Argo vs. Waking up in Tehran — what happened in 1979? Hollywood propaganda vs. historical reality

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The book Waking Up in Tehran by Margot Lachlan White, which David Swanson describes as a “magnificent modern epic”, was apparently never published. What happened to her and the book? It is not hard to imagine the pressure from Israel and the United States to make sure it did not see the light of day, especially in light of the experiences she describes. There are a few reviews online and a podcast interview.

It’s more timely than ever to get this book published and/or posted online.

Posted on War is a Crime.org, January 11, 2013
Waking up in Tehran
by David Swanson

According to one theory, U.S.-Iranian relations began around November 1979 when a crowd of irrational religious nutcases violently seized the U.S. embassy in Iran, took the employees hostage, tortured them, and held them until scared into freeing them by the arrival of a new sheriff in Washington, a man named Ronald Reagan. From that day to this, according to this popular theory, Iran has been run by a bunch of subhuman lunatics with whom rational people couldn’t really talk if they wanted to. These monsters only understand force. And they have been moments away from developing and using nuclear weapons against us for decades now. Moments away, I tell you!

According to another theory — a quaint little notion that I like to refer to as “verifiable history” — the CIA, operating out of that U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1953, maliciously and illegally overthrew a relatively democratic and liberal parliamentary government, and with it the 1951 Time magazine man of the year Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, because Mossadegh insisted that Iran’s oil wealth enrich Iranians rather than foreign corporations. The CIA installed a dictatorship run by the Shah of Iran who quickly became a major source of profits for U.S. weapons makers, and his nation a testing ground for surveillance techniques and human rights abuses. The U.S. government encouraged the Shah’s development of a nuclear energy program. But the Shah impoverished and alienated the people of Iran, including hundreds of thousands educated abroad. A secular pro-democracy revolution nonviolently overthrew the Shah in January 1979, but it was a revolution without a leader or a plan for governing. It was co-opted by rightwing religious forces led by a man who pretended briefly to favor democratic reform. The U.S. government, operating out of the same embassy despised by many in Iran since 1953, explored possible means of keeping the Shah in power, but some in the CIA worked to facilitate what they saw as the second best option: a theocracy that would substitute religious fanaticism and oppression for populist and nationalist demands. When the U.S. embassy was taken over by an unarmed crowd the next November, immediately following the public announcement of the Shah’s arrival in the United States, and with fears of another U.S.-led coup widespread in Tehran, a sit-in planned for two or three days was co-opted, as the whole revolution had been, by mullahs with connections to the CIA and an extremely anti-democratic agenda. They later made a deal with U.S. Republicans, as Robert Parry and others have well documented, to keep the hostage crisis going until Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s government secretly renewed weapons sales to the new Iranian dictatorship despite its public anti-American stance and with no more concern for its religious fervor than for that of future al Qaeda leaders who would spend the 1980s fighting the Soviets with U.S. weapons in Afghanistan. At the same time, the Reagan administration made similarly profitable deals with Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, which had launched a war on Iran and continued it with U.S. support through the length of the Reagan presidency. The mad military investment in the United States that took off with Reagan and again with George W. Bush, and which continues to this day, has made the nation of Iran — which asserts its serious independence from U.S. rule — a target of threatened war and actual sanctions and terrorism.

Ben Affleck was asked by Rolling Stone magazine, “What do you think the Iranians’ reaction is gonna be?” to Affleck’s movie Argo, which depicts a side-story about six embassy employees who, in 1979, avoided being taken hostage. Affleck, mixing bits of truth and mythology, just as in the movie itself, replied:

“Who the FUCK knows – who knows if their reaction is going to be anything? This is still the same Stalinist, oppressive regime that was in place when the hostages were taken. There was no rhyme or reason to this action. What’s interesting is that people later figured out that Khomeini just used the hostages to consolidate power internally and marginalize the moderates and everyone in America was going, ‘What the fuck’s wrong with these people?’ You know, ‘What do they want from us?’ It was because it wasn’t about us. It was about Khomeini holding on to power and being able to say to his political opponents, of which he had many, ‘You’re either with us or you’re with the Americans’ – which is, of course, a tactic that works really well. That revolution was a students’ revolution. There were students and communists and secularists and merchants and Islamists, it’s just that Khomeini fucking slowly took it for himself.”

The takeover of the embassy is an action virtually no one would advocate in retrospect, but asserting that it lacked rhyme or reason requires willful ignorance of Iranian-U.S. relations. Claiming that nobody knew what the hostage-takers wanted requires erasing from history their very clear demands for the Shah to be returned to stand trial, for Iranian money in U.S. banks to be returned to Iran, and for the United States to commit to never again interfering in Iranian politics. In fact, not only were those demands clearly made, but they are almost indisputably reasonable demands. A dictator guilty of murder, torture, and countless other abuses should have stood trial, and should have been extradited to do so, as required by treaty. Money belonging to the Iranian government under a dictatorship should have been returned to a new Iranian government, not pocketed by a U.S. bank. And for one nation to agree not to interfere in another’s politics is merely to agree to compliance with the most fundamental requirement of legal international relations.

Argo devotes its first 2 minutes or so to the 1953 background of the 1979 drama. Blink and you’ll miss it, as I’m betting most viewers do. For a richer understanding of what was happening in Iran in the late 1970s and early 1980s I have a better recommendation than watching Argo. For a truly magnificent modern epic I strongly encourage getting a hold of the forthcoming masterpiece by M. Lachlan White, titled Waking Up in Tehran: Love and Intrigue in Revolutionary Iran, due to be published this spring. Weighing in at well over 300,000 words, or about 100,000 more than Moby Dick, Waking Up in Tehran is the memoir of Margot White, an American human rights activist who became an ally of pro-democracy Iranian student groups in 1977, traveled to Iran, supported the revolution, met with the hostage-takers in the embassy, became a public figure, worked with the Kurdish resistance when the new regime attacked the Kurds for being infidels, married an Iranian, and was at home with her husband in Tehran when armed representatives of the government finally banged on the door. I’m not going to give away what happened next. This book will transport you into the world of a gripping novel, but you’ll emerge with a political, cultural, and even linguistic education. This is an action-adventure that would, in fact, make an excellent movie — or even a film trilogy. It’s also an historical document.

There are sections in which White relates conversations with her friends and colleagues in Iran, including their speculations as to who was behind what government intrigue. A few of these speculations strike me as in need of more serious support. They also strike me as helpful in understanding the viewpoints of Iranians at the time. Had I edited this book I might have framed them a little differently, but I wouldn’t have left them out. I wouldn’t have left anything out. This is a several-hundred-page love letter from a woman to her husband and from an activist to humanity. It is intensely romantic and as honest as cold steel. It starts in 1977.

Continue reading →

Christian Science Monitor: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be “wiped off the map”

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In honor of Persian New Year, here is a 2012 article from the mainstream American news.

From the Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

Iran’s nuclear program: 4 things you probably didn’t know

Tensions over Iran‘s nuclear program, which some in Israel and the US say is meant to produce nuclear weapons, continue to run high in the West. Most recently in a Iranian New Year’s sermon, Ayatollah Khamenei promised that Iran would respond “on the same level” as any attack against it. But even as Israeli and Iranian officials take turns rattling their sabers, several key points remain misunderstood. Do the US and Israel believe that Iran has a nuclear weapons program? Did President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really promise to “wipe Israel off the map”? The answers may surprise you.

By Arthur Bright, Correspondent posted June 8, 2012 at 2:11 pm EDT

1.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”

One frequently proffered explanation for why a war with Iran is needed is because President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants Israel “wiped off the map,” and that with a nuclear weapon, he could. But some argue that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement was mistranslated from less incidiary language.

Ahmadinejad’s alleged condemnation of Israel came at a “World Without Zionism” conference in Tehran in Oct. 2005, in which he was quoted by an English-language Iranian news site as saying “Israel must be wiped off the map.” But as several analyses of the original Farsi statement show, this appears to be a mistranslation.

Arash Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project noted in 2007 that Ahmadinejad “never… uttered the words ‘map,’ ‘wipe out,’ or even ‘Israel'” in his statement. Rather, he argued, the translation should have been that “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.” (Both The Washington Post and The Atlantic came up with similarly variant translations.)

This is a key difference, Mr. Norouzi argued, because Ahmadinejad used the “vanish from the page of time” idiom elsewhere in his speech: when describing the governments of the Shah of Iran, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein. While war and revolution were involved in the three regimes’ collapse, none of them, Norouzi argued, were “wiped off the map.” Rather, they underwent regime change. This suggests in turn, he said, that Ahmadinejad was calling for regime change in Israel, not nuclear genocide. Juan Cole, another critic of the speech’s translation, compared Ahmadinejad’s statement to Reagan-era calls for the end of the Soviet Union.

Critics note that the translation is a matter of semantics and that regardless, they show Ahmadinejad’s hostility to Israel. Ahmadinejad did not help the case for mistranslation when in subsequent interviews he refused to clarify whether he truly meant that Israel should be wiped off the face of the Earth. But the ambiguity of the words and the indications from context suggest that “wiped off the map” is not the best translation for his statement.

2.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons.

Whatever words Ahmadinejad used to describe his attitude towards Israel, it is undeniable that he is not the true leader of Iran. That role is filled by the country’s supreme leader and foremost religious figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Khamenei’s words are highly influential among religious Shiites –thus making his 2005 fatwa against nuclear weapons a significant factor in discussing Iran’s nuclear program.

A fatwa is a ruling on Islamic law issued by a recognized religious figure. While generally nonbinding, fatwas have influence among the faithful, and fatwas issued by Iran’s supreme leader have more influence than most in Iran, both politically and religiously. So when on Aug. 9, 2005, Khamenei issued a fatwa against the production and use of nuclear weapons, it was not simply a sermon – it carried political weight. As Jamil Maidan Flores wrote in a commentary last week for the Jakarta Globe, “Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa on nuclear weapons does count for something. He issued it as the supreme spiritual and temporal leader of Iran, and as a marja, a holy man. The fatwa should be binding to all Iranian Shiites, and most binding of all to he himself who issued it.” Khamenei has repeated his commitment to the fatwa many times since. Most recently, in February he called having nuclear weapons a “sin.”

But there is another Shiite religious concept, that of taghiyeh, which “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ” author Hooman Majd translates as “dissimulation.” A byproduct of the early years of Shia’s split from the Sunni mainstream, taghiyeh allows Shiites to lie in order to avoid death. Mr. Flores notes that taghiyeh could be a factor in Khamenei’s fatwa on nuclear weapons, if somehow lying about development of such weapons would protect Shiites. But Mr. Majd notes that taghiyeh is meant only for the purpose of lying about one’s religion to avoid death – which is not the case here – and adds that neither Khamenei nor the former supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, ever to anyone’s knowledge made use of taghiyeh.

3.Iran has a legitimate need for more energy, which is driving its nuclear efforts.

Iran has always insisted that its nuclear research was for peaceful purposes only: to provide more energy to a growing Iran. In all the debate over the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons, it is easy to overlook the fact that Iran does indeed need more power, power which nuclear plants could provide.

While Iran is a major supplier of both oil – it is the fourth largest producer in the world according to the CIA’s World Factbook – it is also a major consumer. The Green Party of Iran (an environmental party not to be confused with the Green Movement behind the 2009 presidential protests) estimated in 2000 that Iran ranked second only to the US in gasoline consumption. But despite Iran’s huge oil production, it lacks the facilities to refine it into gasoline, forcing it to import a barrel of oil for every eight it exports. According to Majd, some Iranians blame their lack of refining infrastructure on Western sanctions.

Iran is also the world’s fifth largest producer of natural gas globally according to the CIA’s World Factbook. But it consumed 137.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2010, almost as much natural gas as it produced that year. (Editor’s note: This sentence was revised to correctly reflect Iran’s natural gas production in 2010.)

4.The US and Israel both say Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.

It is perhaps the most important fact that is often ignored in the debate over war with Iran: Both US and Israeli intelligence agree that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Just last month, National Intelligence Agency Director James Clapper wrote in a report to the Senate Armed Services Committee that “Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons… should it choose to do so. We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”

When asked in a hearing by Sen. Carl Levin (D) of Michigan to confirm that “Iran has not yet decided to develop nuclear weapons,” Mr. Clapper did so, saying “That is the intelligence community’s assessment …,” and he reiterated that he has doubts about whether Iran is attempting to create a nuclear weapon when pressed further by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R) of South Carolina. Gen. Roland Burgess of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who also appeared at the hearing, agreed with Clapper’s assessment.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made statements even more to the point than Clapper’s in January. In the January 8 edition of CBS‘s Face the Nation, Mr. Panetta said flat out, “Are they [Iran] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No.”

Israeli intelligence also does not believe that Iran is currently pursuing a nuclear weapon. In January, Haaretz reported that Israel believes Iran “has not yet decided whether to translate [its efforts to improve its nuclear power] capabilities into a nuclear weapon – or, more specifically, a nuclear warhead mounted atop a missile.” That same month, Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Aviv Kochavi told a Knesset hearing that Iran is not working on building a nuclear bomb, reported Agence France-Presse.

Reposted under Fair Use Rules.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0608/Iran-s-nuclear-program-4-things-you-probably-didn-t-know/President-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-never-said-that-Israel-should-be-wiped-off-the-map.

Happy Equinox, March 20-21; Happy Persian New Year – Nowruz

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Today is one of the four powerful days in the year, the solstices and the equinoxes. There are two equinoxes – spring and autumn. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the Spring Equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere, today is the Fall Equinox.

On these days, there is balance between day and night. From ancient times, cultures celebrated these important days. Fortunately, some cultures and people throughout the Earth still celebrate these days as powerful times for creating change and aligning with the Earth and her values.

In Iran, they mark their new year by this date. The new year has various spellings in western script, including Nowruz, NoRuz, NoRooz. One of the ancient themes of Nowruz is the triumph of good over evil. This is what the Earth and its people need. Nothing could be more timely or more important to direct our hearts and prayers to creating that today.

The exact moment of the equinox occurs:

March 20, 22:45 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time)

March 20, 6:45 PM EDT Washington, DC

March 20, 3:45 PM PDT San Francisco, CA

March 21, 2:45 AM MSK Moscow, Russia

March 21, 3:15 AM IRST Tehran, Iran

March 21, 8:45 AM JST Tokyo, Japan

For more times, use the time conversion tool at

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

What are Germany and France doing about Minsk 2 violations? — Sample action letter

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Germany and France are guarantors of Minsk 2. Ukraine is violating Minsk 2. Where are the protests by these two countries?

If you oppose what Ukraine is doing, contact the ambassadors for Germany and France in your country, as well as the consulate located in your nearest city.

Here is a letter written to the French Ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud.

—————————————————————

Dear Ambassador Araud:

Ukraine is in gross violation of the Minsk 2 agreement. France is a guarantor of Minsk 2. I urge you and the government of France to take aggressive action now to condemn these violations and the related actions by the United States

The Minsk 2 agreement requires that all foreign military personnel be removed from the country.

Pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, and also mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under OSCE supervision

However, the United States, with President Poroshenko’s support, is moving US military personnel into Ukraine and weaponry for constant NATO exercises starting this week. The Verkhovna Rada is considering a bill legalizing this – in complete defiance of Minsk 2.

There is also the question of whether Kiev has pulled its heavy weaponry from the line of contact, as required by the agreement. In addition, there are continuing violations of the ceasefire by Kiev forces.

The Kiev government and its forces are engaged in genocide and war crimes against Ukrainian citizens. The people of East Ukraine are acting in self-defense. The French government has not recognized that.

As France well knows, there is no Russian aggression against Ukraine; there is no Russian invasion. However, there has been constant aggression by the U.S. in Ukraine for years. This culminated in the Maidan violence and overthrow of President Yanukovich and the ongoing support for the present violence and ethnic genocide against the Ukrainian people. The French people experienced this same violence in the assassination attempts on President De Gaulle traced to NATO, the United States Defense Intelligence Agency, and the FBI.[1]

France must take aggressive action now against these violations of Minsk 2 to stop a European war that could easily turn nuclear.

[1] http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-lessons-of-history-in-1966-president-de-gaulle-said-no-to-us-nato/5386501

Back to war? Ukrainian parliament rejects the Minsk agreement

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“No special status or authority, not provided for in the Constitution,” – confirmed speaker Vladimir Groysman

“We can negotiate only when Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts hold elections under the full control of the Ukrainian government” -declared Deputy Speaker Andriy Paruby

From Fort Russ

Back to war?

March 17, 2015
Translated by Kristina Rus

A month after the Minsk agreement the masks are off. New weapons are coming, American instructors are in Ukraine, the IMF credit is approved. Time to get back to killing the kids of Donbass. Where are the sanctions on Kiev?

Did anyone have any doubts that those who chose bombs instead of talks a year ago will flip and turn into peacemakers? There is no other choice in the alternate reality perpetuated by the Ukrainian media. There is no other choice for the ultra-nationalist Kiev government, like there was no choice for Hitler. It has to follow the program. They only understand the language of force. Only when Novorossia forces enter Kiev will anything change.

The only reason they paused the war is because they were annihilated, and couldn’t physically go on. But that’s no longer a problem, thanks to the Americans, who can’t wait to start killing the Russians.

Will Europe open its eyes and realize what monster they helped create?

Mikhail Ryabov for Politnavigator:

Verkhovnaya Rada rejected the Minsk agreements, promising a storm of Donetsk

The Verkhovna Rada after a day of backroom negotiations on Tuesday night voted in favor of a resolution on Donbass. In fact, the documents violate the Minsk agreement. Firstly, the Ukrainian side has already failed the deadline for the adoption of laws. Secondly, MPs rejected the dialogue between Kiev and DPR and LPR, declaring the Republics – “occupied territories”. Thirdly, the Ukrainian Parliament appealed to the UN Security Council with a proposal for the deployment of a peacekeeping mission, which is opposed by the militia. Moreover, the representatives of Peter Poroshenko had promised that the army will eventually bring Ukrainian order to Donetsk and Lugansk.

“We can negotiate only when Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts hold elections under the full control of the Ukrainian government – not under the supervision of the Yakut tanks and Chechen snipers. It is therefore not surprising that since the morning the leaders of the terrorist groups are screaming that these laws undermine the negotiations,” – declared Deputy Speaker Andrey Paruby.

[Who should talk about snipers! So the counteroffer is – to negotiate with themselves – KR]

He was supported by the MP-commander Andrew Teteryuk. According to him, Kiev will agree to the elections in Donetsk and Luhansk, only when “all the fighters, all equipment, all Russian mercenaries leave the territory, and the process of renewal of life on our Ukrainian lands will begin”.

The only one who tried to protest, was the deputy Yuriy Voropayev from the Opposition Bloc.

“These laws ask one side to capitulate, and only after that projects that provide special conditions will be considered. More precisely, these are just instructions for the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare special conditions. We cannot vote on this bill, it will reject the peace,” – said Voropaev.

“What party do you represent in the Parliament? The other side are Putin’s occupants! The occupier will be forced to capitulate, or will be destroyed by the Ukrainian army! Don’t listen to the militants, the State Duma, don’t be afraid to vote for Ukraine!” – said Paruby.

“No special status or authority, not provided for in the Constitution,” – confirmed speaker Vladimir Groysman. According to him, the task now for the Ukrainian side is “to free from the clutches of the aggressor, the aggressor and terrorist,” Donetsk and Lugansk.

“These laws are not for Putin, not for Europe or America, but for Ukraine and its future. They lead not to the battle for the ruins of our land, but to a future resumption of sovereignty on the territory that is temporarily controlled by the rebels and the Russian army.

They provide the possibility of elections then and only then, when the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian state will bring the Ukrainian flag, the Ukrainian parties and laws to this territory, when there will be Ukrainian parties, the police, the CEC. The laws do not give any concessions to the terrorists,” – said the deputy Yury Lutsenko, the head of the faction of the Poroshenko Bloc.

Oleg Lyashko and Yulia Tymoshenko stated that they will not even vote for the laws in this form.

“They propose to implement what was signed in Minsk… Read the Minsk agreement: “until the end of 2015 – the establishment of a special status for Donbass”! Crimea already had a special status!” said Lyashko.

Yulia Tymoshenko also rejected any dialogue with the LPR and DPR. In her opinion, otherwise at the elections in Donetsk and Lugansk “will be selected the people whose hands are covered in blood, who killed Ukrainians. Does anyone have any doubts, which judges and prosecutors they will agree on for the Ukrainian authorities to confirm?”

The vote in the Verkhovnaya Rada has already received a sharp reaction from Moscow. Russian political analyst Alexey Chesnakov stated that Peter Poroshenko violated the Minsk agreement.

“Today in Parliament – another circus. Poroshenko and company are playing that part of the coalition does not want to vote for a resolution defining the boundaries of special areas. Blatantly lying, in order to then lie to the Germans, the French and us, that the voting was difficult and their option is the maximum, that can be achieved from the Rada”, – said the expert.

KR: The Rada had no problem voting for population-reducing budget after five attempts, so have no doubt – if they vote like this it’s because they have the green light from the puppet-masters.
Don’t have any illusions – they will blame the resumption of the war on DPR and LPR.

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/03/back-to-war-ukrainian-parliament.html

Minsk 2 agreement — Text

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Translation posted on the UK Telegraph, February 12, 2015
The footnotes for the agreement were not translated or posted by the Telegraph.

This was agreed to by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, and signed by East Ukraine leaders.

Immediate and full ceasefire in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine and its strict fulfilment as of 00.00 midnight (Kiev time) on Feb. 15, 2015.
Pull-out of all heavy weapons by both sides to equal distance with the aim of creation of a security zone on minimum 50 kilometres apart for artillery of 100mm calibre or more, and a security zone of 70km for MLRS and 140 kilometres for MLRS Tornado-S, Uragan, Smerch and tactical missile systems Tochka U.

– for Ukrainian troops, from actual line of contact;

– for armed formations of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine, from the contact line in accordance with the Minsk memorandum as of Sept. 19, 2014

The pullout of the above mentioned heavy weapons has to start no later than the second day after the ceasefire and finish within 14 days.
This process will be assisted by OSCE with the support of the Trilateral Contact Group.
Effective monitoring and verification of ceasefire regime and pullout of heavy weapons by OSCE will be provided from the first day of pullout, using all necessary technical means such as satellites, drones, radio-location systems etc.
On the first day after the pullout a dialogue is to start on modalities of conducting local elections in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation and the Law of Ukraine “On temporary Order of Local Self-Governance in Particular Districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts,” and also about the future of these districts based on the above mentioned law.
Without delays, but no later than 30 days from the date of signing of this document, a resolution has to be approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, indicating the territory which falls under the special regime in accordance with the law “On temporary Order of Local Self-Governance in Particular Districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts,” based in the line set up by the Minsk Memorandum as of Sept. 19, 2014.
Provide pardon and amnesty by way of enacting a law that forbids persecution and punishment of persons in relation to events that took place in particular departments of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine.
Provide release and exchange of all hostages and illegally held persons, based on the principle of “all for all”. This process has to end – at the latest – on the fifth day after the pullout (of weapons).
Provide safe access, delivery, storage and distribution of humanitarian aid to the needy, based on an international mechanism.
Define the modalities of a full restoration of social and economic connections, including social transfers, such as payments of pensions and other payments (income and revenue, timely payment of communal bills, restoration of tax payments within the framework of Ukrainian legal field)
With this aim, Ukraine will restore management over the segment of its banking system in the districts affected by the conflict, and possibly, an international mechanism will be established to ease such transactions.
Restore full control over the state border by Ukrainian government in the whole conflict zone, which has to start on the first day after the local election and end after the full political regulation (local elections in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts based on the law of Ukraine and Constitutional reform) by the end of 2015, on the condition of fulfilment of Point 11 – in consultations and in agreement with representatives of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group.
Pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, and also mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under OSCE supervision. Disarmament of all illegal groups.
Constitutional reform in Ukraine, with the new Constitution to come into effect by the end of 2015, the key element of which is decentralisation (taking into account peculiarities of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, agreed with representatives of these districts), and also approval of permanent legislation on special status of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in accordance with the measures spelt out in the footnotes, by the end of 2015.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11408266/Minsk-agreement-on-Ukraine-crisis-text-in-full.html

NATO’s eastern campaign: U.S. to hold Patriot missile drill in Poland

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From Rick Rozoff

U.S. Department of Defense
March 13, 2015
U.S., Poland to Conduct Patriot Missile Exercise
By Nick Simeone

WASHINGTON: U.S. and Polish forces will conduct an exercise later this month involving a U.S. Patriot missile battery and Poland’s 3rd Warsaw Air Defense Missile Brigade, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren announced today.

The exercise will involve some 100 U.S. soldiers and 30 vehicles at a location on Polish territory.

Warren called the exercise part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which is designed to reassure allies, demonstrate freedom of movement and deter regional aggression on the eastern flank of NATO. The mission began in response to Russia’s armed support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea a year ago.

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/natos-eastern-campaign-u-s-to-hold-patriot-missile-drill-in-Poland/

Pentagon budget may include $1 billion in lethal aid to Ukraine – Congressman

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According to this article, this bill has been referred to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/

Posted on Strategic Culture Foundation, March 17, 2015

Sputnik — A proposed piece of legislation providing $1 billion in lethal defensive aid to Ukraine may be incorporated into the 2016 Pentagon budget, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), US House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said at a press briefing on Monday.

“It may be something that we want to look at on the NDAA,” Thornberry said of the legislation. “It could stand on its own, or it could be both.”

Further questioned on including the $1 billion in lethal aid to the 2016 NDAA, Thornberry said the budget legislation could “at least express the opinion [of the US Congress] on it,” which is not a formal authorization for the action.

Thornberry added he is unclear when his legislation on Ukraine will come up for a vote because there are still “jurisdictional questions” regarding the bill, which was referred out of Armed Services to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for further action.

“I’m for doing it tomorrow, myself,” he stated.

US efforts to provide lethal support to Ukraine have “strong bipartisan support” in the US House and Senate, Thornberry noted.

Thornberry introduced the bill in February together with US Representative Adam Smith, calling on the US government to provide $1 billion in lethal defensive military aid to the government in Kiev.

Smith said in February that the language in the bill was more forceful than previous pieces of legislation in terms of pressuring US President Obama to arm Ukraine.

The US Congress is currently working toward an agreement on the federal budget for fiscal year 2016. The Pentagon has requested approximately $585 billion in defense spending, which is higher than the amount of spending authorized under the Congress’ Budget Control Act limits, or sequestration.

Russia has said that providing Kiev will weapons will exacerbate the Ukrainian crisis, and goes against claims by Washington of its commitment for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/03/17/pentagon-budget-may-include-1bln-lethal-aid-to-ukraine-congressman.html

Ukraine bill to allow U.S., Polish troops to enter for multiple war games

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From Rick Rozoff

Interfax-Ukraine
March 14, 2015
Ukraine plans joint military exercises with U.S., Poland for 2015 – bill

Polish and Ukrainian troops in last year’s U.S.-led Rapid Trident NATO war games

President Petro Poroshenko has introduced a bill to parliament to let foreign armed forces into Ukraine to take part in five joint exercises with Ukrainian forces.

According to the draft law, Ukraine plans three Ukrainian-American command post exercises, Fearless Guardian 2015, Sea Breeze 2015 and Saber Guardian/Rapid Trident 2015, and two Ukrainian-Polish exercises, Secure Skies 2015, and Law and Order 2015, for this year.

Fearless Guardian will take place in Yavoriv district, Lviv region, in the period from March to November and will bring together a maximum of 2,200 troops. Ukraine is providing up to 200 armed forces troops and up to 1,000 National Guard personnel, and the U.S. will be represented by a maximum of 1,000 servicemen.

Sea Breeze will be a 25-day exercise held between June and October in the Black Sea and at training sites in the regions of Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson. A maximum of 2,500 troops will take part in it.

Ukraine and the United States will each be represented by a maximum of 1,000 troops. The rest of the personnel will come from other NATO countries and member countries of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program (up to 500 troops).

Saber Guardian/Rapid Trident will also take place in Yavoriv district. The 25-day exercise, to be held between July and October, will bring together up to 2,100 troops, with up to 1,000 representing Ukraine, up to 500 the United States, and up to 600 other NATO and Partnership for Peace member countries.

Secure Skies is a 14-day tactical air force exercise in which a maximum of 250 Ukrainian and 100 Polish servicemen will take part.

Law and Order is a one-week military police exercise in Yavoriv that will together 50 Ukrainians and 50 Poles.

Permission from parliament is needed to allow foreign military personnel into Ukraine.

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/war-games-in-ukraine-bill-to-allow-u-s-polish-troops-to-enter/

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