- USA praises Russia's anti-terrorist actions, acknowledges the danger of Chechnya: The US Department of State Named Chief Sponsors of Terrorism: the List Includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The US administration highly estimates Russia's role in the anti-terrorist struggle and criticizes Georgia for the fact that terrorists continue using its territory to penetrate into other states. These issues were contained in the annual report from the US Department of State: the report was devoted to struggle against terrorism in foreign states in 2004.
And if the report mentioned Russia's role in helping to supply the sponsors on the list with conventional or nuclear weapons, it's not being reported here.
The American administration acknowledged in the report that Russia had made several considerable initiatives in the struggle against terrorism in 2004. The report particularly runs that Russia's role in the global war on terror has increased. The high level of cooperation between US and Russian special services has become the biggest accomplishment of the Russian government at this point, the report says. Russian inner political reforms, including the cancellation of the public gubernatorial elections, raise concerns with the US administration, because such reforms may supposedly result in the reduction of anti-terrorist efforts.
Oh, so they're reforms now. I didn't know. I'll have to suggest this language to Chancellor Palpatine.
According to the US Department of State, separatists and terrorists in the Northern Caucasus carry responsibility for the killing of hundreds of Russian citizens. US special services, the report runs, have evidence to prove activities of international terrorists in Chechnya, as well as the funding of Chechen terrorist groups from abroad. It is noteworthy that the US administration emphasized subversive activities of the Chechen separatist movement.
The anti-Georgian criticism became quite a surprising part of the report, taking into consideration the fact that the republic of Georgia has been persistently running for the status of the USA's major ally in the Caucasus. Authors of the report wrote that terrorists were still using the territory of Georgia for their own transit, albeit in a smaller capacity. American officials believe that such an activity lessened owing to the efforts of the Georgian administration in the Pankisi Gorge after the tragic terrorist act in Russia's Beslan in September of 2004.
The USA realizes that Georgian law-enforcement agencies are restricted in their possibilities on account of the lack of finance, equipment and training. The USA, therefore, renders technical and financial assistance to Georgia in this respect. In addition, attempts to reform local law-enforcement structures result in messy situations, which do not allow to elaborate the universal counter-terrorist policy in the republic.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the person, who initiated law-enforcement reforms in the republic, commented the conclusions of the US Department of State. "What terrorists in Georgia are they talking about if US President Bush is coming to Georgia, as well as other presidents and thousands of tourists? Georgia has become a normal country," Mr. Saakashvili said. The president stressed out that the American report pointed out the improving situation on the level of security in Georgia.
The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry has not released any comments on the US report, not even on the part about Georgia. Moscow believes that American officials have said everything that needed to be said...
Keep in mind that the report appears to say that the Georgians are having trouble combatting terrorism. NOT that they are a state sponsor of terrorism. One can easily find many accounts that Russia suffers from similar problems, and they don't look like the sort that can easily be fixed by cancelling elections. - Ecuador's New President Vows to Change Nothing: The new leader still seeking for international acceptance pledges to complete ousted Lucio Gutierrez's term.
...Gutierrez's rustic maneouvres with national institutions were only the top of the iceberg of a system corrupted to its roots, which also includes Palacio as one of his executors. The Ecuadorean people is well aware of this and do not trust in Palacio as Palacio presumes.
Gutierrez was the third leader of this unstable, oil-rich Andean nation forced from office in eight years. He took office in January 2003 as a populist, anti-corruption reformer but soon angered many Ecuadoreans by adopting economic austerity measures. Many also were upset by growing accusations of nepotism and corruption in his inner circle.
Palacio is not an outsider and is co-responsible in Ecuador's tragedy, If he is not ready to change anything, then the people of Ecuador will be ready to change him...
If anyone here is substantially more familiar with the state of affairs in Ecuador please feel free to jump in. - USA Declines Reciprocal Relations With Kazakhstan's President: It is the USA That Regularly Criticizes Kazakhstan for Violating Democratic Norms.
US ambassador at the OSCE, Stephan Minikes, arrived in Kazakhstan two days ago. The American official conducted several meetings with the Kazakh administration and parliamentarians. The talks were presumably devoted to Kazakhstan's plans to chair the OSCE.
The chairmanship at the OSCE in 2009 has been the dream of Kazakh President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, for several years already. Mr. Nazarbayev constantly talks about the issue, saying that it is extremely important not only for Kazakhstan alone, but for the entire region of Central Asia. Experts share the position of the Kazakh president: they are certain that Kazakhstan's chairmanship at the OSCE will acknowledge political pseudo-democratic systems of Central Asian states. It is worth mentioning that both the USA and the OSCE accuse the leaders of those states of authoritarianism, in which all international democratic principles are violated radically...
In case you've forgotten (I did), the OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
...The Office of the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan and the financial police of the republic are meanwhile checking all local non-governmental organizations that receive foreign grants. The majority of such organizations have already proclaimed current inspections as politically motivated and connected them with events in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz authorities fear lest "secret foreign services" should fund another revolution on the territory of the republic.
The majority of experts believe that the USA decided to have the wait-and-see attitude to Kazakhstan's OSCE plans on account of the above-mentioned measures that are being taken by the government of Kazakhstan. The USA needs Kazakhstan to "behave:" it is important for the US administration not to revise previously concluded oil and gas contracts. - US Military Men Found Not Guilty of Killing Italian Special Agent in Iraq: The US Command Lays the Blame for the Incident on Italy.
...Both American and Italian sides agree that the US soldiers did not intend to kill the Italian agent. However, the US side lays the blame for the incident on Italy. The Pentagon believes that American servicemen fired at the vehicle on account of the fact that Italian special forces had not warned US forces about the forthcoming release of the Italian hostage in Iraq. It was also said that the car was moving too fast and did not stop upon the patrol's request, RIA Novosti reports.
Italian citizens, who survived in the incident, asserted that their car was moving at a low speed, and the fire was opened after the driver of the Italian vehicle stopped the car...
It gets snarkier from there.
That's all the truth I have time for right now. More later.
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