Hi.
Kim, what do they say about that Russian NTV standoff?

(Trying to work out the CNN role in this?!-why do they need shares in gazprom?)
REUTERS
Sunday, April 8, 2001

Thousands Throng St. Petersburg Backing Russian
NTV

St. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Thousands of
supporters of the independent NTV television channel
massed in Russia's second city on Sunday, backing what
the station's journalists call a fight against the Kremlin to
save free media.

Local police said some 4,000 people thronged Troitskaya
Square, opposite the Winter Palace, waving placards and
Russian flags, a day after a Moscow rally to support NTV's
stand against last week's boardroom coup by
state-dominated gas giant Gazprom.

On April 3, Gazprom replaced the board at NTV, Russia's
only independent nationwide television network -- the
most influential source of information outside Kremlin
control.

It ousted founder Vladimir Gusinsky and replaced
managing director Yevgeny Kiselyov with an American
banker.

The following day, U.S. media magnate Ted Turner,
founder of the CNN global news operation, announced he
had reached an agreement to buy a stake in the network
from Gusinsky, saying he hoped to ensure the station's
continued independence. Talks continued over the
weekend.

In St. Petersburg, people held posters declaring "No TV
without NTV!" and "We won't give NTV to Putin!,"
denouncing what the station's reporters say is President
Vladimir Putin's leading role in a crackdown on independent
media.

Close to the cruiser Aurora, whose salvo marked the start
of the Bolsheviks' October 1917 revolution, liberal
politicians mounted a modified truck to address the crowd.

"What they are doing to NTV is (the start of) the road to
repression," said parliamentary deputy Sergei Popov. "But
we will not go down that road," he told the cheering crowd.

WAY OF THINKING

The only sign of ill-temper in the crowd came when police
closed a metro station close to the rally, saying the move
was necessary to guarantee public safety.

"For us, it is important that NTV is not just an information
provider but expresses our way of thinking, and in this way
it has become our political leader," said politician Igor
Artemyev, from the Yabloko party, as the crowd cried
"Freedom! Freedom!"

The protest came a day after more than 10,000 people
gathered outside NTV's Moscow studio to back its
journalists' vow not to accept the new management
installed by Gazprom.

But two key resignations on Saturday showed signs of
dissent in the station's ranks.

Top presenter Leonid Parfyonov said he could not back the
tactics of the station's managing director and most
prominent broadcaster Yevgeny Kiselyov, and opposed the
absence of newscaster Tatyana Mitkova from a committee
to talk to Gazprom.

Mitkova also resigned on Saturday, but the departures did
little to dampen the mood in St. Petersburg.

"Information -- Yes! Propaganda -- No!" and "Let's buy
Gazprom's shares!" urged signs painted the green of
NTV's logo.

Gazprom insists it wants only to recoup debts racked up by
NTV parent company Media Most, owned by former
theater director turned tycoon Gusinsky.

The company says it has no major quarrel with NTV's
reporters but only with Gusinsky, who is in Spain fighting
extradition to Russia on fraud charges.

Turner said he would only be able to save NTV's
independence if he sealed a deal to buy shares from
Gazprom as well. The energy firm said on Saturday talks
were at a preliminary stage.

Industry sources familiar with the talks said Turner's camp
wanted a deal with Gazprom as soon as possible, with an
eye to the U.S. magnate clinching about 30 percent of the
group.

Wow! This from a mainstream british newspaper!

Russia: land of the free

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is the US that has taken over the mantle of oppressor and world's bullyboy, which is
why we should all now back Moscow, writes George Szamuely

Special report: Russia

George Szamuely
Sunday April 8, 2001
The Observer

As we enter upon a new Cold War, the time has come for all those who value freedom to change sides. Today the aggressive, imperial power
bent on imposing its hegemony on the world is the United States. And the power upholding the sanctity of international law is Russia.

The Russians now embody the hope of all nations that, no matter how small, they can survive as independent sovereign states. They and the
Chinese - deadly rivals during the Cold War - are close allies. The downed US spy plane on Hainan Island helps explain why. The Chinese are
understandably fed up with round-the-clock US spying flights near their territory. They are angry at disingenuous US claims that essentially
military aircraft flying a few miles from their borders are somehow in 'international air space', and that spy planes landing without permission on
Chinese territory are to be considered US sovereign property.

Last year Russia logged around 1,000 spying flights by the US and other Nato countries. Ten years ago the Russians, exhausted by 74 years of
Communism and a ruinous Cold War, gave up their empire without firing a shot. All they wanted was to be left alone to address their domestic
problems, but they did not count on Washington's machinations. Determined to reduce Russia to permanent weakness, the US resolved to
surround Russia with Nato satellite states. Swiftly breaking its solemnly proffered pledges at the time of Germany's reunification that Nato would
not expand eastwards, the US bullied its junior Nato partners into inviting Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to become members.

Today, US policymakers talk of inviting the Baltic States to join. Meanwhile, Washington has sought to lock the Russians out of the oil and gas
riches of the Caspian Sea, establishing informal military cooperation agreements with the various dictatorships of Central Asia, hinting at
eventual Nato membership to such stalwart democracies as Georgia and Azerbaijan. Washington even created a military alliance - GUUAM,
comprising Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova - that was obviously directed at Russia.

On top of that, the US mobilised Nato against Serbia, Russia's traditional ally, by contemptuously ignoring international law. The bombing violated
innumerable articles of the UN Charter, Nato's charter, and the 1975 Helsinki Accords, the cornerstone of détente, and probably the most
important international treaty signed since 1945: 'The participating states will refrain... from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any state...The participating states will refrain from any intervention... in the internal or external affairs
falling within the domestic jurisdiction of another participating state.'

When NATO forces arrived in Kosovo, the US violated UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the legal basis for Nato's occupation. American
forces did nothing to disarm the KLA, instead helping launch the KLA-led insurgencies in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. Yet, according to
1244, the 'responsibilities of the international security presence in Kosovo include: deterring renewed hostilities... maintaining and where
necessary enforcing a ceasefire... demilitarising the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups... conducting border
monitoring duties as required.'

In other words, 1244 followed the Helsinki Final Agreement into the dustbin, Russia's protests at the UN dismissed in Washington as motivated
by 'pro-Serb' bias. The Russians confront an administration determined to ignore the 1972 ABM treaty and to build a missile defence system.
Washington's claims about threats posed by so-called 'rogue states' fool no one.

US policymakers disingenuously profess to be baffled by European and Russian concerns about the missile defence system. It's not complicated.
There is no reason for a country to abrogate an arms control treaty unless it wishes to better pursue an aggressive policy. On top of Nato
encirclement and possible US invulnerability there are the ethnic separatist movements within the Russian Federation being egged on by the US.

Recently, a senior State Department official, John Beyrle, met Ilyas Akhmadov, the Chechen separatist 'foreign minister', right after car bomb
attacks in Stavropol killed 22 people. The US, which lectures the rest of the world about the threat from the 'terrorists', gets tongue-tied when
terrorism is directed at others. Valdimir Putin made this point starkly, likening the Chechen terrorists to the Albanians attacking Macedonia.
'Nothing has been done to disarm the terrorists,' he said, ' ...and I would like to call those who are attacking Macedonia terrorists, not rebels.'

Washington's imperial agenda as well as its anti-Russian intent is no secret. For years it has been a staple of the lavishly-funded foreign policy
think-tanks. Consider Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, formerly Dean of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and
dominant in the Bush administration. Wolfowitz built a career terrifying the public with lurid tales of global threats facing the US. Demanding US
military intervention at every turn, he could be counted to pop up on TV to criticise any policy short of bombing as 'appeasement', and any actual
US bombing as little more than 'pinprick strikes'.

Wolfowitz shot to fame in 1992 when, as Undersecretary for Policy at the Pentagon, he wrote a memo arguing that US strategy in the post-Cold
War world should be to 'establish and protect a new order' that accounts 'sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to
discourage them from challenging our leadership' while maintaining a military dominance capable of 'deterring potential competitors from even
aspiring to a larger regional or global role'. America über alles.

Wolfowitz declared Lithuania to be a 'US vital interest', outlining America's military strategy in a war with Russia over Lithuania. He envisaged
using 24 Nato divisions, 70 fighter squadrons and six aircraft carrier battle groups to keep the Russian navy 'bottled up in the eastern Baltic', to
bomb supply lines in Russia and use armoured formations to expel Russian forces from Lithuania. The memo was leaked to the press. There was
uproar and the then Defence Secretary, now Vice President, •••• Cheney, beat a hasty retreat.

Russia, understandably feeling threatened and besieged, is today the champion of all nations seeking to chart their own course. The Russians
repeatedly protest the daily Anglo-American bombing of Iraq, actions that have never been authorised by a UN resolution. While US
policymakers discuss how best to overthrow Saddam Hussein - never for a moment doubting their right to make such decisions - the Russians
insist on adhering to the UN resolutions, which refer exclusively to the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

The Russians tirelessly advocate the lifting of sanctions on Iraq, pointing out that the policy hurts the innocent and strengthens Hussein. Talk like
this grates in Washington since fear of Saddam, and the Iranian ayatollahs, is the official US justification for its massive military presence in the
Persian Gulf. Without the constantly whipped-up fear of the 'rogue sates', US hegemony will be seen for what it is. Russia supports Korean
reconciliation pointing out, reasonably, that the outcome will be as much a triumph for South Korea as reunification was for West Germany.

Again, this is not a policy much in favour in Washington since it would inevitably bring into question the continuing US military presence in Korea
and Japan. The Russians gave up their empire. The Americans are in no mood to give up theirs.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

OHAYA, Ladies!
1044amedt
==
Kisako!
Happy Pa===
no.
Merry Pas===
no!

in any case, wishing a peaceful holiday pour toi.
and check your mail, too!
[w/g]
===
had myself a right nawsty exchange w/'team rocket'
this morning, mum.
instead, perhaps, i should call 'em "boris and
natasha", to accent the SHORTNESS of
boris/ann/isa.

I cant be hurt by the likes of them,

nor can ANY OF US.

hock-PTUI! -_-

and be sure to pass that on to your IDIOT ALLIES
at USC, St. Tony.
=====

+{3sk}

Hi L'menexe.

May it Pass....???Perhaps?

Where was this incident with shortarse and sister?


BTW : I just realised that our beloved DMS-software substituted mr.Cheney's name with four red dots in the article posted above.
Something I'm sure the author(of the article) wouldn't have minded in the slightest! GRIN

Chorny, I would love to come along and visit the USC, but it is painfully slow at the moment!
Can anything be done to speed it up a bit?

I agree with George Szamuely 100%. Pretty well sums it up.Kim USC is not slow must be your system.Get rid of the stuff thats running on the side of the clock.

UN claims Lockerbie trial rigged
EXCLUSIVE. Court was politically influenced by US. By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor
Publication Date: Apr 8 2001
THE United Nations has savaged the Crown Office's handling of the Lockerbie trial claiming the outcome was rigged through the unfair suppression of evidence; it was politically influenced by the USA; and the court had no grounds to return a guilty verdict.

Dr Hans Kochler, who was handpicked by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to act as the international observer during the trial in Holland, hinted that the trial was rigged, claimed the guilty verdict handed down in February to Abdelbasset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi was "arbitrary" and "irrational" and gave his tacit support for an acquittal at the planned appeal. Megrahi's co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Kochler's report, which calls for the case to be re- investigated and is heavily critical of the conduct of the three trial judges - Lord Sutherland, Lord Coulsfield and Lord MacLean - has sparked a bitter war of words between the Scottish Executive, the Crown Office and the United Nations. A spokesman for Colin Boyd, the Lord Advocate, said the UN and its international observer had "completely misunderstood" the trial and were ignorant of Scots law.

Kochler's report said the presence in court of two state prosecutors from the US Department of Justice was "highly problematic". They were not listed in any of the official documents about the Court's officers yet they were constantly briefing Scottish prosecutors.

Kochler added: "This created the impression of 'supervisors' handling vital matters of the prosecution strategy and deciding, in certain cases, which documents were to be released in open court or what parts of information were to be withheld."

He pointed to the handling of the key prosecution witness, Majid Giaka, a Libyan double agent who implicated both accused in the bombing of Pan Am 103, as proof of how "representatives of foreign governments in the Scottish courtroom" led to a "serious problem of due process".

During the case, CIA documents concerning Giaka were dismissed as "not relevant" by the prosecution. The documents were later released in a censored form and, said Kochler, "proved to be of high relevance".

"This seriously damaged the integrity of the whole legal procedure," he said claiming that US Justice Department officials had jeopardised "the independence and integrity of legal procedures".

He added that this was "not in conformity with the general standards of due process and fairness ... [and] negatively impacted on the court's ability to find the truth". Kochler criticised the trial judges, led by Lord Sutherland, for introducing "a political element into the proceedings" by allowing the US prosecutors to sit in court.

The UN report also says that: "It was a consistent pattern during the whole trial that - as an apparent result of political interests and considerations - efforts were undertaken to withhold substantial information from the court."

Kochler again pointed to a number of documents relating to Giaka not being made available to defence. "The court was apparently content with this situation."

The UN also condemned the administration of Scottish justice following a statement by the Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, claiming that an unnamed foreign government had "substantial new information É relating to the defence case".

The information was never provided by the unnamed government, despite the defence planning to show that a Palestinian terrorist group had carried out the bombing, not Libya. The accused's lawyers effectively went on to put on no defence or call any witnesses.

Kochler questioned the "actions and motives" of the accused lawyers in not putting on a defence. Defence lawyers refused to speak to the UN about this despite repeated requests.

"Virtually all people presented by the prosecution as key witnesses were proven to lack credibility to a very high extent," the report goes on. Kochler pointed to a number of witnesses, such as Giaka, who, Kochler said, lied in court.

The report questioned the judges' conduct in incorporating their evidence into their verdict, saying: "It seems highly arbitrary and irrational to choose only parts of their statements for the formulation of a verdict that requires certainty 'beyond any reasonable doubt'."

Kochler added: "The air of international power politics is present in the whole verdict É of the judges É The guilty verdict in the case of [Al Megrahi] is particularly incomprehensible in view of the admission by the judges themselves that the identification É was "not absolute" and that there was a "mass of conflicting evidence".

He said the verdict was "exclusively based on circumstantial evidence and É inferences", adding: "There is not one single piece of material evidence linking the two accused to the crime." He said the wording of the verdict pointed more in the direction of a "not proven" verdict.

He added: "The trial, seen in its entirety, was not fair and was not conducted in an objective manner. Indeed, there are many more questions and doubts at the end of the trial than there were at its beginning.

"The trial has É created more confusion than clarity É Irrespective of this regrettable outcome, the search for the truth must continue. This is the requirement of the rule of law and the right of the victims' families and of the international public."

Kochler ended his UN report by saying that he hoped "that an appeal É will correct the deficiencies of the trial".

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: "The UN observer, Dr Kochler, appears to have misunderstood a number of aspects of criminal procedure and processes in this case." The Crown pointed out that it was up to prosecution and defence, not judges, to investigate the case and decide which evidence is heard in court.

"The suggestion that the verdict was politically motivated again proceeds on a complete misunderstanding of the function and independence of the judiciary," the spokesman added.

Afternoon, Mum!

yeah, my USC fun involved an IGOR post, 'kosovo
and jews' [IGOR has _nothing_ to do with this]

and something from the transvestite ann f., "why
should jews be posting at forums?" or something.
i posted one 'anonymous' at the latter; forgot to
put in my name.

these [expletive] killed off 'world news and
views' [which had been owned by Toyman] so they're
back in full force, along w/St. Tony.

heh, Toyman and i are not 'pals', apparently.
later for that.

it is _their_ 'agenda', and it troubles mad, mad
marie that i _have_ no 'agenda'....

let me put it another way, mum:
it is _they_ who _perpetuate_ my =koff=
"agenda".....


...every time they p*ss me off.
====
Shalom, Kisako!
{+5sk}

So Chorny it look as if we'll never know what happened. And as recent arrests in Italy show it is likely to happen again. Incredible that they had to botch the trial after all the farking fuss we went to to get the "suspects" there in the first place.

Not sure about what you think is next to my clock, but both from work and home it takes an age for the site to open. Once in its OK-I just don;t have the patience to wait that long. Am I the only one trying to get in from Europe?

L'menexe:
"these [expletive] killed off 'world news and
views' [which had been owned by Toyman] so they're
back in full force, along w/St. Tony."

How did they manage that?

We got rid of moderators and now all the kiddies are out spamming the board to death.At least when I was there they knew the rules and how much I would tolerate.Kim a lot of people post from Europe and no problems,have you done your maintenance wizard lately?

I have just been trying to get in, I've been waiting for 20 mins-
and I'm on Unix- maintenance performed everytime you boot!
Could be the transatlantic link is busy, but it seems to happen alot.

I can get into URN's site no problem.

Darn it! another 20 mins just to get into post message- I want to rip that bitch marie to shreds-
How many times is she going to come up with the same old tired arguments.
Just cause everyone dismisses her as a crank, doesn't make us all jewish.
Oy!
Scratch a fasist, find a reactionary fool without the capacity for thought or feeling underneath!!

* why do they need shares in gazprom?
(It is BS, unless they can raise something around the following amount;o))
There is Gazprom.
There is Gazprom-Media.
There is the NTV.
Gazprom "is" a controlling portfolio in Gazprom-Media, which, in turn, "is" a controlling portfolio in NTV.
Gazprom-Media has a debt outstanding of $700 mln. to Gazprom.
The NTV "produced" losses of $200 mln. within two years and, thus, has a debt outstanding 0f $200 mln. to Gazprom-Media.
It's a chain reaction.
Any CNN, etc., director with this record of "profitability" would be expelled by the shareholders.
"Free press ... , free press ... , free fresh fish ... ;o)"


* I just realised that our beloved DMS-software substituted mr.Cheney's name [...]
Pity, it cannot substitute "allamerican" with some good expletive;o)

* How did they manage that?
A brass band of mental facility escapees.

* [...] have you done your maintenance wizard lately?
:o)))))))))))))))))))))))))
UNIX doesn't need any "wizards", that spawned with the advent of the unstable OS, named Windows, first, as a shell and, then, as a platform, as third-party crutches to prop Win's sorry existense:oP

* Could be the transatlantic link is busy, [...]
Could be different backbones.

* Just cause everyone dismisses her as a crank, doesn't make us all jewish.
To Jewish Kim and L'-san, - Passover congratulations!
;o)