Free Republic

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

One policeman has been killed and about 100 more injured outside Ukraine's parliament, after MPs gave initial backing to reforms for more autonomy in the rebel-held east, officials say. National guardsmen were pelted with fire crackers and petrol bombs and an explosion was heard in the crowd. MPs had just voted in a rowdy session to approve more powers in areas of Donetsk and Luhansk under control of pro-Russian rebels. (Snip) A missile was hurled from the crowd of demonstrators, many of whom were carrying banners supporting ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party. A loud explosion rang out and an AFP reporter...

KIEV, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's Socialist Party blames President Viktor Yushchenko for a virtual collapse of a coalition majority formed in the country's parliament in June, a party member said Friday. Ivan Boky said, "The president ruined the coalition by nominating Petro Poroshenko for the post of [Supreme Rada] speaker." The coalition of Western-leaning forces broke up when the Party of Regions, holding 186 seats in the Rada, and the Socialist and Communist parties with 33 and 21 seats respectively joined forces late Thursday to elect Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz as speaker. The three parties are currently holding...

Iosif Diskin: “The Yushchenko-Saakashvili meeting will result in the opposition's victory in the elections into Ukraine’s Supreme Rada” The co-chairman of the National Strategy Council Iosif Diskin comments to REGNUM Feb 22 on the situation over the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s statement that it is ready to keep peace in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone and over the forthcoming relevant meeting of Yushchenko and Saakashvili: “Thereby Saakashvili is trying to keep tensions high over the Georgian-Ossetian conflict — for his rating is very low and constant national mobilization against some foreign threat is the only way for him to keep his elite...

Orange Revolution loser back in favor in Ukraine By Steven Lee Myers The New York Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2006 KIEV A campaign ad broadcast repeatedly on television here shows a man basking in the adulation of flag-waving crowds reminiscent of the protests that overturned the fraudulent presidential election of 2004. But this is not Viktor Yushchenko, who rode those protests to the presidency, vowing to turn Ukraine into a free and prosperous democracy. He is the man Yushchenko defeated, Viktor Yanukovich, the chosen heir of a discredited and unpopular government who would have been president but for those huge...

The President’s address to the parliament sounds like demand instead of request to revoke the resolution on the Cabinet’s dismissal, Vice-Speaker Adam Martynyuk told.“There are relationships of different kinds but unfortunately, the behavior and statement of the current President reminds me more and more previous’ one. There is no legal act, the Constitution of Ukraine including, giving the authorities to the President setting up a claim to the supreme legislative power,” said Martynyuk. He noted that the Head of the State is authorized to request or to propose legislative initiative but not to demand any decision from Verkhovna Rada. “He...

KIEV, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko demanded Thursday that the country's parliament rescind a resolution to dismiss the government, condemning the move as "unconstitutional." "The country has a legitimate government centrally, as well as locally," the president said. The Supreme Rada, Ukraine's parliament, made a decision Tuesday to dismiss the government over the gas agreements signed with Russia on January 4, 2006, which critics said were economically damaging to Ukraine, and ceded too much leverage to Moscow. The agreements ended the long-running dispute between the two countries over gas prices, which came to a head with...

All-Ukrainian sociological service conducted Gallup poll devoted to forthcoming parliamentary elections. If parliamentary elections were held today 16.8% of respondents would have voted for Party of Regions. The second place was gained by Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko with 15% and the third – by Socialistic Party of Ukraine with 11%. According to data, "People’s Union 'Our Ukraine'" (NSNU) took the forth place and would have got only 7.6% of votes. General Director of the service, Nickolay Mikhalchenko, reported that NSNU’s rating made 20% in May and started to fall down after Roman Bezsmertny had been elected to be the party...

The chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Litvin is sure that the parliament should influence the situation, appeared on the oil product market. According to him petrol deficit is a common problem of the power: "All of us are responsible…People do not differentiate between the government and Verkhovna Rada – it is the problem of the power." The chairman of VR reminded that today, during the Conciliatory council of leaders of factions and parliamentary groups, it was proposed to listen to information of the government concerning the petrol deficit tomorrow, on May 17. He expressed a hope that the...

MIAMI-DADE Family: Police victim bipolar The shooting of Cesar Rada by a Miami-Dade police officer was the department's 17th shooting since 1999 involving a mentally ill person Cesar Rada -- aspiring actor and model, and a psychology student at Florida International University -- had bipolar disorder and was schizophrenic, his family says. Sunday night, he had his hands raised and was unarmed as he walked toward a Miami-Dade police officer who killed him during a tense confrontation in a Kendall yard, police and witnesses said. The officer, Jeffrey Price, 23, was placed on administrative leave Monday while Miami-Dade's internal affairs...

...Vladimir Putin... has again exhibited his contempt for democratic rule and his tin ear for the angry opposition in the world's democracies.... Ukraine was starved into submission by Stalin 72 years ago, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence. It was not, however, an independence willingly accepted by Russian hardliners.... The massive outpouring of demonstrators in what they call the "Orange Revolution" is an attempt to replicate the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia... Serbia... the Berlin Wall, the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia and the Solidarity victory in Poland. There was one significant failure too,...

"Envoys bid to end Ukraine Crisis" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4044037.stm P.S. good map on bottom showing distribution of support geographicly. Although Polatava and Kirivohrad were very close about 60/40 and 55/45 respectively the rest had margins over 65% in favor of one or the other. "Donetsk rallies around its man" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4043601.stm excerpt: "Donetsk makes up 10% of Ukraine's population and provides 20% of GDP." "Court freezes Ukraine poll result" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4042979.stm excrept(s): Mr Yushchenko had also ordered the creation of a people's self-defence force - the "Ukrainian Guard". http://www.ya2004.com.ua/ (yanukovych's campaign) http://www.razom.org.ua/ (yushchenko's campaign)