U.S. funded seminar of Cuban and
Syrian armed opposition (
1-8 May 2012 at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Miami)

Syrian opposition sets up summer headquarters in Miami by Jean Guy Allard
http://www.voltairenet.org/Syrian-opposition-sets-up-summerThe CIA is implementing a device to sabotage the Annan plan and any attempt at peace in Syria. Reverting to its Cold War methods when it created subversive groups in the Eastern Bloc to infiltrate international combat fronts, the CIA organized a joint training seminar in Miami for members of the Cuban and Syrian armed opposition. By using the Cuban-American community acting under their auspices in Miami, as well as Syrian opponents living on their territory, the U.S. Intelligence Services are aiming to associate Cuba with the current unrest in Syria, according to a dispatch from the Spanish news agency EFE "revealing" that "Syrian dissidents and Cuban in Miami created a front to fight Castro and Al Assad."

"Syrian and Cuban resistance created a united front for the freedom and democracy of both peoples fighting against the ’dictatorial regimes’," reported the Madrid agency correspondent in Miami, considered to be the base of all anti-Cuban plots in the U.S.

Representatives of the "main Syrian opposition organization" and members of the so-called Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (CRA) of Miami, signed an "agreement to coordinate their efforts" and give Cuba an image of instability.

"Syria has been caught in a spiral of violence since 15 March 2011, when thousands of people took to the streets," added EFE.

"This offers an extraordinary opportunity: a united front bringing the peoples of Syria and Cuba together to fight for freedom and democracy," said Silvia Iriondo, the "president" of Mothers and Women Against Repression (MAR Por Cuba), in her interview with the EFE Miami correspondent.

Silvia Iriondo

Silvia Iriondo, whose real name is Silvia Goudie, is the daughter of a mercenary who took part in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. She is Miami where she lives off her lies and her "brainchild" M.A.R. Por Cuba, graciously funded by USAID. When Cuban 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez was kidnapped by his relatives in Miami, this lady and the members of her organization declared they would prefer to see him die rather than return him to his family in Cuba.

The State Department and its "subsidiaries" have invariably employed her in their "foreign service" to participate in their meetings against Cuba, Europe and Latin America.

In March 2004, Robert Ménard, the former secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, and Frank "Paquito" Calzon, CIA officer and director of the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC), appeared with her in public during a meeting with European MPs organized by friends of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the European Union.

Robert Ménard became famous after having replenished his "Cuban" bank accounts in Virginia with money from USAID, whereas at the CFC, Felipe Sixto, Calzon’s right-hand man, was arrested and convicted of embezzling half a million dollars.

In 2007, the International Society for Human Rights - an openly anticommunist, CIA-run organization which organized a seminar on the "Cuban Problem" at the Dresden Bank Communications Center in Frankfurt, Germany - invited and seated Silvia Iriondo on the podium next to Calzon, Pedro V. Roig (Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and responsible for the emission of Radio Martí and TV Martí, which was then under investigation for fraud), the "traitor Commander," Hubert Matos, who is linked to drug trafficking, and Angel Serrano Francisco de Fana, a member of Alpha 66(arrested in California in 1995 in possession of an arsenal of weapons slated to be deployed in a terrorist attack against Cuba).

In November 2009, Silvia Iriondo together with the head of UnoAmérica, a fascist organization ideologically akin to Operation Condor, and Alejandro Peña Esclusa, currently on trial in Caracas for terrorism, was among the group of "observers" who legitimized the general elections held under the dictatorship of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras.

On that occasion, she again rubbed elbows with Matos and other "figures" of the anti-Cuban mafia, such as the "anti-Castro" millionaire Orlando Gutierrez Boronat who is currently sharing her company at the "Cuba-Syria" fanfare.

A recipient, like Ms. Iriondo, of generous dollar injections from USAID, Gutierrez anointed himself National Secretary of the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio Democrático Cubano), and has even been accused by some of using his subsidies to travel around the world.

Hailed by EFE, a news agency founded by the Franquist grandfather of Aznar, this "agreement" is not the first attempt to "associate" Cuba with Syria, in which Ms. Iriondo has been involved.

A few weeks ago, this "activist" in the pay of the State Department participated in a briefing to Congress organized by a so-called Association of Cuban-American lawyers (CABA), centered on the theme of "The Arab Spring in Cuba," in the presence mafia legislators Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and David Rivera.

Among the signatories of the "agreement" acclaimed byEFE also appears Horacio Garcia, Council for the Freedom of Cuba (CLC) and a former director of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). It should be noted that this gentleman was publicly portrayed by Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles as one of the major "financiers" of his criminal activities.

For the "Syrian side," EFE mentions Mohamed Kawam, of the so-called Syrian Emergency Task Force, and Niman Shukairy, affiliated to United for a Free Syria - doctor and dentist respectively - who seem to have more of a taste for easy money than to exercise their profession. Two Syrian activists based in the United States, whose right-wing positions enabled them to be closely associated with the State Department propaganda and destabilization mechanisms.

Reception for the Cuban-Syrian seminar participants given by the Florida Governor Rick Scott (1 May 2012).

Jean Guy Allard

       

Cuban-Syrian Joint Declaration of Agreement

We, Cubans and Syrians, in resistance against the tyrannies which deprive us of our God-given, inalienable rights, proclaim: That human rights and dignity are universal and intrinsic to the human condition, and that all humans are created equal in obeisance to same; That in defense of these rights, the Cuban Resistance and the Syrian Revolution agree to unify our struggles in order to accelerate the hour of liberation; Therefore:
 The Cuban Resistance recognizes the Syrian Revolution as a legitimate expression of the highest aims and ideals of the Syrian people;
 The Syrian Revolution recognizes the Agreement for Democracy as a legitimate expression of the highest aims and ideals of the Cuban people;
 The Cuban Resistance joins those nations, which have recognized the Syrian Revolution as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people;
 The Syrian Revolution adopts the Vilnius Resolution of the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies in recognizing the Cuban Resistance as a legitimate representative of the Cuban people;

Therefore, with said moral authority, the Cuban Resistance and Syrian Revolution jointly agree:
 To coordinate all of our political, diplomatic, logistic and humanitarian efforts in pursuit of the liberation of Cuba and Syria;
 hence constituting a United Front for Freedom and Democracy;

Therefore, the Cuban Resistance and the Syrian Revolution jointly declare: The people want the overthrow of the dictatorial regimes of Assad and Castro.

Signed at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables this 8th day of May, 2012.

For The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance [1]: Bertha Antunez, Laida Carro Raul Garcia, Luis Gonzalez Infante, Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, Sylvia Iriondo
For the Syrian Revolution: Khaled Saleh (General Commission for the Revolution), Mohamed Kawam (Syrian Emergency Task Force — SETF), Yahia Basha (United for a free Syria — UFS), Bashar Lufti (American Syrian Public Affairs Committee —(AMSPAC), Imad Jandali (Syrian American Council — SAC), Maher Nana (Syrian Expatriates Organization —SSO— and Syrian Support Group — SSG).

[1] The ACR included Movimiento Feminista por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks, Coalición de Mujeres Cubano Americanas (Coalition of Cuban American Women), Proyecto Pro Cambio, Jóvenes Cubanos en Acción (Cuban Youth in Action), Presidio Político Histórico "Casa del Preso", Directorio Democrático Cubano (Cuban Democratic Directorate), and MAR por Cuba (Mothers Against Repression).

[ED NOTES:i had reported this on may 9th myself..anyway couldnt resist posting one of my favorite authors (Jean Guy Allard) shedding light on this..

HR Organisation As A Front To Spy On Western Countries

حيتان تتصارع ويا فرحتنا المخابرات الفلسطينية بدها تغزو المؤسسات الحقوقية في الشرق والغرب

The Arabic daily al-Quds from London published today a press release issued on May 27 by DPA, the German press agency. According to the released information, about 25 pages of documents carrying the official stamp of the intelligence service department of the Palestinian National authority were published by a number of websites. The disclosure of these documents has caused controversy among Palestinian officials and human rights activists because of its contents, which state that the Palestinian intelligence service is involved in an intelligence project aimed at the local and international human rights organizations in Western and Arab countries and around the world.

The allegations about the documents prompted the Palestinian presidency to distance themselves from the spying project and claim that they are “investigating the validity of the documents”. The Palestinian intelligence services are led by Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj.

During the last 48 hours, local news sites have discussed a document which carries the title “The Raised Palestinian Arm”. The News sites revealed that the document is an intelligence, financial and political study that aims to establish an entity controlled by the Palestinian intelligence to penetrate and coopt the work of human rights organizations operating in Western countries in favour of the intelligence service of the Palestinian Authority. This means, the targeted human rights organizations are to be used as bases for the spying activity of the PA in the interest of its paymasters and to cover up the crimes of the PA.

The document states that the project will be implemented through “dozens of offices” supposed to be opened all over the world. The offices will be funded by the PA intelligence national and foreign services of the Palestinian Authority. The document mentions the “Global Network for Rights and Development” as a front for the project.
→ Continue reading: HR Organisation As A Front To Spy On Western Countries

The price of victory is our damned nation by Greg Felton "German fascism, for example, has been stripped of historical context and made into a cartoonish stereotype with its proponents reduced to simplistic pejorative clichés. Don’t like Iran’s president? Liken him to Hitler. Want to shut down criticism of Israeli war crimes? Play the Jew-as-victim card and invoke the Holocaust®. Don’t like having to obey a strict rule? Call the enforcer a fascist." Read more... In Israel, We Do Not Trust by Joharah Baker "The bottom line is that Israel breaks its promises and deals just because it can. There is no one to hold it accountable in the ways that really matter. Condemnations mean nothing to a prisoner who had a small taste of freedom only to be snatched up again months later. Neither do they count to the Palestinian farmer whose land has been confiscated to make room for one more settlement neighborhood. The Palestinians know by now that Israel cannot be trusted. The question is, how long will it take for the world to come to that same conclusion?" Read more...

US Memorial Day: Remember Shameful Treatment Of US 99 %
By Neocon American & Zionist 1% 
By Dr Gideon Polya

On US Memorial Day we should not only remember the US war dead but also the shameful treatment of US veterans (of whom about 50,000 have suicided since 9-11), the appallingly treated American 99% (1 million of whom die preventably each year because the Neocon American and Zionist 1% spends trillions of dollars on killing Muslims abroad rather on than saving American lives at home), the 38 million Asians who have died from violence or war-imposed deprivation in the post-1950 US Asian wars, and the circa 13 million Muslims who have died from violence or war-imposed deprivation in the post-1990 US War on Muslims

[ED NOTES ...CLICK LINK FOR WHOLE ARTICLE...

• [ED NOTES:I WILL GO THRU THESE AFTER THE WORK DAY...BUSINESS FIRST FOR ME...URGE MY READERS TO START WITHOUT ME..THIS IS WHERE THE DOLLARS ARE GOING,TO COUNTER THE REAL REVOLUTIONS IN ISLAMIC WORLD,AND WHERE THEY ARE ALSO GOING TO FUND THE FAKE REVOLUTIONS IN ISLAMIC WORLD(MENA REGIONS) AS WELL...
• 
  
• Legislation - The Senate Appropriations Committee Passed the FY13 State and Foreign Operations Bill

• Committee Hearings - The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations held a markup hearing of the FY13 funding bill

• From Washington - U.S. Pledges Additional Financial Support for Tunisia Transition

Pentagon Consolidates Control Over Balkans
Rick Rozoff, Stop NATO, May 30 2012

Ahead of, during and after the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20-21, the Pentagon has continued expanding its permanent military presence in the former Yugoslavia and the rest of the Balkan region. The military bloc’s two-day conclave in Chicago formalized, among several other initiatives including the initial activation of its U.S.-dominated interceptor missile system and Global Hawk-equipped Alliance Ground Surveillance operations, a new category of what NATO calls aspirant countries next in line for full Alliance membership. Three of them are former Yugoslav federal republics (Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro) and the fourth is Georgia, conflicts involving which could be the most immediate cause of a confrontation between the world’s two major nuclear powers. This year new NATO partnership formats have sprung up like poisonous toadstools after a summer rain: Aspirant countries, the Partnership Cooperation Menu, the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme, the Connected Forces Initiative and partners across the globe among them.

The military bloc’s inauguration as an active, aggressive military force in Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s laid the groundwork for the US’s already unmatched military to move troops, hardware and bases into Southeast Europe for actions there and to points east and south: The Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa and Central and South Asia. Since 2004 several nations in the east and west Balkans (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Albania) have been incorporated into the alliance as full members and the remainder (Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the generally unrecognized Republic of Kosovo) have in the first four instances joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and in the last had its nascent armed forces, the Kosovo Security Force, built from scratch by the leading alliance powers. Macedonia, which would have become a full member in 2009 except for the lingering name dispute with Greece, and Montenegro have been granted the Membership Action Plan, the final stage before full accession, and Bosnia will be accorded the same once the quasi-autonomous Republika Srpska is deemed properly stripped of the last vestige of self-governance.

NATO and the wars waged under its command, not only in the Balkans but in Afghanistan and all but officially in Iraq, have provided the Pentagon the mammoth Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and three major air bases in Bulgaria and Romania as well as headquarters for new military task forces and jumping-off points for “downrange” operations outside Europe. The US Dept of Defense has also acquired subservient legionaries for wars in Asia and Africa and training grounds for US and multinational expeditionary units employed in 21st century neo-colonial wars far beyond the Euro-Atlantic area. Romania will host 24 US SM-3 interceptors starting in three years. NATO’s Cooperative Longbow and Cooperative Lancer 2012 command and field exercises started in Macedonia on the second day of the Chicago NATO summit, May 21, and ended on May 29. The largest of four such exercises held within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program “to train, exercise, and promote the inter-operability of Partnership for Peace forces using NATO standards” to date, this year’s Longbow/Lancer drills included 2,200 troops from several NATO and a dozen Partnership for Peace nations, a total of 25 countries including the US. On May 26 US Army Europe and USAF Europe launched the Immediate Response 2012 exercise in Croatia with military personnel from the host country, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Slovenia. Macedonia and Serbia sent observers. A report on the opening of the exercise posted on the EUCOM website appended this paragraph:

US Army Europe is uniquely positioned to advance US strategic interests across Eurasia, building teams, assuring allies and deterring enemies. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for US actions such as in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

Balkan states Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia deployed troops to Iraq after 2003 and all those nations as well as Montenegro (which became independent in 2006) have troops under NATO command in Afghanistan currently. NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples has military missions in Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia. On May 28, the US began a two-week disaster management and crisis response exercise, Shared Resilience 2012, in Bosnia. In addition to the US and Bosnia, participating nations include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Slovenia. Immediately before the NATO summit, the US Marines Corps’ Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 held multinational exercises near Constanta, Romania, from May 7-18. The Black Sea Rotational Force was established in 2010 and last year doubled the duration of its training exercises in the Balkans, the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus from three to six months annually. Now spending half the year in the geopolitically vital area, the Black Sea Rotational Force recently announced its mission of building “enduring partnerships with 19 nations throughout Eastern Europe.” The US Marines are being hosted by Romania from Apr 2 to Sep 1. Prior to that, Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 participated in the Agile Spirit 2012 exercise in Georgia in March.

US Army Europe’s Task Force East, employing Stryker combat vehicles, also operates out of Romania as well as Bulgaria: The Mihal Kogălniceanu Airfield and the Babadag Training Area in the first country and the Novo Selo Training Area in the second. In 2009, Task Force East spent three months training in Romania and Bulgaria, primarily preparing troops from the US and the two host nations for operations in Afghanistan. This year NATO officially identified Afghanistan and Iraq as military partners, in the category of partners across the globe. Since the end of NATO operations against Libya last October, Sec-Gen Rasmussen and US ambassador Daalder have mentioned Libya joining NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue military partnership with the other nations of North Africa. Each NATO military operation over the past 17 years, in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya, has provided the alliance with bases, centers, troops and logistics for later and for future wars. Air bases in Bulgaria and Romania were employed for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and, as noted above, every Balkan nation but Serbia has supplied troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon and NATO military personnel, aircraft, ships and radar in Southeast Europe can be used in attacks on Syria and Iran and in any new armed conflict in the South Caucasus, such as the five-day war between Georgia and Russia four years ago. The US and its NATO allies are expanding their military presence and infrastructure ever closer to new theaters of war.

Europe replaces US as cheerleader for military expansion
Dmitry Babich, Voice of Russia, May 30 2012

Europeans seem to have placed themselves at the steering wheel of the international campaign against Syria, showing more and more signs of a belligerent attitude and penchant for military solutions. This new behavior pattern, previously associated with USAians, took hold of the French and British leaders in the last few days. A rather unexpected turn for the previously peaceful nations. Examples? First, West European leaders unanimously agreed to the deployment of the US-made “missile shield” in Central and Eastern Europe (in the 1980s, France strongly objected to the “star wars” program of president Ronald Reagan, and its neighbors had at least some reservations about it). Second, Paris and London became the most vocal supporters of “punishing” the Syrian president Bashar Assad for the slaughter of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla, for which they put the blame squarely on the Syrian government. Numerous newspaper reports make the previously missing connection between the anti-missile shield and the newly pro-active stand of West European nations in the Middle East. A French scholar, Bruno Tertrais, senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research, explains that Europe will need its portion of the anti-missile shield in order to be able to intervene militarily in the Middle East with total impunity. Tertrais writes in Le Figaro:

There is no more talk about diverting a massive Soviet nuclear attack. Our objective is to prevent the countries of the Middle East from being in a position to make a strike against the territory of NATO alliance. If Middle Eastern nations had such a capability, it could make Western leaders hesitate if faced with a need to defend our interests in the region or to intervene there in the framework of an international mandate.

No other attitude could be more clear and more dangerous. So, besides the Russian nuclear potential (still a problem in the eyes of the US, since it is the only deterrent to their global ambitions), USAians and Europeans also plan to render defenseless those countries in the Middle East which dare disagree with the Western policies. Vladimir Baranovsky, a professor of international studies at Moscow-based MGIMO University, said while speaking to a conference on European security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations:

What is interesting is the fact that the perspective of a new missile shield did not move West European nations even an inch closer to abandoning their nuclear deterrents. Yes, these countries’ combined nuclear potential amounts to just 2.5% of the combined nuclear capability of the world’s nuclear powers. But the submarine-based nuclear missiles of, say, Great Britain are highly mobile and capable of a strike against an enemy in any part of the globe. And the West European governments stick to the policy of “deliberate ambiguity” on nuclear issues, not bothering to explain which actions of a potential aggressor could prompt their nuclear response.

The recent events in Syria, as well as a military campaign against Libya a year ago, have demonstrated how easy it is for a not very big nation to fall out of favor with the EU’s “grand” members. The massacre in Houla was immediately squarely blamed on the Syrian government. Anyone having a hint of doubt in the “pan-European” version of events is immediately ostracized. It became a rule despite obvious discrepancies in Western press reports from Houla, which first blamed the massacre on the government’s heavy arms, such as tanks and artillery, and later switched to “knives and bullets” purportedly used against children by a pro-government militia Shabiha. According to the NYT, the killers were nonchalant enough to yell “Shabiha with you, Assad” during the murders. A rather strange conduct, to say the least, but enthusiastically accepted by the European public opinion. Nadya Arbatova, the head of the policy research center at Moscow-based IMEMO, reflects:

I can’t see the reason for such a lack of desire to check facts. I would remind you that many European leaders, including former French president Nicolas Sarcozy, received Assad in their capitals, as well as the now dead and silent Ghaddafi. One can’t escape having a feeling that someone is covering up something using indignation over uninvestigated killings as an excuse.

In his article, Bruno Tertrais notes that “common engagement” of European powers in the missile defense shield, for which they are supposed to make a contribution of $200m, does not render Europe’s own nuclear deterrence obsolete or unneeded. In Vladimir Baranovsky’s view, the desire to maintain a nuclear “stick” while also getting an impeccable anti-missile “shield” sets a very bad example for potential proliferators of nuclear arms, including the Middle Eastern countries. Strong nuclear capability plus total impunity indeed makes up a rather dangerous combination for any country.

International Bureau of Double Standards—The CNN/Iran File

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This video by Anthony Lawson looks at a CNN documentary (April, 2012 with repeats) about the Iran nuclear issue, and examines the role of the mainstream media in keeping the public uninformed about the real problem-nation in the Middle East: Nuclear-armed, Apartheid Israel.

VIDEO!!!SYRIA , Bab sbaa 29-5-2012 - Radical Terrorist Extremists killed!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPfSmGCVcOc

BLACK AGENDA REPORT - Cleaning Up Obama’s “Dark Side”

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Obama’s handlers, with the able assistance of the New York Times, paint a presidential portrait that “reconciles the old, imagined Obama with Dick Cheney’s ‘dark side.’” The president routinely violates international law and subverts the U.S. Constitution but, we are told, he does so with a keen sense of moral obligation. His millions of victims should be pleased.

[ED NOTES:CLICK LINK ABOVE FOR WHOLE ARTICLE...

Venezuela Warns of Threats Against Syrian Sovereingty

http://hamsayeh.net/world/1859-venezuela-warns-of-threats-against-syrian-sovereingty.html
Prensa Latina) - Deputy Foreign Minister Reinaldo Bolívar said today that actions taken by some countries on Syria contribute to mount a scene to discredit the government of Bashar Al Assad and to attack the Arab country´s sovereignty.

In remarks to Radio Nacional de Venezuela, Bolivar referred to the Syrian situation, particularly the diplomatic pressure that some nations around the world started to put on Syria by expelling its diplomatic staff.

He mentioned in this regard Spain, France, Canada, Italy, Britain, Australia and Germany, who hold the Syrian Army and groups supporting the government responsible for violent incidents occurred on Friday night in the rural town of Houla, in Homs province.

By adopting these decisions and demanding intervention without any prior investigation into the events, they are contributing to mount a scene to discredit the government of Bachar Al Assad and to attack the Arab country´s sovereignty, said Bolivar.

He noted that this stand contrasts with that assumed by countries like Russia, China, and Syria itself, which are demanding a thorough investigation into the events to establish the real perpetrators of the massacre.

"Obviously, foreign forces are arming the sectors that oppose the government to trigger chaos and anxiety in the population and speed up Bachar Al Assad´s overthrow," he concluded.

US Media Soldier and Propagandist: Charlie Custer’s Attacks on Yang Rui Funded by The Soros-Qatar Cabal

Custer’s Last Stand

Bloggers have described Beijing’s media brawl between CCTV Dialogue anchor Yang Rui and Charlie Custer, editor of ChinaGeeks, as a “flame war” between two hot-headed individuals.

Thecontroversy is hardly a personal matter when taking into account the agenda and insider connections of Custer’s employer and paymaster, Link Media/Link TV. Ample evidence and the back story, in fact, reveal Link Media Inc. connections with intelligence services.

Whatever prompted “Custer’s last stand”, his personal record does not indicate that he’s a shagadelic spy like Austin Powers, but just that he’s a “useful idiot” for media higher-ups who need suicide bloggers to make exploding noises to impress their government funders.

Charlie’s an English teacher from Harbin (according to Yang Rui’s blog) and, looking over the past two week’s unsightly mess, Custer has failed to become the next Jared Cohen, the State Department’s online brat who fomented the Jasmine Revolution.

Custer, the news commentator under a woollen cap, is listed as a regular contributing expert to LinkAsia, which produces a news program on DirecTV satellite in the United States. His reports for LinkAsia half-hour news program include:

- “Killings Expose China’s Hatred of the Wealthy”

- “Press Controls Tighten Over Beijing News (and) Times”

- “Fired Up Over China’s Limits on Fun TV”

- “China Faces Real Name Use on Sina Weibo”

- “The Saga of Wang Lijun”

- “Sina Silences Rumors While Angry Artist Speaks Out”

- “Rumors Abound on Chinese Internet”

- “Beijing Gears Up for an Atheist Christmas”

The last-cited story is a bit puzzling as a critique of China, since Macy’s also celebrates and cashes in on atheist Christmas shopping binges. As for hatred of the wealthy in China, was it not Deng Xiaoping who said: “To get rich is glorious”? Tragic end to Fun TV? “Supergirl” should have quit when it was ahead, instead of reeking of rigor mortis like “American Idol”.

Whatever the merits of his negative reporting, in his eyes there’s not a lot of good news emanating from one of the world’s cleanest capitals located in the world’s fastest-rising economy, when a cup of coffee is affordable to just about anyone and where poverty is diminishing, as opposed to cities like Athens, London, Sendai and Detroit.

Here again, as with Melissa Chan, balance didn’t have to be tossed out the window since it was never there in the first place.

If Beijing is really such a repressive and miserable hellhole, Ms Chan should be thankful to be in “free” Doha, which has the world’s highest per-capita income, surplus funds to donate weapons to Syrian rebels, peacefully governed under sharia law, and where not even a National People’s Congress exists to disturb an absolute monarchy.

Collect the dole and shut up – Qatar’s not a bad deal compared with China, where people actually have to work for pay – with the only hitch being you have to a Qatari citizen or an Al Jazeera staffer to qualify.

Al Jazeera feed and Soros cash

Notably, Link TV is the carrier for Al Jazeera channel in the U.S. The placement fees from Al Jazeera and ads from its fleet of royalty-owned corporations like Qatar Air, Qatar gas and Qatar Foundation contribute to Link Media’s $8.56 million in annual revenues.

Could the cash from the Gulf State be influencing Link TV’s editorial policy? A quick look at Link’s programming schedule reveals a gusto for the Arab Spring, which was jointly sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Emirate of Qatar. (Non-Arabic speakers should note: The definition of an “emir” is “military commander of the jihad.”)

Link Media Inc., which is registered in San Francisco as a not-for-profit organization, receives grants from:

- Open Society Institute (OSI), funded by billionaire George Soros

- Luce Foundation, a Republican Party dominated group that funds conservative causes (The late Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life, was an ardent supporter of  the Chiang Kai-shek regime in Taiwan, who funded the infamous “China Lobby” that promoted the “Two-China policy” and also backed repressive dictatorships in South Korea and South Vietnam.)

- Parsa Community Foundation, created by Iranian exiles, many of them supporters of the Shah

- Attar Supporting Organization, which promotes Muslim causes in the Caucasus

- other of its supporting foundations have reputedly served as conduits for funding from the CIA.

The Link operations are headed by its president Kim Spencer, who earlier co-founded Internews Network. Another co-founder of Internews is his wife, Evelyn Messinger, head of Internews Interactive who also served as the first Electronic Media Director for the Soros Foundation.

LinkAsia contributors besides Custer include: David Bandurski, head of the China Media Project at University of Hong Kong whose programs have received Soros funding; Pakistani Wajahat Khan, Shorenstein fellow at Kennedy School of Government; Cindy Sui, with BBC, AFP, SCMP and Central News Agency (Taiwan); and one of its advisers is Minky Worden, a program director with Human Right Watch.

Media Soldiers and Propagandists

A brief look at the background of Spencer and Messinger during their years at Internews offers insights into media operations on behalf of Western intelligence agencies. The statements in quotes are from its own publicity materials.

In 1994 “Internews launches the three-year Media Development Program to support the institutional and economic development of print and broadcast media in Russia. MDP grants support the first legal resource center for media in Russia.”

“With Sarajevo under siege by the Yugoslav National Army, Internews and the Soros Foundation  run the Balkan Media Network, an early version of an electronic bulletin board and email system that connects 250 independent media organizations as well as ordinary citizens in the former Yugoslavia with the rest of the world.”

In August 2000 “The American Iranian Council and Internews sponsor a historic reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where members of the Iranian parliament meet with Members of the US Congress for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.”

In December 2004 “Independent media help lay the groundwork for Ukraine’ Orange Revolution, one of several ‘color revolutions’ in the region, including Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution.”

“Internews has developed special programs for training journalists how to report on conflict (Reporting for Peace ['a special training program for journalists who work in regions of conflict']). Meanwhile, Internews has expanded its activities into Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”

Its hefty budget for media-prompted subversion came from  the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) under the USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as well as intelligence-related branches of NATO members France, Germany, Canada, Britain and Greece.

Wired Magazine noted in 1995: “The organization’s peculiar funding cycle follows a flow chart that might raise a few eyebrows among current American non-profits toiling hard for a few tax dollars.

Although born and bred a nonprofit, Internews funds for-profit TV enterprises half a world away, thanks to multimillion-dollar contracts from the Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively the US government’s foreign aid bank.

Along with this generous funding comes grants from more than a dozen foundations, including one handsomely endowed by financier-philanthropist George Soros.

Over the last few years, no other nonprofit, developing, post-Soviet media organization has garnered more American aid dollars than Internews.”

Democracy for hire, or subversion for corporate takeovers of foreign assets? For those who are curious about why the White House and George Soros are allied with jihadist Qatar the answer is: control over energy and banking of petrodollars.

Four-Letter Expletives

Aside from the spooky side of media, let’s discuss rhetorical style for a minute. The cast of operatives from Soros and the shadowy arms of the State Department need to improve its presentation, especially during heated debates.

The outrage expressed in reaction to anti-foreign comments was cheap melodrama. Crying like an injury faker in a football match does not win sympathy in the media arena; it only proves that you’re a boy not a man.

As a journalist friend said about the tweet barrage against Yang Rui “They can dish out abuse, but they can’t take it.” The terms used by Custer’s friends over blogs and tweets frequently included expletives describing the male sex organ and excrement; while one particularly hate-filled tweet advocated the strategic placement of a fist.

These vulgar remarks only reflect the mindset of teenage hoodlums or prison guards in Guantanamo. My advice to overgrown adolescents who lack a basic sense of decency: Keep your fisting to yourself.

One parting shot: Charlie Custer did everyone a service by speaking his mind, though he should have done it with more tact, considering the image of what’s been called (by Americans) The Ugly American abroad.

Should his work visa be revoked? That’s up to the Chinese bureau that enforces press standards for foreign journalists and also the applicant Link TV, which is not in a great position right now to defend press privileges.

Should he be allowed to stay on a tourist visa?

What he’s done may constitute a failing in press standards, but Custer hasn’t committed a crime to be denied visitor entry, at least not one that I know of.

Then again, does he really want to stay in Beijing?

Like Melissa Chan, he seems to love life in the capital, but why then did he never have anything good to say about the place? It’s up to him, since he’s lucky enough to be free to explain himself to officials and choose what to do, compared to billions of poor people who can never afford the price of an air ticket.

Yoichi Shimatsu is former editor of the Japan Times Weekly and an occasional guest speaker on the Dialogue program.