Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

CFR involved in Ukraine

The Ukraine has been infiltrated by Western powerhouses I am surprised Yanukovych has been able to hold on for this long under such pressure.

Freedom House is a front for the Council on Foreign Relations.

Speaking by telephone from Kyiv, Adrian Karatnycky, a senior scholar of the Washington-based Freedom House, said that Western countries and organizations might be instrumental in pressing outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to exert restraint in dealing with his opponents.

The CFR through Freedom House in a biased statement is advocating that Western countries and organizations such as themselves put pressure on outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to exert restraint in dealing with his opponents even though these ‘opponents’ have advocated civil unrest.

Yushchenko's key ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, called on Ukrainians to begin a general strike. "Stop working, stop learning, make it all stop," she said.
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Accurately called “the citadel of America’s establishment,” the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the most influential of all private policy planning groups.

Both Bush and Kerry are close to the CFR, draw most of their top foreign and economic policy advisers from this elite organization, and receive significant political funding from a number of Council-related individuals. While Bush is not personally a member of the CFR, his father was a member and a director of the Council in the 1970s and a large number of key members of his Administration are members. These include the so-called “neo-conservatives” who first became prominent in the CFR in the 1980s, when Reagan was president, and who have continued to play an important role since then. One of the key neo-con groups, Project for the New American Century, established in 1997 and identified by many as being the central organization behind the Bush administration, is heavily connected to the CFR. Fully 17 of the 25 founders of the Project for the New American Century are Council members. Richard B. Cheney is a member as is John Kerry.

The CFR publishes Foreign Affairs magazine, which often prints study group recommendations written by a prominent CFR fellow or member and in this way shapes policy debates as they emerge.
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Freedom House, obviously a front for the Council on Foreign Relations, is also committed to destroying national sovereignties and establishing world government. According to President Adrian Karatnycky, Freedom House, which has a staff of 40 and offices in New York, Washington, DC, Budapest, Bucharest, and KIEV, has influenced events for the better (or worse) in former Yugoslavia:

FREEDOM HOUSE was founded in 1943 by Wendell Wilkey (sic) and Eleanor Roosevelt to promote world government, and specifically for the creation of the United Nations, which was accomplished three years later. Nineteen members of the inter-nationalist COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS dominate its Board.
Our own research identified twenty-five (25) CFR members on the board of Freedom House. Most are heavyweights in the international scene.
Freedom House Board of Trustees
Freedom House Free Cuba Center
National Forum Foundation
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-Am

EXPERTS PONDER POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF UKRAINIAN ELECTION DISPUTE

By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Wednesday, 24 November 2004
previous issue


Despite government warnings that any lawlessness will be quickly suppressed, Ukraine's liberal opposition has vowed a campaign of mass street protests and civil disobedience to overturn the results of the controversial 21 November presidential runoff. Regional experts, however, do not anticipate violence. They believe both the government and the opposition will try to seek a peaceful solution to their dispute.

The latest official returns suggested that with nearly all ballots counted, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the 21 November runoff with nearly 49.5 percent of the vote.

But opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who according to the official count received less than 47 percent of the votes, is not conceding defeat. Instead, the opposition -- which claims the voting was rigged -- is vowing to stage round-the-clock protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

In response, the government -- which denies the fraud charge -- is accusing the opposition of contemplating a coup.

But despite the tensions -- and the apparent split between pro-Yushchenko western Ukraine and the pro-Yanukovych eastern regions -- analysts generally believe both sides will try to seek peaceful solutions.

Oleksandr Betsa, program director at the Kyiv-based Vidrozhdennya (Renaissance) nongovernmental think tank, said that despite Kuchma's pledges to not allow any "revolution" take place in Ukraine, he does not expect political developments to take a violent turn.

"To our view it is unlikely that authorities will consider a forceful solution. It is equally unlikely that the opposition will push the authorities into making such a decision. Everyone will rather seek a peaceful outcome," Betsa said. "One possible outcome would be, [for the opposition], to appeal to a court so that election results in those polling stations or constituencies where flagrant fraud was documented are cancelled. But for this to happen, they must first gather evidence showing that such violations did take place."

Speaking by telephone from Kyiv, Adrian Karatnycky, a senior scholar of the Washington-based Freedom House, said that Western countries and organizations might be instrumental in pressing outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to exert restraint in dealing with his opponents.

But he said that ultimately the outcome of the crisis will depend on the determination of Yushchenko's supporters -- particularly to continue with street protests when temperatures are already freezing.

"Winter is approaching. The temperatures are going to drop below zero in the coming days and it will be interesting to see whether or not the Ukrainian people in Kyiv and other cities are going to view [these protests] as a one- or two-day kind of a thing, or whether they will be very persistent in trying to uphold their rights," Karatnycky said.

One of the factors that might influence the determination of the opposition is the stance adopted by the Ukrainian legislature.

Members of the Verkhovna Rada met on 23 November in an emergency session to assess the political situation. However, opposition deputies failed to gather a quorum of 226 legislators that would have allowed them to move a no-confidence motion against the Central Election Commission.

Still, Betsa insisted before that session took place that more and more deputies were declaring support for the liberal opposition.

"We know that the number of those who [in the parliament] support the opposition is growing," Betsa said on 22 November. "Parties or deputies who were previously holding a centrist position now see that there were vote violations. If more than 50 percent of deputies declare themselves in support of the opposition, the legislature will be a more efficient force and will find itself in a better position to initiate any decision regarding the recognition of this election. The speaker of the parliament, [Volodymyr Lytvyn], has already strongly criticized the use that has been made of the country's administrative resources [during this election], and we know that he will press those deputies that are still hesitating to behave as people's representatives and act in accordance with the constitution."

One way the government might seek to defuse political confrontation could be to try to co-opt opposition leaders and convince them to join a coalition cabinet.

Karatnycky of Freedom House said that the Kuchma administration is giving serious consideration to such plans. However, he believes the opposition is unlikely to accept the offer.

"I've spoken with high-ranking [government] officials on the eve of [the runoff] and they basically gave me this scenario [under which] Yanukovych would win with two or four percent and they would need to have a coalition government because the country is divided. [But] I think that in the mood that currently exists, this is not likely," Karatnycky said. "I don't think the mood right now is for that kind of compromise on the part of these leaders. Knowing what I know about the opposition, there is no discussion of that kind at all right now."

Betsa of Vidrozhdennya also does not see any efforts at co-opting the opposition succeeding at the present stage.

"A coalition government is out of the question because it is up to an elected president to make such a move. As long as the opposition does not recognize the president as legitimate, then the chances are that it will refuse to enter any government," he said. "Only at a later stage can this option be considered."

(Jean-Christophe Peuch is a senior RFE/RL correspondent in Prague.)


http://www.rferl.org/newsline/5-not.asp