[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MOCKBA', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seahorse2', 'O')ne difference between now and then, is, energy is a weapon. The west simply cannot do without Russia's energy.

[oowolf]

Combine this with Z-big's "damning indictment of the Bush regime" of Feb. 1 and it appears the "rest of the world" is preparing to move to stop the Neocon Madness if we don't have the will to do it ourselves.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=4734

[MOCKBA]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')So, in other words, their economy is like the American's now, except they have oil.

[Eli]

Link

Man I think old Putin is going to be a very nasty guy to deal with in the future for all of us. The KGB is just a killing machine.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes so's the CIA, the Mossad, etc. You can't run a halfway decent Empire without goons you know!

[Eli]

Ok Plants show me an US example of reporters dying under mysterious circumstances.

Rattle off three reporters of note that were murdered by the CIA.

The dead Russian reporters are stacking up by the day it seems.

[I_Like_Plants]

We've been capping reporters pretty regularly over in Iraq. We also eliminate troublesome whistleblowers all over the place, although according to the official Empire news sources That Never Happens.

[Eli]

OK, war zones don't count that is a rule.

Name one domestic investigative reporter who criticized the US government and was killed by the CIA.

If you can't then your argument is bogus.

[strider3700]

Name one domestic investigative reporter of any importance who criticized the US government.

No need to kill them. They'll never see an audience.

[Free]

Exactly, the Western method of media control is much more subtle, less dirty and more efficient, that's all.

That's what one Russian diplomat meant during the cold war when he spoke admiringly of US propaganda, because he said the difference between Russian propaganda and the US propaganda is that the people knew of the first that it was propaganda, but not of the latter.

He suspected that it had to do with the highly professionalized tradition of marketing and advertising in the West.

And if you want names, how about David Kelly.

[Eli]

David Kelly is pretty good but he is British not American and he was not a journalist.
I will count it just to move on.

The topic at hand is not another evil US thread but the very real threat that Putin is now posing.

Putin is also getting filthy stinking rich off is oil which is well and good but his penchant for violence and silencing his detractors is disturbing.

He is ruthless with the former Soviet Block countries and loves to reach into the KGB bags of tricks all the time. Europe will be his next target and since I am an American firster good luck with that boys.

[Eli]

Well Putin is living up to the expectations that I had off him.


The [url=http://]Reporter[/url] who "jumped" to his death was about to run a story how Russia is planing on supplying Syria and Iran with there most advanced weapons systems.

Let the great end game begin.

[jboogy]

Putin is definately not a dude to f**k with if your a russian or eastern european journalist , Vladimir has me sincerely believing this. I don't think he would move on a journalist with citizenship from a country that has balls but I could be wrong , I've heard russians can operate on a level of brutality most americans can't even comprehend.IMHO the only reason guys like hirsch , krugman,chomsky etc. don't get whacked is that our compliant , subserviant media would quickly rediscover their balls if they thought open season had been declared by the gov. ( this is purely conjecture on my part), Besides , the CIA doesn't need to resort to extreme methods to silence dissent in the media, all Rove or Cheney has to do is make a phone call and the opposition is marginalized by either character assassination or their opportunities to be heard are restricted ,( remember Donahues show being canceled in the run up to war even though it was the highest rated on MSNBC at the time). However it does appear that things are gradually taking a turn for the better ( media wise )as it becomes more apparent to everyone with each passing day that the emperor not only has no clothes , but he has no patience for those that try to tell him so.Olbermann wouldn't have lasted a week four years ago if he said the kind of stuff he's saying now.Eli , I'm not so sure I could be so cavalier about making a distinction between dead journalists in a war zone and here in the U.S. From what I've read the al-jazeera H.Q. location was widely known by the U.S. military and it wasn't just bombed , it was leveled.It was a message that was not to be misunderstood.And I have a strong suspicion that the italian lady reporter that was kidnapped and then fired on by an american road block after her release was also intentional, even though italy is an ally she was anti-occupation and her escort (head of italian intelligence) was killed in the shooting.All in all I don't for one second doubt that if you become a big enough pain in the ass to the PTB you will eventually have an accident.

[FreakOil]

You don't have to cross Putin to get whacked, any business magnate or powerful local politician will do. As to the most recent death of a journalist: It was probably a higher-up at Rosoboronexport who gave the order.

[Eli]

Yes that is a very good point if you own a valuable business and don't play along Vlady boy will stuff you in a sack with wild cats and throw you in the river.

The are so many examples of people who have got in his way and ended up dead that there is absolutely no comparison to the USA. Let see, if I had to chose character assassination or just assassination I know the one I would pick.

Vlady is terrorizing his own populace it seems like he trying to be the next Stalin.

[FreakOil]

I find some of the comments here rather naive. A lot of the journalists killed in Russia do not write anything that is directly threatening to Putin. They are usually offed after writing something that threatens the reputation of a local politician or businessman.

For example, a handful of journalists who were killed, including some high profile cases, during the 1990s had published exposes into Avtovaz, Logovaz and the auto industry in Tatarstan. Nobody blamed Yeltsin for this.

I am not saying that Putin or other members of the Kremlin clique aren't responsible for anyone's death. That's probably the true in the case of Anna Politkovskaya and a few others. But you have to bear in mind that the death of a journalist is very bad PR for the president and Russia, and Putin still has to play ball with the G8. Although he is in a very strong position due to oil and gas wealth, it simply isn't a good "return on investment" to go around whacking journalists all the time.

Take Litvinenko for example. I'm not sure whether he's been mentioned in this post, but he's relevant to the discussion. Putin did not order his killing. That is absurd. He was a spent force. He published one short book in 2002 about how the FSB masterminded the apartment bombings in 1999 that were blamed on the Chechens, and that information had already been published numerous times within Russia itself.

Berezovsky cut his stipend shortly before his death precisely because Litvinenko had no new accusations to make about Putin. Furthermore, he worked as a freelance researcher digging up dirt on dangerous powerful people. He worked for Berezovsky and he ran with a lot of dangerous ex-KGB security specialists like Lugovoi.

That's beside the point, perhaps. What isn't beside the point is that Putin had nothing to gain from his death. Igor Sechin and some other Kremlin insiders did, perhaps.

I'm not defending Putin, I just find it incredibly naive to think that Putin is going around whacking journalists. There are plent of dangerous people in Russia.

[Eli]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FreakOil', 'I') am not saying that Putin or other members of the Kremlin clique aren't responsible for anyone's death. That's probably the true in the case of Anna Politkovskaya and a few others. I'm not defending Putin, I just find it incredibly naive to think that Putin is going around whacking journalists. There are plenty of dangerous people in Russia.

[Zardoz]

Russian police thwart anti-Kremlin protest

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')ussian police detained several hundred people, including chess champion Garry Kasparov, on Saturday as they snuffed out an attempt by opponents of President Vladimir Putin to protest near the Kremlin.

Activists had planned to gather at a city center square about one km (half a mile) from the Kremlin to protest at what they say is Putin's trampling of democratic freedoms and demand a fair vote to choose a new president in 2008.

Teams of riot police, acting on a ruling from the city authorities banning the protest, pounced on protesters as they appeared in small groups near the square and swiftly loaded them into buses, Reuters witnesses said.

[Twilight]

What's interesting is the mainstream media is spinning it as a pro-democracy protest when many of the participants appear to be members of the Russian nazi party.

BBC, Pictures 1, 2 and 3

Wiki

Pot, kettle? But hey, who cares, mis-caption away and no-one will know any different. Just because it's an opposition movement, everyone is supposed to have knee-jerk sympathy without looking any further.

[Newsseeker]

Putin is the Iceman. Just pure unadulterated kickass badass. And a heart of iron rather than one of flesh and blood. That's what keeps him going.