PoliticalWarfare.org

Criminalizing criticism of war criminals

The Russian regime is endorsing the criminalization of speech that criticizes Josef Stalin's military strategy and tactics during World War II. It's part of an official campaign to glorify the totalitarian Soviet past in order to legitimize the chekist mafiocracy's grip on economic and political power.

The repression is aimed not only at Russian citizens, but at foreign dignitaries, including presidents of other countries who criticize Stalinism and the Soviet invasions and occupations of countries across Central and Eastern Europe.

The proposed legislation, called "Against the Rehabilitation of Nazism," is modeled after anti-holocaust-denier laws in democratic European countries, Russian regime officials say.

John Wendle, Time magazine's Moscow correspondent, writes, "Liberals in Russia fear the law may punish and silence new - and possibly more accurate - interpretations of the country's history and solidify the government's control of the past. But the real aim of the law may be to provide the Kremlin with another rhetorical tool with which to attack governments of former Soviet Republics and Eastern Bloc countries that have increasingly moved towards the West."

Russia's history of World War II remains steeped in Stalinist propaganda, with the very name - Great Patriotic War - a holdover of what Stalin called the war after Hitler betrayed him and invaded the USSR in June, 1941. Stalin and Hitler started World War II together, with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939, but this does not appear in the official Russian history.

Since 2009 marks the 70th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin pact to invade and occupy Central and Eastern Europe, it would be a good time to remember the real history of the war - and encourage the Russian government to do the same.

New York Times faked out by forged letter

The New York Times didn't bother to verify the authenticity of an emailed letter it received, purportedly from the mayor of Paris, France, and went ahead and published the contents anyway.

The email criticized Caroline Kennedy for seeking the US Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. "We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling," the email said. The author supposedly was Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (pictured).

A sharp-eyed editor of a Franco-American website discovered the hoax, thinking the wording sounded out of place for a mayor of the French capital city.

Delanoe's office pronounced the letter a forgery. "We have asked the New York Times for a denial and an apology," a spokeswoman tells the Associated Press. "Clearly, this was never sent by Bertrand Delanoe."

The Times is not entertaining questions from reporters, preferring to control the bad news by referring journalists to the paper's website for a pre-packaged explanation.

The steadily declining journalistic standards of New York Times editors account for the mistake. The paper received the unsolicited email, purportedly from Delanoe, accepted it for publication, edited it, sent the edited version back to the sender, "and did not hear back," the paper said, according to AP. Editors went ahead and printed it anyway.

Here's what the Times posted today on the "Opinion" section of its website under the heading "Editor's Note": "Earlier this morning, we posted a letter that carried the name of Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, sharply criticizing Caroline Kennedy. This letter was a fake. It should not have been published."

"We are reviewing our procedures for verifying letters to avoid such an incident in the future." Let's count the many more ways the Times allows its readers to be spoofed.