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Putin is Stalin?
Garry Kasparov and the Far-right Cuckoo's Nest
By Mike Whitney
12/03/07 "ICH"
-- -- Garry Kasparov should give up politics and do what he
does best; stand-up comedy.
Watching Kasparov traipse around Moscow with his basket of sour
grapes and his entourage of western media-stooges is like
watching "Mr. Bean's Excellent Kremlin Adventure"---a
particularly lame performance in a dismal B-rated burlesque.
It's painful to watch.
On Sunday, while Putin's party "United Russia" was screeching to
a landslide victory; Reuters News was busy taking mug-shots of
the stony-faced Kasparov holding up Florida-style ballots
claiming the voting was rigged.
"They are not just rigging the vote," Kasparov moaned, "They are
raping the whole electoral system. These elections are a
reminder of Soviet elections when there was no choice.....Putin
is going to have a hard time trying to rule like Stalin."
Stalin? So now Putin is Stalin?
First of all, when did Reuters begin to take an interest in
voting irregularities? It must be a recent development, since
they were nowhere to be found in the 2000 presidential election.
And when did they start to pay attention to "dissenting voices"?
They certainly never wasted any video-footage on the antiwar
rallies in the US. Are we to believe that they are more
interested in democracy in Russia than in America?
And why is Reuters so eager to provide valuable column-space to
a washed-up chess-jockey whose only interest is flogging the
Russian President while making unsubstantiated charges of voter
fraud? Is that news or just propaganda?
As for Kasparov and his silly accusations; he should be glad
that he lives in Putin's Russia rather than Stalin's or he'd be
in leg-irons right now boarding a northbound train to the
Siberian outback.
What is Kasparov doing in Moscow anyway? And why is this little
man--with virtually no political base--such a big part of the
western media narrative? Is he only there to discredit the
election and throw a little more muck on Putin or is there more
to it than that? Kasparov's party, the "Other Russia" couldn't
manage even a 2% rating in the polls. The party is a complete
dud. In fact, Reuters even (reluctantly) admits as much in its
article.
Here's the clip. Reuters:
"Kasparov and his "Other Russia" dissident movement are not
standing in Sunday's parliamentary election because they could
not get registered as a party. THEY ENJOY LITTLE PUBLIC SUPPORT
AMONG RUSSIANS BUT HAVE A BIG FOLLOWING IN THE WEST." (Reuters)
"Big following in the West"? Why doesn't that surprise me?
So, in other words, Kasparov has no base of support in Russia,
and yet he gets his own camera crew and media team to follow him
around recording every silly he says. That's just great. Who do
they think he is; Nelson Mandela?
Kasparov is a contributing editor of Murdoch's Wall Street
Journal; so he already has a regular platform for launching his
tirades on the "tyrannical" Mr. Putin. Normally, one doesn't get
a spot on the op-ed page of the WSJ unless their politics are
somewhere to the right of Augusto Pinochet. That's probably the
case with Kasparov, too.
In Saturday's edition of the WSJ, Kasparov delivered his latest
absurd soliloquy- disparaging Putin and recounting his agonizing
5 day ordeal in the Moscow poky. What a travesty. It seems that
Kasparov's delicate physical make-up made it impossible for him
to eat prison food so "thanks to growing pressure , they allowed
me to receive food packages from home". (WSJ)
Did you hear that, Bobby Sands?
Kasparov also added, "Some commentators even suspected I wanted
to provoke my own arrest for publicity, a chess players
far-sighted strategy."
Heaven forbid! Who could possibly think that this was all a
stage-managed publicity stunt orchestrated by western
power-brokers? What cynicism? "Is that T-bone done to your
liking, Mr. Kasparov, or should we open another 'food package
from home"'?
Although Kasparov has garnered little public support in Russia,
he appears to have a loyal following among the Washington elite.
According to Wikipedia:
"In 1991, Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from
the Center for Security Policy (a US think tank), for
anti-Communist resistance and the propagation of democracy.
Kasparov was an exceptional recipient since the award is given
to "individuals for devoting their public careers to the defense
of the United States and American values around the world".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov
Hmmmm...."For devoting their public careers to the defense of
the United States and American values around the world"? Isn't
that a definition of an American agent?
Again, according to Wikipedia:
In April, 2007 it was asserted that Kasparov was a board member
of the National Security Advisory Council of the Center for
Security Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan national security
organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions,
and resource needs that are vital to American security".
Kasparov confirmed this and added that he was removed shortly
after he became aware of it. He noted that HE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT
THE MEMBERSHIP and suggested he was included in the board by an
accident because he received the 1991 Keeper of the Flame award
from this organization. But Kasparov maintained his association
with the neoconservative leadership by giving speeches at think
tanks such as the Hoover Institute." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov
Here's a list of some of the other fellow travelers who've been
given the "Keeper of the Flame Award":
2007-Senator Joe Lieberman. 2004-General Peter Pace. 2003- Paul
Wolfowitz. 2002- General Richard Meyers. 1998-Donald Rumsfeld.
1996-Newt Gingrich. 1995-Ronald Reagan. 1990-Casper Weinberger.
Is Kasparov an anomaly or does he fit right in with this coven
of far-right loonies?
And who are some of the prominent members of the Center for
Security Policy?
Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Frank Gaffney, James Roche and
Laura Ingraham.
Oh, boy. The whole front office of the neocon's cuckoo's nest.
Now tell me, dear reader, with friends like that; what should we
really think about Kasparov's performance in Moscow? Is he
really interested in "democracy promotion" as he claims or is
their acting out a script that was prepared in Washington?
In the US, Kasparov has become the focal point of the Russian
elections---the primary source of "unbiased" analysis. NPR
reiterates his spurious claims every half hour. The other news
agencies are no better. He has become the distorted lens through
which Americans view Russian democracy. This says a lot more
about the choke-hold the neocons still have on the media rather
than anything objective about Russia.
The Kasparov fiasco gives us a chance to see the inner-workings
of the establishment media. It's nothing more than a propaganda
bullhorn for far-right organizations executing their bloody
imperial strategy. Fidel Castro summed it up best just days ago
when he said:
"It is the most sophisticated media ever developed by
technology, employed to kill human beings and to subjugate or
exterminate peoples".
Amen to that, Fidel.
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