Commentary and thoughtful questions from Rayelan:
The election in the Ukraine is very hard to figure out. At first glance it appears that the challenger Yushchenko is the white knight and his opponet Yanukovych is the villain. However, even the Ukrainians know that Yushchenko is FAR from being an ideal candidate.
From a Ukrainian website:
What we are fighting for?
http://maidan.org.ua/static/mai/1100897375.html
These are not just ordinary elections.
What is going on now in Ukraine is a cold war conducted against the nation by the corrupt government. We are far from considering Yushchenko a Messiah, but in Yanukovych's doings we have ALREADY seen and felt the breath of state gangsterism.
One of the most fascinating but totally ignored aspects of this race is the sudden change in Yushchenko's appearance. Just 5 months ago the man had looks that most movie stars would die for.
Picture 5 months ago
Now he appears to have morphed from Gorgeous George into Hannibal Lector with smallpox.
Picture today
An AP article asks, "Was it poison or just spoiled sushi?"
Politician's face fuels speculation
Illness destroys movie-star looks
WILLIAM J. KOLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria-As Ukraine's popular opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko claimed victory yesterday in hotly contested presidential elections, mystery continued to shroud an appearance-altering illness that twice prompted him to check into a Vienna hospital.
Yushchenko accused Ukrainian authorities of poisoning him.
His detractors suggested he'd eaten some bad sushi, an idea he scoffed at.
Adding to the intrigue, the Austrian doctors who treated him sought police protection, and asked foreign experts to help determine if his symptoms had been caused by toxins found in biological weapons.
Medical experts said they might never know for sure what caused the dramatic change in Yushchenko's appearance since he first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on Sept. 10.
Known for his ruggedly handsome, almost movie-star looks, Yushchenko's complexion is now grayish and pockmarked. His face is haggard, swollen and partially paralyzed. One eye often tears up.
Doctors at Rudolfinerhaus declined to comment yesterday.
By the time Yushchenko checked out of the clinic last month after returning for follow-up treatment, physicians said they could neither prove nor disprove whether he had been poisoned.
snip
Yushchenko's doctors in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said they had determined that "chemicals not of a food origin" had triggered the illness.
Zimpfer and the clinic's chief physician, Dr. Lothar Wicke - who requested police protection after receiving an anonymous threat while treating Yushchenko - later asked for outside help from "a specialist in military operations and biological weapons," the Austria Press Agency reported.
Read the entire article at:
<http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1101250211536&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&DPL=IvsNDS/7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes>
JULY: Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko as he looked less than five months ago before being hit by a mystery illness. NOW: A shockingly altered Yushchenko as he appeared in Kiev yesterday, where he declared victory in Ukraine's disputed election.
Here is another version of why Yuschenko went from movie star handsome, to troll ugly!
A new version of what happened to the opposition leader: Yuschenko falls sick desiring to rejuvenate …
Among the main events relating to the election campaign, which took place on October 13, first of all we may mention a statement that pro-opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko's sickness might have been caused by rejuvenation injections. We can also mention a statement by the Prosecutor General's Office that Viktor Yuschenko was hampering relevant bodies of Ukraine and Austria (where he was treated in a private hospital) in their attempts to establish all the circumstances relating to the deterioration of his health.
snip
Today the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine released a statement that after Viktor Yuschenko's refusal to allow the Austrian private Rudolfinerhaus hospital to hand over medical documentation on his treatment to a lower court in Vienna, its judge ordered the seizure of Yuschenko's medical documents from Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus hospital on October 7 because Yuschenko did not authorize the hospital to send the documents to the Austrian court. According to the press service, Yuschenko and lawyers for the court have appealed against the judge's decision and a Vienna criminal court is presently considering the appeal.
According to the press service, the PGO considers Yuschenko's behavior as obstruction of the efforts of the competent Ukrainian and Austrian organs to establish all the circumstances surrounding the deterioration of his health. The press service said that the PGO presently has no information indicating that deliberate actions were taken to harm Yuschenko's health.
One of the Ukrainian presidential candidate, the leader of the Communist Party of Workers and Peasants, Oleksandr Yakovenko, who ranks low in opinion polls and which is considered to be a "technical" candidate, today sent an open letter to the management of the Rudolfinerhaus hospital. In his message, he expressed the opinion that the ambiguity of the position of the hospital's management on of Viktor Yuschenko's health conditions allows his entourage to make equivocal statements on the cause of Viktor Yuschenko's sudden illness, which, in turn, destabilizes the work of government bodies, creates panic, and leads the population of Ukraine into confusion ahead of the presidential election.
He also reminded the Austrian doctors that they represent a democratic nation and democratic ideals, which are often mentioned as exemplary achievements by Viktor Yuschenko in his speeches before Ukrainian voters. "Therefore, the people of Ukraine expect that you will give a definite answer to the question whether or not the leader of Our Ukraine had been deliberately poisoned," Yakovenko said.
http://www.elections-ua.org/news5.html
end of quoted articles...
The United States appears to be supporting Victor Yuschenko right now. However, on November 5-8, when he visited the United States he met with George Soros, but was NOT granted visits that he had set up with Cheney, Powell and Rice.
What caused the change in United States support in less than 3 weeks? Was it the fact that Yuschenko is the lesser of two evils?
ANALYSIS
What did Yuschenko seek during his visit to the U.S.?
by Jan Makymsiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report
Ukraine's former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko paid a private visit - sponsored by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy - to the United States on November 5-8.
The Ukrainian Weekly reported on November 18 that while in New York on November 6, Mr. Yuschenko met with representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora, the press and the Freedom House human rights group, as well as with George Soros. In Washington, Mr. Yuschenko spoke with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the National Security Council's European and Eurasian Affairs Director Daniel Fried and several members of the U.S. Congress.
Many Ukrainian media did not fail to note that the profile of Mr. Yuschenko's U.S. trip was much lower than he planned. In particular, Mr. Yuschenko expected but failed to meet with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as President George W. Bush's security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. The much-respected weekly Zerkalo Nedeli, which is rather supportive of Yuschenko, commented on November 10 on these failures in the following way:
http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2001/470105.shtml
Yuschenko is said to have ties to George Soros. George Soros is the number one enemy of George Bush. How can two enemies be supporting the same man?
Yuschenko's challenger, who was supporter by the current corrupt president, is also supported by Vladimir Putin who blames George Soros for much of the financial problems Russia is having.
To me it looks as if George Bush should be siding with his friend Vladimir Putin instead of with his enemy George Soros... but what do I know? It's going to take someone with a lot more information on the Ukraine and all the players to answer this question. I am only pointing out the inconsistancies with what the U.S. media is telling us about this election.
