As we reported in April 2012, leading Chinese economic analyst (and American ex-pat) professor Michael Pettis argued in 2011 that China’s GDP might already higher than America’s in terms of purchasing power parity. And we noted that Arvind Subramanian – former assistant director in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, and now senior fellow jointly at the Peterson Institute for International Economics – says that China passed up the USA in 2010.

Alleged OSCE Observers Held in Slavyansk by Pro-Russian Forces Are Active Duty NATO Military Officers Out of Uniform, Many from Geilenkirchen Intelligence Base Where Awacs Are Flown; Visit Was Sponsored by German Defense Ministry, Which Is Pressuring Osce To Keep Up Attempted Camouflage of Possible Spy Mission-or Worse

Press TV: Now looking at the current events with OSCE observers, it goes to show the level of mistrust people in eastern and southern Ukraine have with regards to anything connected with Europe. How do you see the role they are playing?

Tarpley: I would have to say first of all, we should stop calling them OSCE observers because all indications are that they are not. That is what the OSCE has been saying continuously since the start of it and you can see it on their website. They basically are two versions. The Western media say OSCE observers, but the mayor Mr. [Vyacheslav] Ponomaryov, the pro-Russian mayor of Slavyansk, knows them as spies. I'm afraid reality seems to be going in the direction of Mr. Ponomareyov. These are active-duty NATO military officers. They are four from Germany, one from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Poland. All NATO or European Union (EU). The German officers come from a place called Geilenkirchen, which is a very important NATO base. This is where the Awacs planes are flown from. It's one of the big NATO reconnaissance centers and they particularly belong to a unit of the German army, the bundeswehr, which is called the center for enforcement or verification tasks. In other words, it's military intelligence. What seems also to be the case, is that they were accompanied by five active-duty Ukrainian officers of the pro-Kiev forces, the ones that are controlled by the regime. The complicating factor is they were riding around in OSCE vehicles. They were in a bus that seems to have been displaying OSCE markings. Now, when they were captured, there was obviously tremendous pressure exercised by the German Defense Ministry and the whole NATO apparatus on the OSCE to play along with this charade, pretending that they were sent by the OSCE, but it hasn't worked.

Christof Lehmann: Captured Soldiers Not OSCE Observers as Claimed
VoR: Elite German special forces unit ready to storm Slavyansk to release "OSCE observers"

The US has been behind the Ukrainian crisis from the beginning, but was initially flying low, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He added that if sanctions continue, Russia will have to reconsider who has access to key sectors of its economy. “I think what is happening now shows us who really was mastering the process from the beginning. But in the beginning, the United States preferred to remain in the shadow,” Putin said, as quoted by RIA Novosti. Putin stated that since the US has taken a lead role in resolving the political crisis in Ukraine, it is “telling that they originally were behind this process, but now they just have emerged as leaders” of it. The "Maidan cookies" policy paves the way to a broader crisis, Putin warned, referring to US officials showing up in central Kiev and encouraging protesters during demonstrations. “It is necessary to understand that the situation is serious and try to find serious approaches to the solution,” he said. Putin said that he has called on Kiev to start an all-Ukrainian dialogue, adding that other countries should not be blamed for the crisis.

RT.com: "Trans-Atlantic global leadership" at stake in Ukraine – Kerry ● NATO must return to its original goal of fending off Russia, seizing the chance presented by the Ukrainian crisis to sever Europe from Moscow and move it closer to America, the US secretary of state said. Or else the bloc’s global leadership may be lost.

Mike Whitney: Why is Putin in Washington’s Crosshairs? ● Washington wants to weaken Moscow economically by slashing its gas revenues and, thus, eroding its ability to defend itself or its interests. The US does not want an economically-integrated Europe and Asia. The de facto EU-Russian alliance is a direct threat to US global hegemony.”

Antiwar.com: Kerry: US Military Will Defend Every Inch of "NATO Territory" ● In a speech today in Washington which was presented as a “warning” to Russia, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia would not be allowed to “change the security landscape” of Europe and that the US was prepared to defend “every single piece” of NATO territory. There is no indication, of course, that Russia has any designs on any territory of any NATO member nations. Rather, that narrative has been advanced primarily by politicians in eastern NATO states, courting major boosts in US military aid.

Barry Grey ■ In an extraordinary interview with the Wall Street Journal given Monday and published Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry made clear that the Obama administration and the US military/intelligence establishment are fully aware that they are risking the outbreak of nuclear war by pursuing a reckless and provocative policy towards Russia. ■ Summarizing the interview, Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib wrote: “His greatest fear now? ‘I think it could deteriorate into hot confrontation,’ even without Russian troops crossing into Ukraine, Mr. Kerry said. ‘And there are provocateurs who are perfectly capable, who are trying to instigate that kind of flare-up.’ “The fact that it hasn’t happened so far, he said, is a tribute to the discipline and restraint of the fledgling Ukrainian government. ‘But obviously,’ he added, ‘you could have a flash point here.’” ■ Kerry’s talk of the “discipline and restraint” of the US puppet regime in Kiev is a fraud. But he knows very well about the danger of provocateurs, since he is working intimately with them in stoking up the conflict with Russia.

Stephen Lendman: More Kerry Bullying, Bluster and Big Lies ■ He's no diplomat. He's a world class thug. He mocks legitimacy. He disgraces the office he holds. He represents the worst of America's dark side. He's a serial liar. He's been caught red-handed lying numerous times before. He's at it again. Big Lies infested his Monday Wall Street Journal interview. Truth was nowhere in sight. [...] You can't make this stuff up. Other lies followed. US media scoundrels proliferate them. Truth is whitewashed. It doesn't have a chance. At risk is world peace. Ukraine is ground zero for potential East/West confrontation. All bets are off if it happens.

A prisoner in the US state of Oklahoma died of a heart attack following a botched execution on Tuesday, triggering claims of torture by attorneys for the death row inmate. ● Clayton Lockett, 38, died around 40 minutes after his execution was halted due to a botched lethal injection. He was convicted of murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery for a 1999 crime spree. Lockett was administered a new and untested three-drug combination. Following the injection of the three lethal drugs, Lockett writhed on the gurney, clenched his teeth, and strained to lift his head off the pillow before he died, according to witnesses. Lockett's lawyers say he was tortured to death and have called for an independent investigation and autopsy to learn what really went wrong. "It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched," said Lockett's attorney, David Autry.

Kate Randall: Oklahoma: Botched lethal injection forces postponement of second planned execution
Katie Fretland: State-Sanctioned Murder: Clayton Lockett death witness speaks - Audio
UPI.com: Oklahoma inmate suffers fatal heart attack in botched execution

A daughter of Saudi King Abdullah has posted an online video in which she expressed solidarity with anti-regime protesters. ● In her You Tube message, Princess Sahar called on Saudi people to continue their struggle against the ruling family’s oppression. Princess Sahar and her three sisters have been locked up in the city of Jeddah for the past 13 years. Meanwhile, Saudi Prince Khalid bin Farhan has expressed solidarity with the four sisters and hailed them for defending anti-regime protesters in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. According to some estimates, over 40,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, are held in Saudi Arabia. Most of the prisoners are those who oppose the kingdom’s absolute monarchy and subservience to Western policies.

Israel approved nearly 14,000 new settler homes during nine months of peace talks with the Palestinians, a settlement watchdog says. ● Israel approved plans for nearly 14,000 new settler homes during the nine months of peace talks with the Palestinians, an Israeli settlement watchdog says as the negotiation period formally ended. Figures quoted by Peace Now on Tuesday showed that during the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government approved at least 13,851 new housing through the advancement of plans and the publication of tenders. "This is an unprecedented number representing an average of 50 housing units per day or 1,540 per month," it said.

Stephen Lendman: Unprecedented Settlement Construction Exposes Sham Peace Talks ■ Peace talks mock legitimacy. [...] They're a deplorable charade. Both sides agreed to continue them until April 29. D-day arrived. Resolution remains as distant as ever. Chances for peace are nil. Believing otherwise is fantasy. Throughout months of talks, Israeli lawlessly demolished over 500 Palestinian homes and structures. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported it. Nearly 900 Palestinians were forcibly displaced. An entire Jordan Valley village was destroyed. Throughout the negotiating period, nearly 3,700 Palestinians were lawlessly detained. Thousands of political prisoners languish in Israel's gulag. Multiple daily community incursions target Palestinians lawlessly. Beatings and arrests follow. Children are vulnerable. So are women. Barbarism defines Israeli policy.

PressTV: Israel to use steal tax collected for Palestinian Authority

Ted Pike ■ In 2013 Johns Hopkins geneticist Eran Elhaik, Ph.D. very largely destroyed prevailing genetic theory concerning the origin of eastern European “Ashkenazi” Jews -- roughly three quarters of Jews in the world today. In his groundbreaking article “The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses,” published in the prestigious scientific journal Genome Biology and Evolution, Elhaik reported the results of his first major study of Ashkenazim genetics. He said the genetic evidence indicates the roots of most “Jews” today are to be found in the east, in the ancient kingdom of Khazaria, converted to Judaism in the 8th century AD. So compelling is Elhaik’s research that the scientific community remains stunned. It could be even more stunned in months to come. Elhaik told me by email: "My goals are to raise enough money to genotype the Khazar skeletons we found and deliver the final evidence to the origin of European Jews and publish the findings." This is explosive in its potential. If, indeed, he is able to determine through genetic tests that DNA within ancient Khazar bones generally corresponds to DNA within modern eastern European Jews, it will settle with finality that most "Jews" today are descended from an 8th century A.D. Eurasian nation of traders and warriors, not Abraham.

Window To Palestine: New Genome Study Destroys Zionist Claims to Palestine
Jim W. Dean: Zionists design myth of Jewish genome to usurp Palestine

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions against seven individual Russians and 17 Russian companies, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. ● Carney said the sanctions were in response to Crimea’s reunification with Russia, which the United States does not acknowledge, as well as Russia’s stance on Ukraine. “At the contact group meeting in Geneva on April 17, 2014, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union decided on a number of steps to deescalate the situation in eastern Ukraine, including refraining from further violence or provocative acts. Since April 17, Russia has done nothing to meet its Geneva commitments and in fact has further escalated the crisis. Russia’s involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable,” Carney said. The United States has imposed sanctions on individuals in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

RT.com: EU ‘should be ashamed’ after sanctions on Russia - Moscow
RIA Novosti: Moscow Says Response to Western Sanctions Ready

Britain and France deployed eight fighter jets on Monday to reinforce NATO air patrols over the Baltics as tensions rise with Russia over Ukraine, officials said. Four British Typhoon jets arrived in Lithuania to start their mission while four French Rafale jets touched down in Malbork, northeast Poland, their defence ministries said. British defence minister Philip Hammond said the move would "provide reassurance to our NATO allies in eastern Europe and the Baltic states." "In the wake of recent events in Ukraine, it is right that NATO takes steps to reaffirm very publicly its commitment to the collective security of its members," Hammond said. Around 70 French military personnel have been deployed to Malbork in support of the new planes, French military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron said. Britain and France have each also deployed AWACS early-warning aircraft to patrol Polish and Romanian airspace in recent weeks. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, joined NATO in 2004 but lack sufficient aircraft to police their own skies, so larger NATO members take turns patrolling their airspace.

PressTV: Moscow: EU being manipulated by US
Rick Rozoff: U.S. Boosts Warplanes, Airborne Troops In Poland, Baltics

The Saker ■ A very interesting trend is beginning to emerge: the deepening of the rift between the, shall we say, "official" leaders of the eastern Ukraine and their own electorate. I am talking about folks like Mikhail Dobkin, Gennadi Kermes (the one shot today) or the various representatives of the Party of Regions in what is left of the Ukrainian Parliament. The folks leading the anti-regime insurgency are adamant that the Party of Regions and all its members have already betrayed them many times and that the idea of participating in the Presidential elections organized by the junta in Kiev is yet another betrayal. Yesterday, in one of the most popular talkshows on Russian TV ("Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev") one of the supposedly "pro-Russian" representatives of the Party of regions ended up having an ugly shouting match with about half of the guests on the show, including three representatives of the pro-Russian insurgency in the eastern Ukraine, and several well-known Russian analysts. At this point the "least disliked" "official" political figure in the eastern Ukraine might be Oleg Tsarev who was expelled from the Party of Regions and who initially announced that he was running for President, but who dropped out of the race when confronted about that by the local people in Donetsk. He is also the politician who was invited to the Ukie TV show "freedom of speech", who was guaranteed protection and then who ended up several beaten and partially stripped of his clothes by neo-Nazi thugs outside the TV station.

RT.com: Lugansk govt HQ standoff - LIVE
RT.com: http://rt.com/news/155640-protesters-government-building-ukraine/Anti-Kiev protesters take control of govt building in Lugansk Region, east Ukraine

Carl Herman ■ War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength || The American people are now overwhelmingly opposed to more war in Ukraine, Syria, Iran and elsewhere. Those who get rich from war (the military-industrial complexers and big banks) and their lackeys are desperate to reverse this trend. As such, they are resorting to more and more outlandish justifications for war.

What does Washington's "containment" policy mean? What threats does it pose? Will it work against today's Russia? And does this mean Washington has declared a new Cold War? CrossTalking with Stephen Cohen and John Mearsheimer.

Rick Rozoff: NATO’s Incremental Absorption of Ukraine ■ This historical review of the relations between NATO and Ukraine puts de facto into perspective one’s analysis of the events in Kiev: since 1991 and its accession to the Atlantic Cooperation Council, Ukraine has concretely moved inexorably closer to the Alliance, without ever consulting the people.

Patrick Martin ■ For sheer cynical doubletalk, it is hard to top the statement issued by President Obama Monday, to mark the annual worldwide commemoration of the Holocaust, one of the greatest crimes in modern history. || The statement concludes, “let us recommit ourselves to the task of remembrance, and to always oppose anti-Semitism wherever it takes root. Together, we must give enduring meaning to the words ‘Never Again’.” The two-paragraph text is posted on the White House web site immediately below a statement issued the same day on US policy in Ukraine, announcing new sanctions against Russia for Moscow’s public opposition to the US-backed takeover of Ukraine by right-wing nationalist forces that hail the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. [...] Millions of Soviet citizens, including a million Jews, were slaughtered in Ukraine during the Nazi invasion and three years of occupation. Now the political heirs of those who collaborated with the Nazi genocide are working in lockstep with American imperialism.

Stephen Lendman: Holocaust Remembrance Day Duplicity ■ Never forget. Never again. - Hollow words. Other holocausts go unmentioned. Horrific ones exceed Hitler's final solution. || At 10AM local Israeli time Monday, sirens echoed across Israel. Normal activity stopped. A ritual silence followed. Radio and television stations observed it. Holocaust imagery is duplicitous. It rationalizes occupation harshness. It ignores Israeli state terrorism. It turns a blind eye to its decades of crimes of war, against humanity and slow-motion genocide. It promotes unique Jewish suffering. It characterizes Hitler's extermination policy as unparalleled. It's mindless of far greater genocides. During WW II, three times as many Slavs died as Jews. Native American genocide was the greatest ever by far. An estimated 100 million perished. Ritual slaughter continued for 500 years. Tens of millions of middle passage African slave lives lost don't matter. Nor do countless millions of corpses attesting to Washington's post-WW II barbarity alone.

Robert Fisk ■ Stillbirths, disabilities, deformities too distressing to describe - what lies behind the torments in Fallujah General Hospital? || The pictures flash up on a screen on an upper floor of the Fallujah General Hospital. And all at once, Nadhem Shokr al-Hadidi's administration office becomes a little chamber of horrors. A baby with a hugely deformed mouth. A child with a defect of the spinal cord, material from the spine outside the body. A baby with a terrible, vast Cyclopean eye. Another baby with only half a head, stillborn like the rest, date of birth 17 June, 2009. Yet another picture flicks onto the screen: date of birth 6 July 2009, it shows a tiny child with half a right arm, no left leg, no genitalia.

The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison. ● If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday. Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry's use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

If not for the federal government, contractor DynCorp International wouldn’t be in business. Virtually all of its revenue (96%) comes from government contracts. That includes the vast majority of the taxpayer dollars that the State Department has awarded to companies to help rebuild Afghanistan. ● The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says that of the $4 billion allotted by the State Department from 2002 to 2013, 69.3% went to DynCorp. In terms of actual dollars, DynCorp took in $2.8 billion. Giving so much to one company might not have been a good idea, given DynCorp’s record. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) notes the contractor’s “colorful history” includes “instances of labor smuggling, weak performance and overpayments on a base support services contract, botched construction work on an Afghan Army garrison, and lawsuits filed by disgruntled subcontractors.” Most of DynCorp’s contracts have been to train and equip the Afghan National Police and counternarcotics forces, SIGAR reports. It was during this work that the company was accused by a top Afghan official of hiring “dancing boys” in 2009 to entertain DynCorp trainers. A diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks quoted Interior Minister Hanif Atmar as having “deep concerns that lives could be in danger if news leaked that foreign police trainers working for U.S. commercial contractor DynCorp hired ‘dancing boys’ to perform for them.”

There's gunfire, explosions and brutal clashes in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as fighting erupted between pro- and anti-govt protesters, RT’s stringer reports from the scene. ● 14 people have asked for medical assistance, with several hospitalized, after clashes in Donetsk, the regional administration told Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Pro- and-anti-Kiev protest rallies took place simultaneously in the city. According to RT’s stringer Graham Phillips, there were plenty of masked young men on both sides, and they were clearly looking for a fight. The police failed to contain the crowd as protesters clashed with each other, using firecrackers, smoke grenades, baseball bats and sticks. A group of about 1,000 “neo-Nazi thugs” has come to Donetsk from Dnepropetrovsk on Monday to cause provocations, the press-service of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk told RT.

RIA Novosti obtained the satellite photos which clearly show heavy buildup of Ukraine's military weapons and equipment on the border with Russia, as well as in Ukraine’s Slaviansk suburbs, in the North of the Donetsk region, where clashes between pro-federalization protesters and Ukrainian interim government continue. ● A source in the Russian Defense Ministry said, commenting on these photos, that they clearly illustrate that the force military grouping is being formed in the Slaviansk suburbs «in order to wipe out the city and its residents». According to his data, the grouping is comprised of more than 15,000 Ukrainian military servicemen and the home reserve, there are around 160 tanks, 230 infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, as well as no less than 150 rifles, mine throwers and RMs (multiple-launch rocket systems of Grad and Smerch types). «Such concentration of troops in one district and the potential of the self-defense units' forces are disparate, the latter being armed only with small amount of pistols and shotguns," he added. Kiev authorities are conducting a special operation against pro-federalization protesters in eastern Ukraine. Casualties and wounded were reported. The city of Slaviansk faces the fiercest clashes. The blocking of the city was the goal of second stage of the special operation which began Friday.

Stephen Lendman ■ Claiming "signs that Russia seems poised to invade" is another Times Big Lie. A matching one calls US aggression humanitarian intervention. So-called responsibility to protect is pretext for ravaging, destroying and plundering one country after another. Times correspondents, contributors and editors leave inconvenient truths unexplained. Big Lies substitute. Longstanding policy features them. Rubbish substitutes for news fit print. Increasing numbers of readers vote with their feet and ignore it. Maybe some day everyone will.

Alex Lantier: The Ukraine crisis and the political lies of the media ■ As the Obama administration and its allies in Europe escalate their threats against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, the American media plays its assigned role as propaganda mouthpiece. Not a single critical voice can be found within the so-called mainstream media. The newspapers and television news programs are filled with lies, anti-Russian propaganda, and—preparing for the possibility that the crisis escalates out of control—apologetics for war.

Banks Create Money Out of Thin Air … Conferring Enormous Windfall Profits At the Expense of the People ● We’ve pointed out for 4 1/2 years that banks create money out of thin air. Specifically, it has now been conclusively proven that loans come first … and then deposits FOLLOW. This is the most important secret about modern banking … because it debunks one of the biggest myths preventing a strong economy, challenges one of the main pork barrel profit centers for big banks … and opens up incredible opportunities for a prosperous economy. This odd and counter-intuitive – but crucially important – truth has now gone mainstream …

A US police deputy choked a student into unconsciousness in Fort Sanders, Knox County, Tennessee on Saturday night. ● Photos obtained by the Daily Mail show that Frank Phillips, 47, places his hands on the throat of a Jarod Dotson, 22, a University of Tennessee college student, until he is unconscious. Dotson was led to a policy van at the university, before the officer unnecessarily used the excessive force against him, while he had been already handcuffed. The photos show as two officers are twisting his arms behind his back, another deputy walks in front of the young man and puts his hands around his neck. As it can be seen from the sequence of shots, the student appears to lose consciousness, his knees start buckling as he sinks to the ground, while the officer continues to choke him or activate a pressure point that sends him unconscious.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) provided foreign-backed militants in Syria with US-made anti-tank missiles, a local daily reports. ● The Turkish daily Aydinlik said in a report that the former commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), Salim Idris, acted as a middleman in the transfer of the TOW anti-tank missiles from Turkey to the militants in Syria. About a dozen militants have been trained in Turkey on how to use the weapons, the report said. The decision for the transfer of the missiles reportedly came after a meeting between Idris and US Republican Senator John McCain last year.

Three members of Ukraine’s special anti-terrorist unit Alpha have been detained during a covert mission in Donetsk region, amid the buildup of Kiev’s military near the cities controlled by pro-federalization forces. ● Commander of the 'Donetsk Republic' self-defense forces, Igor Strelkov, has confirmed reports that three members of the Alpha special tactical assault group of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) have been detained in the city of Gorlovka, in Donetsk region. Their task reportedly was to abduct one of the self-defense force leaders, Igor Bezler, whose group is controlling the local police department in Gorlovka, but instead they were captured themselves. The prisoners were searched and blindfolded and brought to nearby Slavyansk, where their guns, documents and IDs as well as other belongings were demonstrated to the media during a press conference. During questioning, the detained officers revealed that a special unit that has infiltrated the city comprised of seven men. The captives claimed they had no time for any wrongdoing as they “just arrived” in the city and were getting acquainted with it and investigating approaches for fulfilling their mission, which they admitted was “invariably impossible.”

Jason Ditz: Three Ukraine Troops Captured in East
Mark Hackard: US policy in Eurasia: Full-Spectrum Subversion

The Saker: Ukrainian special forces team caught near Donetsk ■ The Ukrainian SBU is a truly frightening secret service. Ever since it's foundation following the independence of the Ukraine the SBU did some work arresting gangsters and criminals, but it's most feared mission was to be the "enforcement" service of whoever was in power. The top of the top of the SBU forces were supposed to be the "A" or "Alpha" anti-terrorist forces. It is rather cute that the proudly independent Ukies felt the need to use the same designation as the hated Moskals whose famous anti-terrorist group is called "A" (the Alpha thing is a media invented misnomer and an attempt to sound like the US "Delta" Force; in reality the group is called "the A Directorate"). Anyway, they call have the same name, but in terms of skills or record the two groups are very different. For one thing, the Russian "A" never was the enforcement service of the regime and they had no political role or mission at all. Second, they really did deal with anti-terrorism and very serious organized crime. Still, by Ukrainian standards, these are the top of the top. These are also the folks who have been kidnapping anti-regime activists over the pasts months. I have to note that the previous commander of the Ukrainian Alpha was sacked for refusing to engage in operations against the Russian-speaking population - so there were some honorable officers in this group. But by now it is pretty clear who stayed. And they mission was typical too: to kidnap the head of the local police department. Instead, the three wannabe kidnappers got caught themselves.

xymphora: Ukraine turns into an embarrassing disaster ■ It is funny that the Americans and/or Ukrainians are guilty of absolutely every crime Kerry and the Americans accuse the Russians of doing. Barry [Obama] is soon going to have to remove the stench of the rotting corpse that is John Kerry. I know he only does what ZOG orders him to do, but everything he touches - Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian talks, and now Ukraine - turns into an embarrassing disaster.