Law, Power, and Justice

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  • RUSSIANS AND POISon

    There are many ways to incapacitate an enemy. But, historically, few have proved so attractive to the Soviet and Russian security services as poisoning. Ever since Vladimir Lenin set up his poison factory, known as the “Special Room”, over a century ago, poisonings have become one of the Kremlin’s preferred ways to eliminate, cripple or terrorise enemies and critics. Over the decades, it has built up unrivalled expertise in the field.

    During the Soviet period, the Kremlin was said to have one of the biggest biological and chemical weapons programmes in the world. At one point, according to Boris Volodarsky, a former Russian military intelligence officer and author of a book on the KGB’s poison factory, it involved an estimated 25,000 to 32,000 people across more than 20 military and civilian laboratories, plus an additional 10,000 staff at bioweapons laboratories run out of the defence ministry. Early experiments began with sulphur mustards — a blistering agent that was quickly discarded for use in assassinations because of its tendency to be detected on modern autopsies and its lack of effectiveness. Later experiments focused on other toxins such as ricin, digitoxin and curare, which had the benefit of being both fatally effective and mirroring the symptoms of ordinary ailments, while also being effective at very low doses.

    Most targeted poisonings are, by design, hard to detect. “It’s very difficult,” said Yuri Felshtinksy, a KGB historian and author of From Red Terror to Terrorist State, a book about Russia’s intelligence services. “I mean, if [someone is] killed with a gun or with a knife, it’s very easy to prove. But if the idea is to eliminate somebody without letting people obviously know that person was eliminated, poisoning is a very useful tool.”

    TRUMP AND THE FBI

    The FBI took Kara-Murza’s samples but initially declined to release his results to him. It was only after he requested documents under the Freedom of Information Act in 2019, and sued the US justice department the following year, that highly redacted documents were released. In them, the FBI stated that its investigation had been “unable to pinpoint the exact cause of Kara-Murza’s illness” but that “the team of doctors that treated Kara-Murza in the United States feel unequivocally that he was the victim of poisoning, either accidental or criminal”. It added: “The sum total of the symptoms and health effects Kara-Murza experienced could not have been brought about without a toxin being introduced to his system.” The Kremlin, meanwhile, blamed Kara-Murza’s medical problems on alcohol.

    NAVALNY

    Book

    Yuri Felshtinksy, a KGB historian and author of From Red Terror to Terrorist State, a book about Russia’s intelligence services

    apple.news/AmHvxtMyaQZ6aPjzM28rbXQ

  • SUNDAY MORNING NEWS NOTES: POLAND, ISRAEL, GAZA, WEST BANK

    SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2024

    Slow start this morning.  My partner has gone dog sitting for a few days and the cats and I had to get up and get him going.  Well, actually, we woke up and said bye.  The cats are all curled back up napping.  Mike usually takes them outside in the morning for about an hour, but when he’s not here, they don’t make a big deal out of it.  They just have their breakfast and sort themselves back out in chairs and on sofas.

    It looks like the bed we put “temporarily” in the library so I wouldn’t have to come upstairs after my knee replacement, has become a permanent fixture.  Pete regards that as his bed.  That’s where he goes at night when he’s ready to turn in.  Even when one or another of the cats joins him, it’s them joining him, i.e., still his bed.  For these former ferals, having something that is theirs is important.  Pete has a heating pad and I turn it on for him every time I go downstairs.  He loves it.

    And now, on to politics.

    HAARETZ: ISRAEL

    • Netanyahu evidently released a post-war Gaza plan that Haaretz says “barely deserves serious review (Pinkas, 2/25/24)”
    • Pinkas (2/25/24) calls it a “non-plan,” an “unviable list of principles that are untethered from reality.”  Pinkas also terms the release furtive, “as if the government had hoped no one would notice.”
    • The plan, according to Pinkas is an open-ended Israeli control of Gaza.  “…it is just not feasible.”
    • The statements are that
      • The Israeli Defense Forces will continue the war until “its goals are achieved: the destruction of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military capabilities and governing infrastructure.  (Note: Can Hamas be destroyed militarily without occupying the entire Gaza Strip for an extended time).
      • There will be a return of the hostages.
      • Any threat to Israel in the future from Gaza will be prevented.
      • Israel will maintain “operational freedom” (quote from article) throughout the Gaza Strip.
      • A security buffer between Gaza and Israel will be maintained for as long as warranted.
      • With Egyptian cooperation, Israel will maintain a “southern closure” to prevent Hamas from rearming.
      • Israel will have “security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River.”  (This precludes any Palestinian sovereignty)
      • Gaza will be totally “demilitarized.”  The responsibility to implement this demilitarization will be Israel’s.
      • (Note: Demilitarization has been a consistent Israeli position since the Oslo Accords in 1993, and was a basic tenet of the Camp David talks.) 
      • Giving Israel exclusive responsibility over both implementation and supervision translates into Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. 
      • Civil administration will be the responsibility of “local elements with administrative and management experience.”  Pinkas questions how many apolitical Palestinians would qualify for these positions.
      • De-radicalization is another part of the plan.  This would be a plan to deradicalize “religious, education and welfare institutions in Gaza.  Assisted in the effort the Israelis would have “Arab states with proven experience in promoting de-radicalization.”  How, Pinkas asks, would this be accomplished?  What is the incentive for Palestinians to de-radicalize?  Which Arab states have such a record?  And, there is also a question of whether Israel should itself “de-radicalize.”
      • Israel will work toward shutting down UNRWA and replacing it with other “responsible, international welfare agencies.”
      • Pinkas maintains that it has “been known for years” that UNRWA is “ineffective, disruptive and hostile to Israel.  But, what agency can take its place, especially in the short term.
      • Israel will be responsible for determining when demilitarization has been completed and de-radicalization has commenced.  Only then will reconstruction begin, funded by “countries acceptable to Israel.”  There is no indication that there are any Arab countries lining up to take on reconstruction.  And, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE are making the establishment of a Palestinian state a condition for their financial participation.
      • Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.  Such a recognition would be a reward for terrorism.  (Note: Last week the Knesset approved a resolution declaring that it was opposed to any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, CNN.)
      • Over 100 countries have indicated their intention to recognize a Palestinian state.  And, how and why would this prevent a peace settlement?
      • Netanyahu’s approval rating is less than 19%.  75% of the Israeli public views him as responsible for the October 7 attacks.  This includes 67% of the members of his own party, Likud.  71% believe he should resign.  66% favor an election as soon as possible.
      • This crisis is termed Netanyahu’s “last gamble.”
    • Meanwhile, in the West Bank
      • Settlers attacked Israeli soldiers who were trying to help Palestinians find their stolen goats.  When soldiers arrived, settlers collected at the site, driving in to confront the soldiers.

    Poland: CNN: Fareed Zakaria

    Interviewing

    • 75% of the nation turned out to vote for a pro-European and pro-democracy move for society. 
    • Houthis have widened the scope of attacks in the Red Sea.  The US cannot guarantee the freedom of the seas. 
    • There is an issue of cutting underwater cables if the US and Europe cannot enforce freedom of the seas.  Europe has lost its military/industrial complex.
    • Zakaria is portraying the Republicans as “isolationists.”
    •  
    • Foreign Minister of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski
      • Poland has been spending 2% of its GDP for 15 years on defense.  It is moving up to 4%.  This is a contribution to NATO.  (Note: If I am right, there is only a recommended contribution and it is figured out as a percentage of GDP).
      • “We will not be a Russian colony again.”
      • Poland sent troops to Afghanistan and to Iraq in response to 9/11.  In response to that we “did not send an invoice.”
      • Poland had ordered 50 billion in military equipment from the US since the invasion of Ukraine in 2021. 
      • “The Ukrainians have fought like lions.”
      • The cost for Russia has “been huge.”
      • “It is the credibility of your country that is at stake.”
      • Zakaria: For most of the past decade, Poland had been an example of the backsliding of democracy.  That has recently canged.
      • The right-winged Law and Justice party took steps to control the country’s courts and media.  The European Union warned in 2017 of a “clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland.”
      • In October, a broad centrist government was elected. 
      • The turnout was 75%.  They voted to “end populist rule” and for a pro-European and a pro-democracy government.
      • The security services were used to target the opposition under this populist government.  The Pegasus spyware was used to target journalists.  There was widespread corruption. 
      • We need to bring back fair competitive examinations in the civil service.  This was one of the first things the populist government did.  (Note: And it is one of the priorities of the Heritage Foundation document laying out plans of the Trump future administration)  Judges who are able to judge fairly.
      • There has been “a rebellion against meritocracy.”  We are bringing that back.
      • “Constitutions don’t defend themselves.”
  • WEEKEND NEWS NOTES: ISRAEL, SETTLEMENTS, POMPEO DOCTRINE, UKRAINE

  • WEEKEND NEWS NOTES: ISRAEL, SETTLEMENTS, POMPEO DOCTRINE, UKRAINE

    FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2024

    News Notes:

    Russia: Sanctions, Wall Street Journal

    • Biden announces new sanctions on Russia in response to the murder of Navalny, but the Wall Street Journal is calling them “symbolic.”  The headline says they “may be symbolic.”  The last round of sanctions didn’t seem to have much of an effect.
    • The WSJ says that “US officials privately concede” that the sanctions “are likely to land a limited blow.”  Great.  Just f…ing great.
    • The US has “limited options” and fears the “economic consequences a full oil embargo…would unleash in an election year.”
    • They are termed: “narrowly targeted sanctions.”
    • “Analysts also express doubt that the latest round will have much impact.”
    • Critics say it is “another utilitarian step that only creates an illusion…as Ukraine’s defenses are crumbling…”
    • The existing sanctions have, according to a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, “fallen far short of expectations.”  The new sanction are expected to prove “more symbolic than it is impactful.”
    • Within the country, sanctions targeted at individuals are considered a sign of loyalty to Putin.
    • Elaine Dezenski, former Department of Homeland Security official, notes that allies could transfer Russian frozen foreign currency reserves and other sovereign assets to Ukraine. 

    Israel: Haaretz

    The Pompeo Doctrine

    • Israel announced new settlement construction in the West Bank this week. 
    • In response, the Biden administration reversed one of Trump’s efforts to placate Netanyahu. 
    • Even though Blinken said that: “It’s been longstanding U.S. policy…that new settlements are counterproductive…” the Trump administration implemented something called “The Pompeo Doctrine.”  Under this policy, Israeli settlements were “not per se inconsistent with international law.”  This somehow overturned previous precedent.
    • (Note: How does this happen?  Trump and Pompeo can just issue a memo on their own?)
    • This policy was instituted by Trump a month before he lost the 2020 election.  According to Haaretz, it was “formulated by the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing think tank behind…Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul efforts.”  (Note: Yet another example of authoritarian governments and authoritarian aspiring governments working in tandem.

  • NEWS NOTES: FBI INFORMANT

    WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024

    House Notes:

    • It’s cold, or cold for Georgia.  Every joint and bone in my body hurts.  I’m going to have to move to Florida, no wait, the Florida legislature was trying to pass a law allowing them to use Florida taxpayer money to pay off Trump’s legal bills.  How, the f..k is this possible.  The brief news report last night was that they dropped the idea when DeSantis threatened to veto it.
    • I can hear the train whistling in the distance.  It’s the same whistle I heard every day for the first 20 years of my existence.  I love the sound of the train whistling.  And in this house (I’m 72) it’s roughly the same distance from the house I grew up in, about a mile.  I love the sound of the train whistling.  Adventure, promise, comfort, change, regularity, challenge, everything wrapped into one.
    • The cats are all outside at least those who were willing to brave the cold.  My little gray cat, Hiram Bernard, waited for me at the bottom of the stairs while I was making coffee, to put me back to bed.  He usually can tell when I don’t feel well.  We think he is the reincarnation of Burmese cat, little Neal, who spent 22 years at my side.  Literally, every time I was at home for twenty-two years he was within reach.  We think Little Neal, also solid gray, shopped around for a body and found Hiram’s.  Neal arranged to have this five-week-old kitten body dumped in our front yard so he could continue to take care of me.  It’s a gift, what a gift from God would feel like.
    • Hiram just walked back into the bedroom from HIS upstairs patio to make sure I’m alright.  I can hear him thinking: “If she’s typing, she’s alright.”
    • And, then, there’s the political reality.

    News Notes

    MSNBC

    • The FBI informant story does not make sense to me.  How did the FBI allow this guy to pump information into an important Senate Committee for years knowing he was lying?
    • (Note: What on earth has Katty Kay decided to do to her hair?)
    • Alexander Smirnoff, the FBI informant, was in court yesterday with some members of his family speaking Russian.
    • He told the FBI (after he was arrested and in handcuffs) that he had been colluding with Russian intelligence about the story about Hunter Biden.  He lied about a series of meetings with Russian officials.  There is nothing about whether the information is true.
    • The detention memo unfiled yesterday revealed previously classified information.  A ten-year source for the FBI, this guy was.  Tom Winter is reporting that he had been “run out” of another field office?  What’s that about?
    • Form 1023, which I think contained the bogus information about Hunter Biden, was just a form recording what Smirnoff told the FBI, that’s it.  In the Spring last year, there was a big fight over that form being released.  Congressional Republicans threatened Christopher Wray over its release.
    • “There’s no legal vetting.”  Tom Winter is talking about the Russians feeding information directly into a Congressional Committee.  They were feeding information with no legal vetting.  The Russians realized they didn’t even have to feed bogus information to the FBI.  They could just go directly to Conress.
    • (Note: Who leaked the information to Congress about the 1023?)
    • (Tom Winter, usually logical, informative, seems especially rattled this morning, over this story.  What’s that about?) 
    • (Note: Last night, this morning, they never show photographs of Smirnoff, just Hunter Biden.)  (Note: Thursday night they showed Smirnoff leaving the courthouse with masks on.)
    • Winter reports that Smirnoff had contacts with Russian organized crime.  Organized crime is the grease in the wheels of the Russian government.
    • In Munich, European government officials are terrified about what is going on in the US.  How much more effective Russian spying has become in the past few years.  Once again, they are interfering with the 24 elections. 
    • Question asked on the show: Why don’t Americans see this, the connection with Russia?  (Note: SOME OF US HAVE FOR 8 YEARS and we have been screaming about it.  Mueller Report, Sarah Kenzior).
    • What does this do to the Republicans?  They are going to just deny it.
    • Winter: This (unattributed) has been going on for a long time.  (Note: The planting of Russian disinformation).  Bill Barr talked about information coming in from Ukraine about the Bidens.
    • Joe Scarborough: Republicans hate Biden more than they fear Putin.  The US has been played once again.  “Putin has Republicans on a string.”  They depended on an “international fugitive” to take down Joe Biden.
    • Republicans are relying on the Russians to get them back into power again.
    • Trump last night on Fox News: “We are turning into a Communist country.”  “I never even heard of being indicted.”  (Note: I am sure that Trump couldn’t even tell you what Communism is.)

    FOX NEWS

    • Passenger with video of defective wing on airplane.  (Note: There’s no connecting these stories with the war on regulations conducted by the Republicans for decades).

    Ukraine

    • More hostages taken by Russia for benefit.

  • The RELIGIOUS RIGHT

    open.substack.com/pub/crownewsletter/p/christian-right-observer-weekly-volume-cdc

  • The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News

    Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our …
    — Read on www.wnyc.org/shows/bl

  • MEHDI HASSAN. WONDERFUL CONVERSATION

    podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pod-save-america/id1192761536

  • SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, ALABAMA

    Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in a concurring opinion, citing scripture.

    www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/health/ivf-alabama-abortion.html

  • The Two-State Mirage: How to Break the Cycle of Violence in a One-State Reality

    Israel’s devastating response to Hamas’s shocking October 7 attack has produced a humanitarian catastrophe.

    But the idea of a Palestinian state emerging from the rubble of Gaza has no basis in reality. Long before October 7, it was clear that the basic elements needed for a two-state solution no longer existed. Israel had elected a right-wing government that included officials who were openly opposed to two states. The Palestinian leadership recognized by the West—the Palestinian Authority (PA)—had become deeply unpopular among Palestinians. And Israeli settlements had grown to the extent that creating a viable, contiguous Palestinian state had become almost impossible. For nearly a quarter century, there had also been no serious Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and no major constituency in Israeli politics supported resuming them. Hamas’s shocking attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent months-long obliteration of Gaza have only exacerbated and accelerated those trends.

    Israel’s politicians bear most of the responsibility for this grim reality as it developed over decades, aided by weak Palestinian leaders and indifferent Arab governments. But no external party shares more blame than the United States, which has enabled and defended the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. The Biden administration cannot create peace just by calling for it.

    The Gaza Strip came under Egyptian control during the 1948 war, when the state of Israel was established. In 1967, Israel conquered Gaza, along with the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. Over the next 26 years, Israel directly governed the small, densely packed strip, introducing Jewish settlements as it did in the other territories it captured. In 1993, following the Oslo accords, Israel handed over some daily management of Gaza to the PA but retained effective domination with a permanent military presence, control over its land perimeter and airspace, and oversight of its finances and tax revenues.

    Israelis had soured on a two-state solution long before October 7. Over the past decade, the Israeli peace camp, represented by the Meretz Party, had declined electorally to the point of near elimination; in 2022, it failed to cross the electoral threshold for Knesset representation. The current Israeli government had all but disavowed a two-state outcome and included right-wing members who openly aspired to full annexation of Gaza and the West Bank. October 7 accelerated the trend. The Israeli public has overwhelmingly lost what little faith remained in a two-state outcome, as a settler movement intent on dominating all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has relentlessly risen to power.

    Recent polling shows that there is still some support for a two-state solution among the Palestinians but virtually no confidence in the United States to deliver 

    — Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/two-state-mirage-gaza-palestinians-lynch

  • Morning News Notes: FBI Informant, Israel

    MORNING NEWS NOTES

    WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024

    Notes:

    Ukraine

    • There is increasing fear of a nuclear meltdown at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.  This would poison crops and livestock and render large areas of land uninhabitable.  (MSNBC)

    Israel

    • The US is maintaining that it has taken a new position at the UN with an alternate cease fire plan for Gaza.  The plan would be a temporary cease fire rather than the permanent cease fire asked for in the UN resolution vetoed by the US. 
    • Palestinian Authority President, claims that the US veto makes the US an accomplice in genocide (Haaretz, 2/20/24).
    • The US draft resolution restates the opposition of the US to a pending Israeli incursion into the city of Rafah (WP, 2/20/24).
    • IDF carried out drone strike on armed militants in the West Bank (Haaretz, 2/20/24).
    • The UN announced that it would cease delivery of aid to northern Gaza because of civilian attacks on distribution trucks.  The distributions by UNRWA had been suspended three weeks ago because of attacks.  The organization reported that a convoy was also attacked with gunfire at the entrance to Gaza City.  The agency cited a “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” (Haaretz, 2/20/24).
    • For the first time since Netanyahu took power in this most recent government coalition, a committee for appointing judges met.  Far-right members sought to exclude justices they deemed too liberal from being appointed (Haaretz, 2/20/24).
    • Far-Right political parties: Likud, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit.
    • Indian workers, unemployed, seek to replace Palestinians who previously worked inside Israel (Haaretz 2/19/24).

    Russia

    • American woman faces 20 years in prison in Russia for donating to Ukrainian war effort.  Commentators have noted that this is just another example of Russian hostages (MSNBC)
    • The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, is still being held prisoner in Russia. 
    • Wagner, the paramilitary group formerly led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been rebranded “The Expeditionary Corps, and brought under Kremlin control.  The Kremlin is offering “regime-survival packages” to authoritarian African leaders (Telegraph 2/20/24)
    •  

  • THIS DAMN DOG

    I’ve lived with a number of dogs across the years. Until recently I’d never lived with one who made me feel like I was being outsmarted. Or like I …

    THIS DAMN DOG