March 26, 2014

Todashev shot in the back: welcome to Police State USA!

This is a wakeup call. If you believe the FBI in the Todashev case, good night America. Then the FBI can do whatever they want with you without any fear of being held accountable.

Several big news outlets, the Boston Globe, the WaPo and Rachel Maddow have continously requested to release the investigation report. It is now their duty to acknowledge obvious nonsense in the report and address it if they want te be more than toothless paper tigers.

There is a yawning abyss between the examiner's findings and the statement of the shooting agent's testimony. To make it short, Todashev was shot in the back three times (photos are available), yet the agent claims he shot at him while he was about to attack. Contradiction.

There's also an unexplained shot wound in Todashev's backhead (not mentioned by the examiner, but available on phoots).

Dead men can tell no tales? Wrong. Dead men can tell tales, especially if the died from gun shots, by the points and angles of the entry wounds.

More detailed information here: by Dave Lindorff.

http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/2197

March 25, 2014

Report to shed light on what really took place when FBI shot Ibragim Todashev

Source: Guardian


The FBI’s story, doled out through anonymous leaks, changed several times in the weeks that followed. First, Todashev, who had voluntarily endured hours of questioning, lunged at the FBI agent with a knife, or even a sword. Then it was a length of pipe. Other accounts had him knocking over a table. At least one account held that Todashev was unarmed. The version that currently stands is that Todashev wielded a metal pole – or, perhaps, a broomstick.

Little is known about that mysterious pole-slash-broomstick: its heft, its dimensions, its use. Yet it is likely to be a major difference between vindication and damnation of the FBI’s handling of the case. A Florida prosecutor examining the case is expected to publish the results of an long-awaited investigation into Todashev’s death on Tuesday morning.

Unknowns accumulate in the Todashev shooting. Two Florida detectives reportedly aided the FBI interrogation, and their role during the shooting remains unclear. Florida’s autopsy report, available since July, was barred from release by the FBI. The bureau’s months of silence over the case have compounded the questions it faces.

...

Revealing what Todashev held in his hands on the last night of his life won’t answer all the questions posed by his death. Nor will it tell the full story behind the Boston Marathon attacks, the last best chance for which now comes from the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial scheduled for November. But there’s no closure to a disturbing episode for the FBI without a thorough reckoning with what happened in that Orlando apartment.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/fbi-agent-ibragim-todashev-boston-marathon-report

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There's already an independent investigation going on, with interesting witnesses:

But an exclusive interview last week by this journalist of Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Gary Utz, who personally conducted the Todashev autopsy, confirms that Todashev was shot seven times by FBI bullets, four times in the torso, two times in the left arm (he was right-handed), and once in the top of the head, slightly towards the back of the head. A significant bruise and contusion over the cheekbone showed he also had been “forcefully struck” on the left side of the head, in Utz’s words — a point that had never been mentioned by the FBI.

Bruising does not occur to a significant extent once a person is dead — especially if the heart has been destroyed by bullets and there has been significant loss of blood — since there is no blood pressure to push blood out of damaged blood vessels into surrounding tissue. This means it is likely the blow suffered by Todashev came before he was shot.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/24/dark-questions-about-a-deadly-fbi-interrogation-in-orlando/

March 24, 2014

Independent investigative report on the Todashev killing

by Dave Lindorff - will be interesting to match it up with the FBI report

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/24/dark-questions-about-a-deadly-fbi-interrogation-in-orlando/

Excerpt:

But an exclusive interview last week by this journalist of Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Gary Utz, who personally conducted the Todashev autopsy, confirms that Todashev was shot seven times by FBI bullets, four times in the torso, two times in the left arm (he was right-handed), and once in the top of the head, slightly towards the back of the head. A significant bruise and contusion over the cheekbone showed he also had been “forcefully struck” on the left side of the head, in Utz’s words — a point that had never been mentioned by the FBI.

Bruising does not occur to a significant extent once a person is dead — especially if the heart has been destroyed by bullets and there has been significant loss of blood — since there is no blood pressure to push blood out of damaged blood vessels into surrounding tissue. This means it is likely the blow suffered by Todashev came before he was shot.

*snip*

Teyer, a six-and-a-half-year active-duty member of the US Army, where she holds the rank of Specialist, working as a pharmicist’s assistant at the Ft. Stewart Army Air Base in Savannah, GA, is a 2006 Russian immigrant and a naturalized US citizen. In an exclusive interview, she says that the first thing the licensed private investigator hired by Todashev’s Russian family said when she and Todashev’s widow Reni Manukyan came to the apartment with a key and let him in was, “Look at this – no blood spattered on the walls. He was shot while down on the floor.”

That investigator, Ed Busquet, a former captain in the North Palm Police Department in Florida, where he handled homicide cases, and also a former DEA agent and Georgia Public Defenders Office investigator, also noted a freshly sliced-away area on the plaster wall just above all the blood on the floor by the foyer. According to Teyer, he said, “It looks like someone may have cut out a bullet from here.” (If the FBI agents removed a bullet, it could be a case of tampering with a crime scene, as the case has been and is still classified by the Medical Examiner as an open homicide case.)

March 21, 2014

Florida state attorney denies reports FBI agent in Todashev shooting cleared

Source: Guardian


Florida state prosecutors on Friday denied that they had cleared an FBI agent who shot dead a friend of the Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev while interrogating him.

The FBI is understood to have concluded that the officer who shot Ibragim Todashev, 27, was left with no alternative but to fire in self defence after being struck on the neck with a metal pole.

But the state attorney in Florida, Jeff Ashton, denied that he had come to the same conclusion. Ashton's spokesman said he had completed his investigation but would make a final decision on how to proceed over the weekend. A review, by the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, is also understood to be complete.

Ashton issued an angrily worded statement on Friday after media reports claimed he had decided not to charge the officer, saying the leaks on which they were based were “inaccurate and unfair”.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/fbi-agent-tamerlan-tsarnaev-todashev-shooting

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Here is one of the false reports:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-agent-cleared-in-florida-shooting-of-suspect-questioned-about-boston-bombing/2014/03/21/86495e94-b101-11e3-9627-c65021d6d572_story.html

What's going on here? Who's behind the fake leak? The FBI?

March 20, 2014

Ukrainian fascists to stay in parliament until 2017

There seems to be a common misunderstanding. In May, the president is elected, not the Rada. The next parliamentary election is in 2017.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_parliamentary_election,_2017

As matters stand, Mrs. Tymochenko will be a candidate, and she has certainly good chances.

Her party, the Fatherland party, is said to be moderate right and business-friendly, but some members are former (?) fascists, like Andriy Parubiy, who leads the National Security Council and is accused of letting the snipers into Hotel Ukraine, from where most of the deadly shoots came.

Good luck with that new government.

March 16, 2014

Merkel wants more observers in Ukraine, Putin agrees: German government

Source: Reuters


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin more Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers should be sent to Ukraine, a plan he welcomed, Merkel's spokesman said on Sunday.

"The chancellor proposed swiftly expanding the existing OSCE presence in Ukraine and sending a bigger number of observers into hot spots, especially in East Ukraine," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement about a phone call between the two leaders.

"The Russian president viewed this initiative positively. He promised he would instruct Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov accordingly."

This should be agreed with as broad as possible support at an OSCE meeting in Vienna on Monday.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/merkel-wants-more-observers-ukraine-putin-agrees-german-144033118.html

March 14, 2014

Maidan snipers: the role of Andrej Parubiy

Andrij Parubiy is the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of the new Ukrainian government. Before the toppling of the Yanukovich regime, he was the “commandant” of the Euromaidan protest forces. In the past he belonged to different Ukrainian parties, mostly of the right and extreme right political spectrum. At the moment, he is a member of the Fatherland party.

Parubiy has now been accused by former Ukrainian security chief Aleksandr Yakimenko of supporting the obscure mercenaries who killed several people with sniper shots, demonstrators as well as policemen:

First shots were fired from the Philharmonic building. Maidan Commandant Parubiy was in charge of the building. On February 20, this building was used as a base by the snipers and people with automatic weapons. They basically covered those who were attacking the demoralized policemen running in panic, hunted down like animals. They were followed by armed people with different kinds of weapons. At that point, somebody opened fire at those who attacked the police, and some of them were killed. All this fire was coming from the Philharmonic building.

According to the German Handelsblatt the very same Parubyi has now been mandated by the Ukranian government to lead the investigation into the sniper shootings.

Last week the new pro-west Ukranian government announced an investigation of the shootings by a parliamentary commission. The panel would be staffed with representatives of all fractions, a speaker said. International experts, Physicians, ballisticians and eyewitnesses would be interviewed. The head of the National Security Council, Andrej Parubiy, has been picked as the leader of the panel. (Translated from German)

The German government has declared that it will espouse an internationally surveyed investigation. How will it deal with the case of Andrej Parubiy?

March 14, 2014

Mercenaries took part in Maidan violence – Ex-Ukraine security chief

Before anyone dismisses the statement of this guy as pure propaganda, there are three things to keep in mind:

1 - Estonian foreign minister Paet confirmed in his call to Ashton that the snipers were part of the "new coalition".

2 - The new Ukrainian government has confirmed that the sniper shoots didn't come from police/Yanukovich forces, but a "third party" - they say it was the Russians, how ever little sense this makes

3 - According to the German government, the shootings are investigated under international oversight.

So this is going to be interesting. Now here excerpts from the interview:

Aleksandr Yakimenko: First shots were fired from the Philharmonic building. Maidan Commandant Parubiy was in charge of the building. On February 20, this building was used as a base by the snipers and people with automatic weapons. They basically covered those who were attacking the demoralized policemen running in panic, hunted down like animals. They were followed by armed people with different kinds of weapons. At that point, somebody opened fire at those who attacked the police, and some of them were killed. All this fire was coming from the Philharmonic building. After this first round of fire, about 20 people came out of this building – this was witnessed by many. These people wore special combat clothes and carried sniper rifle cases, as well as AKMs with scopes. There were witnesses, and not just our operatives, but also Maidan activists from Svoboda, Right Sector, Batkivshchyna, and UDAR.

The snipers split into two groups – 10 men each. The Security Service lost track of one of the groups. The other group took a position at the Ukraine hotel. Killings continued. In the beginning, when the shots were scattered, I was asked by Right Sector and Svoboda to mobilize a Special Forces unit and remove the snipers from the buildings.

*snip*

AY: Yes, that’s true. He also handed personal files of his own employees over to the CIA agents to study. But their mission was interrupted by an armed coup. The Maidan do not appoint these people; rather, it’s the US that does it. It’s enough to look at the newly appointed officials: Parubiy, Gvozd, Nalyvaichenko are all people who followed somebody else’s orders, the orders of the US, not even Europe. They are directly linked to the American intelligence. They sought to delay the negotiations and prevent the incumbent president from striking a deal with Russia and Russia from helping to prop up the social and economic order in Ukraine. After that they were planning to depose the president and integrate Ukraine into Europe, using Russian money. Who was troubled by the victory of the EU and the pro-integration forces? Only the US. It was the only country concerned over a possible alliance of Europe, Russia and Ukraine. The Customs Union and the connection between Russia and Ukraine did not sit well with their plans, either.

http://rt.com/op-edge/mercenaries-at-maidan-ukraine-558/

March 12, 2014

German Zentralrat der Juden is worried about Ukrainian anti-semitism

http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/zentralrat-der-juden-besorgnis-ueber-antisemitismus-in-der-ukraine/9603864.html (in German)

In two weeks, Prawy Sektor, the extreme right party which is part of the new Ukrainian government, will take part in a "congress" of European right-wing extremists, organized by "Junge Nationaldemokraten, i.e. German Neo-Nazis.

So much for Jews accepting the anti-semitic stance of the new Ukrainian government.