9-GRADE STUDENT IN SEVASTOPOL DENIED MEDICAL HELP

Sevastopol newspapers published a horrifying story about a nine grade adolescent from Balaklava whose feet may be amputated. In recent freezing temperatures dropping down to 10s F. Ivan Zvonarev had been wearing old running shoes and a sweat suit. He does not have any other apparel and did not expect that this winter would be unusually harsh. Ivan is now in hospital but there is no money to treat him. His mother is poor. She lost her job as a vendor at the open market and lives off collecting empty money-back bottles. She is raising four kids alone and is pregnant with a fifth one. The boy’s high school teachers took care of him. But their salaries are so low that they cannot do much. The teachers asked the authorities for help but got a brush-off. However, they are not giving in and are launching a campaign in a hope to raise funds and save Ivan Zvonarev. The boy is one of millions of Ukrainian citizens living on dire poverty. On the contrary, kids of the “orange” revolutionaries enjoy life of luxury. In summer 2005 the Ukrainian President’s son made headlines when it had been discovered that he was driving a BMW, which costs more than 130,000 euros. His girl friend has a less expensive car - Mercedes CLS 500 (over $90,000). Andrey Yushchenko, 19, hangs out in the most expensive clubs and restaurants in Kiev. He orders champagne for 1,000 euros per bottle and leaves $300 for tips. This information published by Ukrainian media made an uproar in the Ukraine. But the powerful father rushed to defend his spoiled brat and the scandal died down. It is for their families that the orange leaders made their revolution not for all Ukrainians who are suffering under their rule more than ever before.

UKRAINIAN PAPER SUING US EMBASSY

Ukrainian weekly newspaper 2000 is suing the US Embassy in Kiev, US Press Attaché Brent Byers and Minister for External Relations of the Ukraine Boris Tarasiuk. The paper feels that a press release issued by the Embassy offends its dignity and damages its reputation. The press release was an indirect to a publication about a American group Scholars for 9/11 Truth. It was drawn up in the Ukrainian language and, as the weekly thinks, contained erroneous and insulting statements. The paper published a response and sent a letter to the Scholars for 9/11 Truth’s web site enclosing the translation of the press release:

Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:05:16 +0200
From: "Editorial office of the "2000" newspaper "
To: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Subject:
TO: Scholars for 9/11 Truth

ATTN: Steven E. Jones

James H. Fetzer

FROM: 2000 Weekly Newspaper (www.news2000.com.ua), Kyiv, Ukraine

SUBJECT: Publication of review of activities of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth in Ukrainian newspaper and reaction to it of US embassy in Kyiv (Ukraine)

Dear Gentlemen,

We believe that the subject of this letter may be of interest for the Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Our weekly “2000” (www.news2000.com.ua) - is one of the leading independent newspapers in Ukraine with a circulation of 101 000 copies distributed all through Ukraine. We provide our readers with accurate and non-partisan news coverage on social, cultural, political and economic aspects on both domestic and international matters. After learning about your view of what had happened on September 11, 2001, and scientific reasoning behind your position we decided to share it, as well as information about your society and its' activities with our readers in a series of articles.

“9/11 Terrorist Attack Orchestrated by President Bush's Entourage - An Opinion of US Scholars”was published on Feb. 10, 2006. The Russian version of the article can be found at news2000.com.ua/print/derzhava/teraktsentyabryaorganizov.html. We structured this article around possible involvement of President's Bush administration in 9/11 tragedy, introduced in it the goals and aims of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth as well as included the list of the society's members (translation of section of your website's sections Who Are We) and 20 reasons to question the official story of 9/11. We see unbiased presentation of different positions on these tragic events and possible causes of 9/11 as our responsibility, and believe that our readers have a right to hear not only official interpretation.

Our readers have shown an immense interest in the description of your society's activities, your scientific analyses of the 9/11 facts and what these analyses indicate.

Yet we have to admit, that until we have seen a reaction of the US embassy in Kyiv to our publication, we had considered the statement on your website “among the potential benefits of joining this society, you may become the subject of government surveillance and might even be placed on various lists of "potential terrorists» as a joke. On February 14, 2006 the US embassy in Kyiv issued a statement in which U.S. Embassy Press Attaché Brent Byers claimed that our publication of February 10, 2006 was written to mislead the people of Ukraine about the tragic events of 9/11, that publication of such articles falls in the same category as denial of Holocaust and Holodomor, Mr. Byers also accused our newspaper of acting on somebody's orders and publishing this article because somebody has told us to do so. The embassy went to the extent of forwarding this press-release to all major mass-media outlets in Ukraine. The full text of the embassy's statement as well as a link to the embassy's site you can find at the bottom of this letter.

Despite US Embassy attempts to hush down voices of those who does not agree with the official interpretation of the 9/11 tragedy, we are continuing with the publication of the series. Our next issue will contain a detailed account of how US senior governmental officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11.

We would be honored if you agree to share your understanding of the 9/11 tragedy with our readers on the pages of our newspaper. We would welcome your input in any form: a report, an open letter, an appeal, an investigative story, etc. We would be grateful as well for your comments of the situation mentioned above. We will appreciate a prompt reply, since our newspaper goes to print on Wednesdays.

Let's work together on exposing this cover-up of the real events.

Sincerely,

Sergey Kichigin

Editor-in-chief and owner of the weekly newspaper “2000”

___________________________________

Statement by the U.S. Embassy

Source: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/press/060214_bbyers_statement_eng.html

Press and Information
- February 14, 2006

TEMNYKY CREATORS STILL AT WORK IN UKRAINE
Statement by the U.S. Embassy Press Attaché Brent Byers

The February 10 article in 2000, a publication closely aligned with the SDPU (O), that claims that the United States Government was secretly behind and benefited from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is evidence that the people who introduced the word “temnyky” to the world are still hard at work trying to mislead the Ukrainian people. Such outrageous claims are in the league of statements that there was no Holocaust or Holodomor. Fortunately, as the political polls show, most Ukrainians do not take these political lies or the people who try to spread them seriously.

----- Forwarded message from jfetzer@d.umn.edu -----
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 22:13:53 -0600
From: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Reply-To: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Subject: Letter to the Editor (revised)
To: vitaemo@news2000.com.ua
To the Editor:

On behalf of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, I express our profound gratitude to you for publishing an informative article about our efforts to expose the false and reveal the truth about the events of 9/11. We are not surprised that the American Embassy would strike out at those who are willing to stand up for the truth about the corrupt acts of 9/11, which this administration has used to manipulate the people of the United States through a combination of acts of violence and threats of further acts of violence, ones that it appears to have orchestrated! It is typical of this administration that the only parties who are held accountable for their actions are the "whistle-blowers", who have the courage and the integrity to speak truth to power. So it comes as no surprise to us that representatives of this government would attempt to discredit us.

The laws of physics and engineering cannot be violated and cannot be changed, alas!, and are therefore not so amenable to manipulation as the minds of those who know no better. Americans are peculiarly susceptible to being taken in by their government because, as good and decent people, they would never tell such monstrous lies! Just as the official scenario of the shooting of his hunting companion by Vice President Cheney is amenable to scientific refutation, the grotesque charade that passes for the "official account" of the events of 9/11 has been subjected to scientific refutation, including by studies that may be found at our web site, scholarsfor911truth.org (st911.org). It turns out that what the government has told us about 9/11 is perfectly fine for those who are willing to believe impossible things. But scholars don't traffic in nonsense.

It is rather ironic that the government would attempt to assail critics of its position on the ground that they are "conspiracy theorists", since a scenario in which some nineteen Islamic fanatics hijack four commercial airliners and use them as weapons to attack prominent buildings under the direction of Osama bin Laden from a cave in the wilds of Afghanistan clearly counts as a "conspiracy theory". We therefore qualify as critics of a conspiracy theory, namely, the conspiracy theory advanced by a corrupt government intent upon controlling the American people through the use of violence and threats of violence to instill them with fear and make them amenable to political manipulation. Should anyone bother to check, that is the definition of "terrorism", which suggests that the Bush administration has been employing terrorism to control the American people.

With appreciation,

James H. Fetzer, Ph.D.
Founder and Co-Chair
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
jfetzer@d.umn.edu
http://www.st911.org
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX BANNED FROM SEVASTOPOL TV

Sevastopol Town Hall rejected the request for TV air time by a Russian Orthodox association. The Union of Orthodox citizens planned to hold an on-air forum to discuss recent takeovers of churches by splinter religious groups and attacks on believers during the Way of the Cross processions. Director of the regional TV network in Sevastopol Alexander Skripnichenko said that such public discussions may stir up religious hatred. He said he is ready to return to the Union of Orthodox citizens money paid for air-time. It is a second attempt by orthodox believers in Sevastopol to get access to TV to air their point of view in religious disputes in the Crimea. The first application had also been rejected.
Tavrichesky Kurier, February 25, 2006, www.freecrimea.org

KIEV MAY LOOSE CRIMEA

The Ukrainian “orange” regime is threatening to crack down on organizers of the referendum on the Russian language. On February 22, Crimean lawmakers voted to put the issue of whether Russian should be Ukraine's second official language to a referendum during a March national election. Prosecutor of the Crimea Victor Shemchuk said he would appeal this decision as anti-constitutional. Victor Yushchenko’s lieutenant for the Crimea Vladimir Kulish is going to advise the Ukrainian president to overturn the decision on the same grounds. The Crimea is officially an autonomous republic within the Ukraine but its autonomy is fictious. Kiev constantly interferes into the Crimean affaires and holds the peninsula under its tight grip.
Following Ukraine's independence after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukrainian was declared the sole official language though the majority of the population, especially in the South-East of the country, speak Russian. The Crimea is almost 100% Russian speaking region. Russian is also a predominant language of Crimean Tatars and other minorities and a means of communication between various nationalities. The Ukrainian which is close to Russian and sounds to many Russian speakers as an uneducated parlance has been foisted on Crimeans since 1991. The success of this ukrainization is meagre. It resulted only in alienation of the Crimeans whose resentment of Ukrainian rule has been on the rise after the “orange” revolution in 2004.
If Yushchenko bans the referendum in the Crimea he will only give a boost to the growing secession movement. With other provinces willing to break away such as former Romanian territory Bukovina and Rusin ethnic group in the Western Ukraine, Donbass in the East and Odessa in the South Ukraine may fall apart in the near future and could cease to exist. The rulers in Kiev erroneously think that they could keep all their lands together by crackdowns, persecutions and intimidation.

USS PORTER MET BY PROTESTERS IN SEVASTOPOL

USS Porter who called at Sevastopol Friday, February 17, was met by a crowd of protesters. Sevastopol is formally a Ukrainian city but its population is predominantly Russian. They hate Ukrainian rule and as the majority of other Crimeans wish to rejoin the Russian Federation. The protesters had brought to the port posters that read: “Say No To NATO, Say Yes To CIS Common Economic Space, No to Foreign Diktat”. “We don’t want Sevastopol to turn into a NATO base and we won’t tolerate turning our people into a NATO attending staff,”- said young militants who organised the demonstration.
USS Porter is based in Norfolk, Va. The Stars and Stripes reports that the US sailors are “midway through a five-month deployment. In early February, they sailed through the Turkish Straits to begin more than two weeks of training in the Black Sea and with Romanian and Ukrainian navies. Their mission is part of U.S. European Command’s focus on what military leaders often refer to as the push “south and east” of Europe”. The Ukrainian regime gives to the population of Sevastopol a different interpretation of the visit by the American destroyer: “USS Porter will stay in Sevastopol until February 20, says the Press center of the Ukraine's Naval Force. Her commanding officers will make a visit to the Main Staff of Ukrainian navy, where they will be received by Vice-Admiral Igor Knyaz, the Ukrainian navy commander, and Sevastopol Mayor Sergei Ivanov”. Only one sentence reveals the true intentions of the visit: “Next Monday, USS Porter and the Ukrainian flagship Slavutich will go out to sea for joint manoeuvring”.
The protest upset both Americans and their Ukrainian hosts. The press center of the Ukraine's Naval Force decided to get revenge. Their employees denied journalists bearing Russian citizenship to join a guided tour of the ship for the media and to attend a press conference. The ban applied also to Russian citizens who work for Ukrainian mainstream media outlets. The Crimean Committee sent a letter to the French group Reporters without Borders to inform it about violation of journalists’ rights by the Ukrainian Navy.

UKRAINIANS FLEE TO EU STATES OR RUSSIA

by Vassyl Trukhan

LVOV, Ukraine, Feb 9, 2006 (AFP) - A 51-year old engineer, Ganna has the wrinkled, stained hands of an elderly woman after years of working as a maid in Spain on a quest, like hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, for a better life abroad. "I left because I didn't have a job in Ukraine," says Ganna, who earns between 600 and 1,000 euros (718 and 1,197 dollars) a month in Spain. "The hardest was learning the language and suffering the attitude of the Spaniards, who treated us like trash," Ganna says. She began to work as home help seven years ago after arriving in Spain with a group of Ukrainian "tourists". In 1999, she legalised her and her husband's status in the country and plans to return soon after a break in her native city of Lvov in western Ukraine. "My hands, I ruined them doing the cleaning. The Spaniards didn't give me any gloves when I was using chemical cleaning products. I had terrible injuries but I had to take care of myself -- if I went to the hospital, I could have been deported." Around seven million Ukrainians out of a population of 48 million people work abroad and only 500,000 of them are doing so legally, according to a report published by Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies (NISS) last year. Some 500,000 Ukrainians live in Italy, 400,000 in Poland and Spain, while the highest number -- around three million people -- live and work in Russia, the report said. Ukrainian observers have expressed concern at the level of emigration from a country with an already low birthrate, where some 30 percent of the population lives on the verge of poverty and the average salary is around 170 dollars (142 euros) a month. But Ukrainian migrants are also a key resource for their country's economy, bringing in an annual 19 billion dollars (15.9 billion euros) in remittances, according to the NISS report.
Western Ukraine, which contains some of the poorest areas in Ukraine and borders the European Union, has been particularly affected by a flow of emigration that has virtually emptied some villages of the female population. Regional authorities in Lviv say that 200,000 local inhabitants out of a population of 2.5 million have left to look for work abroad and that up to 70 percent of them are women earning a living and supporting their families back home by working as nannies, cleaners or home helps. Talking to Ukrainians who have worked abroad, stories of theft, rape and even murder are not hard to find, while fraud and humiliation seem almost a part of daily life. "They consider us second-class citizens over there," says Antonina, a 55-year-old who has worked as a home nurse in Portugal for the past four years. Some return and set up their own businesses but many, says Ganna, choose to stay despite the hardships. "Those who have seen life in Europe don't want to come back to Ukraine where nothing ever gets better."

UKRAINE HONOURS ANTI-SEMITE

Western media close their eyes on everything that could taint the reputation of pro-western Ukrainian leader Victor Yushchenko. However, this gentleman has a lot to hide, especially his sympathies with anti-Semitic Ukrainian nationalists. Several days ago the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that President of the Ukraine Victor Yushchehko awarded the Ukraine's highest honour -- the "Hero of the Ukraine" medal -- to a notorious anti-Semite, Ivan Spodarenko. Western media, usually very sensitive to any manifestation of anti-Semitism, especially in Russia, ignored this gesture by the Ukrainian leader. "Spodarenko, a Socialist lawmaker, is the head of the editorial board and former longtime editor of Silski Visti, the JTA reported. In 2004, the newspaper published an article asserting that 400,000 Jews served in Nazi SS forces during the German invasion of the Ukraine in World War II. With its circulation of 500,000, Silski Visti is one of the most widely read Ukrainian newspapers, catering mainly to rural readers. In 2002 and 2004, the newspaper published a series of anti-Semitic articles that outraged the Jewish community. The paper was sued over anti-Semitic articles in 2004 but the case was closed in 2005 without a verdict. Last April, Spodarenko was among the signatories of an anti-Semitic letter calling 'to stop the criminal activities' of the organized Jewish community in Ukraine.”
It’s an open secret in the Ukraine that anti-Semitism is common in nationalistic circles. It is damped by foreign mentors working with Yushchenko but anti Jewish rhetoric resurfaces from time to time. Such situation seems to arrange the United States who still lists the Ukraine as the largest American aid recipient after Israel and Egypt.

300 000 CRIMEANS DEMAND REFERENDUM

SIMFEROPOL, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The collection of signatures in support of a referendum on the state status of the Russian language is over in the Crimea.

The campaign started on January 5, and over 300,000 signatures have been collected, which is more than necessary for holding the referendum, the organizing committee said. The Russian Community of the Crimea held the campaign.

The organizing committee will continue the collection of signatures unofficially until March 17, the day of the 15th anniversary of the Soviet referendum at which the majority of citizens supported preservation of the USSR as a federation of equal and sovereign republics.

The Crimean parliament shall analyze results of the poll and make a decision about the referendum before February 23. The organizers suggest holding the referendum on March 26, when Ukrainian parliamentarians will be elected, in order to minimize expenditures.

Opponents to the Russian Community of the Crimea think “this is part of the election campaign of community leaders, who are running for the election to the Crimean parliament with the bloc For Yanukovich.” The referendum results will not be mandatory.

SUBVERSIVE BOOK BY VASILY AKSENOV

Ukrainian security service SBU confiscated a book by the famous Russian writer Vasily Aksenov.The book Ostrov Krym – The Island of Crimea – was seized when the agents were searching the apartment of journalist Nadezhda Poliakova, correspondent for Russian information agency REGNUM. Mrs. Poliakova and all members of her family, including her underage son, were interrogated by the security police. The Ukrainian occupational regime was furious at the coverage by Mrs. Poliakova of a symbolic action by the youth organization of Proryv staged on the Chongarsky isthmus January 20. The young people had dug a trench on the isthmus to demonstrate that the Crimea was cutting itself off from the mainland Ukraine. They said they had been inspired by an episode from the Island of Crimea novel by Vasily Aksenov. The police took the book as evidence of an attempt to violate the Ukrainian sovereignty. It is not ruled out that the novel would be blacklisted by the Ukrainian regime as subversive literature.