This from the Greek press of today, January 12, 2012:

 

"The [cargo] ship 'Siariot' [spelling?], … of Russian interests… [two nights ago] asked to be allowed to refuel at the [Cypriot] port of Limassol, but during the control of its documents it was found that it carried four containers of 35 tones full of bullets of two [deferent] calibers. The destination was again Syria and recipient was the Ministry of Defense of the country … From that moment on there was a hectic series of consultations with the sole aim to find a way for Cyprus to get rid of the trouble. Also, given that the European Union has applied an embargo on Syria … Cyprus had to seize and keep the cargo safe… The competent [Cypriot] authorities contacted the Russian owner of the ship (Westberg Ltd, St. Petersburg, Russia) and the result of the consultations was to change the destination of the ship. Instead of Syria, the ship was to go to Alexandretta [Iskenderun] as it was carrying also a Turkish generator". ["Ta Nea", 12/01/'12]

 

Two or three years ago, there was a similar case, again with a Russian ship, the "Montsiegorsk" [spelling?], carrying ammunition. At that time, Hillary Clinton "ordered" the communist [!!!] Cypriot government to store the ammunition on the island. Then, last July [of 2011] there was a huge explosion that killed about a dozen Cypriot personnel who were guarding the stuff. It seems that this time the Cypriots decided to disobey!?

 

 

Friday, January 13, 2012

 

On the first page of the "International Herald Tribune" [The Global Edition of The New York Times] the top story reads: "South Sudan sinks into ethnic slaughter". The next story, in importance, on the page, reads: "British spies won't face detainee torture charges". [The torture mentioned, also known as "rendition", was initiated by George W. Bush et al].

 

Then on page 4, at the bottom of the sixth column, there is (for the first time) a 2 inches-long piece of information on this matter. We read: "But citing information from the Turkish Navy, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said the ship had docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, which Russian warships use as a resupply stop".

 

So, finally, the Russian ammunition was deposited in the hands of that British-educated gentleman, Assad of Syria.

 

 

January 22, 1992 

 

This from the "Letters to the Editor" of the January 22, 1992 issue of the "International Herald Tribune" [IHT]:

 

More than 20 years ago [today, more than 42 years] Andrei Amalrik, a Soviet historian and playwright, published "Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?" (Harper & Row, New York, 1970). Mr. Amalrik's answer was no.

 

He wrote, "As the [Soviet] regime's difficulties mount … the nationalist tendencies of the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union will intensify sharply … Power will pass into the hands of extremist elements and groups, and the country will begin to disintegrate into anarchy, violence and national hatred … But it is also possible that the 'middle class' will prove strong enough to keep control in its own hands. In that case, the granting of independence to the various Soviet nationalities will come about peacefully and some sort of federation will be created, similar to the British Commonwealth or the [then] European Economic Community…

 

I do not remember, if in the letter to the IHT, from which the above passage was taken, I included the following sentences from Amalrik's book and which, obviously, were cut by the editor of the IHT. Here are these sentences, as they appear on pages 37 and 38 of Amalrik's book:

 

"Thus the Christian ethic, which in Russia had a semi-pagan as well as official character, died out without being replaced by a Marxist ethic. (There is not space here to discuss it at length, but it is worth mentioning that Russia received her Christianity from Byzantium, which was rigid and moribund, and not from the developing and dynamic young Western civilization. This could not but influence subsequent Russian history)."

 

So, Amalrik was right on:

 

1. That the Soviet Union would "die" in the 1980s. He missed the date by only 5 years!

 

2. That the "independence to the various Soviet nationalities will come about peacefully ".

 

He was wrong on:

 

1. That "some sort of federation will be created".

 

2. That the Christianity of the West (Catholicism and Protestantism) was more civilized and benign than the Greek Christian Orthodoxy of Byzantium. Although, he already knew the examples of the Germans, the French, the British, the Americans, etc

 

3. The US factor. He could not, or preferred not to, see the "inevitable" role of the US, through the CIA, in the development of the post-Soviet Russia.

 

Today, on the basis of the Chomskyan position that any country could be seen either as a geographic entity or as represented by its elite, we can say that Russia as a geographic entity is represented by the Russian people and the elite are represented by Putin.

 

Thus, Putin is supplying bullets to Assad so as to continue to kill the Syrian people, his (Assad's) people.

 

Then, what is the Russian people, a fervently Christian Orthodox people, doing? Why do not they stop Putin?

 

The answer: They do what the other "rabidly" Christian people on the planet, the US people, do. They allow Obama to dismember women and children with "his" drones.

 

That ordinary people "let" their leaders do these things, does not mean that they approve of such acts. It means that the "normal" people of any society (about 2/3 of it), in contrast to the rather "strange" people (about 1/3) of the rest of that society (also known as, "conservative, law-abiding citizens") live in fear, live an economically precarious life, live in an only nominally democratic society, etc. 

 

It took the Russian people almost a decade and a half to "understand" the "role" of Putin. It took eight years for the Americans to be fed up with George W. Bush. It is still not certain that these same Americans have by now realized that Obama is the "drones" President and that his wife is wrong not for being very hostile against Rahm Emanuel, that serene person, but for not telling her husband that the "drones" do not conform with the teachings of the Bible. (Or, am I wrong about the Bible?)

 

Will the next Putin put an end to the supply of ammunition to the Assads of the World? No!, if we, all of us, do not do something about it.

 

Will the next Obama ground the drones, or eliminate them? Ditto.