Forest exile: Homeless New Yorkers camp out crisis

The recession has left many Americans in urgent need of shelter and with nowhere to go, forcing some to retreat to the woods. In the countryside, just one hour's drive from Manhattan, a shanty town of tents has sprung up. Anastasia Churkina meets the people for whom camping out, has become a way of life.

Kremlin responds to US-NATO threats

Russia Deploys Missiles on Western Frontier with European Union

by Anatoly Aliferov

The Iskander Missiles as the Guarantee of Normal Coexistence of Russia and Europe

Russia went public with the plan to deploy the Iskander missiles at its western frontier – in the Kaliningrad region or on the territories of neighboring countries, but the process of probing into Washington’s reaction is clearly taking too long. In politics, failure to appreciate the importance of acting quickly invariably creates problems, the above situation being a vivid example. The Iskanders are a remarkably potent weapon but it appears that Moscow risks playing the card as a minor element in the diplomatic game. One gets an impression that the threat to deploy the missiles in the Kaliningrad region has been aired too long for NATO on the whole or even Poland and the Czech Republic to take it seriously.

If this is the case and the powerful weapon is depreciated due to the evident lack of determination to use it, the adversary has reasons to conclude that the threat is nonexistent. In other words, NATO feels free to go on expanding east in line with its strategy and to disregard Russia’s objections as verbiage.

Recently Russian Minister of Defense and vehement proponent of the army reform A. Serdyukov inadvertently contributed to NATO’s resolution to make inroads into the post-Soviet geopolitical space. He said in Finland on February 19 that if Europe poses no threats to Russia there would be no Iskanders in the Kaliningrad region – they would be deployed only if threats emerge.

What does Serdyukov’s ‘if” amount to? The question is what new threats from the West does the Russian Defense Minister need to realize what is going on? The US stated with utmost clarity that its missile defense infrastructures would be sited in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. Other countries – Georgia and Turkey – will possibly also host them in the future. Is that not enough? Shall we wait for more? The threats are listed in Russia’s official military doctrine. Washington audaciously explains that it plans to site the missile shield in the proximity of Russia’s borders to neutralize the missile threat posed by North Korea and Iran. The authors of such “explanations” must be making fun of Russia.

M. Delyagin and V. Sheyanov exposed the folly of the above “defensive mentality” idly anticipating new threats in their The World Upside Down. Its carriers discern potential threats in the world around them but overlook entirely the opportunities linked to them. Failure to overcome the legacy of losing the Cold War and of under-performing during the past two decades breeds the “defensive mentality” in the ranks of Russian leaders that dooms the country to new defeats.

Gen. L. Ivashov wrote that Russia’s current military doctrine, military reform, and strategic arms control proposals are not synchronized and, moreover, are in disagreement over an array of significant issues. Is this not a promise of the coming new defeat?

You might ask how the Iskanders could help given the current state of Russia’s military affairs? An attempt to answer the question is made below.

The Iskander (NATO Reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a mobile theater ballistic missile system of a new generation superior to both other Russian missile systems (Skud-B, Tocka-U) and foreign analogs (Lance, ATACMS, Pluton, etc.). Designed by the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau, the Iskander is built to suppress fire positions, air and missile defense systems, aircrafts at aerodromes, communication and control systems, and civilian infrastructures. The stealth technology is employed in the Iskanders which makes them invisible to radars. The Iskander performs evasive maneuvers and is immune to interception. It can be launched in complete darkness and can hit mobile targets with the precision of 2 m. At present no other missile system in the world boasts a comparable set of capabilities. The Iskander can be operated in combat continuously for 16 hours and is equivalent to nuclear weapon in terms of its overall potential.

If the decision to deploy Iskanders in the Kaliningrad region was actually made back when Russian President D. Medvedev mentioned the option for the first time, and undisguised preparations for the delivery of the missiles to the Russian enclave commenced (regardless of the situation around the US missile defense) now Moscow would not have to worry about responding to the US plan to station missile interceptors in Romania and Bulgaria. It is clear that the relations of partnership and mutual respect between Europe and Russia, which rank high on the list of Moscow’s priorities, could only be strengthened as the result.

Luckily, it is not yet late. There is still a chance that the Iskanders would serve as the guarantee of normal coexistence of Russia and the Atlantist Europe.

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Arundhati Roy on the Palestinian / Israeli Conflict

Segment from the film "We.." where Arundhati Roy speaks about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict in the middle east. Historic references, who funds it, and more.

Ukraine's Tynoshenko's withdrawal linked to delay in delivering highly advanced Russian S-300 Air Defense System to Iran

As a strategic analyst, what I do for my readers, is to connect the dots in Grand Strategy, military and economic strategy, and geopolitics. Often the dots do not seem to have any connection on the surface, but behind the scenes have a vital reason to be connected.

Such is the case with the Ukrainian presidential election, and the withdrawal of the Prime Minister Yulia Tynoshenko's legal challenge to the outcome of the election, and the delivery of the highly advanced S-300 Air Defense Missile System by Russia to Iran.

It was clear that neocon candidate, blond bombshell, Yulia Tynoshenko lost the election to the pro-Russian candidate. This was something that all the international observers agreed on. But the 'knives were out' for a 'battle royal' over the Ukraine - a battle between the international neocon/global banking cartel and Mother Russia. Suddenly, in a most unlikely move that surprised her supporters, Tynoshenko has dropped her challenge. You have to remember that the Ukraine has been a part of Russia, in the Russian Empire and then in the USSR, for hundreds of years. To the Russians, the Ukraine is as much a part of their nation as New York and New Jersey are to the Americans. The Russian Government considers that the matter of the outcome of the election to be a matter of vital national importance - those are words used to describe reasons to go to war regardless of the grave risk of such a war.

The Russians would not give in on 'western' demands to support much tougher sanctions on Iran and now suddenly the near-by (to Russia) Georgian republic is again 'heating up', threating another Georgian-Russian war with new supplies of American and Israeli military hardware. However, the Russians were willing to trade delaying the very high tech S-300 Air Defense System delivery to Iran for a neocon defeat/withdrawal in the Ukraine. Yulia Tynoshenko was 'thrown a bone' by being promised to be allowed to stay as Prime Minister for a while, but make no mistake about it, she was ordered to comply and she accepted in quick order as the good little neocon puppet she is.

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The Land Is Ours, Pure Genius, Wandsworth Eco-Village (1996)

The Land Is Ours - 'Pure Genius' Wandsworth Eco Village (1996) - 6 min - Aug 5, 2008
I was one of the Oxford based organisers and press spokespeople for the Easter 1996 Wandsworth Ecovillage so here is what I consider the best film made about our bit of practical eco living political theatre.
Wandsworth (Guinness site) John Pendragon and other residents comment on how and why they got involved in the TLIO occupation of the Guinness site just East of Wandsworth Bridge at Easter 1996. In May 1996, 500 The Land Is Ours (TLIO) activists occupied 14 acres of derelict land along the banks of the River Thames in Wandsworth. The land, owned by Guinness, had been vacant for six years, but was scheduled to be the site of a superstore (the ninth within a 1.5 mile radius) and luxury apartments. A pre-fabricated roundhouse was constructed, raised-bed veggie gardens were planted and a small village was built out of recycled materials. Local campaigners, particularly a guy called Kirk, were involved in building and running the eco-community, and thousands of folks came to visit. After holding the "Pure Genius" occupation for almost six months, 150 people on site were ousted by bailiffs acting for Guinness and the eco-village was flattened. The site was due to be designated as a nature conservation site by the London Wildlife Trust the next day.
Incredibly, Guinness won an Ecology Sponsorship Award in Geneva the same week that they ordered the eviction.