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The Freedom to speak honestly and from your heart is being eradicated. Truth is being skewed and creating a reality that none recognize. Criminals freed reek havoc. Law and order, the thin line between chaos and order are all on the chopping block. Your way of life is changing and not for the better. It takes ONE generation to flip any civilized society by indoctrinating your children and removing your connection to God. WHAT are you going to do about it! Spread the word.

Is NYC 'Fat-Shaming' Students? Third-Grader Told She Is Overweight In Letter : News : Headlines & Global News

Is NYC ‘Fat-Shaming’ Students? Third-Grader Told She Is Overweight In Letter
By Oulimata Ba | May 23, 2014 01:05 PM EDT
Gwendolyn Williams
Gwendolyn Williams, a third-grader at P.S. 29, was sent home with a letter that classified her Body Mass Index as “overweight.” (Photo : Twitter)
A New York City third-grader was sent home from school with a note declaring she is “overweight,” the New York Post reported.
At 66 pounds, 9-year-old Gwendolyn Williams is unhealthy according to the weight range the city’s Department of Education follows to classify girls her age. Titled “Fitnessgrams,” the letter said because Williams’ Body Mass Index is 19, she falls “outside of a healthy weight,” according to the letter obtained by the NY Post.
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“I’m 4-foot-1, and 66 pounds, and I’m like what?!” the P.S. 29 student told the newspaper after she received the letter.
“I just don’t think that it’s fair to be called overweight when you’re not really overweight,” the Staten Island girl said.
All students in the city’s public school system received the Fitnessgram, which carry the results of their weight and height that was measured last November.
Williams’ mother complained to the school’s principle about the letter, who told her that students were not supposed to open them.
“My response is, they’re kids. How can you believe they’re not going to open it?” Laura Bruij Williams told the NY Post.
The DOE supported the Fitnessgrams, saying they are “just one indicator…which helps students develop personal goals for lifelong health,” a spokeswoman told the newspaper.
But experts say the BMI reports can inflict damage to a child’s self-esteem.
Chevese Turner, from the Binge Eating Disorder Association, told the NY Post that BMI was created years ago by insurance companies that wanted to rate people’s health in groups instead of individually.
“Dieting, especially for kids, is the gateway drug for eating disorders, and so is the public shaming that can come with this,” Turner said referring to the Fitnessgrams.
“My organization and others believe that BMI report cars have no place coming from schools and can be more harmful than helpful,” Turner said.
In the meantime Gwendolyn, who likes to ride the scooter and plays softball, is not taking the Fitnessgram seriously.
“I know that I’m not overweight, so why should I believe the New York Department of Education?” she told the newspaper.
via Is NYC ‘Fat-Shaming’ Students? Third-Grader Told She Is Overweight In Letter : News : Headlines & Global News.

CAN YOU SAY SELLOUT?! – Activist Post: U2, Bono? Celeb partners with Monsanto, G8, to biowreck African farms with GMOs

Activist Post: U2, Bono? Celeb partners with Monsanto, G8, to biowreck African farms with GMOsTuesday, May 29, 2012

U2, Bono? Celeb partners with Monsanto, G8, to biowreck African farms with GMOs

Rady Ananda
Activist Post
At the G8 Summit held two weeks ago at Camp David, President Obama met with private industry and African heads of state to launch the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a euphemism for monocultured, genetically modified crops and toxic agrochemicals aimed at making poor farmers debt slaves to corporations, while destroying the ecosphere for profit.
And Bono, of the rock group U2, is out shilling for Monsanto on this one.
It’s phase 2 of the Green Revolution. Tanzania, Ghana, and Ethiopia are the first to fall for the deception, with Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and other African nations lining up for the “Grow Africa Partnership,” under Obama’s “Global Agricultural Development” plan.
In Obama Pitches India Model of GM Genocide to Africa, Scott Creighton writes:

But African civil society wants no part of this latest Monsanto aligned ‘public private partnership.’ Whatever will the progressives do now that their flawless hero has teamed up with their most hated nemesis to exploit an entire continent like they did to India not that long ago?
With a commitment of $3 billion, Obama plans to ‘partner up’ with mega-multinationals like Monsanto, Diageo, Dupont, Cargill, Vodafone, Walmart, Pepsico, Prudential, Syngenta International, and Swiss Re because, as one USAID representative says ‘There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers.’

Of course, that’s an outrageous lie. Private citizens have been building their own silos for centuries. But it’s true that only the biowreck engineers will foist patented seeds and toxic chemicals on Africa.
Creighton continues:

Bono says that there has to be a ‘public private partnership’ in order to get this done and that they are going to be using the ideas of the African people and farmers. Really? This is what the African farmers say to that…

We request that: – governments, FAO, the G8, the World Bank and the GAFSP reconsider their promotion of Public/Private Partnerships which, as they are now conceived, are not suitable instruments to support the family farms which are the very basis of African food security and sovereignty.’ African Civil Society Organizations

I wonder if that could be any clearer. They don’t WANT the public private partnerships involved in this process…. It’s not enough that huge mega-corporations are bleeding the nations of Africa dry by sucking the valuable mineral resources out of their hills. No. As Bono says about the development in Africa:

‘They’re future consumers for the United States. The president is talkingbusiness. This is good. It’s a whole new development paradigm today. The old donor/recipient relationship… it’s over.’

Volatility chimed in:

The history of corporate agriculture and its ‘Green Revolution’ is a perfect example of the unfulfilled promises, and therefore proven lies, of corporatism. What was the Green Revolution? With a huge one-off injection of fossil fuels, and building upon ten thousand years of agronomy, corporate agriculture temporarily increased yields within the monoculture framework.

But, in the Green Revolution, writes Volatility:

Non GMO Heirloom Seed Bank

The soil is stripped of all nutrition and zombified by ever-increasing applications of synthetic fertilizer. Monoculture is ever more dependent on the increasing application of ever more toxic herbicides and pesticides. Deployment of GMOs escalates these vulnerabilities. Factory farms can exist only with ever increasing use of antibiotics. All these systems are extremely tenuous, vulnerable, not robust, not resilient. They’re all guaranteed to collapse. Hermetic monoculture, and industrial agriculture as such, is one big hothouse flower which requires perfect conditions to survive….

[T]he Green Revolution was a scam to use cheap fossil fuels to increase monocrop yield, drive tens of millions off the land, and use the stolen land and food to render food temporarily artificially cheap for Western consumerism.

Like with Monsanto’s Bt cotton deployed in India, at first yields improved and farmers profited. Now, however, according to a leaked Advisory from the Minister of Agriculture obtained by the Hindustan Times last month:

Cotton farmers are in a deep crisis since shifting to Bt cotton…. In fact cost of cotton cultivation has jumped…due to rising costs of pesticides. Total Bt cotton production in the last five years has reduced.

The Advisory definitively links farmer suicides to debt-enslavement enabled by the synthetic food model spawned by Monsanto, Dupont and other ecocidal corporations: “The spate of farmer suicides in 2011-12 has been particularly severe among Bt cotton farmers.”
That’s not all the harm wrought by the petrochemical synthetic ag industry, as this 2012 superweed map by the University of Wisconsin shows:

Over half of US states are now plagued by agrochemically-induced superweeds.  An industry sponsored study of pesticide use predicts that by 2016, nearly a billion pounds of these toxic chemicals will be poured on US soils.
Insects have also developed resistance. As reported last August, “The Western rootworm beetle – one of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.”
In March, two dozen corn entomologists warned regulators that the only way to defeat growing insect resistance to genetically modified corn is to plant non-GMO seed. “Increasing pesticide use or buffer zone size will not solve the growing problem of rootworm resistance to corn genetically modified.”
But if that doesn’t deter African farmers, these petrochemicals have also been linked to human birth defects. Where “Roundup Ready soy is being cultivated on a massive scale,” reports Dr. Mercola, “widespread reports exist of immediate illness defects from massive glyphosate spraying operations.”
In fact, “Monsanto, Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco giants knowingly poisoned Argentinean tobacco farmers with pesticides,” reports Courthouse News Service, “causing ‘devastating birth defects’ in their children, dozens of workers claim in court.”
The Bt toxin used to engineer cotton and corn also kills human kidney cells, reports Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji, and the drift from aerial application of Roundup prompted the Mississippi Rice Council to sound a national alarm over genetic damage to natural rice, calling for severely restricted aerial application.
Newly emergent pathogens have appeared, reports Dr. Don M. Huber, a plant pathologist who coordinates the Emergent Diseases and Pathogens committee of the American Phytopathological Society, as part of the USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System. Last year, his team discovered a “self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-sized organism which may be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy, and wilt in Monsanto’s RR corn.”
Huber’s warning to the USDA to halt GM crop approvals, and specifically, genetically modified alfalfa, was not only ignored, but two months ago, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack hastened the approval process for genetically engineered crops.
“The new rules will cut the time needed to approve biotech crops in half,” reports Dr. Mercola, “from an average of three years, to about 13 months for new versions of already existing crop technologies, and about 16 months for brand new technologies.”
Obama’s Global Agricultural Development plan conspires with multinational corporations to foist these ecological and human health costs onto the public while siphoning the profits. As Creighton says, “Socialized costs, privatized profits. All in the name doing good and saving the people of Africa.”
Let’s hope these “public/private partnerships” are met with firm resistance by African farmers, as supported by this Declaration from a group of African civil society organizations.  The last thing Planet Earth and all its organisms need is more toxic industrial chemicals.
cc Creative Commons. This work may be reproduced in whole or in part as long as the original URL and author name are included.
You can help support this information by voting on Reddit HERE.
Rady Ananda is an investigative reporter and researcher in the areas of health, environment, politics, and civil liberties.  Her two websites, Food Freedom and COTO Report are essential reading.
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Every American should be OUTRAGED that the leaders of their nation are bombing, and murdering innocent, unarmed and dissenting civilians.  PAY ATTENTION AMERICA – YOU'RE NEXT!!!!! : NEIL KEENAN UPDATE | Cabal Payback For Donetsk Referendum With Unarmed Urban Civilian Slaughter | Neil Keenan – Group K, Ltd.

 
NEIL KEENAN UPDATE | Cabal Payback For Donetsk Referendum With Unarmed Urban Civilian Slaughter | Neil Keenan – Group K, Ltd..

By THE KEENAN TEAM

With original and exclusive footage from sources inside Donetsk (see below) Neil is angry and cannot for the life of him understand how no one is stepping up to put a halt to the unarmed civilian slaughter in Donetsk.  This is cabal payback for the good citizens of Donetsk having the courage to take a stand for their right to self-determination.

Everybody sleeps while Donetsk burns.  Where is Putin?  Why haven’t the American people reigned in their dark empire?  Their ignorance and apathy will come with a price.  We have responsibility for what we allow our leaders to foist on the rest of the planet.  It is our responsibility to reign in these crusading sociopaths.

For Christ’s sake, somebody send in defensive weapons so that the courageous Donetsk people can defend themselves!  It will come to our door next if wecontinue to let these murderers have their way with the world.

Video 1 of 7

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNLrxxA8XKU?feature=oembed]

Video 2 of 7 (exclusive video of cabal Apache flyby over Donetsk)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-3epDdL2wQ?feature=oembed]

Video 3 of 7 (exclusive video of cabal military coercion against Donetsk civilians)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq2xU8hi9HA?feature=oembed]

Video 4 of 7 (exclusive video of cabal fighter bomber unloading payload on unarmed Donetsk civilians)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dieByyiHU?feature=oembed]

Video 5 of 7 (exclusive video of cabal “flying crane” type helicopter unloading payload on unarmed Donetsk civilians)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY7rev5o9p8?feature=oembed]

Video 6 of 7 (exclusive video of Donetsk residential burning – the ovens are now your home)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP_wZ69gE84?feature=oembed]

Video 7 of 7 (exclusive video of Donetsk commercial buildings burning – any civilian survivors of cabal puppet government military attack on the unarmed and undefended?)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-8e7fU1qg?feature=oembed]

Copyright © 2014, GROUP K, Ltd.

NEW SCANDAL! EPA Now Faces Probe Over Targeting of Conservative Groups… (SHTF!) | RedFlagNews.com

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It’s not just the IRS. A second federal agency is facing a probe and accusations of political bias over its alleged targeting of conservative groups. The allegations concern the Environmental Protection Agency, which is being accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests — allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones. The allegations are under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is also holding hearings on the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups. “I don’t think it is fair at all. It is not fair to the American taxpayer — the American taxpayer should expect and demand that the EPA treats everyone equally in regard to these requests,” said Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “This cannot be tolerated. As we see more federal agencies with this kind of bias, it is and should be a concern for all of us.” Research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, claims that the political bias is routine when it comes to deciding which groups are charged fees. Christopher Horner, senior fellow at CEI, said liberal groups have their fees for documents waived about 90 percent of the time, in contrast with conservative groups that it claims are denied fee waivers about 90 percent of the time. “The idea is to throw hurdles in our way,” charged Horner, who says he decided to look into the fee structure after the EPA repeatedly turned down his group for waivers. “In 20 cases of ours, since the beginning of last year, we were expressly denied, or denied by them simply refusing to respond, in 18 out of 20 cases,” said Horner, explaining that the batting percentage for fees waived in favor of liberal groups is overwhelming. “Earth Justice was batting 17 out of 19, the Sierra Club was the worst, at 70 percent granted, 11 out of 15. You add up some other groups and we found that 75 out of 82 groups granted, because these are the groups that the EPA has decided are the favored groups.” Read more via Fox News…
http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/breaking-epa-also-faces-probe-over-targeting-of-conservative-groups

Docs: Pregnant Women Should Take Iodine Supplement

Pregnant Women Should Take Iodine Supplement: Docs

Monday, 26 May 2014 10:35 AM
Docs: Pregnant Women Should Take Iodine Supplement
Pregnant women should take an iodine supplement to protect the brain development of their babies, according to the leading U.S. group of pediatricians.
Iodine, which the body can get from iodide, is needed to make the thyroid hormones that are required for children’s brain development before and after birth.
“Women who are childbearing age need to pay attention to this topic as well, because about half of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned,” Dr. Jerome Paulson said.
“Women in the early part of the pregnancy may not realize they’re pregnant.”
Paulson is the chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health, which authored the policy statement. He is also a pediatrician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The recommendations were published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
People typically get the iodine they need from table salt, which in the U.S. is fortified with iodide. Eating processed foods exposes Americans to salt that is not iodized, however.
The Council writes that past research has suggested about one-third of pregnant women in the U.S. are marginally iodine deficient. Also, only about 15 percent of women take a supplement containing an adequate amount of iodide.
The American Thyroid Association and the National Academy of Sciences suggest pregnant and breastfeeding women get 290 micrograms of iodide per day.
Women may need to take a supplement with 150 micrograms of iodide to reach that recommended level, but most prenatal and lactation vitamins contain less, according to the Council.
“Breastfeeding mothers should take a supplement that includes at least 150 micrograms of iodide and use iodized table salt,” the Council writes.
Additionally, the Council says women may need to be tested for iodine deficiency if they are vegan or don’t eat fish.
“Obviously iodine is critical to the fetal and child brain,” Dr. Loralei Thornburg said. “Therefore having a diet that’s rich in iodine is critical.”
Thornburg was not involved in making the new recommendation. She is a high-risk pregnancy expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.
“Although many women are largely iodine deficient, most women do get iodine in the (form) of food,” she told Reuters Health. “This isn’t something women should freak out about just yet.”
Thornburg said the ideal amount of iodide supplementation depends on how much of the compound women already get from their diets.
The Council says a pregnant or lactating woman’s combined iodide intake should be between 290 and 1100 micrograms per day. Specifically, it should be in the form of potassium iodide.
“This is something that’s fairly routine,” Paulson said. “I think what we’re saying is people need to pay attention to the details of what they’re doing, but not radically change their behavior.”
The authors also suggest pregnant or lactating women avoid nitrate, found in contaminated well water, and thiocyanate, which is usually found in cigarette smoke and certain vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. The two chemicals can disrupt the ability of iodine to be processed into hormones. However, women rarely eat enough of the vegetables for thiocyanate levels from those sources to be concerning, they note.
Finally, the Council recommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proceed with appropriate regulation of perchlorate in waterways. Perchlorate, which is a chemical used in rocket fuels and explosives, can disrupt the body’s use of iodine to make thyroid hormones.
“I think people can have some control over their exposure to tobacco smoke, but they may not even be aware of the perchlorate or other chemicals in the water,” Paulson said.
The Council also writes that there is some inconsistency between the iodide on the label of supplements and their actual content. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should “do what is necessary to allow consumers to identify and use iodide supplements with confidence” if the industry’s actions are insufficient, it adds.
© 2014 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/iodine-pregnancy-supplement/2014/05/26/id/573346#ixzz32rFjIrRA
Alert: What Is Your Risk for a Heart Attack? Find Out Now

Memorial Day Message to Veterans: Government Considers You the Enemy

MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE TO VETERANS: GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS YOU THE ENEMY
Veterans are props to be rolled out on Memorial Day as homage is paid to the state and its endless wars

Memorial Day Message to Veterans
Memorial Day Message to Veterans: Government Considers You the Enemy
by KURT NIMMO | INFOWARS.COM | MAY 26, 2014


Earlier today, Obama appeared at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery for a photo op. From The Washington Post:

Obama, aided by a soldier in uniform, rested the large wreath on a stand a few minutes after 11 a.m. Monday. The president adjusted the wreath, stepped back and bowed his head in silence for a few moments. Afterward, an Army bugler played taps.

Later he appeared at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater to read from a script. “We’re in a pivotal moment. Our troops are coming home. By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to an end,” he recited.
“These Americans have done their duty. They ask nothing more than that our country does ours, for now and the decades to come,” Obama said.
But, as the VA scandal and countless other examples reveal, the government considers veterans as little more than third class citizens, props to be rolled out on Memorial Day as homage is ritually paid to the state and its endless wars.
The booboisie, as H. L. Mencken described the forever gullible and easily bamboozled American public, were practically knocking down the gates to get in to witness this annual worship of state violence:

Before the ceremony, a large number of people were turned away from the cemetery’s entrances by security personnel who said that the event was at capacity.

When the government is not praising veterans for their “service” in foreign wars of conquest and other illegal activity driven primarily by the financial elite – see Smedley Butler, below – it spends a lot of time demonizing veterans as enemies of the state:
rwesterem
 

Study: Over 60% of US drone targets in Pakistan are homes

Over 60% of US drone targets in Pakistan are homes – research

Published time: May 25, 2014 11:19
Edited time: May 26, 2014 08:30
Pakistan Houses Drone Targets
Northrop Grumman / Bob Brown / Handout via Reuters
Northrop Grumman / Bob Brown / Handout via Reuters
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Conflict, Drones, Human rights, Military,Pakistan, Politics, USA, Violence
The CIA has been bombing Pakistan’s domestic buildings more than any other targets over the past decade of the drone war launched by the US, says the latest research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Almost two thirds, or over 60 percent, of all US drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings,says joint research conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), a London-based non-profit news group, along with Forensic Architecture, a research unit based at Goldsmiths University, London, and Situ Research in New York.
The authors of the paper analyzed thousands of media reports, witness testimonies and field investigations to obtain the data on drone strikes in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
According to the study, at least 132 houses have been destroyed in more than 380 strikes over the past decade with at least 222 civilians being among the 1,500 or more people killed.
“On average, 6.2 people and 0.9 reported civilians died per strike on domestic buildings,” says the paper, adding that these numbers may be conservative because the Bureau “has found the deaths of women are dramatically underreported.”
The seclusion of women and children in the country which orders them to spend more time indoors make them more vulnerable to drone strikes, according to the BIJ’s ‘Naming the Dead’ project.
Women and children are less likely to be seen “by [a] drone operator monitoring the structure,” says Susan Schuppli, senior research fellow at Forensic Architecture and the project coordinator.
The paper adds that domestic buildings are more likely to be attacked at night compared with in the afternoon.
“Strikes that took place in the evening, when families are likely to be at home and gathered together, were particularly deadly,” says the paper.
Civilians usually avoid going out at night as Pakistani Taliban militants do not allow them to leave their homes without reason, Mansur Mahsud, director of Islamabad-based organization the Fata Research Center, told BIJ.
The report says that when drones attack the target they usually call it a “compound,” and often a“militant compound.” However, they are often domestic spaces.
“One compound is used by many families, like brothers and first cousins, although every family has their own portion or space in the compound…Normally you will find 20-25 people living in one compound, and in some cases you will find more than 50,” adds Mahsud.
The study also showed that on average more civilians die when a building is hit by a drone than when a vehicle is targeted.
However, despite rising proportion of strikes on houses, there haven’t been any reports of civilian casualties in the past 18 months.
According to Mahsud, this is because the locals host militants as their guests less frequently.
Now, with the threats of drone attack, when militants come to stay, civilians usually leave, he adds.
Meanwhile, the study found that the highest number of casualties are reported after the attacks on mosques and madrassas (religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion).
“At least eight strikes have hit mosques or madrassas …On average, at least 17 people and 12.4 civilians are reported killed for each religious building hit in the strikes,” says the report.
Overall, at least 417 civilians – and possibly as many as 957 – have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, adds BIJ’s data which was also presented in an interactive online map, titled Where the Drones Strike, showing the location and targets of each strike.
The report says that US drones have been hitting Pakistan since June, 2004, however, the attacks largely increased since 2010 when 128 strikes killed at least 751 people, of whom 84 were civilians.
Meanwhile, a US official told BIJ that “US counterterrorism operations are precise, lawful, and effective”and that the country only “targets terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people.”
image from TBIJ.com
image from TBIJ.com
“Any suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. Furthermore, before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set,” he added.
President Barack Obama’s drone program hit its five-year anniversary in January. Earlier in 2014 BIJ announced that, at least 2,400 people across the Middle East have been killed by drones.
Even critics admit that many of those may have been militants, although the strikes have unleashed unimaginable devastation on civilians and their families – particularly in Pakistan, where drones have greatly contributed to anti-American sentiment.
The civilian deaths from US drone attacks in Pakistan have become a significant stumbling block in bilateral relations. Pakistan recently asked Washington to limit the amount of drone attacks in the country as the government enters into negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban.
image from TBIJ.com

Putin: US Backed the 'Coup' That Now Threatens Civil War in Ukraine

Russian president says he will honor outcome of weekend elections, but that dialogue must replace military operations and violence

– Jon Queally, staff writer

Russian president Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. (Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/Ria Novosti)
Ahead of contentious nationwide elections in Ukraine this weekend designed to pave the way for a new government in the politically fractured country, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday had strong words for western nations, including the United States, who he says backed the coup d’etat that has put the nation on the edge of all out civil war.
In his remarks Friday, Putin said that Russia would back the results of the vote, but cautioned the Obama administration on its continued mishandling of the crisis, including its failure to honor diplomatic efforts and an overtly-biased relationship with the individuals and parties in Kiev who overthrew the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovich earlier this year.
In an interview with CNBC, in front of an audience at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Putin offered his overview of what happened in Ukraine and the current conditions by stating (based on CNBC’s transcript):

What happened in Ukraine now is chaos, the country is sliding into chaos. Yanukovych agreed to do anything, whatever, had it all been done legally, we’d continue subsidising them, we’d keep gas prices low, we’d allocate the 15 billion we’d promised. Let us be frank, we’re all grownups in the room, we’re all smart and educated people. The West supported anti-constitutional coup d’état, not just by giving away cookies, but by giving political support, support in the media, using all sorts of tools. And are you blaming us? What we suggested was dialogue. We were denied. When I last came to Brussels we agreed that dialogue would continue but that was before the coup d’état.

Asked repeatedly by the interviewer to discuss how Russian president intends to work with the new government in Kiev, even if the outcome is unfavorable to many in the east and the south, Putin indicated that though he would like to see reforms that address the concerns of all Ukrainians, he is committed to a renewed and healthy relationship with Russia’s neighbor. Putin stated:

Like I said, and I’m not kidding and I’m not being ironic, what we want for Ukraine is peace and calm. We want this country to recover from crisis and conditions are to be created for that. … Again not being ironic,  [Ukraine] is a sister nation and we want it to enjoy peace, order and we already cooperate with people that are in power and after the election of course we will cooperate with the newly-elected head of state. But just to make it clear I hope that after the election all military action will stop and national dialogue will begin.

Tensions in the nation are again ascendent as new violence was reported in the east of the country on both Thursay and Friday.
As the Guardian reports:

Ukraine’s defense ministry [said on Friday that] up to 500 insurgents attacked government troops in one clash in eastern Ukraine that left 20 insurgents dead. The ministry said in a statement the clash took place on Thursday as a convoy of Ukrainian troops was attacked outside the eastern village of Rubizhne. Up to 16 Ukrainian soldiers also died on Thursday in an assault on a checkpoint by separatists.
On Friday, the Donbass paramilitary group, which operates with the tacit backing of Kiev, said it had been ambushed by separatist forces, with at least one dead, and many injured or taken hostage.
Voting in the east will be severely limited on Sunday, with pro-Kiev forces not fully in control of the region and a fear that violence could spike as the separatists attempt to disrupt the vote. Kiev has said it will halt its “anti-terrorism operation” against separatist forces on voting day.

_____________________________________________
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