Kindergarten Killing Game Removed After Finland School Shooting

A Web site has pulled a video game about shooting kindergarteners a week after Finland’s worst-ever school shooting. The debate about video games and violence continues.

findingdulcinea.com | Oct 2, 2008

by Josh Katz

Kindergarten Shooting Game Pulled

Finnish children’s gaming site lastenpelit.fi has removed the game “Kindergarten Killer” from its Web site following last week’s school shooting. In the game, players use a shotgun to shoot at students at a kindergarten. “We have removed pages from our site that are not necessarily appropriate for younger family members,” lastenpelit.fi said in a statement, according to The Guardian.

The situation again raises the question of whether video game violence has any link to violence. For example, The game “Grand Theft Auto” generated controversy when it was released in April, with the Parents Television Council arguing that it promoted violence and featured pornographic content. An attorney even claimed that earlier versions of the game “inspired his client Devin Moore to murder three police officers.”

But a recent study questions the theory that violent video games fuel violent behavior. “Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s, while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use,” Patrick Kierkegaard, a doctoral student at the University of Essex in Britain, says.

Background: Saari kills 10 at Finland school

Matti Saari, 22, reported to be wearing a ski mask and carrying an automatic weapon, opened fire at the vocational Kauhajoki School of Hospitality in western Finland on the morning of Sept. 23, killing nine adult students and one teacher, and then himself, while the students were taking an exam.

A day earlier, police had questioned the gunman because of several YouTube posts depicting him firing a gun and comparing life to a “war.” There was not enough evidence for the police to hold him, however. The gunman reportedly created four YouTube videos, and listed the 1999 Columbine school shootings among his favorite videos. The BBC provides a clip from one of his posted videos.

Saari, a trainee chef at the school, allegedly killed his victims “one by one as they cowered on the floor and seemed to be ‘enjoying it,’” according to survivors, The Daily Telegraph writes. Three people in the classroom were able to escape. After shooting his victims, Saar set fire to the classroom, burning the bodies.

Last Thursday, children avoided class in Finland after a spate of alarming text messages and Internet postings incited fears of a potential copycat school shootshooting. Even in Sweden, a school was evacuated and a 16-year-old boy was arrested after appearing in a YouTube clip holding weapons, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities stressed the link between the recent attacker, Matti Juhani Saari, and Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who was responsible for a similar shooting in Finland last year. Reports indicate that the two might have even purchased their guns at the same place. “The cases were similar. They were the same type of person, so it could be possible,” investigation leader Jari Neulaniemi told the AP. “They had the same style of hair, same kind of clothing, same interests and ideals—and their deeds were the same.”

The two were apparently friends, playing war games together on the Internet and speaking about committing acts of violence. In reference to a shooting, one message read, “Let’s do it together,” according to The Daily Telegraph. Auvinen said, “If I can’t do it I know you can make it.”

In 2006, Saari had been discharged from the Finnish Army. One recruit said, “He wasn’t very good at shooting and didn’t really know how to handle a gun. One day we had to go into the woods and only the people at the front were supposed to shoot. … But he shot from the back and everybody was very scared. They decided he wasn’t suitable for the army.” Army recruits also said that they made fun of the “weird and silent” Saari.

Another friend of Saari said that Saari told him 18 months before the killings that he was going to shoot other students, “but later claimed to be joking,” The Daily Telegraph reports. Police also surmise that the death of Saari’s brother from a heart attack in 2003 may have also helped shape his mindset. “The killer idolised his brother,” according to The Telegraph.

Related Topics: Last year’s shooting; Finnish culture

About a year ago, Finland experienced another school shooting that shared similarities to the recent one. In that incident, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed six students and the school’s nurse and principal and then shot himself in the head, after broadcasting his intentions on YouTube.

The shooting caused a debate in Finland, a country known for its gun culture, about the accessibility of guns. The country ultimately opted not to drastically change its gun laws, but said it would raise the minimum age for purchasing guns from 15 to 18.

According to The New York Times, “Some 1.6 million weapons are registered as being in private hands in a country with a population of some 5.3 million.” Finland also comes third to the United States and Yemen in terms of civilian gun ownership, the AP reports.

Now, after two shootings in about a year, Finland is also reexamining the mental state of its youth. Sirpa Haerkaelae, head of a Helsinki clinic, said that the clinic takes in 500–600 patients aged 13–23 per year. But the resources are not adequate to handle the need for help, she said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The World Health Organization indicates that Finland’s suicide rate among 15- to 25-year-olds is fifth in the world. Finland ranks second in the world when looking at girls alone. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) puts Finland second in alcoholism among 11- to 15-year-olds. Britain is first.

Psychiatrists and educators “point to Finns’ legendary reserve and unwillingness to express their feelings, entrenched individualism and growing isolation among people who do not quite fit the mold,” AFP writes. The suicide rate is three to four times higher in the north and east of the country, areas with smaller populations and fewer jobs.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also places Finland last among OECD countries in students’ enjoyment of school. “Our school system puts too much emphasis on pure performance, when we should ask for more creativity, game, ethics, esthetics, and how to cope with your life,” ombudswoman Aula said.

Melamine found in 18 more food products

CNN | Oct 3, 2008

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday.

Russian news agencies reported that food inspectors found nearly two tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with melamine. And Philippines health officials found melamine in two of 30 milk products from China tested for the chemical.

Australian food regulators recalled China-made Kirin Milk Tea after tests in found the drink contained melamine. It is the fourth product withdrawn from the country’s stores in the wake of China’s tainted milk scandal.

Milk containing melamine has been blamed for killing four babies and sickening more than 54,000 with kidney stones and other illnesses in China. The contamination has sparked global concerns about food products made with Chinese milk or milk powder and recalls in several countries of Chinese-made products.

Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.

The tainted food has also spread to the U.S. where melamine has been found in Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candy sold in California and Connecticut.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that trace amounts of melamine are safe in most foods, except for baby formula. A safety assessment by the agency concluded that 2.5 parts per million — a tiny amount — does not raise concerns. A week ago, the FDA warned consumers not to consume White Rabbit Candy and Mr. Brown coffee products because of possible melamine contamination.

Recent tests in Vietnam found melamine in dairy products and crackers imported from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the Ministry of Health’s Web site. It did not list all the brand names that tested positive for melamine, but among them were five different varieties of Yili milk, one of the brands found to be contaminated in China.

“We will intensify our inspections for melamine contamination to ensure the safety of consumers,” said Nguyen Thi Khanh Tram, vice director of Vietnam’s food safety administration.

Most of the contaminated items were milk and dairy products from China, the ministry said.

However, they also included crackers imported from Malaysia and Indonesia as well as a powdered dairy creamer imported from Thailand. It was not clear whether those products had been produced in those countries or simply shipped to Vietnam from warehouses there.

Even before the test results were announced, retailers across Vietnam had begun removing tons of Chinese dairy products from their shelves and importers have been destroying them, Vietnamese media reported.

Vietnamese authorities have also said they will require all milk products to be tested before they can be imported.

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III identified the two tainted brands Friday as Mengniu and Yili, which have already been found to be contaminated in tests in China.

Duque said 28 other products, including M&M chocolate candies, powdered milk and yogurt have been cleared for sale and 200 more were being tested. Additional results may be released early next week.

The Philippine government halted imports and sales of Chinese milk products pending inspections last week.
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Russia’s ITAR-Tass quoted Russia’s chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko as saying that 2 tons of dry milk was seized in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border.

Consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor on Tuesday banned all imports of Chinese dairy produce.

FDA: A little toxic melamine in most foods nothing to worry about

AP | Oct 2, 2008

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tiny traces of melamine, the chemical that has set off a global food safety scare, are not harmful in most foods, except baby formula, government experts said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday its safety experts have concluded that eating a minuscule amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food every day that was tainted with the chemical.

“It would be like if you had a million grains of sand and they were all white, and you had two or three that were black, that’s kind of the magnitude,” said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s food safety program.

The FDA guideline is meant to help federal and state investigators checking for contaminated foods from China at ports of entry and in Asian community groceries around the country. “We are trying to identify products that have levels we are really concerned about, rather than trying to find the last molecule,” said Sundlof.

In China, melamine-tainted formula has sickened more than 54,000 children, mainly with kidney problems, and is being blamed for the deaths of at least four. The industrial chemical has also turned up in products sold across Asia, ranging from candies, to chocolates, to coffee drinks, all of which used dairy ingredients from China.

In the U.S., White Rabbit candies imported from China have been recalled after authorities in two states found melamine. And Friday, a New Jersey company announced it was recalling a yogurt-type drink from China, ‘Blue Cat Flavor Drink,’ after FDA testing found melamine.

No illnesses have been reported in the U.S., but authorities are checking for any telltale increase in reports of kidney problems.

The FDA says infant formula sold here is safe, because manufacturers do not use any ingredients from China. But officials expect more melamine recalls as they continue to test products in ethnic markets.

FDA officials stressed that the melamine risk assessment issued Friday does not mean U.S. authorities will condone foods deliberately spiked with the chemical.

The 2.5 parts-per-million standard is meant to address situations in which the chemical accidentally comes into contact with food. For example, plastic food processing equipment may have been made using melamine, and some of the chemical might find its way into food.

Infant formula sold to U.S. consumers must be completely free of melamine. “There is too much uncertainty to set a level in infant formula and rule out any public health concern,” the FDA said.

In China, unscrupulous suppliers appear to have been adding melamine to make watered-down milk seem protein-rich in quality-control tests. That’s because melamine is high in nitrogen, as is protein.

Melamine first came to the attention of U.S. consumers last year, when it touched off a massive pet food recall. Chinese suppliers of bulk pet food ingredients were found to have been adding the chemical to artificially boost the protein readings of their products. Thousands of pets here were sickened, and hundreds are believed to have died.

Melamine is harmful to the kidneys. It can cause kidney stones as the body tries to eliminate it, and in extreme cases, life-threatening kidney failure.

NYPD officer kills himself over Taser episode

The suicide marks another tragic turn in a case that has raised questions about the use of Tasers by the nation’s largest police force.

Monterey Herald | Oct 2, 2008

By COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK—The man was naked, teetering on a building ledge and jabbing at police with an 8-foot-long fluorescent light bulb as a crowd gathered below.

Lt. Michael Pigott responded by ordering an officer to fire a stun gun at the man, who froze and plunged headfirst to his death in a scene captured on amateur video and replayed frequently on the Internet.

The officer was remorseful and distraught. He apologized and sought the family’s forgiveness. Then he went to his unit’s headquarters Thursday morning, his 46th birthday, and fatally shot himself just hours before the family laid the victim to rest.

“The lieutenant was deeply distraught and extremely remorseful over the death of Iman Morales in Brooklyn last week,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “Sadly, his death just compounds the tragedy of the loss of Mr. Morales.”

The suicide marks another tragic turn in a case that has raised questions about the use of Tasers by the nation’s largest police force.

Thousands of police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year after the NYPD expanded use of the weapons, a trend that has been playing out in police departments across the country in recent years. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 35 feet and deliver powerful shocks to immobilize people. Their advocates say they can be safer than hand-to-hand confrontations or the use of real guns.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has acknowledged that the weapon is controversial, and some organizations are strongly opposed to police use of Tasers—fearful that the guns can be abused without clear guidelines.

Police said the use of the stun gun in the death of Morales appeared to violate department guidelines, which explicitly bar their use “in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface.”

Pigott learned firsthand the dangers of Tasers after he was called to a Brooklyn apartment building on the night of Sept. 24.

Witnesses and neighbors said Morales grew increasingly agitated and threatened to kill himself, leading his mother to call 911. When police arrived, Morales fled naked out the window of his third-floor apartment to the fire escape. He tried to get into an apartment on the floor above, and then climbed down until he reached a ledge over a shuttered storefront, where he started jabbing at officers with the light bulb.

Pigott had to make a decision about what to do. He ordered Officer Nicholas Marchesona to fire the Taser.

The 5,000-volt shock immobilized the 35-year-old Morales, who then toppled from his perch. He plunged 10 feet to the ground and died. Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived when Morales fell.

Authorities believe the fall killed Morales, but an autopsy was inconclusive.

After the episode, Kelly ordered refresher training for the NYPD’s emergency services unit on how to deal with the mentally ill and appointed a new commander of the unit.

Pigott was stripped of his gun and badge and assigned to a job with the department’s motor vehicle fleet—a huge demotion for a 21-year veteran who was assigned to such an elite team. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office and the police department investigated. Marchesona also was reassigned to desk duty but was not stripped of his gun and badge.

Pigott apologized for what happened, telling the Long Island newspaper Newsday that he was “truly sorry.”

Sometime before 6 a.m. Thursday, the lieutenant went to the locker room at his unit’s headquarters by himself and found a weapon that was not his. The married father of two sons and a daughter shot himself in the head.

He apparently left a note in which he expressed devastation over the notion of his wife and kids seeing him as a criminal in handcuffs, according to media reports.

About four hours after the suicide, the Morales family gathered at a church in Manhattan for their relative’s funeral.

“This is horrible,” said Morales’ aunt, Ann DeJesus Negron. “I mean, for me personally, I know it’s horrible because I would have never wished this on anyone, and we never wanted, of course, this for Iman, and we would never wanted this to happen to the officer at all, or anybody at all.”

The episode also cast the spotlight on the NYPD’s emergency services unit, a team of officers who deal with dozens of hostile scenarios every day, such as hostage situations, suicidal suspects, building collapses and hazardous materials threats.

“These guys are the best of the best, they really are,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “When people need help, they call the police, and when police need help, the call the ESU.”

O’Donnell said that even a mistake caught on camera shouldn’t take away from what the unit and the officers there do on a daily basis.

“You have a guy who made a mistake where there’s no allegation of malice or ill will,” he said. “And what happened after he made a mistake? He was named in the paper, shamed in the paper, suspended, and there was a strong story line that he could be criminal suspect.”

NYPD officers are allowed to use Tasers if they believe emotionally disturbed people are a danger to themselves or to others. The department uses stun guns about 300 times on average. So far this year, stun guns have been used 180 times.

The department has used Tasers since 1984, but policy previously called for sergeants to store the stun guns in their trunks while patrolling.

“It is worth remembering that our police officers are not super men, but rather flesh-and-blood human beings who deal with life-and-death situations that most of us cannot even imagine on a daily basis,” said Thomas Sullivan of Lieutenants Benevolent Association. “They deserve a kind thought and the benefit of the doubt for all the good that they try to do, especially when things do not work out exactly as we would have hoped for.”

Pigott was a licensed pilot and a motor boat operator. He had worked as a lieutenant in ESU since 2002, and previously served as a lieutenant in a Brooklyn precinct and as a sergeant in precincts that covered Queens neighborhoods.

Former Communist dictator says Polish martial law was “unavoidable evil”

Pope John Paul II meets with the dictator of Poland Gen Jaruzelski June 17, 1983 at the height of his totalitarian regime.

Martial Law paved the way for democracy claims Jaruzelski

Reuters | Oct 2, 2008

By Gareth Jones and Gabriela Baczynska

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, told a court on Thursday his decision in 1981 to declare martial law was a necessary “evil” that averted disaster and prepared the way for democracy.

At the third hearing in his long-delayed trial, Jaruzelski, 85, also said the case brought against him and seven other communist-era officials was biased and politically motivated.

“I constantly state that martial law saved Poland from looming catastrophe. Martial law was evil, but it was a far lesser evil than what would have happened without it,” Jaruzelski said in his lengthy defense statement.

He and the other defendants are accused of illegally declaring martial law and of major human rights violations.

The general has often argued the 1981 decision spared Poland, a country of 38 million people, the kind of Soviet military intervention that crushed pro-democracy supporters in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Under martial law, which lasted until 1983, dozens of people were killed, hundreds were jailed and the anti-communist Solidarity trade union was banned.

Jaruzelski, who was both prime minister and communist party chief, opened talks with Solidarity leaders after martial law was lifted, starting a process that led to the fall of communism in 1989. He served as president during the transition period, standing down in 1990.

The National Remembrance Institute (IPN), which holds communist-era files, says Jaruzelski’s government was a “criminal group.” Seven other communist-era officials are on trial with Jaruzelski over their role under martial law.

Wearing his trademark dark glasses and speaking in a firm voice interrupted only by occasional coughing fits, Jaruzelski said he regretted Poles’ suffering during martial law.

“I am sorry. I grieve with regard mainly to the social costs of this dramatically difficult decision and those cases where particular people suffered,” he said.

“I don’t pretend I was somebody I wasn’t. I was close to the ideology of socialism, as well as to the growing awareness of the need to change the system… while preserving Poland’s territorial integrity.”

Jaruzelski said Solidarity’s later triumph was made possible by his own “pragmatic” decisions during and after the state of martial law, adding that he hoped his trial would help Poles to overcome disagreements over their recent history.

“It is important that history doesn’t continue to divide Poles for ever… History and the question of who is right are complicated and cannot be seen in terms of black and white.”

It is not clear how long the trial will run and many procedural delays are expected, not least because of the advanced age and health problems of the defendants.

“I don’t know who, if any of us, will witness the end of this trial,” Jaruzelski told the court.

Related

Wojciech Jaruzelski
In 1968, during the Prague Spring, he led the Polish military participation in the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1970, he took part in organizing the suppression of striking workers, which led to massacres in the coastal cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin. On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland. According to his explanation, this action was intended to prevent a threat of Soviet invasion. Lawyers hold that the circumstances of the martial law were even in violation of the communist constitution. Most former opposition members argue that it was merely an action by the Polish communist regime to retain power and strangle the newly born and developing civil society. On March 31, 2006, the IPN charged him with committing Communist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organisation with the aim of conducting crimes (mostly concerned with the illegal imprisonment of people).

Rothschild criticizes City of London for lack of ethics

Rothschild: Banks turned a blind eye to sub-prime

This is Money | Oct 2, 2008

by Jonathan Prynn and Hugo Duncan

One of the banking world’s most respected grandees criticised the City today and called for a massive overhaul of regulation.

Sir Evelyn de Rothschild said there had been a collapse in ethical standards among banks in recent years, which had been ignored by watchdogs, rating agencies, shareholders and accountants.

The 77-year-old head of the banking dynasty issued a sombre warning that the crisis would get worse before it gets better. ‘We should not be under any illusion in this country that sub-prime is only an American problem,’ he said.

It came as another senior City figure, private equity boss John Moulton, said it could take seven years for the British economy to recover from the crisis that has brought the world’s financial system to its knees.

The outspoken comments were made on another day of grim economic news pointing to increasing damage to the ‘real economy’ from the credit meltdown.

A survey from the Bank of England suggested that banks plan to rein back their lending to families and small businesses over the coming months.

The report said: “In the three months to mid-September, lenders reported that they had reduced the availability of credit to households and corporates by more than had been expected three months ago. Lenders anticipated additional reductions in credit availability in the next three months.’

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There were also bad figures from the construction industry, record falls in house prices reported by the Nationwide-and a six per cent fall in sales from Marks & Spencer.

The only good news was that City economists now believe that a cut in the Bank of England’s base rate to avert a slide into a deep and long lasting recession is likely. That would cut the rate from 5% to 4.75%, bringing instant financial relief to millions of borrowers on tracker mortgages.

But the worsening economic outlook increased recriminations over how the City landed the economy in such a mess.

Sir Evelyn, speaking on Radio Five Live, accused the banking community, including the regulators, of turning a blind eye to the explosion in the British sub-prime mortgage market.

He also declared that investors in the banks should have acted to control bankers’ pay and the risk-taking of management. ‘What are shareholders for? I think shareholders have not been speaking up.’

He added: ‘You can also look to the accountants. It is their job to dig deep into the accounts and assess the risks a bank is taking. I mean, some of these American banks were 20 to 30 times leveraged - that is something I have never heard of.’

De Rothschild said the only way out of the crisis was to improve regulation and license anybody involved in financial services.

The veteran financier, who has seen many crises, added: ‘You have to have regulators who are properly paid and who properly understand the situation. And you should have a licensing system like you have in pubs where if you break the rules, they take away your licence.’

McCain: “I Always Aspire To Be A Dictator”

The fact that McCain said he yearned to be a dictator without so much as cracking a smile makes the comment all the more disturbing especially in comparison to similar sentiments expressed at least three times by George W. Bush.

Prison Planet | Oct 1, 2008

by Paul Joseph Watson

During an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board yesterday, John McCain - presumably making an attempt at humor - said with a completely straight face that he aspired to be a dictator, while decrying the Congressional rejection of the bailout bill.

“I just want to make a comment about the obvious issue and that is the failure of Congress to act yesterday. Its just not acceptable,” said McCain. “This is just a not acceptable situation. I’m not saying this is the perfect answer. If I were dictator, which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.”

McCain has urged the Bush administration to bypass the will of Congress and invoke executive orders to pass the bailout bill, along with a further $1 trillion dollar spend on buying up bad mortgage debt.

McCain’s senior economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin has also called on the executive branch to ignore Congress and force through the bailout legislation, which was voted down on Monday.

Another senior economic advisor to McCain, Phil Gramm, vice chairman of UBS’s US division and a lobbyist for UBS, successfully pushed for foreign banks to be included in the bailout plan after they were initially excluded.

The fact that McCain said he yearned to be a dictator without so much as cracking a smile makes the comment all the more disturbing especially in comparison to similar sentiments expressed at least three times by George W. Bush.

Bush infamously said, “If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator,” during a December 2000 speech.

He also remarked, “A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it,” in a July 2001 Business Week interview.

When Bush was Governor of Texas in 1998 he stated, “You don’t get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier.”

Russia’s Dissident Bloggers Fear for Their Lives

The gunshot death of a Web journalist heightens alarm about efforts to muzzle dissent on the Internet

US News | Sep 30, 2008

By  Alastair Gee

MOSCOW—A new chill is spreading among Russian bloggers following the death of the journalist-owner of an opposition website.

While opposition viewpoints are rarely presented in Russian newspapers these days (and even less frequently on television), the Internet has remained a place where Russians of all ideological stripes are able to express themselves.

But following the mysterious death of Web journalist Magomed Yevloyev and the prosecution of disaffected bloggers, there are fears that authorities are trying to squeeze shut that remaining outlet for freewheeling debate.

The issue came sharply into focus with the August 31 killing of Yevloyev, the founder of a popular site called Ingushetia.org that reports on human rights abuses in the restive southern Russian region of Ingushetia.

After he landed at the airport in the Ingushetian town of Nazran, a police convoy picked him up. Less than an hour later, he was delivered to the hospital with a fatal bullet wound to his head. Prosecutors have suggested the shooting was an accident, perhaps the result of Yevloyev trying to grab an officer’s gun, though his supporters say it was punishment for his muckraking site. “It was a premeditated murder,” concludes Musa Pliyev, a lawyer for Ingushetia.org.

Russians have enjoyed unfettered freedom of speech on the Internet—the news site run by opposition head Garry Kasparov serves up stinging criticism of the state, while Russian bloggers of every political persuasion congregate on LiveJournal.

And there have been grand promises that the Internet will remain unrestricted, such as a June pronouncement by President Dmitry Medvedev that it should be protected from interference by authorities.

But according to activists, interference is already a fact.

Andrei Richter, head of Moscow’s Media Law and Policy Institute, says there is no nationwide offensive such as China’s Golden Shield Project, sometimes called the Great Firewall of China, which blocks access to a raft of news and blogging sites.

However, Russia’s regional administrations are taking the initiative and charging bloggers who criticize the regime. They’re “testing the waters, seeing which statutes work better in regulating the Internet,” Richter says. “It’s a very dangerous trend.”

Russia’s rulers ostensibly have little reason to worry about Net users. United Russia, the political party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Medvedev, overwhelmingly dominates parliament and the country’s political discourse, and Russians are happy with their increased affluence under Putin.

Still, that support could fade if, say, Russia’s economy were to falter. “Now the government is realizing that the Internet is becoming political,” says Clothilde le Coz, head of the Internet desk at Reporters Without Borders in Paris. “It’s a means for people to gather and spread a message, for example against the government, and that’s a problem.”

Ingushetia.org, founded in 2001, documents abuses that rights organizations say are endemic in Ingushetia, in particular graft, and the abduction and killing of residents by security forces. Authorities often justify the killings in the name of a struggle with separatists and Islamists, although there has been a backlash. The Moscow Helsinki Group, a nongovernmental watchdog group, warned this month that Ingushetia is verging on a civil war.

Ingushetia.org frequently ranks as one of Russia’s most-viewed sites. “We’re the only site that talks about what is really going on in Ingushetia,” says Roza Malsagova, its editor-in-chief, who oversees five editors and around 10 freelancers.

In recent years, Ingushetia.org’s employees have come under increasing pressure.

The president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, has said the site aims to destabilize the region and accused it of “publishing materials of an extremist, anti-Russian bent.”

Ingushetia.org’s editors and lawyers have been subject to criminal charges and searches and are treated with deep suspicion; they communicate with each other using the Internet because they say their calls are monitored.

In April, a court ordered that the site, which formerly used the Russian domain “.ru” and was called Ingushetiya.ru, be shut down for inciting racial hatred. The site’s lawyers said last week that a regional organization that manages domain names deleted its registration, though it immediately reappeared using the .org suffix.

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Brown, Merkel May Be Pushed Into Paulson-Type Bailout

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be forced to advocate a comprehensive approach of the kind U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are urging Congress to pass.

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“The gods of the markets are punishing those who showed hubris,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York.

Bloomberg | Sep 30, 2008

By Simon Kennedy

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — European politicians are discovering what cometh after pride.

A week after lambasting the U.S. for allowing its banks to run out of money and after resisting calls to set up their own rescue mechanisms, leaders across Europe yesterday bailed out banks from Belgium, Germany and the U.K. Dexia SA today received aid from France and Belgium, while Ireland’s government said it would guarantee bank deposits and debt for two years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be forced to advocate a comprehensive approach of the kind U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are urging Congress to pass. The two Americans turned to a broad package after early attempts to deal with each financial-institution crisis individually didn’t work.

“The gods of the markets are punishing those who showed hubris,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. “Europe has been bashing the U.S., but it’s realizing now it has its own problems.”

Paulson encountered difficulties yesterday when the House of Representatives voted down the $700-billion plan by a 228 to 205 margin. The failure to pass the legislation sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its biggest decline since the 1987 crash. Paulson said he will work with Congress to salvage the proposal. Lawmakers may take up the measure again this week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

`No Choice’

“The Americans have no choice. We must have a comprehensive solution,” European Central Bank council member Christian Noyer said on RTL radio today. “I’m counting on a solution coming very soon.”

Yesterday, the British Treasury seized Bradford & Bingley Plc, the U.K.’s biggest lender to landlords, hours after the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to inject 11.2 billion euros ($16.1 billion) into Fortis, Belgium’s biggest financial-services firm, in return for minority stakes. Germany guaranteed a 35 billion-euro loan to property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG.

Investors will dump shares of the continent’s banks and keep borrowing costs elevated if leaders don’t coordinate a solution, Lena Komileva, an economist at Tullett Prebon Plc, the second-biggest broker of transactions between banks, said in London.

`Clear Message’

“The U.S. experience should send a clear message to Europe that you need a contingency plan,” said Komileva. “The fact there still isn’t one will focus investors on the vulnerability of Europe’s economy and financial system.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged yesterday to support that country’s banks, paving the way for the 6.4 billion euro state-backed rescue for Dexia, the world’s biggest lender to local governments. He met today with executives from banks and insurers and said he will announce measures next week to address the crisis. Peer Steinbrueck, Merkel’s finance minister, yesterday called his country’s package “the biggest bank bailout in German history.”

When Paulson asked European leaders on Sept. 21 to “do similar things” as he was with the bailout package, the response wasn’t enthusiastic.

Steinbrueck said the U.S. would lose its status as the “superpower of the global financial system” and that the “Anglo-Saxon” model of banking had “an exaggerated fixation on returns.” Sarkozy decried the “mad system” that sparked the meltdown in New York on Sept. 23. And U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said the situation required “not a knee-jerk reaction, but a measured response.”

Rhetoric `Backfiring’

“The European rhetoric is backfiring as its own banking system comes under pressure,” said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at Unicredit MIB in London.

Last yesterday, Brown told reporters “we will continue to take whatever steps are necessary” to ensure financial stability.

Europe’s leaders may have been foolhardy to think their banks would avoid the fallout. Of the $591 billion in losses and writedowns recorded by global banks since the start of 2007, 39 percent are accounted for by European institutions.

At the same time, economists at Citigroup Inc. said in a report yesterday that European banks, with lower profits and interest margins than those in the U.S., have “less cushion to absorb financial strains and losses.”

National Needs

In theory, the 27-nation EU should be a means of coordinating policy. The bloc has unified laws on trade and labor standards. But reaching a consensus requires agreement among 27 capitals, many juggling their own political needs.

Budget deficits also limit Europe’s firepower. Barclays Capital estimates that of the large economies, only Germany, the biggest, has the fiscal room to finance a U.S.-like plan.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, will unveil legislation this week aimed at strengthening bank monitoring across borders. It may let national authorities set capital requirements for their lenders operating in multiple countries, according to a draft obtained by Bloomberg News.

So far, though, governments have agreed only to knit supervision closer together by 2012 and pledged to cooperate in managing a crisis. They have also resisted devising a formula for splitting the bill should a cross-border bailout become necessary.

Cross-Border Reach

“We have been for a long number of years trying to get some kind of European supervisory authority for those institutions that have cross-border reach,” EU Financial Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said yesterday in Dublin. “It is particularly difficult to get agreement among member states who want to preserve control of supervision.”

The ECB, which oversees monetary policy in the 15 nations sharing the euro, gives Europe one way of acting multilaterally. It joined the Fed, the Bank of England and other counterparts yesterday in injecting another $630 billion into the global financial system through currency swaps.

Politically, some European officials maintain they are equipped to deal with the crises. Dutch central bank governor Nout Wellink said in an interview yesterday that Fortis’s rescue shows “that cross-border issues can be solved by respective governments.”

Still, Greg Fuzesi, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London, noted that Dutch and Belgian authorities already had a support agreement in place, making Fortis “a special case.” It remains “less clear whether European policy makers could agree and implement a system-wide fiscal package,” he told clients.

Bank Liabilities

Ireland’s decision to protect liabilities of about 400 billion euros for two years may be followed by other countries, economists said.

Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, says European governments ultimately will have to put capital into their banks, which he calculates are more leveraged than their U.S. rivals.

“These are highly leveraged institutions which need to have support from the public purse,” said Gros. He suggested that governments assign the European Investment Bank, the EU’s financing arm, with the job of infusing 250 billion euros to support the region’s banks, in return for an equity stake.

Related

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence
Chart 1 reveals the linear connection between the Rothschilds and the Bank of England, and the London banking houses which ultimately control the Federal Reserve Banks through their stockholdings of bank stock and their subsidiary firms in New York. The two principal Rothschild representatives in New York, J. P. Morgan Co., and Kuhn,Loeb & Co. were the firms which set up the Jekyll Island Conference at which the Federal Reserve Act was drafted, who directed the subsequent successful campaign to have the plan enacted into law by Congress, and who purchased the controlling amounts of stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1914. These firms had their principal officers appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Advisory Council in 1914. In 1914 a few families (blood or business related) owning controlling stock in existing banks (such as in New York City) caused those banks to purchase controlling shares in the Federal Reserve regional banks. Examination of the charts and text in the House Banking Committee Staff Report of August, 1976 and the current stockholders list of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks show this same family control.

Bush Sr presents Gorbachev with Liberty Medal at National Constitution Center

“The Soviet strategy of ‘perestroika’ must be exposed because it is deceptive, aggressive and dangerous. Gorbachev and ‘glastnost’ have failed to reveal that ‘perestroika’ is a world-wide political assault against the Western democracies…. It must be revealed that ‘perestroika’ is … not just Soviet domestic renewal but a strategy for ‘restructuring’ the whole world…. Gorbachev’s renunciation of ideological orthodoxy is not sincere or lasting, but a tactical manoeuvre in the cause of the strategy. The Soviets are not striving for genuine, lasting accommodation with the Western democracies but for the final world victory of Communism…”

- Anatoliy Golitsyn, The Perestroika Deception 1990

“In October, 1917 we parted with the Old World, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a New World, a world of Communism. We shall NEVER turn off that road.”

- Mikhail Gorbachev speech at the Kremlin in Moscow, Nov. 2, 1987

Former President George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev, old friends, shake hands after the presentation of the Liberty Medal.

Mikhail Gorbachev Receives 2008 Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center

Award presented by President George H.W. Bush

Earth Times | Sep 19, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Former Soviet leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev was presented with the National Constitution Center’s 2008 Liberty Medal tonight for his courageous role in ending the dangerous, decades-long Cold War and in giving hope and freedom to millions who lived behind the Iron Curtain. President Gorbachev accepted the prestigious Medal in a public ceremony at 7:00 p.m. at the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall in Historic Philadelphia.

During the ceremony, National Constitution Center President and CEO Joseph M. Torsella said the event would serve as a poignant reminder, nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, of how many victories Mikhail Gorbachev helped win for freedom, and how much courage it took.

“Tonight we honor a man who altered the direction of history and pointed it towards freedom. His actions encouraged freedom fighters old and new across Eastern Europe, and around the globe,” said Torsella. “And we will make some history of our own by bestowing the 20th Liberty Medal on Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, who reshaped our world for the better, for the freer. And whose life teaches us, above all, that none of us — not people and not nations — are prisoners of our past.”

As Mikhail Gorbachev said in his Nobel Lecture, “Steering a peaceful course is not easy in a country where generation after generation of people were led to believe that those who have power or force could throw those who dissent or disagree out of politics or even in jail. For centuries, all the country’s problems used to be finally resolved by violent means. I will never agree to having our society split once again into Reds and Whites, into those who claim to speak and act ‘on behalf of the people’ and those who are enemies of the people.’”

Former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev waves after receiving the 2008 Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center.

Fittingly, the Liberty Medal was presented to Gorbachev by President George H.W. Bush, Chairman of the National Constitution Center. While serving as President of the U.S., Bush’s friendship and political alliance with Gorbachev enabled the world’s two superpowers to peacefully end their decades-long rivalry. In fact, Gorbachev trusted and valued their friendship so much that, as the Soviet flag was being lowered for the final time at the Kremlin, the person he called was President Bush. Their partnership is symbolic of the way in which Gorbachev has transcended old animosities to spread the blessings of liberty.

President George H.W. Bush said that he and the Center’s Board of Trustees were proud to pay tribute to this year’s recipient. “It is a true honor for me to participate in this year’s Liberty Medal ceremony to celebrate the achievements of someone whom I consider a great world leader and a dear friend. Regardless of the dividing lines between us, President Gorbachev opened up new possibilities for the world to come together and solve its problems in the pursuit of liberty. When Eastern Europeans were living in the dark shadow of the Cold War, he provided a beacon of light. Now, almost twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are still witnessing the positive impact his efforts have had across the globe. President Gorbachev is always looking ahead at a better future and helping all of us work to get there.”

“Mikhail Gorbachev came of age when Russia was ruled by a totalitarian regime, but his thinking as a political leader broke free of this repressive straight-jacket,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “Caring about the freedom and prosperity of his people, he negotiated the end of the costly and dangerous Cold War and oversaw the demise of the very political system that brought him to power. He was a true agent of change on the global stage.”

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After becoming the youngest full member of the Politburo in 1980, Gorbachev was named General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1985, ready to make long overdue reforms in the Soviet system. For six years he pressed for democratization by promoting glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). These policies gave a voice to the people of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, resulting in an unprecedented extension of the freedoms of assembly, speech, and travel, as well as religious freedom. In 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine and allow the Eastern bloc nations to determine their own internal affairs. Gorbachev’s refusal to intervene militarily in Eastern European affairs gave hope to those struggling to end four decades of Soviet control.

Ultimately, his policies created the environment which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989. Gorbachev was elected as the first executive President of the Soviet Union in 1990. He was, wrote Lance Morrow in TIME, “a visionary enacting a range of complex and sometimes contradictory roles,” bringing the East closer to the West, acknowledging the power of the free market and religious expression, while managing a recalcitrant party establishment and attempting to revive a stagnant economy. The reforms he initiated had global implications, dramatically reducing East-West tensions and transforming geo-politics.

Gorbachev was also a tireless advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons, which led to the first major reduction of U.S. and Soviet weapons stockpiles. Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. In a move unprecedented in Soviet history, Gorbachev voluntarily resigned as leader of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time, he told President Bush that he wished to remain in public life to encourage “new thinking to prevail in world politics.” Keeping in line with this goal, he launched Green Cross International, a non-profit organization that focuses on global ecological law. Gorbachev fervently crusades for clean air and water, and against toxic wastes and chemical weapons, in addition to working with businesses, industry, and governments to make sustainable environmental policy a top global priority. He also serves as President of the Gorbachev Foundation, which conducts political and economic research, and promotes international exchange.

Established in 1988 by We the People 200 to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the Liberty Medal annually honors men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people across the world. The Liberty Medal was administered by the National Constitution Center for the first time in 2006, when Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were honored for their bi-partisan humanitarian efforts on behalf of the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. Last year’s Liberty Medal was awarded to Bono and DATA, the advocacy organization he co-founded to combat poverty and disease in Africa.

“Two of the twenty Liberty Medal recipients were significantly influenced by Gorbachev,” added Torsella. “Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel could not have become presidents of their countries if Gorbachev had not paved the way by abandoning the Brezhnev Doctrine. His refusal to interfere in the domestic politics of Eastern Europe allowed for these great men to triumph in their pursuits of liberty.”

Other past Liberty Medal winners include Nelson Mandela, Shimon Peres, Kofi Annan, and Sandra Day O’Connor. The Medal has also been awarded to organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and CNN International. Six former recipients of the Medal have subsequently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Liberty Medal ceremony was broadcast live on CBS 3 and webcast live on www.constitutioncenter.org and www.cbs3.com. The CW Philly 57 will rebroadcast the ceremony on Thursday, September 18 at 10:00 p.m. CBS 3 (KYW-TV) and The CW Philly 57 (WPSG-TV) are part of CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation.

Ira Lubert and Independence Capital Partners renewed their support for the Liberty Medal ceremony and co-sponsored the Liberty Medal Award in 2008. The Liberty Medal was also generously supported by the Hamilton Family Foundation. Citizens Bank was the presenting sponsor for the President’s Reception prior to the Liberty Medal ceremony. This is the third consecutive year that Citizens Bank has partnered with the Center for the Liberty Medal.

The Liberty Medal was also supported by the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The National Constitution Center, located at 525 Arch St. on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of the U.S. Constitution and the ideas and values it represents. The Center serves as a museum, an education center, and a forum for debate on constitutional issues. The museum dramatically tells the story of the Constitution from Revolutionary times to the present through more than 100 interactive, multimedia exhibits, film, photographs, text, sculpture and artifacts, and features a powerful, award-winning theatrical performance, “Freedom Rising”.

The Center also houses the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach, which serves as the hub for national constitutional education. Also, as a nonpartisan forum for constitutional discourse, the Center presents — without endorsement — programs that contain diverse viewpoints on a broad range of issues. For more information, call 215.409.6700 or visit www.constitutioncenter.org.

Past Recipients of the Liberty Medal

2007 Bono and DATA (joint prize)

2006 George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton, former U.S. Presidents (joint prize)

2004 Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan

2002 Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

2001 Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General*

2000 Dr. James Watson and Dr. Francis Crick, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA (joint prize)

1997 CNN International

1996 King Hussein I of Jordan and Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel (joint prize)

1993 F.W. de Klerk, President of South Africa* and Nelson Mandela, President of the African National Congress* (joint prize)

1990 Jimmy Carter, former U.S. President*