Request for assistance: Strelkov press conference media coverage

Dear friends,

I promised myself that I would go away from the keyboard but I could not, there is just so much going on!  I am working on a analysis/commentary of the Strelkov press conference and I could need some help here.  Can you help me find out which media did cover it and how?

For example, not a single Russian TV channel has said a word about it, at least so far or, if it has, then I missed it. I checked all the following ones:

REN-TV: nothing
Channel 1: nothing
News Russia 1: nothing
NTV: nothing
RT in English: nothing (at least on the website)

Then I looked at the big Russian newspapers (online and paper):

Rossiiskaia Gazeta: nothing
Vzgliad: nothing (that surprises me)
Regnum news agency: excerpts only
Lenta.ru: several short excerpts

I don't have the time to continue checking media source, so if you could post in the comments section the names of the information outlets which did cover this press conference I would be very grateful.

Did anybody publish a full transcript?

Many thanks and kind regards,

The Saker

Appeal for help: can somebody translate this into English?

Dear friends,

Is there somebody here who could translate this video into English?  Especially, the segment between 1:20 and 11:41.  But, of course, translating the full video would be better.

If somebody could volunteer his/her time and effort to translate this video, I would recommend posting a note here in the comments section so that others do not duplicate the effort.  Maybe some of you could get in touch with each other to get that done faster?

The best result would be if somebody could 1) translate the audio 2) add subtitles to the video and 3) upload that somewhere on YouTube or Dailymotion.  Then all I would have to do is use the embed code and post the video here.

Thanks a lot in advance!

The Saker
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Request for assistance: Karadzic trial

Dear friends,

I am trying to locate the statement made yesterday by Radovan Karadzic at the opening of his defense at his trial in The Hague.  I am also looking for the statement/testimony of Col. Andrey Demurenko made on the same day.  Any help in locating these documents (in whatever language, including Serbian or Russian) would be greatly appreciated. 

Many thanks and kind regards,

The Saker

Request for comments: Arab speakers - can you please explain what this video shows?

Dear friends,

A rather gruesome 4 part video has appeared on the Internet showing the alleged murder and mutilation of pro-Gaddafi soldiers by anti-Gaddafi forces.  I have decided against posting the actual videos here because of their gruesome nature, but here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSMUeX_DXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LjoSTEMjh0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrjG9hg8Ak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcMgPsB3Gs

The person who posted this video has provided the following explanation:

Pro Gaddafi Soldiers who surrendered here were executed in cold blood.  Countless Libya Army Soldiers and Police officers have been Executed by Rebels in Cold Blood and have been Blindfolded, hog-tied, beat, Executed, Hung, beheaded, put on fire, had their bodies mutiliated, and in one documented case a Soldier had his heart cut out of his chest when he proclaimed that his "heart is for Gaddafi" and the rebel took a bite out of the heart. In Misrata the Rebels burned some soldiers and then waved and danced around with the charred remains of their corpses.(...)  The Libya Army soldiers and Libya police officers who have surrendered to the phony Rebel army have not been accounted for. Hundreds have been executed after surrendering and hundreds of others are missing after being reported as captured. In addition, the Rebels are Incredibly Racist and they take extra delight in torturing and in the execution of Black Libyan soldiers who are captured. The racist Benghazi terror Gangs continually make believe that all the Black soldiers in the Libya Army are somehow mercenaries as they are not white, failing to acknowledge that there are over 500,000 Black African Libyans who primarily reside in the southern half of the nation.

One thing which particularly puzzles me in these videos is the beheading of one of the soldiers.  Throat-cutting is one of the hallmarks, the "signatures", of Wahabi extremists who have - and still are - practicing this type of horror in Bosnia, Chechnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria and pretty much every place where there is an armed Wahabi force.  And while according to some comments the folks in the crowd as screaming "No don't do that" "khalllassss!" "enough!" "La! La!" "NO!,No!" and towards the end of the video people started to chant: "enough, enough with this disgrace!" you can clearly hear the chants of "Allahu Akbar!" by the people supporting these actions.  It does thus appear that this is clearly not a secular murder, but a religiously inspired one.

I would ask the Arab speakers who read my blog to please explain to me, and the rest of us, what exactly they can make from the dialogs heard on the video and provide us with as many details about this incident as possible.

Who are the people seen in the video?  Are they really soldiers?  What is being said, in particular in the 2nd video?  In what country and on what station was this video aired?  Do we know who shot these images?

Many thanks in advance,

The Saker

Request for help to my Shia readers

Dear friends,

I am a little confused about one topic and I would appreciate some guidance here.  All of you are welcome to help me out, but I am particularly addressing this one to my Shia friends and readers.

Here is what I think I know (correct me if I am wrong):

Any Shia Muslim has to choose a spiritual guide and, if I remember correctly, he is referred to as a Mujtahid and his interpretations of Islamic Law is referred to as Ijtihad.  While this guide is freely chosen, once that choice is made the pious Shia then follows his spiritual guidance for the rest of his or her life.  I am not sure if this concept of spiritual guide is linked to the concept of Welayat-e Faqih or not - so any clarification here would be most welcome.

It is also my understanding that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah chose to place themselves under the guidance of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather than than Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah and that the Western press was quite wrong when it spoke of the latter as the "spiritual leader of Hezbollah".  As far as I understand, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was the spiritual leader of the rest of the Shia in Lebanon, including the political party Amal.  Is all this correct?  If not, please correct my misunderstandings or simplifications.

My question is this: now that Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah has died, what happens to the Shias who followed his spiritual guidance?  Did he leave somebody for them to follow, or do they start at 'step1' and chose anybody they wish?

Also - is the authority needed to become a Mujtahid  linked to a specific clerical rank (Grand Ayatollah, Ayatollah, Hojatoleslam)?

Lastly, what is the difference between a Mujtahid and a Marja-i-taqlid?

I would appreciate any pointers about these topics.  If you could also point me to some good articles disussion and explaining these issues to a non-Muslim like myself I would be most grateful.

Many thanks in advance,

The Saker

I really need your help here!

Dear friends,

There are two stories which I am very interested in:

The first one is the story of the "Basij thug sniper on the roof who is not on the roof but on a motorbike who is not a sniper after all but who was shooting with a small caliber handgun". It is quite possible that the government is trying to cover up something here and is lying about this small caliber handgun thing, but I very much doubt this. They are, after all, raising the issue of Neda's murder at a time when this issue is quietly running out of steam. Then, a *small caliber* shot to the heart is something which is typical of a professional assassination. A small caliber is easy to hide, is quiet, very accurate and does the job very well, but only in the hands of a highly trained shooter. This story deserves all the scrutiny it can get. (did I mention that small caliber handgun is a favorite Mossad assassination weapon?).

The second story I am interested in is the story of the "fake Basij" recently arrested. Same disclaimer as above - could be just spin and damage control by the government. My questions here are: have the Basij deployed in Tehran been given weapons or not? That should be easy to verify. Second, has the local press revealed anything about the identities of the arrested individuals?

In particular, I ask those among you who either speak Farsi or have contacts in Iran to please help me and get me as many details as possible.

I would be most interested in the confirmation that Neda was killed by a small caliber hangun bullet.

We *know* that Neda was NOT demonstrating. All sources agree about that. We also know that she was NOT close to any demonstrations. All sources agree about that too. We also know that the images of her wearing green (the color of this "color coded revolution" have been doctored (that has been admitted by all sources too). But none of that is a "smoking gun" (literally). But if we could only get a confirmation that what killed her was a small handgun round we would have an absolute certitude that this is a false flag assassination.

I ask you to please make a real effort, use all your contacts, to try to establish what the autopsy report on her death said.

Needless to say, the corporate press and the Left-leaning free press will now hush up this story. Considering how much indignation and outrage (not to mention how little cool logic) they put into Neda's death, I don't expect anybody to come up with a mea culpa. So the ONLY chance to find out is, I believe, the local press in Tehran (either paper or on the Fari Internet). I don't understand Farsi and I don't have personal contact in Iran.

Bottom line: I really need help here.

Many thanks in advance,

The Saker