soviet Army and communist partisans)
Presidents of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) Boris Tadić (Democratic Party, no apparent connection to old communist regime): July 11, 2004-present
2) Predrag Marković (G17 Plus): March 4-July 11, 2004 (acting)
3) Vojislav Mihailović (“ex”-communist Serbian Renewal Party): March 3-4, 2004 (acting)
4) Dragan Maršićanin (Democratic Party of Serbia): February 4-March 3, 2004 (acting)
5) Nataša Mićić (Civic Alliance of Serbia): December 30, 2002-February 4, 2004 (acting)
6) Milan Milutinović (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, indicted war criminal): December 29, 1997-December 29, 2002
7) Dragan Tomić (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 23-December 29,1997 (acting)
8) Slobodan Milošević (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, indicted war criminal): May 8, 1989-July 23, 1997
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) Mirko Cvetković (Democratic Party, educated in communist Yugoslavia): July 2, 2008-present
2) Vojislav Koštunica (Democratic Party of Serbia, no apparent connection to old communist regime): March 3, 2004-July 2, 2008
3) Zoran Živković (Democratic Party): March 18, 2003-March 3, 2004
4) Žarko Korać (Social Democratic Union): March 17-18, 2003 (acting)
5) Nebojša Čović (Democratic Alternative Party): March 12-17, 2003 (acting)
6) Zoran Đinđić (Democratic Party, pro-reform socialist): January 25, 2001-March 12, 2003 (assassinated in office by agent of pro-Milošević group)
7) Milomir Minić (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): October 24, 2000-January 25, 2001
8) Mirko Marjanović (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, business partner of Viktor Chernomyrdin and Leonid Brezhnev’s son Yuri): March 18, 1994-October 24, 2000
9) Nikola Šainović (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, indicted war criminal): February 10, 1993-March 18, 1994
10) Radoman Božović (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, chair of state-run import-export company Genex): December 23, 1991-February 10, 1993
11) Dragutin Zelenović (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): January 15-December 23, 1991
Communists in Prime Minister Cvetković’s cabinet:
1) Ivica Dačić, First Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister (leader, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 7, 2008-present
2) Milutin Mrkonjić, Infrastructure Minister (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 7, 2008-present
3) Žarko Obradović, Education Minister (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 7, 2008-present
4) Petar Škundrić, Energy and Mining Minister (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 7, 2008-present
President of National Assembly of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) Slavica Đukić Dejanović (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): July 2, 2008-present (post previously controlled by SPS members between 1991 and 2001)
Presidents of “post”-communist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (1992-2006):
1) Svetozar Marović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): March 7, 2003-June 3, 2006
2) Vojislav Koštunica (Democratic Party of Serbia, no apparent connection to old communist regime): October 7, 2000-March 7, 2003
3) Slobodan Milošević (League of Communists of Serbia, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, indicted war criminal): July 23, 1997-October 5, 2000
4) Srdja Božović (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): June 25-July 23, 1997 (acting)
5) Zoran Lilić (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): June 25, 1993-June 25, 1997
6) Miloš Radulović (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): June 1-25, 1993 (acting)
7) Dobrica Ćosić (League of Communists of Serbia; supported Slobodan Milošević in 1989 but joined anti-Milošević organization Otpor in 2000; initially promoted Radovan Karadžić): June 15, 1992-June 1, 1993
8) Branko Kostic (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): April 27-June 15, 1992 (acting)
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992-2003):
1) Dragisa Pesic (Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, formerly faction of Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): July 24, 2001-March 17, 2003
2) Zoran Zizic (Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, formerly faction of Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): November 4, 2000-July 24, 2001
3) Momir Bulatović (League of Communists of Montenegro, “ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro, ally of Slobodan Milošević): May 19, 1998-October 9, 2000
4) Radoje Kontic (“ex”-communist Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro): February 9, 1993-May 19, 1998
5) Milan Panic (Serbian-American pharmaceuticals tycoon, nonpartisan): July 14, 1992- February 9, 1993
6) Aleksandar Mitrovic: April 27-Jul 14, 1992 (acting)
Parliament of “post”-communist country: National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia

Pictured here: The Milosevic family, including daughter Marija (second from left), who lives in Montenegro, son Marko (right), and fugitive mother Mirjana Marković (second from right).

Communist parties of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ): Founded in 1990, this pan-Yugoslav Stalinist party operates under the leadership of Mileta Perovic.
2) Communist Workers’ Coalition: This party is radical left in orientation.
3) Insurgent Reason (PU): This Trotskyist party associates with the International Marxist Tendency.
4) Labour Party (PR): Founded in 1992 as a split from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, this Stalinist party associates with the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (Maoist) and the International Communist Seminar.
5) League of Communists of Yugoslavia-Communist Party of Serbia (SKJ-KPS): This party operates under the leadership of Bosko Jarcevic.
6) League of Communists of Yugoslavia in Serbia: Founded in 1993 as a split from the League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia.
7) New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ): Founded in 1990 as the Workers’ Party of Yugoslavia, this Stalinist party associates with the International Communist Seminar. The party’s general secretary is Branko Kitanovic, a writer and a translator. The party’s youth section is the League of Yugoslav Communist Youth (SKOJ), organized in 1992. The NKPJ considers China, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba socialist countries. The NKPJ opposes Titoism but intends to restore the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Sister parties include the New Communist Party of Montenegro (NKPCG), New Communist Party of Macedonia (NCPM) and New Communist Party of Bosnia and Hercegovina (NKPBIH). Some Marxist-Leninists in Slovenia and Croatia are seeking to organize a New Communist Party of Slovenia (NKPS) and a New Communist Party of Croatia (NKPH). The NKPJ boycotted Serbia’s last parliamentary election (January 21 2007).
8) Socialist People’s Party (SNS): Founded in 2002, this party operates under the leadership of Branislav Ivkovic, an “ex”-member of the Socialist Party of Serbia.
9) Workers’ Future of Serbia: Founded in 2003, this alliance unites Workers’ Party of Yugoslavia, Ecology Party of Vojvodina, and Serbian National Socialist Party of Workers, Unemployed, Pensioners, and Farmers.
10) Workers’ League of Serbia: Founded in 1993, this party operates under the leadership of Igor Ristic.
11) Workers’ Movement: Founded in 1998, this radical left party operates under the leadership of Radovan Raka Radovic.
12) Workers’ Party of Serbia: Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Miloslav B.P. Jovanovic.
13) Workers’ Party of Yugoslavia (RSJ): Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Petar Velickovic.
14) Workers’ Political Alliance: This Trotskyist party associates with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers’ International.
15) Yugoslav Communists: Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Dragomir Draskovic.
16) Yugoslav Left (JUL): Founded in 1994, this pan-Yugoslav alliance of 23 communist and leftist parties operates under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević’s widow, Mirjana Marković—an unreformed communist known by Serbs as the “Red Witch”—who resides in exile in Russia. In December 2006 a Serbian court ordered her arrest under charges of ordering the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija in 1999. Russian authorities refuse to arrest Marković. JUL maintains close links with the Communist Party of China, Communist Party of Cuba, and Workers’ Party of Korea. During the 1990s opponents of the Milošević regime nicknamed JUL “a branch of the Communist Party of China in Yugoslavia.”
17) Yugoslav Workers’ Class-Josip Broz Tito: Founded in 1993, this Titoist party operates under the leadership of Sinan Hudovic.

Pictured here: Russian communists express their solidarity with the deceased Milosevic in 2006.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) New Democracy (ND): This party was founded by Aleksandar Bercek, an executive member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, and other politicians disenchanted with Slobodan Milosevic. ND later allied itself with the SPS in the government coalition.
2) Serbian Radical Party (SRS): Formed in 1991 through a merger of the People’s Radical Party and Serbian Chetnik Movement, the pro-communist nationalist SRS is committed to the formation of a “Greater Serbia.” The SRS is a haven for indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav Wars. Party founder Dr. Vojislav Šešelj is an “ex”-communist and close ally of potemkin Russian politician and alleged KGB agent Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Šešelj voluntarily turned himself over to United Nations authorities in February 2003. SRS deputy leader Tomislav Nikolić has coordinated the day-to-day operations of the party while Šešelj awaits trial in The Hague. In both the 2003 and 2007 parliamentary elections the SRS obtained the largest number of votes, but was not invited to join the coalition government. The SRS maintains a presence in Republika Srpska (Serb Republic), a constituent entity of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia, where the party is known as the Radical Party of Serbs in Macedonia.
3) Serbian Renewal Party (SPO): Founded in 1990, the monarchist SPO operates under the leadership of “ex”-communist Vuk Drašković. Two offshoots of SPO include New Serbia (founded late 1990s) and the Serbian Democratic Renewal Party (founded 2005). The SPO participated in the first post-communist democratic elections of December 9, 1990, but the party was not particularly successful. Drašković then attempted to overthrow President Slobodan Milošević’s government by organizing mass demonstrations in Belgrade on March 9, 1991. On October 3, 1999 active elements of the Red Berets (Serbian Special Operations Unit) attempted to kill Drašković by slamming a truck full of sand into his two-car motorcade. Although Drašković survived the assassination attempt, SPO member Veselin Bošković, who was also Drašković’s brother-in-law, and three bodyguards, Zvonko Osmajlić, Vušur “Vučko” Rakočević, and Dragan Vušurević, were killed.
4) Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS): The SPS is a haven for indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav Wars. “Ex”-communist Slobodan Milošević founded the SPS on July 27, 1990 as a merger of the League of Communists of Serbia–the Serbian section of the Communist League of Yugoslavia–and the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Serbia, led by Radmila Anđelković. The Socialist Alliance was, in turn, the Serbian section of the mass organization known as the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia, which supported the communist regime. The SPS won the first elections in Serbia with 192 out of 250 seats and 46.1% of the popular vote. From 1992 it governed in coalition with other parties, initially with the Serbian Radical Party, and from 1993 with the New Democracy Party. The SPS also contested elections in coalition with the Yugoslav Left, a neo-communist party led by Milošević’s wife Mirjana Marković, known as the “Red Witch.” The party attempted to join the Socialist International, but its application was nearly unanimously rejected, with only two parties voting in favour, PASOK of Greece and the French Socialist Party. Other socialists accused the SPS of nationalism and warmongering. — With the ousting of Milošević during the September 2000 “Bulldozer Revolution,” the SPS joined the opposition. In the 2003 Serbian general elections, the party won 7.6% of the popular vote and 22 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly of Serbia. In 2004, its candidate in the presidential election, Ivica Dačić, placed fifth with 3.6% of the vote. The Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) in Bosnia and Herzegovina associates with the SPS. On March 31, 2001 Milošević surrendered to Serbian security forces at his private residence. On June 28 of the same year, the Yugoslav government transferred Milošević from a Belgrade jail to United Nations custody inside Bosnian territory. The UN then transferred the deposed Serbian president to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, Belgium. The full name of this UN body is the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991. The Yugoslav Constitution explicitly prohibits extradition of Yugoslav citizens and President Vojislav Koštunica, who has no apparent connection to the old communist regime, opposed the transfer that Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić ordered. — Milošević’s trial began on February 12, 2002. In late 2004 former Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov became the first high-profile witness to testify for the defence. As the trial dragged on, Milošević, who had a heart ailment, was found dead in his cell on March 11, 2006 in the UN detention center located in The Hague. Official reports attributed his death to a heart attack. Supporters contend that Milošević was murdered, possibly poisoned. This is a likely scenario. Astute scholars of communism’s “perestroika deception” should not be faulted for speculating that Milošević, who was an ally of “post”-communist Russia, might have become a liability to the Kremlin by this point. Scotland Yard, for example, has publicly described the lethal poisoning of FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko as “state-sponsored terrorism” on the part of the Kremlin. Well-known international defenders of Milošević include former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, linguistics professor Noam Chomsky, and political scientist Michael Parenti. — After his five year term as president expired in December 2002 Milan Milutinović surrendered to the ICTY. He was released in April 2005, still pending trial.
5) Socialist People’s Party (SNP): Founded in 2002 Branislav Ivković founded this party after he fell out with the leadership of the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia. The same year, however, he defended Slobodan Milošević against the legal charges advanced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: “If The Hague makes the decision that Slobodan Milosevic is guilty, the whole world will recognise the Serbian people are also guilty of genocide. The trial against Milosevic is a trial against the Serbian people.”

Pictured here: Mirjana Marković, Milosevic’s widow.

Other parties of “post”-communist Serbia:
1) Democratic Party (DS): Founded in 1919 after the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, the social-liberal DP represented a merger of the Independent Radical Party and Croatian and Slovenian parties. In 1990 aged members from the 1940s, before the communists took over Yugoslavia, and a new generation of members reestablished the DS. Dragoljub Mićunović was the first elected party president. Members participated in the first anti-government protests later in the year. In 2000 Zoran Đinđić led the DS as well as the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, of which his party was the largest partner, to victory in the December 2000 election. Prime Minister Đinđić was instrumental in extraditing “ex”-communist war criminal Slobodan Milošević to The Hague in 2001. — In what was apparently a plot orchestrated by disgruntled Milošević supporters, Đinđić was assassinated in Belgrade in the main Serbian government building on 12 March 12, 2003. Đinđić’s bodyguard Milan Veruović was also seriously wounded by another shot. The self-admitted assassin was police specialist Lieutenant Colonel Zvezdan Jovanović (Zveki), who fired a single bullet by sniper scope from a nearby building. Jovanović had been a member of the Red Berets, or Special Operations Unit (JSO), the Serbian special forces organized by Milošević in 1991 to prevent the secession of Yugoslavia’s republics. Jovanović considered Đinđić a traitor. — Milorad Ulemek (Legija), a former commander of the Red Berets, allegedly ordered Jovanović to carry out the assassination. Legija was connected to the powerful Zemun clan of the Serbian mafia. In June 2005, Legija was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for his involvement in the attempted assassination of Vuk Drašković in 1999. The verdict was appealed and subsequently annulled in late March 2006 by the Supreme Court of Serbia. The case has been sent back to district court trial for the third time. In July 2005, Legija was sentenced to 40 years for the murder of Ivan Stambolić and the attempted of murder of Vuk Drašković. In June 2006 the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Legija is being tried for the murder of Prime Minister Đinđić. — Stambolić was a communist-era official who held the posts of President of the Executive Council of Serbia (1978–1982), Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia (1984–1986), and President of the Socialist Republic of Serbia (1986–1989). Stambolić disappeared on August 25, 2000. On March 28, 2003 Serbian police revealed that he had been murdered by eight Serbian secret police officers, who were also supporters of Milošević. — Dejan “Bagzi” Milenković is one of 13 people charged with the assassination of Prime Minister Đinđić. Several weeks before Đinđić’s murder, Milenković drove a truck into the Prime Minister’s motorcade on the stretch of highway near Belgrade Arena, allegedly as part of a failed assassination plot. Bagzi disappeared in March 2003, shortly after the assassination, and later arrested in Greece. At the time of the arrest, he was in possession of several hundred thousand euros in cash. Bagzi was extradited back to Serbia and Montenegro on February 3, 2005. — During his trial, Bagzi asserted that his superior Ulemek secured approval for the assassination plot from then Deputy Prime Minister Nebojša Čović and tried to secure approval from Vojislav Šešelj. The Serbian Radical Party leader, however, surrendered himself to The Hague several weeks before the assassination. Milenković said, “Legija (Ulemek) said that Čović supported him and that Šešelj knew before the assassination that Đinđić’s murder was being planned.” — The Democratic Party is affiliated with the Socialist International.
2) Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS): The DSS represented the center-right of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition and formed a separate party in the summer of 1992. The current Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Koštunica, who has no apparent connection to the old communist regime of Serbia, nevertheless opposed the extradition of Slobodan Milošević, which was authorized by Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, who was later assassination by Milošević supporters in 2003. Koštunica has articulated his opposition to The Hague tribunal on several occasions. He succeeded Milošević as the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops and the Partisans entered Belgrade on October 20, 1944. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists. — During the Kosovo War (1996-1999) 500 Russian troops, operating under United Nations command in Bosnia and Herzegovina, enter Kosovo’s capital of Pristina by way of Belgrade, on June 11, 1999. Controversy surrounded the rapid deployment of Russian troops in Kosovo before NATO could deploy its own forces. Russia withdrew its troops on July 2, 2003.

>Red World: Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadžić hiding in Russia, communist Gen. Ratko Mladic still on the run

>Pictured here: Fugitive Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadžić, founder of Bosnia’s Serbian Democratic Party, in Moscow in 1994. Karadzic eluded the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) between 1996 and 2008, when he was finally arrested and extradited to The Hague. A February 2007 Reuters report claimed that Karadzic spent some time in hiding in Russia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
(consisting of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska (Serb Republic))
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-April 6, 1992
Previous name of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Names of Yugoslavia during Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership:
1) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: April 7, 1963-April 28, 1992
2) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia: November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats (formerly League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina), communist-infiltrated parties such as Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991; Bosnian War, March 1992-November 1995; combatants: Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Croatian Defense Council and Croatian Army versus Army of Republika Srpska, Yugoslav People’s Army, and paramilitary units from Serbia and Montenegro
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia and observer status as independent country)
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats (formerly League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (consultative)
Communist government:
1) Alliance of Independent Social Democrats in coalition with Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Party of Democratic Action, Party for Democratic Progress, Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (splinter from HDZ BiH), Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH, linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union), and People’s Party Work for Betterment: 2007-present
2) Party of Democratic Action in coalition with Serbian Democratic Party (under sanctions by USA), Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union), Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Party for Democratic Progress: 2002-2007
3) Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats (formerly League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina) in coalition with Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, New Croatian Initiative (splinter from HDZ BiH), Serbian People’s Union of Republika Sprska, and Party for Democratic Progress: 2001-2002
4) Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina in coalition with Socialist Party of Republika Sprska (linked to “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia), Serbian People’s Union of Republika Sprska, Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak), and Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union: 1999-2001
5) Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina in coalition with Serbian Democratic Party (under sanctions by USA), Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak), and Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): 1997-1999
6) Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak) in coalition with Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): 1996-1997
7) Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak) in coalition with Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union), Serbian Renaissance Movement, Socialist Alliance, and League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (restored): 1993-1996
8) Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak) in coalition with Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): 1992-1993
9) Party of Democratic Action (Bosniak) in coalition with Serbian Democratic Party and Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): 1990-1992
10) League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
11) Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Bosnia and Herzegovina annexed by Independent State of Croatia, supported by German and Italian military occupation: 1941-1945
Heads of government of “post”-communist Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Chairman of Council of Ministers
1) Nikola Špirić (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats): January 11, 2007-present
2) Adnan Terzić (Party of Democratic Action): December 23, 2002-January 11, 2007
3) Dragan Mikerević (Party of Democratic Progress): March 15, 2002-December 23, 2002
4) Zlatko Lagumdžija (“ex”-communist Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats): July 18, 2001-March 15, 2002
5) Božidar Matić: February 22, 2001-July 18, 2001
6) Martin Raguz: October 18, 2000-February 22, 2001
7) Spasoje Tuševljak: June 6, 2000-October 18, 2000
Co-Prime Ministers
8) Haris Silajdžić (Party of Democratic Action, Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Svetozar Mihajlović: February 3, 1999-June 6, 2000
9) Haris Silajdžić (Party of Democratic Action, Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Boro Bosić: January 3, 1997-February 3, 1999 Prime Ministers
10) Hasan Muratović: January 30, 1996-January 3, 1997
11) Haris Silajdžić (Party of Democratic Action, Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina): October 25, 1993-January 30, 1996
12) Mile Akmadžić: November 9, 1992-October 25, 1993
13) Jure Pelivan: December 20, 1990-November 9, 1992
Collective presidency of “post”-communist Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Presidential term beginning 2006:
1) Nebojša Radmanović (Bosnian Serb; Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, linked indirectly to “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): October 1, 2006-present
2) Haris Silajdžić (Bosniak; Party of Democratic Action, Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina): October 1, 2006-present
3) Željko Komšić (Bosnian Croat, Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats, formerly League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina): October 1, 2006-present
Presidential term beginning 2002:
1) Mirko Šarović (Bosnian Serb; Serbian Democratic Party, under sanctions by USA): October 5, 2002-April 2, 2003 (resigned)
2) Sulejman Tihić (Bosniak, Party of Democratic Action): October 5, 2002:-October 1, 2006
3) Dragan Čović (Bosnian Croat; Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): October 5, 2002-February 28, 2004 (dismissed)
Presidential term beginning 1998:
1) Živko Radišić (Bosnian Serb; “ex”-League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Socialist Party of Republika Srpska, linked to “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia): October 13, 1998-October 5, 2002
2) Alija Izetbegović (Bosniak (Slavic Muslim); Party of Democratic Action): October 13, 1998-October 5, 2002
3) Ante Jelavić (Bosnian Croat; Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, linked to “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): September 1998-October 5, 2002
Notes: Šarović resigned in 2003 due to his implication in a scandal concerning the sale of arms to Iraq. The Bosnian parliament replaced him with Borislav Paravac. Čović was dismissed by European Union High Representative Paddy Ashdown, after the Bosnian politician was indicted for financial corruption. The Bosnian parliament replaced him with Ivo Miro Jović. On November 17, 2006, Čović received a sentence of five years in prison on corruption charges. Parliament of “post”-communist country: Parliamentary Assembly, consisting of House of Peoples and National House of Representatives
Communist parties of “post”-communist Bosnia and Herzegovina:
1) League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina: This party represents the Bosnian section of the League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia, which leads the leftist alliance Yugoslav Left (JUL).
2) New Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NKPBIH): This Stalinist party associates with the Serbian-based New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) which, in turn, associates with the International Communist Seminar. The NKPJ considers China, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba socialist countries. The NKPJ opposes Titoism but intends to restore the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
3) New Workers’ Party of Serb Republic: This party was founded in 1996.
4) People’s Party of Socialists: Founded in 2002, this party is a split from the Socialist Party of Republika Srpska, which is linked to the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia.
5) Socialist Party of Republika Srpska: Founded in 1993, this regional left party is linked to the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia.
6) Workers’ Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RKP-BiH): This party was founded in 2000, opposes Yugoslav nationalism, and supports the introduction of workers’ self-management and participatory democracy, as well as the re-establishment of a socialist federal Yugoslavia. They say they are not motivated by nostalgia, as they are critical of Tito. Ideological influences include Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci. The party president is Goran Marković.
7) Workers’ Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina: No information.
8) Workers’ Party of the Serb Republic: No information.
9) Yugoslav Left of Serb Republic: This party represents the Republika Srpska section of the Yugoslav Left, mentioned above.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Bosnia and Herzegovina:
1) Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNS): The SNS is a merger of the Party of Independent Social Democrats and the Democratic Socialist Party, itself a splinter from the Socialist Party of Republika Srpska, which is linked to “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia.
2) Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH): The ruling party in Croatia, the “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), organized a branch of the party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, called the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 18, 1990. The HDZ BiH participated in all multi-party elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1991. The party consistently won the support of Bosnian Croats until 2000, and participated in the republic’s government. The HDZ BiH returned to power in 2002, where it remained until 2006. By the end of 1991, “ex”-communist Mate Boban and others, with the support of “ex”-communist Franjo Tuđman and others in Croatia, effectively assumed control of the party. In addition to Boban, other HDZ BiH leaders have included Dario Kordić, Jadranko Prlić,Ante Jelavić, Dragan Čović, and Ivo Miro Jović. — HDZ BiH member Prlić is a Bosnian Croat who is among six defendants charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. — HDZ BiH member Kordić was a military commander of the Croatian Defense Council forces during the Bosnian War. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence for war crimes committed against the Bosniak population. — Although Boban had been a member of the communist party since the 1950s he joined the HDZ BiH at the party’s founding. He was later elected to the Bosnian parliament, served as party vice-president and finally assumed the post of party president. On November 18, 1991, nationalist elements in the HDZ BiH, under the leadership of Boban and Kordić, proclaimed the formation of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia as a separate political entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. — This declaration was in keeping with an agreement between Croatian President Tuđman and “ex”-communist Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to dismember Bosnia. In May 1992 Boban met with Radovan Karadžić, President of Bosnia’s self-proclaimed Serb Republic, in Graz, Austria, where they agreed on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On September 2, 1993 Boban and Karadžić met again in Montenegro to coordinate their actions after the Bosniaks rejected the Vance-Owen peace plan. — Boban ordered the assassination of Bosnian Croats who opposed the dismemberment of Bosnia, including Stjepan Kljuić, Blaž Kraljević, and Tomislav Dretar. The assassination of Kraljević in 1992 was successful, while Dretar and Kljuić survived murder plots and remained opposed to Boban for the duration of the Bosnian War. Subsequently Pope John Paul II and the US government forced the removal of Boban from the leadership of the HDZ BiH.
3) Serbian Democratic Party (SDS): In 1989 Radovan Karadžić co-founded the SDS, which was committed to organizing and protecting Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb community as an initial stage prior to joining Croatian Serbs and the Republic of Serbia in a “Greater Serbia.” In 1991 Karadžić was responsible for creating the Serb Autonomous Provinces within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which eventually amalgamated to form the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic). He found support among fellow Eastern Orthodox countries such as Russia and Greece. In February 1994, for instance, he secretly contacted the Greek government and proposed the formation of a Serbian-Greek confederation based on the publicized Serbian-Greek Friendship, which Slobodan Milošević advanced in 1992. Karadžić visited Moscow in 1994. — Like the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Serbia, the SDS is a haven for war criminals from the Bosnian War. Karadžić, for example, is accused by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia of ordering the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. Karadzic was a prodige of Serbian communist Dobrica Ćosić, who also supported Milošević. He was arrested in Belgrade on July 18, 2008, extradited to the Netherlands, and is currently in The Hague. — Biljana Plavšić, his colleague in the SDS, pled guilty to one count of crimes against humanity at the ICTY for her part in persecuting Bosnian Muslims and Croats. — Momčilo Krajišnik, another SDS colleague, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of laws of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions. — Although not necessarily a member of the SDS, General Ratko Mladic (pictured here in Sarajevo in 1993) is an avowed communist and commanded the Army of the Republika Srpska. Although many Bosnian Serbs consider him a war hero, Mladic is considered by the international community for the most part as the most wanted war crimes fugitive of the Bosnian War. Mladic is wanted by the ICTY on 15 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violating the laws and customs of war, including the massacre of 5,000 Bosniak men on July 11, 1995 in Srebrenica. Some reports indicate that Mladic might be hiding in Russia.
4) Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Social Democrats (SP BiH-S): The SP BiH-S is the direct successor of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina and later incorporated the Social Democrats.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists.
Serbian military presence: The Yugoslav People’s Army withdrew from Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 19, 1992.

>Red World: Croatia: "Ex"-communists rule through Croatian Democratic Union and Social Democrats; large Socialist Labor Party openly communist

> Pictured here: The “ex”-communist Croatian President Stjepan Mesić currently holds membership in the Croatian Democratic Union, which has dominated politics in that country since independence.

Republic of Croatia
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-June 25, 1991
Previous names of Slovenia: Socialist Republic of Croatia
Names of Yugoslavia during Croatia’s membership:
1) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: April 7, 1963-April 28, 1992
2) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia: November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Social Democratic Party of Croatia (formerly League of Communists of Croatia) and Croatian Democratic Union
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991; Croatian War of Independence, April 1991-August 1995; combatants: Croatian Army, sympathetic paramilitaries, and Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Republic of Serb Krajina Army, Yugoslav People’s Army, and sympathetic paramilitaries
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia and observer status as independent country), candidate for European Union
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Croatia (formerly League of Communists of Croatia-Party of Democratic Reform)
Communist government:
1) Croatian Democratic Union (“ex”-communist”) in coalition with Croatian Social Liberal Party and Democratic Center: 2003-present
2) Social Democratic Party of Croatia (formerly League of Communists of Croatia) in coalition with Croatian Peasants’ Party-Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and Croatian People’s Party: 2002-2003
3) Social Democratic Party of Croatia (formerly League of Communists of Croatia) in coalition with Croatian Social Liberal Party, Croatian Peasants’ Party-Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, Croatian People’s Party, and Istrian Democratic Forum (leftist): 2000-2002
4) Croatian Democratic Union (“ex”-communist): 1990-2000
5) Social Democratic Party of Croatia-Party of Democratic Reform (formerly League of Communists of Croatia): 1990
6) League of Communists of Croatia (formerly Communist Party of Croatia), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Croatia (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
7) Communist Party of Croatia, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Independent State of Croatia, under leadership of Ante Pavelic and Ustache movement, and German military occupation: 1941-1945
Presidents of “post”-communist Croatia:
1) Stjepan Mesić (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union, Croatian People’s Party-Liberal Democrats): February 18, 2000-present
2) Zlatko Tomčić (Croatian Peasant’s Party): February 2-18, 2000 (acting)
3) Vlatko Pavletić (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): November 26, 1999-February 2, 2000 (acting, with some overlap with President Tuđman’s term)
4) Franjo Tuđman (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union; Yugoslav People’s Army general): May 30, 1990-December 10, 1999
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Croatia:
1) Ivo Sanader (“ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): December 23, 2003-present
2) Ivica Račan (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Party of Democratic Reform, Social Democratic Party of Croatia (formerly League of Communists of Croatia-Party of Democratic Reform): January 27, 2000-December 23, 2003
3) Zlatko Mateša (“ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): November 7, 1995-January 27, 2000
4) Nikica Valentić (“ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): April 3, 1993-November 7, 1995
5) Hrvoje Šarinić (“ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): August 12, 1992-April 3, 1993
6) Franjo Gregurić (“ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union): July 17, 1991-August 12, 1992
7) Josip Manolić (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union, Croatian Independent Democrats, Croatian People’s Party-Liberal Democrats): August 24, 1990-July 17, 1991
8) Stjepan Mesić (“ex”-League of Communists of Croatia, “ex”-communist Croatian Democratic Union, Croatian People’s Party-Liberal Democrats): May 30-August 24, 1990
Parliament of “post”-communist country: Croatian Parliament (Sabor)
Communist parties of “post”-communist Croatia:
1) Communist Party of Croatia: Founded in 2005, this Titoist party is a split from the Socialist Labor Party of Croatia.
2) Initiative for a Revolutionary Organization: This radical left party was founded in 2004.
3) Istrian Democratic Forum: Founded in 1996, this regional leftist party operates under the leadership of Luciano Delbianco.
4) Socialist Labor Party of Croatia (SRPH, also known as Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia): Founded in 1997, the SRPH is the largest and leftmost of registered parties in Croatian politics. Although it has around 1800 members, the SRPH has no parliamentary representation. The ideology of the SRPH combines democratic socialism, eurocommunism, council communism, Luxembourgism, Titoism, and New Leftism. The party advocates worker self-management and participatory democracy, and defends the reputation of the Yugoslav resistance during the Second World War. Initial members included a group of leftists associated with the Croatian Left, as well as the newspaper’s chief editor Stipe Šuvar. — The SRPH filled a political vacuum on the Croatian left after the Social Democratic Union lost both influence and members and the Social Democratic Action shifted to the center. In 2000 a group of members from the party’s youth section, Socialist Youth (Croatia), formed Green Left of Croatia. In 2004 Šuvar resigned as party president and Ivan Plješa was elected as his replacement. Shortly after, personal disputes prompted a minority to defect from the SRPH and form the Socialist Party of Croatia-Left Alternative. The activist core of the new party, including the youth wing and the editorial board of Croatian Left, is still a part of the SRPH. In the 2004 local elections, the SRPH formed a joint list with the Social Democratic Union, New Alternative Party-Green Movement, Green Left of Croatia, and Green Party, but did not win any seats. A “United Left” electoral list has been proposed for future elections. — Founded in 1919, the Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia (Communists) was also the name of Yugoslavia’s original communist party, which was renamed the following year as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) and which was again renamed in 1952 as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). The KPJ/SKJ was the umbrella party that embraced the communist parties of the six Yugoslav republics, much as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union embraced the communist parties of the 15 Soviet republics.
5) Socialist Party of Croatia-Left Alternative: Founded in 2004, this left socialist party is a split from the Socialist Labor Party of Croatia and operates under the leadership of Ivan Magdalenic.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Croatia:
1) Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ): Founded in June 1989 by “ex”-communist “dissident” Franjo Tuđman, HDZ is a major party that ruled Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in coalition, since 2003. The HDZ holds membership in the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, even though Croatia is still negotiating entry into the European Union. The HDZ was founded in a somewhat clandestine fashion. Tuđman and other HDZ officials traveled abroad and amassed large financial contributions from expatriate Croatians. — HDZ leaders first described their party as rightist, while Tuđman himself insisted that he was inspired by Thatcherism. Later, the party defined itself as a center-right party founded on the principles of Christian democracy. The HDZ’s only official ideology was national reconciliation, in which descendants of Croatia’s communist Partisans and fascist Ustashas were required to make amends for the conflict between their forebears and work together to build a new Croatia.
2) Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SPH): The SPH is the main successor party of the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), the Croatian section of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). In April 1990 “reformist” Croatian and Slovenian communists defected from the SKJ, objecting to the policies of the “hardline” League of Communists of Serbia, which operated under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević. The SKH participated in the first multi-party elections as the League of Communists of Croatia-Party of Democratic Reform (SKH-SDP). In 1994 the SPH was formed through a merger of the SKH-SDP and the Social Democrats of Croatia (SDH), then under the leadership of Antun Vujić. Ivica Račan, president of the SKH-SDP, remained the enlarged party’s president. Founded in 1990 under the name “Social Democratic Party of Croatia,” the SDH claimed the political tradition of Yugoslavia’s original social democratic party, which was founded in 1894 and absorbed into the Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia (Communists) in 1919, the forerunner of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its successor, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Croatia. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists.

>Red World: Slovenia: "Ex"-communists rule former Yugoslav republic through Democratic Party and Liberal Democracy; Red Trojan horse in NATO

>Pictured here, on left: “Ex”-communist Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, who currently holds membership in the Slovenian Democratic Party, meets Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary General of NATO, in Brussels. The former Socialist Republic of Slovenia joined NATO in 2004.

Republic of Slovenia
Constituent republic of communist Yugoslavia: January 31, 1946-June 25, 1991
Previous name of Slovenia: Socialist Republic of Slovenia
Names of Yugoslavia during Slovenia’s membership:
1) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, April 7, 1963-April 28, 1992
2) Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, November 29, 1945-April 7, 1963
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through the Social Democrats (including former League of Communists of Slovenia), and communist-infiltrated parties such as Slovenian Democratic Party and Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991; Slovenian War of Independence, or Ten-Day War, June-July 1991; combatants: Slovenia Territorial Defense versus Yugoslav People’s Army
Communist Bloc memberships: Non-Aligned Movement (full status as part of Yugoslavia), European Union (May 1, 2004)
NATO membership: March 29, 2004
Socialist International presence: Social Democrats (including former League of Communists of Slovenia)
Communist government:
1) Slovenian Democratic Party (formerly Social Democratic Party of Slovenia, “ex”-communist) in coalition with New Slovenia-Christian People’s Party, Slovenian People’s Party, and Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia: 2004-present
2) Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly Socialist Youth Party, “ex”-communist) in coalition with United List of Social Democrats (including Party of Democratic Reform, formerly League of Communists of Slovenia), Slovenian People’s Party, and Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, with external support from Slovenian National Party and Party of Slovene Youth: 2000-2004
3) Slovenian People’s Party in coalition with Slovenian Christian Democrats and Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (“ex”-communist): 2000
4) Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly Socialist Youth Party, “ex”-communist) in coalition with Slovenian People’s Party: 1996-2000
5) Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly Socialist Youth Party, “ex”-communist) in coalition with Slovenian Christian Democrats, United List of Social Democrats (including Party of Democratic Reform, formerly League of Communists of Slovenia), and Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (“ex”-communist): 1992-1996
6) Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly Socialist Youth Party, “ex”-communist), Socialist Party, Party of Democratic Reform (formerly League of Communists of Slovenia), and elements of DEMOS: 1992
7) Democratic Opposition of Slovenia (DEMOS), coalition consisting of Slovenian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (“ex”-communist), Slovenian Christian Democrats, Farmers’ Alliance, and Greens of Slovenia: 1990-1992
8) League of Communists of Slovenia (formerly Communist Party of Slovenia), sole legal party, with support of mass organization Socialist Alliance of Working People of Slovenia (formerly People’s Front): 1952-1990
9) Communist Party of Slovenia, sole legal party, with support of mass organization People’s Front: 1945-1952
Fascist government:
1) Parts of Slovenia annexed by Nazi-occupied Austria, Fascist Italy, and pro-Axis Kingdom of Hungary; occupation supported by Slovene Home Guard: 1941-1945
Presidents of “post”-communist Slovenia:
1) Danilo Turk (junior secretary of human rights commission of Socialist Alliance of Working People of Slovenia, mass front for League of Communists of Slovenia; independent, but supported by “ex”-communist Social Democrats, Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, Zares and Active Slovenia): December 23, 2007-present
2) Janez Drnovšek (League of Communists of Slovenia, Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly “ex”-communist Socialist Youth Party), Movement for Justice and Development): December 22, 2002-December 23, 2007
3) Milan Kučan (League of Communists of Slovenia, Party of Democratic Reform (formerly League of Communists of Slovenia), United List of Social Democrats (including Party of Democratic Reform); President, Socialist Republic of Slovenia): December 23, 1991-1992 (interim), 1992-1997, 1997-December 22, 2002
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Slovenia:
1) Borut Pahor (League of Communists of Slovenia, Party of Democratic Reform (formerly League of Communists of Slovenia), “ex”-communist Social Democrats): November 21, 2008-present
2) Janez Janša (League of Communists of Slovenia, Slovenian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Alliance/Party of Slovenia, Slovenian Democratic Party): November 9, 2004-November 21, 2008
3) Anton Rop (“ex”-communist Socialist Youth Party/Liberal Democracy of Slovenia): December 11, 2002-November 9, 2004
4) Janez Drnovšek (League of Communists of Slovenia, Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly”ex”-communist Socialist Youth Party), Movement for Justice and Development): November 17, 2000-December 11, 2002
5) Andrej Bajuk (Slovenian Christian Democrats, New Slovenia-Christian People’s Party): May 3-August 4, August 4-November 17, 2000
6) Janez Drnovšek (League of Communists of Slovenia, Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (formerly “ex”-communist Socialist Youth Party), Movement for Justice and Development): May 14, 1992-May 3, 2000
7) Lojze Peterle (“ex”-communist Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, Slovenian Christian Democrats, New Slovenia-Christian People’s Party): May 16, 1990-May 14, 1992
Parliament of “post”-communist country: Slovenian Parliament, consisting of National Assembly (lower house) and National Council (upper house)
Communist parties of “post”-communist Slovenia:
1) Communist Party of Slovenia: Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Marek Lenardic.
2) Forward! Slovenian Marxist Circle: Founded in 2003, this Trotskyist party associates with the International Marxist Tendency.
3) Independent Communist Board: This party operates under the leadership of Rudolfa Baloha.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Slovenia:
1) Democratic Opposition of Slovenia (DEMOS): This coalition emerged between December 1989, when the communist government permitted the formation of “other” parties, and Slovenia’s first “free” elections in April 1990. DEMOS united the Slovenian Democratic Union (“ex”-communist), Social Democratic Alliance of Slovenia (“ex”-communist), Slovenian Christian Democrats, Farmers’ Alliance, and Greens of Slovenia. DEMOS carried out the campaign to democratize Slovenia and then secure the republic’s independence and international recognition.
2) Liberal Democracy of Slovenia: Founded in 1990 from elements of the defunct League of Communists of Slovenia, this party was originally known as the Socialist Youth Party.
3) Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS): Founded on February 16, 1989 as the Social Democratic Alliance of Slovenia (SDZS), the original party joined the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia and later absorbed the Slovenian Democratic Union (SDZ). Founded in January 1989, the latter was Slovenia’s first opposition party. “Ex”-communist Janez Janša was involved in the founding of the SDZ and became first vice-president, then president of the party council. After the dissolution of the SDZ in 1991 Janša became a member of the SDZS, which changed its name to the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia. On September 19, 2003, the party adopted its current name, Slovenian Democratic Party.
4) Social Democrats (Slovenia): Founded in November 1992 as the United List of Social Democrats (ZLSD), Social Democrats was an electoral alliance consisting of the Party of Democratic Reform (SDP, founded in 1990 from the late League of Communists of Slovenia), Social Democratic Union (SDU, founded in 1990), Workers’ Party of Slovenia (DSS, founded in 1991), and Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia. In May 1993 the SDP, SDU, and DSS merged to form the ZLSD. On January 23, 1990, the Slovenian delegation, headed by Milan Kučan, defected from the party congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, leading to the collapse of the all-Yugoslav party. Shortly afterwards, the League of Communists of Slovenia changed its name to the Party of Democratic Reform.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Slovenia. During a secret September 1944 trip to Moscow, Marshal Tito secured the Soviet Union’s military support in overthrowing the pro-Axis regimes in the Balkans and a promise to promptly withdraw Soviet troops, which occurred by May 7-8, 1945 (Victory in Europe Day). After assisting the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in overthrowing the pro-Axis regime in Belgrade, the Red Army continued into Hungary. The Partisans and the Western Allies then turned their attention to crushing the retreating German forces, the collaborationist Ustache, and the royalist Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks), which was initially backed by the West before the Allies shifted their support to the communists.

>Latin America File: FSLN founder Borge appointed ambassador to Peru, Cardinal Bravo to direct Sandinista reconciliation council with pope’s approval

>During the 1980s Sandinista founder, Maoist, KGB stooge, and Interior Minister Tomas Borge (pictured here, currently 76 years old) coordinated Nicaragua’s involvement in the Communist Bloc’s ongoing narco-subversion of the West, about which we have blogged extensively. Throughout the 1990s Comrade Tom, who is General Vice-Secretary of the FSLN and a deputy in the National Assembly, was a faithful supporter of Comandante Ortega. Borge has now been awarded the post of ambassador to Peru, where both the parliament and the presidency are controlled by the moderate leftist American Popular Revolutionary Alliance. On November 30, 2006 Borge, as reported by the state-run Cuban News Agency, affirmed: “Fidel Castro is the father of my ideas.”

In the two months or so since the FSLN openly reassumed control of Nicaragua, the Sandinista leadership has dropped all pretense of having reformed its Marxist ideology toward the center. The article below notes that the neo-Sandinista regime attaches special importance to its relationship with Peru. No doubt this entails bringing that country into the fold of the Latin American Red Axis, including its formal embodiment, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. Although Borge’s wife holds citizenship in Peru, which provides Comrade Tom with credible cover, Nicaragua’s new ambassador might be tasked with providing covert support to the Maoist insurgency of the revived Shining Path. The translation below is courtesy Babelfish with some refinements by your resident blogger.

Tomás Borge sworn in as Ambassador of Nicaragua to Peru

Commander Tomás Borge, the only surviving founder of the Sandinista Nacional Liberation Front (FSLN), has been sworn in to the position of ambassador of Nicaragua to Peru, before Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Santos Lopez

By: PL 21 of March of 2007 21:39:19

“To administer an oath to Commander Borge is extraordinary, because he is a symbol for the revolutionaries of Nicaragua and the world,” said the head of Nicaragua’s diplomatic corp after the ceremony.

The local chancellery stated in an official notice that the appointment [of Borge] as Sandinista delegate and representative in Lima expresses the special importance that the Central American nation grants to its relationship with Peru.

Borge, on the other hand, stated that he spoke personally with the Peruvian president, Alan Garcia, who promised to him that both countries would have good relations.

“My work will be directed to fortify the bonds with Peru,” asserted the present General Vice-Secretary of the FSLN, who is also one of the nine historical commanders of the Sandinista Revolution.

Borge, who is 76 years of age, is married to the Peruvian singer Marcela Perez, who resides in Lima with the three children of their marriage.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

Putin and the Pope: The Catholic-Communist Convergence

We have blogged extensively concerning the Catholic-communist convergence in Latin America and elsewhere in the Third World. Although the Vatican occasionally slaps the wrists of leftist priests, like liberation theologian Father Jon Sobrino SJ, for the most part the “red spread” south of the Rio Grande and the Jesuit-inspired World Social Forum harmonize nicely with Catholic social teaching, which supports socialism and world government. There the Catholic Left dominates. The anti-communist policies of Pope Pius XIII in the 1950s have long since been replaced by a policy of accommodation with Moscow and the international communist movement. For that reason, the Vatican received Comrade Czar Vladimir (“There’s No Such Thing as a Former KGB Man”) Putin during his March 13-14 trip to Rome. In addition to conferring with Pope Benjamin XVI, Putin also visited Prime Minister Romano Prodi, an alleged KGB/FSB agent, and “ex”-communist President Giorgio Napolitano.

The cornerstone in Comandante Ortega’s 2006 electoral platform was reconciliation between the warring factions of the Nicaraguan civil war of the 1980s. Ortega has directed special attention to including the Catholic hierarchy in his “strategy of peace and reconciliation” between left and right. Thus, his meeting with Archbishop of Managua Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano (pictured below with Comrade Dan), Brenes’ predecessor Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, and other bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua. According to the official Sandinista organ below, the pope has given “tacit” permission to Cardinal Bravo to direct the Sandinistas’ Council of Reconciliation and Peace.

Daniel meets with Nicaraguan bishops

President Daniel Ortega trusts that the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua will endorse his strategy of peace and reconciliation, after meeting with the local bishops

By: PL 21 of March of 2007 21:42:46

“I can declare that the meeting was an encounter with Christian spirit, constructive, positive, which was welcome, so that it is possible to work in favor of reconciliation, peace and justice,” assured Nicaragua’s chief executive Ortega in declarations to the press.

In the meeting Cardinal Miguel Obando also participated, to whom Ortega recommended to direct the council to take care of the demands of the demobilization of the Contras and the Army who faced each other during the bloody war of the 1980s

The Sandinista leader, who assumed power on January 10, announced that the bishops will emit an uprising when concluding the meeting.

“The conference is going to prepare a pronouncement, with which we are content, we are satisfied, and that is going to be a message that are going to cheer to us all,” stressed Ortega.

The pronouncement would be related to the acceptance on the part of the Episcopal Conference of the appointment of Obando, who said last week that he can count on the tacit support of Pope Benedict XVI to direct the Council created by the Sandinista government.

The good climate that reigned in the meeting between the Nicaraguan bishops and Nicaragua’s chief executive was ratified by the Archbishop of Managua, Monsignor Leopoldo Brenes, who assured that it was a “pleasant dialogue,” on issues related to the Council of Reconciliation and Peace.

Brenes rejected the contention that the appointment of Obando has caused a lack of unity within the Episcopal Conference.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

>Red World: Bulgarian communists exercise control through Socialist Party and UDF; Bulgarian neo-fascist friend of pro-Putin racist David Duke

>Pictured here: Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, who is a “former” member of the Bulgarian Communist Party and a current member of its successor organization, the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Parvanov is alleged “Agent Gotse” of the communist-era Committee for State Security (KDS), the Bulgarian KGB. Terrorism expert Joseph Douglass notes in his classic book Red Cocaine that Bulgaria, along with Czechoslovakia and Latin America, plays an important role in the Communist Bloc’s narco-subversion of the West.

Republic of Bulgaria
Previous names: People’s Republic of Bulgaria, 1946-1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multi-party” state under covert communist control, exercised through Bulgarian Socialist Party and allied new Communist Party of Bulgaria, communist-infiltrated parties such as United Democratic Forces, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1990
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (January 1, 2007)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 29, 2004
Socialist International presence: Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly Bulgarian Communist Party), Party of Bulgarian Social Democrats, Bulgaria Social Democracy (observer)

Communist government:
1) Grand coalition consisting of Coalition for Bulgaria (consisting of Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly Bulgarian Communist Party), Communist Party of Bulgaria (new), Party of Bulgarian Social Democrats, Political Movement Social Democrats, Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union, Civil Union “Roma,” Movement for Social Humanism, and Green Party of Bulgaria), National Movement Simeon II (tsarist, liberal), and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Turkish centrist): 2005-present
2) National Movement Simeon II (tsarist, liberal) in coalition with Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Turkish centrist): 2001-2005
3) United Democratic Forces (formerly Union of Democratic Forces, merger of Democratic Party, Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union-United, George’s Day Movement, and Movement for an Equal Public Model; infiltrated by secret police informers): 1997-2001
4) Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly Bulgarian Communist Party) supported by Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Turkish centrist): 1992-1997
5) Union of Democratic Forces (consisting of 11 political parties; infiltrated by secret police informers) supported by Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Turkish centrist): 1991-1992
6) Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly Bulgarian Communist Party): 1990-1991
7) Bulgarian Communist Party (merger of Bulgarian Workers’ Party and Bulgarian Social Democratic Party), sole legal party: 1948-1990
8) Bulgarian Workers’ Party, sole legal party: 1946-1948
9) Fatherland Front (consisting of Zveno Movement, Bulgarian Workers’ Party (communist), Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, and Agrarian Union) under Prime Minister Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov: 1944-1946 (monarchy abolished, nine-year-old Tsar Simeon II deposed)

Fascist government:
1) Pro-Mussolini corporatist military regime of Colonel Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov, parties and trade unions banned; supported by Zveno Movement, an association of largely republican army officers: 1934-1935

Presidents of “post”-communist Bulgaria:
1) Georgi Parvanov (Bulgarian Communist Party, “ex”-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party, alleged communist-era Committee for State Security (KDS) “Agent Gotse”): January 22, 2002-present
2) Petar Stoyanov (communist front Union of Democratic Forces/United Democratic Forces): January 22, 1997-January 22, 2002
3) Zhelyu Zhelev (Bulgarian Communist Party, communist front Union of Democratic Forces/United Democratic Forces): August 1, 1990-January 22, 1992, January 22, 1992-January 22, 1997
4) Petar Mladenov (Bulgarian Communist Party): April 3-July 6, 1990

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Bulgaria:
1) Boyko Borisov (communist-era Ministry of Internal Affairs/National Security Office employee, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria): July 27, 2009-present
2) Sergei Stanishev (“ex”-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party, born 1966 in Ukrainian SSR, graduated Moscow State University in 1994): August 17, 2005-July 27, 2009
3) Simeon Sakskoburggotski (Simeon II, son of Tsar Boris III; National Movement Simeon II): July 24, 2001-August 17, 2005
4) Ivan Kostov (communist front Union of Democratic Forces/United Democratic Forces): May 21, 1997-July 24, 2001
5) Stefan Sofiyanski (communist front Union of Democratic Forces/United Democratic Forces): February 13-May 21, 1997 (acting)
6) Zhan Videnov (Bulgarian Communist Party, “ex”-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party): January 25, 1995-February 13, 1997
7) Reneta Indzhova (“nonpartisan” head of “ex”-communist BSP-dominated government, installed by “ex”-communist President Zhelyu Zhelev): October 17, 1994-January 25, 1995 (acting)
8) Lyuben Berov (“nonpartisan” head of “ex”-communist BSP-dominated government, nominated by Turkish centrist Movement for Rights and Freedoms; caretaker government controlled by “Red Conglomerates”): December 30, 1992-October 17, 1994
9) Filip Dimitrov (communist front Union of Democratic Forces/United Democratic Forces, alleged communist-era Committee for State Security (KDS) collaborator): November 8, 1991-December 30, 1992 Parliament of “post”-communist country: National Assembly

Communist parties of “post”-communist Bulgaria:
1) Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP): Founded in 1990 by remnants of the old BKP, this Stalinist party operates under the leadership of Krum Borisov Zakhariev and holds membership in the International Communist Seminar. On September 4, 1992 former BKP leader Todor Zhivkov was sentenced to seven years in prison for crimes committed during his 35 years in power (1956-1989). Zhivkov died August 5, 1998.
2) Bulgarian Communist Party “Georgi Dimitrov”: Founded in 1999, this party is named after the first prime minister of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and operates under the leadership of Emil Christov.
3) Bulgarian Communist Party (Marxists): Founded in 1990 by remnants of the old BKP, this party operates under the leadership of Boris Petkov Petkov.
4) Bulgarian Communist Party of Bolsheviks: Founded in 1996, this party operates under the leadership of Todor Kostov Iliev.
5) Bulgarian Communist Party (Revolutionary): Founded in 1991 this party operates under the leadership of Angel Tsonev.
6) Bulgarian Revolutionary Youth Party: Founded in 1989, during the last days of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, this party operates under the leadership of Angel Tsonev.
7) Bulgarian Worker-Peasants’ Party: Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Georgi Ivanov Georgiev.
8) Bulgarian Workers’ Party (Communists): This party operates under the leadership of Ivan Mikhaylov Vodenicharski.
9) Bulgarian Workers’ Socialist Party: Founded in 1993, this party operates under the leadership of Chude Slavchev Georgiev.
10) Coalition for Bulgaria: Founded in 2001, this left-communist coalition is dominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
11) Communist Party of Bulgaria: Founded in 1996 this Stalinist party operates under the leadership of Aleksandur Dimitrov Paunov and associates with both the Coalition for Bulgaria and the International Communist Seminar.
12) Marxist Alternative: This communist faction operates within the Bulgarian Socialist Party under the leadership of Mitryu Yankov.
13) Marxist Platform: This communist faction operates within the Bulgarian Socialist Party under the leadership of Mincho Minchev.
14) Open Forum: This communist faction operates within the Bulgarian Socialist Party under the leadership of Krassimir Premyanov.
15) Renewed Communist Party of Bulgaria: Founded in 1991 this party operates under the leadership of Geno Vlakhov.
16) Union of Communists in Bulgaria: Founded in 1995 this party operates under the leadership of Vladimir Ivanov.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Bulgaria:
1) Alternative Social Liberal Party (ASP): Founded in February 1990 by members of the Alternative Socialist Union, a faction in the Bulgarian Communist Party, the ASP was called the Alternative Socialist Party until June 1991. The ASP participated independently in the election of June 1990 but joined the Union of the Democratic Forces (SDS) in October 1991. The SDS expelled the ASP at the beginning of 1993.
2) Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP): Renamed in 1990, the BSP is the successor of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP), which allegedly abandoned Marxism-Leninism. The BSP is a member of the Socialist International and since 2001 has operated under the leadership of Sergei Stanishev, who is also the current Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The party draws most of its support from rural areas. BSP has about 330,000 members (1995) organized in local organizations or interest clubs. — In November 2006 Prime Minister Stanishev denied that his government was obstructing the official investigation into the death of National Intelligence Service archive director Bozhidar Doychev, who allegedly shot himself with his own pistol on the 15th of that month. The International Herald Tribune reported on November 21, 2006: “Opposition legislators and commentators immediately contested the official explanation of Doychev’s death and alleged that the failure to report it suggested a cover-up. They based their accusations on the fact that the Parliament is preparing to vote on declassifying all of the Communist-era state security files, including the archive of the foreign intelligence directorate overseen by Doychev.” The same same report notes that Bulgaria is the only country of the former Soviet Bloc that has not released portions of its communist-era secret police records. — Previous party chairman include Alexander Lilov (1990-1991), Zhan Videnov (1991-1996), and Georgi Parvanov (1996-2001). — Videnov, who was prime minister between 1995 and 1997, was responsible for the serious economic crisis Bulgaria experienced between 1995 and 1996. During that crisis, Bulgarians’ standard of living dropped drastically, hyperinflation gripped the country, 100,000 young Bulgarians emigrated in search of economic opportunities abroad, and the Bulgarian mafia, variously known as 777, VIS-2, SIC and Multigroup, reigned with impunity throughout the country. Food and energy supplies collapsed during the winter of 1996, leading to nation-wide riots and strikes. Videnov’s cabinet resigend in February 1997. Despite significant evidence of their mismanagement, Videnov and other members of his cabinet were not prosecuted. — Parvanov, who has been president since 2002, joined the BKP in 1981, at which time he also became a researcher for the party’s Institute of History. He became Deputy Chair of the BSP Supreme Council in 1994, Chair of the BSP Supreme Council in 1996, and re-elected Chair of the BSP Supreme Council in 2000.
3) National Movement Simeon II (NMSII): The NMSII is the political vehicle of Simeon Borisov Sakskoburggotski (Tsar Simeon II), who was nine years old when the communist regime abolished the Bulgarian monarchy in 1946. Simeon II served as prime minister between 2001 and 2005, when the NMSII lost the parliamentary election and was forced to enter a coalition with the victorious Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Stoyan Ganev, former president of the 47th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, founded the NMSII in 2000. Ivan Kostov, prime minister between 1997 and 2001, leader of the Union of Democratic Forces between 1994 and 2001, and founder of the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, is an outspoken opponent of both the BSP and Simeon II for allying himself with the “ex”-communists. — Simeon II was only six years old upon ascending to the throne. Consequently, his uncle Prince Kyril of Bulgaria and two others were appointed regents. On September 9, 1944, Kyril and the other regents were removed in a Soviet-backed coup. The new communist government executed Prince Kyril and former Prime Minister Bogdan Filov, but Simeon remained on the throne with regents appointed by the leadership of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party, the predecessor of the Bulgarian Communist Party. — On September 15, 1946 a Soviet-backed referendum abolished the monarchy. The royal family found refuge in Egypt until 1951 when the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco granted asylum to the Bulgarian branch of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas. In 1955, when he turned eighteen, he proclaimed himself the Tsar of Bulgaria. In 1958 Simeon II enrolled at Valley Forge Military Academy and College near Philadelphia and graduated as a second lieutenant. Returning to Spain, Simeon II studied law and business administration, and became a businessman. In 1962 he married into Spanish aristocracy, namely, Doña Margarita Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela. In 1996 Simeon II visited Bulgaria for the first time since his childhood and was greeted by thousands of jubilant, pro-monarch Bulgarians.
4) National Union Attack (or Attack Coalition): Founded in 2005, the neo-fascist Attack Coalition is a merger of the National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland, the Bulgarian National Patriotic Party, and the Union of Patriotic Forces and Militaries of the Reserve Defense. The sudden and unexpected success of Attack has been attributed as the main cause of the unexpectedly poor performance of the “ex”-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party, which otherwise obtained the largest number of votes. Attack opposes NATO and the USA, is ambivalent toward the European Union, and is pro-Russian. Party leader and former television host, anti-Semite Volen Siderov, is an associate of US racist David Duke. This fact proves that the far right is simply a stalking horse for the Communist Bloc. Personnel have always migrated freely between fascism and communism.
5) Patriotic Union (PS): The so-called Red Conglomerates, or Bulgarian Communist Party business mafia, wielded enormous power during the caretaker government of Prime Minister Lyuben Berov (1992-1994), controlling the levers of political power through Multigroup, which operates most of the security and protection firms in Bulgaria and is staffed largely by former athletes and “ex”-officers of the First, Second, and Sixth Main Directorates of the communist-era Committee for State Security (KDS). During the December 1994 election campaign, Multigroup lavished funds on its own electoral platform, the Patriotic Union, which failed to obtain any seats in the Bulgarian parliament.
6) United Democratic Forces (SDS): Founded in December 1989 as the Union of Democratic Forces, the SDS was an alliance of 11 political parties opposed to communist rule. Longtime dissident philosopher and “ex”-communist Zhelyu Zhelev was elected party chair, while Petar Beron, a well-known environmental scientist, was chosen as secretary. In February 1997 the constituent parties of the SDS merged to form the United Democratic Forces. Allegedly expelled from the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1965, Zhelev was a co-founder and first chair of the Club for Support of Glasnost and Restructuring, which was a stepping stone to becoming chair of the Coordinating Council of the Union of Democratic Forces. — Filip Dimitrov, an SDS member and the first “post”-communist prime minister, allegedly collaborated with the communist regime. Between 1979 and 1990 Dimitrov worked as a lawyer in Sofia, a profession that would be impossible to enter without government approval, and beginning in 1989 he served as Secretary of the Bulgarian Lawyers’ Union. Bulgarian media have identified the office of the attorneys’ union latter as a meeting place for the communist-era Committee for State Security (KDS), Bulgaria’s secret service. Between 1978 and 1990 Petar Stoyanov, another SDS member and President of Bulgaria between 1997 and 2002, also worked as a lawyer, a profession that would be impossible to enter without government approval. — The KDS was implicated in the murder, using a ricin-tipped umbrella, of London-based dissident Georgi Markov in 1978. For nearly two decades the International Left denied the Bulgarian secret service’s involvement in the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. However, in 2006 the Italian parliament’s Mitrokhin Commission identified both the Soviet KGB and its satellite agency, the Bulgarian KDS, as Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca’s handlers.

Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied Bulgaria on September 9, 1944. The Soviet Army withdrew in 1947.

>Red World: Romania’s communist-dominated National Salvation Front origin of country’s major "new" parties; KGB overthrows Ceauşescu

>Time had stood still in Romania. Until recently. A revolution did take place in December (1989) and then in June. It was not the revolution that we saw on television and that was most likely a play scripted by the KGB and acted by the Army and Securitate with the innocent help of a cast of millions. It was a revolution in people’s souls when they suddenly felt no more fear. This revolution is going on still. Whoever let the tiger out of its cage is in no position to put it back again.
— Andrei Codrescu, Romanian-American journalist, The Hole in the Flag (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991)

Pictured below: Romanian President Traian Băsescu visits the White House on July 27, 2006. Băsescu is a “former” member of the Romanian Communist Party, the communist-dominated National Salvation Front that overthrew the Ceauşescu regime, and the ostensibly rightist Justice and Truth Alliance. Băsescu is also an alleged agent of the communist-era State Security Department (Securitate). In a live television debate with Adrian Năstase before the 2004 run-off presidential election, Băsescu remarked with considerable candor: “You know what Romania’s greatest curse is right now? It’s that Romanians have to choose between two former Communist Party members.”

Romania
Previous names: People’s Republic of Romania, April 13, 1948-1965; Socialist Republic of Romania, 1965-1989
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multi-party” state under covert communist control, exercised through National Salvation Front successors such as Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1989
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (January 1, 2007)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 29, 2004
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party (formerly left wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front)

Communist government:
1) Democratic Liberal Party (merger of Democratic Party, indirect successor of right wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front; and Liberal Democratic Party) and Social Democratic Party (indirect successor of left wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front): 2008-present
2) Justice and Truth Alliance (consisting of National Liberal Party and Democratic Party (formerly Democratic Party-National Salvation Front, right wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front)) and Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania: 2004-2008
3) Social Democratic Party (merger of Party of Social Democracy in Romania (formerly Democratic National Salvation Front) and Romanian Social Democratic Party) in coalition with Social Democratic Pole of Romania, and Romanian Humanist Party (now Conservative Party of Romania): 2001-2004
4) Party of Social Democracy in Romania (formerly Democratic National Salvation Front) in coalition with Romanian Social Democratic Party, Social Democratic Pole of Romania, and Romanian Humanist Party: 2000-2001
5) Romanian Democratic Convention (consisting of Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party, National Liberal Party, National Liberal Party-Democratic Convention, Alternative of Romania Party, Ecologist Party of Romania, and Romanian Ecologist Federation) in coalition with Democratic Party (formerly Democratic Party-National Salvation Front, right wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front) and Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania: 1996-2000
6) Party of Social Democracy in Romania (formerly Democratic National Salvation Front) in coalition with Romanian National Unity Party, Greater Romania Party, and Socialist Party of Labor: 1994-1996
7) Party of Social Democracy in Romania (formerly Democratic National Salvation Front): 1993-1994
8) Democratic National Salvation Front (formerly left wing of “ex”-communist National Salvation Front): 1992-1993
9) National Salvation Front (second- and third-rank members of Romanian Communist Party): 1990-1992
10) Provisional National Unity Council (dominated by “ex”-communist National Salvation Front): 1990
11) National Salvation Front (second- and third-rank members of Romanian Communist Party): 1989-1990 (seized power in coup d’etat)
12) Romanian Communist Party (original name restored), sole legal party: 1965-1989
13) Romanian Workers’ Party (formerly Romanian Communist Party), sole legal party: 1948-1965
14) Romanian Communist Party, sole legal party: 1947-1948
15) Ploughman’s Front in alliance with National Democratic Front (Romanian Communist Party, Union of Patriots, Union of Hungarian Workers, Socialist Peasants’ Party, and Romanian Social Democratic Party): 1945-1947

Fascist government:
1) Pro-Axis military regime of General Ion Antonescu, with cabinet posts filled by members of Legion of the Archangel Michael (Iron Guard): 1940-1944

Presidents of “post”-communist Romania:
1) Traian Băsescu (Romanian Communist Party, National Salvation Front, Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party; alleged agent of communist-era State Security Department, or Securitate): December 20, 2004-present
2) Ion Iliescu (Romanian Communist Party, National Salvation Front, Democratic National Salvation Front, Party of Social Democracy in Romania, Social Democratic Party of Romania, Social Democratic Party): December 20, 2000-December 20, 2004
3) Emil Constantinescu (Romanian Communist Party, Romanian Democratic Convention): November 29, 1996-December 20, 2000
4) Ion Iliescu (Romanian Communist Party, National Salvation Front, Democratic National Salvation Front, Party of Social Democracy in Romania, Social Democracy Party of Romania, Social Democratic Party): December 22, 1989-November 29, 1996

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Romania:
1) Emil Boc (leader, Democratic Liberal Party; nominated by President Traian Băsescu): December 22, 2008-present
2) Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu (National Liberal Party; Vice President, European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party): December 29, 2004-December 22, 2008
3) Eugen Bejinariu (Social Democratic Party): December 21-29, 2004 (interim)
4) Adrian Năstase (Romanian Communist Party, Social Democratic Party): December 28, 2000-December 21, 2004
5) Mugur Isărescu (Senior Researcher, World Economy Institute, Bucharest, 1971-1990; Governor, National Bank of Romania, 1990): December 22, 1999-December 28, 2000
6) Alexandru Athanasiu (Civic Alliance Party, Social Democratic Party): December 13-22, 1999 (interim)
7) Radu Vasile (Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party, Democratic Party): April 17, 1998-December 13, 1999
8) Gavril Dejeu (Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party): March 30-April 17, 1998 (interim)
9) Victor Ciorbea (Romanian Communist Party, Romanian Democratic Convention, Christian-Democratic National Peasants’ Party, Christian-Democratic People’s Party): December 12, 1996-March 30, 1998
10) Nicolae Văcăroiu (Romanian Communist Party, Social Democratic Party): November 4, 1992-December 12, 1996
11) Theodor Stolojan (National Salvation Front (“ex”-members of Romanian Communist Party), National Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party; alleged treasurer of communist-era State Security Department): October 1, 1991-November 4, 1992
12) Petre Roman (Romanian Communist Party, National Salvation Front (“ex”-members of Romanian Communist Party), Democratic Party (formerly Democratic Party-National Salvation Front, right wing of National Salvation Front)): December 26, 1989-June 20, 1990 (interim), June 20, 1990-October 1, 1991

Parliament of “post”-communist country: Romanian Parliament, consisting of Chamber of Deputies and Senate, meeting in the Palace of the Parliament, or House of the People

Communist parties of “post”-communist Romania:
1) Association for Workers’ Emancipation (AEM): Founded in 1991 this Trotskyist party operates under the leadership of Marian Tudor and associates with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers’ International (ILCWI).
2) League of Communists of Romania (LCR): Founded in 1995 this party operates under the leadership of Marin Trusca.
3) New Romanian Communist Party-Initiative Committee (NPCR): Founded in 2003 this party operates under the leadership of Petre Ignat.
4) Party of Communists-Without PCR Members (PC-N): Founded in 1996 this party operates under the leadership of Gheorghe Ungureanu.
5) Resistance: This Trotskyist party is a split from PMR.
6) Romanian Communist Party (PCR): Founded in 1991 this unregistered Stalinist party operates under the leadership of Alexandru Pantazi.
7) Romanian Socialist Party (PSR): Founded in 1992 as a split from the Socialist Labor Party, this communist party operates under the leadership of Ion Ciuca.
8) Romanian Socialist Workers’ Party (PSMR): Founded in 1996 as a split from the Socialist Labor Party, this communist party operates under the leadership of Vasile Pandele.
9) Socialist Alliance Party (PAS): Founded in 1990 as the Socialist Labor Party (PSM), some members defected to the Social Democracy Party of Romania (PDSR) in 2000 and again to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 2003. The PAS operates under the leadership of Constantin Rotaru.
10) United Left Party (PSU): Founded in 2005 by a merger of the United Socialist Party (PSU) and Romanian Workers’ Party (PMR), the new party operates under the leadership of Ilie Neacsu.
11) Workers’ Romania Association (ARM): This Stalinist political association, which operates under the leadership of Daniel Dediu, intends to found a Workers’ Romania Party.
12) Workers’ League Miron Cozma (LMMC): This Trotskyist party operates under the leadership of Constantin Cretan and associates with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers’ International (ILCWI).

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Romania:
1) Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L): The centrist PD-L is an indirect successor of the “ex”-communist National Salvation Front, which changed its name on May 28, 1993 to Democratic Party-National Salvation Front, later becoming the Democratic Party (PD). In December 2007 the Democratic and Liberal Democratic (PLD) parties merged to form the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L). The current party leader is Prime Minister Emil Boc, but the PD-L is widely viewed as a political vehicle for President Traian Băsescu.
2) National Salvation Front (FSN): In March 1989 six prominent members of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) wrote an open letter to Romanian dictator President Nicolae Ceausescu that condemned his abuses of power and his economic policies. The Western media, including Radio Free Europe, circulates this “letter of six” where it is heralded as the manifesto of the underground National Salvation Front. On December 21, 80,000 to 100,000 people gather outside PCR headquarters in Bucharest’s Republican Square. Ceauşescu and his wife flee in a helicopter, but are captured, tried, and executed. The FSN was officially formed on December 22 1989, at which point the leadership of the FSN, consisting of second- and third-rank CP members, was assumed by Ion Iliescu. Iliescu named Petre Roman as interim Prime Minister. The FSN decreed the abolition of the one-party system and the convocation of elections, and organized itself as a party. The two most significant pre-communist Romanian parties, the National Peasants’ Party and the National Liberal Party, were reorganized and promptly protested throughout late January and February 1990 against the FSN government, which the other parties viewed as a continuation of the old communist regime.
3) Social Democratic Party (PSD): Founded in 2001 by a merger of Social Democracy Party of Romania (PDSR) and Romanian Social Democratic Party, the PSD operates under the leadership of Mircea Geoană. In 2000 some members of the Socialist Alliance Party defected to the PDSR and again to the PSD in 2003. The PSD traces its origins to the left wing of the “ex”-communist National Salvation Front, known as the Democratic National Salvation Front, which defected from the main body on April 7, 1992.

Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied Romania on August 20, 1944. The Soviet Army withdrew in 1958.

>Red World: Hoxha’s homeland: Albanian communists exercise control through Socialist and Democratic Parties; ex-president denies Osama links

> Pictured here: Sali Berisha, the “ex”-communist current Prime Minister and former President of Albania. Formerly a member of the Albanian Labor Party, he is currently a member of the “non”-communist Democratic Party of Albania. As president (1992-1997), he oversaw the country’s descent into the 1997 economic crisis that, from the Marxist viewpoint, cast an unfavorable light on Albania’s “transition to capitalism.” In 1997 the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania, portraying itself as the country’s savior, won the parliamentary election.

Republic of Albania
Previous names: People’s Republic of Albania
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Socialist Party of Albania (formerly communist Albanian Labor Party), communist-infiltrated parties such as Democratic Party of Albania, and other potemkin parties
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Anarchy and riots related to public’s opposition to economic crisis, consisting of International Monetary Fund’s policy in Albania, epidemic of pyramid schemes, and collapse of personal savings, 1997
Communist government:
1) Democratic Party of Albania (communist infiltrated): 2005-present
2) Socialist Party of Albania (formerly communist Albanian Labor Party): 1997-2005
3) Democratic Party of Albania (communist infiltrated): 1992-1997
4) Socialist Party of Albania (formerly communist Albanian Labor Party): 1991-1992
6) Albanian Labor Party (formerly Communist Party of Albania), sole legal party: 1946-1991
7) Provisional government dominated by Communist Party of Albania: 1944-1946
Fascist government:
1) Albanian National Socialist Party (formerly Guard of Great Albania), under German military occupation: 1943-1944 (deposed by communist-dominated National Liberation Movement/Army)
2) Guard of Great Albania (formerly Albanian Fascist Party): 1943
3) Albanian Fascist Party, branch of Italy’s National Fascist Party under Italian military occupation: 1939-1943
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1961)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-1968
Socialist International presence: Socialist Party of Albania (formerly communist Albanian Labor Party), Social Democratic Party of Albania
Presidents of “post”-communist Albania:
1) Bamir Topi (communist-infiltrated Democratic Party of Albania, independent): July 24, 2007-present
2) Alfred Moisiu (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Vice Minister of Defense, 1981-1982; Head, Engineering and Fortification Directory in the Ministry of Defense, 1971-1981; Order of Red Star): July 24, 2002-July 24, 2007
3) Rexhep Meidani (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Professor Doctor, Physics, University of Tirana, 1966-1996): July 24, 1997-July 24, 2002
4) Sali Berisha (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, leader of Democratic Party of Albania; Professor Doctor, Medicine, University of Tirana, 1980-1990): April 9, 1992-July 24, 1997
5) Ramiz Alia (Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Head of State, People’s Republic of Albania, 1985-1991): April 30, 1991-April 9, 1992
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Albania:
1) Sali Berisha (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, leader of Democratic Party of Albania): September 11, 2005-present
2) Fatos Nano (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Professor, Economics, Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies): July 31, 2002-September 11, 2005
3) Pandeli Majko (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania): February 22-July 31, 2002
4) Ilir Meta: October 29, 1999-February 22, 2002
5) Pandeli Majko (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania): October 2, 1998-October 29, 1999
6) Fatos Nano (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Professor, Economics, Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies): July 24, 1997-October 2, 1998
7) Bashkim Fino (“ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania): March 11-July 24, 1997
8) Aleksander Meksi (communist-infiltrated Democratic Party of Albania): April 13, 1992-March 11, 1997.
9) Vilson Ahmeti (nonpartisan): December 10, 1991-April 13, 1992
10) Ylli Bufi (“ex”-Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania): June 5-December 10, 1991
11) Fatos Nano (Albanian Labor Party, “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania; Professor, Economics, Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies): February 22-June 4, 1991
Parliament of “post”-communist country: Assembly of Albania, or People’s Assembly
Communist parties of “post”-communist country:
1) Albanian Communist Party (PKSH): Founded in 1991 as a split from the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Albania, this party operates under the leadership of Hysni Milloshi. The PKSH associates with the International Communist Seminar and the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (Hoxhaist).
2) Albanian Labor Party (PPSH): Refounded in 2002 by factions of the Albanian Communist Party and the Party of United Communists (PKBSH), the PPSH operates under the leadership of Muharrem Xhafa.
3) Albanian Socialist Alliance: This party operates under the leadership of Rasim Mulgeci.
4) Communist Party of Albania “8th of November”: This party operates under the leadership of P. Çuni.
5) National Unity Party (PUK): This nationalist left party operates under the leadership of Idajet Beqiri.
6) Party for Defence of Workers’ Rights: This party operates under the leadership of Kadri Mehmet Isufaj.
7) Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI): Founded in 2004 as a split from the Socialist Party of Albania, this party operates under the leadership of Ilir Meta.
8) Union of Albanian Workers: This radical left party operates under the leadership of Shefqet Musaraj.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist country:
1) Democratic Party of Albania (PDS): On December 11, 1990 the communist government of Albania permitted the establishment of opposition parties. The next day, December 12, the PDS was founded. The Democratic Party is correctly characterized as a communist-infiltrated organization in view of the “ex”-communists who hold membership in the PDS. This includes current Prime Minister and former President Sali Berisha.
2) Socialist Party of Albania (PSS): In June 1991 the long-ruling Albanian Labor Party (PPSh) was renamed as the Socialist Party of Albania. Between its founding in 1941 and 1948, this Marxist-Leninist party was known as the Communist Party of Albania. Between 19xx and 1985 Enver Hoxha was the First Secretary of the PPSh. Article 3 of Albania’s 1976 Constitution identified the PPS as the “leading political force of the state and of the society.” The PSS operated under the leadership of Fatos Nano from 1991 until September 1, 2005, at which point Edi Rama assumed control. The PSS is a member of the Socialist International, and is currently led by Edi Rama. Unlike other ruling communist parties, Albania’s working class and peasantry had a tiny presence in the PPSh elite. Instead, the communist elite were intellectuals, many of whom had been educated abroad. Former Politburo member Xhelil Gjoni delivered the keynote address at the June 1991 Tenth Party Congress. At the time, he openly attacked the late dictator, Hoxha, criticize Alia, and urged the party to make the transition to a democratic socialist party. In July 1991 the Albanian government allegedly dismantled the country’s secret policy agency known as the Sigurimi, establishing in its place a National Information Service that would respect the civil liberties of Albanians.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops have never occupied Albania.

The Islamo-Marxist Nexus: Former Albanian President Denies Bin Laden Link

The following article appeared in the October 8, 2001 issue of Le Figaro:

The neo-Communist president of Albanian, Rexhep Meidani, has categorically denied that his country harbours terrorist networks connected to Osama bin Laden. He said that his country was instead proving to be a loyal ally of the Americans and the British, having allowed them to use Albanian territory and airspace during the Nato attacks on Yugoslavia. He said that there was already a Nato office within the Albanian ministry of defence and that the Albanian secret police cooperate closely with their opposite numbers in Britain and the US. Mr. Meidani said that he was not disturbed by the prospect, alluded to recently by Vladimir Putin, that Russia herself might one day become a member of Nato.

>Latin America File: Neo-Sandinistas defend Cuba, denounce US imperialism; Parlacen to convene in Managua, four new suspects held in ARENA slayings

>On the occasion of receiving Cuba’s new ambassador, the neo-Sandinista regime in Managua has dropped the facade of “social democracy” and confirmed its commitment to international communism by Comandante Ortega’s promise of “unrestricted support” for the communist state in international forums. Pictured here: Comrades Fidel and Dan during the First Cold War (1945-1991). Translation below courtesy Babelfish with some refinements by your resident blogger.

Nicaragua promises unrestricted support to Cuba in international forums

President Daniel Ortega announced that Nicaragua will offer unrestricted support to Cuba in all international forums, including the Council of Human Rights, and against the US blockade of the Caribbean island, in the United Nations General Assembly

By: PL
20 of March of 2007 22:00:37

“Now they can be sure that Nicaragua is going to give the vote so that the blockade rises to Cuba, and for the human rights of the Cuban people are respected,” assured Ortega, when receiving the new ambassador of the Cuba in Managua, Luís Hernandez.

Nicaragua’s chief executive remembered that after the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, the subsequent governments reduced to a minimum the bilateral bonds and even tried to erase the historical relations between the peoples of Nicaragua and Cuba.

Ortega indicated, in addition, that during last the 16 years Nicaragua even became an ally of the United States in the Council of Human Rights of Geneva.

“Here we had governments that were going to vote in line with imperialism,” denounced Ortega.

The Sandinista leader assured, nevertheless, that from now on there will be a fortification of the nexuses between the two peoples, which are part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

“I am sure that this step which we are giving is in correspondence with the political, ideological, historical, and revolutionary bonds that unite us with the people of Cuba, with Fidel Castro, with his Revolution,” Ortega stated.

This Tuesday Hernandez became the first ambassador whom the Sandinista chief executive personally received since assuming power on January 10.

“After 16 years, we again have an ambassador of socialist Cuba, free, heroic, in the land of Sandino,” exclaimed the chief of state Ortega, as he welcomed the new ambassador to the land of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

In the wake of the assassination of three ARENA deputies in Guatemala on February 19 and the subsequent murder of their alleged assassins, four anti-gang unit police officers, less than a week later, we have offered evidence that implicates in this plot Latin America’s narco-communist-terrorist left, of which the FSLN is an integral component. We also reported the neo-Sandinista regime’s speedy offer, citing security issues, to host the Central American Parliament, to which the Salvadoran politicans were travelling, on Nicaraguan soil. Events related to the “red spread” in the Western Hemisphere are moving quickly. Parlacen will convene next week in Managua. Translation below courtesy Babelfish with some refinements by your resident blogger. Pictured here: President Daniel Ortega receives delegation from Central American Parliament.

PARLACEN will hold its session next week in Nicaragua

The Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) will hold its session next week in Nicaragua, as an alternative seat offered by President Daniel Ortega, following the insecure situation in Guatemala, confirmed a legislative source today

By: PL
21 of March of 2007 12:40:27

The vice-president of the subregional organ, Francisco Campbell, declared to channel 4 of the local television that the deputies will meet in the old Presidential House, which is not used, with that function by the new authorities.

Next week session in the Presidential House was generously offered by President Ortega, reiterated Campbell, one of the 20 Nicaraguan deputies in the Central American organization.

The temporary transfer of the seat of the PARLACEN occurs in the context of the crisis derived by the murder of three Salvadoran deputies in Guatemala on February 19, reminded the legislator.

The situation worsened with the later execution of the four material authors of the crime in the maximum security jail where they had been incarcerated.

“Most worrisome in this case is the involvement of high authorities of the National Police of Guatemala,” said Campbell, observing that the assassins of the deputies were officials and agents of the police forces.

The vice-president of the PARLACEN clarified, however, that the session in Managua will be temporary, because the decision on the definitive transfer of the seat is the prerogative of the Central American presidents.

According to their decision, next April, the deputies of the region will make their ordinary sessions in Panama.

The regional legislative organ was founded in 1991, and includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

Meanwhile, Guatemalan law enforcement–or at least those segments that have not been bought by Latin America’s narco-communist-terrorist left–have apprehended four new suspects in the ARENA assassination case. According to official reports, the four suspects are gang members but no motive has been established. This is intriguing. We have already speculated that the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front-linked gang Mara Salvatrucha, which rioted in the same jail where the four cops were murdered, might also be linked to the murder of Eduardo D’Aubuisson and his two colleagues. Salvadoran officials, however, reject the contention that the ARENA deputies were themselves linked to drug trafficking. Finally, we blogged some weeks ago that the Sao Paulo Forum, the organizational embodiment of the Latin American Left, convened in San Salvador, under the auspices of the communist FMLN, barely one month before the assassinations.

4 Held in Deaths of Salvador Lawmakers
Mar 20, 2007
By JULIE WATSON Associated Press Writer

Four people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver, Guatemala’s interior minister said.

Authorities, however, gave conflicting versions over what they believe were the motives behind the slayings.

Interior Minister Carlos Vielman said the four suspects were tied to drug traffickers and had ordered corrupt police officers to kidnap the politicians and bring them to an isolated, rural area outside Guatemala City to search their vehicle for drugs.

The charred bodies of the three Salvadoran politicians, all members of the Central American Parliament, were found along a rural road on Feb. 19. Two lawmakers were burned alive, and the driver and the third lawmaker were killed before their bodies were set afire, an autopsy showed.However, prosecutor Alvaro Matus, who is leading the investigation, said evidence indicated the lawmakers’ vehicle was targeted by mistake.

“The inspection that was done of the car found no evidence that any alterations were made to the car or that it had any hidden compartments to hide drugs, money, arms or other items,” he said.

Matus said the four suspects – three men and a woman – belong to a gang, but his investigators have not found links to drug trafficking. He said investigators were still trying to determine the nature of the gang, but said it was “highly dangerous” and had exchanged phone calls with the corrupt police officers before the killings.

Officials have identified seven national police officers as suspects in the killings. Four were arrested but later killed in prison under circumstances that remain murky. One officer is in custody, and two remain at large.

Vielman said three of the gang members owned a gas station in Jalpatagua, 60 miles southeast of Guatemala City on the border with El Salvador, that was used as a front for moving cocaine through Guatemala to Mexico and the United States.

The contradictions added to the mystery behind the case. More than a month after the grisly slayings, authorities have not determined a clear motive for the crime.

Iduvina Hernandez, director of the Institute of Security in Democracy, a nonprofit group pushing for judicial and police reforms, said politics are at play in the investigation.

She said the prosecutor’s office appears to want to quickly close the case while the national police, which falls under the Interior Ministry, is under pressure to offer a more substantial explanation for the killings and why its officers could have been involved.

“There is clearly competition going on between the prosecutor’s office and the national police,” she said.The case has laid bare the extent of corruption within Guatemala’s forces. On Tuesday, Guatemala’s Congress gave Vielman a vote of no-confidence. President Oscar Berger, who has said he is happy with the minister’s work, now must decide whether to support Vielman in his job.

The new suspects were identified as Mario Javier Lemus Escobar, Obdulio Waldemar de Leon Lemus, Carlos Orellana Donis and Linda Castillo Orellana. They were captured in Jalpatagua.

Authorities said they do not know if the four were also behind the deaths of the four police officers who were gunned down in their prison cells. Witnesses blamed a group of men dressed as prison guards who were able to get through eight locked doors at the maximum security prison.

Prosecutors blamed imprisoned gang members and have detained two dozen guards and the prison’s director while they investigate.

One of the slain parliament members was Eduardo D’Aubuisson, son of El Salvador’s late right-wing leader Roberto D’Aubuisson, which initially prompted speculation about political motives.

El Salvador’s Interior Minister Astor Escalante said his government was satisfied with the arrests, but said important parts of the puzzle are still missing “such as establishing a motive.”

Salvadoran officials have denied the lawmakers were linked to drug traffickers.

Source: TimesDaily.com

>Red World: Hungarian politicians, left and right, tainted by collaboration with old communist regime; PM former communist youth leader

>Pictured here: Hungary’s ex-Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. The Hungarian Socialist Party is a direct descendant of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP). Pictured below, on left: In the old communist regime Gyurcsány was leader of the MSZMP’s Communist Youth League (KISZ).

In September 2006 a videotape emerged of Prime Minister Gyurcsány in which he admitted that he lied about the state of Hungary’s economy to win the 2006 parliamentary election. Gyurcsány later confirmed the authenticity of his remarks, made at a meeting of Socialist Party on May 26, 2006, at his personal blog:

“There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have. Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true. You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?”

In October demonstrators used the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution to call for the Socialist government’s resignation. Should we be faulted for concluding that Gyurcsány is another lying communist?

Republic of Hungary
Previous names: People’s Republic of Hungary: August 18, 1949-October 20, 1989
Type of state: “Post”-communist multiparty state under covert communist influence, exercised through Hungarian Socialist Party (formerly Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, MSZMP), Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party (MKM, hardline faction of old MSZMP), and (restored) Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (split from MKM)
Neo-communist renewal: Hungarian Revolution, 1956
Neo-communist re-renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1989
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (May 1, 2004)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 12, 1999
Socialist International presence: Hungarian Socialist Party (formerly communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party), Social Democratic Party

Communist/crypto-communist government:
1) Hungarian Socialist Party (“ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party) in coalition with Alliance of Free Democrats (communist infiltrated): 2002-2010
2) Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union (infiltrated by secret police informants) in coalition with Hungarian Democratic Forum (Christian democratic) and Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party (communist infiltrated): 1998-1992
3) Hungarian Socialist Party (“ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party) in coalition with Alliance of Free Democrats (communist infiltrated): 1994-1998
4) Hungarian Democratic Forum (Christian democratic) in coalition with Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party (communist infiltrated) and Christian Democratic People’s Party: 1990-1994
5) Hungarian Socialist Party (“ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party): 1989-1990
6) Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (formerly Hungarian Workers’ Party), sole legal party: 1956-1989
7) People’s Independent Front, consisting of Hungarian Workers’ Party (merger of Communist Party of Hungary and Social Democratic Party) and Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party: 1947-1956
8) Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party in coalition with Communist Party of Hungary (under Soviet military occupation): 1945-1947
9) Hungarian Soviet Republic under leadership of Socialist Party of Hungary (merger of Communist Party of Hungary and Social Democratic Party): 1919

Fascist government:
1) Hungarian State under leadership of Prime Minister Ferenc Szálasi and Arrow Cross-Hungarianist Movement (formerly Party of National Will), under German military occupation: 1944-1945
2) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister Döme Sztójay legalized Arrow Cross-Hungarianist Movement, installed under German military occupation: 1944
3) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister László Bárdossy, later collaborated with successors Döme Sztójay and Ferenc Szálasi: 1941-1942
4) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki (Movement of Hungarian Life) joined Hungary to Tripartite Pact: 1939-1940
5) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister Béla Imrédy (Movement of Hungarian Life, Party of Hungarian Renewal) advocated totalitarianism; later joined Sztójay cabinet: 1938-1939
6) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi advocated totalitarianism: 1936-1938
7) Pro-Axis government of Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös (Party of National Unity, Hungarian National Defence Association) facilitated purge of communists from Hungarian society and advocated totalitarianism: 1932-1936

Presidents of “post”-communist Hungary:
1) László Sólyom (co-founder Hungarian Democratic Forum, supported by Fidesz, “nonpartisan”): August 5, 2005-present
2) Ferenc Mádl (born 1931, “nonpartisan”): August 4, 2000-August 5, 2005
3) Árpád Göncz (Alliance of Free Democrats): May 2, 1990-August 4, 2000
4) Mátyás Szűrös (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Party): October 18, 1989-May 2, 1990 (interim)

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Hungary:
1) Viktor Orbán (Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union, Soros Foundation scholar): May 29, 2010-present
2) Gordon Bajnai (independent): April 14, 2009-May 29, 2010
3) Ferenc Gyurcsány (leader of Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party’s Communist Youth League (KISZ), “ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Party): September 29, 2004-April 14, 2009
4) Péter Medgyessy (nominated by “ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Party, self-confessed Ministry of Interior counterespionage officer before 1989): May 27, 2002-September 29, 2004
5) Viktor Orbán (Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union, Soros Foundation scholar): July 6, 1998-May 27, 2002
6) Gyula Horn (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Hungarian Socialist Party): July 15, 1994-July 6, 1998
7) Péter Boross (Federation of Young Democrats “Fidesz”): December 12, 1993-July 15, 1994
8) József Antall (Hungarian Democratic Forum): May 3, 1990-12 December 12, 1993
9) Miklós Németh (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, “ex’-communist Hungarian Socialist Party): November 23, 1988-May 3, 1990

Parliament of “post”-communist country: National Assembly of Hungary

Communist parties of “post”-communist Hungary:
1) Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party (MKM): MKM was born on December 17, 1989 as a reorganized version of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP). Its chairman is Gyula Thürmer. It has always opposed capitalism, and has never been represented in the Parliament since the 1989 change of regime. It was born under the same name as its predecessor, “Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party” and changed its name to “Workers’ Party” in 1993. In the same year, a group of hardliners broke away to form the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party. It took its present name on November 12 2005 when a faction separated from it to form Workers’ Party of Hungary 2006 (Magyarországi Munkáspárt 2006), led by János Fratanolo. At the last legislative elections, on the 9th of April 2006, the party won 0.41% of the popular vote and no seats.
2) Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP): Founded in 1993 the “new” MSZMP is a split from the Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party, itself a descendant from the old MSZMP, which ruled the People’s Republic of Hungary as a communist dictatorship between 1949 and 1989.
3) Left Alternative Association (BAL): Founded in 1988, this party is left-socialist in orientation.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Hungary:
1) Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ): Founded on November 13, 1988, under Hungary’s old communist regime, the SZDSZ is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and the Liberal International. The SZDSZ draws most of is support from Budapest. SZDSZ provided the first freely elected President of the Third Hungarian Republic, Árpád Göncz, and the Mayor of Budapest, Gábor Demszky, in office since 1990.
2) Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP): The MSZP is the self-declared successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP), which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The MSZP elected to retain the substantial assets of the MSZMP, rather than distribute the property among the newly created democratic parties. Some members of the former communist elite also maintained political influence in the MSZP. Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy, who while not a party member was nominated by the MSZP for that role in 2002, was by his own admission a counterespionage officer, code named “D-209,” for the communist Ministry of Interior before 1989. The history of the MSZP stretches all the way back to Bela Kun’s Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919. Mátyás Rákosi, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary (MKP) and its successor, the Hungarian Workers’ Party (MDP), between 1945 and 1956, as well as Prime Minister between 1952 and 1953, participated in the Kun regime.
3) Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union (MPS): Founded on March 30, 1988, under Hungary’s old communist regime, the Federation of Young Democrats, as the party was initially called, consisted of law students from Budapest. Former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is a member of Fidesz, was also a Soros Foundation scholar. One of the first Fidesz politicians to be elected to the Hungarian parliament was academic, television host, and theater critic Peter Molnar Gal. Gal is alleged to have been a secret police informant between 1963 and 1989. From 1990 to 1998, he sat on parliamentary committees that addressed culture, press, and the constitution.
4) Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF): Small Christian Democratic party founded in 1987, under Hungary’s old communist regime.
5) Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party (FKFPP): Founded in 1908, the original party won an overwhelming majority in the first elections after the Second World War, resulting in its leader, Zoltán Tildy, becoming prime minister. The Smallholders-dominated parliament established a republic in 1946 with Tildy as president. He was succeeded as prime minister by Ferenc Nagy. However, the Soviet occupation of the country led to a socialist government, despite the fact that only seventy members of parliament belonged to the Hungarian Communist Party. — István Dobi (1898-1968), the communist prime minister between December 10, 1948 and August 14, 1952 began his career in the Smallholders Party. Dobi was a member of the left-wing faction of that party and advocated cooperation with the communists. By 1948 when communism became completely established in Hungary, Dobi defected from the Smallholders and joined the Communist Party. Some historians believe that Dobi was a Soviet agent for the entire time that he was in the Smallholders party. Dobi immediately became a high-ranking communist. After his stint as prime minister, he served as chairman of the presidential council from 1952 until his retirement in April 1967. He was officially the second or third most powerful politician in Hungary, and supported the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was a winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.

Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied Debrecen on December 21, 1944 and Budapest on January 18, 1945. — Later, during the 1956 anti-communist revolution, troops from the five Soviet divisions stationed in Hungary re-entered Budapest and surrounded the parliament building on October 24 in support of the communist government. On October 30 Soviet troops withdrew to their garrisons in the countryside. In the meanwhile the Soviet Army augmented its presence in Hungary with another 12 divisions and on November 4 re-entered Budapest to decisively crush the revolution. The Hungarian Army’s response was uncoordinated since rank-and-file soldiers, unlike their officers, were overwhelmingly anti-Soviet. The last anti-communist insurgents called for a ceasefire on November 10. In May 1957 the Soviet Union bolstered its troop levels in Hungary still further, while its satellite was compelled to accept by treaty the permanent presence of the Soviet Army on its soil. — The Soviet Army finally withdrew from Hungary on June 16, 1990.

>Red World: Slovakia: Communist Bloc Trojan horse in EU and NATO; communists rule through Smer and Movement for a Democratic Slovakia

> Pictured here: Ivan Gasparovic, “ex”-communist and current President of Slovakia, at NATO’s Brussels headquarters on November 24, 2004. Earlier that year Slovakia was welcomed as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Slovak Republic
Constituent member of Czechoslovakia (with capital in Prague):
1) Czech and Slovak Federal Republic: 1990-1992
2) Czechoslovak Socialist Republic: 1960-1990
3) Czechoslovak Republic: 1948-1960
Previous name:
1) Slovak Socialist Republic: January 1, 1969-March 1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Direction-Social Democracy (“Smer”), People’s Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, and Communist Party of Slovakia
Neo-communist renewal: Velvet Revolution, 1989
Neo-communist re-renewal: Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (“Velvet Divorce”), 1993
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (May 1, 2004)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 29, 2004
Socialist International presence: Direction-Social Democracy (Smer, “ex”-communist), Party of the Democratic Left (before merger into Smer, “ex”-communist)
Communist government:
1) Direction-Social Democracy (“Smer,” absorbed Party of Democratic Left (“ex”-members of Slovak section of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), Social Democratic Alternative, and Social Democratic Party of Slovakia (founded by “ex”-communist Alexander Dubcek)) in coalition with People’s Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (“ex”-members of Slovak section of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) and Slovak National Party (neo-fascist): 2006-present
2) Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (formerly Slovak Democratic Union) in various coalitions with Christian Democratic Movement, Alliance of the New Citizen, Party of the Hungarian Coalition, and Free Forum: 2000-2006
3) Slovak Democratic Union (consisting of Christian Democratic Movement, Democratic Party, Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party of Slovakia (“ex”-communist), and Green Party of Slovakia): 1998-2000
4) Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (“ex”-members of Slovak section of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) in coalition with Slovak National Party (neo-fascist): 1994-1998
5) Reformist government under Prime Minister Jozef Moravčík: 1994
6) Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (“ex”-members of Slovak section of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, split from communist front Public Against Violence) in coalition with Slovak National Party (neo-fascist): 1992-1994
7) Civic Forum (Czech Republic)/Public Against Violence (Slovakia; organized by Charter 77 Foundation, George Soros-funded KGB-GRU-StB-communist front): 1990-1992
8) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and puppet parties, including Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, Czechoslovak People’s Party, Czechoslovak Socialist Party, Slovak Freedom Party, and Party of Slovak Revival): 1989-1990
9) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (absorbed Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party with remnants in exile in London) and puppet parties, including Czechoslovak People’s Party, Czechoslovak Socialist Party (formerly Czechoslovak National Socialist Party), Slovak Freedom Party, and Party of Slovak Revival), sole legal coalition: 1948-1989
10) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (liberal, unrelated to German National Socialist Workers’ Party), Czechoslovak People’s Party (Catholic), Democratic Party (Slovak), Labour Party (Slovak), and Freedom Party (Slovak)): 1945-1948
11) Slovak Soviet Republic under leadership of communist Antonín Janoušek and military occupation of Hungarian Soviet Republic’s Red Guards: 1919
Fascist government:
1) Republic of Slovakia under clerico-fascist leadership of President/Jesuit Father Jozef Tiso, Slovak People’s Party (founded by Father Andrej Hlinka in 1913), and paramilitary Hlinka Guards; supported by German military occupation: 1939-1945
2) Autonomous region of Slovakia within Czecho-Slovak Republic under clerico-fascist leadership of President/Jesuit Father Jozef Tiso and Slovak People’s Party: 1938-1939
Presidents of “post”-communist Slovakia:
1) Ivan Gašparovič (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist People’s Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia; nominated by Movement for Democracy and People’s Union, endorsed by “ex”-communist Direction-Social Democracy): June 15, 2004-present
2) Rudolf Schuster (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Party of Civic Understanding): June 15, 1999-June 15, 2004
3) Mikuláš Dzurinda (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, Slovak Democratic Coalition) and Jozef Migaš: October 30, 1998-June 15, 1999 (both acting)
4) Vladimír Mečiar and Ivan Gašparovič (both Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): July 14-October 30, 1998 (both acting)
5) Vladimír Mečiar (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): March 2-July 14, 1998 (acting)
6) Michal Kováč (“ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): March 2, 1993-March 2, 1998
7) Vladimír Mečiar (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): January 1-March 2, 1993) (acting, since Slovak independence)
8) Jan Stráský (acting): July 20–December 31, 1992
9) Václav Havel: December 29, 1989–July 20, 1992
10) Marián Čalfa (acting): December 10-29, 1989
11) Gustáv Husák: May 29, 1975–December 10, 1989
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Slovakia:
1) Robert Fico (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Party of the Democratic Left, Direction-Social Democracy): July 4, 2006-present
2) Mikuláš Dzurinda (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, Slovak Democratic Coalition): October 30, 1998-July 4, 2006
3) Vladimír Mečiar (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): December 13, 1994-October 29, 1998
4) Jozef Moravčík: March 16-December 13, 1994
5) Vladimír Mečiar (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): June 24-December 31, 1992; January 1, 1993-March 14, 1994 (since Slovak independence)
6) Ján Čarnogurský (Christian Democratic Movement; provided legal counsel to communist front Charter 77 Foundation and religious dissidents): May 6, 1991-June 24, 1992
7) Vladimír Mečiar (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, “ex”-communist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia): June 27, 1990-May 6, 1991
8) Milan Čič (“ex”-Communist Party of Czechoslovakia): December 10, 1989-June 27, 1990
Parliament of “post”-communist country: National Council of the Slovak Republic
Communist parties of “post”-communist Slovakia:
1) Association of the Workers of Slovakia (ZRS): Founded in 1994, this party is a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left.
2) B-Revolutionary Workers’ Party (B-RSS): Founded in 1998, this party is a split from the Association of the Workers of Slovakia, itself a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left.
3) Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS): The history of Slovak communism is closely related to that of Czech communism. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) was founded in 1921. The old Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) emerged as a distinct entity from the KSC in 1939, but was reabsorbed in 1948, where it existed as the party’s Slovak section until the KSC upgraded its Czech and Slovak sections to party status just prior to the Velvet Revolution. — Mimicking the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—which in 1990 established a separate Russian section that eventually transformed itself into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation—an extraordinary congress of the KSC in 1989 transformed the Czech section into the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), while the Slovak section was transformed into the Communist Party of Slovakia in the following year. On November 28, 1989 the KSC abandoned its public monopoly of power. After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s 1992 congress, “reformists” in the Czech section (KSCM) “defected” to reorganize themselves as the Left Bloc, while reformists in the Slovak section (KSS) formed the Party of the Democratic Left. — In both republics hard-line communists continued under the old name. The KSS associates with the International Communist Seminar and the Party of the European Left. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into its constituent republics on December 31, 1992, the KSC voted to dissolve the parent body. In spite of the Act on the Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and Resistance, passed by the Czech Parliament on July 9, 1993, the KSCM is now a major parliamentary party, although its youth section was banned in 2006.
4) Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC): In 1995 another group of hardliners, presumably from both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, organized themselves under the old name, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with the intent of reestablishing the Czechoslovak federal socialist republic. Miroslav Štěpán, a leader in the old party, heads the new KSC. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia “refuses” to work with Štěpán’s party.
5) Revolutionary Socialist League (ZRSo): This Trotskyist party associates with the League for the Fifth International.
6) Slovakian United Workers’ Party (ZRSS): Founded in 1995, this party is a split from the Association of the Workers of Slovakia, itself a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left.
7) Social Democratic Alternative (SDA): Founded in 2002, this party is a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left.
8) Workers’ Party (RS): Founded in 2001, this party is a split from the Association of the Workers of Slovakia, itself a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Slovakia:
1) Direction-Social Democracy (Smer): Original a split from the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left in 1999, Smer absorbed the Party of Democratic Left, Social Democratic Alternative, and Social Democratic Party of Slovakia in 2005. Prime Minister Robert Fico was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1987 to 1990 and then the KSC’s successor party in Slovakia, the Party of the Democratic Left, until the split mentioned above.
2) Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS): Founded in 1992, the HZDS split from the communist front Public Against Violence, the Slovak section of the Civic Forum, which operated in the Czech Republic. The long-time HZDS leader is the authoritarian “ex”-communist Vladimír Mečiar.
3) Party of the Democratic Left (SDL): In 1992 “defectors” from the Communist Party of Slovakia, which was the Slovak section of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, reorganized themselveas as the Party of the Democratic Left. The SDL associated with the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. On January 1, 2005 Smer absorbed the SDL, along with the Social Democratic Alternative and Social Democratic Party of Slovakia.
4) Public Against Violence (VPN): VPN was the Slovak counterpart of the Civic Forum (OF) in the Czech Republic. Like the OF, VPN was organized by the Charter 77 Foundation, a George Soros-funded KGB-GRU-StB-communist front. The “ex”-communist President/Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar formed the authoritarian Movement for a Democratic Slovakia from a split that occurred at an extraordinary congress of VPN on April 27, 1991. Thereafter, VPN rapidly lost popular support and its members reorganize as the Civic Democratic Union, which ceased to exist by November 1992.
5) Social Democratic Party of Slovakia: Between its founding in 1990 and absorption into Smer in 2005, this party competed on the same lists as the “ex”-communist Party of the Democratic Left. It also associated with the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. A figurehead of the 1968 “Prague Spring,” Alexander Dubček briefly led the SSDS before his death on November 7, 1992. Between January 5, 1968 and April 17, 1969 Dubček was first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. An ethnic Slovak, he held membership in the Slovak section of the KSC. In New Lies for Old (1984) KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn argues that the Prague Spring was a dry run for communism’s perestroika deception in the 1980s and 1990s. Golitsyn also predicted that Dubček would be rehabilitated during the staged collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Both scenarios came to pass.
Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied Bratislava on April 4, 1945 and Prague on May 9, 1945. Both Soviet and Allied troops withdrew from Czechoslovakia in the same year. — Following the communist-instigated reforms of the Prague Spring, all of the Warsaw Pact countries, with the exception of Romania, invaded Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20-21, 1968. The occupying armies seized control of Prague and apprehended Alexander Dubček, the ethnic Slovak speaker of the National Assembly, and other communist “reformers.” Before he was arrested, however, Dubček exhorted the public not to resist the Soviet occupation. Dubček and his colleagues were then flown to Moscow on a Soviet military transport aircraft. There they were compelled to accept Soviet demands in the so-called Moscow Protocol. On August 27 Dubček and most of the reformers returned to Prague, where Dubček retained his post as the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s first secretary until April 1969. According to KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, who wrote both New Lies for Old (1984) and The Perestroika Deception (1995, 1998), the Prague Spring was a dry run for the Soviet Bloc’s much more extensive perestroika deception of the 1980s and 1990s. — The Soviet Army again withdrew from Czechoslovakia on June 30, 1991.

>Red World: Czech Republic: Communist Bloc Trojan horse in EU and NATO; genesis of Czech "Right" in communist front Charter 77

> Pictured here: “Ex”-communist and former President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski with former President of Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, alleged StB collaborator and member of communist front Charter 77 Foundation/Civic Forum. Notwithstanding his founding the “anti”-Castro International Committee for Democracy in Cuba in 2003, Havel played a key role in advancing Moscow’s perestroika deception in Czechoslovakia.

Czech Republic
Constituent member of Czechoslovakia (with capital in Prague):
1) Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, 1990-1992
2) Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, 1960-1990
3) Czechoslovak Republic, 1948-1960
Previous name: Czech Socialist Republic: January 1, 1969-March 1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (third largest party, formerly Czech section of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), communist-infiltrated parties such as Czech Social Democratic Party, and communist fronts such as “right-wing” Civic Democratic Party
Neo-communist renewal: Velvet Revolution, 1989
Neo-communist re-renewal: Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (“Velvet Divorce”), 1993
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (May 1, 2004)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 12, 1999
Socialist International presence: Czech Social Democratic Party (communist infiltrated

Communist government:
1) Civic Democratic Party (formerly communist front Civic Forum) in coalition with Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People’s Party (communist infiltrated) and Green Party: 2006-present
2) Czech Social Democratic Party (communist infiltrated) in coalition with Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People’s Party (communist infiltrated) and Freedom Union-Democratic Union (split from Civic Democratic Party, 1998): 2002-2006
3) Grand coalition consisting of Civic Democratic Party (formerly communist front Civic Forum) and Czech Social Democratic Party (communist infiltrated): 1998-2002
4) Caretaker government, including Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People’s Party (communist infiltrated): 1997-1998
5) Civic Democratic Party (formerly communist front Civic Forum) in coalition with Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People’s Party (communist infiltrated): 1992-1997
6) Civic Forum (Czech Republic)/Public Against Violence (Slovakia), both parties organized by communist front Charter 77 Foundation, and funded by George Soros, KGB, GRU, and StB: 1990-1992
7) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (reconstituted), Czechoslovak People’s Party, Czechoslovak Socialist Party, Slovak Freedom Party, and Party of Slovak Revival): 1989-1990
8) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (absorbed Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party with dissidents in exile in London), Czechoslovak People’s Party, Czechoslovak Socialist Party (formerly Czechoslovak National Socialist Party), Slovak Freedom Party, and Party of Slovak Revival), sole legal coalition: 1948-1989
9) National Front (consisting of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (liberal, unrelated to National Socialist German Workers’ Party), Czechoslovak People’s Party (Catholic), Democratic Party (Slovak), Labour Party (Slovak), and Freedom Party (Slovak)): 1945-1948

Fascist government:
1) Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under German military occupation: 1939-1945
2) National Socialist German Workers’ Party in German-occupied Sudetenland: 1938-1945

Presidents of “post”-communist Czech Republic:
1) Václav Klaus (Civic Forum, Civic Democratic Party; self-declared anti-anti-communist; alleged Russian ancestry and SVR/KGB asset, friend of Alexander Rebyonok, Czech-based GRU illegal): March 7, 2003-present
2) No president: February 2-March 7, 2003 (some powers held by Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla and Lubomír Zaorálek, chair of Chamber of Deputies)
3) Václav Havel (StB collaborator, Charter 77 Foundation, Civic Forum): February 2, 1993-February 2, 2003
4) No president: January 1-February 2, 1993 (since Czech independence; some powers held by Prime Minister Václav Klaus and Milan Uhde, chair of Chamber of Deputies)
5) Jan Stráský (Civic Democratic Party): July 20-December 31, 1992 (acting)
6) Václav Havel (StB collaborator, Charter 77 Foundation, Civic Forum): December 29, 1989-July 20, 1992
7) Marián Čalfa (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Public Against Violence, Civic Democratic Union (Slovakia)): December 10-29, 1989 (acting)
8) Gustáv Husák (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia): May 29, 1975-December 10, 1989

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Czech Republic:

1) Petr Necas (Civic Democratic Party): June 28, 2010-present
2) Jan Fischer (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, independent): May 8, 2009-June 28, 2010 (caretaker)
3) Mirek Topolánek (communist Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth, Civic Forum, Civic Democratic Party): August 16, 2006-May 8, 2009
4) Jiří Paroubek (Czechoslovak Socialist Party, Czech Social Democratic Party): April 25, 2005-August 16, 2006
5) Stanislav Gross (communist Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth, Czech Social Democratic Party): July 19, 2004-April 25, 2005
6) Vladimír Špidla (Czech Social Democratic Party): July 12, 2002-July 19, 2004
7) Miloš Zeman (Czech Social Democratic Party, formerly Czechoslovak Social Democracy): July 17, 1998-July 12, 2002
8) Josef Tošovský: December 17, 1997-July 17, 1998
9) Václav Klaus (Civic Forum, Civic Democratic Party; self-declared anti-anti-communist; alleged Russian ancestry, KGB/FSB agent, and friend of Alexander Rebyonok, Czech-based GRU illegal): July 2-December 31, 1992 (Czechoslovakia), January 1, 1993-December 17, 1997 (Czech Republic)
10) Petr Pithart (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Charter 77 Foundation, Civic Forum, Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People’s Party): February 6, 1990-July 2, 1992
11) František Pitra (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak Social Democracy): October 12, 1988-February 6, 1990

Parliament of “post”-communist country: Parliament of the Czech Republic, consisting of Chamber of Deputies and Senate

Communist parties of “post”-communist Czech Republic:
1) Anarcho-Communist Alternative: Founded in 2003, this party is a split from the Organization of Revolutionary Anarchists-Solidarity.
2) Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM): The history of Slovak communism is closely related to that of Czech communism. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) was founded in 1921. The old Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) emerged as a distinct entity from the KSC in 1939, but was reabsorbed in 1948, where it existed as the party’s Slovak section until the KSC upgraded its Czech and Slovak sections to party status just prior to the Velvet Revolution. Mimicking the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—which in 1990 established a separate Russian section that eventually transformed itself into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation—an extraordinary congress of the KSC in 1989 transformed the Czech section into the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), while the Slovak section was transformed into the Communist Party of Slovakia in the following year. On November 28, 1989 the KSC abandoned its public monopoly of power. — After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s 1992 congress, “reformists” in the Czech section (KSCM) “defected” to reorganize themselves as the Left Bloc, while reformists in the Slovak section (KSS) formed the Party of the Democratic Left. In both republics hard-line communists continued under the old name. The KSS associates with the International Communist Seminar and the Party of the European Left. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into its constituent republics on December 31, 1992, the KSC voted to dissolve the parent body. In spite of the “Act on the Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and Resistance,” passed by the Czech Parliament on July 9, 1993, the KSCM is now a major parliamentary party, although its youth section was banned in 2006.
3) Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC): In 1995 another group of hardliners, presumably from both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, organized themselves under the old name, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with the intent of reestablishing the Czechoslovak federal socialist republic. Miroslav Štěpán, a leader in the old party, heads the new KSC. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia “refuses” to work with Štěpán’s party.
4) Organization of Revolutionary Anarchists-Solidarity (ORA-S): Founded in 1996, this left-communist party is a split from CSAF.
5) Socialist Alternative Future: Founded in 1990, this Trotskyist party associates with the Committee for a Workers’ International.
6) Socialist Solidarity (SocSol): Founded in 1996 this Trotskyist party associates with International Socialists.
7) Socialist Workers’ Organization: Founded in 1998 this Trotskyist party is a split from Socialist Solidarity and associates with the League for the Fifth International.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Czech Republic:
1) Civic Democratic Party (ODS): The pro-free enterprise, center-right ODS evolved from the false anti-communist opposition party, Civic Forum. Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus founded the ODS in 1991 after the Civic Forum split into two sections, the other being Civic Movement, which shortly thereafter fell apart. Mirek Topolánek is the current party leader. Klaus is a self-declared anti-anti-communist, an alleged KGB/FSB agent of Russian ancestry, and a friend of Alexander Rebyonok, a Czech-based GRU illegal.
2) Civic Forum (OF): The Civic Forum was organized by the Charter 77 Foundation, a George Soros-funded KGB-GRU-StB-communist front. The OF was the predecessor of the Civic Democratic Party, while its Slovak counterpart was called Public Against Violence (VPN). Václav Havel was the OF chair until he was elected President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989. At that point, Jan Urban became the new chair, serving until June 1990.
3) Czech Social Democratic Movement (CSDH): Founded in 1999 as a split from the Czech Social Democratic Party, the CSDH operates under the leadership of Pavel Svoboda.
4) Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD): Founded in 1878 as the Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Party in Austria, the old CSSD was absorbed into the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1948–with remnants in exile in London–and re-emerged as a separate party in 1990. The CSSD holds membership in the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists.
5) Left Bloc: After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s 1992 congress, “defectors” from the Czech section, now organized as the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, reorganized themselves as the Left Bloc and contested the 1992 parliamentary election in the Czech Republic.
6) Party of Democratic Socialism (SDS): Founded in 1997, this left socialist party is a merger of the Left Bloc, which operates in the Czech Republic, and elements of the Party of the Democratic Left, which operates in Slovakia. The SDS occasionally cooperates with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia.

Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied Bratislava on April 4, 1945 and Prague on May 9, 1945. Both Soviet and Allied troops withdrew from Czechoslovakia in the same year. — Following the communist-instigated reforms of the Prague Spring, all of the Warsaw Pact countries, with the exception of Romania, invaded Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20-21, 1968. The occupying armies seized control of Prague and apprehended Alexander Dubček, the ethnic Slovak speaker of the National Assembly, and other communist “reformers.” Before he was arrested, however, Dubček exhorted the public not to resist the Soviet occupation. Dubček and his colleagues were then flown to Moscow on a Soviet military transport aircraft. There they were compelled to accept Soviet demands in the so-called Moscow Protocol. On August 27 Dubček and most of the reformers returned to Prague, where Dubček retained his post as the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s first secretary until April 1969. According to KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, who wrote both New Lies for Old (1984) and The Perestroika Deception (1995, 1998), the Prague Spring was a dry run for the Soviet Bloc’s much more extensive perestroika deception of the 1980s and 1990s. — The Soviet Army again withdrew from Czechoslovakia on June 30, 1991.

>Red World: Poland’s Solidarity Trade Union: Communist front, prototype for perestroika deception, genesis of Polish "Right"

>Pictured here, left to right, at Pope John Paul II’s funeral on April 8, 2005, a devious troika: Alleged secret police informer “Bolek,” Solidarity trade union leader, and former President of Poland Lech Walesa; Tadeusz Mazowiecki, communist-controlled Polish politician and the Communist Bloc’s first non-communist prime minister; and “ex”-communist and former President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski.

The ostensibly anti-communist pope from Poland Karol Wojtyla had the dubious distinction of promoting the Solidarity trade union, a communist front, which facilitated the stage-managed collapse of communism in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991.

After several months of more research, we continue our “Red World” series by profiling communist influence in “post”-communist Eastern Europe. In past months we profiled countries in the following regions: Not-So-Former Soviet Union, December 2006; Western Europe, July 2006; Asia, May 2006; and Africa, March 2006. East Germany was profiled under Western Europe, since in 1990 the defunct German Democratic Republic merged with the “free” Federal Republic of Germany. As a result of this merger, we consider Germany to be a de facto part of the Communist Bloc.

Republic of Poland
Previous name: People’s Republic of Poland, July 22, 1952-December, 29, 1989
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert communist control, exercised through “ex”-communist parties such as the Democratic Left Alliance (related to Polish United Workers’ Party), communist fronts such as Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right and successor parties such as Law and Justice and Civic Platform, and communist-infiltrated parties such as the Polish People’s Party and Democratic Party
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1989
Communist Bloc memberships: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949-1991), European Union (May 1, 2004)
Warsaw Pact membership: May 14, 1955-July 1, 1991
NATO membership: March 12, 1999
Socialist International presence: Democratic Left Alliance (“ex”-members of Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR), later absorbed Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, successor of PZPR), Labor Union

Communist/crypto-communist government:
1) Law and Justice (formerly faction of Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right, related to communist front “Solidarity”) in coalition with Civic Platform (formerly faction of Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right, related to communist front “Solidarity”) and League of Polish Families: 2005-present
2) Democratic Left Alliance (formerly communist Polish United Workers’ Party) in coalition with Labor Union and Polish People’s Party (communist infiltrated): 2001-2005
3) Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right (including Social Movement for Solidarity Electoral Action, political wing of communist front “Solidarity” Independent Self-governing Trade Union) in coalition with Freedom Union (communist infiltrated) and other parties: 1997-2001
4) Democratic Left Alliance (“ex”-members of communist Polish United Workers’ Party) in coalition with Polish People’s Party (communist infiltrated): 1991-1997
5) Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (formerly communist Polish United Workers’ Party) in coalition with Polish People’s Party (formerly United Peasants’ Party, communist infiltrated), Democratic Party (communist infiltrated), and Association of Lay Catholics (communist infiltrated): 1990-1991 (65% seats in Sejm reserved for communists and their allies)
6) Polish United Workers’ Party in coalition with United Peasants’ Party (communist infiltrated), Democratic Party (communist infiltrated), and Association of Lay Catholics: 1989-1990 (65% seats in Sejm reserved for communists and their allies)
7) Patriotic Front for National Rebirth (consisting of Polish United Workers’ Party, United Peasants’ Party (communist infiltrated), Democratic Party (communist infiltrated), and pro-communist “nonpartisans”), sole legal coalition: 1985-1989
8) National Unity Front, sole legal coalition: 1983-1985
9) Military Council of National Salvation in support of National Unity Front, sole legal coalition: 1981-1983 (martial law)
10) National Unity Front (consisting of Polish United Workers’ Party (merger of Polish Workers’ Party and Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski’s branch of Polish Socialist Party), United Peasants’ Party (communist infiltrated, merger of Polish Peasants’ Party and United People’s Party), Democratic Party (communist infiltrated), pro-communist “nonpartisans,” and communist-controlled Catholic lay organizations), sole legal coalition: 1948-1981
11) Soviet-sponsored Provisional Government of National Unity, consisting of Polish Workers’ Party, Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski’s branch of Polish Socialist Party, Polish Peasants’ Party, United People’s Party, and Democratic Party: 1945-1948
12) Soviet-sponsored Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, consisting of Polish Workers’ Party, Polish Peasants’ Party, United People’s Party, and Democratic Party; under semi-official control of Soviet General Iwan Sierow: 1945
13) Soviet-sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation (Lublin Committee), consisting of State National Council (itself consisting of Polish Workers’ Party, Polish Peasants’ Party, United People’s Party, and Democratic Party) and Union of Polish Patriots (communist front): 1944-1945
14) Soviet-sponsored State National Council, consisting of Polish Workers’ Party (revived Communist Party of Poland), Polish Peasants’ Party, United People’s Party, and Democratic Party: 1943-1944

Fascist government:
1) Semi-fascist government of “Castle” and “Right” (Camp of National Unity) factions of Sanation: 1935-1939 (ended by German invasion)
2) Semi-fascist dictatorship of Field Marshal Jozef Pilsudski with support from Sanation/Non-Partisan Block of Collaboration with the Government, coalition of rightists, centrists, and leftists; persecuted communists: 1926-1935 (ended by Pilsudksi’s death)
3) Government of Chief of State Jozef Pilsudski and nationalist-leaning Polish Socialist Party: 1918-1922

Presidents of “post”-communist Poland:
1) Bronislaw Komorowski (Civic Platform, Conservative People’s Party, Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights, which later joined Solidarity): April 10, 2010-present (acting)
2) Lech Kaczyński (Law and Justice, Center Agreement, Citizens’ Parliamentary Club/Solidarity Citizens’ Committee, communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”; advisor to secret police informer Lech Wałęsa): December 23, 2005-April 10, 2010 (killed in Polish Air Force jet crash near Smolensk, Russia)
3) Alexander Kwaśniewski (communist Polish United Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland/Democratic Left Alliance): December 23, 1995-December 23, 2005
4) Lech Wałęsa (alleged secret police informer “Bolek,” communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”): December 22, 1990-December 23, 1995 (installed by direct election)
5) Wojciech Jaruzelski (communist Polish United Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland): January 1-December 21, 1990 (installed by parliamentary election)

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Poland:
1) Donald Tusk (Solidarity-spawned Liberal Democratic Congress, communist-infiltrated Freedom Union, Civic Platform): November 16, 2007-present
2) Jarosław Kaczyński (Law and Justice, Center Agreement, Citizens’ Parliamentary Club/Solidarity Citizens’ Committee, communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”): July 14, 2006-November 16, 2007
3) Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (Law and Justice, Center Agreement, communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”): October 31, 2005-July 14, 2006
4) Marek Belka (communist-infiltrated Democratic Party): May 2, 2004-October 31, 2005
5) Leszek Miller (communist Polish United Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance): October 19, 2001-May 2, 2004
6) Jerzy Buzek (Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right, related to communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”): October 31, 1997-October 19, 2001
7) Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (“ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance): February 15, 1996-October 31, 1997
8) Józef Oleksy (communist Polish United Workers’ Party, “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance, alleged KGB agent): March 4, 1995-January 26, 1996
9) Waldemar Pawlak (communist-infiltrated Polish Peasant Party): October 26, 1993-March 1, 1995
10) Hanna Suchocka (communist-infiltrated Democratic Party): July 11, 1992-October 25, 1993
11) Waldemar Pawlak (communist-infiltrated Polish Peasant Party): June 5-July 10, 1992
12) Jan Olszewski (Movement for Reconstruction of Poland/League of Polish Families): December 6, 1991-June 5, 1992
13) Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (Civic Platform, Liberal Democratic Congress/Freedom Union, Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity”): January 4-December 6, 1991
14) Tadeusz Mazowiecki (communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity,” communist-infiltrated Democratic Party, Liberal Democratic Congress, Freedom Union, Democratic Union, communist-infiltrated Catholic lay organization Znak): August 24, 1989-January 4, 1991

Parliament of “post”-communist country: National Assembly, consisting of Sejm (lower house) and Senate (upper house)

Communist parties of “post”-communist Poland:
1) Anarchist-Communist Organizational Platform: This party was founded in 1997.
2) Anticapitalist Leftist Agreement (PLA): Founded in 2003, the PLA is an alliance of the NRL, KPP, Nowa Lewica, Lewicowa Alternatywa, and other parties.
3) REASON of Polish Left: Founded in 2002, this party operates under the leadership of Roman Kotlinsky and competes on lists of the Polish Labor Party. It initially registered on August 8, 2002 as the Anticlerical Progress Party REASON and acquired its current name on January 14, 2006. The party opposes the teaching of religion in public schools and state financial support for the Roman Catholic Church. In addition to advocating the separation of church and state, REASON promotes the role of women in public life, “sex education” in public schools, state-funded contraception, legalized abortions and euthanasia, and the legal recognition of same-sex “civil unions.”
4) Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (KPRP, 1918-1938): Poland’s original communist party was founded through a merger of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party-Left. The KPRP aided Jozef Pilsudski’s May 1926 Coup, by fighting alongside his Polish Socialist Party.
5) Communist Party of Poland (KPP, 1965): In 1965 the Polish Stalinist Kazimierz Mijal founded his own illegal communist party. In 1966 Mijal fled to Albania where he set up party operations in Tirana.
6) Communist Party of Poland (KPP, 2002) In July 2002 the Communist Party of Poland was revived under that name but the party is insignificant on the current Polish political scene. A split from the ZKP-P, the party operates under the leadership of Marcin Adam, a former member of the Polish Labor Party (PPP). The KPP (2002) competes on lists of the PPP.
7) Democratic Party of the Left (DPL): Founded in 2003 by a faction of the “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance, this party operates under the leadership of Elzbieta Wasiak.
8) Edward Gierek Movement of the Economic Revival: Founded in 2004, this left socialist party competes on lists of the “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance. Gierek was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party between December 20, 1970 and September 5, 1980.
9) Group for a Workers’ Party: Founded in 2003 this Trotskyist party associates with the Committee for a Workers’ International.
10) Group of Workers’ Self-Government: Founded in 1983 this Trotskyist party operates under the leadership of Ludwig Hass.
11) Left Union of the Third Republic of Poland: Founded in 2005 by factions of UP and APP, this party operates under the leadership of Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka and competes on lists of the “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance.
12) Left without Censorship-Newspaper for a Revolutionary Communist Party: This organization intends to establish a party of radical left orientation.
13) Polish Labor Party (PPP): Founded in 2001 this party operates under the leadership of Daniel Tomasz Podrzycki.
14) Polish Party of the Working Class-Initiative Group (PPKR-GI): This party is Maoist in orientation.
15) Polish Socialist Party (PPS): Originally founded in 1892, the PPS was reorganized in 1987 by the left wing of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity,” under the leadership of Jan Jozef Lipski. This left socialist party competes on lists of the Polish Labor Party. PPS was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception until 1948, when it split. At the time, part of the PPS merged with the Polish Workers’ Party to form the Polish United Workers’ Party, the ruling communist party of the People’s Republic of Poland, while the other branch joined Poland’s government in exile. The new PPS, however, exercises little influence. Józef Piłsudski, founder of the resurrected Polish state, was a prominent leader of the old PPS.
16) Polish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSPR): Founded in 2002 this party operates under the leadership of Edward Base.
17) Proletarian Platform (PP): Founded in 1990 as the Polish Spartacist Group, this Trotskyist party associates with the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist).
18) Red Collective-Left Alternative (CK-LA): Founded in 2004 this party is anarcho-syndicalist in orientation. 19) Revolutionary Left Current (NLR): Founded in 1987 this Trotskyist party associates with the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
20) Socialism: Founded in 2001 this Trotskyist party associates with the International Marxist Tendency.
21) Struggling Revolutionary Group (WGR): This radical left party operates under the leadership of Iwo Czerniawski.
22) Workers’ Democracy (PD): This Trotskyist party associates with International Socialists.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Poland:
1) Civic (or Citizens’) Platform (PO): PO was founded in 2001 by Andrzej Olechowski, Maciej Plazynski, and Donald Tusk, sometimes referred to as “the Three Tenors” of Polish politics. The party was formerly a faction of Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right, the political wing of the communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity.” — Olechowski’s political career began during Poland’s communist era as Department Director, Ministry of Foreign Economics Relations (1988-89); National Bank of Poland (1987-88); Economist, World Bank, Washington, DC (1985-87); Economic Affairs Officer, UNCTAD, Geneva (1982-84); and Department Head, Foreign Trade Research Institute (1978-82). After the “collapse” of communism, he was economic advisor to alleged secret police informer President Lech Walesa (1992-93; 1995). Olechowski subsequently left the party he co-founded. — Płażyński, born in 1958, is a Polish conservative-liberal politician who began his political career in 1980 as one of the leaders of the communist front Students’ Solidarity. Like Olechowski, he left the party he co-founded. — Tusk, born in 1957, was a prominent member of the Liberal Democratic Congress and then the Freedom Union, from which he resigned when he failed to win the party’s chairmanship in a race against “ex”-communist Bronisław Geremek. Tusk supports a free market economy and social conservatism. As of 2004 he has been a member of the Sejm.
2) Democratic Left Alliance (SLD): The SLD is an “ex”-communist, social democratic, pro-European Union political party. A coalition of parties used this name from 1991 to 1999, but the SLD was formally established as a single party on April 15, 1999 when the SLD absorbed Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SdRP), the legal successor of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). With financial support from the soon-to-be-defunct Soviet Union, the SdRP and other leftist parties formed the original SLD coalition prior to Poland’s first free elections in October 1991. The president of SLD is former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Wojciech Olejniczak, elected on May 29, 2005. Born in 1974, Olejniczak is the first president of the SLD who was not also a member of the PZPR. — Proposals to outlaw the SLD in view of its communist heritage have been a recurrent issue in Polish politics to this very day. Freedom Union (UW) spokesman Andrzej Potocki first proposed to outlaw the SLD in 1995 when Prime Minister Józef Oleksy’s alleged connections with the Soviet KGB were publicized. This is, in fact, the most commonly given grounds for criminalizing the SLD. In 2004 the proposal was reiterated by Law and Order chair and current Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and again in 2006 by League of Polish Families chair and Minister of Education Roman Giertych. — The rules for de-legalization of a party are provided in Article 13 of the Constitution of Poland: “Political parties and other organizations whose programs are based upon totalitarian methods and the modes of activity of Nazism, fascism and communism, as well as those whose programs or activities sanction racial or national hatred, the application of violence for the purpose of obtaining power or to influence the State policy, or provide for the secrecy of their own structure or membership, shall be prohibited.”
3) Democratic Party (SD): Founded in 1937 this communist-infiltrated social liberal party supported the United Polish Workers’ Party in the People’s Republic of Poland. The SD was reorganized on February 28, 2005 and formally established on May 9 as an “enlargement” of the Freedom Union, which it legally succeeds. This party competes on lists of the “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance. SD member Tadeusz Mazowiecki was the first non-communist prime minister in the Communist Bloc since the Second World War. Appointed to the position in August 1989, Mazowiecki also held membership in the communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity,” as well as the communist-infiltrated Catholic lay organizations Pax and Znak. — The communist-controlled Mazowiecki government was responsible for advancing the perestroika deception in Poland, the first communist state where this process occurred. Among other pseudo-reforms, Mazowiecki dissolved the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (secret political police), ZOMO (paramilitary riot police), and the centrally controlled economy; abolished censorship; and restored freedom of the press, speech, religion, and private property, as well as the free market and competition.
4) Freedom Union (UW): Ideologically liberal, UW was founded on March 20, 1994 through the merger of the Democratic Union (UD) and the Liberal Democratic Congress. The Democratic Union, in turn, was founded in 1990 by the communist-controlled Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki as a merger of the Citizens’ Movement Democratic Action and the Forum of Right Democrats. The Citizens’ Movement Democratic Action, in turn, was a faction of the communist front Solidarity Citizens’ Committee. UW merged into the communist-era puppet Democratic Party (SD) in 2005. — Prime Minister Mazowiecki’s economic reforms were supervised by economist Leszek Balcerowicz, who held membership in the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) between 1969 and 1981, and later the communist front Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity.” From September 1989 to August 1991 and also between October 31, 1997 and June 8, 2000 he held the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland. Between 1995 and 2000 Balcerowicz was chair of UW and on December 22, 2000 he became chair of the National Bank of Poland. He was also a columnist for Wprost, a popular Polish news magazine. On November 11, 2005, the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, awarded Balcerowicz with the country’s highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, for his contribution to Poland’s economic transformation. — Bronisław Geremek, who held membership in the PZPR between 1950 and 1968, was also a member of UW and before that an advisor to secret police informer President Lech Walesa. In 2004, on Poland’s accession to the European Union, Geremek was elected a Member of the European Parliament in 2004 on the UW ticket. He is now a member of the communist-infiltrated Democratic Party.
5) Law and Justice (PiS): This conservative party was founded in 2001 by the Kaczyński twins: Lech, current President of Poland, and Jarosław, current party president and Prime Minister of Poland. Most PiS members once associated with Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right and the Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland, whose members in the Sejm are elected from the League of Polish Families’ electoral committee. PiS, however, ultimately traces its origins to the communist front known as the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity.” In 1990 two rival factions emerged from the Citizens’ Parliamentary Club (OKP)–the parliamentary faction of the Solidarity Citizens’ Committee, itself the semi-legal and then legal political wing of “Solidarity”–to play important roles in “post”-communist Polish politics. On May 12 the OKP’s conservative, populist faction emerged as the Center Agreement (PC) under the leadership of Jaroslaw. In 2001 Jarosław and Lech transformed the PC into PiS. While Jaroslaw was forming the PC, the liberal, “intellectual” faction of OKP, represented by “ex”-communist Bronisław Geremek, formed another party called Civic Movement “Democratic Action,” which later evolved into the Democratic Union, then the Freedom Union, and finally re-merged into the communist-era puppet Democratic Party in 2005.
6) Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SdRP): In December 1989 the Sejm approved the communist regime’s program to transform Poland’s centrally planned economy to a free market, eliminated constitutional references to the communists’ “leading role,” and renamed the country as the “Republic of Poland.” The ruling Polish United Workers’ Party restyled itself in January 1990 as Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland. Most property of the former communist party was expropriated by the state. Among the creators of SdRP were “ex”-communist Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland between 1995 and 2005; “ex”-communist Józef Oleksy, prime minister between 1995 and 1996; and “ex”-communist Leszek Miller, prime minister between 2001 and 2004. The SdRP’s activities were absorbed into the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) on April 15, 1999 when the SLD, formerly an alliance of leftist parties, merged into one organization.
7) Social Democratic Party of Poland (SDPL): The SDPL is a new leftist political party in Poland founded in April 2004 as a splinter group from the “ex”-communist Democratic Left Alliance. The party leader is Marek Borowski.
8) Solidarity Citizens’ Committee (KOS): Also known as the Citizens’ Electoral Committee and, before that, the Citizens’ Committee with Lech Wałęsa, KOS was the semi-legal and then legal political wing of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity,” which according to KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn in New Lies for Old (1984) contained more than two million active communist party members. Formed on December 18, 1988, KOS became a national movement that attracted the majority of supporters of radical political change in the country following the conclusion of the communist-manipulated Round Table talks (February 6 to April 4, 1989). Those KOS candidates who won seats in the Sejm organized themselves as the Citizens’ Parliamentary Club (OKP), which elected “ex”-communist Bronisław Geremek as chairman. On August 25, 1989, the new communist-dominated “Contract Sejm” elected the KOS candidate Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the Soviet Bloc’s first-ever non-communist prime minister. The presidency remained in the hands of the communists.
9) Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right (AWSP): Founded in 1996, the AWSP was a coalition of more than 30 parties, including liberals, conservatives, and Christian democrats. The leading party within the AWSP was the Social Movement for Solidarity Electoral Action which, like the earlier Solidarity Citizens’ Committee, was the political wing of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity.” Marian Krzaklewski was the first AWSP chairman. The party became defunct after losing the 2001 parliamentary election. The International Republican Institute (IRI), a government-funded organization loosely associated with the US Republican Party, claims that it played a behind-the-scenes role in uniting the different political parties that formed the AWSP. The IRI apparently provided training in political campaigning and communications training, and coordinating an advertising campaign for the Polish government in order to prevent the AWSP splitting up over internal tensions. Reforms relating to domestic affairs, the entry to NATO in 1999, and the accession process to the European Union provoked conflicts within the coalition. As a result, many members moved to Civic Platform, Law and Justice, or the Movement for Reconstruction of Poland.

Russian military presence: Soviet troops occupied eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, were repelled during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and later occupied Warsaw on January 17, 1945. The first division of the Soviet Army withdrew from Poland on April 10, 1991.

Pictured here: The pope who facilitated Moscow’s perestroika deception. Mr. Wojtyla receives Solidarity leader Walesa at the Vatican in January 1981. Pictured below: Pope John Paul II and Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski with his wife Jolanta Kwasniewska.

KGB Defector Golitsyn Exposes Solidarity as Communist Front

In his first book New Lies for Old (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1984) KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn reveals the crucial role that Solidarity played in advancing communism’s perestroika deception in Poland.

Kania himself revealed that there were 1 million communist party members in Solidarity. Forty-two out of the 200 members of the party’s Central Committee in 1981 were Solidarity members. Bogdan Lis, Walesa’s deputy, was a Central Committee member. Zofia Gryzb, another Solidarity leader, was a member of the Politburo.

These leaders were not expelled from the party for their membership in Solidarity. On the contrary, Solidarity recognized the leading role of the party and the party recognized Solidarity’s existence. Kania and Moczar even made statements in favor of it. Solidarity enjoyed access to the state-controlled media. Obstacles were not placed in the way of Walesa’s extensive foreign travels; indeed, the Polish ambassador to Japan, who defected after the introduction of martial law, assisted in arranging Walesa’s contacts with Japanese trade unions (pages 331-332).

As with the “Prague spring” of 1968, the motives for the Polish “renewal” were a combination of the internal and external. Internally it was designed to broaden the political base of the communist party in the trade unions and to convert the narrow, elitist dictatorship of the party into a Leninist dictatorship of the whole working class that would revitalize the Polish political and economic system. The “renewal” followed the lines of Lenin’s speech to the Comintern congress in July 1921. “Our only strategy at present,” said Lenin, “is to become stronger and therefore wiser, more reasonable, more opportunistic. The more opportunistic, the sooner will you assemble the masses around you. When we have won over the masses by our reasonable approach, we shall then apply offensive tactics in the strictest sense of the word” (pages 332-333).

The origin of the Solidarity movement in a shipyard bearing Lenin’s name, the singing of the “Internationale,” the use of the old slogan “Workers of the world, unite” by Solidarity members, and the constant presence of Lenin’s portrait are all consistent with concealed party guidance of the organization. Without that guidance and help, the discipline of Solidarity and its record of successful negotiation with the Polish government would have been impossible. The party’s concealed influence in the Polish Catholic Church ensured that the church would act as a force for moderation and compromise between Solidarity and the government.

Externally the strategic objectives behind the creation of Solidarity resemble those behind the “Prague spring.” In brief, they were to deceive Western governments, politicians, and public opinion generally as to the real nature of contemporary communism in Poland in accordance with the weakness and evolution pattern of disinformation. More specifically, the intention was to use Solidarity to promote united action with free trade unions, social democrats, Catholics, and other religious groups to further the aims of communist strategy in the advanced countries, and to a lesser extent in the Third World. The name Solidarity is itself symbolic of this intention, which was made plain by Walesa’s state-sponsored visits to trade unions in France, Italy, and Japan and to the Holy See.

Solidarity’s effort to strengthen its international ties was part of a wider effort by the international communist movement to press forward with its strategy (page 333).

The creation of Solidarity and the initial period of its activity as a trade union may be regarded as the experimental first phase of the Polish “renewal.” The appointment of Jaruzelski, the imposition of martial law, and the suspension of Solidarity represent the second phase, intended to bring the movement under firm control and to provide a period of political consolidation (page 334).

With remarkable foresight—writing in 1980 and publishing in 1984—Golitsyn predicts the formation of the communist-led coalition government containing Solidarity. This prediction, in fact, came to pass in 1989 when the communist-controlled dissident and Solidarity member Tadeusz Mazowiecki was appointed as the Soviet Bloc’s first non-communist prime minister:

In the third phase it may be expected that a coalition government will be formed, comprising representatives of the communist party, of a revived Solidarity movement, and of the church. A few so-called liberals might also be included.

A new-style government of this sort in Eastern Europe would be well equipped to promote communist strategy by campaigning for disarmament, for nuclear-free zones in Europe, perhaps for a revival of the Rapacki Plan, for the simultaneous dissolution of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and ultimately for the establishment of a neutral, socialist Europe (page 334).

Golitsyn exposes the ultimate purpose of the “Polish renewal”:

A coalition government in Poland would in fact be totalitarianism under a new, deceptive, and more dangerous guise. Accepted as the spontaneous emergence of a new form of multiparty, semi-democratic regime, it would serve to undermine resistance to communism inside and outside the communist bloc (page 335).

>USSR2 File: Putinist regime to impose media and Internet censorship, stepping stone to restored Soviet Union under open communist leadership

>This is an attempt to put everything under control, not only electronic media but also personal data about people such as bloggers. Putin’s decree could extend Soviet-style controls to Russia’s online media, which have been relatively free.
— Raf Shakirov, former editor of Izvestia (owned by Gazprom Media), March 15, 2007

Taking a page from his red colleagues in Beijing, Comrade Czar Vladimir (“There’s No Such Thing as a Former KGB Man”) Putin has prepared the groundwork for the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union to reassert itself throughout the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. Regulating the editorial content of media and Internet is essential to imposing an information blockade beween Russians and the outside world, as well as preventing the West from accurately assessing the political situation in Russia. The article below notes: “No official announcement has been made on who will head the regulator.” Should we be surprised if Russia’s new censor-in-chief is “ex”-KGB or “ex”-CPSU? You know the answer.

Meanwhile, Western communists and faux rightists have the gall to describe the USA, the citizens of which enjoy more political and economic freedom than just about any country on earth, as a “fascist police state.”

With a hat tip to Zionist Anti-Communist for posting this story first.

Putin decrees creation of a media and Internet regulator
Reuters
Thursday, March 15, 2007

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has decreed the creation of an agency to regulate the media and the Internet, sparking fears among some Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free Web.

Putin signed a decree this week merging two existing agencies into one that will license broadcasters, newspapers and Web sites and oversee their editorial content.

The step, taken with national elections due next year, unites the organization supervising media and culture, Rosokhrankultura, with the federal body controlling telecommunications and information technology, Rossvyaznadzor.

Officials said this would improve efficiency by putting a single entity in charge of media content and technology, but some of Russia’s top journalists expressed concern.

Under Putin’s rule, independent publishers have mostly been taken over by Kremlin-friendly businessmen. The domestic media are under heavy pressure not to criticize the government, making journalists suspicious of any official initiative.

Raf Shakirov, who was dismissed as editor of the daily Izvestia after critical coverage of the 2004 Beslan school siege, said Putin’s decree could extend Soviet-style controls to Russia’s online media, which have been relatively free.

“This is an attempt to put everything under control, not only electronic media but also personal data about people such as bloggers,” he said.

Russians have increasingly turned to the Internet to find independent sources of information.

But the authorities have already fired a warning shot across the bows of one leading news Web site, http://www.gazeta.ru/, which got an official warning last year for “extremism” after writing about cartoons that satirized the Prophet Mohammad.

Roman Bodanin, the political editor at gazeta.ru, said the new regulator could make it easier for the government to track and pressure independent media because the same agency would grant licenses and supervise content.

Andrei Vasilyev, editor of the daily Kommersant, saw the move as part of a Kremlin drive to consolidate power before parliamentary and presidential elections in the next 12 months.

“It’s very dangerous to scatter the ownership of broadcasting frequencies and licenses between different institutions,” he said about the Kremlin, saying he was speaking in a personal capacity. “There might be a loophole for some alternative information channel.”

Government officials said Russia’s media would benefit from the new body, due to start work within three months.

“The question of regulation will now be easier,” said Yevgeny Strelchik, a spokesman for Rosokhrankultura. He dismissed fears about more control over the media as “journalists’ fantasies.”

No official announcement has been made on who will head the regulator.

Source: International Herald Tribune

>Asia File: 8,000 police in India search for Naxalites after Maoist rebels slaughter 55 officers; Filipino communists praise massacre

>I never witnessed such a gruesome scene of killings. Some of the bodies were repeatedly axed and heads were smashed. Police have launched one of the biggest exercises in Chhattisgarh on Friday to avenge the killings. The rebels have to pay the price.
— Ramvichar Netam, Home Minister, State of Chhattisgarh, India, March 15, 2007

The Indian Government cannot succeed in suppressing the armed revolution of India’s Maoists.
— Zhang Zheng, Communist Party of China, MaoFlag Website, April 3, 2005; quoted in South Asia Analysis Group, May 10, 2005

Pictured above: Mounted Indian police near Raipur, in the central state of Chhattisgarh, search for communist rebels following the March 15, 2007 massacre of 55 fellow officers at a jungle police camp.

Emboldened, no doubt, by the fall of neighboring Nepal to Maoist rebels last year, India’s Naxalites have launched a number of raids against police installations, bridges, and railways. On February 27 Naxalites shot dead four police officers and blew up railway tracks in the northern state of Bihar. In the schemes of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation/Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, India is an important target for communist revolution and, hence, the Moscow-Beijing Axis is courting New Delhi for full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Eurasia’s new communist bloc. India, where communists hold the balance of power in parliament, currently holds observer status in the SCO.

India Scours Forests to ‘Avenge’ Maoist Killings
Reuters
Mar 16, 2007

RAIPUR—Thousands of police poured into the dense forests of eastern India on Friday after Maoist rebels massacred 55 people in a makeshift police camp in the region.

The operation, involving about 8,000 police, was described by the Chhattisgarh state government as an act of revenge for the Maoist attack.

“Police have launched one of the biggest exercises in Chhattisgarh on Friday to avenge the killings,” the state’s Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told Reuters.

“The rebels have to pay the price.”

The attack was one of the deadliest in recent years by Maoist rebels, who are also called Naxalites after the village in east India’s West Bengal state where the group’s campaign on behalf of poor peasants and landless workers began in 1967.

Between 300 and 400 rebels attacked the camp in the state’s south in the early hours of Thursday, throwing grenades and petrol bombs and shooting people fleeing the burning buildings before escaping with weapons and explosives, police said.

The rebels killed 16 officers from the state’s armed forces and 39 members of local tribes recruited to a police militia, police said.

The state has recruited about 5,000 tribal people into its militia, paying each about 1,500 rupees ($35) a month. Most are armed only with bows and arrows.

“I never witnessed such a gruesome scene of killings,” said Netam, who visited the site on Thursday. “Some of the bodies were repeatedly axed and heads were smashed.”

Analysts say India’s response to the insurgency is under-staffed and under-resourced, with poor intelligence gathering leaving police camps in rebel areas easy prey for guerrilla tactics.

Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the insurgency was the gravest threat to India’s internal security since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

The Naxalite movement has spread along a “red corridor” occupying much of India’s south and eastern flank and stretching up to the Nepal border.

The Maoist rebels continue to find support among poor, rural Indians who have not benefitted from the country’s booming economy.

Source: The Epoch Times

A pro-insurgent website that follows the guerrilla actions of the Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, praised the slaughter of Indian police officers. A March 16 press release from the Information Bureau of the CPP gushes with typical red rhetoric:

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today congratulated and saluted the Communist Party of India-Maoist and the Red fighters of India for carrying out successful tactical offensives against the reactionary and fascist state forces of India. In the Indian Maoist revolutionary fighters’ most recent tactical offensive, they successfully overran a jungle security outpost of the fascist police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last Wednesday.

Scores of Red fighters under the leadership of the CPI-M launched an early morning raid against a police outpost located in a forested area of the Rani Bodli village in Raipur town of the Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. They easily took control of the outpost manned by at least 75 policemen and seized a large cache of rifles and war materiél. More than 50 policemen were killed in the firefight, including 16 state police personnel and 37 special police officers.

Missives such as this clearly reveal the reality of the international communist conspiracy in 2007. Communist parties and their armed wings continue to network, as we have extensively documented here, for the overthrow of the “bourgeois nations.” A pro-Naxalite website, Naxal Revolution, moreover, contains many recommended links not only to communist websites, but also, damningly, to anti-American US academic Noam Chomsky’s personal website. Birds of a feather . . .

>Grey Terror File: Al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses to masterminding 911 terror attacks, Bali bombing, Daniel Pearl murder

>Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confession of masterminding the September 11, 2001 terror attacks is not surprising. However, there is good reason to believe that in this particular operation Osama bin Laden, Khalid, Mohammad Atta, and their cohorts enjoyed some logistical support from the Russian radar base in Lourdes, Cuba; Saddam Hussein’s terrorist training camp at Salman Pak; pre-Velvet Revolution Czechoslovakia’s terrorist training camp at Zastavka; and probably Cuban, Iranian, and Palestinian intelligence. Alexander Nemets and Thomas Torda explain:

Information needed to carry out the 9-11 attacks went from the Lourdes center, via Cuban secret agents in Miami, to Atta and other members of his suicide squad. This became the decisive factor in the successful realization of the 9-11 strikes. The Kremlin knew in advance of this horrific plot and blessed the operation. Tehran also knew everything in advance – from its agents in al-Qaeda and from Castro himself.

Notwithstanding Khalid’s confession, anti-American foreign politicians (Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Hugo Chavez, etc.), US leftists (Noam Chomsky), and their dupes in Faux Right circles (Alex Jones et al.) will no doubt remain trenchant in their opinion that 911 was an “inside job.” The testimony of murdered FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko, who exposed Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri as an agent in the employ of Moscow, is completedly overlooked by the Hate America Crowd.

Pictured above: Khalid wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.

Al Qaeda Chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Confesses to Planning Sept. 11, Gitmo Transcript Shows
Thursday , March 15, 2007

WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed portrayed himself as Al Qaeda’s most ambitious operational planner in a confession to a U.S. military tribunal that said he planned and supported 31 terrorist attacks, topped by Sept. 11, that killed thousands of innocent victims since the early 1990s.

The gruesome attacks range from the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 — which killed nearly 3,000 — to a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine, according to an account released by the Pentagon.

Many plots, including a previously undisclosed plan to kill several former U.S. presidents, were never carried out or were foiled by international counterterror authorities.

“I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z,” Mohammed said in a statement read Saturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed’s confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative.

The Pentagon released a 26-page transcript of the closed-door proceedings on Wednesday night. Some material was omitted, and it wasn’t possible to immediately confirm details. The document refers to locations for which the United States and other nations have issued terrorism warnings based on what they deemed credible threats from 1993 to the present.

Mohammed, known as KSM among government officials, was last seen haggard after his capture in March 2003, when he was photographed in a dingy white T-shirt with an over-stretched neck. He disappeared for more than three years into a secret detention system run by the CIA.

In his first public statements since his capture, his radical ideology and self-confidence came through. He expressed regret for taking the lives of children and said Islam doesn’t give a “green light” to killing.

Yet he finds room for exceptions. “The language of the war is victims,” he said.

He also said some people “consider George Washington as hero. Muslims many of them are considering Usama bin Laden. He is doing same thing. He is just fighting. He needs his independence.”

In laying out his role in 31 attacks, his words drew Al Qaeda closer to plots of the early 1990s than the group has previously been linked, including the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing in which six people died.

Six people with links to global terror networks were convicted in federal court and sentenced to life in prison for that attack.

Mohammed made clear that al-Qaida wanted to down a second trans-Atlantic aircraft during would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid’s operation.

And he confessed to the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a section of the statement that was excised from the public document, The Associated Press has learned. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Pakistan while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Mohammed has long been a suspect in the slaying, which was captured on video.

President Bush announced that Mohammed and 13 other alleged terror operatives had been moved from secret CIA prisons to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay last year. They are considered the 14 most significant captures since 9/11.

The military began the hearings last Friday to determine whether the 14 should be declared “enemy combatants” who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.

If the 14 are declared enemy combatants, as expected, the military would then draft and file charges against them. The detainees would be tried under the new military commissions law signed by Bush in October.

The military barred reporters or other independent observers from the sessions for the 14 operatives and is limiting the information it provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information.

Legal experts have criticized the U.S. decision, and The Associated Press filed a letter of protest, arguing that it would be “an unconstitutional mistake to close the proceedings in their entirety.”

The transcripts refer to a claim by Mohammed that he was tortured by the CIA, although he said he was not under duress at Guantanamo when he confessed to his role in the attacks. The CIA has said its interrogation practices are legal, and it does not use torture.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, questioned the legality of the closed-door sessions and whether the confession was actually the result of torture.

“We won’t know that unless there is an independent hearing,” he said. “We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?”

In listing the 28 attacks he planned and another three he supported, Mohammed said he tried to kill international leaders including Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

He said he planned the 2002 bombing of a Kenya beach resort frequented by Israelis and the failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya.

He also said he was responsible for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. In 2002, 202 were killed when two nightclubs there were bombed.

Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London — none of which happened.

The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj al-Libi and Ramzi Binalshibh. Both refused to attended the hearings, although al-Libi submitted a statement claiming that the hearings are unfair and that he will not attend unless it is corrected.

“The detainee is in a lose-lose situation,” he said.

Al-Libi, whose name means he is a Libyan, reportedly masterminded two bombings 11 days apart in Pakistan in December 2003 that targeted Musharraf for his support of the U.S.-led war on terror.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni, is suspected of helping Mohammed with the Sept. 11 attack plan on New York City and Washington and is also linked to a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London’s Heathrow Airport. His hearing was conducted in his absence.

Source: FoxNews.com

>USSR2 File: Russia’s potemkin parties advance Soviet strategy: Crypto-Stalinist United Russia dominates regional elections, Just Russia bumps CPRF

>Just Russia is a pale shadow of the Unified Russia, which is itself a pale shadow of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
— Yury Korgunyuk, Center for Applied Political Studies, Moscow; reported in Vedomosti, February 27, 2007 and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 28, 2007

Russia’s opposition parties are up in arms over the results of the March 11 regional elections. They contend that the pro-Putin parties United Russia and Just Russia, the latter founded in October 2006 through a merger of Motherland (Rodina), the Russian Party of Pensioners, and the Russian Party of Life, are merely Kremlin cut outs. Russia’s bickering oppositionists are not far from the truth. In reality, the entire Russian political scence is a huge, 16-year-old stage prop. “For many observers,” the Moscow News reports, “the main intrigue in Sunday’s polls was the extent to which United Russia and A Just Russia–both seen as creations of Kremlin technocrats–would compete with each other.”

The leader of the center-left Just Russia, it bears repeating, is Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, previously leader of the Russian Party of Life. Mironov’s presence in 2003 at the Vityaz Training Center near Moscow, a facility used to train Spetsnaz, was recorded on video and published in the January 25, 2007 issue of Dziennik. The Polish newspaper noted that the target behind Mironov (pictured above and below) was none other than FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko, who was then still living in Britain, three years before former colleague Andrei Lugovoi allegedly assassinated him in November 2006.

Ironically, the party that has complained most bitterly about United Russia/Just Russia collusion is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which instigated the political charade in 1993 when it claimed to be the successor of the supposedly defunct CPSU. Commenting on the March 11 vote, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov insisted that the election results in Dagestan were illegitimate. Liberal Democrat leader and alleged KGB agent Vladimir Zhirinovsky (pictured below) insisted that the election results were “falsified,” Union of Right Forces leader Nikita Belykh insisted that the election results were also “falsified,” while Yabloko was forbidden from fielding candidates altogether by decree of the Central Election Committee.

LDPR ultra-nationalists walk out of Duma over election results
14/ 03/ 2007

MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s ultra-nationalist LDPR faction walked out of the lower house of parliament Wednesday in protest against regional elections results.

The ruling party, United Russia, scored a landslide victory in 13 regions Sunday, trailing only the new Just Russia party in the southern Stavropol Territory. The Communists (KPRF), Just Russia and LDPR emerged second, third and fourth respectively in most of the 14 regions.

“The LDPR election results were falsified,” the charismatic party leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said following the March 11 elections largely seen as a rehearsal for the federal parliamentary elections in December 2007.

He complained that a new Kremlin-sponsored party, Just Russia, had snatched 10% of his party’s 20% votes, and added there had been some vote rigging in particular in the Orlov Region south of Moscow.

Preliminary results suggest that LDPR came fourth in the Orlov Region with 7.33% of votes while Just Russia was third with 12.6%.

Zhirinovsky said the Communists had also appropriated some of his party’s votes.

Russia’s Central Election Commission said the ultra-nationalist leader’s statements were a political demarche. “LDPR pursues its own goals, there is nothing to comment on here,” the press service said but added the commission would make sure that there had been no irregularities in the Orlov Region elections.

On the second day after the elections, Zhirinovsky said Just Russia, established to take votes from the Communists, had caused serious damage to his party instead.

“The party occupied our place, it did not violate the Communists’ monopoly as planned,” he said.

The elections demonstrated that LDPR had lost 1.5% of votes since the 2003 Duma elections, Alexander Veshnyakov, the top election official, said.

The Duma commission for election law enforcement said it would contact party representatives to find out their opinion of the regional election results, said Nikolai Gonchar, head of the commission.

“We will not wait until the commission starts receiving complaints but will phone the political parties ourselves,” he said.

Like the LDPR, the Communists are also contesting the elections results but in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, where the party was at the bottom of the list, with 7.12%, barely above the minimum threshold of 7%.

Source: Novosti

“The story of Rodina,” writes Alexei Titkov in Party Number Four: Rodina: Whence and Why? (Moscow: Panorama, 2006), “shows that nationalism goes down well with voters and that the Kremlin exercises full control over the party system. [Sergei] Baburin, who had been expelled from the Duma fraction after making a number of harsh statements about Rodina (among other things, he accused the party of collaborating with the Communists, oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the Ukrainian orange revolutionaries) in June 2005, took around ten People’s Will deputies with him.” Thus, we see that the Kremlin most certainly controls the Russian party system.

However, as KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn warned the West many years ago, the continuing/restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union controls the Kremlin. In a March 1990 memorandum to the US Central Intelligence Agency, Golitsyn described the purpose of Russia’s potemkin “post”-communist party sytem under the subheading, “The Meaning of the Communist Parties’ Surrender of Their Monopoly and of Party and Government Reorganization”:

Gorbachev and his strategists are not true democrats and never will be. They remain committed to socialism and Communism. They are a new generation of revolutionaries who are using “democratic” reform as a new way to achieve final victory. The Communist strategists appreciated that they could not implement their strategy of convergence [between the Free World and the Soviet Bloc] using the old, obsolete, Stalinist, Communist Party structure and dormant institutions like the old Soviet parliament. But they do believe that they can carry it out using new, revitalized, “democratic” structures.

They are therefore reorganizing the Party system, the Presidency and the legislature to give them more power and prestige and at the same time greater likeness to their American equivalents. Meanwhile, the Communist Party is apparently relegated to the shadows. The Communist Party, however, has not surrendered its real monopoly of power [any more than did the Sandinistas who openly govern Nicaragua again]. In fact, it has broadened it by giving power to its members in the Presidency and Congress [crypto-Stalinist United Russia party] to execute the strategy of “perestroika” and convergence. Greater Presidential powers are needed to carry out the strategy throughout the world [such as strategic partnership with China]. This is not a transfer of power from the Party to the President. The President [Boris Yeltsin and his hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin] remains a member and an instrument of the Party, the executor of its strategy.

He does not impose his will on the Party; he is fulfilling the Party’s will. The ultimate decision-making power rests with the Politburo, the Party apparatus and their strategists. Although the end of the Party’s monopoly is proclaimed, the Party apparatus remains in being [under the name Union of Communist Parties-CPSU between 1993 and 2004] and is still being run by the same old-timers [like Oleg Shenin and Mikhail Gorbachev] (The Perestroika Deception, London: Edward Harle, 1995, 1998; page 100).

Pictured here: The true face of “post”-communist Russia.

Political momentum, as we have documented before, using statements from the restored CPSU and its youth section, the Red Youth Vanguard, is building for a communist putsch later in 2007 or early 2008. The leader of the restored CPSU, Oleg Shenin, has vowed that he will not allow the “Washington-backed fascist usurpers” and their “Zionist” financiers in the Kremlin to permanently divert Russia from the path to revitalized socialism. The CPSU, moreover, will not be deterred from its chief goal of assembling a world federation of “kinder, gentler” socialist republics that will include the restored Soviet Union, the “new European Soviet” otherwise known as the European Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, and the proposed North American Union, a creature of the pro-communist Council on Foreign Relations.

>Latin America File: Neo-Sandinista Nicaragua deepens commitment to ALBA by joining teleSUR; advisory board a "who’s who" of leftist luminaries

>In fulfillment of its obligations to the neo-communist political-economic bloc, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, neo-Sandinista Nicaragua is joining the “CNN of Latin America,” the Caracas-based electronic propaganda platform teleSUR, which already receives support from the regimes in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Uruguay, and Venezuela. This is one of the outcomes of Venezuelan President/Tyrant-in-Training Hugo Chavez’s second visit to Managua since Comandante Daniel Ortega’s January 10 inauguration. Meanwhile, the Sandinista Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Santos Lopez announced in Geneva that “The government of his country, in union with the people, will erase the damages caused during 15 years by the application of neoliberal [capitalist] policies in that nation.” Give the communists an inch, they’ll take a mile. Viva la revolucion!

Nicaragua to join TeleSUR

With the objective to advance in communications agreements of common interest, agreed within the process of Latin American integration, this past weekend Presidents Hugo Chávez and Daniel Ortega, made official the entrance from Nicaragua to the New Television of the South

By: TeleSUR
13 of March of 2007 22:50:37

The incorporation of Nicaragua as associated member of the New Television of the South represents an important profit within the process of Latin American integration, therefore assured east Tuesday its president Andrés Izarra, that explained in addition, that with this new adhesion begins the consolidation in Central America of the signal of the multistate channel of the news.

“Having a Central American partner already, TeleSUR still expands plus its signal with the intention fundamental to reflect the social diversity and cultural of our towns”, it ratified Izarra.

The contribution of Nicaragua is centered in the promotion and distribution of the satelite signal of TeleSUR in territory of the Central American country, by the systems of opened television, of cable, regional, alternative and communitarian.

Initially Nicaragua will contribute twenty hours monthly of production of own contents, as well as the permanent formation of human resource for the New Television of the South.

The agreement contacts in addition through satelite link with Venezuela for the live emission to segments of the news.

TeleSUR was created in July of 2005 with the impulse of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, whereas Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia complete the list of partners. Now Nicaragua is added to him.

“With hardly year and means of transmissions, the New Television of the South has been able to penetrate in places where never before another television transmitter had arrived”, Izarra finalized.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

The teleSUR’s advisory committee features a “who’s who” of international leftist luminaries, including:

1) Tariq Ali, British Pakistani writer and filmmaker, red diaper baby, World Social Forum 2005 participant, member of the International Executive Committee of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International

2) Ernesto Cardenal, ex-Catholic priest, liberation theologian, and former Sandinista Minister of Culture

3) Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Catholic pacificist and liberationist, World Social Forum 2003 participant, President of the Milan-based International League for Human Rights and Liberation of Peoples

4) Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan leftist journalist

5) Danny Glover, Hollywood actor, pro-Chavez political activist, communist front ANSWER supporter, World Social Forum 2003 participant

6) Saul Landau, veteran fellow of the Washington-based KGB front/Marxist think tank known as the Institute for Policy Studies

7) Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist, editor-in-chief of the leftist, anti-globalist Le Monde diplomatique

8) Richard Stallman, “software freedom” activist and hacker; promoted the adoption of free software in Venezuela’s state’s oil company PDVSA, municipal governments, and military; and persuaded the communist-run government of the Indian state of Kerala to dump proprietary software in favor of free software operating systems

>Latin America File: How the West(ern Hemisphere) was lost: Communists protest President Bush’s five-nation tour: A pictorial essay

>Latin America has succumbed to neo-communism, while the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union is preparing to reassert itself across the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. The US, Canadian, and Mexican “neoliberal” elite clandestinely erect regional government with the hope of enriching their pockets and holding the revolutionaries at bay, either ignorant or uncaring that “free trade” advances communism, per Karl Marx’s warning. As he tours Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico US President George W. Bush is vilified by leftist protestors, while his archnemesis in the Western Hemisphere Venezuelan President/Tyrant-in-Training Hugo Chavez is mobbed by fans as he visits Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Haiti.

Brazilian leftists in Sao Paulo welcome President Bush to their country:

Uruguayan leftists in Montevideo welcome President Bush to their country:

Colombian leftists, marching under the hammer and sickle, welcome President Bush to their country:

Guatemalan leftists welcome President Bush to their country:

For all of your protest needs, please call the Sao Paulo Forum at 1-RES-IST-ANCE. US flags and Bush effigies (for burning) are provided. Molotov cocktails, First Aid kits, and bullhorns cost extra.

A kiosk selling trendy Marxist accessories and hot “Che” paraphernalia will be set up just outside the police cordon. All proceeds will be donated to advance the revolution in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Bring your own cynicism, anti-imperialism, and digital camera.

>Latin America File: Chavez wraps up 2nd visit to Managua since Jan., declares unity of Bolivarian and Sandinista revolutions; Ortega to visit Brazil

>Pictured here and below: Venezuela’s President/Tyrant-in-Training Hugo Chavez in Managua, March 11, 2007, his second visit since January 10, when he, along with (“ex”-CPSU) Sergei Stepashin–former Russian Prime Minister, KGB/FSB/FSK Director, and President Vladimir Putin’s personal envoy–attended Comandante Daniel Ortega’s inauguration. On that occasion, Stepashin promptly inked an agreement with Ortega, whereby Russia resumes its role of supplying Nicaragua with military hardware.

After making a couple of pit stops in semi-fascist Argentina and neo-communist Bolivia, Comrade Hugo takes his Bush-bashing, anti-USA, anti-imperialist “Latin America Solidarity Counter-Tour 2007” to neo-Sandinista Nicaragua, where Comandante Ortega successfully conned 40 per cent of that country’s electorate into voting his party into open power again. The organ of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) carries the story of Comrade Hugo’s visit to Managua here. The mouthpiece of the FLSN declares: “Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez today concluded a visit to Nicaragua, in which he proclaimed the unity of the Bolivarian and Sandinista revolutions, and assured that socialism is the only way to eradicate the poverty.” Exhorting Nicaraguans to defend the “Sandinista project directed by Ortega,” President Chavez is quoted as saying: “The only way to eradicate poverty and the delay in taking the way to socialism . . . it to further the Bolivarian and Sandinista revolutions . . . so that they finish in a single socialist project.” Referring to US President George W. Bush’s five-nation tour of Latin America, Comrade Hugo concludes: “For that reason the President of the United States walks now like a wolf dressed in sheep’s skin, saying that he comes to help.”

Chavez Calls for LatAm Unity
Managua, Mar 12 (Prensa Latina)

Venezuela s President Hugo Chavez called for unity of all Latin American peoples to face what he termed an “imperialist offensive” against the revolutionary wave gripping the continent on Monday.

“Only union will give us the strength we need to break the imperialist offensive,” stated Chavez addressing a mass act in the Nicaraguan city of Leon on Sunday night.

The statesman arrived in Nicaragua Sunday on a brief official visit, as part of a Latin American tour that first took him to Argentina and Bolivia, to continue today in Jamaica and Haiti.

According to Chavez, the “US Empire” is very concerned about the creation in the last few years of progressive and socialist governments in Latin America, which are maturing in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

He recalled that the problems of poverty, lack of housing and illiteracy riddling Nicaragua were originated in the capitalism that was imposed on the Central American nation in the last 16 years.

“The only way to escape poverty and backwardness is through socialism,” said Chavez, who exhorted Nicaraguans not to allow the project of Sandinista President Daniel Ortega be snatched again before fruition.

In the public act, both presidents signed understanding memorandums, to build an oil refinery in the department of Leon and to enter Nicaragua to the southern TV system known as “Telesur.”

Those accords are part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, an integrationist initiative which the Central American nation entered the day after Ortega s inauguration.

Source: Prensa Latina

That “single socialist project” to which Chavez refers above is the neo-communist regional political-economic bloc known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, presently including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica, and very soon to encompass Ecuador, if Chavez “mini me” President Rafael Correa can survive that country’s current constitutional impasse. A March 9 Associated Press story reports: “Correa said Thursday night that he would not respect any ruling that opposed the referendum on whether to rewrite the country’s constitution one of several disputes that have set Ecuador’s courts, Congress and president at one another’s throats.” Following hard on the heels of President Bush’s visit with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, La Voz del Sandinismo reports, Comandante Ortega–whose FSLN, like Da Silva’s Workers’ Party, holds membership in the narco-communist-terrorist Sao Paulo Forum–will also visit Brazil. No doubt Comrade Dan’s Spanish and Comrade Lula’s Portuguese will prove no barrier to the consolidation of Latin America into the Communist Bloc.

>China File: Li Changchun: CPC pointman for Moscow-Beijing Axis, Sino-Venezuelan strategic partnership; Chinese-Cuban special forces protecting Chavez

>Li Changchun (pictured here) is a major pointman for the People’s Republic of China when it comes to furthering the Communist Party of China’s strategic political interests. Later this month Li will visit four Latin American countries, two of which, Mexico and Venezuela, are China’s strategic partners in the Western Hemisphere. The March 12, 2007 edition of the People’s Daily reports: “Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, will pay goodwill visits to Mexico, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru and Samoa from March 19 to April 5. Li will pay the visits at the invitation of the governments of the five nations, announced Guo Yezhou, spokesman of the CPC International Department, on Monday.”

While visiting Venezuela, Li might pay a courtesy call to the Chinese special forces–in addition to the Cuban special forces–that are supporting President/Tyrant-in-Training Hugo Chavez’s presidential guard. With respect to Comrade Hugo’s Chinese security detail, Strategy Page reports: “Over a hundred other Chinese troops are also providing personal security for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.” With respect to Comrade Hugo’s Cuban security detail, Paul Crespo writes in FrontPage Magazine: “Hundreds of Cuban advisors, coordinated by Cuba’s military attaché in Caracas, are also in charge of the elite presidential guard who defend Chavez against potential coups or military unrest.” The fact that two paleo-communist states are committed to protecting the life of Venezuela’s neo-communist dictator should alert the shopping mall regime to the dangers posed by Latin America’s “red spread.” However, I suspect that these details about Chavez’s security detail, which we documented last year, are not significant enough for the MSM.

Pictured here are President Chavez of the Bolivarian/Socialist Republic of Venezuela and President/Tyrant Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China, in December 2004 during Comrade Hugo’s third state visit to Beijing.
The article below indicates that Li plays an important role in guiding the Sino-Soviet strategic partnership, which we refer to as the Moscow-Beijing Axis and which KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn referred to more than 20 years ago in his first book New Lies for Old (1984) as communism’s “one clenched fist.” In December 2006 Li received Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, in Beijing. At the time, Li affirmed: “China and Russia have become important forces in safeguarding world and regional peace and stability.” Implicit in such a pronouncment is the understanding that the USA is the preeminent threat to such “regional peace and stability.” Presuming to speak for the Kremlin, the CPRF chairman declared: “We will go on intensifying cooperation with the CPC and make concerted efforts for a successful China Year in Russia, lifting the strategic partnership of cooperation to a new height.” Such presumption is understandable when one takes into account that Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin is merely a frontman for the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which operates under the leadership of August 1991 coup mastermind Oleg Shenin.

Pictured below: The Moscow-Beijing Axis personified: Comrades Gennady and Changchun.

Cultural exchanges to deepen Sino-Russian strategic partnership, CPC official
May 9, 2006

Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Li Changchun on Monday urged both China and Russia to enhance cultural exchanges in a bid to keep deepening bilateral strategic partnership of cooperation.

“Cultural exchanges help increase the understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries and bolster the comprehensive growth of bilateral ties,” Li said while visiting an exhibition of Russian fine arts at China’s National Art Museum in Beijing.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said he believed that such activities would also provide opportunities for the people of both countries to learn from each other and help maintain the diversity of the world culture.

The exhibition, including 110 Russian masterpieces dating from the 18th to the early 20th century, is a key program of the “Year of Russia” in China, which opened in March during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China.

The current Year of Russia in China and the Year of China in Russia, scheduled for 2007, were a pioneering project in the history of bilateral relations, Li acknowledged. “I am convinced that the activities would help improve mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries and further reinforce the China-Russia strategic partnership of cooperation.”

Source: People’s Daily

In addition to his December 2006 junket, the CPRF chairman has made numerous trips to Beijing, including at least twice in 2004, a fact that we have documented here before, and once in 1999. Eight years ago, while visiting communist counterparts in China, Comrade Gennady declared: “China has changed greatly, under the correct policy guidance of the CPC [Communist Party of China]. Deng Xiaoping Theory and the achievements during China’s reform and opening up have attracted attention in Russia. The CPRF is willing to keep its friendly contact with the CPC and further promote bilateral ties.”

And so, even while academia’s disciples of Antonio Gramsci, the self-serving careerists of dot.gov, and the talking heads of the MSM inform us that communism is still dead, the international communist conspiracy against the Free World is manifestly alive and well . . .

>USA File: Russian aircraft to conduct aerial observation of USA per Open Skies Treaty

>Why do the Russians bother? Soviet satellites and on-the-ground Spetsnaz have no doubt long since mapped out America’s antiquated ICBM silos. Got mobile launchers?

The Open Skies Treaty wasted a good tree (to produce the paper on which the document is printed). Will the Kremlin really allow the Americans, or any other country for that matter, to photograph its sensitive military-industrial installations? Not likely. When Russian bombers probe North American airspace, US and Canadian fighter jets scramble (most of the time). However, when a foolish international treaty that ignores the reality of Soviet communist deception permits the enemy to legally surveil our assets, no one blinks.

Pictured here: The Russians will be operating a Tu-154M during their overflight of the Continental USA. This aircraft is normally used for civilian purposes, but can be converted into a reconnaissance jet.

Russian jet to fly Open Skies Treaty observation flight over U.S.
MOSCOW. March 10 (Interfax)

A Russian aircraft will fly an aerial observation flight over U.S. territory within the framework of the Treaty on Open Skies between March 11 and 16, 2007, the Russian Defense Ministry information department told Interfax on Saturday.

A Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft will take off from the Wright-Patterson airfield and will fly 4,900 kilometers, it said.

The observation flight over the U.S. territory will be carried out right after the Russian observation mission has finished its 5,400-kilometer long flight over Canada, which was started on March 6 at the Trenton airfield.

Russian, Canadian, and U.S. specialists will control the observance of previously agreed-upon parameters of the flight and the Open Skies Treaty provisions onboard the Tu-154M.

Source: Interfax

>EU File: Democratic Unionists score big in Ulster vote, power-sharing coalition formed with Marxist Sinn Fein by March 26 or direct rule continues

>If Ian Paisley (pictured here on right) and the leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party decide to form a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein, they will be doing so with a party and an insurgent army that are plugged in tightly to the Red International, such as the European United Left–Nordic Green Left and the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, facts that we have documented in past weeks. In such an arrangement, Paisley would hold the post of First Minister of Northern Ireland, but the Irish Republican Army would have a political beachhead in the Stormont.

DUP top in NI assembly election

March 9, 2007

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party has emerged as the largest party in Northern Ireland’s Assembly election.

His party secured 36 of the 108 seats, with Sinn Fein taking 28. The Ulster Unionist Party won 18 seats, the SDLP 16, and the Alliance Party seven seats.

Secretary of State Peter Hain has warned he needs an answer from the parties in a fortnight if the 26 March deadline for devolution is to be met.

He said the assembly would close if they did not sign up to power-sharing.

If a power-sharing executive is formed it will have four DUP ministers, three Sinn Fein, two UUP and one SDLP.

The seven member strong Alliance Party will not have a presence in the executive, neither will the Green Party or Progressive Unionist Party, which both won one seat.

One independent candidate was returned, Dr Kieran Deeny who stood on a platform to save a local hospital in West Tyrone.

The DUP and Sinn Fein took more than half the first preference votes between them in the poll.

Mr Hain met Sinn Fein on Friday and the DUP.

Earlier on Friday, prime ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern said in a joint statement that voters in Northern Ireland had issued a clear message they want devolved government back.

As a second day of counting got under way, the premiers said: “Restoration of the devolved institutions represents an opportunity of historic proportions.”

However, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said conditions had to be right for his party to go into government with Sinn Fein.

“When the conditions are met, the Democratic Unionist Party is ready,” he said.

“It is up to other people to meet the requirements as soon as it is possible. Let them get on with it and stop dragging their feet.”

The DUP got 30.1% of first preferences – up 4.4% from 2003 – while Sinn Fein got 26.2%, up 2.6%.

Almost 250 candidates were standing in 18 constituencies in the proportional representation election.

The leaders of the four main parties were all returned, the DUP’s Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams topping the polls in North Antrim and West Belfast respectively.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan was elected on the first count at Foyle, but UUP leader Sir Reg Empey had to wait to the third stage before being returned in East Belfast.

In third place in first preferences, the SDLP received 15.2% of first preferences, the Ulster Unionists 14.9% and Alliance 5.2%.

UK Unionist Party leader Bob McCartney lost his North Down seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Meanwhile, speaking after a meeting with Mr Hain on Friday, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said: “We look to both governments to accept what the people overwhelmingly voted for.

“That is for local politicians who sought a mandate to execute that mandate in the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.”

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said it was important to take the situation forward.

“We need to work with the mandates that the parties have, we need to try and convert that into working political institutions.”

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, whose party lost nine seats, said he would have liked more seats, but respected the electorate’s decision.

“Our commitment to devolution and a functioning executive has been made clear in the election campaign.

“We now wait to see if others will deliver devolution or the stagnation of continued direct rule,” he said.

The Alliance Party leader David Ford said he thought a lot of people had grave doubts about whether the DUP and Sinn Fein were willing to share power constructively.

Lady Sylvia Hermon, the Ulster Unionist Party’s only MP, criticised her party’s performance in the assembly election.

Speaking at the count in North Down, she said her party’s vote management had been “woeful, to put it mildly”, and added that she had “a lot to think about”.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since October 2002, amid allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont. A subsequent court case collapsed. Direct rule has been in place since that date.

Source: BBC News

>USSR2 File: Neo-Soviet Russia revitalizes old friendships in Latin America as Red Axis consumes more countries; Dep. FM Kislyak visits Chile, Uruguay

>Only hours before U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to leave Brazil for Uruguay–the second stop on his five-nation tour of Latin America, which also includes civil war-ravaged Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico–the neo-Soviet Union dispatched one of its envoys to establish political and economic links with Montevideo’s neo-communist regime. In recent weeks we have posted information related to the resurrection of political, economic, and military links between, on the one hand, Russia and, on the other hand, paleo-communist Cuba and neo-Sandinista Nicaragua. We have also blogged about the establishment of new political, economic, and military links between Russia and its brand-new client states, neo-communist Venezuela and Mexico, where the Russian Federation Federal Security Service has infiltrated the drug cartels ala Red Cocaine and leftist loser Andrés Manuel López Obrador has established a counter-regime to oppose that of the legitimate president, Felipe Calderon.

On March 6, state-run Novosti reported, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak (pictured above) wrapped up meetings with Chilean officials in which he expressed the Kremlin’s interest in building nuclear power plants in the South American country. “Russia and the Latin American countries have an excellent future,” he predicted, no doubt with some smugness in view of the rampant anti-Americanism of the region. In April 2006, the Communist Party of China’s People’s Daily reported, Kislyak assured the West that Moscow’s “weapons sale to Venezuela would not affect the stability of Latin America.”

Russia for More Ties with LatAm
Moscow, Mar 9 (Prensa Latina)

Russia wants to increase political, economic cooperation with Latin American countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Kisliak affirmed Friday in Uruguay.

Russian authorities will bring forward necessary actions to reinforce ties with those countries, the diplomat said when speaking at a meeting of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI).

Similarly, the official noted Russia is willing to provide regional representatives with more information on the political, economic processes in the country, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

Moscow has traditional partners in the American subcontinent, with decades of cooperation in trade, economy, science and technology, and culture.

At the beginning of the 21st century, inter-State ties and political dialogue began increasing gradually, after a certain weakening of relations with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The visits President Vladimir Putin made to Cuba in 2000, and to Mexico, Brazil, and Chile in 2004, gave a substantial impulse to Russia-Latin American relations.

Source: Prensa Latina

Meanwhile, yet another White House administration blindly advances communism by adovocating “social justice,” this time in advance of US President George W. Bush’s five-nation Latin American tour. The White House website reveals: “On March 5, 2007, President Bush Discussed The Administration’s Efforts To Advance The Cause Of Social Justice In The Western Hemisphere.” “Social justice” and “economic justice” are communist codewords for the eradication of the gringos’ lifestyle of “privilege” through government-sponsored theft and international wealth redistribution. That’s right. Throw some money at the revolutionary masses in order to placate them. Sounds good, won’t work. The vanguard of the proletariat is looking for “neoliberal” blood and measuring the rope.

>Latin America File: Brazilian leftists protest Bush’s five-nation tour; Chavez repeats 2005 rant, launches "anti-imperialist" counter-tour

>Brazil’s Ruling Leftist-Communist Coalition Vilifies Bush While President Lula da Silva Hosts US President

The Brazilian people, hospitable and always receptive with those who honor us by visiting our country, have all reason to go into the streets, heeding the invocation of the left parties, including the PCdoB, and of the solidarity, peace, syndicate, student, and popular organizations to say with a loud and clear sound that “Bush is an undesirable visitor.” As well, it should be emphasized through the invocation of the demonstrations, that Bush is persona non grata in Brazil.

— Jose Reinaldo Carvalho, Secretary of International Relations, Central Committee, (ruling) Communist Party of Brazil; statement made on eve of President George W. Bush’s tour of Latin America, March 7, 2007

While the leadership of the Workers’ Party, which is the senior coalition partner in Brazil’s government, pretends to be nice to the presidential entourage from Washington, junior coalition partners like the Communist Party of Brazil are not so restrained in their contempt for George W. Bush. The Fox News report below indicates that the March 8 protest in Sao Paulo featured “6,000 students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians,” carefully avoiding the “c” word (meaning communists), while the Workers’ Party website reported 20,000 anti-Bush demonstrators, including the Marxist Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Latin America’s largest social movement. The communist website Red Globe notes that the MST was one of the main organizers of the protest.

Pictured here: Presidents Kirchner and Chavez in Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, replicating his protest from the 2005 Summit of the Americas, Comrade Hugo visited his chum Nestor Kirchner, President of Argentina. Although Buenos Aires has yet to sign onto the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas, a web of bilateral accords between the Bolivarian/Socialist Republic of Venezuela and the Argentine Republic is firmly linking the latter to Latin America’s Red Axis. Among other agreements, Caracas and Buenos Aires are committed to forming the “Organization of Gas Producing- Exporting Countries of the South” (Opegasur).

Venezuela’s President/Tyrant-in-Training declared: “I believe the chief objective of the Bush trip is to try to scrub clean the face of the [US] empire in Latin America. But it’s too late. It seems he’s just now discovered that poverty exists in the region. The future belongs to us. Oh, ho ho! Gringo go home!” Following an appearance at an “anti-imperialist” rally in a Buenos Aires soccer stadium, Comrade Hugo will visit fellow neo-communist Evo Morales, the President of Boliva. The Argentine President visited Venezuela on February 21. At the time, reported Granma, the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, Honorary Comrade Kirchner declared of the socialization of Venzuela: “It’s an absolute mistake [to contain Chavez]; with our brother President Chavez we are building a South America for the dignity of our peoples.”

Pictured below: Presidents Bush and Lula da Silva embrace for the cameras outside a facility owned by Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company. In an effort to promote alternative fuels such as ethanol, Bush and Da Silva signed a biofuels pact. Da Silva plays the moderate for his “gringo” visitor but in view of the seminal role that his Workers’ Party played in founding the narco-communist-terrorist Sao Paulo Forum, the astute scholar of Latin America’s “red spread” should consider the possibility that that embrace contains a knife thrust in the back.

Hugo Chavez to Lead Anti-Bush Rally in Argentina
Friday, March 09, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Venezuela’s firebrand leader said Friday that President Bush’s Latin American tour was nothing more than an attempt to improve America’s image, dismissing pledges of U.S. aid as a cynical attempt to “confuse” the region.

President Hugo Chavez, who complained last week that Bush’s tour was meant to divide Latin America and isolate his leftist government, launched a counter-tour of his own, arriving late Thursday in Buenos Aires. He said the U.S. leader only recently “has discovered poverty” in the region.

“I believe the chief objective of the Bush trip is to try to scrub clean the face of the (U.S.) empire in Latin America. But it’s too late,” Chavez said of recent Bush pledges of aid. “It seems he’s just now discovered that poverty exists in the region.”

In an interview with Argentine state television Channel 7, Chavez promised his scheduled soccer-stadium rally Friday night in Buenos Aires “will be confrontational. I believe you have to point out the contrasts. If he says ‘Yes,’ we say, ‘No!'”

Just as Chavez whips up cries of “Bush, Go Home!” at the rally, the U.S. leader is expected to be arriving in Uruguay, the second stop on his tour, about 40 miles across the Plate River from Argentina.

Chavez, in Buenos Aires, called Bush’s tour an attempt to “divide” and “confuse” Latin American countries. “The future belongs to us,” Chavez told reporters, adding “Oh, ho ho! Gringo go home!”

Chavez’s trip to Argentina is ostensibly for talks with President Nestor Kirchner, a center-left ally. He also was visiting a struggling Argentine dairy plant that Venezuela is pledging to help.

Pictured here: Brazilian police tear down leftist posters sporting President Bush with a Hitler-like moustache.

The parallel meetings are shaping up to be a reprise of the November 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where a leftist rally by Chavez at a packed stadium tarnished Bush’s appearance. There, the Venezuelan president claimed U.S. free trade proposals were “buried.”

Before heading Thursday for Brazil, Bush said he was ready to challenge perceptions that U.S. neglect has empowered Chavez.

“The trip is to remind people that we care,” Bush said in an interview Wednesday with CNN en Espanol.

But many in the region still blame Washington for historically tolerating brutal military regimes like the Argentina dictatorship of 1976-1983, when thousands of dissidents disappeared.

Capturing the anti-American sentiment, Mercedes Merono of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo urged a big turnout for the Chavez rally. The Mothers group continues to search for children and grandchildren who were abducted and never seen again in the government crackdown known as the dirty war.

“This counter-rally is extremely important,” she said. “Bush seeks to take advantage of Latin America while Chavez supports the region’s independence.”

Protests erupted around Latin America even before Bush arrived on Thursday — the biggest of them in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo, where 6,000 students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians clashed with police firing tear gas and wielding batons. Hundreds fled and ducked into businesses to avoid the chaos, some of them bloodied.

Authorities did not say how many people had been injured.

Source: FoxNews.com

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Russian Strategic Air Force commander: Bombers could "suppress" US missile shield in Central Europe

>With comments like this emerging from the mouth of Lieutenant-General Igor Khvorov, commander of the Russian Strategic Air Force, how can anyone believe that Russia is or has ever been a friend of the West, notwithstanding all of the propaganda concerning the alleged demise of Soviet communism? General Pyotr Deinekin, a former commander of the air force, who is also quoted below, articulates very clearly the Kremlin’s perception of US missile defense in Central Europe. Such installations exist only to eliminate Russian missiles in the initial stage of their flight. Deinekin’s recommendation? Novosti reports: “The Russian General Staff should calmly take adequate measures not only to contain, but to actively eliminate those facilities as well, including with the use of Strategic Air Force aviation assets.”

Pictured above: Russia’s Tu-160 Blackjack bomber. This aircraft flew undetected through the US zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during an April 2006 exercise. At the time Lieutenant General Khvorov said, “They [the Americans] were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually.”

Russian bombers could suppress U.S. missile shield – general
13:05 05/ 03/ 2007

MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s strategic aviation has sufficient potential to suppress elements of a U.S. missile defense shield should it be deployed in Central Europe, the commander of the Strategic Air Force said Monday.

“Missile shield elements, which are located in silos, are very vulnerable and have weak defenses,” Lieutenant-General Igor Khvorov said. “Therefore, all aircraft deployed by [Russian] strategic aviation can either apply electronic counter-measures against them or physically destroy them.”

Russia, which has been anxious about NATO bases that have appeared in former Communist-bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, has blasted U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile systems in Central Europe as a national security threat and a destabilizing factor for Europe.

Washington said the defenses would be designed to counter possible strikes from North Korea and Iran, which are involved in long-running disputes with the international community over their nuclear programs.

General Pyotr Deinekin, a former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, said the deployment of U.S. missile shield elements in Eastern Europe “enables Americans to considerably expand their possibilities from the point of view of reconnaissance and the elimination of Russian missiles in the initial stage of their flight trajectory.”

“We should now expect the deployment of their intermediate and short-range missiles in the former countries of the Warsaw Pact, including in the Baltic States,” Deinekin said.

In that situation, Deinekin said, the Russian General Staff should calmly take adequate measures not only to contain, but to actively eliminate those facilities as well, including with the use of Strategic Air Force aviation assets.

Source: Novosti

In addition to Poland and Czech Republic, the US Missile Defense Agency has floated the idea of constructing radar installations in the Caucacus–that is, on territory of the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. Since the Kremlin, under the guidance of the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, follows the communist dialectic of retreating in order to advance, the (alleged) collapse of the Warsaw Pact has permitted NATO to absorb the “post”-communist countries of Central/Eastern Europe for the purpose of provoking “cornered” Russia. Thus, a legitimate pretext for war against the USA is established. Meanwhile, the Soviet communists maintain their hold on the Eurasian landmass through the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

>Red Terror File: FSB threatened Safronov not to publish missile deal story; wife of US expert: Joyal shooting not robbery gone bad

>She called me and said, “Oleg, Paul is shot, I want to warn you.” I couldn’t believe my ears.
— Oleg Kalugin, Washington-based KGB defector, business partner and friend of Paul Joyal, speaking of Paul’s wife Elizabeth

Deceased Kommersant reporter and ex-Space Forces colonel Ivan Safronov’s journalism apparently entered forbidden territory: neo-Soviet Belarus was to act as middleman for Russian weapons deal with long-time Soviet client states, fascist-communist Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Russian Federation Federal Security Service, according to the report below, instigated two criminal cases against Safronov (pictured here), accused the journalist of divulging state secrets, and warned him against publishing his research. No astute student of Russian politics should be faulted for wondering whether Safronov’s five-story tumble was another Kremlin-style “Arkancide.”

Russian Suicide Journalist Investigated Syria and Iran Weapons Deals — Report
06.03.2007
MosNews

Ivan Safronov, a correspondent for Russian business daily who died recently in what is seen as a suicide, had been investigating a prepared deal to supply Russian weapons to Syria and Iran and received threats from Russian state security service, the Kommersant daily reported on Monday.

Safronov died on March 2 after tumbling five floors from the stairwell of his Moscow apartment building. The daily quoted the press service of the prosecutor’s office that is working with the suicide case as saying that investigators do not rule out that the reported could have been driven to suicide.

The daily also said that before a trip to the international weapons fair in United Arab Emirates Safronov told his colleagues that he was going to check the information about new deals to supply Russian weapons to the Middle East — the sale of the Su-30 jets to Syria and S-300V surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

The reporter said that in both cases the weapons were to be supplied via Belarus to protect Russia from Western accusations of supporting rogue states.

He added that he was not going to write about these facts immediately because he had received warnings from the Russian security service, the FSB, that the international scandal would lead to his arrest and trial over disclosure of state secrets.

Kommersant wrote that two criminal cases had been instigated against Safronov and he had been repeatedly questioned by authorities, who accused him of divulging state secrets. However, each time the reporter managed to prove that his sources were legitimate.

The reporter’s colleagues and relatives have described him as a strong, cheerful person who would be extremely unlikely to kill himself.

A recent count by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists found that 13 Russian journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings since last year.

Source: Moscow News

Meanwhile, the wife of Paul Joyal, a US-based expert on Russian intelligence affairs and an acquaintance of murdered FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko, insists that robbery was not the motive behind the shooting of her husband. The attempted murder of Joyal in Maryland occurred the day before Safronov died in Moscow.

Wife of U.S. Expert on Russian Intelligence Says Robbery Not Behind Shooting Attack
06.03.2007
MosNews

The wife of an expert on Russian intelligence who was shot last week has said that her husband had been robbed, the Associated Press news agency reports. In a brief interview at the couple’s suburban Washington home, Elizabeth Joyal said reports that Paul Joyal’s wallet and briefcase were taken were false. She didn’t know of any motive for Thursday’s shooting outside their home in what she said was a normally safe area.

“We really have no idea what the reason was,” said Elizabeth Joyal, but added that “it could easily have been a random act of violence.”

The shooting came days after Paul Joyal, 53, accused the Russian government of involvement in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko and of trying to silence its critics. The FBI was assisting in the shooting investigation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in the Litvinenko case.

Joyal and Litvinenko were acquaintances.

A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said the wallet was found in Paul Joyal’s car and that the briefcase has been accounted for. The official requested anonymity because the probe is ongoing.

Law enforcement officials speaking on the condition of anonymity had told several media outlets, including The Associated Press, that the crime appeared to be a robbery gone bad.

Elizabeth Joyal said her husband’s prognosis was good. Joyal was still under sedation, though, and authorities have not interviewed him, said Cpl. Stephen Pacheco, a Prince George’s County police spokesman.

Joyal works for National Strategies, a Washington-based government consulting firm. He also has lobbied for the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

Source: Moscow News

The website of consulting firm National Strategies features a bio of its hospitalized employee. Joyal had extensive business connections with “post”-communist Russia and Georgia. In other words, it is very likely that he rubbed elbows with the FSB/Red Mafiya criminal structure, which would have little difficulty tracking him down in the USA.

Mr. Joyal founded his own company in 1991 and established joint ventures in telecommunications and air transportation in Russia and Georgia respectively. As Editor-in- Chief of the Daily Report on Russia and the former Soviet Republics, he published a daily intelligence newsletter for ten years and offered a range of consultation services to a number of fortune 100 firms pursuing opportunities in the former Soviet Union, Turkey and Iraq. In 1998, he represented the Georgian government before the U.S. Congress and Departments as its first lobbyist.

One of Joyal’s business partners was Washington-based KGB defector Oleg Kalugin, who is not convinced that the attempted murder of his friend on March 1 bears the “fingerprints” of the Russian security and intelligence apparatus. “My suspicion,” he stated, “is that it’s not linked to anything international.” A Russian court convicted Kalugin in absentia of treason in 2002. The former KGB major general currently works for the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, located in Alexandria, Virginia.

>Latin America File: Communists decline to join Chavez’s proposed United Socialist Party, but pledge loyalty to Bolivarian Revolution; CP ranks swell

>By declining to officially join Comrade Hugo’s proposed United Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Venezuela can maintain the pretense of remaining somewhat outside the revolutionary regime in Caracas and at the same time continue their infiltration of administrative organs. With a hat tip to blogger Trevor Loudon, who posted this news item yesterday at New Zeal. Pictured here: Government poster promoting Venezuela’s socialist revolution.

Venezuela’s communists, other leftist, resist president’s push for single socialist party
The Associated Press Sunday, March 4, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s Communist Party affirmed Monday its commitment to the Marxist ideals espoused by President Hugo Chavez but resisted the leftist leader’s proposal to disband and join a single, revolutionary party.

Communists will not consider relinquishing their 76-year history as an independent party until the ideological foundation of the future ruling party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has been clearly defined, said Oscar Figueras, Secretary General of Venezuela’s Communist Party, or PCV.

“After the character of this organization is defined, the political parties will make decisions” regarding their own future, Figuera said at the party headquarters in Caracas, where portraits of communist icons Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh hang on the walls. “It cannot occur beforehand.”

Chavez has announced that his own party, the Fifth Republic Movement, will eventually disband to make way for the forthcoming political organization, which is to replace a long list of pro-Chavez parties.

During his radio program, Chavez called for “true unity” in the effort to create a new party while warning political allies that “individual aspirations” could undermine the initiative and prompt him to seek a direct link with his constituency.

“The doors will remain open, but I will advance,” he said.

While several parties have swiftly agreed to disband before joining Chavez’s new party, the Communist Party and two other pro-Chavez parties, Fatherland For All and Podemos, have been holdouts.

A committee appointed by Chavez, including leftist leaders from several pro-government parties, is designing a basic blueprint for the new party, but no binding decisions have been made.

“We are not going to disband,” Jose Albornoz, secretary general of Fatherland For All, told local Union Radio. “We are going to wait because the ball is currently in the committee’s court.”

During a meeting Sunday near the seaside town of Rio Chico, close to 1,000 communists — including union leaders, student activists and cooperative farmers — decided to join a debate about the ideological direction of Chavez’s new party.

Party members “accept President Chavez’s invitation to participate in the common effort of creating a new party,” said PCV president Jeronimo Carrera, 84, who was imprisoned three times for working clandestinely against the rule of Venezuela’s last dictator, Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez.

The party’s red flag, bearing a hammer and sickle, flew outside an auditorium while delegates ended the weekend meeting singing Venezuela’s national anthem.

Some wore T-shirts emblazoned with pro-Chavez slogans, and party members stressed they wholeheartedly back Chavez. But an attachment to the party’s traditions and ideology has made the idea of giving it up hard to swallow for many.

Although the Communist Party is relatively small, its popularity has surged since Chavez was first elected in 1998.

Hundreds of party members have been elected to municipal councils, nearly a dozen Communist lawmakers sit in the entirely pro-Chavez National Assembly and more young blood is constantly pumped into the movement through the Communist Youth, the party’s youth wing.

Young party leaders include David Velasquez, 28, who in January became Chavez’s first Communist Party Cabinet member when he was appointed minister for popular participation and social development.

Chavez says Venezuela needs a single socialist party to rein in political interests and more efficiently lead his movement. Many analysts call it an effort to consolidate party control.

Source: International Herald Tribune

>Latin American File: Caracas sends ALBA pointman to Managua, Ortega inaugurates joint Nicaraguan-Venezuelan commission

>Updated March 7, 2007

With the blessing of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its crypto-communist frontmen in the Kremlin, the integration of neo-Sandinista Nicaragua into the anti-capitalist, anti-USA Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) proceeds apace. Pictured here: Rosario Murillo, former “guerrilla girl” and President Daniel Ortega’s wife, meets Elias Jaua, Venezuela’s Minister of Agriculture, and ALBA pointman. Murillo exercises a little nepotism in the capacity of Coordinator of the newly formed Citizenship and Communications Council, which channels Sandinista propaganda.

Translation courtesy Babelfish with some refinements by your resident blogger. ALBA also means “dawn” in the Spanish.

Daniel inaugurates first Mixed Commission Nicaragua-Venezuela
President Daniel Ortega today inaugurated here the first Mixed Commission Nicaragua-Venezuela, that will give pursuit to the agreements of cooperation subscribed by both countries, within the framework of the Bolivariana Alternative for the Américas (ALBA)
By: PL
05 of March of 2007 11:15:47

In the meeting of two days that takes place in a centric hotel of Managua one participates nourished Venezuelan delegation, headed by minister of Agriculture and Tierras, Elías Jaua, and attended by around 60 people.

Venezuela does not try to be model, nor inexhaustible source of resources, but that we are in the search of the experience and of the knowledge that has the people of Nicaragua, it asserted Jaua, in the opening of the session.

The Venezuelan holder assured in addition that president Hugo Chávez, of who does not discard that she flies tomorrow to Managua for the closing, is very to as much of the development of this Mixed Commission, first after the company/signature in the agreements in last January.

Our objective is to demonstrate that another type of integration is possible, that the peoples can approach nonsingle from the commerce, but from the solidarity spirit and hope by a better world, asserted Jaua.
Ortega, on the other hand, weighed kindness of the DAWN, the integracionista model impelled by Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and three Caribbean islands, and that are based on the cooperation, solidarity and the complementariness.

Fustigó to its detractors, which, said, have here in Nicaragua their “box of resonance”, in reference to the critics of some sectors of the local right to a project diametrically opposed to the Free Trade Agreement supported by the United States.

The sandinista agent chief executive remembered that the cooperation decided with the Venezuelan government the 11 of last January already is in march, and in the last mentioned the arrival months of important provisions of urea and petroleum, in advantageous conditions of payment.

There they are also the electrical plants, emphasized Ortega, in reference to the 32 generator sets given by Caracas to alleviate the power crisis that undergoes Nicaragua.

Although the subject will have a great weight in this back first evaluation of the march of 12 in the 15 agreements subscribed by Chávez and Ortega two months, in the five tables of work will also be spoken of agriculture, health, culture and sports.

The basic industry, the medio.ambiente, the opening of an office of the National Bank of Economic Development and Social (BANDES) in Managua, and the construction of houses and highways also will be negotiation object.

In his address, the Venezuelan delegation leader Jaua referred to the Sandinistas’ electoral defeat in 1990, but insisted that President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution was, in part at least, inspired by the Sandinista Revolution:

We [Bolivarians] became revolutionaries, inspired by the Sandinista Revolution. Back in the decade of the 1980s, we followed with admiration and respect, the way that the people of Sandino had begun to develop, and also we felt the great historical frustration of that moment at which the Sandinista comrades had to leave the government. Now that Comrade Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista Front and the people of Nicaragua are again in the government, and we–that generation that was inspired by them–are in the government in Venezuela, we are sure that we are not going to fail, neither here nor there, in Venezuela!

In reply, Comandante Ortega emphasized that ALBA serves as a counterweight to the failed “neo-liberal” Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, perceived by the Latin America Left as a building block for the proposed Washington-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas. According to the Cuba-based Prensa Latina, the bilateral accords between Caracas and Managua amount to US$430 million. This latest step in Latin American integration, affirms this mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Cuba, “show[s] how Nicaragua is taking solid steps towards the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas integration project.” Moreover, the “tenets of ALBA are diametrically opposed to the US ‘free trade’ deals being panhandled in Latin America.” Comrade Dan identifies neoliberalism, which is a communist codeword for capitalism, as the source of Nicaragua’s social and economic woes since the Sandinista National Liberation Front abandoned its public monopoly of power 17 years ago:

In Nicaragua these past 16 years most the problems faced by our people is a result of neoliberalism [capitalism], including poverty, extreme poverty, and unemployment. With economic growth–because neoliberals always emphasize economic growth and try to manage inflation–there was also a growth in the poverty and misery. A growth of illiteracy, hunger, a growing number of people who must leave this country to look for another land. For that reason it is so important, so important, this meeting today, here in Managua, between Venezuelan and Nicaraguan brothers, Latin American and Caribbean brothers, who are working in favor of integration, which is the purpose of ALBA.

Rejecting the economic theory behind DR-CAFTA and the embryonic FTAA, Comrade Dan intoned:

The Free Trade Agreement does not take into consideration the differences which exist in the economic order, material development, technological and scientific development, different objectives. Instead they establish it until they prevail. And, instead of promoting processes of negotiation for the Free Trade Agreement as a multilateral concept, they promote it from the bilateral point of view. That creates great problems.

Unfortunately, the mass media has its own interests; they represent the enemies of the unity of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples. They are the enemy of solidarity and, in the final analysis, they have encouraged the neoliberal programs that have caused poverty and much hunger among our peoples.

Thus I welcome our brothers of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Nicaragua, because Latin America and the Caribbean are a single mother country.

Long live Venezuela! Long live Bolivar! Long live Nicaragua! Long live Sandino!

Notwithstanding the fact that the Sandinista leadership is a little older, that leadership is no wiser because the revolution is still on.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

>EU File: Italian PM and alleged KGB/FSB agent Prodi secures votes of confidence in Senate and Chamber of Deputies, government stable

>Don’t go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians: Romano Prodi is our man there.
— General Anatoly Trofimov, FSB Deputy Chief (assassinated 2005), statement made to FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Litvinenko (assassinated 2006), circa 2000; quoted at United Kingdom Independence Party website, March 4, 2006

In spite of a political hiccup, Italy remains securely within the Communist Bloc. Pictured here are Italian Prime Minister, former European Commission President, and alleged KGB/FSB agent Romano Prodi, visiting President Vladimir (“There’s No Such Thing as a Former KGB Man”) Putin at the latter’s Black Sea hideaway in Sochi, Russia on January 23, 2007. The topic of discussion included energy, trade, and international politics. State-run Novosti reported: “Energy cooperation projects between Russia and Italy include a consortium of Russian utility company ESN and Italy’s ENEL, which jointly manages the Russia’s North-West Thermal Power Plant, and a strategic partnership agreement between Russian energy giant Gazprom and Italy’s ENI signed last November.” According to the same report, Russian and Italian foreign policy harmonize in their opposition to US intervention overseas, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Novosti observed that this was the third meeting between the Russian and Italian heads of government in seven months.

It was over Italian troop deployment in Afghanistan, in particular, that prompted communist backbenchers in Prodi’s leftist Union coalition to spark the recent political crisis.

Prodi wins vote of confidence in Senate By Ian Fisher
Thursday, March 1, 2007

ROME: Italy’s political crisis ended, for the moment, after the Senate narrowly passed a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s fragile government.

“The government is like the Tower of Pisa — it leans but doesn’t fall,” Justice Minister Clemente Mastella said after the 162-157 vote late Wednesday.

But the voting suggested less a strong and viable government aimed at electoral reform than one fated to face a new election before its five-year term is over.

In speeches before the vote, even some of Prodi’s supporters said that while they would vote for renewing the government, they would not back him on several issues where every vote counts.

Indeed, another crisis may not be far off: A vote on Italy’s peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan — one of the same issues that temporarily knocked down Prodi’s government a week ago — is set for the next two weeks.

In a speech in the Senate, Franco Turigliatto of the Refounded Communists, one of the senators who provoked the crisis a week ago, said he could not support the peacekeeping measure or such others as those involving a planned high-speed train line in the north and pension reform.

“This is not the mandate we received,” Turigliatto told his colleagues.

Still, Prodi said that he was relieved that this crisis was over and that he could resume his nine-month-old government — the 61st in Italy since 1945.

“I am very satisfied,” he said after the vote. “Now we go to the Chamber.”

He was referring to the lower house of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, where the government faces a second vote of confidence on Friday. Since the government enjoys a larger majority there, the vote is expected to favor Prodi’s government.

The crisis began a week ago after Turigliatto and another far-left senator abstained from a key vote on Prodi’s foreign policy in disagreements over Afghanistan and the government’s support of the expansion of a U.S. military base in Vicenza, in Italy’s north.

The vote went against Prodi, and he resigned. But on Saturday, the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, said there was “no concrete choice” and asked Prodi to try again.

Even though Prodi was able to at least partly solidify his support among bickering parties, analysts and political leaders began focusing on the larger, structural problems underlying Italy’s unstable politics.

In recent days, Prodi himself pledged to tackle the most pressing of them: an electoral law that virtually guarantees a small majority in the Senate.

In speeches in the Senate on Tuesday and again just before voting on Wednesday, he promised immediate changes. But that will prove difficult in itself, because, he noted, it will require support from across the nation’s divided political interests.

“The new electoral law must guarantee governability and continuity in politics,” he told senators on Wednesday. He added that the solution “must be shared by everyone.”

The present law was passed before last year’s elections by Silvio Berlusconi, then the prime minister, despite the opposition by Prodi and his allies. Now even Berlusconi’s allies concede that the law is deeply flawed and they are urging changes.

Source: International Herald Tribune

PM wins second vote of confidence
From correspondents in Rome
March 03, 2007 12:33am

ITALIAN Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s centre-left government today easily won a vote of confidence in the lower house Chamber of Deputies, formally ending a weeklong political crisis.

The Government prevailed by 342 votes to 253, with two abstentions, Speaker Fausto Bertinotti announced.

Today’s vote brought a formal end to a crisis sparked by Mr Prodi’s abrupt resignation last Wednesday after two communist senators in his coalition torpedoed a vote of confidence in his foreign policy.

Mr Prodi, in power just nine months, survived a vote of confidence on Wednesday in the Senate, where his fragile coalition’s majority is razor-thin, by a mere five votes, including those of four senators-for-life.

The centre-left’s comfortable majority in the 630-seat lower house is bolstered by a majority prize of 30 seats under Italian electoral law.

To bring into line his squabbling coalition, Prodi, 67 and serving his second stint as prime minister, had them sign on to a 12-point “non-negotiable” agreement.

Source: News.com

>Latin America File: Guatemalan officials perplexed by multiple assassinations, posters at Nicaraguan website finger communist FMLN

>The ranch at which the ARENA deputies were murdered is identified here as a safehouse for the Guatemalan National Police. In earlier reports, the site was identified as a hangout for Guatemalan anti-communists who sympathized with deceased Salvadoran politician Major Roberto D’Aubuisson. Eduardo, the son of the controversial ARENA founder, was one of the three Salvadoran politicans assassinated on February 19, 15 years to the day after the elder D’Aubuisson’s death.

Mystery Shrouds Guatemala Crimes

Guatemala, Mar 5 (Prensa Latina) Although two top officials from the Guatemala National Police (PNC) were removed from their posts, questions remain over the murder of four Salvadorians and the subsequent execution of the alleged criminals.

A few days ago, the Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann announced the removal from office of Victor Soto, Chief of the PNC Criminal Investigation Bureau and the approval of Javier Figueroa´s resignation, Deputy Director of this entity.

However, the measure did not reduce pressure on the government led by Oscar Berger because essentially, there was no progress in the solution of the two collective murders.

Until now the government still has not sketched a concrete hypothesis regarding the motive and the killers of three Salvadorian deputies to the Central American Parliament and their chauffer on February 19.

Eduardo D´aubuisson, William Pichinte and Jose Ramon Gonzalez and their pilot were in the hands of their captors for several hours before they were assassinated and burnt.

But although its GPS system reported the victims´ automobile was parked for three hours in the same place, the place has not yet been identified by authorities.

They think it could be a PNC secret safe house, according to Prensa Libre newspaper.

The questions are bigger now after four police investigators involved in the massacre were executed.
How an armed group from outside the jail reached the place the victims were in prison and from where the weapons came are questions that have not been clarified yet.

It is also unknown who ordered to kill Luis Arturo Herrera, Adolfo Gutierrez, Marvin Escobar and Jose Korki Lopez, not even the reasons for the event although the chief of the Salvadorian police assured they were assassinated “to keep them quiet.”

The only thing true is that there is organized crime inside Guatemalan security at a very high level, analysts agreed.

Source: Prensa Latina

Pictured here: The current general secretary of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), Medardo González, pays his respects at the gravesite of party namesake Farabundo Marti (1893-1932) on the 75th anniversary of the communist revolutionary’s death. The FMLN is a guerrilla army-turned-political opposition that holds membership in Latin America’s Red International, the Sao Paulo Forum.

Circumstantial evidence, which we have documented in days past, points to the Latin American Left’s involvement in the assassination of the ARENA deputies in Guatemala and their putative killers from the Guatemalan National Police’s anti-gang unit. Hard evidence has yet to be unearthed. However, other diligent followers of current events have speculated along the same lines. The following reader posts are from the Nicaraguan news source El Nuevo Diario:

First post from “Luis”:

Yo creo que si. El hecho de que el hijo de Roberto D’Aubuisson estuviera entre los asesinados es como para sospecharlo. Recuerden que la semana pasada el gobierno salvadoreño declaró al padre del diputado asesinado, Roberto D’Aubuisson, hijo dilecto de El Salvador. Esto enardeció los ánimos de diputados FMLNistas y de un sector de la población cuzcatleca que hasta se tiraron a las calles para protestar por ese nombramiento.

Ese crimen no es de marreros, ni de narcotráfico, mucho menos de asaltantes comunes, ese crimen fué perpetrado con saña y odio. Ese crimen es político y es casi seguro que la mano del FMLN tiene estar en el medio de esto.

Translation:

I believe that the fact that the son of Roberto D’Aubuisson was assassinated is suspicious. Remember that last week the Salvadoran government declared the father of the assassinated deputy, Roberto D’Aubuisson, Honorable Son of El Salvador. This enflamed the spirits of FMLNista deputies and a sector of the population cuzcatleca, who took to the streets to protest that resolution.

That crime is not of marreros, nor of drug trafficking, much less of common attackers, since that crime was perpetrated with viciousness and hatred. That crime is political and is safely attributed to the hand of the FMLN.

Second post from “Roberto Rojas”:

QUE INVESTIGUEN A LOS COMUNISTIODES TERRORISTAS DEL FARABUNDO MARTI (FMLN). NADIE MAS TIENE INTERES EN MATAR A MIEMBROS DE ARENA QUE ELLOS. ROBERTO R.

Translation:

They should investigate the terrorist communists of Farabundo Marti (FMLN). Nobody has more of an interest in killing ARENA members than they. Robert R.

ElNuevoDiario.com

>USSR2 File: Soviet communists, Kasparov, Limonov defy ban, protest Putinist regime in "March of Dissent", 100 detained; reds protest on Army Day

>In an effort to break through the “information blockade” imposed by the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist- Gryzlovist regime, Red Youth Vanguard (AKM), the youth section of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, participated in street demonstrations on February 23, which is Army Day in Russia, and March 3, which was billed as the so-called “March of Dissent.” In the second rally, which took place in President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg, note the unholy alliance between the CPSU, National Bolsheviks like Eduard Limonov, and “liberals” like Garry Kasparov. The chess champion’s United Civil Front party office was found by police to contain Nazbol and AKM literature prior to the last March of Dissent, which took place in Moscow on December 16, 2006. “Ex”-CPSU mayor Yuri Luzhkov banned that march.

The CPSU and AKM openly call for the removal of the “Washington-backed fascist police state” represented by Comrade Czar Vladimir Putin. State Duma elections are scheduled for December, while the presidency will be contested in March 2008 between Putin’s hand-picked successor and CPSU chairman, Stalinist, and August 1991 coup mastermind Oleg Shenin. According to our research, Shenin, who was first secretary of the central committee of the old CPSU is the “power behind the throne” in Russia. Don’t be deceived by communist lies and tactics. Shenin, Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev–who knew about the “Vodka Putsch” in advance–and Gennady Zyuganov–who leads the CPSU’s Russian section, otherwise known as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), which he and Shenin formed in 1990–are team mates in Moscow’s long-term strategy that has successfully deceived the West.

Pictured below: Police haul away AKM protester.

2000 Oppositioners March in St Petersburg to Protest Putin Rule
March 4, 2007

At least 2,000 Russian protesters broke through police lines and blocked St Petersburg’s main thoroughfare on Saturday, the Reuters news agency reports.

The demonstrators, shouting “Freedom!” and brandishing orange flares, dispersed after about one hour but earlier police in riot gear and wielding truncheons tussled with protesters. Police said they had detained about 100 people.

Authorities in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city and hometown of President Vladimir Putin, forbade the protest saying it would cause too much disruption.

But protesters defied that ban, pushing through several police cordons to march about 2 km (1.2 miles) down the city’s Nevsky Prospect before stopping in front of a line of hundreds of riot police backed by armored jeeps.

Protest leaders said they were staging a “march of the discontented” to resist what they called the Kremlin’s tightening grip on power and to demand a fair presidential election next year.

The constitution requires Putin to step down when his second term ends in 2008. Most observers expect him to endorse a Kremlin insider to succeed him at the election.

The anti-Kremlin opposition is in a minority. Opinion polls show a big majority of Russian voters approve of Putin’s rule.

“It (the protest) was a major success for the opposition,” said Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion who is now an outspoken critic of Putin.

“It is the beginning of the Russian people recognizing that they can change things,” Kasparov told Reuters. “They used force against a very peaceful demonstration.”

A spokesman for the city police said between two and three thousand protesters took part and that “several dozen” were detained. Organizers said about 5,000 people joined the protest and he spoke of hundreds of detentions.

The demonstration was unusual because most anti-Kremlin protests in Russia attract only a few hundred people and they are easily contained by police.

Among those detained were local legislators and Eduard Limonov, a cult novelist and leader of the “Other Russia” opposition coalition which organized the protest.

“I came here because I am against this system, which does not like elections, which does not allow demonstrations. I am against the abuse of power by bureaucrats,” said protester Alesya Galkina.

Nationwide support for the opposition is weak but St Petersburg is one of its biggest strongholds.

Tensions have been running high there since the opposition Yabloko party was barred from running in a regional vote this month. Critics said the party’s exclusion was part of a Kremlin effort to silence dissent before the presidential election.

Source: Moscow News

Notwithstanding the alleged anti-communism of the Kremlin, on Army Day Russian state media treated the country’s citizen-slaves to a heaping dose of patriotic Soviet-era television programming. Pictured below: CPRF leader Comrade Gennady addresses the crowds on February 23, 2007.

Communists protest as Russia marks Army Day holiday
Canadian Press
Saturday, February 24, 2007

MOSCOW (AP) – Some Russians celebrated their military’s tradition of dedication Friday, while others protested against poor treatment of soldiers and veterans in separate events marking the annual Defenders of the Fatherland holiday.

In freezing temperatures, President Vladimir Putin stood by as an honour guard laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in the shadow of the Kremlin’s red brick wall. Communists, meanwhile, marched through Moscow to protest against what they consider shameful treatment of service members and veterans.

The Red Army’s defeat of the Nazis on the eastern front is still a source of great pride in Russia and the tradition of military service remains strong.

For Putin, the holiday – also called Army Day – provided a chance to celebrate Russia’s growing prosperity and strength.

Putin greeted generals and solemnly adjusted a ribbon on a wreath placed by the honour guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is marked by an eternal flame. Afterward, he held his bare hands over his ears to protect them from the cold.

Putin has pledged to reform the military and announced an ambitious weapons modernization plan this month.

For Communists and other leftists angry at Russia’s course since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the holiday is a chance to protest against what they consider the military’s decline.

A few thousand marched down a main Moscow street to a monument to Karl Marx, where they called for better pay, pensions and benefits for soldiers and veterans.

State-run television Friday showed Soviet-era movies and patriotic concerts. It also broadcast a speech by Putin’s new defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov.

He promised a “profound and thorough modernization of the armed forces, giving them a character fully answering the demands of the 21st century.”

During ceremonies at the Kremlin wall, Patriarch Alexy of the Russian Orthodox church – which has historic ties to the military – also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and said a prayer for fallen soldiers.

Source: Canada.com

>Red Terror File: Kommersant reporter, ex-Space Forces colonel, dies in five-story fall; 14th Russian journalist murdered since 2000

>The Kremlin Body Count grows by one. Notch another Russian journalist. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 13 journalists have been murdered in Russia since Comrade Czar Vladimir (“There’s No Such Thing as a Former KGB Man”) Putin became president. Communists only tolerate self-criticism. In the latest incident, Kommersant military correspondent Ivan Safronov died on Friday, while US-based Russian affairs expert, Litvinenko friend, Kremlin critic, and “Dateline NBC” guest Paul Joyal was shot in Maryland the day before. The Joyal shooting was not fatal and, while the FBI has been called in to investigate the crime, no political motives are suspected. (See our March 3 blog.)

Pictured here: FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko’s December 7, 2006 funeral. His book Blowing Up Russia, which is banned in the Motherland, has been posthumously updated and can be purchased through Amazon.com (linked in this blogsite’s right column).

Russian reporter dies in fall from window; some media suspect foul play
The Associated Press
Monday, March 5, 2007

MOSCOW: A military correspondent for Russia’s top business daily has died after falling out of a window, and some media alleged Monday that he might have been killed for his critical reporting.

Ivan Safronov, the military affairs writer for Kommersant, died Friday after falling from a fifth-story window in the stairwell of his apartment building in Moscow, according to officials; his body was found by neighbors shortly after the fall.With prosecutors investigating the death, Kommersant and some other media suggested foul play.

“The suicide theory has become dominant in the investigation, but all those who knew Ivan Safronov categorically reject it,” Kommersant said in an article Monday.

Safronov’s colleagues and relatives have described him as a strong, cheerful person who would be extremely unlikely to kill himself.

Safronov, who had served as a colonel in the Russian Space Forces before joining Kommersant in 1997, frequently angered authorities with his critical reporting and was repeatedly questioned by the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor, which suspected him of divulging state secrets. No charges were filed because Safronov was able to prove his reports were based on open sources, Kommersant said.

Last December, Safronov angered the authorities when he was the first to report the third consecutive launch failure of the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, which President Vladimir Putin hailed as a basis of the nation’s nuclear might for years to come. The authorities never acknowledged the launch failure.

“For some reason, it is those journalists who are disliked by the authorities who die in this country,” the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said Monday. “Ivan Safronov was one of those. He knew a lot about the real situation in the army and the defense industries and he reported it.

“Russia is among the most dangerous countries for journalists, plagued by attacks on reporters who seek to expose official corruption and other abuses. The problem was highlighted by the October killing of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter and a harsh critic of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in January that 13 Russian journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings since 2006, making Russia the third deadliest country for journalists after Iraq and Algeria over the past 15 years.

Source: International Herald Tribune

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: Baluyevsky, Chief of Russia’s General Staff, visits Beijing in advance of 2nd Sino-Soviet wargame, Peace Mission 2007

>In preparation for history’s second Sino-Soviet war game Peace Mission 2007, Yuri Baluyevsky, Chief of the Russian General Staff, is conferring with communist authorities in China. In similar fashion General Baluyevsky trekked to Beijing in March 2005, in advance of that year’s first-ever Sino-Soviet military exercise, Peace Mission 2005. The latter offered the new communist bloc known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization an opportunity to flex its military muscle. Peace Mission 2007 goes one step further by uniting the militaries of both the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which embraces the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. The first war game occurred on both Russian and Chinese territory, while the second will occur entirely on Russian territory. In previous blogs since the beginning of this year we have documented the fulfillment of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn’s predictions with respect to Sino-Soviet reconciliation.

Pictured above: In connection with Peace Mission 2005, on August 18, 2005 Liang Guanglie (left), Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, and Baluyevsky (right), salute the monument of Pacific Fleet Honour, located in Vladivostok, to show their respect to the Russian soldiers who fell in the “Great Patriotic War” (World War II). (Photo source: Xinhua)

Russia, China Military Cooperation

Moscow, Mar 2 (Prensa Latina) The imminent visit of Russia s highest-ranking defense officers to China, amid contradictions with the West, might lead to a political-military alliance with Asia, according to local media.

Army General Yuri Baluyevski will arrive in Beijing on March 3 to review the state of military cooperation with Russia s major military partner since the Community of Independent States.

Sources from the Defense Ministry told the Independent Gazette weekly that the newly appointed minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, chose China to kick off his first international tour a few weeks from now.

Both Serdyukov and Baluyevski will focus on the large-scale military maneuvers Peace Mission 2007, scheduled for July 18-25 in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

The countries of the Shanghai Group (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), of which India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran are observers, will participate in the war games.

The newspaper quoted expert Vitaly Shlykov, member of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council, who said that Baluyevski s upcoming visit to China would send a signal to the United States.

Moscow would like to synchronize the maneuvers of the Shanghai Group with the war maneuvers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Russia and Tajikistan, added the expert.

Source: Prensa Latina

>Red Terror File: Paul Joyal–Litvinenko assassination expert, former security director for Senate Intelligence Committee–shot in Adelphi, Maryland

>On the surface, even though Russian agents are most certainly present in the USA, the attempted murder of Paul Joyal appears to be an incident of common criminality. If the Lubyanka wanted Joyal, or anyone else for that matter, dead, be assured that person would be dead.

Expert in Russian poisoning case is shot

FBI joins investigation, but officials think it’s just local crime

By Pete Williams, Justice correspondent

NBC News

Updated: 11:45 p.m. MT March 2, 2007

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WASHINGTON – FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert — a man who spoke out on “Dateline NBC” last weekend and strongly suggested that remnants of the KGB were responsible for the bizarre poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian expert, Paul Joyal, was shot Thursday night as he got out of his car in front of his house in Adelphi, Md. Investigators in Prince Georges County say a witness claims to have seen two men running away after the shooting. Joyal remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the midsection. Authorities have not said whether they’ve been able to talk to him.

Joyal is a long-time consultant on security and Russian affairs. From 1980 to 1989, he was director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

On last weekend’s “Dateline,” he said of Litvenenko’s death: “A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: ‘If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you — in the most horrible way possible.'”

The shooting has certainly raised eyebrows, because Maryland police are well aware of Joyal’s views regarding the Litvinenko death. But at this point, they have no evidence suggesting the shooting was anything other than an example of the rising crime rate in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. Local investigators are highly skeptical that his shooting was anything other than street crime.

In an odd twist, another person who appeared on the “Dateline” broadcast died of a heart attack last month. Reporter Daniel McGrory of the Times of London, who has written about the Litvinenko case, died Feb. 20, before the “Dateline” segment was broadcast. He was 54.

His family said he “died suddenly at home.” He was a veteran British foreign correspondent who had reported from several war zones. Just before his death, he had been reporting in Pakistan.

Source: MSNBC

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>Latin America File: In wake of ARENA slayings in Guatemala, Ortega urges Central American Parliament to transfer venue to Managua

>Pictured here: Comrades Hugo and Dan.

After the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution, our country retakes its militant commitment in main international forums.
— Aldo Diaz Lacayo, Nicaragua’s new Sandinista ambassador to the United Nations; quoted in Prensa Latina, March 2, 2007

In the wake of the murders of three Salvadoran deputies and the four Guatemalan anti-gang unit police officers alleged to be their assassins, the neo-Sandinista regime’s diplomatic overture to transfer the Central American Parliament from Guatemala City to Managua for the sake of security is cunning, subtle, and should prompt the astute anti-communist to probe the Latin American Left for telltale signs of a far-reaching plot.

The President of Guatemala Oscar Berger blames the bloodshed on organized crime, while Salvadoran officials openly speak of the infiltration by mafia structures of Guatemala’s national police force. “There is a war among organized-crime groups,” Berger affirmed, “that has caused the violent death of four important witnesses who might have contributed much to the process.” In reply, Rodrigo Avila, El Salvador’s national police chief stated: “It is clear that the people who committed these killings have some level of influence inside the police, prison or government structure.” Avila’s colleague, Public Security Minister Rene Figueroa insisted that the seven killings “demonstrated that organized crime has infiltrated the highest levels of the National Civil Police in Guatemala.” Avila concluded that someone wanted to “shut these guys up so that they do not implicate” others.

The murder of the ARENA deputies occurred on February 19, while the murder of their alleged assassins occured the day before FBI agents were scheduled to arrive in Guatemala to assist officials in the investigation of the first homicide incident. On Sunday, February 25 heavily armed men posing as guards entered the prison where the police officers were incarcerated and forced visitors to leave. “They told them to get out because there was going to be a search, and they starting pushing everyone,” a relative of one inmate explained. “Once [the visitors] were outside, they saw armed men enter the jail. Then, everyone outside heard gunshots.” The killings sparked a riot among inmates, which included members of the violent international gang, Mara Salvatrucha, an offshoot of the Sandinistas’ ideological brethren in El Salvador, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

The first article below is from the official organ of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Pictured here: Managua.

Nicaraguan police would guarantee protection to the PARLACEN
By: PL 01 of March of 2007 13:05:01

The National Police of Nicaragua is in capacity to protect to the deputies the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), in case that the seat of the legislative organ is transferred from Guatemala to Managua, assured a police source

The affirmation made the first commissioner, Grain Aminta, female leader of the Body, to the being consulted on the offer made by president Daniel Ortega to temporarily welcome in this capital the meetings of the PARLACEN.

In agreement with Grain dealer, the Nicaraguan Police totally is enabled and prepared to guarantee the security of all the Central American legislators.

The possible change of seat is motivated by the insecurity situation that is lived in Guatemala, where three Salvadoran deputies and their conductor were assassinated the 19 of last February.

Their presumed victimarios, that were police agents, as well were executed in the prison where they hoped by the conclusion of the investigations, in a fact that put in prohibition the credibility of the Guatemalan forces of the order.

In opinion of Grain dealer, the offer of Ortega is consistent with the numbers of criminality that exhibits Nicaragua, considered the country more surely of Central America.

The possibility of transferring to Managua the seat of the PARLACEN will be analyzed by the director of the Central American organ legislative, during a visit that will make to this capital the next week.

Of being accepted the proposal, the deputies would sesionarían in the old Presidential House, an extensive building at the moment vacated, because the sandinista agent chief executive refused to occupy it for austerity reasons.

Ever since it assumed the presidency 10 of January the last, Ortega dispatches habitually in the secretariat of the Sandinista Front of National Liberation, or in the Convention center Olof Palme.

Source: La Voz del Sandinismo

Until now Comandante Ortega has played nice with businssmen, diplomats, and clergymen. With the FSLN’s open resumption of power in Nicaragua, however, the Sandinista diplomatic corp at the United Nations is starting to hiss and scratch against the “imperialist” power to the north. Pictured here: Nicaragua’s new Sandinista ambassador to the United Nations, Aldo Diaz Lacayo.

Nicaragua Vows to Stand up to US

Managua, March 2, 2007 (Prensa Latina) The New Nicaraguan ambassador to the UN Aldo Diaz Lacayo said in this capital on Friday that his country will no longer play second fiddle to the US in international organizations.

After the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution, our country retakes its militant commitment in main international forums, the diplomat told Prensa Latina.

According to Diaz Lacayo, Sandinista foreign policy will observe principles of international regulations, that is, respect for national sovereignty, peoples’ independence and self-determination.

“We will also seek to maintain cordial relations with all States and world peace,” added Diaz Lacayo, who was ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela during the 1979-1990 Sandinista government.

“We so far take it for granted that Nicaragua returns to international forums with full rights, without accepting foreign policy from any other country,” the official said.

Diaz Lacayo also said he will promote democratization of the UN system.

Source: Prensa Latina

Referring to ex-KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin’s second book, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, Lloyd Billingsley writes in FrontPageMagazine:

According to the files, Daniel Ortega told Leonov the FSLN strategy was to “tear Nicaragua from the capitalist orbit.” Leonov told his bosses that the Ortegas would transform the FSLN into a Marxist-Leninist party, which would allow other centrist and “bourgeois” parties only because they did not threaten Sandinista power and served as a facade for the outside world. The FSLN, Leonov reported, would also lead class struggle across Central America.

Nikolai Sergeyevich Leonov was the KGB’s leading Latin American expert and was deployed to Managua after the Sandinistas seized control in 1979.

In order to expand its base of support in the 1980s, the FSLN reflected various political tendencies. Operating on the time-tested communist policy of the “broad front,” the Sandinistas formed another coalition to contest the 2006 elections, the United Nicaragua Triumph Alliance, which included several compliant satellite parties, namely, Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, Christian Democratic Union, Christian Unity Movement, Popular Conservative Alliances, dissidents from the Liberal and Conservative parties, and elemtns of the Nicaraguan Resistance Party.

In terms of constitutional reform, the neo-Sandinista regime appears to be following the neo-communist regimes of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, which are seeking to transform civil society into a more “participatory” organism. The good ol’ CCCP endeavored to do the same with its workers’ councils, or soviets, a template that the Bolivarian/Socialist Republic of Venezuela is openly mimicking and which Belarus has retained to this day. In our previous blog, we observed that President Hugo Chavez has tasked two members of the Communist Party of Venezuela to the “democratization” of that country’s institutions and society. In the 1980s the first Sandinista regime established neighborhood Sandinista Defense Committees that replicated the Communist Party of Cuba’s Committees in Defense of the Revolution.

“Democracy! Democracy!” cry the communists, but real freedom is nowhere to be found in those countries in their grasp. Pictured here: Comrades Fidel and Dan.

FSLN Seeks Participative Democracy

Managua, February 20, 2007 (Prensa Latina) The Sandinista deputies in the National Assembly will try to establish a participative democratic system in Nicaragua, as opposed to the current presidential system, a legislative source said on Tuesday.

According to Rene Nunez, a deputy from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and president of the board of directors of the unicameral Congress, the initiative was presented by President Daniel Ortega himself.

In statements to local media, Nunez recalled that Ortega, who took office on January 10, has always favored a leading role for the legislative power and the people.

The objective, added Nunez, would be to guarantee citizens active participation in the decision-making process.

The FSLN deputy admitted, however, that consensus, which does not exist at present, among all four parliamentary forces that make up the National Assembly, is needed to achieve that goal.

Two-thirds of all 92 deputies, that is 62, must vote in favor to pass any constitutional reform.

The FSLN has 38 seats, in addition to three allies, while the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) has 25 seats, plus 22 from the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and three from the Sandinista Renovating Movement (MRS).

The 92nd seat is reserved by law to former President Enrique Bolanos, who would align with the ALN.

Source: Prensa Latina

The fact that KGB stooge and ruthless former Interior Minister Tomas Borge, pictured here, still sits as a deputy in Nicaragua’s National Assembly should cause one to reflect whether the Sandinistas have truly dropped their adherence to Marxism-Leninism. Communism by stealth has been the order of the day since the Communist Bloc implemented a strategic retreat during the 1989-1991 period. In 2004 Comrade Tomas dispatched a heartfelt missive to the “Cuban Five,” who are five Cuban agents convicted for conducting espionage in the USA.

Nicaraguan FSLN Leader Sends Message to Cuban Five

Managua, April 13, 2004 (Prensa Latina).- Tomas Borge, assistant secretary of the Nicaraguan Sandinista National Liberation Front, sent an emotional letter of solidarity to the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United States- in which he recognized that the fame of their “bravery has spread throughout the world.”

Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez are serving tough sentences that range from 15 years to double life for trying to thwart terrorist actions by Cuban-Americans in Miami against the island.

Borge wrote to them about the successful international mobilization waged by the Cuban people and President Fidel Castro on their behalf, and compared it to the battles against Moncada, the hurricanes, invasions, criminals, blockades, and the rescue of little Elian Gonzalez from the United States.

The political leader said that he would not waste time in the letter reviewing “the cruel and idiotic” legal system that condemned them nor the “shameless crudity of the empire (US)”, but tell them that his compatriots, friends and family, in the name of decency, could only consider them exemplary.

He heartened them by saying Jose Marti and Ernesto Che Guevara had the same vocation of sacrifice as they do, and that he was certain they would return to walk arm and arm with their loved ones listening to the waves by the seawall in Havana.

Source: Trabajadores Digital

Following the FSLN’s ignominious defeat at the polls in 1990, Borge on May 24 of that year outlined in a speech the Sandinista plan for reassuming open power in Nicaragua:

Will it be necessary to return to violent confrontation, to clandestinity, to prison, to torture and death? As revolutionaries we are willing, as always, to take risks, accept challenges, make sacrifices, whatever is necessary. For now it appears that the conflict will move in another direction: ideological and political struggle and the measuring of popular support, which also implies dangers and challenges. We are not rejecting other possibilities later on, and we must prepare ourselves to confront the challenges with the same boldness as ever.

Disavowing a military coup against Violeta Chamorro’s “counter-revolutionary” government, Borge states: “The counterrevolution is not a Sandinista issue; it affects the entire nation. The counterrevolution is illegal, and, by its nature, anti-Nicaraguan, since it obeys a foreign power, as do those who aim to establish a vengeful and anti-popular regime.” Among the peaceful strategies for retaking authority were:

1) To regroup and consolidate our forces through democratic discussion and within the framework of party discipline.

2) To reaffirm the collective character of the National Directorate—that it be able to multiply, and to hear with humility the unrestrained voices of revolutionaries and the whole population.

3) Although there is no possibility of collaborationism with the new government and there are no respectable and developed parties besides the FSLN on the political map, we cannot discard the possibility of future domestic alliances.

4) To recover the government through elections.

5) To fully strengthen the revolutionary mystique, marginalizing all traces of opulence, without falling into “egalitarianism” and abandoning the security systems that protect the lives of threatened leaders.

Recent political developments in Nicaragua have demonstrated that the Sandinista strategy was successful, much to the pleasure, no doubt, of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is presently reasserting itself in Russia utilizing the same strategy of revolution by the ballot box. This is one of many validated predictions that KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn offered in his first book New Lies for Old (1984). Following the staged collapse of the old Soviet Union, he explained, the CPSU would reassemble a “kinder, gentler” version of the Soviet behemoth. Borge, however, alludes to the possibility that bloodshed has not been ruled out should the “counter-revolutionaries” in Nicaragua offer resistance again. Golitsyn refers to the same possibility with respect to Russia in his second book The Perestroika Deception (1995).

>Latin America File: Two Communist Party members to oversee the Sovietization of Venezuela’s constitution and society

>There are at least two members of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) who hold important posts in the Chavez regime: Roberto Hernandez, Second Vice President of the National Assembly; and David Velasquez, Venezuela’s new Minister of Popular Participation and Social Development. Hernandez is a member of the Presidential Commission that will rewrite the Venezuelan constitution along socialist lines. The 28-year-old Velasquez will coordinate the expansion of local workers’ councils (“soviets” in the Russian) throughout the country. Pictured here: Logo of the PCV’s extraordinary congress to be held between March 3 and 4 to deliberate on the subject of the party’s merger into President Chavez’s proposed United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Viva la revolucion!

Venezuela Overhauling Constitution
Caracas, Mar 1 (Prensa Latina)

Reform of the Venezuelan Constitution, guided by the Republic’s President Hugo Chavez, is moving ahead, National Assembly second vice president Roberto Hernandez said.

In statements to the Venezolana de Television program “En Confianza,” the deputy said the country is hard at work to try to deliver a project to the president by next week.

Hernandez, member of the Presidential Commission created for that task, recalled that entity acts as a consultant body and it won t be the institution that actually proposes those changes.

He said that the initiative will be publicly debated once the president decides which issues to analyze.

Although the country still does not know the exact scope of those changes, the aim of Chavez proposal is to foster structural reform and implant a socialist system.

With that goal, the statesman established the mentioned Council, which is thoroughly reviewing the content of the Constitution to establish modifications.

Source: Prensa Latina