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Home Front: Politix
"Say It Ain't So Joe"
2008-10-09
Here before us is a Soviet archival document,* a top secret report by a communist apparatchik who had received a delegation of US Senators led by Joseph Biden in 1979. After describing routine arms control discussions, it quotes Biden as telling the Soviets off-record that he did not really care about the persecution of Russian dissidents. He and other Senators might raise human rights issues with their Soviet counterparts, but only to be seen by the public as defenders of human rights, not to have those problems really solved. They would happily take no for an answer.

Vadim V. Zagladin, the then deputy head of the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee (the organization formerly known as the Comintern), wrote in the report:

The delegation did not officially raise the issue of human rights during the negotiations. Biden said they did not want 'to spoil the atmosphere with problems which are bound to cause distrust in our relations.' However, during the breaks between the sessions the senators passed to us several letters concerning these or those 'refuseniks'.

Refuseniks were one of the best known groups of oppressed citizens in the USSR at that time: thousands of Jews who were refused exit permissions to emigrate to Israel on various trumped-up pretexts.

Unofficially, Biden and [Senator Richard] Lugar said that, in the end of the day, they were not so much concerned with having a problem of this or that citizen solved as with showing to the American public that they do care for 'human rights'. They must prove to their voters that they are 'effective in fulfilling their wishes'. In other words, the collocutors directly admitted that what is happening is a kind of a show, that they absolutely do not care for the fate of most so-called dissidents.
In the same conversation, Biden asked us to ensure that senators' appeals on those issues are not left unanswered - even if we just reply that the letter is received but we cannot do anything.
More.....
Posted by:tipper

#6  Compare wid WAFF.com > HUGO CHAVEZ: COMRADE BUSH IS A SOCIALIST. Comrade Dubya is LEADING THE USA TOWARDS SOCIALISM, espec vee USGovt Bailout of Wall Street. Also criticizes America for complaining about the Socialist=Govtist policies of many international Nations while ignoring or pol whitewashing its own.

Also from WAFF > THE ECONOMIST [long] - AMID THE US FINANCIAL CRISIS, OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR AFRICA. Are AFrica's Leaders-Govts SAAVY ENOUGH TO HELP THEMSELVES FOR THEIR OWN PROACTIVE BENEFIT???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-10-09 20:47  

#5  Carter also approached the Soviets. When it comes to this kind of crap, I put nothing past the dhimmicrats.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2008-10-09 19:43  

#4  Not really surprising. Remember Ted Kennedy's asking the Soviets to influence a presidential election?
Posted by: Pappy   2008-10-09 17:13  

#3  I'm doubtful Biden would say such a thing. He thought it, I have no question about it, but to say something even to the Soviets that could be used to blackmail him later seems doubtful.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-10-09 16:07  

#2  Reminds me of the debate in 2004 when Kerry mentioned having visited the Lubyanka. I turned to my wife and said "yeah, to pick up his check."
Posted by: Iblis   2008-10-09 16:04  

#1  Surprised at the comments by Biden and Lugar?
No.
Surprised that it is seeing the light of day?
You betcha.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Unuse3888   2008-10-09 15:50  

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