“The bill was opposed by all of Russia’s political parties except the pro-Kremlin United Russia, which has 315 seats in the 450-seat Duma. United Russia’s chairman is Vladimir Putin. The report said the measures were proposed by the government in the wake of the March 29 Metro bombings by Chechen separatists.”

“A Reuters report cited Kremlin critics who say the FSB, “formerly headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, could use its additional powers to target and intimidate opposition groups.” The report also noted: “The FSB was formed from the remains of the KGB, which was broken up in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed. Its influence grew greatly after Putin became president in 2000 and ordered it to lead the fight against Islamist rebels.”

Full report on Russia’s emerging police state by Warren Mass @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/4020-russia-gives-new-powers-to-kgb-successor

“Sure, Reagan spent boatloads — some $2.8 trillion all told — on the military. And yes, he funneled money and guns to anti-communist rebels like the Nicaraguan Contras and Afghan mujahideen, while lecturing Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that wall. But on the ultimate test of hawkdom — the willingness to send U.S. troops into harm’s way — Reagan was no bird of prey. He launched exactly one land war, against Grenada, whose army totaled 600 men. It lasted two days. And his only air war — the 1986 bombing of Libya — was even briefer.”

Peter Beinart takes a second look @ Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/07/think_again_ronald_reagan

“Under an agreement organized between the two governments last year, the neutral alpine nation famous for its banking secrecy was supposed to divulge the names associated with about 4,500 accounts suspected of sheltering money from the Internal Revenue Service. But a Swiss judge blocked the disclosure because it violated national banking laws.”

Full column on Swiss Banks vs the IRS by Alex Newman @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/3798-us-terrorizes-switzerland-over-taxes-banking

“In 2010 China, one man is not taking a similar situation lying down. Yang Youde, reports Reuters, “has declared war on property developers who want his land, building a cannon out of a wheelbarrow and pipes and firing rockets at would-be eviction teams.” Yang “says he has fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses ammunition made from locally sold fireworks,” the report continues. Yang also says he has been careful not to hurt anyone, firing the shots over the heads of the erstwhile thieves.”

Full story by Michael Tennant @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/asia-mainmenu-33/3749-chinese-man-fights-eminent-domain-with-fireworks

“The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state. One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.”

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard exposes the  origins of European Union @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1356047/Euro-federalists-financed-by-US-spy-chiefs.html

“Europol (a portmanteau of the European Police Office) was formally instituted in 1993 under a provision of the Maastricht Treaty and it became fully functional as of July 1, 1999. The agency is the European Union’s intelligence agency and as such conducts investigations across the 27 member states of the European Union.”

“…As of this year, the Hague has endowed Europol with the plenary powers of a full EU agency, with all the attendant rights and privileges.”

Joe Wolverton II looks at the  European Police Agency @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/3221-europol-granted-frightening-investigative-power

“The explosive FBI surveillance tape, obtained using hidden cameras, was made public on Sunday for the first time by CBS’ 60 Minutes. It showed Pentagon analyst Gregg Bergersen with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency traveling in a rental car with a spy for the People’s Republic of China, Tai Shen Kuo.”

Alex Newman reports on a new China spy scandal @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/3073-communists-caught-spying-on-us-again

“Our mandate must cover the full range of macroeconomic and financial sector policies that bear on global stability in the modern world,” Strauss-Kahn told the annual gathering of the Bretton Woods Committee on Friday. “And that, in many ways, is the bottom line: to strengthen the fund’s role as the guardian of systemic stability.”

Declaring the need for a new “multilateral surveillance” system, the French managing director said what the IMF wants “is a new focus and capacity to deal with systemic risks.”

If approved, the new surveillance procedures “would allow — indeed require — the fund to assess the broader and systemic effects of country-level policies, and the associated risks, in a fundamentally different way,”

Alex Newman exposes new attempts to empower the IMF to deal with the financial crisis @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/economics-mainmenu-44/3052-imf-seeks-new-mandate-global-currency

“For the last two weeks of December 2009 and throughout all of January 2010 the headline story at the top of the home page of the Socialist International’s website boasted of the organization’s prominent influence and clout at the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, the brief article, entitled “SI at COP15 in Copenhagen: reaffirming social democratic priorities,” does not begin to do justice to the Socialist International’s central role, not only in pushing the current alarmism over global warming, but also in building a global militant environmental lobby from 1970 to the present.”

William Jasper exposes the Socialist push for world government @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/2947-the-grasp-of-socialist-international

“More important, Che’s legend survives the facts of his own life. Born in 1928 and gunned down in 1967 by drunken Bolivian soldiers, Che rarely missed an opportunity to make life miserable for those who opposed him. During the fight against the Batista regime, Che ordered the summary executions of dozens of real and suspected enemies, becoming the very thing he said revolutionaries must be: a “cold-blooded killing machine.” As a leader in post-Revolution Cuba, Che became known as the “butcher of La Cabaña” prison, where he oversaw hundreds of murders of political prisoners and “counter-revolutionaries.” ”

Nick Gillespie show how Che’s violent life undercuts his mythic image @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/22/exorcising-the-ghost-of-che-gu