Iran: Nuclear secrets spilled, panic button pressed ...

WND/ By Reza Kahlili*

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is convening an emergency meeting Monday of his cabinet and others from the Supreme National Security Council over WND’s revelation of the Islamic regime’s secret nuclear facility.

The exclusive WND report on Jan. 7 said the secret facility is in Khondab near the city of Arak in central Iran.

DigitalGlobe Sept. 2012 - Khondab secret nuclear facility

According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit with access to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran is scrambling to find out who leaked the information. The regime is concerned about international ramifications of yet another secret site being exposed amid pressure and sanctions by the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency ‘s request for inspection and clarification over illicit nuclear activities. The source is the same person who revealed the site’s existence.

The regime has twice been caught red-handed with its covert nuclear activity – in 2002 when its Natanz enrichment facility was exposed and in 2009 with the exposure of the Fordo underground nuclear facility near the city of Qom.

Upon the revelation of the Khondab site on WND, Ahmadinejad issued two directives, according to the source – one to Heydar Moslehi, the head of the Ministry of Intelligence, and another to Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, the head of the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization – requesting immediate investigation into the leak.

The source added that the Intelligence Ministry, which oversees the activity of all employees in the Iranian nuclear program, has begun questioning workers in Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization through its Herasat, an internal security force.

The regime fully knows, the source said, that any revelation of its secret nuclear activity under current circumstances will destroy its claim of peaceful nuclear activity and will embolden Israel’s position internationally that the regime is lying about its activity and that it needs to be confronted immediately.

According to the source, the Khondab facility houses over 2,000 centrifuges that are enriching uranium for Iran’s nuclear bomb program. More cascades of centrifuges are being made operational to add to its capacity.

DigitalGlobe images of the site have been given to organizations that specialize in Iran’s illicit nuclear program for further analysis. However, a retired imagery analyst who cannot be named has looked at two of the images and confirms that the imagery shows “a large surface installation showing characteristics of supporting a co-located underground facility.”

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA analyst and executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board to Congress, said, “The imagery clearly shows some kind of highly sensitive and fortified installation supporting a deep underground facility inside the mountain.”

DigitalGlobe Sept. 2012 - Entrances to the underground facility

The Atomic Energy Organization’s Abbasi-Davani, in a memorial ceremony on Jan. 10 for the assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, said the regime continues to enrich uranium to the 20-percent level at both Natanz and Fordo. The 20-percent enriched stock could within weeks be further enriched to weaponization grade.

“We will not accept anything beyond the (Non-proliferation Treaty) framework,” Abbasi-Davani said. “We will not answer undocumented claims. We will (only) respond to the documents we get from them that we find acceptable.”

The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has for months requested access to Iran’s Parchin military site, where it is believed that tests took place on the trigger for an atomic bomb. Regime officials have so far refused, even as satellite images show that Iran has for months started cleaning up the test site.

The latest IAEA report last November stated that the regime has expanded its enrichment program, with over 10,000 centrifuges enriching uranium at Natanz and over 2,700 centrifuges at Fordo.

Though Iran is under severe sanctions by the United Nations, United States and the European Union for its illicit nuclear program, it currently has enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs if further enriched and is working with North Korea on its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, WND’s source said Syria has started shipping uranium from Syria to Iran. And according to a Reuters report, Western and Israeli security experts indicate that Syria may have as much as 50 tons of unenriched uranium.

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*Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/iran-has-crisis-meeting-over-wnds-nuke-story/#p1LrzVGRwPG3UHFI.99

Hagel's Cuba problem

washingtonpost 

By Jennifer Rubin
Much of the focus on Chuck Hagel’s record has been on his views on Israel, Iran and sequestration. Equally troubling to those who have taken a forceful stand against Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba, however, has been his dismissive attitude toward the Castros  and his enthusiasm to end the U.S. embargo with no quid pro quo.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has already expressed serious concerns about Hagel’s views on Cuba. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), former chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and  now chairman of the Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, put out a statement objecting to Hagel and citing his views on Iran, Israel and Cuba:

During his time in Congress, Senator Hagel supported legislation that would have provided a lifeline to the decrepit Castro regime that for the last half a century has exploited the Cuban people and posed a severe security threat to the U.S. . . . In a time of regional turmoil and rogue regimes, our Secretary of Defense must remain strong on sanctions against Iran, never abandon our allies, like Israel, and stand up to dictators like the Castro brothers who seek to oppress the voices of democracy and freedom

At times Hagel has seemed entirely clueless about Fidel Castro’s role in the region. Frank Calzon, who head the Center for a Free Cuba, told me in a telephone interview on Friday afternoon, “I respect him like any other senator. But apparently he is not very well informed. To the extent he has been aware, he has underestimated the Cuba situation.”

In 2002 the Omaha World Herald reported: “Otto Reich, the State Department’s assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere, last week laid out a case against overtures to Cuba and its longtime president, Fidel Castro. ‘Castro has supported terrorist groups in every country in this hemisphere except Mexico,’ Reich told reporters Thursday. ‘So he is a terrorist.’ Sen. Chuck Hagel, a main sponsor of Senate legislation to lift economic sanctions on Cuba, countered Reich on Friday, saying that to term Castro a threat is ‘just goofy.’ ‘This is a toothless old dinosaur,’ the Nebraska Republican added.”

Hagel has worked assiduously in favor of lifting the trade embargo, calling the policy “outdated, unrealistic, irrelevant policy.” And he was instrumental in blocking legislation to grant Elian Gonzales citizenship.

The Castro regime, of course, has grown increasingly close to the Iranian regime and has allied itself with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. In seizing and imprisoning an American, Alan Gross, it has advocated a swap with the so-called Cuban five spies (a position strenuously opposed by the U.S. Senate).

Calzon pointed out, “Jimmy Carter like Hagel felt it was for lack of trying that relations were so dismal.” But of course, this ignores outreach efforts under the Ford, Carter, Clinton and Bush administrations. Each solicitation has been met with aggressive action. Although President Carter set up a large interests section in Cuba, Castro responded by unleashing the Mariel boatlift. Cuban troops were also dispatched to Angola in one of the Cold War’s most prominent standoffs. President Obama relaxed travel and remittance restrictions, only to see Alan Gross be tried and imprisoned.

Calzon told me, “I don’t have a crystal ball. But in general I expect [Hagel] would continue to subscribe to the views he has held for years.” He contends that Hagel “will not present different views” to President Obama, who has already been inclined to follow the Carter approach to Cuba. Calzon is quite certain, having studied Cuba for decades, how the Castro regime will respond. “The Cubans will celebrate having Hagel in the Pentagon, ” he told me. ” Not only will they see that as a sign of weakness but as an invitation to push the envelope. Instead of reducing the chance of conflict, the opposite is true.”

Hagel’s views on Cuba put Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the most ardent opponents of lifting the trade embargo, in a tough spot. Last June at a hearing he grilled the administration’s assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, saying, “The Cuban people are no less deserving of America’s support than the millions who were imprisoned and forgotten in Soviet gulags. I am compelled to ask again today — as I have before — why is there such an obvious double standard when it comes to Cuba?” He has repeatedly vowed to block measures to lift the travel and trade bans. (In 2010, he declared: “Repression is repression and dictatorships are dictatorships, no matter where they are located or whether you want to use their resorts.”) Now he will be faced with a nominee who not only has worked strenuously for those positions, but seems to be willfully dismissive of the nature of the Castro regime.

Menendez, who also has been a robust supporter of sanctions on Iran, would have to sublimate his views on Israel, Iran and especially Cuba and cede his role as a Democratic Senate leader for a tough-minded national security policy if he rolls over for the president’s nominee. Aside from boosting a lame-duck president, why would he want to do that? We’ll find out soon.

Canciller ruso: La marcha de Assad como precondición para el diálogo es imposible

Aaron Swartz's Death And There Are Some Questions That Need To Be Answered

businessinsider

Flickr/Creative Commoners

Henry Blodget 

I didn't know anything about Aaron Swartz until he killed himself two days ago.

Since then, thanks to the outpouring of emotion over his death, I've learned a lot.

I've learned enough to know that Swartz's death is a big loss not just to those who knew him and loved him but to the community at large. The number of amazing things that Swartz was involved in during his short life—RSS, Reddit, campaigns against the Internet censorship bills SOPA and PIPA, et al—suggests that he might have gone on to do much, much more.

I've also learned enough to know that some serious questions need to be answered about the legal situation that Swartz was involved in.

After his death, Swartz's family and friends said the behavior of the U.S. Attorney, who was prosecuting Swartz for an alleged criminal hacking incident, contributed to his suicide.

That's a serious charge, one that would weigh heavily on the conscience of any fair person involved in the prosecution. So for the sake of both sides, it needs to be investigated.

(To be fair, there's no way that the prosecutors bear the full responsibility here, no matter how they behaved. Life isn't fair. And millions of people have gotten through tougher situations than the one Swartz was facing.)

Lawrence Lessig, the noted Harvard professor and legal scholar, concurs with Swartz's family, saying that Swartz was a victim of prosecutorial "bullying," in which a prosecutor was taking what appears to have been a relatively minor transgression and using it to brand Swartz as a "criminal felon" and force him to plead guilty to multiple felonies.

Other writers, such as Jonathan Blanks, have already cited the case as another instance of prosecutorial overreach and described the reality that prosecutors are endowed with an extraordinary amount of power but are not incented to use that power to be fair and reasonable. Rather, they are incented to prosecute those whom they, in their sole discretion, regard as criminals—and get convictions. And this incentive system leads some prosecutors to overreach—bring cases they shouldn't, or use their power too harshly—without having enough respect for the lives of those they prosecute.

After reading these essays, I read the prosecutor's indictment of Swartz.

In 2011, Swartz was charged with multiple felonies after downloading millions of academic papers from the online repository JSTOR—a service that aggregates these papers and makes them available for a modest fee to institutions and individuals. Based on the prosecutors' description of this incident—a description that has not yet been established as fact—there's no question that Swartz did something unethical and, probably, illegal.  He accessed a network he was not entitled to access, hid his real identity, changed his digital identity multiple times once his actions were discovered and blocked, and knew he was doing something wrong.  But there's a far cry between "unethical" and "13 felonies" punishable by a long prison sentence, especially when the items that Swartz downloaded were mostly freely available academic papers.

This is where prosecutorial discretion comes in.

And that's where we enter a part of our legal process that is often unfamiliar to those who haven't had firsthand experience with it.

Our legal system is a so-called "adversarial system." It pits one side, prosecutors, against the other side, defendants. If a case goes to trial, each side has an opportunity to make its case. And then a neutral party, a judge or jury, decides who is right.

Our legal system is a good system. If you haven't taken a moment to appreciate the fact that, in America, you 1) have the right to "have your day in court" and 2) your day in court has a reasonable chance of being a relatively fair hearing, you should do so now. People in many countries do not have these things. And the amount of injustice that is dispensed in these countries would make any fair person cringe.

But just because our system is good doesn't mean it is perfect.

Our system does not always "get it right." (No system does.)  And our system can be unfair in ways that are not always obvious to those who haven't been through the process.

When a prosecutor decides to charge someone with a crime, the prosecutor immediately puts that person's normal life on hold. The prosecutor also forces the person to either 1) cut a deal, or 2) defend him or herself in court.

If you are guilty of the prosecutors' charges, this decision is easy: You plead guilty and cut a deal.

If you are not guilty, however, or guilty of much less serious infractions, you find yourself in an extraordinarily stressful and, to some extent, no-win situation.

Defending yourself in court is an extremely stressful, expensive, time-consuming, and risky proposition. Unless you choose to use a public defender, even small trials can cost astronomical amounts of money and take years to prepare for. (Lawrence Lessig tossed off the remark that Swartz's trial would be a "million-dollar" trial that had already depleted Swartz's modest wealth.)  Even if you win, you don't get your money, time, or reputation back. So it will be a Pyrrhic victory, regardless.

If you defend yourself and lose, meanwhile, your sentence is likely to be far more punitive than it would have been if you had just "taken responsibility for your actions" and cut a deal. For obvious reasons, judges and prosecutors look favorably on defendants who save the government money and time by not defending themselves. And these folks usually get a better deal.

All of this is logical. 

And if a fair-minded prosecutor who is completely convinced of a defendant's guilt brings fair charges and offers a reasonable deal prior to trial, then the system is working as it should.

The trouble comes when the prosecutor is not fair-minded. Or not certain of a defendant's guilt. Or does not bring fair charges. Or does not offer a reasonable deal.

In these cases, a defendant faces an even tougher choice:

• Either plead guilty to a crime(s) you didn't commit and/or accept a punishment that you know you don't deserve,

OR

• Defend yourself at the cost of immense stress, money, and time and risk losing and getting an even harsher punishment

The reality of our justice system, in other words, is that prosecutors don't just have the power to act as "adversaries." To a certain extent, by being able to bring major pressure to try to force a plea deal, they also have the power to act as judge and jury.

In Aaron Swartz's case, the U.S. Attorney had charged Swartz with 13 criminal felonies, including wire fraud,and the usual kitchen-sink crimes that seem to get tossed into any computer-related case.

If Swartz were to have been convicted of even some of these felonies, he would likely have faced many years in prison.

So his downside risk was huge.

If Swartz had considered himself to have committed these 13 felonies, he would likely have pleaded guilty and cut a deal.

So it seems safe to assume that Swartz did not believe he was guilty of 13 felonies. And it also seems safe to assume that he was not offered a plea deal that he could live with—either because the prosecutor was demanding that he plead guilty to crimes he didn't think he had committed and/or because the prosecutor was offering a sentence that Swartz thought was too harsh.

So the key questions that need to be answered are these:

• Were the allegations and charges brought against Swartz reasonable in light of what he actually did?
• Did the prosecutor offer a reasonable plea deal to Swartz?

Or, as Lessig and others suggest, was this a case in which a prosecutor decided to make an example of Swartz in hopes of claiming a high-profile scalp and furthering his own career?

(It would also be helpful to know what Swartz's motivations were in downloading the academic papers. He wasn't going to make a personal financial gain, clearly, so the action appears to have been motivated by an idealistic view that "information should be free and freely available" or some other philosophy that is common in some parts of the tech community, especially among younger people.)

Regardless of the answers to these questions, Aaron Swartz's death is a tragedy, and nothing that happens in the future will change that. And no matter how he was treated by prosecutors, there is no way that they deserve all of the blame for what happened. (Life isn't fair, and many people have survived far greater unfairness and injustice than this—if that's indeed what happened here.)

But especially because Swartz is no longer here to defend himself, and because the U.S. Attorney is being partially blamed for his death, we need to get the answers to these questions.

We owe both sides that.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-death-questions-2013-1#ixzz2HuSPefCv

China Newspaper: 'Prepare For The Worst' After Military Confrontation With Japan

businessinsider

China Defence Mashup/ The J-10 fighter

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, which made Tokyo scramble F-15s in response, China sent fighters of its own on Thursday into the East China Sea.  A Friday press release out of China confirms the incident began when Beijing was flying a Shaanxi Y-8 on a "routine Thursday patrol" over the "oil and gas fields in the East China Sea."
The fact that the aircraft was a Shaanxi Y-8 is interesting in that the Y-8 isn't necessarily any one particular aircraft.
The Diplomat calls the Y-8 a transport plane, and it can be, but the aircraft has more than 30 variants. The Y-8 performs everything from Mineral Research, to Geophysical Surveying, to Electronic Warfare to Intelligence Gathering and one variant is simply an innocuous but lethal fully loaded gunship, with two heavy cannons and three heavy machine guns.

Google Maps

Naha, Okinawa with bar scale and regional map inset (click to expand)

It's the perfect plane for a game of cat and mouse because if the Y-8 ever received fire from Japan's F-15s, China could simply maintain it was an unarmed transport model carrying troops, or the Y8-F model that carries only livestock. In the meantime, the plane can perform all manner of sophisticated tests on the seabed floor, while eavesdropping on Japanese communications. China has been flying these planes consistently lately to surveil the contested island chain that's supposed to hold billions in oil and gas reserves.
So, again, on Thursday Japan spotted aircraft in its Air Defense Identification Zone (above the islands) that it believed to be Chinese J-7 interceptors, along with some J-10 fighters whose combat abilities rival that of Western jets. Japan responded with two F-15s scrambled from Naha, Okinawa — just a couple hundred miles away. There are minor variations from either side about who sent what first, but all agree the aircraft met above the islands.
The Chinese planes scattered soon after, but this marked the first time China and Japan flung military assets at one another over the East China Sea island dispute. A line was crossed and staying behind it in the future will only be more difficult.

Google/ Air base Shuimen, China — disputed island chain — Naha, Japan

The U.S. assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell announced that he will be traveling to Seoul, and Tokyo. What he decides in Tokyo will filter south to Naha and the Japanese unit confronting the Chinese.
An interesting fact about Naha, aside from its proximity to the contested territory, is that while being fairly remote, it is also home to Alfred R. Magleby, a United States Consul General who holds a M.S. in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. This is appropriate, since the Naha Port (formerly Military) Facility is part of U.S. Forces Japan and the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is less than nine miles from where Japan's F-15s scrambled.
It looks like the islands everyone's talking about are a few dots in the middle of nowhere, but all of this is taking place close to the U.S. Consulate and a contingent of several thousand U.S. Marines whose former commanding general told Time in 2010: "All of my Marines on Okinawa are willing to die if it is necessary for the security of Japan."

In the future, when responding to China's fighter deployment, if Japan considers permitting its F-15 pilots to fire tracer bullets as warning shots against Chinese planes, it is now reasonable to assume that U.S. forces at Futenma may have an indirect say in that decision.

Firing tracers, which usually contain phosphorous or some highly flammable material, sends a line of light through the air like a laser. Tracers are usually loaded in about every tenth round to let gunners know where they're shooting, but in this case they would be fired to show Chinese pilots they're being fired upon.

An editorial in China's state-run Global Times called this possibility, "a step closer to war," warning a military clash is "more likely" while its people need to prepare "for the worst." With a U.S. presence so close at hand to where these Japanese decisions are being made, and tactical practices employed, we can hope for at least a bit of immediate tempering.

The Chinese jets are likely flying from air base Shuimen, built east of the islands in Fujian Province, not too much farther from the islands than Naha, Okinawa. So both sides have assets equally within reach of the islands.

Defense Updates One of the many variations of the Y-8

Satellite imagery of the base  came to light in 2009, and experts believe it was completed late last year. 

The Taipei Times reported in May 2012 that J-10 combat aircraft, Su-30 fighters, and various unmanned drones were arriving at the base.

In addition to aircraft, experts believe Russian made S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles ring the

airbase, providing some of the best missile protection in the world. The S-300 is comparable to the U.S. made Patriot missile recently sent to Turkey for its first line of missile defense against Syria.

The Shuimen airbase compliments China's East Fleet that maintains 35 ships in the region, including its newest warship the Type 054, seven submarines, and eight additional landing craft.

Among the subs are four Kilo-class diesel-electric Russian made submarines capable of the most advanced underwater warfare.

All of this located just 236 miles from the contested islands, which have been in dispute between Japan and China for some time. Han-Yi Shaw writes an interesting history of the dispute, for those interested in more background.

While the U.S. takes no official position on who owns the Islands, it would be expected to honor its U.S.-Japan security treaty signed in 1960.

Though this is a formal agreement that the U.S. will aid Japan if it comes under attack, there are few who believe the U.S. would risk a full-blown war with China over a few uninhabited islands, regardless of how much oil and gas lies beneath them.

But with a U.S. presence so closely intertwined in these events, and a contingent of Marines standing by, it seems that whatever happens could involve American input — one way or another.

Associated Press

What it's all about — or what's beneath them — the Senkaku Islands

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-fighter-jet-flights-diaoyu-senkaku-islands-2013-1#ixzz2Hu2VbCno

Obama to Push for One-Step, Sweeping Immigration Reform

foxnews

AP Photo

President Obama seems ready to tackle the illegal immigration issue in the coming months and push Congress to act promptly on comprehensive reform of U.S. policy, perhaps laying out his plan in the coming weeks.

The president and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in a comprehensive bill, compared to some Republicans who want a more step-by-step reform, according to The New York Times.

Democrats purportedly want a plan that includes a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

They also said last week they will oppose measures that stop immigrants who gain legal status from eventually becoming citizens.

Obama and Congress already face two pressing issues: likely gun-control legislation following the 26 killings last month at a Connecticut elementary school and three major fiscal issues – the debt ceiling, massive spending cuts known as sequestration and reaching a budget resolution.

The president could outline the detail of his plan in his State of the Union address next month, according to The Times.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/13/obama-to-push-for-comprehensive-immigration-reform-early-in-second-term/#ixzz2HtxZPONv

La Iglesia Ortodoxa de Castro vs Pastores por el Cambio

César  Duniet Serrano Palacios, pastor del Ministerio
 Evangélico y Profético Pastores por el Cambio, asediado
por miembros de la policía cuando predicaba en las calles
de la ciudad de Bayamo, Cuba.

cubarepresorid

  Denuncia César Duniet Serrano Palacios apostol del Movimiento Apostólico Profético Pastores por el Cambio a los obispos Samuel Ramos Sanfiel y Josué Ramos Sanfiel ambos son representantes de la Iglesia de Dios Ortodoxa en Cuba con sede en Holguín, Cuba.

Según César Serrano, ambos obispos se han encargado de promover, al igual que la seguridad del estado, el odio y acusar a los líderes y miembros de Pastores por el Cambio de ser MERCENARIOS Y PAGADOS POR LA CIA (Agencia Central de Inteligencia de los Estados Unidos) calificativos muy usados por los esbirros y simpasantes del régimen castrista contra los opositores y disidentes.

A estos obispos, continúa diciendo Serrano Palacios,  se les olvida que viajan y llegan a los Estados Unidos y se nutren de la economía norteamericana para servir a la tiranía castro terrorista que roba donaciones, como sucedió con la  que Pastores por el Cambio que consistía en una tonelada de alimentos y útiles que sus miembros aportaron para familias damnificadas por el huracán Sandy en la provincia Santiago de Cuba y que el régimen les arrebató en un aparatoso despliegue policial donde fueron detenidos varios miembros, humillados y finalmente robada la totalidad de la donación. Mas información: http://cubayatwittea.blogspot.com/2012/11/inaudito-la-dictadura-asalta-y-se-roba.html

Pastores por el Cambio es una organización religiosa, surgida en la ciudad de Bayamo, con rápido crecimiento en toda Cuba. Sus líderes son perseguidos, hostigados y amenazados por la dictadura castrista y sus funcionarios a través de la seguridad del estado y la policía porque defienden la libertad del pueblo cubano y denuncian los abusos, los maltratos y la represión.
Pastores por el Cambio  no se subordina a los dictámenes del Partido Comunista ni de su Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba.

#Cuba amenaza con bloquear 200 webs y blogs críticos

es un honor ser incluido en esa lista.
----------------------------

labalsadelamusa.over-blog.com

joanantoniguerrero

Diario de Cuba informa sobre la amenaza de Yohandry Fontana (cuenta de la Seguridad del Estado en Twitter) con el que intercambié hoy algunos tweets. Fontana sugirió que los Joven Club están evaluando la posibilidad de bloquear 200 espacios web y blogs, entre los cuáles este mismo blog, como respuesta a lo que llaman "censura" en Twitter.

La queja de censura política por parte del régimen es absurda y todavía es más absurda esta represalia que quiere tomar bloqueando webs y blogs críticos. 

Cristina se aloja en el hotel más caro del mundo (Fotos)

La presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner arribó  a Emiratos Árabes Unidos para iniciar una gira por Asia que también incluirá visitas Indonesia y Vietnam, donde se reunirá con sus pares y empresarios de esos países.

Cristina se alojará en una de las suites de último piso del Emirates Palace, el hotel que costó tres mil millones de dólares, el más caro del mundo. Puro oro y mármol, con habitaciones que van entre los 1.400 y 17.000 dólares por noche. Sin impuestos. Consultados Presidencia y el hotel sobre quién pagaba los gastos, ninguno respondió a Clarín.

Continuar leyendo en lapatilla >>

Family of web activist Swartz blasts prosecutors over his death

nbcnews

Michael Francis Mcelroy / Zuma Press

Aaron Swartz, a noted Internet freedom ''hacktivist,'' died Friday at his apartment. He was 26. He was due to begin a federal trial next month on charges he downloaded millions of academic papers and meant to distribute them for free.

By Isolde Raftery, Staff Writer, NBC News

In the 24 hours since Aaron Swartz, a prodigy programmer turned Internet folk hero, hanged himself in his New York apartment, his family and a close friend and mentor have not only expressed devastation – they have been angry.

“Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy,” his family wrote in a statement. “It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach.”

Swartz, who helped to create RSS at age 14, was indicted in 2011 on charges alleging he improperly downloaded more than four million articles from JSTOR, an online system for archiving academic journals. Swartz argued for transparency -- JSTOR costs more than $50,000 for an annual university subscription -- but court records show that the federal government believed he had, among other felonies, committed wire fraud and computer fraud and unlawfully obtained information from a protected computer.

JSTOR ultimately backed Swartz. But his family’s statement was unflinchingly critical of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Cambridge, Mass., university where Swartz had allegedly registered a ghost computer to download the records:

Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney's office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community's most cherished principles.

JSTOR paid tribute to Swartz in a statement on its front page, saying it regretted being drawn into the case because the organization's "mission is to foster widespread access to the world’s body of scholarly knowledge."

"At the same time, as one of the largest archives of scholarly literature in the world, we must be careful stewards of the information entrusted to us by the owners and creators of that content," the statement said. "To that end, Aaron returned the data he had in his possession and JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011."  

Swartz’s family described him as entirely committed to social justice. He helped to defeat an Internet censorship bill and “he used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place.”

Swartz, 26, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday, his family confirmed. 

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor who described himself as a mentor and close friend to Swartz, took to Tumblr to express his own raw emotions. He wrote that Swartz's actions may not have been ethical, but the government's response was overly aggressive:

From the beginning, the government worked as hard as it could to characterize what Aaron did in the most extreme and absurd way. The “property” Aaron had “stolen,” we were told, was worth “millions of dollars” — with the hint, and then the suggestion, that his aim must have been to profit from his crime. But anyone who says that there is money to be made in a stash of ACADEMIC ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar. It was clear what this was not, yet our government continued to push as if it had caught the 9/11 terrorists red-handed.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office told Reuters that officials wanted to respect the family's privacy and did "not feel it is appropriate to comment on the case at this time." Reuters and The Associated Press reported that they could not reach MIT for comment.

Lessig described Swartz as brilliant, funny, “a soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think?”

He concluded his piece: “We need to get beyond the ‘I’m right so I’m right to nuke you’ ethics that dominates our time. That begins with one word: Shame.”

Venezuela's Coup Made in Cuba

ver  Departió Raúl con importantes dirigentes venezolanos >>
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capitolhillcubans

By Dr. Carlos Ponce in Fox News Latino:

Venezuela's Coup Made in Cuba

Almost a month after his last public appearance and from his surgery to continue the treatment against an aggressive cancer, Hugo Chávez remains in intensive care in Cuba with multiple respiratory, abdominal and infectious complications.

Chávez never delegated power to his Vice President Nicolas Maduro, he only obtained a temporary permit to travel to Cuba, but he supposedly remained in total control of the presidency. Nobody knows the true extent of such delegation of duties or if Chávez is actually awake or has been in coma all this time.

The information provided by the regime has been more than contradictory. The only source of information has been the social media. If Chávez has been in a coma all this time, then we have been in the presence of people who usurped power and they have been running an illegal government.

Hugo Chávez was aware of the potential complications of this new surgery and he clearly said that in case he became unable to take oath on January 10th, or in case of his death, his chosen one to run for president was Nicolás Maduro.

And the Constitution in Venezuela is clear: the mandate began on January 10th, 2007 and ends January 10th, 2013, and if the elected president can’t take the oath that day the Assembly’s President assumes power temporarily and calls for new elections within a maximum of 30 days.

But for Cuba, which receives more than $10 billion a year plus other benefits from Venezuela, this is not acceptable. Fidel and Raúl Castro have been close friends and supporters of Chávez's regime for economic reasons. Thanks to Hugo Chávez and his fake revolution, the Cuban dictatorial regime has been able to survive this past decade. For Castro’s regime, the future of Chávez will also mark Cuba’s future.

The Castro brothers have become the conciliators and advisors of the two most powerful acolytes of Chávez as well as of some fractions from the military. Castro has been coordinating the meetings among Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuelan National Assembly, Vice President Maduro, Chávez’s family and some sectors of the military.

They also initiated an international lobby with Brazil and other countries to gather support for their plans on Venezuela. They have developed the thesis of the “continuation” of the government: for them the re-election of Chávez last October was just a confirmation or referendum of his regime, and for that reason he doesn’t need to be inaugurated or take the presidential oath.

Venezuela is far from been a democratic country. Hugo Chávez has been ruling the country in an authoritarian and abusive way, and the only quasi democratic side to it was that periodical general elections. Without those elections the country becomes a dictatorship. Neither Maduro nor Cabello were elected.

Chávez transformed Venezuela in his big circus but now the clowns have taken control of the circus. We don't know if they are keeping Chavez artificially alive just to keep control of the country; only an independent medical board can determine his current condition.

The alternatives for Chávez’s cronies are five: 1) Accept the impossibility for Chávez to return to power and call for an election in 30 days. In this case they may have a good chance to win due to the Chávez’s influence and memory, as well as the drama that would surround such an election; 2) Reduce Chávez’s sedation and mobilize the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal to inaugurate the new term in Cuba; 3) Keep control of the government by force;  4) Convince some members of the opposition of a transition regime; 5) The unconstitutional an undemocratic interpretation of the Constitution that would allow them to give Chávez a special permit of 90 days, renewable, to delay the inauguration.

They need the time to consolidate their power without Chávez and to buy more time in control of the institutions and cash flow, so they can also project themselves as the continuation of Hugo Chávez revolution. They also need more time for the campaign and to create the image of a possible government without Chávez but with Chávez ideals.

For the opposition, an election in 30 days will be a major tragedy because they don’t have a clear candidate. Even though the “Mesa de Unidad” has been playing an extraordinary role creating a coordinated effort among numerous opposition groups and parties, their ideological differences and their mutual suspiciousness are still a great challenge.

Sadly, Venezuela will face a major political, economic, institutional and social crisis in the upcoming months. Several countries and groups will try to control the game, but now it is a Pandora box, anything can happen.

If the democratic opposition begins to change Cuba’s game and become more active in developing alternatives and implementing a democratic fight, as well as implementing some strategic planning, the game can change in favor of recovering democracy in Venezuela.

Cuba: Exit Travel Restrictions Will Remain

capitolhillcubans

From Updated News:

After weeks in which passport applications surged and just days before the new policy takes affect, Cuba this week “began to increase the information about the update announced last October,” according to a story from the state-run Prensa Latina News Agency.

Specifically, the Labor and Social Security Ministry defined categories of Cubans whose travel would be restricted. They include those who may be “criminally prosecuted, are subject to military service or (are denied) for reasons of defense and national security.”

“Also on the list are citizens who have obligations with the state or are not authorized under rules designed to preserve the skilled workforce and protect official information,” read the Prensa Latina story.

It’s not clear, exactly, how sweeping these restrictions will be or why they were announced this week. Col. Lambert Fraga, deputy chief of Cuba’s immigration department, explained the government would exercise its prerogative “to protect the scientific, professional and technical fields, as well as key athletes who help the socio-economic development of the country.”

Such restrictions are necessary, Fraga told Prensa Latina, “to defend the supreme interests of society.”

Cuban barber died of cholera - Fear in Cuba as officials keep silent

BBC News, Havana

 

 Uvaldo Pino died after being taken to hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea

Uvaldo Pino was a neighbourhood barber in Cerro, one of the poorer and more overcrowded districts of Cuba's capital, Havana.

In late December, the 46-year-old fell sick with vomiting and diarrhoea and died in hospital on 6 January.

The barber's family say he had two separate tests and both came back positive - for cholera.

"We don't know how he was infected," his sister, Yanisey Pino, told the BBC at the family's home, a few blocks from the capital's Revolution Square.

"He was treated, he had all the medicine, but his organs didn't respond. It was too late."

Yanisey added that her brother was a heavy drinker and had checked himself out of hospital the first time he was admitted.

Food vendors are still out in force in the tourist heart of the Cuban capital

A week after Uvaldo's death, Cuba's health ministry has not yet made any public pronouncement. But there are increasing signs that the barber's case is not an isolated one.

'Dozens' of admissions

Doctors are now making door-to-door enquiries in Havana and anyone displaying possible cholera symptoms is being tested. Suspected cases are being sent to the Tropical Medicine Institute, the IPK.

"All our wards are dealing with this issue - they are almost full," an IPK employee told the BBC by telephone, before saying she was not authorised to comment further.

Another staff member, contacted later and also not authorised to speak to the media, said the IPK did not have any confirmed cases of cholera at this point.

But Yanisey Pino says her brother was diagnosed with cholera both by his local hospital and the IPK.

The day Uvaldo died, health workers visited the family where they live - in several cramped houses around a small yard. Relatives and neighbours were issued antibiotics as a precaution.

The area has been disinfected and water samples were taken for testing. Meanwhile, nearby bars and cafeterias have been closed or instructed not to sell food or drink that is not pre-packed.

Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, there are similar scenes.

One resident, Yudermis, fell sick just before the New Year, along with four other relatives including her seven-year-old son. The family assumed they had food poisoning but Yudermis says her cousin then tested positive for cholera at their local clinic.

"The health workers then came here asking questions, like if we had diarrhoea," she explains inside their rundown family home as her son, now fully recovered, plays nearby.

"They sent us all to hospital by ambulance and the tests came back positive.

"There were a lot of people at the IPK," Yudermis adds, describing dozens of admissions while she was being treated, and not all from her own district of Cerro.

"I was in a bad way. It was frightening. But we're fine now."

Before she fell sick, Yudermis had never even heard of cholera, which is rare in Cuba.

Cold grills

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes cholera as "extremely virulent". Carried by contaminated water or food, it causes severe dehydration through diarrhoea and can prove fatal if untreated.

Until last summer, there had been no significant outbreak on the island since well before the revolution.

But in July the health ministry confirmed that three people had died of cholera in the east of the country. A contaminated well was identified as the source.

In Havana, Cuba's bustling and crowded capital and a key tourist centre, strict measures are in place to contain the latest suspected outbreak.

"We can't sell anything that's not in sealed bottles until further notice and all food sales have been suspended," explains Tony, at the Cerro Moderno cafe, a short walk from the home of Yudermis. Its fridge is now empty and the grills cold.

Local doctors confirmed this is standard procedure for several blocks around every location where someone tests positive for cholera.

"If they take all the right measures, we'll be fine," Tony shrugs, adding that everyone has been given antibiotics as a precaution.

"I took my pills straight away!" says Angel, as he buys cigarettes at the cafe.

"I don't know what cholera is and I don't want to find out. People here are using chlorine and boiling their water. You have to take care."

Rumour mill

Pharmacies across the city are now selling water purification drops, rationed to two small bottles per person.

But in the tourist heart of Old Havana, cafes and restaurants remain open and the streets are still full of mobile food and drink vendors.

Most say they have heard rumours of a cholera outbreak in Cerro and are taking extra precautions, but none have received any official instructions.

The WHO stresses "public communication" as a key tool in controlling any cholera outbreak.

In Havana, that task has so far been left to local doctors who are very connected to their communities.

But as rumours fill the information void, concern on the streets is growing.

"I'm racking my brains trying to understand why there's nothing on TV about this," says Yanisey Pino, echoing many peoples' comments.

"Why don't they say something? Inform people, like in other countries, so they're not afraid and can protect themselves! But there's no information at all."

3D scan reveals fetal anatomy - inside and out

ReutersVideo/ A combination of scanning technologies developed in Brazil, is giving doctors and expectant parents the opportunity to examine their unborn babies in unprecedented detail, inside and out. The system can not only provide a three-dimensional tour through internal organs where abnormalities might exist, it can also produce a physical model of an unborn child for parents with impaired vision. Tara Cleary reports. 

Mass protests in Paris against gay marriage

Euronews

Thousands of activists have joined a mass demonstration in Paris against the French government's plans to legalise homosexual marriages and adoptions.

Strongly backed by the Catholic church, a coalition of opponents to the proposed legislation has descended on the French capital to march through the streets and make their voices heard.

One protester explained his reasons for taking part:
"There is no reason for two men to be married or for two women to be married. Civil unions were introduced about 10 years ago. There is no reason to change things."

Another stressed that the parenting issue is more crucial to him: "Where I do have questions is regarding adoption. I wouldn't want children to be lied to over adoption. For me a child should have a father and a mother."

During his presidential election campaign François Hollande pledged to push the legislation through by June and he has parliamentary support for the reforms.

Miss america 2013: Mallory Hagan

itnnews

We're now one step closer to America's coming civil war

foxnews

ozarkteaparty.com

By Arthur Herman 

The New Year has started with a monstrosity of a budget deal, one that proves that neither political party, Democrats or Republicans, is really serious about controlling the growth of big government.

But soap opera dramatics about fiscal "cliffs" and sequestration shouldn’t deflect from where President Obama is really taking this country. Consider this story from the Wall Street Journal a few days before Christmas:

“Thousands of people in several Argentine cities ransacked supermarkets for a second day in the latest challenge to President Chistina Kirchner, who is struggling to revive a weak economy...In the central city Rosario, two people were killed during the incidents and 137 people arrested.

Washington's Republicans and Democrats alike have become the toll collectors on the road to serfdom

“The violence puts Mrs. Kirchner in a difficult position as the poor are [her] core constituents...Her government spends billions of dollars a year to help low income families, including free health care...[Yet] Argentine activists who claim to represent the poor traditionally block access to supermarkets in the month of December to demand free food and other items...The latest events were some of the worst acts of looting and vandalism in years.... Local media showed dozens of men, women, and children hauling away televisions, refrigerators, and food.”

Some have said my warnings about a coming civil war between makers and takers are exaggerated. It’s true that Argentina’s politicians have been waging class warfare since Juan and Eva Peron–and they aren’t fazed when it turns bloody. Obama and the Democrats are relative newcomers to the game. But Argentina reveals who really suffers when those who create a nation’s wealth get mugged by those who spend it–as just happened this week in Washington.

It’s the poor and the middle class, the very ones big government says it’s trying to protect.

And sadly that’s where Mitt Romney had it wrong.

That 47 percent of Americans who get unemployment benefits, Social Security disability checks, Medicare and Medicaid, and government student loans, aren’t the real takers. Like the rioters in Rosario, they’re just pawns in a perennial battle between those who see wealth and prosperity as something created by hard work, ingenuity, and innovation in a free market system–or something to be doled out by government.

Experience teaches that those who believe in free markets are right. The November election and the budget deal, however, show that the other side is winning, and winning big.

Since 1970, America’s public sector has exploded as a percentage of GDP, rising to almost 25% last year. While the national unemployment rate hovers at the 8% mark, government worker unemployment rate is a cozy 3.8%. Sixteen percent of America’s workforce now work for government. By the time the Obama administration ends, we won’t be that far away from Argentina’s 21 percent.

Yet as an economic and social enterprise, government creates nothing.

Far from adding to people’s standard of living, government is the number one cause of poverty in this country. It forces those who depend on its largesse to live hand to mouth, with no time or money to plan for the future. They become unable to fend for themselves---and increasingly resentful of those who can.

When the economy tanks and the government checks have to shrink, their only alternative is to take to the streets. That’s what happening in Argentina, and in Greece; and that’s where the growth of government is taking us here, as this current budget deal increases handouts–and more and more Americans are finding that an unemployment or Social Security disability check is their only life line.

Washington’s Republicans and Democrats alike have become the toll collectors on the road to serfdom–and the road to Rosario.

How far down that road depends on how our private sector rallies in 2013 after two numbing defeats, first on November 7 and then on Capitol Hill this week.

It needs to explain to that 47 percent that when big government wins, we all lose–and that this nation won’t survive if it does.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/03/were-now-one-step-closer-to-america-coming-civil-war/#ixzz2HplyFyvw

America is watching 'War of the Roses' 2013-style starring Obama and Boehner

foxnews

Painting by Henry Payne in 1908 [Wikipedia]

By Liz Peek 

The most famous talked-about couple in Washington needs serious therapy. No, not Michelle and Barack – I’m talking about the  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

Watching those two guide the country through difficult times is like witnessing "The War of the Roses" – the film variety. 

Unfortunately, instead of the relatively trivial matter of managing household finances, our elected leaders need to come together on solving our country’s dire fiscal problems. Most immediately, they need to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

As with many troubled couples, these two cannot agree on money matters. Like a wife ignorant of the family’s finances, Obama wants ever more and ultimately ruinous spending. Boehner is the stern husband trying to talk sense.   

As with many troubled couples, these two cannot agree on money matters. Like a wife ignorant of the family’s finances, Obama wants ever more and ultimately ruinous spending. Boehner is the stern husband trying to talk sense.   

Beyond philosophical disagreements, and adding to their inability to function well together, Messrs. Obama and Boehner do not appear to have a high regard for each other. This is disastrous in marriage, and in politics. In "Blink," author Malcolm Gladwell introduces psychologist John Gottman, who claims that after only fifteen minutes of observing a couple, he can predict with 90% accuracy their chance of a successful marriage. (Really, I’ve always wondered why don't more young hopefuls don’t sign up for this?)

What are the signals? He ascribes most marital failures to the presence of four behaviors: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism and contempt. 

It is hard to come up with four words that more appropriately describe the relationship between the House Speaker and the president, who have regularly indulged in angry phone calls, pouting and blame-throwing. There is one reaction, though, that is determining, and that is contempt. As Gottman explains, “...if I speak from a superior plane, that’s far more damaging, and contempt is any statement from a higher level.”

Does anyone doubt that President Obama speaks from a higher plane? That he is dismissive of John Boehner?  Do we imagine that John Boehner is enthralled with the president? 

The Speaker reported recently that Obama told him, “we don’t have a spending problem.” Boehner was not only exasperated, he was also incredulous. After four years of trillion-dollar deficits on his watch, after suffering the first U.S. credit downgrade in generations, having been on the receiving end of stern warnings from the IMF of the sort usually reserved for countries like Zambia, and with every reasoned analysis projecting fiscal Armageddon if Medicare is not brought to heel, how could the president not recognize the urgency of bringing long-term entitlements spending under control?

Boehner’s explanation is that President Obama is “so ideological himself”, as he told the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore, and that he is “unwilling to take on the left wing of his own party.” It’s hard to say which the Speaker considers worse.

When Boehner tried to press his concern about excessive U.S. spending, Obama reportedly replied, “I’m getting tired of hearing you say that.”  How very Marie Antoinette.

As in most marital spats, there are hints of affections straying. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has played, perhaps, the “other woman”, to pursue this analogy. Christie was charged with introducing candidate Mitt Romney at the GOP convention -- perhaps the most important speech at the Republican gathering –- testament to his stature in the party. 

He spent that coveted spot mainly talking about himself, and giving but mildly enthusiastic support for his party’s hopeful, planting seeds of doubt in the minds of some that he was the GOP’s best bet for 2016. However, his standing took an even greater hit when he bear-hugged (literally and figuratively) President Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Coming as it did just before the election, the Sandy love-fest, and Christie, are blamed for boosting Obama’s image at a critical moment.

More recently, Christie savagely criticized the Speaker’s failure to ram through the relief bill so needed by New Jersey and other states badly damaged by the hurricane. Christie’s attack, on the heels of the dalliance with Obama, has helped dim the public’s view of Boehner, further trimming his negotiating ability.

The Speaker Boehner has determined that he will forgo any more closed-door negotiations with the president, considering them “futile.” The president, in return, has vowed not to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling. More and more Obama has turned to executive orders to carry out his agenda – including most recently threatening to use that means to enact gun controls. The relationship, as poor as it was, appears to be on the skids. This is not entirely good news for the country.  

Is it time to bring in marriage counselors? One team that might help the fractious twosome is former Senators Simpson and Bowles. This bipartisan duo, after all, was asked by President Obama to come up with a long-term plan for putting our nation’s finances in order. They did a bang-up job of putting everything on the table, and proposing measures that both right and left found odious. That was the virtue of their plan, which remains the best blueprint – or at least the most intelligent starting point -- for putting our house in order. 

Numerous House Republicans in the past couple of days have proposed taking up the Simpson-Bowles plan; Texas Representative Steve Stockman has said he would introduce it as a bill in the House. Unfortunately, Obama dismissed the plan as readily as a shopaholic housewife scorns a budget; the plan was DOA.

Indeed, it is of course not just DC’s most talked-about visible power twosome duo that is having difficulties. The entire extended body politic -- GOP and Dems alike – cannot communicate.They talk right by each other on important matters like reining in our spiraling entitlements obligations, how we are going to rebuild our outdated infrastructure, the best way to rationalize our immigration system and improve our public schools, how to simplify and improve our tax code, how to reboot job creation and make sure our institutions are protected from cyberthreats. 

We have real problems, and a legislative body – and White House – that seems unable to get the nation’s business done. As a result, Americans are ever more anxious about our future. They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Sadly for the country, Beltway insiders have apparently taken a vow of chastity.  

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/11/watching-obama-and-boehner-is-like-watching-war-roses-2013/#ixzz2HpkXxtHq

Cristina Fernández y Humala se van de Cuba sin ver a Hugo Chávez

pero la sra. se hospedo en el hotel nacional. no habia mansion para ella en el la zona de protocolo de el laguito o han cambiado las reglas en la isla biranica?
------------------------- 
La Voz de Galicia/ Pedro García Otero

Los presidentes de Perú, Ollanta Humala, y de Argentina, Cristina Fernández, concluyeron ayer su visita a Cuba sin que hayan visto a Hugo Chávez.

La mandataria argentina sí se reunió con Raúl y Fidel Castro. El primero le informó sobre el estado de salud del líder venezolano. Además, Cristina Fernández departió con las hijas de Chávez, pero, según se dijo, no quiso entrar a verlo en la unidad de cuidados intensivos del hospital Cimeq de La Habana.

Humala, mientras tanto, no sostuvo, al menos oficialmente, reuniones con funcionarios venezolanos, pese a que son varios los pesos pesados del Gobierno de ese país que se «han mudado» a la isla antillana.

El vicepresidente Nicolás Maduro, que también se encuentra en la capital cubana, mantuvo una reunión con Raúl Castro tras la que este señaló en un comunicado que «el pueblo venezolano y sus instituciones podrán superar cualquier desafío».

El Gobierno de Caracas se ha negado sistemáticamente a ofrecer información detallada sobre la salud de Chávez, a pesar de peticiones en contrario de varias oenegés internacionales, entre ellas, y ayer, Human Rights Watch, que pidió a Caracas que «permita libremente el debate en Venezuela en torno a la salud del presidente». El Estado, en banda, ha afirmado que la condición del mandatario es un tema privado.

Entretanto, violentas protestas que se desataron el viernes y que continuaron ayer contra la decisión del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (TSJ) de Venezuela, de dar permiso indefinido por enfermedad al presidente Hugo Chávez, dejaron al menos once estudiantes y seis guardias nacionales heridos en el occidental estado Táchira, según fuentes oficiales.

Mientras, grupos estudiantiles en todo el país y organizaciones no gubernamentales anunciaron más manifestaciones a partir de mañana, contra el Ejecutivo que encabeza el vicepresidente Maduro. Afirman que se ha producido una usurpación del poder por parte del vicepresidente, y que el Gobierno es títere del régimen cubano.

Los estudiantes en Táchira acusaron a la Guardia Nacional de excesos y de ocupar el campus universitario (lo cual está expresamente prohibido en el país), mientras el recién electo gobernador del estado, José Vielma Mora, acusó a los estudiantes de ser «manipulados por la oposición».

Venezuela On Autopilot

devilsexcrement

laprensa.hn

No sooner had the twice destituted Judge and President of the Venezuelan Supreme Court Luisa Estela Morales ruled her absurd sentence allowing for administrative  “continuity” between one Presidential term and the next one, that continuity Vice-President Maduro presided over the non-inauguration and immediately left the country for Cuba. Violating that same administrative continuity, which is below the Constitution, Maduro named his own replacement, something he can’t do legally, but even if he could, it would be absolutely illegal under the same principle of continuity invited by the not so august Chief Justice.

And thus Venezuela continues on autopilot. Nobody is in charge, at a time that there are pressing decisions to be made. But politics and Chavez’ health prevail over insecurity, shortages and the economy.

And just as Maduro was leaving, someone maybe, just maybe,  told him about the magical inflation number for December which came out at “only” 3.3% for the month, corresponding to an annualized level of “only” 47.6%, but more ominously, the highest monthly inflation in almost three years (33 months to be precise). This sudden jump, compromises the goal stated by the President of the Central Bank of reaching single digits in 2014, more so, when the all important Food and Beverages jumped all of 5.7% in December, an annualized level close to the scary 100% per year, for those items for which most people in Venezuela spend over 80% of their budget.

But even more ominously, the “shortage” index reached 16.7% of all products, the highest level in four years. And these are all “official” numbers, massaged and improved to make them look good.

Which makes you wonder how these guys sleep at night.

Because each day that goes by without a devaluation, represents financing needs of roughly US$ 166 million (Assuming a deficit of Bs. 21.5 billion a month at the current rate of exchange, which all serious economists agree on). The twelve days that have gone by represent already US$ 2 billion.

But compound the level of inflation with a much needed devaluation to around Bs. 7.5 per US dollar and you see the problem. Maduro lacks the charisma to explain that away to the people and Chavez told him not to devalue until his Schrodinger’s Cat status is no longer in question.

But the country remains on autopilot.

Maduro seems to think he needs time so that people get to know him better, but the same time the needs to campaign conspires against him (And so does his personality). The more he postpones a devaluation, the less money he will have to throw around to the electorate. The more financing he will need before or after the election. The bigger the distortions. The bigger the hole he will dig the country into.

And then there is the crime problem. Venezuela has just surpassed 20,000 homicides per year, putting the country in a class of its own. This number was only 4,000 homicides in 1999 when Hugo Chavez came to power. What is worse, is that the victims of these homicides, are not the well-to-do, but the poor, as crime rates are much larger in poor neighbourhoods.

To say nothing about the country’s infrastructure, as another bridge collapses on the highway that connects Caracas to the East of the country (the second in three months)

But instead of fighting crime, the National Guard is sent out by someone to stop and harass students, as in the picture above, where a student from the Catholic University of Caracas is stopped for having a sign that says “No to Dictatorship”

But fascism breeds fascism. I don’t know who gave the order to repress students the last two days, but given that nobody is in charge, we get all these mini-Dictators in the military, ready to please the new owners. They might even get a promotion this way! By now, all these military officers have been trained to forget about human rights, particularly of those considered to be “opposition”

Meanwhile Chavez continues “assimilating” his treatment, which we all now is true of any treatment, you assimilate until you stop doing so. But the “treatment” he receives is just to make him survive, have less pain or whatever, but no longer to cure him.

And until this is resolved, the country will simply remain on autopilot

Hundreds Hunt for Invasive Pythons in Everglades

AssociatedPress

Video: Salida de la carcel de Ángel Carromero

europapress

Former Dem Gov: “The good thing about Newtown is, it was so horrific”

Tim Brown

Read at Freedomoutpost >>