'The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power' by Jeff Sharlet

[Magda Hassan]

This is a great book and Jeff Sharlet is a great writer. Insightful. Sharp. A traveler into a secret society. He bring a story we should learn from most carefully. Jeff wrote an article some years ago in Harpers magazine http://harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525. It is from this article that this book came about.

Through serendipitous circumstances Jeff was able to become part of The Family. To live with them, pray with them, build networks with them. Then he wrote about them. Shortly after leaving them he discovered that The Family had dumped 600 boxes at the Billy Graham centre archives in Illinois. So he moved there, got an apartment and spent every day going through this archive, photocopying as much as he could get as quickly as he could because he just knew they would eventually restrict the archive. And they did.

While the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells of the world take our attention others have been quietly and silently working behind the scenes. Reaching into the highest levels of power in every institution in the US and internationally. The Family have chosen themselves to be the chosen ones believing that God has broken his covenant with the Jews and formed one with them. The Family has been around since the 1930's. Started in the US by a Norweigian immigrant who heard God 'speak' to him The Family is now led by Doug Coe.

Labor disputes are seen as an affront to God. The workers must submit to the bosses who God has chosen to lead. In its early years Hitler and other fascists were much admired by The Family and other elites for their organisational efficiency. They have befriended almost every criminal, shyster, exterminator and dictator in the world these last 70 years. They still do. Democracy is also an affront to God. God chooses the elite to lead. Not the masses to be in charge of their own lives. Democracy has run its course.

Why haven't we heard of them? They themselves wish it that way. All the easier to infiltrate, indoctrinate and subordinate. When Jeff wrote this book members of The Family were not upset by what he wrote but that he wrote at all. It was seen as a betrayal but they do not dispute his truth. But another reason we haven't heard of them is the media and its supine reverence for authority and the unquestioning role of religious ideas in public life in the US.

It was, however, noticed by some in the media.

Jeff says "In 1974 Playboy has a long investigative piece that shows money moving around in fishy ways. Nothing happens. Dan Rather challenges Nixon's press secretary about why Chuck Colson, the Nixon dirty-trickster who'd been given the boot, was still showing up at the White House? Press secretary says, "He's there for prayer meetings." But then no follow-up. So this goes on every so many years. And in the '90s a Florida paper noted that Taiwan was forking over big chunks of change in order to get good seats at the National Prayer Practice because they understood this was a backdoor into American power. In 2002, The Los Angeles Times did a year-long investigation. Should have been a huge follow-up. Nothing."

Just some of the members of The Family include Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Like the Mafia which they resemble in many ways its members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities. It is a multi national business has a multi million dollar income and pays no tax. G.W. Bush is said to be one. They have their finger on the red button and they hear voices from God.

[Magda Hassan]

Posting this here as I came across it tonight and it has some very interesting stuff in it and it predates Jeff Sharlet's publication of his book 'The Family' and his recent publicity about that organisation.

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From: [Wayne Madsen]
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:27:11 EST

Subject: End of Year Update on Investigation

To: [JamBoi]

Here is an update of where the investigation is heading -- many strings must be tied together but a clearer picture of how this Election Fraud 04 was done is beginning to emerge. The follow the money trail is leading to some interesting places. (JamBoi edit note. There's a picture here -- I'll have to figure out if I can load it somehow -- )

Kay Stephenson, CEO of Datamaxx (she looks like her, but it's not Laura Bush)
She is close to both Jeb Bush and Colin Powell. Powell has visited her a number of times in Tallahassee.
Before Datamaxx was formed, its contracts were about to go to Seisint, a Tampa company allegedly tied to mob money. It operates Accurint, and was recently bought out by Lexis.
Interesting note is that Datamaxx uses Accurint for its database. Datamaxx has made a killing in law enforcement/homeland security contracts after 911.
-- Now people will wonder what this has to do with the election fraud. Here it is in a nutshell. These people, along with ChoicePoint of Dallas, TX, are personal data miners. And Datamaxx is tied to Ohio law enforcement data bases and communications.
Where did the Katherine Harris get the info to throw all those African American voters off the rolls in 2000 in Florida? Public and commercial database records, everything from DMV files to education and insurance records. They red lined poor African American and working class white districts just like credit card and mortgage companies do. And how did they know where to put only 2 voting machines in polling places in Ohio for use by over 3000 voters? Same process. They red lined those districts and knew where to put the Election Day squeeze on.
Fundie churches with names like the Abundant Love Tabernacle and Fellowship Worship Center were great places to pull off this fraud with Blackwell's election officials conspiring with local fundie preachers. (Just a thought, if we have separation of church and state in this country, why the hell do we permit voting to take place in churches, especially where the preachers and lay leaders are corrupt and in on the fix?) Al Gore visited a Buddhist temple in California once and the right wing wanted him impeached!!
Datamaxx has Homeland Security contracts in Ohio, Florida, Iowa and West Virginia. In Ohio, they can send out homeland security alerts using computer networks and wireless PDAs. Guess what? All were swing states and in Warren County, Ohio an unofficial "threat" was "transmitted" to Election Board HQ on Nov. 2. FBI and police said it wasn't them. Well, maybe it was Datamaxx using their retired FBI agents and cops (who were in cahoots with the fundies, Rapps of Triad, O'Dell at Diebold, Ahmanson and McCarthy Group of ES&S, and Blackwell and Taft GOP political machines in Columbus).
As for Seisint, where do they do most of their work? Boca Raton, Florida and Orlando, Florida. Boca is in good old Palm Beach County, where absentee ballots turned up missing before election day. And Orlando -- home of good ole Rep. Tom Feeney, chief touch screen vote rigging suspect and Yang lobbyist, as well as FL Secretary of State Glenda Hood (fitting name), former Mayor of Orlando. And Seisint's new corporate parent is based where? Lexis-Nexis is in Dayton, OHIO.
You see, the more the Bushes fire additional government insiders, the more stuff is leaked to me about this election fraud. This smoking gun is just a bit different than 2000. Instead of disenfranchising over 90,000 black voters in FL by calling them "felons" (and using ChoicePoint data base to do it), this time, the election voting machine companies (all run by extreme right-wing [Dominionist], "End Timers") conspired with the homeland security and other database firms -- all conveniently located in FL, OH, and TX -- to rig the vote.


Researchers should keep focusing on Yang, Seisint, Datamaxx, Accurint, Lexis-Nexis, Triad Government Systems, Diebold, Global Election System, Hart InterCivic, DBT Online and ChoicePoint.
The jury is still out on Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS) of Dallas, but a certain Stephen Goldsmith, former GOP Mayor of Indianapolis, may be into some dirty business there involving red lining districts with high college student voting population (Indiana, home of several large universities, may have had its vote "hacked" as well). Gary Webb was investigating ACS and contract fraud in CA when he committed suicide on Dec. 10.
We also know that Florida DOT investigator Ray Lemme committed suicide in 2003 when he was investigating fraud involving Yang and the FL state government. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Executive Director John Millis committed suicide in 2000 when he was investigating CIA ties toLatin American drug cartels, links that involved the Bush family. State Dept. Iraq intelligence analyst John Kokal committed suicide in late 2003 after he questioned the attack on Iraq. Former CIA official Dr Gus Weiss committed suicide after he, too, questioned the attack on Iraq in late 2003. Dr David Kelly of Britain's MOD committed suicide after he questioned the validity of Iraq WMD reports. Danny Casolaro committed suicide in 1991 after he investigated Bush ties to weapons smuggling and drug deals. Paul Wilcher, a friend of Sarah McClendon, died in his apartment after he picked up on some of Casolaro's research. Charles Ruff and HPSCI's ranking member Julian Dixon dropped dead only weeks apart after being briefed by Millis on CIA-Bush-drug connection.
What was Gary Condit, also of HPSCI, briefed on by Millis? What did Condit tell his friend Chandra Levy, an intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Or what did he ask her to find out for him through her Bureau contacts? John F Kennedy Jr was working on a Bush-CIA-covert ops story for his George Magazine when his plane crashed. And what did poor Lori Klausutis discover before her body was discovered in Jan. 2001 in the FL office of GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough (the MSNBC colleague of someone who has made it his cause to rip apart my reporting on this election story)? Cliff Baxter, chief Enron witness for the govt. shot himself before he testified. John Tower had the goods on the Bushes, but his commuter plane crashed and killed him, his daughter and several other passengers. Paul Wellstone and his family and staff? Mel Carnahan? Bush biographer JH Hatfield? Athan Gibbs, the founder of TruVote International, the only clean election machine company. And the list goes on and on. At least those who are merely being fired -- the latest being the Pentagon's Jack Shaw, are getting the easier "treatment" from the Bush Mafia.
There were also anomalous Governor's Elections in Washington and Puerto Rico, where Democrats, expected to win handily, just squeaked through by a fraction of a percent. This is an indication of vote fixing a la FL in 2000 and Ohio, Iowa, NM in 2004. Elections that close with millions of people voting have never happened before in our nation's history.
Not only this last election but several previous ones were "fixed" by a dangerous group of right-wing ["Dominionists"] who dominate the election machine industry and various GOP Secretary of State and congressional offices.
They (known as "The Fellowship" ) have been planning this coup for a very long time but now that their "man" is in the White House they are not about to leave through a fair electoral process.
The Fellowship has some very unsavory founders -- all pro-Nazis: Abraham Vereide, Frank Buchman, and Gustav Gedat, J. Edgar Hoover and James Jesus Angleton were close to the Fellowship.
The use of prison ex-cons like Marion "JR" Horn in KY, John Elder and Jeffrey Dean in WA, and others in the financing and carrying out of the rigging, was mostly arranged through Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, an organization that has carte blanche access to anyone deemed of value, epecially computer programmers, after their incarceration and upon their release, especially if they promise service in return for parole.
It also helps that the Fellowship has established strong links to corrupt African governments via fundie missionaries. Guess who's largely behind the Nigerian scams to secretly move dirty oil money from oil-rich Nigeria (and Equatorial Guinea and Angola) into the funding corrupt election manipulators and Enron/Halliburton/AES scams? Some of those "419 emails" have been discovered by US intelligence to contain coded instructions to the money launderers and financial manipulators in the States and in off shore bank havens like the Bahamas and Tortola. The Nigerian scammers operate from the southern Christian south of the country (Lagos and the Niger River Delta) and are in league with fundie Church missions there and in the States.
The Fellowship is now trying to take over government boards in my county of Arlington, VA and are making a major power play in Annapolis, MD. Tom Feeney, Ashcroft, DeLay, Bush (Dubya and Jeb), Cheney, Sean O'Keefe, Condi Rice, John Bolton, Ed Meese, [Charles] Colson, Brownback, Ralph Reed, Frank Wolf, Ernie Fletcher, Katherine Harris, [Newt] Gingrich, JC Watts, Burr, Jindal, Lamar Smith, Zach Wamp, Scalia, Ensign, Kyl, [Kenneth]Blackwell, Bob Ehrlich, Karl Rove, Jack Kemp, James Baker, Clarence Thomas, Tom Coburn, Asa and Tim Hutchinson, Gens. Boykin and Myers, DeMint, Curt Weldon, Grover Norquist, George Allen, [Rick] Santorum, are all in this group. The late Lee Atwater was close to this group.
The Fellowship, which has strong links to the "Rev." Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, operates in cells and not only takes over governments but also local church congregations to further their goals. Two local congegations taken over by the Fellowship are Falls Church Episcopal and Cherrydale Baptist. They also maintain the private Riverdell School, another way to brainwash young children who are not already being brainwashed by home schooling.
The Prime Minister of Norway has just been outed as a member of this group. In fact, most of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" nations' leaders are members of The Fellowship, e.g., Tonga, Macedonia, Palau, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Solomon Islands, Uganda, Rwanda, Guatemala, El Salvador, Denmark, Romania, Iceland, Fiji, Georgia, Colombia, possibly also Howard of Australia and Blair of Britain.
The Fellowship believes that ANYTHING is permitted in order to bring about a 1000-yr Kingdom of Christ on Earth, and that includes stealing elections and even murder.
Some of the money used by the Fellowship to obtain real estate and maintain their group came from Saudi Arabia through lucrative defense contracts and pass throughs like the Islamic Institute.
There are links between the Fellowship and other northern Virginia groups In their group homes in Arlington it is obvious they keep the troubled teens of GOP big businessmen and politicians out of sight through a combination of intensive Bible study and "drug treatement." Noelle Bush may have been one of their "Guests/Victims." There should be a focus on Infinity Software of Tallahassee, the place Noelle was put to work when she was busted for trying to illegally obtain prescription drugs in 2002. The Arlington VA Fellowship homes caused a stir in 2003 when one young resident broke into 4 homes in the neighborhood to steal prescription drugs. What is it that these young men and women are afraid of by doing anything to get their hands on Xanax and Valium? One of my neighbors said the teens appear to be unusually "expressionless" for people their age.
One of the really unplesant things about the Fellowship is that they have an international "Youth Corps," so these people don't appear to want to go out of business any time soon. This Youth Corps has a presence in almost every country, from Bhutan to Zambia and Brazil to Albania.
Infinity, like Datamaxx, has contracts with the FL Dept. of Law Enforcement and Dept of Education. FL state auditors chastised Gov. Jeb Bush and his administration for paying Infinity $7.5 million to set up a Web site and do another, much smaller, job in a no-bid contract. Infinity's owner, Tom Lynch, is a big Bush supporter who gave money to the governor's reelection campaign - $500 to Bush in 2002 and $1,000 to the Republican Party in 2001. Also seems that Infinity's contract had a nice little cut out for another company -- Ignite! of Houston, TX -- headed by Bush's brother Neil (of Silverado S&L criminal infamy).
I am getting great support from a number of people inside and outside the government who believe this group must be "outed" and dealt with as any other dangerous cult would be. These are not Jim Jones' followers or Marshall Applewhite's Heavens' Gate people we're talking about. These Fellowship people want to take us all with them. The earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean is just what these people are waiting for -- the more death and destruction the better as far as they are concerned. I suggest we all work together and not against one another to expose these people. Those who hide behind the veil of "non-partisanship" should just keep quiet if they are not going to join the effort. We all have enough to do without incessant carping from those who believe it is wiser to sit on the sidelines. A re-read of William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" may be in order for those who believe neutrality and non-partisanship is the better course. As the son of a WW II refugee from the Nazis, I can tell you that neutrality in times such as these just does not work and is definitely not advised.
Wayne Madsen
31 Dec 04
Let's hope 05 brings us more answers and some indictments of these bad actors!

[Helen Reyes]

What Atta and Marwan were arguing about offers clues to what was going through their heads, and strangely, although the terrorist pilots have been universally labeled "Islamic fundamentalists," what they were pounding the table over wasn't an argument about fine points in the Koran...

They were arguing about money.

"The big guy was pounding his fist on the table, saying ‘We’re talking $200,000! We’ve got to answer to the Family!" recalls Renee Adorna, who with her husband Tom own and manage the restaurant.

"I thought they were Mafia, and tried to stay away from their table."

"There were three of them, and they all looked of the Egyptian persuasion," she continued. "Dark skin, dark hair. They were dressed in Florida-type shirts, you know, the silk with the pattern. And they were all wearing lots of jewelry… Lots of jewelry."

"And I could have sworn that the one guy was wearing a cross, you know, the big gaudy gold cross on the chest. But I’m not sure now. But I know he had a big watch on," Renee says.

Says Waitress of Terror Pilots: "I Thought They Were Mafia!"
http://www.madcowprod.com/issue20.html

re: "Fellowship" Eastern European leaders mentioned by wayne madsen: Valdas Adamkus of Chicago/Kaunas fought under Nazi command, worked for a Catholic youth organization in occupied Germany, relocated to America where he worked in military intelligence, was appointed by Nixon to Nixon's EPA and served as an envoy to Poland and USSR under Nixon, returned to Lithuania and ran for president in 1998 despite the fact he did not meet residency requirements (for which other canidacies were rejected), distinguished his presidency by trying to instill a tradition of annual prayer breakfast meetings, and when he failed to win a second term, the winner, rolandas paksas, was removed in a people power color revolution type coup (with colin powell whispering in the ear of the foreign minister, a deep-cover KGB agent, just to make sure they knew how things were supposed to turn out), after which adamkus resumed the presidency. supported invasions of and/or sent troops to iraq and afghanistan, was in DC on 911 to meet bush jr.

[Dawn Meredith]

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow did a several night expose of "The Family" a few weeks ago. One would have thought that other media outlets would have then picked up on these incredible revelations of Senate and Congress members who admit that they have no regard for the law, admire Hitler, believe they can act contrary to the law because they are "Chosen by God".
This stuff makes Watergage abuses look like Sunday School.
Alas, Rachel was the only one to air this filthy laundry.

Dawn

[Magda Hassan]

[quote=Helen Reyes][QUOTE]


re: "Fellowship" Eastern European leaders mentioned by wayne madsen: Valdas Adamkus of Chicago/Kaunas fought under Nazi command, worked for a Catholic youth organization in occupied Germany, relocated to America where he worked in military intelligence, was appointed by Nixon to Nixon's EPA and served as an envoy to Poland and USSR under Nixon, returned to Lithuania and ran for president in 1996 despite the fact he did not meet residency requirements (for which other canidacies were rejected), distinguished his presidency by trying to instill a tradition of annual prayer breakfast meetings, and when he failed to win a second term, the winner, rolandas paksas, was removed in a people power color revolution type coup (with colin powell whispering in the ear of the foreign minister, a deep-cover KGB agent, just to make sure they knew how things were supposed to turn out), after which adamkus resumed the presidency. supported invasions of and/or sent troops to iraq and afghanistan, was in DC on 911 to meet bush jr.[/QUOTE]

Very interesting Helen. I don't get too much news down my way about the finer details of Lithuanian politics so this is all new to me. The Baltic states look like they are all US/NATO colonies now for the most part at least. The US has nurtured the extreme right and fascisitic elements since the post war and now they have been reinserted into power and picking up where they left off. Not too much remembering and lots of forgetting.

[Helen Reyes]

Alex Jones interviewed the author about a month ago. It's still on the archive page somewhere. I didn't catch much useful information from the interview.

The Baltics are a weird mix. The president of Latvia was for years this Canadian Latvian woman who seemed to be a foundation creature. The leadership structures are mostly filled with Soviet bureaucrats and assets. Then you have the right wing nationalists who think they engineered independence, and their sympathies lie with those brave Nazi collaborators who tried to save the country from Bolshevism in 1941 by killing civilian women and children en masse. This leads to strange contradictions such as Riga, Latvia outright banning any gay pride march, but allowing SS "veterans" to march annually. To be fair Latvia stopped giving official sanction to the SS marches, and did allow a gay pride march once now, after EU accession, but the counter-demonstration against the gays was much larger. And the heiress apparent to Adamkus in Lithuania seems to be a lesbian in hiding, former EU commissioner, former Social Democrat (=Communist) apparatchik etc. Does that mean gays can now march in Vilnius? Very doubtful. Unpolitic. It's not safe for the President to come out, but it didn't matter Adamkus was a Nazi. It probably helped him.

As for the Hopsicker article I quoted above that seems to refer to the 911 "hijackers" and the Family, I can't imagine why two Arabic native speakers would heatedly argue about money iin public in English, unless they wanted everyone to overhear.

[Peter Lemkin]

I had a thread on this here http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...an+fascism
You might want to append them....or just consult either.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The president of Latvia was for years this Canadian Latvian woman who seemed to be a foundation creature.

The following may have no significance whatsoever.

However, I would interested in learning more of the former Latvian president's work on experimental psychology and memory, conducted at McGill University, at a crucial time in that institution's history.

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was born Vaira Vīķe on 1 December 1937 in Riga, Latvia. At the end of 1944, as Soviet occupation of Latvia begun, Vīķe's parents escaped to Nazi Germany. There she received her first education in Latvian primary school at refugee camp in Lübeck, Germany.

Upon graduation, Vīķe became a clinical psychologist at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital in late 1960. She left in 1961 to resume her education at the McGill University in Montreal while also lecturing part-time at Concordia University. She earned her PhD in experimental psychology, graduating from the university in 1965.

Donald Ewen Cameron (1901-1967) was a Scottish-American psychiatrist. Born in Bridge of Allan, he graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1924.

Cameron lived and worked in Albany, New York, and was involved in experiments in Canada for Project MKULTRA, a United States based CIA-directed mind control program which eventually led to the publication of the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual.

Cameron was the author of the psychic driving concept which the CIA found particularly interesting. In it he described his theory on correcting madness, which consisted of erasing existing memories and rebuilding the psyche completely. After being recruited by the CIA, he commuted to Montreal every week to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of the McGill University, and was paid $69,000 from 1957 to 1964 to carry out MKULTRA experiments there.

In 1965, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga took the post of Professor of Psychology at the University of Montreal where she taught psychopharmacology, psycholinguistics, scientific theories, experimental methods, language and cognitive processes (in French). Whilst working at the University, Vīķe-Freiberga also researched memory processes and language as well as producing several papers on the problems and influences of drugs on the mind. She became a well-known figure on the political speaking circuit and often spoke on radio, TV or in schools in English, French and Latvian. Vīķe served on many councils and organisations in high positions. These include:

Member of the Post-doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (1975–78)
Member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Federation of Canada (1977–82). She served as President from 1980 to 1981.
Member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Psychological Association (1976–82). She was President from 1980 to 1981.
Appointed Canadian member and Chair of the Special Panel on Human Factors of the NATO Scientific programme in Brussels (1978–81)
Member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities (1980–82)
Member and president of organising committees of various national and international symposia and conferences (1982–86)
Member of the Consultative committee on Mental Health Research, Health and Welfare Canada (1983–86)
Member of the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (1982–88). She was President from 1984 to 1986.
Member of the Science Council of Canada (1980–83). She appointed Vice-President in 1984 by the Governor-General of Canada and served in the position until 1989.
In 1994, she was appointed a Member of Council and later President of the Academy of the Royal Society of Canada. She ceased all activity with this organisation in 1999. She was also a Member of the Killam Research Fellowships and Prizes Selection Committee from 1995-1998. Vīķe-Freiberga served on the Canadian governmental consultative committee on the disposal of nuclear waste in 1996 but continued to teach at the University of Montreal. In June 1998, she was made a Professor Emerita and took this opportunity to return to Latvia.

[Magda Hassan]

Well spotted Jan!

[Helen Reyes]

I would interested in learning more of the former Latvian president's work on experimental psychology and memory, conducted at McGill University, at a crucial time in that institution's history.

Wow. I guess I heard about McGill in both cases but didn't make the connexion. It's a big university I guess, so who knows. I remember the Economist magazine did a one page feature on Freiburg when she was made Latvian president, about how cool she is etc. It mentioned her doctoral thesis topic I think. As I remember it, it was something about psychology and mythology, but this was a long time ago. I also happened to see her once at some function. Elderly, fake smile, would probably feel at ease rubbing elbows with European royalty but doesn't mind slumming it up with Eastern Europeans for the time being. An impression.

About half of Latvia speaks Russian, and in Riga more than that, and not Latvian. Latvians speak Russia too of course. Anyway, in Riga the Russians refuse to speak Latvian and the Latvians refuse to speak Russian, pretty much. There are a lot of stateless Russians in Latvia, the independent state that emerged in 1991 considered the Russians illegal immigrants. Estonia pretty much adopted the same policy. That's why the Arctic Sea story features 4 or more stateless hijackers. So Vaira Vike Freiburg during one of her campaigns said she was going to learn Russian. I guess she tried and failed, or at least gave up on the idea pretty soon; she never learned Russian.