Alexander Shprygin, the head of the VOB,  ”We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whiskey as a form of disinfection, this should cure all symptoms of the disease.”  He also added that Russian soccer fans have no fear and no virus is going to stop them from travelling to Great Britain to cheer on their team.

Well…raise a bottle and “Na zdorovje!”

I will be the first to admit (on this blog anyway) the Holocaust was an atrocity committed against mankind, not just the Jews, but mankind.  It represents the worst in people. It represents how evil can exist in society when we use terms that divide us as a single “unit of people” on this earth.  However, it is but one example of this type of travesty, and I am not at all certain why other events in history, and for that matter current day are not receiving the same type of publicity and public outcry.

What makes the Holocaust more important than other significant events that have taken place over the last 200 years, or perhaps I should say, is it? For example, Native Americans being forced off their land, forced into captivity on strange land no one wanted and slaughtered by the tens of thousands, if not millions?  Or Africans being bought and sold to work as slaves, families ripped apart and social torture for several hundred years? Russia slaughtering millions of its own citizens in order to enforce one socialist rule?  These are just a handful of events that are seemingly equal in horror or exceed the level of horror in scale, yet we rarely hear about these events in the local or national media.

Let me stress I am not downplaying the Holocaust, but rather wondering why atrocities against mankind that are currently happening in the world are not attacked with the same type of vigor and hate that this one issue is?

Are the atrocities in Russia swept under the rug around the world, because Russia itself is not speaking of the events, and therefore its citizens are forced to be quite?  Have Native Americans been reduced in number and bread cross-culturally to such an extent that the numbers simply are not there to keep it “on the record”, and in the hearts and minds of the media?

Obviously, I am not answering any of these questions, not because I do not want to, but rather I simply do not have the answers.  I understand there is genocide taking place in Africa today, and it has been ongoing on that continent for decades.  I understand there are millions starving around the globe, and most people do nothing about it.  I believe I know that in the Middle East there is a growing hatred for the west, and religion separates entirely too many people in this world.  But what I do not know is how to solve these issues or how to educate us as a people on these issues without discussing our concerns and questions with friends, family and people who are experts on the subjects, and that is what I am attempting to do with this article.

Please feel free to respond and educate our readership on any of these issues, or for that matter any other issues you would like to discuss.  I would like to see this topic blossom into a string of subjects with the primary goal of spreading knowledge in an open and honest manner.  This is not a vehicle for spreading hate, or attacking atrocities.  It is simply a place to ask questions, some even uncomfortable in nature, and have others discuss them fairly and honestly all with the goal of educating and potentially answering some of the bigger questions about mankind.

Estonian capital city Tallinn: For the former Soviet state, the scandal has become the downside of a political success story.

Der Spiegel a German based international news organization broke a very interesting story last week, and for some reason the U.S. media chose not to cover it, but at our local bar nothing skips our ears or eyes, so here is the story for our informed readers.

It’s the worst spy scandal since the end of the cold war, and potentially more harmful than even American spy Aldrich Ames.  Here is the story for you to read. -

For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU — and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels.

Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear’s world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.

Although Simm was arrested with his wife Heete in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Sept. 21, this spy story — which has been largely kept under wraps until now — primarily concerns the European Union and NATO based in faraway Brussels. Since Simm was responsible for dealing with classified information in Tallinn, he had access to nearly all documents exchanged within the EU and NATO. Officials who are familiar with the case assume that “virtually everything” that circulates between EU member states was passed on to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR — including confidential analyses by NATO on the Kosovo crisis, the war in Georgia and even the missile defense program. Investigators believe that Simm was a “big fish.”

Meanwhile, a number of investigative teams from the EU and NATO have flown to Tallinn to probe the extent of the intelligence disaster. The investigation is being led by the NATO Office for Security, which is headed by an American official. As investigators pursue their work, they continue to unearth mounting evidence pointing to the enormity of the betrayal. A German government official has called the situation a “catastrophe,” and Jaanus Rahumägi, a member of Estonia’s national parliament who heads the parliamentary oversight committee for the government security agency, fears “historic damage.”

NATO officials in Brussels are comparing Simm’s alleged spying to the case of Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent who for years funneled information to the Russian intelligence service, the KGB. However, the extensive fallout of the Estonian leaks makes this the worst espionage scandal since the end of the Cold War.

The case reveals how vulnerable the alliance has become in the wake of the expansion of NATO and the EU into Eastern Europe. When the decision was made to allow Estonia — a tiny country with a population of only 1.3 million — and six other countries into NATO and the EU in 2004, then-German Defense Minister Peter Struck of the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD) expressed delight with this “great step on the way toward an undivided and free Europe, toward more security” and toward “a stronger NATO.”

In Tallinn the downside of this political success story is now rearing its ugly head. Within the alliance, Estonia is not treated much differently than Italy or Germany when it comes to sensitive information. For a large power like Russia, which has always more or less rejected NATO and observed the expansion of the EU with suspicion, taking a slight detour through the Baltic States was the perfect way to reach into the heart of Brussels with a reasonably low level of risk. Thanks to Simm’s alleged help, the Russians apparently achieved this with ease.

Investigators now assume that Simm established contact with the Russian intelligence service as early as the late 1980s. At the time, Estonia was striving for independence and it was clear that Moscow would eventually lose the Baltic Republics. Now was the time for Russia to secure its influence. When Estonia’s NATO membership was first discussed “in the mid-1990s, Simm was officially recruited by the Russian government,” claims Rahumägi. There is evidence indicating that the relationship was fairly loose to begin with. It’s possible the KGB successor organization, the SVR, kept Simm as a “sleeper.”

Simm rapidly advanced through the ranks, and in 1994 he became the Estonian chief of police. Later, he was transferred as a department head to the Defense Ministry, where he was responsible for the secret coordination with NATO and the EU. After Tallinn joined the EU in 2004, his position became tremendously valuable to Moscow.

It remains to be seen whether money was a motive for Simm’s alleged actions. What is clear, however, is that the high-ranking ministerial official from Tallinn owns half a dozen plots of land and properties, including a farm near the Baltic coast and a lavishly renovated, whitewashed residence in the small city of Saue near Tallinn. Investigators began to observe this house when an increasing number of clues about the Simm’s alleged contact man started to surface. The contact man is believed to be an SVR agent traveling around European on a fake Spanish passport. Meanwhile, officials at the Estonian Public Prosecutor’s Office are hoping to press charges against Simm in early 2009.

Right now, NATO is extremely interested in “deciphering the Russians’ game plan,” sources in Brussels say. Later, though, the case is expected to result in far-reaching changes in the manner in which classified material is handled within the alliance. A comprehensive probe to seek further leaks in Eastern Europe is also expected.

“We have to assume,” says a Brussels official, “that the Russian intelligence apparatus maintains a number of Simms in the Baltic States.”