'Sex and blackmail in Azerbaijan'

Hear more about corruption, blackmail and repressive Aliyev family in this video by Al Jazeera Stream.

It blew me away when the representative of official Azerbaijan said "let it go" while referring to Khadija Ismayilova's case. I wonder if she would have said the same if a similar sex tape and scandal surrounded her and her life.

I will stop here and let you make your own decision.

'The 10 tools of online oppressors'

According to Committee to Protect Journalists Special Report:

The world' worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old- school techniques. 

And so Danny O'Brian writes of what is happening around the world in countries like China, Iran and Burma and many others where freedom of media and activism are heavily censored and brutally punished.

CPJ.tools.of.Oppression

Protect and safeguard or beat and shout? (part 2)

And here is more footage from protests that took place today in Azerbaijan. 

The second guy police arrested was begging to release his arm as it was hurting. An older woman was refusing to get into the car. The man in the tie said he was crossing the street and when the police shut the door he was saying that his wife was waiting just there for him. The last two women talking to the cameras were human rights advocates- Novella Jafaroglu and Saida Gocamanli. The police officer standing behind them quickly walked up to them asking for their IDs. 

And this is the democracy and freedom we hear government officials talk about all the time. 

No comment...

One question: if everything was great in Azerbaijan as certain people say it is, then why people would shout "Resignation" and protest?

Certainly, the vide below only justifies oppressive Azerbaijan regime and Azerbaijani police that acts on orders of the authorities.

One answer: nothing is great in Azerbaijan.

An incredible escape story

[...] Up into the mountains they rode in deep snow and bitter cold, through a maze of smugglers’ trails. “Around and around we went,” Vahedi says, apparently in an attempt to avoid the border guards. “There were wolves walking around us just 10 yards away. One [smuggler] had a stick, and he said, ‘Don’t be scared.’ ” Along the path, Vahedi spotted a dead horse, seemingly recently killed by a bullet in its side. He learned that horses know the route by rote, so smugglers will sometimes load contraband on their backs and send them down the mountainside on their own [...]

This is just one part of a great article i was reading earlier today in LA Times Magazine. But its not really an article but more of a story of one man- Dr. Hossein G. Vahedi- and his escape that reminds the reader of something out of a movie or adventure novel. Anything but surely not a real story. What makes this story even more interesting is its connection to recent bomb- WikiLeaks. This is how the article in fact starts:

Buried within WikiLeak's exposed secretes is one L.A. dentist's great horseback escape.

Since, I don't want to spoil the story, I would simply suggest to visit this link and read the story yourselves as it is truly incredible and very real.