Author
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Topic: US frustrated over Putin's hold on power;lectures Russia on democracy
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BetterRed
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11865
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posted 15 October 2007 06:29 PM
Well, Rice made this thinly veiled criticism of Putin on her visit to Russia. She warned about the concentrating "power of any one president" as threatening democracy and raised concerns over Russian parliament, media and courts. Hmm, it seems that Ms. Rice is unable to see the profound irony of Bush admin lecturing Russia on all these things. If anything, Putin must be emulating Bush over the past few years. Regardless, the standard of living in Russia keeps improving, as well as ties with strategic rivals of US. US frustrated by Putin's grip on power
quote: Mr. Putin’s surprise suggestion last month that he might yet remain in power — possibly as a newly empowered prime minister, possibly as the eminence atop the “party of power” — has left the White House stumped. The administration is uncertain how to deal with a man who has consolidated power almost exclusively in his own hands, even as Mr. Bush continues to call Mr. Putin “my friend.”That is why a certain discomfort regarding Mr. Putin’s future hovered over two days of talks here attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. “If you don’t have countervailing institutions, then the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Ms. Rice said Saturday, raising concerns about the state of Russia’s judiciary, legislative branch and news media, but declining to criticize Mr. Putin by name.
From: They change the course of history, everyday ppl like you and me | Registered: Jan 2006
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BetterRed
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11865
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posted 15 October 2007 06:34 PM
Meanwhile, the war at home; quote: Still, the drill remains the same. The administration gives its alibi (Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples). A few members of Congress squawk. The debate is labeled “politics.” We turn the page.There has been scarcely more response to the similarly recurrent story of apparent war crimes committed by our contractors in Iraq. Call me cynical, but when Laura Bush spoke up last week about the human rights atrocities in Burma, it seemed less an act of selfless humanitarianism than another administration maneuver to change the subject from its own abuses. As Mrs. Bush spoke, two women, both Armenian Christians, were gunned down in Baghdad by contractors underwritten by American taxpayers. On this matter, the White House has been silent. That incident followed the Sept. 16 massacre in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where 17 Iraqis were killed by security forces from Blackwater USA, which had already been implicated in nearly 200 other shooting incidents since 2005. There has been no accountability. The State Department, Blackwater’s sugar daddy for most of its billion dollars in contracts, won’t even share its investigative findings with the United States military and the Iraqi government, both of which have deemed the killings criminal. The gunmen who mowed down the two Christian women worked for a Dubai-based company managed by Australians, registered in Singapore and enlisted as a subcontractor by an American contractor headquartered in North Carolina. This is a plot out of “Syriana” by way of “Chinatown.” There will be no trial. We will never find out what happened. A new bill passed by the House to regulate contractor behavior will have little effect, even if it becomes law in its current form.
The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us - NY Times
From: They change the course of history, everyday ppl like you and me | Registered: Jan 2006
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