Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thank You, Greece!
!!!!!Olympics Are About Athletes, Not Politics!!!!!
What kind of credibility does RSF have, if it was funded by CIA????
CIA's FAVORITE REPORTERS
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
CIA's FAVORITE REPORTERS
Reporters sans Frontiers hired by Otto Reich, cashes cheques from Washington
NGO admits what it previously denied
10 May 2005
Other News
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Cuba will never surrender, says Fidel
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TOP
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
Special for Granma International
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The mask of Robert Menard, who eight months ago still denied having any ties to the United States government, is falling off in chunks and pieces with every week that passes. The latest information after the revelation in Paris of his association with Otto Reich comes from California, where an investigative reporter named Diana Barahona is trying to break through the wall of secrecy Menard has built around his secret friendships.
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On April 18, in a forum of the Paris publication Le Nouvel Observateur, Robert Menard made his first confession regarding what he had always denied after an anonymous participant quoted an article published on March 11 by the US journalist saying that Reporters Sans Frontiers was receiving money from the so-called National Endowment for Democracy.
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Absolutely, Menard answered with his usual arrogance, adding, he receive money from the NED and this does not create any problems for us whatsoever. In a similar forum on the same website weeks earlier, Menard had suddenly admitted to knowing CIA agent Frank Calzon, which he had previously denied. In reality, Menard had no choice but to confess.
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During Barahona's investigation, a NED representative personally confirmed to her that $39,900 was delivered to Reporters Sans Frontiers on January 14 of this year. At the same time, RSF's representative in Washington, Lucie Morillon, had no choice but to confirm to the reporter that RSF received $125,000 from the Cuba Solidarity Center, a CIA front group officially financed by USAID US Agency for International Development) ... in addition to a secret contract signed by Otto Reich!
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After receiving these confirmations in the United States itself regarding these contributions received by Menard from Washington, the reporter is now officially requesting that USAID by virtue of US law on access to information provide all documents referring to that individual and his organization.
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In a letter dated April 9 and addressed to USAID's Information & Records Division, Diana Barahona invokes the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to and copies of records of money given to Reporters Sans Frontiers and its general secretary, Robert Menard, a French citizen. The Long Beach journalist indicates in her letter that she is gathering information on US government financing of Reporters Without Borders that is of current interest to the public because many news outlets are using Reporters Without Borders as a source.
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Any government financing should be exposed so that reporters are not unwittingly using a biased source, Barahona affirms in her letter. It is indicated in this same document that several members of the print and electronic media use RSF as a source without knowing or telling the public about the conflict of interest of RSF receiving government grants. Diana Barahona is currently working with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, directed by Larry Birne, which has been studying US policy on Latin America since 1975, to write a in-depth article on that issue.
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That article, according to the reporter, will show among many other things how RSF was founded in 1995 when the Helms-Burton bill was introduced into Congress. That law authorized the granting of funds to so-called Cuban dissidents via NGOs.
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Otto Reich through his consulting firm was the top lobbyist for that law during the time that he was contracted by Bacard and was director of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council.
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Diana Barahona is a member of the Northern California Media Guild and has published articles on RSF in the Guild Reporter (www.newsguild.org).
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MENARD DID BUSINESS IN 2001 WITH REICH AND CALZON
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For his part, on March 27, French investigative reporter Thierry Meyssan published a revealing article in which he stated that Robert Menard negotiated a contract with Otto Reich and CIA agent Frank Calzon's Center for a Free Cuba in 2001. According to Meyssan, a journalist who is president of the prestigious Red Voltaire (www.redvoltaire.net), the contract was signed in 2002 when Reich was representing the US government as special envoy to the Western Hemisphere.
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In 2002, Reporters Sans Frontiers signed a contract with the Center for a Free Cuba with unknown terms, and later received an initial subsidy of $24,970 euros. That subsidy increased to $59,201 euros in 2003 and its amount for 2004 is unknown, the reporter wrote.
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The Center for Free Cuba is an organization created to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and restore the Batista regime via its representatives embedded in the Bush government. It is presided over by the owner of Bacardi Rums, directed by former terrorist Frank Calzon and it is attached to a CIA office, Freedom House, he wrote.
On various occasions, Menard categorically denied known Calzon, until he appeared together with that individual one of the CIA's most active Cuban-American agents since the 1960s in Brussels in March of 2004, at a meeting of members of the European Parliament.
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WORRYING QUESTIONS?IN MONTREAL
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In addition, in an article titled Worrying questions for Reporters Sans Frontiers, published April 30 in the influential Montreal (Canada) daily La Presse, journalist Marc Thibodeau confirms how Menard confessed during a public assembly the previous day that RSF receives part of its funding from US organizations closely associated with United States foreign policy.
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RSF's secretary general, Robert Menard, who was visiting Quebec this week, stated during an acrimonious discussion this Thursday at the University of Quebec in Montreal that his organization has access to funds from USAID, a US government international aid organization, and from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the journalist reported. During a conversation with La Presse, Menard stated that the money received from the NED and USAID for the coming year represented less than 2% of RSF's budget, which totals more than $5 million.
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More than 90% is raised, according to the organization, through selling photo albums, the reporter writes ironically.
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Back in 2003, Granma International exposed the connivance between Robert Menard, his NGO and United States intelligence services. Little by little, the information is being confirmed via documents, publications, revelations by those implicated and confessions by the RSF secretary/agent.
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According to several indications, the best is yet to come.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/mayo/lun9/20rsf.html
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Reporters Without Frontiers admits it is paid by the USA
Paris, May 5:
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The suspicion has been confirmed: Reporters Without Frontiers (RSF) receives financial support from the US, as its secretary general Robert Menard admitted today, to use the organization to attack Cuba and Venezuela.
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According to the Cuban Rebelion website, the position of the RSF against Havana and Caracas "is perfectly aligned with the political and media war Washington displays against the Cuban and the Venezuelan revolutions."Mr. Robert Menard, RSF secretary general for 20 years, confessed he received financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an rganisation that distributes money to NGOs on behalf of the US State Department, the publication stated.
-
It has also been confirmed that the main role of the NED is promoting the White House agenda around the world."In effect, we receive money from the NED. And it is no problem for us," Menard confessed. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983, as a complement of the dirty war against Central America. Thanks to its powerful capacity of financial penetration, the foundation is aimed at weakening governments opposed to Washington"s dominating foreign policy. In Latin America, its two main targets were Cuba and Venezuela.
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The NED financed and continues supporting Venezuelan opposition, responsible for the coup against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002, Rebelion stated.Moreover, RSF admitted to giving financial support in Cuba to the so-called dissidents, backed up by Washington. The website also criticized the Paris-based RSF for abstaining from denouncing the crimes committed by the US troops against media professionals in Iraq. It considered noteworthy that Menard usually visits the Miami-based Cuban far right, with which he signed agreements linked to the media war against the Cuban Revolution.
NGO admits what it previously denied
10 May 2005
Other News
-
Cuba will never surrender, says Fidel
-
TOP
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
Special for Granma International
-
The mask of Robert Menard, who eight months ago still denied having any ties to the United States government, is falling off in chunks and pieces with every week that passes. The latest information after the revelation in Paris of his association with Otto Reich comes from California, where an investigative reporter named Diana Barahona is trying to break through the wall of secrecy Menard has built around his secret friendships.
-
On April 18, in a forum of the Paris publication Le Nouvel Observateur, Robert Menard made his first confession regarding what he had always denied after an anonymous participant quoted an article published on March 11 by the US journalist saying that Reporters Sans Frontiers was receiving money from the so-called National Endowment for Democracy.
-
Absolutely, Menard answered with his usual arrogance, adding, he receive money from the NED and this does not create any problems for us whatsoever. In a similar forum on the same website weeks earlier, Menard had suddenly admitted to knowing CIA agent Frank Calzon, which he had previously denied. In reality, Menard had no choice but to confess.
-
During Barahona's investigation, a NED representative personally confirmed to her that $39,900 was delivered to Reporters Sans Frontiers on January 14 of this year. At the same time, RSF's representative in Washington, Lucie Morillon, had no choice but to confirm to the reporter that RSF received $125,000 from the Cuba Solidarity Center, a CIA front group officially financed by USAID US Agency for International Development) ... in addition to a secret contract signed by Otto Reich!
-
After receiving these confirmations in the United States itself regarding these contributions received by Menard from Washington, the reporter is now officially requesting that USAID by virtue of US law on access to information provide all documents referring to that individual and his organization.
-
In a letter dated April 9 and addressed to USAID's Information & Records Division, Diana Barahona invokes the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to and copies of records of money given to Reporters Sans Frontiers and its general secretary, Robert Menard, a French citizen. The Long Beach journalist indicates in her letter that she is gathering information on US government financing of Reporters Without Borders that is of current interest to the public because many news outlets are using Reporters Without Borders as a source.
-
Any government financing should be exposed so that reporters are not unwittingly using a biased source, Barahona affirms in her letter. It is indicated in this same document that several members of the print and electronic media use RSF as a source without knowing or telling the public about the conflict of interest of RSF receiving government grants. Diana Barahona is currently working with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, directed by Larry Birne, which has been studying US policy on Latin America since 1975, to write a in-depth article on that issue.
-
That article, according to the reporter, will show among many other things how RSF was founded in 1995 when the Helms-Burton bill was introduced into Congress. That law authorized the granting of funds to so-called Cuban dissidents via NGOs.
-
Otto Reich through his consulting firm was the top lobbyist for that law during the time that he was contracted by Bacard and was director of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council.
-
Diana Barahona is a member of the Northern California Media Guild and has published articles on RSF in the Guild Reporter (www.newsguild.org).
-
MENARD DID BUSINESS IN 2001 WITH REICH AND CALZON
-
For his part, on March 27, French investigative reporter Thierry Meyssan published a revealing article in which he stated that Robert Menard negotiated a contract with Otto Reich and CIA agent Frank Calzon's Center for a Free Cuba in 2001. According to Meyssan, a journalist who is president of the prestigious Red Voltaire (www.redvoltaire.net), the contract was signed in 2002 when Reich was representing the US government as special envoy to the Western Hemisphere.
-
In 2002, Reporters Sans Frontiers signed a contract with the Center for a Free Cuba with unknown terms, and later received an initial subsidy of $24,970 euros. That subsidy increased to $59,201 euros in 2003 and its amount for 2004 is unknown, the reporter wrote.
-
The Center for Free Cuba is an organization created to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and restore the Batista regime via its representatives embedded in the Bush government. It is presided over by the owner of Bacardi Rums, directed by former terrorist Frank Calzon and it is attached to a CIA office, Freedom House, he wrote.
On various occasions, Menard categorically denied known Calzon, until he appeared together with that individual one of the CIA's most active Cuban-American agents since the 1960s in Brussels in March of 2004, at a meeting of members of the European Parliament.
-
WORRYING QUESTIONS?IN MONTREAL
-
In addition, in an article titled Worrying questions for Reporters Sans Frontiers, published April 30 in the influential Montreal (Canada) daily La Presse, journalist Marc Thibodeau confirms how Menard confessed during a public assembly the previous day that RSF receives part of its funding from US organizations closely associated with United States foreign policy.
-
RSF's secretary general, Robert Menard, who was visiting Quebec this week, stated during an acrimonious discussion this Thursday at the University of Quebec in Montreal that his organization has access to funds from USAID, a US government international aid organization, and from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the journalist reported. During a conversation with La Presse, Menard stated that the money received from the NED and USAID for the coming year represented less than 2% of RSF's budget, which totals more than $5 million.
-
More than 90% is raised, according to the organization, through selling photo albums, the reporter writes ironically.
-
Back in 2003, Granma International exposed the connivance between Robert Menard, his NGO and United States intelligence services. Little by little, the information is being confirmed via documents, publications, revelations by those implicated and confessions by the RSF secretary/agent.
-
According to several indications, the best is yet to come.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/mayo/lun9/20rsf.html
-
Reporters Without Frontiers admits it is paid by the USA
Paris, May 5:
-
The suspicion has been confirmed: Reporters Without Frontiers (RSF) receives financial support from the US, as its secretary general Robert Menard admitted today, to use the organization to attack Cuba and Venezuela.
-
According to the Cuban Rebelion website, the position of the RSF against Havana and Caracas "is perfectly aligned with the political and media war Washington displays against the Cuban and the Venezuelan revolutions."Mr. Robert Menard, RSF secretary general for 20 years, confessed he received financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an rganisation that distributes money to NGOs on behalf of the US State Department, the publication stated.
-
It has also been confirmed that the main role of the NED is promoting the White House agenda around the world."In effect, we receive money from the NED. And it is no problem for us," Menard confessed. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983, as a complement of the dirty war against Central America. Thanks to its powerful capacity of financial penetration, the foundation is aimed at weakening governments opposed to Washington"s dominating foreign policy. In Latin America, its two main targets were Cuba and Venezuela.
-
The NED financed and continues supporting Venezuelan opposition, responsible for the coup against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002, Rebelion stated.Moreover, RSF admitted to giving financial support in Cuba to the so-called dissidents, backed up by Washington. The website also criticized the Paris-based RSF for abstaining from denouncing the crimes committed by the US troops against media professionals in Iraq. It considered noteworthy that Menard usually visits the Miami-based Cuban far right, with which he signed agreements linked to the media war against the Cuban Revolution.
Why They Hate China
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12585
March 26, 2008
Why They Hate China, Well, you have to hate someone…
by Justin Raimondo
China's continuing crackdown on Tibetan pro-independence protesters is a big, big issue here in San Francisco. Why, just the other day, I was coming out my front door, and there was one of my neighbors – a very nice woman in her fifties, albeit an archetypal limousine liberal, typical of the breed. So typical that she might almost be mistaken for a living, breathing, walking, talking cliché. She hates George W. Bush and the neocons because she's against the (Iraq) war, but she's eager to "liberate" Darfur – and, lately, Tibet. That morning, as she earnestly informed me, she was on her way to a meeting of the Board of Supervisors (our town council) to exhort them to vote for a resolution condemning the Chinese government's actions and calling for "freedom" for Tibet. What she doesn't realize, and doesn't want to know, is that she and the neocons – the very ones who brought us the Iraq war – are united on the Tibet issue. I tried, in vain, to point this out to her, but she just shook her head, cut the conversation short, and was on her way…
As it turned out, the supervisors voted for a meaningless, toothless resolution, stripped of provocative rhetoric, much to the dismay of the far-leftieswho argued for a stronger statement. The initiative for this effort was made by supervisor Chris Daly, an obnoxious left-liberal with delusions of grandeur, whose pose of self-righteousness is both grating and characteristic of his sort.
(more)
March 26, 2008
Why They Hate China, Well, you have to hate someone…
by Justin Raimondo
China's continuing crackdown on Tibetan pro-independence protesters is a big, big issue here in San Francisco. Why, just the other day, I was coming out my front door, and there was one of my neighbors – a very nice woman in her fifties, albeit an archetypal limousine liberal, typical of the breed. So typical that she might almost be mistaken for a living, breathing, walking, talking cliché. She hates George W. Bush and the neocons because she's against the (Iraq) war, but she's eager to "liberate" Darfur – and, lately, Tibet. That morning, as she earnestly informed me, she was on her way to a meeting of the Board of Supervisors (our town council) to exhort them to vote for a resolution condemning the Chinese government's actions and calling for "freedom" for Tibet. What she doesn't realize, and doesn't want to know, is that she and the neocons – the very ones who brought us the Iraq war – are united on the Tibet issue. I tried, in vain, to point this out to her, but she just shook her head, cut the conversation short, and was on her way…
As it turned out, the supervisors voted for a meaningless, toothless resolution, stripped of provocative rhetoric, much to the dismay of the far-leftieswho argued for a stronger statement. The initiative for this effort was made by supervisor Chris Daly, an obnoxious left-liberal with delusions of grandeur, whose pose of self-righteousness is both grating and characteristic of his sort.
(more)
Will the real Dalai Lama please stand up
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/will_the_real_dalai_lama_please_stand_up/5640/
By Hannah Naiditch 02/07/2008
Recently President Bush presented the Dalai Lama the Gold Medal, Congress’s highest and most prestigious civilian award. It was a glamorous ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, attended by the rich and famous. Senators Diane Feinstein, Robert Byrd, Harry Reid, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were among the hundreds of admirers.
Actor Richard Gere, his spokesman and one of his biggest fans, proclaimed “It’s that just by the proximity to him, you will get spiritually healed,” and he called him “the greatest living human.”
President Bush called him a “universal symbol of peace and tolerance, a shepherd of the faithful and a keeper of the flame for his people.”
The Dalai Lama also has his critics. Author Michael Parenti sees him as reflecting a distressing symbiosis between religion and violence. Historian Howard Zinn expresses disappointment in the Dalai Lama’s suggestion to wait a few years before judging the war in Iraq, when this preemptive and illegal war is such a clear-cut moral issue.
So what are we to make of the Dalai Lama? Who is this frail man, his hands folded as if in permanent prayer, with a smile that rarely leaves his face and a bow in deference to those who cross his path? He moves slowly and gracefully and he talks a lot about forgiveness and peace.
This apparently gentle man is the 14th of a long line of reborn Dalai Lamas who ruled over a brutal feudal theocracy where disobedience was not tolerated. Punishment ranged from loss of limbs to the gouging out of eyes and flogging people to death.
It was a country where most of the population were serfs and slaves, totally accountable to their masters. Some slaves tried to survive by begging. A few hundred privileged families shared power with the Dalai Lama and owned most of the land. The old Tibet was far removed from the freedom that Dalai Lama and his supporters are talking about. There were no schools, no healthcare, and the literacy rate was about 5 percent.
There are those who see the Dalai Lama as a man of contradictions and they see his admirers as gullible and misinformed. He has expressed his belief that modern science takes precedence over ancient religions, but he ruled over a medieval and brutal theocracy. He preaches peace but refuses to pass judgment on Iraq.
Is the Dalai Lama speaking out of both sides of his mouth, trying to play it safe and to offend nobody? It seems clear that this seemingly meek gentleman is a shrewd observer of human events. To many observers he remains an enigma.
Was Tibet ever this romantic, Hollywood-style Shangri La? Were the Tibetan people, with their colorful garments, bells, and horns, really content as they submitted to the rituals of prayer and as they clapped their hands to get rid of doubts and harmful emotions, hoping for greater awareness and enlightenment? Or did they not know any better as they spent their lives in this remote and isolated society? Did China destroy Shangri-La and a beautiful ancient culture or did they liberate and modernize a backward and brutal kingdom?
China invaded Tibet in 1959. The foreign-sponsored uprising was easily crushed and the Dalai Lama with his riches and thousands of followers fled to India, where he set up his government in exile. The “Free Tibet” movement and the west would like to return the Dalai Lama to his throne. The Dalai Lama himself claims that he is not seeking independence but “meaningful autonomy,” while China accuses the Dalai Lama of a hidden agenda.
China has significantly altered Tibet’s social structure. China has constructed roads and introduced light industry. They built hundreds of schools and life expectancy has dramatically improved. Michael Parenti among others points out that the Chinese abolished slavery, built hospitals, and eliminated mutilations, floggings and amputations.
They introduced land reform. Acres of land formerly owned by nobles and lamas were distributed to landless peasants. Not many Tibetans would choose to go back to slavery and grinding poverty. They don’t look at the Chinese occupation as Paradise Lost.
One of the Dalai Lama’s missions is to preserve and to keep the ancient Tibetan culture alive. But what is this cultural heritage that the Dalai Lama is trying to preserve? Does it include the teaching of the feudal system, and the need for slavery and absolute obedience? Does it teach the poor that their life of suffering is due to the evil acts they committed in previous lives and that they must accept their life of misery as atonement for past sins?
For the Tibetans the issue is whether you hold on to an ancient culture of social injustice or you support moving into the modern age. Many former serfs have sided with China.
Indications are that the powerful lamas and their ancient culture that this Dalai Lama wants to preserve may be a thing of the past unless foreign troops try to change the course of history.
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