BBG Watch Commentary Fired Radio Liberty Russian journalists delivered some of the best in depth analysis of the links between the Boston bombings, violent jihadism and Chechnya. Known as Radio Liberty in Exile, journalists fired last year by the former management of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) turned to their still employed RFE/RL [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary. U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) still broadcasts uncensored radio programs in local languages to the largely Muslim North Caucasus region in the Russian Federation, the reported home of the Boston bombing suspects. But if U.S. government bureaucrats and the Obama Administration had their way, these broadcasts, which include [...]

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BBG Watch has learned that a distinguished leader and scholar Tenzin Tethong was chosen as the new Tibetan Service director at Radio Free Asia (RFA). He accompanied his family to India in 1959 a few months after the Dalai Lama had arrived there from Tibet. He has been living in the United States since 1995. [...]

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One only has to scan the news papers or listen to comments about religion to see anti religion is now in style: not just of Catholics, of course, but hatred of all men of good will who follow traditional values. How dare they think that some things are actually right and some things are wrong [...]

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My relatives in Philly are in the “anti bullying” mode after a local schoolboy died after beaten by thugs. My comment? Maybe if the locals had paid more attention to the terrible bullying incidents against Asians in the area a couple years ago, that the school would have implemented a strict “no violence” policy. Perhaps [...]

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Welcome to the First Virtual Church of Our Lord and Savior, Steve Jobs. As you enter the sanctuary, please do not make eye contact with anyone. Keep your eyes focused on the screen of the mobile device of your choice. We are relevant and practice diversity here, which is easy since no one will even [...]

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“You oughta get better locks around here if you don’t want people taking your private information, Mr. Squirl. It’s up to you to do something preventive….” “Mr. Mercer, I’m Jack Squirl, President of Data Miner Servicing, y’ know, ‘Servicing You With a Smile.’ Our security guard detained you one hour ago, and we are holding [...]

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It is the fearful, unthinking herd instinct and the forces that exploit it that are making us such a polarized nation. You don’t have to have a sick religion or be a right wing Republican to be delusional. Twitter is dripping with delusionalism in politics and atheism. And just try to convince me that Oswald [...]

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We read about one incident of a lunatic shooting people in a theater, a lunatic shooting people at a school, a lunatic crashing jetliners into skyscrapers. Then we conclude that all strangers are lunatics, too dangerous to connect with. So we stay alone, unconnected, and slowly we become a nation of benign lunatics.    I see [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary Commenting on the defense authorization bill that President Obama signed last night, which includes a provision that reduces restrictions of the Smith-Mundt Act on the dissemination of materials within the United States that were originally intended for audiences overseas, former Broadcasting Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Voice of America (VOA) official [...]

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Living outside the USA, I wonder if I would recognize my birthland if I return someday. We now see the NYTimes proposing that “we” get rid of the US constitution, which is standing in the way of what “we” want to do. AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching [...]

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Media in Russia are reporting that leaders of Helsinki human rights groups in Russia and the Czech Republic have appealed to former Solidarity labor union leader and Poland’s former president Lech Walesa to help them defend the rights of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists who had been fired in Moscow on orders of RFE/RL [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary “Not only have I not changed my views on how bad the situation is at RFE/RL, I came away from the BBG panel more worried than I went in and more convinced than ever that it needs radical change at the top.” – Freedom House President David Kramer U.S. officials and American [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary Radio Liberty Internet team fired last September by American executives of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) received last Saturday in Moscow a prestigious Sakharov human rights journalism prize along with its star young reporter and web editor Elena Vlasenko who had resigned from RFE/RL in protest against the dismissal of her colleagues. [...]

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The report on the Benghazi attack attracted attention today for two reason, the first being that failures were identified and no one in particular was singled out for responsibility, the second being that resignations began within hours of the public getting the news. Important parts of this investigation, and the changes that result, or do [...]

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Ah yes. If you even tried to question the original spin of the Obama administration that the attack on the Benghazi mission was about an X rated porn film clumsily redubbed to seem as if was about the Prophet, you are an evil Republican trying to politicize national defense. That spin managed to silence Romney, [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary Kristina Gorelik (Кристина Горелик), fired last September by American taxpayer-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) along with dozens of her colleagues, has received today the Moscow Helsinki Group prize for “journalistic activity aimed at promoting human rights values.”  The prize was presented on the International Human Rights Day, December 10. At Radio [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary After the American management of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) headed by President and CEO Steven Korn fired without any warning dozens of Radio Liberty web editors and other journalists, cancelled their pro-human rights programs, and brought in a new team led by Masha Gessen to change programming philosophy and redesign the [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary Members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Board of Directors are planning to consult former Radio Liberty journalists in Russia fired on orders of RFE/RL President Steven Korn. Mikhail Gorbachev with fired Radio Liberty journalist  Mikhail Sokolov (Radio Liberty in Exile)  Sources told BBG Watch that in [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary Radio Liberty in Exile responds to RFE/RL President Steven Korn’s dismissive comments about Russian opposition leaders by appealing to U.S. Congress for help. Radio Liberty in Exile, a group of Russian journalists fired in September by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) management and their colleagues who had resigned in protest, has responded [...]

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One week from today on November 16, the first international event will be held at the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The COTA is the first purpose-built Formula One track in the U.S., so its opening has been highly anticipated for several years. The F1 event officially begins with practice day [...]

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BBG Watch – www.bbgwatch.com Commentary Radio Liberty-in-Exile group of fired Radio Liberty journalists is planning a protest in Moscow during a panel discussion on Monday by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president Steven Korn, his deputy Julia Ragona and their new Russian Service director Masha Gessen. View larger image of captured Radio Liberty (Radio Svoboda) home [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary In an article published in National Review Online, Mario Corti and Ted Lipien argue that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) executives have mislead the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the American public on the circumstances and the reasons for the mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. The authors state [...]

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A lot of  the news about the Middle East is politicized in the US press, but today’s reports are not good. The Reuters news agency Religion section has this article, that cautions: The fabric of Middle Eastern society has fundamentally changed. Being Muslim has replaced being Arab as the primary identifying factor. The consequences are [...]

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The puzzle of the Libyan attack cover-up is why the White House tried to distract the mainstream media and rewrite the attack as a “spontaneous demonstrations”. We were told over and over again that this incident started as a protest against B porno flick that someone poorly overdubbed in Arabic and placed on youtube a [...]

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Mikhail Kasyanov, one of the signatories of the protest letter to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) over the mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists and cancellation of their political and human rights programs, was Prime Minister of Russia, 2000-2004. Kasyanov, the last member of the Russian government closely associated with Yeltsin, was dismissed, along [...]

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BBG Watch Commentary A young Russian journalism student Kirill Filimonov, protesting against U.S. decision to stifle Radio Liberty broadcasts and to fire its journalists, was detained by the police but released and, with about 30 mostly young, Russian demonstrators, continued the picket Tuesday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Russian and foreign media were [...]

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BBG Watch, an independent website edited by employees and former employees of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasts, has learned that a group of young Radio Liberty listeners and users of its website is relying on Facebook and other social media to organize a demonstration in [...]

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There was a big story by National Geographic last week about illegal ivory being used by Philippino Catholics to make statues. They even named one of our more dubious priests as being involved in the practice. Corruption is not new in the Philippines, where winking at the law is a way of life and bribes [...]

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Lyudmila Alexeyeva, photo by Владимир Липка (Vladimir Lipka) BBG Watch Commentary Reports in Russian media say that a letter of protest sent to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Congress, which was signed by Russia’s most famous human rights leaders, condemns the management of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for engineering a [...]

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