The well-travelled and multilingual oldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, he was once considered a potential future leader. He has lived abroad for years and was bypassed in favour of his half-brother, Kim Jong-un.
.. He later became one of the regime’s most high-profile critics, openly questioning the authoritarian policies and dynastic succession his grandfather Kim Il-sung began crafting in 1948.
An interview with the AP photographer who took the iconic shot of Russian ambassador’s assassin
.. He said he also remembered how his father always told him that if you are ever in a dangerous situation and you have the chance to do good, take the risk.
.. Suzan Fraser, a colleague in the AP’s Ankara bureau since 1996, recalled a time they went to interview a government minister. The official did not like her questions and accused her of being a “foreign agent” working on behalf of “foreign interests.” As the tense interview neared its conclusion, Ozbilici looked up from his camera and defended her.
“Suzan,” she remembers him saying, “you have to show the esteemed minister some understanding. He is not used to being interviewed by independent journalists who dare ask difficult questions. He is used to taking questions from journalists who are close to the government.”
.. “I believe in the power of photos. I believe the power of the photo will be more powerful than a million words.”
Now, America, You Know How Chileans Felt
Allende had campaigned on a program of social and economic justice, and we knew that the government of President Richard M. Nixon, allied with Chile’s oligarchs, would do everything it could to stop Allende’s nonviolent revolution from gaining power.
.. The country was rife with rumors of a possible coup. It had happened in Guatemala and Iran, in Indonesia and Brazil, where leaders opposed to United States interests had been ousted; now it was Chile’s turn. That was why General Schneider was assassinated. Because, having sworn loyalty to the Constitution, he stubbornly stood in the way of those destabilization plans.
.. General Schneider’s death did not block Allende’s inauguration, but American intelligence services, at the behest of Henry A. Kissinger, continued to assail our sovereignty during the next three years, sabotaging our prosperity (“make the economy scream,” Nixon ordered)
.. And yes, it is ironic that the C.I.A. — the very agency that gave not a whit for the independence of other nations — is now crying foul because its tactics have been imitated by a powerful international rival.
.. First, there should be an independent, transparent and thorough public investigation so that any collusion between American citizens and foreigners bent on mischief can be exposed and punished, no matter how powerful these operatives may be. The president-elect should be demanding such an inquiry, rather than mocking its grounds.
.. The United States cannot in good faith decry what has been done to its decent citizens until it is ready to face what it did so often to the equally decent citizens of other nations. And it must firmly resolve never to engage in such imperious activities again.
How I Learned to Love Putin
In September 1999 a series of apartment bombings in three Russian cities killed nearly 300 people. The Kremlin promptly blamed Chechen rebels, sparking the Second Chechen War.
Later that September, agents of Russia’s security service, the FSB, placed explosives in the basement of an apartment building in the city of Ryazan. Authorities claimed it was a training exercise, and that the explosives were merely sacks of sugar. An independent parliamentary inquiry went nowhere. Documents related to the incident are under 75-year seal. The bombings were instrumental in bringing Mr. Putin to power.
.. Not all of Russia’s gambits are motivated by dark or secret motives. Sometimes the motivation is simple greed... That same year, Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s CEO, gave a speech in St. Peterburg warning that “there is no respect for the rule of law in Russia today.”.. recognizing its territorial conquests in Ukraine in exchange for a Russian promise not to invade NATO member states.