Ukraine Must Be Armed to Counter Putin's Advance - Newsweek Wednesday July 29th, 2015 at 10:48 AM
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 Globalnews.ca |
Ukrainian artist uses bullet cases in portrait of Putin called 'A Face of War'
Globalnews.ca KIEV – A Ukrainian artist has used 5,000 spent cartridge cases to create a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, entitled “A Face of War”. The work by Daria Marchenko took over four months to complete. “The war is full of human lives, which are ... A Ukrainian artist uses 5000 cartridges in her portrait of Vladimir Putin The Globe and Mail Ukrainian artist Daria Marchenko creates portrait of Vladimir Putin from 5000 ...International Business Times UK all 8 news articles » |
 Newsweek |
Ukraine Must Be Armed to Counter Putin's Advance
Newsweek In many quarters, it is now axiomatic that a refocusing and enhancement of Western assistance will “provoke” Putin into a dramatic escalation of the conflict. The risk exists. Yet there is nothing in Putin's record to support this assumption. What has ... and more » |
 Reuters |
People like Blatter deserve Nobel prize, Putin tells Swiss TV | Reuters
Reuters People like Blatter deserve Nobel prize, Putin tells Swiss TV. GENEVA | By Tom Miles. British comedian known as Lee Nelson (unseen) throws banknotes at FIFA President Sepp Blatter as he arrives for a news conference after the Extraordinary FIFA ... Vladimir Putin: Sepp Blatter worthy of Nobel Prize - Planet Futbol - SI.comSI.com People like Sepp Blatter deserve Nobel prize, Vladimir Putin tells Swiss TV ...Toronto Sun Vladimir Putin says People like Blatter deserve Nobel prize, Putin tells Swiss TV - Channel NewsAsiaChannel News Asia Fifa president Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize - NY Daily News - New ...New York Daily News all 1,779 Reuters Canada-Zee News-Awful Announcing all 15 news articles » |
 Daily Mail |
Place your betskis! Putin gambles on a £3billion complex of 16 super-casinos ...
Daily Mail Vladimir Putin is hoping to coax gamblers away from Las Vegas with a new casino mecca - complete with ski slopes, shopping centres, hotels and a marina. This is the first glimpse of the Russian President's new complex on the eastern fringe of Siberia ... and more » |
 The Fiscal Times |
Putin's Next Invasion: The Pop Charts
The Fiscal Times For more than a year, since his troops invaded Ukrainian territory and illegally annexed Crimea, Vladimir Putin has spent much of his time trying to boost the nationalistic feeling of the Russian people. He's given soaring speeches about the “Russian ... Russian music industry figures ask Putin to stop 'patriotic pop' projectThe Guardian Russian musicians urge Putin to stop flooding radio with patriotic songsNME.com all 4 news articles » |
 NBCNews.com |
Russia's Vladimir Putin Says FIFA's Sepp Blatter Deserves a Nobel Prize
NBCNews.com MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his running of the soccer organization, which is currently embroiled in a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal. The landmark case being ... Vladimir Putin Says His Homeboy Sepp Blatter Deserves A Nobel PrizeDeadspin Blatter deserves the Nobel prize: PutinFox Sports Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize, says Vladimir PutinBBC Sport Newsday-Fortune-ABC News all 359 news articles » |
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 The Guardian |
Sergei Pugachev, Putin's former banker in exile – video interview
The Guardian Once known as 'Putin's banker', Sergei Pugachev was a billionaire financier in Moscow and a regular visitor to the Kremlin. But after falling out with President Vladimir Putin he is in exile in the south of France – and facing legal claims from the ... |
 The Guardian |
Sergei Pugachev: 'Putin's banker' now lives in fear of man he put into power
The Guardian Putin picked the latter. The distraction was his annexation of Crimea and covert invasion of eastern Ukraine, which fed into a deep-seated sense of patriotism. Ukraine was, Pugachev, says “a big mistake”. “Putin isn't a strategist. He listens to the ... Former Kremlin banker: Putin 'is the richest person in the world until he ...Business Insider all 5 news articles » |
 Deadspin |
Vladimir Putin Says His Homeboy Sepp Blatter Deserves A Nobel Prize
Deadspin Since FIFA president Sepp Blatter won his first election in 1998, he has (allegedly! [lol]) both bribed and received bribes in order to stay in power and award desperate countries international tournaments. Along the way, he has actually and truly ... Russia's Vladimir Putin Says FIFA's Sepp Blatter Deserves a Nobel PrizeNBCNews.com As Putin Targets Dissent, U.S. Democracy Group Banned in RussiaThe Fiscal Times The terrifying bromance of Sepp Blatter, Vladimir PutinNew York Post Newsday-BBC Sport-Business Insider all 359 news articles » |
 Bloomberg View |
Putin Hurts a Think Tank by Not Banning It
Bloomberg View Russian President Vladimir Putin is nothing if not cunning when it comes to dealing with his adversaries. When he signed a law allowing the government to ban any nongovernmental organization deemed "undesirable," it was clear some foreign NGOs would ... |
 The Guardian |
Russian music industry figures ask Putin to stop 'patriotic pop' project
The Guardian In a letter quoted by the Kommersant newspaper, music industry heavyweights asked Putin to stop a deal by the state company Goskontsert to buy Russkaya Media Group, arguing it could make it impossible for “most representatives of the music industry” to ... Putin's Next Invasion: The Pop ChartsThe Fiscal Times Russian musicians urge Putin to stop flooding radio with patriotic songsNME.com all 4 news articles » |
 Business Insider |
Former Kremlin banker: Putin 'is the richest person in the world until he ...
Business Insider Vladimir Putin REUTERS/Sergei KarpukhinRussia's President Vladimir Putin toasts during a ceremony of receiving diplomatic credentials from foreign ambassadors at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 28, 2015. Sergei Pugachev: 'Putin's banker' now lives in fear of man he put into powerThe Guardian all 8 news articles » |
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 The Fiscal Times |
As Putin Targets Dissent, U.S. Democracy Group Banned in Russia
The Fiscal Times The decision appears to be the first use of the new authority granted to the Prosecutor General earlier this year, and which appears to be another effort by the government of President VladimirPutin aimed at stifling dissent. Though structured as an ... and more » |
 New York Times |
Review: 'Miss Julie' Resets a Celebrated Drama in Putin's Russia
New York Times Like his versions of Ibsen's “A Doll's House,” “Hedda Gabler” and “An Enemy of the People,” all seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Mr. Ostermeier's “Miss Julie” takes place in the here and now, in this case the here and now of Vladimir V. Putin's ... and more » |
 Newsweek |
Putin Says Sepp Blatter Deserves a Nobel Prize
Newsweek Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that longtime FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, who recently announced he was stepping down from football's global governing body amid a massive corruption probe, deserves a Nobel prize for his leadership. Vladimir Putin: Sepp Blatter deserves the Nobel PrizeGazetteNET Vladmir Putin thinks Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prizegulfnews.com FIFA president Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize, says Vladimir PutinSkySports all 261 news articles » |
 Business Insider |
Vladimir Putin is suffocating his own nation
Washington Post Now, President Vladimir Putin is forcing these organizations out of Russia, using law enforcement and a parliament that he controls. Mr. Putin's larger target is to destroy civil society, that vital two-way link in any democracy between the rulers and ... Putin is cracking down on dissent and the first victim is the US-based ...Business Insider all 97 news articles » |
 Times LIVE |
Putin Fetes Russian Religious Founder Prince Vladimir
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty "By stopping fratricidal wars, crushing external enemies, Prince Vladimir laid down the foundation for creating a single Russian nation and paved the way for the construction of a strong, centralized Russian state," Putin said at ceremony in the ... Vladimir hails Vladimir: Putin fetes Russia's religious founderTimes LIVE Agence France-Presse: Vladimir hails Vladimir - Putin fetes Kyivan Rus ...Kyiv Post Ukraine: Russian Patriarch plays intricate political game in letter to Putin ...ChristianToday all 24 news articles » |
TEL AVIV — On Tuesday, the United States announced that it would release Jonathan J. Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel, in what many observers believe is an effort to mute the Israeli government’s criticism of the July 14 nuclear agreement with Iran.
The use of Mr. Pollard as a carrot reveals that Obama administration officials grasp the importance of the prisoner to the Israeli public. They also understand that there would be no better move than freeing Mr. Pollard to sweeten the bitter pill of the Iran deal that Israelis are being asked to swallow.
On the other hand, the way the Israeli leadership and the public have reacted to Mr. Pollard’s 30-year imprisonment is an excellent example of their profound misunderstanding of American values and thinking.
“I couldn’t resist the temptation,” Rafi Eitan, who recruited Mr. Pollard, told me in 2006. “We’re talking about material that was of such high quality, so accurate and so important to the security of the state. My appetite for getting more and more of it got the better of me.”
Perhaps one can understand the motivation of Mr. Eitan, one of Israel’s top spies who devoted his whole life to obtaining information. But it’s far more difficult to understand the thinking of those who worked above him, including the former prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres and especially Yitzhak Rabin, who had served as ambassador to Washington. They knew very well that Israel was running a spy at the heart of the country’s closest ally, and failed to stop it.
Mr. Eitan took responsibility by resigning; his superiors did not. And this unfortunate episode continues to cause grave damage to relations between the two countries to this day.
In retrospect, it’s hard to believe that a person like Mr. Pollard was ever recruited to sensitive positions in either country. At school, Mr. Pollard used to fantasize to his friends that he was a Mossad spy. He was accepted into American intelligence and promoted, despite documented instances of lying, cheating, flagrant security breaches and problematic psychological diagnoses. While employed in naval intelligence, Mr. Pollard and his first wife, Ann, took part in drug-fueled parties and became embroiled in debt.
Mr. Pollard first offered his services to the Mossad, which was apprehensive about him. He also tried non-Israeli actors, until he finally lit upon Lakam, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s military and nuclear espionage arm, which made him an agent despite his problematic character. Mr. Pollard acted irresponsibly, stealing suitcases full of naval intelligence documents indiscriminately, some of which didn’t pertain to Israel. It was clear he would eventually be caught.
The Israelis who employed Mr. Pollard also failed to take into account the risk he posed to the American Jewish community, which was subsequently suspected of disloyalty. Documents from the C.I.A. reveal that the agency viewed Mr. Pollard as an American Jew who had translated his support for Israel into two alternatives: immigrate to Israel or spy for it. For years afterward, the Pollard affair made it difficult for Jews in the United States government to get security clearances for sensitive jobs.
When the case blew up, the Israelis did the opposite of what was needed to placate the furious American administration — they continued lying and concealing essential facts from the F.B.I. investigators who came to Tel Aviv. These lies were easily discovered and caused further damage.
Moderate elements in Israel wanted to end the affair quietly. A Public Committee for Mr. Pollard was set up, through which the state channeled large amounts of money to top-flight lawyers who tried to improve his jail conditions and secure an eventual pardon. In order to achieve this, Mr. Pollard needed to keep a low profile, admit his wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. But this measured approach was trampled by certain cabinet ministers and right-wing Knesset members who began to make pilgrimages to Mr. Pollard’s jail cell.
At the heart of their campaign was the argument that Mr. Pollard acted purely out of concern for Israel’s security, that he stole classified documents only when he found out that America wasn’t sharing information vital to Israel’s security. They also claim that Mr. Pollard has been imprisoned “six times longer” than any other spy – proof of anti-Semitism, in their eyes.
The argument that Mr. Pollard has been jailed longer than other nations’ spies is a legitimate one. Even so, strategies like drawing a parallel between Mr. Pollard and Israeli prisoners of war and comparing a Hamas dungeon in Gaza to a federal prison in North Carolina show how Israelis are unforgiving toward those who threaten their own security, but completely fail to understand the anger of other countries when their security is harmed.
The Israeli government even issued Mr. Pollard an Israeli identity card and published a public admission that he spied for Israel – the opposite of what should have been done to speed his release. Mr. Pollard’s second wife, Esther Seitz, who married him after he was jailed and who holds extreme right-wing views, has been loudly leading this chorus. She even hired a lawyer who had previously been involved in the defense of Yigal Amir, who in 1995 assassinated Mr. Rabin, then the prime minister.
The nationalistic campaign, along with the big mouths of the confused Mr. Pollard and his extremist wife, are the main reason he is still in jail.
When Mr. Pollard is released in November, it will set off rejoicing in Israel. It’s not clear yet if President Obama will allow him to leave the United States and settle there. But if Israelis celebrate his release and possible “homecoming,” there must be a responsible adult in Israel who understands how turning a spy into a returning hero will be interpreted in Washington. Israelis must realize, even if 30 years too late, that Americans see Mr. Pollard as a traitor of the worst kind and that celebrating his release will only further harm Israel’s already strained relations with America.
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Pollard's Release Shows That Israelis Just Don't Get America
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BAGHDAD — In the days after reaching an agreement with the United States to combat mayhem inSyria and Iraq, Turkey said it had vaulted itself into the battle against extremists menacing Turkish security.
But the extremists the Turks have in mind are not just members of the Islamic State. Instead, as has become increasingly clear this week, Turkey is at least as focused on crushing the Kurdish militants it has struggled to contain for many years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey increased tensions with Kurdish militants on Tuesday, telling reporters it was impossible to continue a two-year-old peace process with them.
He spoke as Turkey, a NATO member, convened an emergency summit meeting of the alliance, suggesting that Kurdish separatists were at least as big a threat to Turkey’s part of the world as the fighters of the Islamic State. The Turks got a NATO pledge to battle both groups.
Turkey’s new airstrikes last week against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, came alongside an equally intense barrage on Kurdish militants in Iraq, whose Syrian affiliates are also fighting the Islamic State.
A visual guide to the rise of the Islamic State.
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Violence has since flared in Turkey’s southeast, where Kurds are a majority.
Mr. Erdogan’s stance presents a complication for the United States and other NATO allies. Under alliance rules, they are bound to protect Turkey from threats, and they have long listed the Kurdish militant group that fought a long insurgency in Turkey, the P.K.K., as a terrorist organization.
Yet they are eager not to let the Kurdish issue overshadow the international fight against Islamic State militants who have seized much of Syria and Iraq and sought to inspire attacks around the world.
A senior Obama administration official said on Tuesday that the hostilities between Turkey and the P.K.K. had been started by the Kurdish insurgent group and that Turkey had been within its rights to bomb P.K.K. targets in Iraq.
Turkey’s abruptly renewed focus on the Kurds has raised new questions about Mr. Erdogan’s true motives. Among his critics in Europe, some are asking if he is less interested in fighting the Islamic State than suppressing the Kurds.
Those opponents include not only armed groups, but also members of a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey whose strong showing in recent elections cost the president his parliamentary majority. Mr. Erdogan appeared to take aim at that faction, the People’s Democratic Party, or H.D.P., on Tuesday.
He called on the Turkish Parliament to strip politicians who have links to terrorist organizations of their immunity from prosecution, apparently referring to the H.D.P., which some in the government consider to be the political wing of the P.K.K.
The escalating tensions between Turkey and Kurdish groups pose a number of threats to the effort against the Islamic State. If widespread violence between Kurdish militants and security forces breaks out in Turkey, the government could be diverted from its new commitment to battle the Islamic State, made with the United States last week.
And the conflict rippled further through the anti-Islamic State alliance on Tuesday.
In Iraq, which is fighting to regain large areas from Islamic State militants, the government declared the Turkish attack on the P.K.K. in Iraqi territory “a dangerous escalation and an offense to Iraqi sovereignty.”
Iraqi Kurds have been on the front lines against the Islamic State. In Syria, the tensions heighten the risk of conflict between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish militias that — theoretically, at least — are on the same side in battling the Islamic State.
It also risks damaging a United States alliance with those militias, which in recent months have been America’s most effective partners on the ground in Syria against the Islamic State.
A senior American official, discussing operational planning on the condition of anonymity, said over the weekend that the Turkish attacks on the P.K.K. were “complicating the relationship” with the Syrian Kurdish militias. The official said the United States was pressuring Turkey not to attack the Syrian Kurds.
On Tuesday, another senior administration official said the Turks had assured the United States that they would not strike Syrian Kurdish militia targets in Syria.
The Islamic State aims to build a broad colonial empire across many countries.
OPEN Graphic
It was the success of the Syrian Kurdish militias that partly spurred the change of heart in Turkey that led to a deal with the United States.
The Syrian Kurdish militias have connections to the P.K.K. but insist they do not view Turkey as a target and only seek Kurdish autonomy within Syria.
Still, Turkey was wary of the growing autonomy on its southern border and, some analysts say, increasingly envious of the Syrian Kurdish role in the American alliance — which was allowing the militias to expand their territory along the Turkish border with the help of American airstrikes.
That, along with the first mass killing of civilians in Turkey in an Islamic State bombing last week, led to the shift by Turkey, with an agreement that provides for American warplanes to use two Turkish bases.
The agreement also calls for the countries to cooperate to help primarily Arab Syrian insurgents take over a segment of northern Syria near the Turkish border.
That means driving out the Islamic State — but also making sure that the Syrian Kurds do not get there first.
According to senior Obama administration officials, the United States and Turkey are to agree on which Syrian opposition fighters will be supported by airstrikes from the United States and its allies under the new agreement.
Francis J. Ricciardone, a former ambassador to Turkey who is now vice president and director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in Washington, told reporters on Tuesday that the deal was not entirely at the expense of the Syrian Kurds, who could benefit from what he called a shift in Turkish policy toward them.
He said that Turkey appeared to have adopted the West’s policy of differentiating between the P.K.K. and the Syrian Kurds.
The P.K.K., he said, “is operating against the Turkish state, and we consider it an international terrorist group,” while the Syrian Kurds had “explicitly long ago taken on ISIS” and aligned with the Americans.
He interpreted a recent public visit to Turkey by the Syrian Kurd leader Saleh Muslim as a sign that the Turkish authorities appeared more tolerant toward his group. Still, Mr. Ricciardone said, a Turkish alliance with Syrian Kurds against the Islamic State is an idea that “remains to be tested.”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey said over the weekend that the Syrian Kurds “did not bother us like Daesh or the P.K.K.”
The deeper tension over Kurdish separatism appears to be within Turkey.
The pro-Kurdish party there has come under great scrutiny since stripping Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party of its parliamentary majority in a June election. The setback for Mr. Erdogan has forced Turkey into a period of uncertainty as opposition parties jockey to form a coalition government for the first time in more than a decade. If they fail, Mr. Erdogan could call for a snap election in November.
Analysts say that one of his main incentives in targeting the P.K.K. is to undermine the Kurdish opposition and recapture the Turkish nationalist vote. An absolute majority for his party would serve his own ambitions of changing the Constitution to establish an executive presidency.
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Turkey and the United States have taken a major step toward confronting the Islamic State militant group and trying to address the Syrian conflict.
What has Turkey agreed to do?
Turkey recently gave the United States two bases from which to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State and agreed to cooperate with the United States and certain Syrian rebel groups in their battle against the group.
Though Turkey opposes the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, it was not until very recently that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was willing to confront fighters from the group who have streamed into Syria across Turkey’s border.
What changed?
The Islamic State attacked new areas along the Turkey-Syria border last week, and the Turkish government blamed the militant group for a deadly bombing in the eastern Turkish town of Suruc.
Political analysts in Turkey say the government has become increasingly concerned with the territorial gains made by Kurdish militias that have been the United States’ main partners in combating the Islamic State in Syria. By coming off the sidelines to join the American effort, Turkey can create a “safe zone” for the Syrian opposition and thwart any additional gains by the Kurds.
What are Turkey’s priorities?
Turkey has been more focused on blunting Kurdish militant groups than on defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Just last week, Turkish jets bombed Kurdish militia targets in northern Iraq on the same day that fighter jets also struck three Islamic State targets in Syria.
The Turkish government also arrested hundreds of people it said had ties to terrorist organizations. The government uses that designation for Islamic State militants and for members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., which fought the Turkish government for Kurdish independence for decades.
Which side are the Kurds on?
The Kurdish Y.P.G. militias in Syria are fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. They have also been some of the most successful forces in combating the Islamic State there. The Y.P.G. is affiliated with the P.K.K., which Turkey considers its adversary.
Turkish forces have bombed P.K.K. positions and arrested hundreds of Kurdish activists. The new deal between the United States and Turkey discounts the Kurdish militias affiliated with the P.K.K.
Mr. Erdogan said on Tuesday that peace with the Kurdish militants was not possible, indicating that he will likely continue to press his campaign against some Kurdish fighters while he simultaneously cooperates with the Americans in the mission against the Islamic State.
The Iraqi Kurds, a crucial American ally in the region, have said they support the new American and Turkish cooperation.
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Lois Lerner / AP
BY: Morgan Chalfant
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials–including ex-Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner–used an instant-messaging system in a seemingly deliberate effort to prevent their communications from being archived.
Americans for Tax Reform observed that new documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform demonstrate that IRS officials used an instant messaging system called the “Office Communication Server,” denoted OCS, that did not archive their communications.
Moreover, in an email obtained by the House committee, Lerner wrote to her IRS colleagues of the need to be “cautious about what we say in emails,” as the agency had on “several occasions” been asked by Congress to provide select emails or submit to “electronic search for responsive emails.”
Lerner also asked fellow employees whether the OCS messages are archived, after which she was informed that they are not. “Perfect,” she wrote in response.
While the instant-messaging system can be directed to archive messages, an employee questioned by the House committee said that the IRS elected not to take advantage of this feature.
These new revelations come just as multiple members of the House committee–including chairman Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah)–are calling on President Obama to fire Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen from his post for obstructing the congressional probe into the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Monday, Reps. Ron Desantis (R., Fla.) and Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) threatened to impeach Koskinen if Obama fails to act.
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Great Britain, like its American ally, is reviewing the makeup of its military as it digs in for a long fight against the Islamic State and prepares to counter a resurgent Russia.
The strategic defense and security review – the first since 2010 – is “refreshing our national risk assessment,” U.K. Procurement Minister Philip Dunne said Tuesday. The review will inform the U.K.’s national security strategy, the composition of the British military, and the equipment it purchases.
“We do recognize a darker threat environment,” Dunne said at a luncheon in Washington sponsored by the consulting firm of former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen. “Where we find aggression and our values under threat, we will speak out and we will stand up.”
Britain has already announced earlier this month that it would boost defense spending over the next five years, in part to counter Russia.
Dunne’s visit to Washington Tuesday is the first by a British defense minister since Conservatives held onto power in May’s general election. “I came to express our increasing confidence in our position in the world in defense and I came specifically to invite U.S. participation and view on our strategic defense and security review,” he said.
Dunne met with U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and acquisition chief Frank Kendall at the Pentagon earlier Tuesday.
The review will also look at U.K.-U.S. military relations, Dunne said.
Britain has been one of the largest contributors to the U.S.-led coalition that is bombing ISIS positions in Iraq. British planes have flown more than 1,100 missions, striking over 250 targets in Iraq, and providing air-to-air refueling to aircraft from five nations involved in the airstrikes, Dunne said.
Other aircraft are conducting reconnaissance flights over Syria, and gathering 30 percent of the intelligence for the overall operation. The Royal Air Force’s second RC-135 Rivet Joint, which the Brits call Airseeker, will soon deploy to Iraq to support Kurdish ground forces, Dunne said. The RAF’s first Rivet Joint, which has been gathering intelligence on ISIS since last year, will return to the U.K.
U.K. troops are also training Iraqi Security Forces and “have committed” to training the moderate Syrian opposition, he said.
The Brits, like their American counterparts, have also had an eye turned toward Russia. Over the past month, senior U.S. military generals have told Congress that Russia is America’s top national security threat.
Russia is “testing our readiness and we are meeting every test that they pose with the appropriate reaction,” Dunne said of the uptick in Russian military flights near Britain and other European countries. NATO and European countries regularly intercept these Russian aircraft with armed fighter jets.
RAF fighter jets sit on alert at two U.K. air bases for these missions. “[W]e have procedures in place for dealing with these kinds of things,” Dunne said.
RAF Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets will return to police the skies over the Baltics next year, the third year in a row, Dunne said.
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He spent 13 years on secret missions around the world for the CIA, but when former Navy SEAL Brett Jones looked into his cell phone camera and pressed “record” earlier this month, he was scared.
“The reason I’m making this is, in the event that something happens to me, there’s evidence I’m inAfghanistan working as a contractor for the CIA,” he says quietly in the shaky video, stealing glances around him. “I don’t feel it’s very safe for me to be here. I don’t feel like I can work with these guys.”
In one of the most dangerous places on the planet, Jones wasn’t afraid of the hundreds of militants eager to kill anyone associated with the CIA, he was afraid of his own men – afraid of being the victim of an “accident” downrange – or afraid of being left behind if a mission went bad.
Jones, the only contractor with the CIA’s paramilitary Global Response Staff (GRS) who has come out publicly as gay, said that what had him so terrified was a disturbing pattern of harassment he had suffered and the homophobic, racist and sexist behavior he had seen from his own teammates – both contractors and CIA officials. It was behavior Jones felt he had to expose, even if it cost him his job, or worse.
“I just had no idea where it ended or where it began and if I was to raise my hand and say, ‘Hey, this is a problem,’ people would lose their jobs. In an environment where everyone is armed and at a heightened sense of awareness, a little stressed out, maybe a little PTSD floating in there somewhere, that’s not the environment for me to do it in,” Jones told ABC News in an exclusive interview to be broadcast on “World News Tonight With David Muir”. “When people’s livelihoods and careers and everything are threatened, they tend to do some pretty crazy things.”
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones, right of center, poses with CIA GRS troops on a recent deployment.
So Jones said he secretly made copies of some evidence in the form of an expletive-laden mission brief from a contract company’s computer and a series of what he called racist and homophobic images from an official CIA computer, and then made up a cover story to slip out of the country. This week the CIA declined to comment on Jones' specific allegations, but did not dispute his account.
‘You Have to Know Those Guys Are Going to Have Your Back’
Jones told ABC News that in the decade-plus he has served on and off with the CIA GRS, mostly providing armed security for Agency assets in "high threat environments," he has routinely run into issues in which teammates use homophobic or racist language.
Jones is white, but says he “doesn’t tolerate racism or bigotry.” He said that in past instances, he’s managed to diffuse the situation by taking the speaker aside and politely but firmly asking them to refrain from that kind of talk. Generally, he said he always got along well with his colleagues – most of whom are well aware he’s gay.
The CIA knew Jones was gay when they hired him back in 2003 -- and Jones said he was “extremely thankful” to be able to keep doing the kind of work he had done in the Navy as a SEAL.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s a part of who I am... I get the best sleep at night when I know that I have done something that has saved somebody's life or made the world a little bit better in some way."
Last February Jones came out to the general public as the first openly gay ex-Navy SEAL on the special operations news website SOFREP.com, but even after that his next few of deployments went fine, he said.
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones was a Navy SEAL before leaving the Navy in 2003.
The most recent was different.
According to Jones, it started with small incidents after he arrived in country in June: no one coming to pick him up from the helicopter transport, a disturbing smell coming from his new sheets, no one sitting next to him in the chow hall, laughter abruptly ceasing when he walked into rooms.
“I guess I thought I was being overly sensitive and I just had to man up a little bit,” he said.
But Jones said the incidents kept piling up and getting worse. He said his team refused to let him in a truck during a vehicle test on a nearby mountain, forcing him to walk in the 120-plus degree heat. Another time someone stole his encrypted radio, which, if actually lost, he said would have potentially compromised the security of some American military and spy radio communications around the world. After racing around and asking everyone if they had taken the radio by accident, Jones said he found it on the table in the team room, surrounded by chuckling GRS operators.
By that point Jones said he was already growing to believe that his life could be in danger – not because he thought his team would hurt him, but because they may not protect him. He said he got the message “loud and clear” that he wasn’t part of the team.
“Before you go outside the wire, you have to know that those guys are going to have your back. You have to have that confidence. You have to know that. You can’t have any doubts whatsoever because the minute something goes wrong, and it happens and it’s fast and it’s furious and it’s violent and you have to know that people are going to make smart decisions and that they’re going to have your back, just like they need to know that you’re going to have theirs,” he said. “I didn’t think they had [mine].”
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones on one of dozens of deployments as a contractor for the CIA.
CIA Briefing Slides Filled With Offensive Language
It all culminated at the end of June, just hours before Jones’ team was scheduled to go on a dangerous mission, in a pre-mission briefing. It was supposed to be a mundane briefing about communications protocols and contingency plans for the mission, but Jones said that before it started, someone had changed out most of the normal Powerpoint slides and replaced them with offensive ones –- mostly extremely sexual or racist in nature.
For instance, in one of the more restrained slides titled “Actions on Contact,” meant to describe what to do in case the team comes under fire, it lists options such as “reverse cowboy/girl,” “cross dresser,” “hard on,” and “deploy genital warts.” Jones provided ABC News with a copy of the slides. The CIA declined to comment on the briefing.
Two of the slides, Jones says, were directly aimed at him. His radio call sign had been changed to “Gay Gay” and in a slide meant to discuss medical emergencies, it said, “Escorts go to NEVERLAND RANCH and GRS goes to GAYBAR medic.”
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones said this slide is supposed to inform operators what to do if they come under fire.
Obtained by ABC News
PHOTO: Slides in a pre-mission briefing were switched out for those filled with vulgar racist, homophobic and sexual references, according to Brett Jones.
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones said this slide is supposed to tell the team what to do in the case of a medical emergency.
Jones said that when he looked around the briefing room, everyone was laughing except for him and two others, who apparently were not in it.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It hurts. I don’t even like looking at it now,” Jones told ABC News. “I’ve never in my entire career ever seen anyone do something like this. Ever.”
Jones said he forced himself to go on the mission anyway, and it thankfully went off without any problems. But he came back to the slideshow a day later, and then he saw something else.
On a CIA-owned computer next to the door of the briefing room, Jones saw a screensaver image of himself. Curious, Jones said he pulled up the folder that was feeding images to the screensaver and alleges he found a myriad of offensive images -- one was a racist photograph referencing President Obama and another, Jones believes, was an insult to Jones’ husband.
Brett Jones
PHOTO: This image was found on a CIA computer in Afghanistan, one of many racist images, according to CIA contractor Brett Jones.
Obtained by ABC News
PHOTO: This image appeared on a CIA-owned computer in Afghanistan, one of several offensive images, according to Brett Jones.
That’s when Jones said he knew he had to “do the right thing” and report what he had seen. And though he was never directly threatened, Jones said it was then he started thinking about what some of the men could potentially do to stop him.
“I knew at this point that I had to leave there. I had to get away from there because by me doing the right thing meant that probably some people were going to end up fired and if they knew I was leaving... And this is the thing, I couldn’t just report it up the chain of command there because I had no idea who was in on this,” he said.
Jones said he packed a bag and was ready to commandeer a car and drive to an Army outpost if necessary because he said, “If I had just the slightest suspicion that they knew the reason I was flying home, that’s what I was going to do because I’d rather risk that than stay there on that compound with people like that.”
Instead, Jones was able to vaguely explain to a CIA superior in D.C. that he felt he was in a bad situation, and was able to go home after inventing a family emergency.
CIA Has ‘Zero Tolerance Policy Against Such Behavior’
Jones said he declined to report the incident through official CIA channels until after he spoke with reporters about what happened because he feared the CIA would “circle the wagons” and that nothing would change. He came forward, he said, in hopes of altering what he said can be a corrosive, closed culture in the Agency’s elite paramilitary units, not unlike the military’s special operations units.
“It’s my hope in some way that it makes a change within the organization and not just the GRS program within the CIA, but all special operations units. Like Navy SEALs or [Army] Rangers, or any of those, to where these kids that are coming through training and going into their prospective careers can go in there knowing that they’re not going to have to deal with stuff like that,” he said.
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones, right, in his early SEAL days.
The CIA declined to comment on Jones’ specific allegations, but Agency spokesperson Dean Boyd provided a statement saying that the Agency “take[s] very seriously any allegation of sexual, racial or any other form of harassment and/or discrimination at CIA.”
“We have a Zero Tolerance Policy against such behavior and CIA leadership is committed to holding all employees accountable for living and promoting this policy,” Boyd said. “Pursuant to Agency Regulations, every CIA employee is advised that if he/she is the target of discrimination or harassment, they may initiate an allegation at any time by reporting the behavior to the appropriate supervisor, manager or OEEO [Office of Equal Employment Opportunity] counselor.”
“As we go about our vital work at CIA, we have a duty to treat one another respectfully and professionally, and to foster a culture of tolerance and inclusion. That is what our Nation expects and what all our employees deserve,” he added.
Jones praised the CIA and said he knows “for a fact” that the behavior he saw is “not sanctioned by the CIA as a whole, as a policy for that organization.”
“I know they have LGBT groups there and they’re very supportive,” he said. “They hired me knowing that I was gay.”
Still, he said, he felt it was his duty to expose his team’s behavior and now says he’s working with the CIA in their probe of the incident.
Brett Jones
PHOTO: Brett Jones stands with a colleague on a mountaintop during a recent deployment abroad.
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A former Navy SEAL who gained national attention for a memoir about being gay in one of the military’s elite communities has filed a complaint, saying he was the victim of homophobic bullying during a June deployment as a CIA contractor.
Brett Jones says when he arrived at his outpost in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on June 11, he was forced to endure anti-gay bullying, including homophobic slurs, a crass PowerPoint presentation, and snide comments as people watched the news about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down bans on same-sex marriage.
The atmosphere was so toxic that he feared for his safety and had to return home early, he said.
The anti-gay comments came from a group of contractors and civil servants in the CIA’s Global Response Staff, Jones said. Many, like himself, are former members of special-operations units. A few of them took issue with working alongside a gay man, Jones said.
“I don’t tolerate racism or bigotry, and for some reason, that line of work attracts some people that are like that,” Jones said. “And because of the way the small units are, it goes unchecked.”
Jones said he filed the official complaint last week and the CIA is investigating. Jones provided The San Diego Union-Tribune with a copy of the complaint, and contacted the newspaper through a friend who is also a former Navy SEAL.
Due to security and personnel issues, the CIA declined to comment specifically about the case. It did, however, condemn anti-gay behavior, saying the agency has ways for people to report discrimination, that the CIA fosters a culture of tolerance and acceptance, and highlighted past efforts to reach out to the LGBT community.
“We take very seriously any allegation of sexual, racial or any other form of harassment and/or discrimination at CIA. We have a Zero Tolerance Policy against such behavior and CIA leadership is committed to holding all employees accountable for living and promoting this policy,” according to a statement by CIA spokesman Dean Boyd.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the congressional committee that oversees intelligence communities, said the accusations are serious and merit investigation.
“We must embrace and foster diversity, which is why the Committee prioritized recruiting a diverse workforce in its annual authorization bill. There is no place for discrimination in our Intelligence Community workforce, and I will continue to monitor this case,” he said in a statement.
The contractor Jones worked for did not respond to a request for comment. The Union-Tribune is not identifying the company out of concern for the safety of employees deployed to combat zones. Jones said he has no complaints about this firm and his employer has consistently supported him.
Jones, 41 and from Huntsville, Ala., who also works on a 24-hour suicide hotline for LGBT youths and is an advocate with the Military Partner Association, wants his harassers held accountable, and for anti-harassment policies to be better enforced. He also wants gays in the special operations community to be confident they won’t be harmed because of their sexual orientation.
“I’d like to see changes made within the special operations community as a whole. That would make me happy, if kids could go to bed without anyone worrying,” he said. “These people are literally suffering in the closet and that takes away from teamwork.”
Jones arrived in Afghanistan on June 9 and got to his outpost two days later. He was working in the Global Response Staff, a division of the agency that guards people and property. The GRS’ ranks are full of former SEALS, Army Rangers and Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance — military communities that are all-male and, despite U.S. Defense Department efforts to add diversity, nearly all white.
It was Jones’ second deployment since he wrote his book, “Pride: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL,” which documented his six years in uniform and his life as a SEAL. His military career nearly came to an end under the federal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy after he accidentally outed himself. He was investigated and on track for a discharge, but the investigation was ultimately abandoned and he decided against re-enlisting. He got out in 2003 and eventually started a second career as a security contractor.
There were often awkward incidents on the job, Jones said, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. He said he usually tried to diffuse things with humor and show that his sexuality wasn’t threatening.
“I understand, I’m a big boy. I get that a lot of people don’t like homosexuals. I’ve been around that my whole life, but you have to work around homosexuals,” he said.
Things seemed wrong as soon as his helicopter landed near his post in Afghanistan last month. Typically there was someone to pick up new arrivals and drive them and their gear to their headquarters. Not this time; he said he walked the quarter-mile to the compound.
He retreated to his room and found his floor dirty and a sheet smelling of feces. Jet-lagged and tired, he slept on the mattress, he recalled.
He overheard people calling him a “faggot,” and he said they were defensive when he confronted them about it.
And during a test ride of some of the team’s vehicles, he got out to walk a stretch through hairy terrain. The team ditched him in 120-degree temperatures, without water, forcing him to walk part way back to their compound before they stopped to let him back inside.
“I heard a faint laughing followed by a distant, ‘He can walk back!’ The door closed and they drove out of sight,” Jones said in a statement.
During a briefing with CIA employees and case managers ahead of a risky operation, a PowerPoint presentation with sexist, anti-gay and racist themes appeared on screen. His call sign was changed from Bad Monkey to “Gay Gay,” and one of the presentation’s slides said “Purple drank if they take it = they die. Same wit my chickin.” Jones said this slide meant the team was authorized to kill black people.
Approximately 75 percent of the slides were profane, racist, sexist or anti-gay. They also contained running jokes and comments about military culture, including a play on words related to common access cards, or CAC cards, used by some federal government employees for identification and access to secure areas and computer networks.
Jones said he felt targeted by his teammates and feared for his life. He wasn’t sleeping or eating, and he didn’t feel he could trust his teammates with his safety during missions. He was worried that speaking up would put an even bigger bull’s-eye on his back.
“Oh my God, what if they did something to try and hurt me and make it seem like an accident,” he said.
He made a plan to leave Afghanistan. He called his company and the GRS general director and requested a fake family emergency. They concocted a story that his sister had a botched medical procedure that left her paralyzed and he needed to get on a helicopter and leave, Jones said in a statement. Soon he was airborne, but not until he had emailed his husband a copy of the PowerPoint and an account of his experiences in Afghanistan.
The CIA notes that it has a 24-hour, confidential hotline for people deployed overseas and a private email channel for its Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, the department that oversees discrimination and harassment complaints. Employees are also told they can report incidents anytime.
Boyd also said the CIA has harassment awareness and prevention training, and an online training program that employees complete before they deploy.
“As we go about our vital work at CIA, we have a duty to treat one another respectfully and professionally, and to foster a culture of tolerance and inclusion. That is what our Nation expects and what all our employees deserve,” he said in his statement.
Jones said outside of his one bad experience with GRS, the CIA has been notably tolerant of gay people.
“They did it long before it was cool,” he said. “But the environment that I work in is not that. It’s sort of segregated in a way.”
Jones, however, thinks his career working for the agency is over. Now that he’s gone public with his experience, he suspects that people will be reluctant to work with him.
“No matter how I look at it ... I could never go back to work,” he said.
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· · · · · ·
In the news
Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel Prize, says Vladimir Putin
World football's governing body is engulfed in a corruption crisis, including an investigation ...
BBC Sport - 14 hours ago
The Guardian - 9 hours ago
CNN - 11 hours ago
Or perhaps the Russian president has spent too much time at altitude during one of his numerous skiing expeditions?
That's because Putin has come out with one of the most laughable and preposterous suggestions in history by suggesting disgraced FIFA president Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize.
He said: "People like Mr Blatter or the heads of big international sporting federations, or the OlympicGames, deserve special recognition.
"If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it's those people."
Putin is also known to like the odd cigar here and there, but his political colleagues in the Kremlin might want to check if he's been smoking something a little stronger.
The Nobel Prize is regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics.
It is dished out to those deemed to have made significant advances in these respective fields.
In other words, it is bestowed on people who have done good things in the world to make it a better place.
Yet all Blatter has done is bring shame and disgrace upon the most popular sport in the world.
The little man with a giant appetite for power has overseen FIFA's disgraceful ruling of football that has culminated in a widespread investigation in allegations of corruption on an unprecedented scale.
Blatter has been forced to step down following the FBI's decision to arrest seven FIFA officials as part of a United States investigation that saw 14 people indicted on corruption charges.
Part of this investigation is into the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
Heaven knows if the FBI will ever uncover the truth about how this came to be and if bribes were involved.
But one thing is clear. Putin has backed Blatter because the most powerful man in football agreed to give one of the most powerful men in politics one of the most lucrative sporting events on the planet.
But Blatter doesn't deserve the Nobel Prize, and will never come remotely close to getting one.
What he needs is bringing to justice and sending to prison, while Putin needs his head burying in the Moscow snow until he comes to his senses.
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· · · ·
Putin: Give Blatter a Nobel
Politico-10 hours ago
Political elite frustrates murder, kidnap and organ traffick probes. ... Blatter and Putin during the Preliminary Draw of the 2018 FIFA World ... Russian president Vladimir Putin said Sepp Blatter — president of football's world ...
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Page 6
/Georgia has been sacrificed to the world economy?/ – GCSSI.
July 18 2015
By David Taylor
…During the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 there have been proposals to introduce sanctions against Russia, but “the progress of these initiatives was not given because of concerns about how they will affect the global economy. When Russian troops invaded in the past year in Crimea, the situation has changed”
Vladimir Putin was of deep interest to American intelligence even when he was deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the 1990s.
“Mr Putin . . . was part and parcel of looting the state; and he was involved in it for years,” Richard Palmer, a former CIA station chief in Moscow, claimed in evidence to a US congressional committee in 1999.
Yet surprisingly little is known about the extent of Mr Putin’s personal wealth or whether it is hidden.
One reason is that the United States has been concerned with more pressing priorities during the intervening 20 years.
According to the correspondent, David Taylor, the fact there are several reasons. Firstly, “in the last 20 years the United States had more pressing priorities.” In addition, “at a time when the White House was trying to find a common language with the master of the Kremlin, allegations of corruption in Russia there feel uncomfortable.” In other words, all this time, “US government officials of lower rank were collected material on the state of Putin and his political appointees and their superiors that information simply be ignored,” the article says.
Yet surprisingly little is known about the extent of Mr Putin’s personal wealth or whether it is hidden.
One reason is that the United States has been concerned with more pressing priorities during the intervening 20 years.
According to the correspondent, David Taylor, the fact there are several reasons. Firstly, “in the last 20 years the United States had more pressing priorities.” In addition, “at a time when the White House was trying to find a common language with the master of the Kremlin, allegations of corruption in Russia there feel uncomfortable.” In other words, all this time, “US government officials of lower rank were collected material on the state of Putin and his political appointees and their superiors that information simply be ignored,” the article says.
“Budget cuts, the weakening of interest in Russia and the political calculation that such information is inconvenient, especially in the early stages of the” reset “relations with Russia, because of all it was not easy, – said the source publication in the Congress. – I know of one case where The CIA has sent the White House a report on corruption and white-collar worker [the White House] made it obscene inscription and sent back. ”
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, part of the US Treasury has established a new unit with a staff of 150 people – Department of Intelligence and Analysis. Here “to the data collected by US intelligence agencies, the method of such disciplines as forensic accounting,” the author continues. “The United States began to develop the concept of sanctions [as a tool for the cases], when diplomacy is ineffective and military methods are not considered.” Initially, experts were engaged in the new structure, “Al-Qaeda”, and later Iran and Russia on the list of priorities is not included.
During the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 there have been proposals to introduce sanctions against Russia, but “the progress of these initiatives was not given because of concerns about how they will affect the global economy. When Russian troops invaded in the past year in Crimea, the situation has changed” the article says.
The Times quoted a former US official (his name is not named): “Gloves cleared … Now … we are in a state of imminent and destructive escalation”. According to another source the newspaper, the retired officer of the US Treasury, “when talking about a man like Putin, then it’s not how much money he has and where he has an account. A constructive approach would be more so, to what we are with the situation policy point of view? How much we want to push? What pressure is necessary to provide, to persuade him to give up certain activities and at the same time to minimize the negative economic impact on the rest of the world? ”
When asked what motives, in his opinion, Putin’s leadership, the source said: “The best answer to this question, which I have come across is that we are dealing with almost the complex of Napoleon. He wants to go down in history as the greatest Russian of all time. It is not that some plan, some hard work – it’s an instinct, impulse, impulse. He likes the idea that he is strong and the shots. He strives to wealth? Of course, it aims, he needs to wealth to be the greatest of the Russian. “
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