1. What happened?
An information bomb exploded on a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius last Sunday. While in the airspace of Belarus, the crew received information from the Minsk dispatcher about a terrorist threat on board.
“After the commander of a civilian ship made a decision to land at an alternate airfield and turned the plane in the direction of Minsk, a decision was made and the MiG-29 crew on duty from the Baranovichi airfield was taken into the air ,” explained Andrey Gurtsevich . “The crew on duty was given the task of exercising control and, if necessary, helping a civilian vessel to make a safe landing.”
One of the passengers clearly did not like the change in course . According to eyewitnesses, he appealed to the flight attendants, said that he should not sit in Minsk, he is a refugee and in Belarus he faces the death penalty.
“After a sudden maneuver of the plane, one guy panicked and grabbed his head. All four of us were taken out, the dogs sniffed all our things. This guy was taken aside and his belongings were thrown onto the runway. We asked him what was going on. He said who he was and added: "I'm being executed here." He was already calmer, but shivering. An officer was standing next to him all the time, and soon the military simply took him out, ”said one of the passengers.
According to the Belarusian media, the message about the mining of the plane came to the email address of the Minsk airport. Although it seems strange that information about an Irish plane flying from Athens to Vilnius arrives in the capital of Belarus.
Officially Minsk assures that the crew made the decision to land on their own. In support of this, the local TV publishes a radio exchange, in which the dispatcher asks whose recommendation to land in Minsk - airlines, airports of departure or arrival? To which the pilots respond: "This is our recommendation." However, in the story of the Canadian channel CBC News in the same episode, the roles are distributed exactly the opposite - “this is our recommendation,” says the dispatcher.
2. Special operation or an act of state terrorism?
Everything that happened, of course, looks like a special operation, as a result of which the Belarusian special services detained one of the most wanted people. And they took advantage of the experience of their neighbors. Do you remember how 33 Russian citizens were detained in Minsk last summer, some of whom fought in the Donbass? They were going to fly to Istanbul, and the Ukrainian special services were planning to land the plane on their territory. To do this, there had to be a decoy on board, who would simulate either sudden health problems or a terrorist threat. This scenario seems to have been successfully implemented by the Belarusians, although they will never officially admit it.
However, those who are now shouting loudest about "state terrorism" will find it useful to recall the precedents.
In 2012, Turkish fighters forced a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to land on their territory. Ankara suspected that the liner was carrying weapons. After the search, the special services seized some "dual-use" equipment, after which the liner continued on its way.
In 2013, Bolivian President Evo Morales , who was flying home from Moscow, was forced to land in Austria - France, Portugal and Spain closed their airspace to him. Western intelligence agencies assumed that Edward Snowden was aboard Morales .
In 2016, under the threat of the use of military aircraft in Kiev, a Belavia aircraft was landed. The Ukrainians removed from the flight the Russian political scientist Armen Martirosyan , who was considered the ideological inspirer of Anti-Maidan. However, after interrogation, he was released.
It will not be superfluous to recall how the United States actually kidnapped and sentenced businessman Viktor Bout and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko to gigantic terms . You can treat Lukashenko in different ways, but he did nothing new, which the representatives of the “civilized community” would not have done before him.
3. Who is Roman Protasevich?
Before leaving Belarus, the young oppositionist took part in protests for many years, was a member of the nationalist "Young Front", and worked as a journalist for various media outlets. In 2019 he left for Poland and asked for political asylum.
In Warsaw, Protasevich became the editor-in-chief of the Nexta network of telegram channels, created by Stepan Putilo . It was these resources that became the main coordinating tool of anti-government protests last year.
Some Telegram channels reported that in the summer of 2014, Roman Protasevich left for Ukraine to participate in hostilities in Donbass on the side of the ATO forces, allegedly joining the Azov battalion and even rising to the rank of deputy commander of the 2nd shock and assault company. However, there is no confirmation of this information in open sources. In an interview with Yuri Dudyu Protasevich, he said that he went to the Maidan, and later spent a year in the ATO zone as a freelance journalist.
By the way, on the charges brought before the blogger, despite his fears, the death penalty is not threatened. He is suspected of inciting social enmity on the basis of professional affiliation (up to 12 years old), organizing mass riots (up to 15 years old), organizing group actions that grossly violate public order - the maximum sanction is up to 3 years .
4. Who is the blogger's companion?
Together with Protasevich, his girlfriend Sofia Sapega was removed from the flight . It is known that she is a citizen of Russia, she studied in Vilnius at the European Humanities University under the program "International Law and the Law of the European Union".
“Returning from vacation with a young man, Sofia was waiting for the upcoming Ph.D. thesis defense in Vilnius. Teachers and classmates claim that Sofia is distinguished by high academic performance and an undeniable reputation in the YSU community, ”the website of the educational institution says.
She met Roman Protasevich about six months ago. According to friends, she was not fond of politics.
Information appeared on the Internet that four Russian citizens got off the flight in Minsk. However, the airline did not confirm this information. Such stuffing looks more like an attempt to drag Russia into this scandal, accusing it of complicity with "state terrorism".
5. How does this threaten Belarus?
The West's reaction is predictable: everyone condemned Lukashenko. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the incident "endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers," stressing that there were also US citizens among them. The European Parliament called the incident "state terrorism." A dozen and a half countries called on to release Protasevich and impose new sanctions on Belarus.
Most often, there are proposals to close the country's airspace for the passage of civilian ships. The Latvian airline on Monday has already made two flights bypassing Belarus. Such a measure is unlikely to hit Minsk hard. After the tragedy with the Malaysian Boeing in Donbass, most of the world's airlines are trying to fly over Ukraine, which makes it look like a blind spot on online flight tracking services. But Kiev is not particularly worried about this.
There are also more radical initiatives - to exclude Belarus from the International Civil Aviation Organization. That will automatically deprive the country of the opportunity to fly over the member countries of the Organization. There are also calls to simply prohibit Belavia's planes from landing at the airports of the European Union. Considering that Minsk is neither an important transport hub for Europe, nor a tourist Mecca, nor a major supplier of tourists, Belarus may well arrange an air blockade.
Quite a high price for one oppositionist, no matter what secrets he is now giving out. All of them can only be designed for an internal audience. The West, on the other hand, will sweep away any compromising evidence as evidence knocked out under torture. That threatens with other economic sanctions.
#5
was going to order fajitas at the same place I get them from all the time about a week ago. Price was up $7.
Posted by: Chris ||
05/24/2021 14:09 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The producers "cattlemen and women" are not getting rich. Cost of grain is way up, price of gas for transportation is out of sight, grocery stores and restaurants forced to increase the price. There is also a drought going on in the southwest cattle producing areas that are forcing the utilization of hay and cake to keep the critters alive.
[ARABNEWS] The Israeli-Paleostinian conflict has dragged on for many decades, but now it is gaining a new dimension. In the past, the festivities were mainly between the Paleostinian fighters in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and Israel, or between the Israeli security forces and the West Bank Paleostinians. In a new phenomenon, there are now festivities between Jews and ethnic Paleostinians who are both Israeli citizens.
Additional factors make the situation more complicated. One of them is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for more political support. He has not been able to form a coalition government despite repeated snap elections. In the present breakdown of the electorate, the far-right parties look to be the more likely partners for him, which means he has to do and promise more for them. This is a recipe for a harsher policy toward the Paleostinians.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
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#1
Why is this news? Erdogan is about nothing other than his Sultanate and his power.
Posted by: These Forkbeard7574 ||
05/24/2021 3:57 Comments ||
Top||
#2
the goal isn't to help the 'cause' whatever that may be.
just like BLM, the goal is to keep the conflict going, so that sweet sweet lucre can be reaped.
[Am Greatness] Democrats claim election audits like the one in Arizona are an existential threat to democracy, but it’s difficult to see how—unless they reveal that our elections have been hijacked.
Democrats are positively terrified of election audits that aren’t completely controlled by the political establishment. If there’s a chance an audit might reveal meaningful information, you can bet Democrats (and certain weak Republicans) will stridently oppose it. The only audits Democrats and their allies support are the ones designed to rubber-stamp previous conclusions.
The increasingly desperate attacks on the ongoing audit in Maricopa County, Arizona—particularly those intended to undermine the credibility of the auditors—show just how much the Democratic Party establishment fears the whole process. Their entire argument is based on sarcasm, scorn, and scare quotes.
The auditors are inspecting the paper that ballots were printed on? They must believe in a far-fetched conspiracy theory!
The auditors are checking to make sure the ballots don’t have watermarks that are not supposed to be there? They must be members of fringe online message boards!
The audit is being funded primarily by private donations? It must be an elaborate "grift" rather than a serious fact-finding effort (not to mention they need the funds to fend off the litany of lawsuits they’re facing).
By smearing the auditors as corrupt and/or inept, and the audit itself as a partisan stunt, leftists are hoping they can discredit the process and convince Americans to stop asking pesky questions about whether any laws were broken or procedural loopholes exploited during the 2020 elections. That’s the way people respond to questions when they don’t want anyone to know the answers.
It’s not just the Arizona audit, either. Democrats and their media allies are already fully engaged in a crusade to preemptively impugn the legitimacy of any audits that might be conducted in other states, describing conservative support for audits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere as "a bid to bolster former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election."
If they really believe the 2020 elections were "the most secure in American history," then they should welcome audits as a way of substantiating that claim. Indeed, they should even be celebrating audits run by Republicans, since their conclusions will carry so much more weight with GOP voters. That said, the Arizona auditors have practically been begging Democrats to participate, but the Democrats have only been interested in attacking the process from afar.
Neither should the Democrats be afraid of incompetence or chicanery. The American people are savvy enough to see through a poorly crafted deception, especially since the mainstream media are already doing everything in their power to find flaws in the audit process they can expose. And again, the auditors repeatedly have invited their critics to engage in constructive cooperation, only to be met with hostility.
Even as they attack the audits, liberals also love to argue that they’re redundant and unnecessary, pointing out that election officials in Arizona and Georgia have already conducted their own post-election audits. They always neglect to mention, however, that these were partial audits, not comprehensive reviews like the one being conducted in Maricopa County. They also leave out the fact that they were designed to validate what took place, rather than identify potential vulnerabilities in the election process that might have been exploited.
We have laws for a reason, and if laws were broken during the 2020 election, then the American people have a right to know what happened and why. Maybe there was no fraud—but watching state and local election officials pat themselves on the back for a job well done does nothing to dispel widespread public concerns.
Democrats claim that election audits like the one in Arizona are an existential threat to democracy, but it’s difficult to see how that could be the case unless they reveal that our elections have been hijacked by political partisans.
Every time you see a liberal melting down about election audits, just ask yourself: What are they so afraid of?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
They had no problem demanding the audit of Trump. It's all about power.
#2
They are terrified because as hard as they worked to cover their tracks, some evidence of their cheating simply cannot be covered up. That evidence coupled with the missing evidence and their resistance confirms their guilt.
#4
^ Prior to the election, there was a lot of talk in China of an Assassin's Mace wielded against America. Looks like Chinese investment in Dominion was that Mace.
[BabylonBee] GAZA —After a brutal 11 days of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, some Palestinians have proposed a peaceful path forward. Their solution is to simply request that all Israelis stop existing immediately.
"This land has gone far too long without lasting, meaningful peace. That is why today we are calling for an Israeli ’Cease To Exist-Fire’," announced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Think of this in the same way as a normal ceasefire, but instead of a war ending, it’s a small specific group of people. Finally, we will have no more pain, no more fear, no more rockets, and no more Jews."
This move is being hailed by the media as a truly remarkable and historic step forward and anyone who doesn’t agree is clearly an anti-peace warmonger. "How didn’t we think of this sooner?!" said an AP reporter, Jonathan Hallali. "Think of the lives that could’ve been saved if all of the Israelis stopped existing days ago!"
Despite the seemingly perfect solution proposed, Israelis have been quite disagreeable and unwilling to compromise with this simple request. "It just goes to show you that the Israelis were never serious about peace in the first place." Hallali continued. "It doesn’t get any fairer than this and yet they continue to exist out of spite!"
While no deal has been made yet with the Israelis, all Palestinians have preemptively been given a Nobel Peace Prize just for even suggesting this idea.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2021 07:26 ||
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Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Yeah, well yo Hamas so fat if you put a bag on her head she'd be a McFatty.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BabylonBee] GAZA —After a brutal 11 days of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, some Palestinians have proposed a peaceful path forward. Their solution is to simply request that all Israelis stop existing immediately. 
