It's Official - Yuschenko Poisoned With Dioxin Say Doctors

Once again, for the bigots and thug apologists who claim medical expertise: Yuschenko was poisoned. And the poison of choice was dioxim, a key component of Agent Orange.

Doctors: Yushchenko was poisoned
Saturday, December 11, 2004 Posted:
9:33 AM EST (1433 GMT)

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko's mysterious illness was caused by dioxin poisoning, doctors said Saturday.

"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," said Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic. Tests run over the past 24 hours provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.

Physicians began running new tests Friday evening, when Yushchenko was admitted for a third time to the clinic, Zimpfer said.

"We started last night to do the entire imaging, including nuclear medicine, to look at the function of the organs, skeletal system and to see what kind of damage might be hiding," he said. Doctors also investigated Yushchenko's blood to check for any signs of poisoning.

The illness has disfigured Yushchenko's face, leaving it swollen, ashen
and pockmarked.

The presidential candidate has accused Ukrainian authorities of trying to poison him ahead of last month's vote -- an allegation they have denied.

"I plan to live for a long time and I plan to live happily. I am getting better health every day," he said.

Yushchenko, 50, first fell ill in September and was rushed to the Vienna hospital. He resumed campaigning later in the month but with a pockmarked and badly disfigured face.

His chief of staff, Oleh Rybachuk, told PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"
that Yushchenko has fully recovered from his unidentified ailment but "needs a certain rest and he needs to take care of this effect on his face, which they call residual."

"Internally there are no more damages," Rybachuk said.

Rybachuk also said Yushchenko was fortunate to receive earlier treatment in Vienna.

"He was very lucky that he was brought to Vienna because doctors said if he would stay another 24 hours in Ukraine, it could be a 'final solution,"' he said in comments broadcast Friday.

Yushchenko suffered from a series of symptoms, including back pain, acute pancreatitis and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face.

Kateryna Yuschenko on Good Morning America

Friday, Dec. 10 Katya is scheduled to be interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, the ABC network breakfast program in the United States.

A little background on Katya:
She was born in the US, in Chicago to a Ukrainian American family. While growing up, she was active in her church and in the Ukrainian American Youth Association (CYM) . She has a MBA from the University of Chicago. Upon completing college, she worked for several years as director of the Ukrainian National Information Service (UNIS) the Washington office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA). She was served in the human rights bureau at the State Department and later in the Office of Public Liaison at the White House. And then in the executive secretary's office in the Treasury Department.

Katya is very bright and was always very idealistic. Her commitment to Ukraine was unwavering. Initially she worked for Ukraine's independence in the UCCA, then worked to promote democratic and free market reforms in the newly independent state.

The interview should be quite interesting. If you're in the States, set your TIVOs or vcr's.

Yuschenko Poisoned - Confirmed

Doctors at the Rudolfinerhaus clinic that treated Viktor Yuschenko confirm there was a plot to kill him, according to the Times of London.

MEDICAL experts have confirmed that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s opposition leader, was poisoned in an attempt on his life during election campaigning, the doctor who supervised his treatment at an Austrian clinic said yesterday.

Doctors at Vienna’s exclusive Rudolfinerhaus clinic are within days of identifying the substance that left Mr Yushchenko’s face disfigured with cysts and lesions, Nikolai Korpan told The Times in a telephone interview.

Specialists in Britain, the United States and France had helped to establish that it was a biological agent, a chemical agent or, most likely, a rare poison that struck him down in the run-up to the presidential election, he said. Doctors needed to examine Mr Yushchenko again at the clinic in Vienna to confirm their diagnosis but were in no doubt that the substance was administered deliberately, he said.

“This is no longer a question for discussion,” Dr Korpan said. “We are now sure that we can confirm which substance caused this illness. He received this substance from other people who had a specific aim.”

Asked if the aim had been to kill him, Dr Korpan said: “Yes, of course.”

So much for the anti-Yuschenko propaganda that the disfigurement was due to "bad sushi" a virus, stress or the brilliant observations of CodeBlue who does some fancy footwork to 'prove' that Yuschenko is an alcoholic.

Con Coughlin of the Telegraph met with Yuschenko on Saturday and posted this:

The man who was once described as the Bill Clinton of eastern Europe for his charisma and good looks is now horribly disfigured by an attempt to poison him during the political battle for control of his country.

As he sat in the office of his wood-panelled dacha in the suburbs of Kiev on Saturday, Mr Yushchenko vowed to expose all the details of the plot that has left his face scarred with pock marks and a complexion the colour of dark blue bruising.

Though the disfigurement is still shocking, especially to those of us who know Viktor (who is, BTW, a tea with honey from his own beehives sort of guy) the primary concern is not his face but his health. And fortunately, that is most definitely on the mend.

China Blocks Google News because of Ukraine?

Shortly after the Orange Revolution began in Ukraine, the Chinese Government began blocking the English language Google news site. PolitInfo.com reports:

Press freedom advocates are condemning China's move to block access to the English-language news site of the popular Web search engine, Google. Google came under criticism from press freedom advocates months ago when it established its Chinese-language edition and agreed not to list news stories the Chinese government deemed unacceptable.

Advocates accused the U.S. company of self-censorship for the sake of maintaining a stake in China's Internet market, which some experts say is growing at a rate of about 50 percent a year.

While Google's Chinese-language news Web site did not list banned stories, Chinese Internet users often could view prohibited material by going through Google's English-language site. There they could at least glimpse the headlines of blocked stories. In recent days, that changed.

There has been some speculation that the Chinese do not wish their citizens to have access to information about recent events in Ukraine. Marlowe Hood of Agence France Presse comments the information blockade:

If the spectacle of Ukraine's unfolding drama scares Chinese leaders, it is not as an object lesson on "how to split up a country," as Fons Tuinstra suggests, but because of the echo with June 4, 1989. For anyone -- Chinese or non-Chinese -- who witnessed the before and after of that traumatic event (I did so as a reporter for the South China Morning Post), the sight of hundreds of thousands of people protesting peacefully against corruption in the streets of a capital city is, well, highly evocative. The parallel goes even deeper: Just as an ostensibly retired Deng Xiaoping ruled China and hand-pick its top leaders, so did Ukraine's Leonid D. Kuchma anoint Viktor F. Yanukovich as his successor. But what frightens the leadership in China more than the similarities is the contrast: Yanukovich (and, presumably Kuchma)have stepped back (at least for now) from what could have been a terrible and violent confrontation, opening the way to new elections and the possibility of peaceful reform. In China, Deng purged the Communist Party's top official (Zhao Ziyang) because he was inclined to negotiate with protesting citizens, and then he called in the tanks. Ukraine shows what many Chinese think: things could have turned out differently in Beijing.

Shame on Google for adapting to China's censorship. What is happening in Ukraine today is inspirational. It provides hope for others under totalitarianism's boot. Freedom is contagious as we saw again today in Minsk. At 15:30, in the center of town, on animated Nemiga street, Belorusian activists hung an 8 meter sign with the words: “Today Ukraine tomorrow Belarus!” Hundreds of pedestrians and drivers saw it. No doubt the Chinese don't want a similar sign in Tiananmen Square.

Sleazy Stunt By Yanukovych

This evening on Ukrainian national television, Yanukovych announced that he must commit all of his energy to:

confirm his election victory. That is why I decided to go on leave in order to campaign.

The one thing that I ask of the President, the Speaker of the Parliament
and the Parliamentarians is that they allow this government to continue its work until the end of the election period...

What is particularly odious about his "leave" is that's it's an old Soviet trick, one used in the past by the likes of Zvahilsky. It's a trick because Ukrainian law provides that while an official is on leave or ill, he may not be fired. So Yanukovych effectively prevented his own firing, something which should happen because the Verkhovna Rada passed a the vote of no confidence in Yanukovych and his government.

In the rest of his speech, Yanukovych continued the nonsense he spewed during the debate with Yuschenko, that is that he (Yanukovych) is the representative of the new and Yuschenko is the representative of the old:

Today, everyone is convinced that the battle with the remains of the 'old' authorities, i.e. the so-called opposition, is impossible without battling their allies in the current government. After the second tour, the connection between the old and administrative resource became obvious.

What has happened in the last several weeks is an attempt to 'deal with' a politician who is too independent...

Perhaps Yanukovych's independence is reflected by his fawning over Putin. Or his dependence on Russian money. Or perhaps his relationship with Akhmetov.

Yanukovych Confesses! (Just Kidding)

Time for a little multi-media...

One of the funniest things I've heard is "Yanukovych's Confession, " an MP3 mix with Yanukovych voice edits. In it, Yanukovych confesses to being a thief, murderer, you name it. And it ends with Yanukovych's voice giving a ringing endorsement to Yuschenko.

Another MP3 mix that's up there is "Mrs. Yanukovych's Speech" with bits taken from her infamous speech at a Donetsk rally for her husband on November 29. For those who aren't in the know, Lyudmila Yanukovych, the thug's wife, characterized the pro-democracy hundreds of thousands as, well, just read the Kyiv Post translation:

“It’s simply an orange orgy there,” said the not-quite first lady referring to pro-Yushchenko protests in Kyiv. “There’s rows and rows of felt boots – all of it American-made! See! And mountains of oranges! Oranges! And the background is ‘orange sea, orange sky...’ [a line from “Oranzhevaya Pesnya,” a popular song for kids - ed.] Gosh! It’s just... it’s a nightmare! And look here, guys: those oranges aren’t just any oranges – they’re loaded. People – take an orange, eat it – and take another one. See! And the hand keeps reaching, keeps reaching for it. I was on my way here; there was news. They said people in the square are getting poisoned, on a mass scale. Frequent hospitalizations. They bring people in with meningitis! What have we come to? And they keep standing, keep standing! Eyes simply glazed over! Just like that!”

And if you want to watch the video of her stumping for hubby, click HERE. (Thanks True Ukraine)

Of course, everyone's heard the great Orange Revolution theme song: Razom Nas Bahato. There's another tune worth catching: Song for Our Ukraine, Song for Yushchenko. It's from a band of Brits, The Ukes. Their description: Rally/Party song for Ukrainian Democracy & President Yushchenko. My description: Gets you dancing and chanting "Ukraiino" and "Yuschenko!" Give it a listen and give the boys a "hot" vote in the website's poll.