Disillusionment with the actions of Ukraine’s military has reached the country’s parliament. The National Guard says it will search for those who refuse to lay down arms in the retaken cities – and question them. Mark Sleboda, who’s an International affairs lecturer at Moscow State University, says that locals see the army as the opposite of liberators.
Related: Francis Boyle: The Ukrainian Crisis is Degenerating into Outright Genocide
Image from Facebook by Bogdan Bortakov.
Ukraine’s newly appointed Defense Minister was so fast to sign his oath of allegiance that even the capped pen in his hand failed to slow him down.
The candidacy of Lieutenant-General Valery Geletey, which was proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, received support from the majority of the MPs in the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on Thursday.
He got 260 votes from the deputies, above the minimum of 226 votes required to be accepted for the job.
Geletey came up on stage and read out the text of the oath of allegiance as the new defense minister.
He then signed the document with one swift flourish, accompanied by applause from the parliamentarians.
Image from Facebook by Bogdan Bortakov.
The video footage showed nothing suspicious as Geletey’s hands were hidden by the rostrum. However, photos made by correspondents from another angle revealed that the pen he used was capped.
After the oath, Geletey addressed the parliament with a speech promising to “ensure peace and order” and “restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
“I’m confident that Ukraine will prevail and, believe me, there’ll be a victory parade in the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol,” he declared.
Source: RT News
A Tampa, Florida boy who was visiting relatives in Jerusalem when he was grabbed by undercover Israeli officers and badly beaten in the face and head received a visit from U.S. officials Saturday, in advance of his court hearing Sunday.
Tariq Abu Khdeir, 15, is the cousin of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned to death on Wednesday morning, apparently by the same group of Israelis who were seen forcing him into a car outside a mosque in Shu’fat, East Jerusalem just before 4 am on Wednesday. Despite video footage of the abduction, and the license plate number having been captured by eyewitnesses, the Israeli police have failed to identify or detain the killers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
The day after his cousin’s murder, 15-year old Tariq was grabbed by undercover Israeli forces in Shu’fat, where protests had broken out calling for justice for Mohammed. A witness in a nearby apartment building captured video footage of the attack, which shows three men holding and repeatedly beating a prone Palestinian with their fists and other objects.
He was then carried into a police van and taken into custody with dozens of other Palestinians who had been swept up in the police crackdown on the protests. Police denied him medical treatment for over five hours, despite his badly-swollen head and broken nose.
Representative of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem confirmed that officials had visited Tariq, who is still in Israeli custody, on Saturday, and issued a statement that “We are profoundly troubled by reports that he was severely beaten while in police custody, and strongly condemn any excessive use of force.”
U.S. officials rarely intervene in cases involving Palestinians detained or brutalized by Israeli forces, even when those detained are U.S. citizens. In this case, however, with extensive family connections across the U.S., the Abu Khdeir family have pressured U.S. officials to take action – particularly since the family has already suffered the loss of 16-year old Mohammed, who was burned to death, presumably by Israeli settlers, on Wednesday.
Before and after pictures of Tariq Khdeir, posted on Twitter.
Abby Martin discusses a New York Times revelation concerning officials at Blackwater threatening to murder State Department officials, and how this is just the latest example of Blackwater’s criminal, murderous and unaccountable legacy.
Videos posted by Harper’s Magazine show the private contractor formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq running over a woman with a car, smashing into Iraqis’ cars to move them out of the way and firing a rifle into traffic.
The behavior by Blackwater seen in the videos adds even more fuel to evidence that the company “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”
The videos are included in a piece by Charles Glass entitled “The Warrior Class” that looks at the rise of private security contractors. Glass had been shown the videos by a former Blackwater employee.
Exclusive: Is Erik Prince a war profiteer or the ultimate patriot burned by his own government?
A view of a house destroyed in an air strike carried out by Ukrainian armed forces in the village of Stanitsa Luganskaya, on July 2, 2014 (AFP Photo)
As the Russian-speakers in Ukraine are being annihilated by the “wrong” government run by neo-Nazi fascists Russia needs to act and prevent genocide, Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, told RT‘s Truthseeker.
RT: The situation in Eastern Ukraine is now horrendous. At least 200 people have been killed and another 600 injured in military action in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk officially refers to Russians as ‘subhumans’, just like Hitler did. In areas they haven’t taken yet, Kiev’s army has cut off humanitarian corridors, so famine is now just as catastrophic as the shelling. For you, is Kiev’s behavior genocidal?
Francis Boyle: Yes, I’m afraid what we are seeing is degeneration into genocide. I say it based on my experience as the lawyer for the Bosnians and having argued their case for genocide at the World Court [the International Court of Justice in The Hague – RT]. And on the two orders of provisional measures of protection for them, and we clearly have seen crimes against humanity and war crimes for quite some time. And now I am afraid it is degenerating into outright genocide, if it is not there already.
Both Russia and Ukraine are parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, and under these dire circumstances, it would be my strongest recommendation possible to President Putin to cut off all the gas to Ukraine, all of it, not even one cubic meter of gas. To turn off all the gas and then to state that since Russia is a part of the genocide convention, under article one to the genocide convention Russia has an obligation to “prevent genocide”. If it is not genocide now, it is going to become genocide very quickly. I think President Putin can and should do this now, and if he cuts off all gas, that would brake all this to an immediate halt. We know that under international law there is this doctrine “parens patriae” (parent for the nation), which enables states to act on behave of related peoples who are not their own citizens. And here certainly Russia can act “parens patriae” on behalf of the Russian-speakers in Ukraine who are currently being annihilated by the wrong government run by a gang of neo-Nazi fascists. I believe even President Putin used the word “annihilate” and that is exactly what is going on.
Full interview at RT Op-Edge
The site of the second strike by Ukrainian military on densely-populated residential areas in the Lugansk Region looked even worse than the first. Nine people died and 11 were wounded in the attack, said the head of the local administration, Vladimir Bilous (RIA Novosti / Valeriy Melnikov)
Even if the leaked plan of ‘handling’ Ukrainian crisis was not produced by the RAND corporation, events on the ground very much resemble the shocking points of the memo and the “guidelines for genocide” exported by the US, Don Debar from CPR News told RT.
A memorandum, recently leaked to online media, suggested surrounding eastern Ukrainian cities and placing citizens in internment camps. The document bears a logo of RAND corporation think-tank, but the company denies producing such a report.
While the authenticity of the document could not be independently verified, anti-war activist and journalist Don Debar told RT the guidelines amount to “serial war crimes” some of which are already happening on the ground.
Source: RT Op-Edge
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko congratulates the country’s new Defence Minister, Valeriy Heletey, after parliament approved his appointment on July 3.
New Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey has promised that the army would retake Crimea, restoring the country’s territorial integrity.
Addressing parliament in Kiev, he said: “There will be a victory parade… in Ukraine’s Sevastopol.”
Lt Gen Heletey, 46, was approved by MPs in Kiev after being recommended by Mr Poroshenko as someone who would work day and night to restore the military capability of the country’s armed forces.
His remark about Sevastopol was applauded by the chamber.
Source: BBC News
Putin’s economic advisor reveals the massive militarization of Ukraine, intended not only to crush Donbass, but to re-take Crimea, and be the puppets to start another world war for further consolidation of the US hegemony over Eurasia. From 10th June 2014 RIA Novosti round-table discussion.
Sergei Glazyev, formerly a deputy of the State Duma, was appointed in 2012 as the economic advisor to the President on economic integration in the framework of the Customs Union.
Visit Dazed for more information about the film.
Caliphate: A map purportedly showing the areas ISIS plans to have under its control within five years has been widely shared online. As well as the Middle East, North Africa and large areas of Asia, it also reveals ISIS’ ambition to extend into Europe. Spain, which was Muslim-ruled until the late 15th Century, would form part of the caliphate, as would the Balkan states and eastern Europe, up to and including Austria.
ISIS has formally declared the establishment of a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the vast stretches of the Middle East that have fallen under its control, and has outlined a vision to expand into Europe.
Upon declaring a caliphate, the Sunni militants – whose brutality in attempting to establish control in Iraq and Syria has been branded too extreme even by Al Qaeda – demanded allegiance from Muslims around the world.
The announcement, made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, could trigger a wave of infighting among Sunni extremist factions that have until now formed a loose rebel alliance.
A spokesman for ISIS declared the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the leader of the new caliphate, or Islamic state, and called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the organization’s control, to swear loyalty to him.
Full article at Mail Online
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko poses with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (L) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (R) at the EU Council in Brussels June 27, 2014 (Reuters / Stringer)
Ukraine has signed the European Trade Association Agreement, the document that sent the country into a political frenzy when not signed eight months ago to this day. RT gives you the basics on how this will affect the economy of both from here on out.
The document contains 31 signatures – Ukraine, all 28 EU member states, as well as that of the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The agreement will only come into force when it is ratified by every national parliament in the EU. It is expected that the ratification process will be complete by this fall.
Full article at RT Business
Leaders and delegates pose for a group photo during the G77+China Summit in Santa Cruz de la Sierra June 15, 2014.
‘Only we can save the source of life and society: Mother Earth. Our planet is under a death threat from predatory and insane capitalism. Another world is not only possible, it is indispensable, because otherwise, no world will be possible.’
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, gave this remarkable opening talk at the summit of the Group of 77 plus China, meeting in Santa Clara, Bolivia, on June 14, 2014.
Fifty years ago, great leaders raised the flags of the anticolonial struggle and decided to join with their peoples in a march along the path of sovereignty and independence.
The world superpowers and transnationals were competing for control of territories and natural resources in order to continue expanding at the cost of impoverishing the peoples of the South.
In that context, on June 15, 1964, at the conclusion of an UNCTAD [United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] meeting, 77 countries from the South (we are now 133 plus China) met to enhance their trade bargaining capacities, by acting in a bloc to advance their collective interests while respecting their individual sovereign decisions.
During the past 50 years, these countries went beyond their statements and promoted resolutions at the United Nations and joint action in favor of development underpinned by South-South cooperation, a new world economic order, a responsible approach to climate change, and economic relations based on preferential treatment.
In this journey the struggle for decolonization as well as for the peoples’ self-determination and sovereignty over their natural resources must be highlighted. Notwithstanding these efforts and struggles for equality and justice for the world’s peoples, the hierarchies and inequalities in the world have increased.
Today, 10 countries in the world control 40% of the world’s total wealth and 15 transnational corporations control 50% of global output. Today, as 100 years ago, acting in the name of the free market and democracy, a handful of imperial powers invades countries, blocks trade, imposes prices on the rest of the world, chokes national economies, plots against progressive governments and resorts to espionage against the inhabitants of this planet.
A tiny elite of countries and transnational corporations controls, in an authoritarian fashion, the destinies of the world, its economies and its natural resources.
The economic and social inequality between regions, between countries, between social classes and between individuals has grown outrageously. About 0.1% of the world’s population owns 20% of humanity’s assets. In 1920, a business manager in the United States made 20 times the wage of a worker, but today he is paid 331 times that wage. This unfair concentration of wealth and predatory destruction of nature are also generating a structural crisis that is becoming unsustainable over time. It is indeed a structural crisis. It impacts every component of capitalist development. In other words, it is a mutually reinforcing crisis affecting international finance, energy, climate, water, food, institutions and values. It is a crisis inherent to capitalist civilization.
Read the full speech at Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Against the Grain 