IRON FILE 2011 NOV. 26: The Troubling Case of Saif Gadhafi, Misgovernment & Resistance/NATO’s expanding horizons, Military action against Syria?/Freedom of Speech Myth/The Futility of Appeasement/Pakistan, Palestine, Women/The Cuban 5, Vieques,
Enrique Ferro
EVER SINCE THE ICC PROSECUTOR CLAIMED MUAMMAR GADDAFI HAD TAKEN PART TO US CLINTON/RICE INVENTED VIAGRA RAPES I GAVE HIM THE TITLE OF "FOOL" AND I ALWAYS CALL HIM "OCAMPO THE FOOL". WELL THEN, FROM NOW ON I'LL SAY THAT HE IS A PIG AND A FOOL! (Disclaimer: Pigs shouldn't feel concerned, as they are after all good people, certainly far better than humans such as Ocampo the Pig and the Fool!!!)
The Troubling Case of Saif Gadhafi
A CounterPunch Exclusive
Zintan, Libya
Despite the claims of the National Transitional Council of Libya (NTC) that Saif al Islam Gadhafi, the apprehended subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant that ordered his transport to The Hague, is in a secure hidden location near Zintan, Libya, a town approximately 85 miles southwest of Tripoli, this is not the case.
Neither are the assurances by Steven Anderson, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who on 11/23/11 announced that Saif al-Islam’s injuries had been “taken care of,” nor his profuse assurances that Saif is in good health. In point of fact, following the ICRC assurances, the Ukrainian-born Doctor Andrei Murakhovsky who lives in Zintan reported that “Saif’s wound is covered with gangrenous tissue and necrotic tissue.” He added that “This wound is not in good condition and requires amputation. His index finger has been ripped off at the level of the middle phalange (finger bone), the bones are all shattered. It’s the same thing with the thumb of that hand.” Dr. Murakhovsky told the Reuters news service.
The morning of 11/24/11, Libyan NTC Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib still insisted that “Saif al-Islam is receiving the best possible treatment, but for now he is not in the hands of the provisional central government and we don’t know where he is.”
Regarding Saif al Islam’s “secure and hidden location”, most people in the village of Zintan know where he is being held, as does this observer who visited a motley group of B-western movie types who are currently guarding and “protecting” Saif.
Although armed with a Power of Attorney from one of Saif’s family members to visit him, the group refused my request to visit Saif with the excuse that they had to consult their commander who was not expected to return for a few days since he was now the new NTC Libyan Defense Minister.
On the question of Saif’s health, there is increasing concern also because his guards claim they cannot take him to Zintan’s only hospital because someone would likely kill him in order to collect on the substantial rumored Qatar/NATO offered cash reward for whoever assassinates him thus presumably helping “the new Libya” and its allies avoid a messy trial.
Meanwhile, after what he claims in a change of heart, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, now professes that Libya, not The Hague, is the best place after all for Saif al Islam and his trial. Since its establishment by the United Nations in 2002, the ICC has had just one Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. To the reported expressed relief of many international defense lawyers, several ICC staff and ICC judges, plus legal commentators familiar with his prosecutorial work, the ICC will have his successor chosen next month in New York. This coming weekend in New York, the legal defense organization, Avocats Sans Frontiers (ASF, ie Lawyers Without Borders) will meet in order to try to agree on a successor to propose to the 18 ICC Judges who will decide.
Prosecutor Ocampo’s visit this week to Libya caused some raised eyebrows among the groups noted above when he suddenly announced that the ICC would not invoke its UN Security Council-granted power and proceed with Case # ICC 01/11. This case was opened at the ICC on March 3, 2011, having been assigned to the ICC by the UN Security Council following the preceding month’s uprising in Benghazi, Libya.
Speculation among some in The Hague, in Libya and from ASF lawyers is that knowing that he would not be re-elected for another term as ICC Prosecutor, due to among other reasons he has not won one case during his 9 year term, has repeatedly incurred the wrath of ICC judges for bringing cases which they ruled lacked sufficient evidence and his penchant for self-aggrandizing publicity and making inaccurate claims about cases and defendants that border on judicial misconduct, Ocampo decided to switch horses.
One egregious example of his making false representations is the current ICC case involving Saif al-Islam Gadhafi in which Ocampo made several inaccurate headline-grabbing statements over the past several weeks claiming to be negotiating “indirectly” with Saif al Islam to give himself up to the ICC. Saif has emphatically denied Ocampo’s grandstanding claims and presumably, were Ocampo to attempt to personally prosecute his case Saif’s legal team would immediately file a motion to replace Ocampo for cause, as provided by ICC rules.
Given these problems, Ocampo, according to someone who accompanied him during his visit this week to Libya, decided to accept a lucrative offer from the NTC to advise the oil-rich country on setting up a legal system to try Saif al Islam and others.
The assurances by Moreno-Ocampo, NATO officials and American UN Ambassador Susan Rice that Libya is currently fully capable of currently handling trials of former regime loyalists are nonsense. Rice exhibited ignorance and surprise here last weekend when she claimed not to know that Libya had the death penalty and would apply the death penalty in the ICC case if given the chance. The Libyan public’s apparent preference is for the death penalty by hanging in the two Libya ICC cases. This was the case with Rwanda, which is one reason the Ruanda Tribunal did not allow the government of Rwanda to conduct certain trials even though that government assured the UN it would not actually carry out a death penalty sentence. Libya has offered no such assurances to the ICC against the use of the death penalty nor has it submitted a legal challenge to ICC jurisdiction over the Saif al Islam or Abdullah Sanussi cases, as the Rome Statute requires.
Despite switching jobs, Ocampo has not lost interest in prosecuting the Saif al Islam case which he views as his best chance of finally winning at least an ICC related case, but not at The Hague where there is the possibility that Saif could be convicted, given Court rules of procedure and ICC legal staff resources that would actually assist an accused in presenting his defense before the court. Ocampo is said to be betting on gaining a victory in Saif’s high profile case by working with the NATO-created NTC government in Libya and running the prosecution as a behind the scenes “consultant” and helping Libya’s NTC keep the UN and ICC at bay while allowing the NTC to try both Saif’s case and that of Abdullah Sanussi if and when the latter is proven to have been captured. Ocampo is said to relish the job of becoming the “Father of Libya’s new legal system.” Ocampo is now explaining that it was never his role “to tell Libyan officials how to hold a fair trial and the standard of the ICC is that it has to be a judicial process that is not organized to shield the suspect and I respect that it’s important for the cases to be tried in Libya.” He then added, “There are so many different traditions, it is difficult to say what is fair.”
No sooner had the surprising news and Ocampo’s sudden vagueness about what constitutes a fair trial begun to ricochet around the Internet than this observer received an email from an international criminal lawyer whose office is two blocks from the Carl Moultrie Courthouse in Washington, DC. The American lawyer was appalled: “Paying Ocampo as a consultant for the new Libyan government on criminal trial procedures is a ridiculous thought/idea. He has no idea of fair trial rights and has not achieved a conviction in his nearly 9 years at the ICC.”
Nor were the ICC judges thrilled at the perceived betrayal. The ICC quickly fired off a reminder to Ocampo, to the new Libyan government and the media that it is the ICC judges, and not the ICC Prosecutor, who will decide whether a case will be held in The Hague or if the country where the alleged crimes occurred and only they will decide if Libya has the ability to conduct a fair trial. The ICC is signaling that the Ocampo-generated international headlines to the contrary notwithstanding, the issue of trial venue in Libya has not settled in ICC case # 01/11.
Prosecutor Ocampo knows well that once the ICC decides to open an investigation of a case, national courts may not investigate that case and are relieved from their obligation to do so. In addition, since the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against Libyan defendants, all states – including Libya – are obliged to cooperate fully with the Court. Following the public dressing down from The Hague, Ocampo has now retreated a bit and told CNN on 11/23/11 that: “ The only condition is the new Libyan government has to present their position to the International Criminal Court judges and the judges will decide if the case can be prosecuted in Libya. Libya will present evidence to ICC judges that the country can hold the trial, and the judges will decide if they are satisfied,” Ocampo explained.
The ICC, if it takes up the question as expected, should rule in the developing Saif al Islam case, precisely as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found in ruling against that country’s request for trial jurisdiction, although like Libya today, Rwanda claimed to have “modern functioning court system.” The reason is that an initial review of Libya’s criminal judicial system and discussion with Libyan criminal defense lawyers as well as with international criminal defense lawyers with years of experience in international tribunals’ practice, shows that it is very clear that persons accused of serious crimes in Libya currently do not have even the most minimal judicial rights that are required by international norms. Today Libya defendants do not enjoy adequate legal representation, financial support for indigent accused, travel and investigation support for defense teams, security for defense teams. Libya’s central and local governments place impediments curtailing defense teams in the discharge of their functions.
An admittedly cursory inquiry in Libya among lawyers here also reveal nonexistent or inadequate accommodation and transport arrangements for witness, as well as a lack of arrangements for protection of witnesses before, during and after testifying in court. In addition, the NTC is engaging in a pattern of threatening potential witnesses preparing to testify against NATO in another case. Similarly the NTC is failing to provide safe and secure travel for Libyan witnesses living abroad, including in Algeria, Tunisia, Mali, Niger, and Egypt. Interviews with Libyan lawyers and officials as well as visits to detention facilities in Libya reveal that conditions are not in compliance with international standards and that there is widespread torture of prisoners in Libya and threats against the families of prisoners.
Franklin Lamb is reachable c/o fpl...@gmail.com
Thousands imprisoned in Libya without due legal process - UN
Libya`s former rebels are holding about 7,000 people in prison without due legal process, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported on Wednesday. The UN chief’s report said that the rights of many of those imprisoned are being severely violated. He referred to reports of detainees being tortured, of women held under male supervision without female guards, and children being detained alongside adults. Many people have been targeted because of their skin color. Ban pointed out that most courts in Libya are currently "not fully operational" due to lack of security and absenteeism by judges and administrative staff. He urged Libyans to respect human rights and refrain from revenge.
http://rt.com/news/line/2011-11-24/#id22453
Libya leaders supported by "money, arms, PR"- ex-premier
|
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - One of the most senior figures in Libya's outgoing government has denounced its leaders as an unelected elite, supported by "money, arms and PR," and warned that 90 percent of Libya is politically voiceless.
Outgoing acting Prime Minister Ali Tarhouni's comments were the strongest criticism to date by a senior politician of the country's new rulers, who led the rebellion that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule and have been in charge since his fall.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) also had a say in Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib's provisional government line-up, which was announced on Tuesday and mandated to steer the country towards democracy.
"The voices that we see now are the voices of the elite, the voices of the NTC who are not elected and the voices of other people who are supported by the outside by money, arms and PR," Tarhouni said on Thursday, hours after a new cabinet was formed.
"It's about time we heard the true voices of the masses ... we need to start rebuilding this democratic constitutional movement," he told a news conference.
Tarhouni was in charge of the oil and finance portfolios in Libya's outgoing transitional government and briefly served as acting prime minister until Thursday, when a new cabinet was sworn in.
Having been a frontrunner for a post as finance minister in Keib's cabinet until the eleventh hour, Tarhouni said he had been asked to join but declined due to the challenges of the transitional period and because he wanted to speak freely.
"I see danger for the sovereignty of Libya. I see a threat for the wealth of the Libyan people," Tarhouni told reporters, without elaborating.
"I see the economic issues as a major challenge," he added.
"FAILED MISERABLY"
Tarhouni said that NTC had "failed miserably" in melding the myriad armed militias that still roam the country into an official national army.
Listing the many security and economic challenges that lie ahead for a nascent government as the country emerges from a bloody civil war, he said the safety of oil installations was a critical issue.
"My hope that the new government will take this issue seriously," he said.
However, Tarhouni repeatedly wished the new line up "success" and said "they should be given a chance."
On Tuesday, the NTC named a cabinet favouring appointees who will soothe rivalries between regional factions, but specific groups, including the Amazigh, or Berber, have boycotted the new government complaining of the lack of representation.
(Editing by Sophie Hares)
Signs of resistance to NATO-installed government in Libya
Chaos reigns, human rights violations abound
One month after the official “liberation” of Libya was declared, the authority of the National Transition Council remains tenuous at best and the country remains in a state of chaos. There have been signs of renewed resistance and intense factional struggles within the forces that comprise the NTC.
Resentment against rebel militias continues to build across the country. Libyans are angered over the mob-like rule imposed by NTC militias that regularly loot homes and businesses. At military checkpoints, rebels arrest anyone who cannot produce proper identification.
Conditions in the prisons run by the NTC are inhumane, according to reports from international agencies. The U.N. human rights office has found evidence of torture in the prisons, where NTC fighters take revenge on anyone they suspect of supporting the resistance.
A leaked report by Ban ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, indicates that some 7,000 detainees are currently being held in NTC jails with "no access to due process." The Independent broke the story on Nov. 24. The report affirms that torture in the facilities is widespread. A large number of the prisoners are dark-skinned sub-Sarahan Africans, and there are cases where these prisoners are singled out because of their skin color. Women and children are also among those held. (The Independent, Nov. 24)
The life of Dr. Abuzaid Omar Dorda, once Libya’s prime minister and permanent representative to the U.N. under Gaddafi, has been in grave danger since his capture on Sept. 11. Prison guards broke both of his legs during an attempt on his life, which also caused internal bleeding. He remains untreated from those injuries.
Meanwhile, there are factional struggles erupting between the multitude of brigades that comprise the NTC military forces. On Nov. 12, quarreling units exchanged gunfire 15 miles outside of Tripoli, sending panic-stricken residents running from their homes. There is also evidence that Al-Qaeda forces are among those who have been fighting alongside NATO, as the Al-Qaeda flag was hoisted earlier this month above the Benghazi courthouse that was used as rebel headquarters throughout the year.
Signs of renewed resistance
Just 90 miles south of Tripoli in Bani Walid, residents remain defiant to the new government. In the town’s main hospital, which is under the control of a former NTC fighter, a portrait of Gaddafi lies at the floor of the entrance. The majority of the hospital’s visitors walk around the portrait, so as not to disrespect the former leader.
One NTC fighter told Reuters that "There are shootouts every day with Gaddafi loyalists.” (Reuters, Oct. 26) There have been reports that Warfalla tribe members were hoisting the green flags that symbolize the resistance and marching on Nov. 16. Anti-Gaddafi graffiti in the town has been covered up and painted over with warnings of resistance, including the slogan “the Warfalla tribe hasn’t used its power yet.” Nearly one-sixth of the Libyan population belongs to the Warfalla.
On Nov. 23 there were armed clashes between NTC troops and the Green Resistance in Bani Walid. Reports indicate that 7 people died, most of whom were NTC fighters.
Throughout the west, from Tripoli to Al-Zawiya, there have been clashes between the resistance and NATO forces. On Nov. 11, the resistance launched an offensive against what is known as Camp 27. During the fighting, resistance forces managed to free 300 prisoners. There has even been fighting in the rebel stronghold of Misrata.
Resistance groups have been formally organizing in the Sahel region in the south and have officially formed the Libyan Liberation Front. The region stretches across the borders of Niger, Chad, Sudan and provides easy access to Mali. There are reports that LLF is gathering weapons and providing training in the region. (Counterpunch, Nov. 4-6)
The LLF will likely find sympathy amongst the countries bordering the Sahel. In a recent soccer game between Tunisia and Algeria, the players and fans took a moment of silence to honor Muammar Gaddafi. During the game, fans held up a large composite photo of Gaddafi.
In addition to organizing militarily, the LLF is organizing formal political opposition to the NTC. They plan on running in the promised elections next summer.
Imperialists capture Saif al Islam Gaddafi
On Nov. 19, NTC forces announced that they had captured Saif al-Islam Gaddafi outside of Sabha and Ubari. The verification of his capture by video and cell phone footage came as a surprise, as the NTC had previously reported that they had captured him numerous times and killed him once.
When the plane transporting Saif al-Islam landed in Zintan, an angry crowd of resistance supporters flooded the tarmac and tried to storm the plane.
The International Criminal Court has wanted to try Saif al-Islam for alleged crimes committed during the February rebel uprising, and has had a warrant out for his arrest since June.
There are several problems with this situation. The first is that the alleged crimes for which he is to be tried have been thoroughly disproven by numerous human rights organizations. There was never any massacring of civilians; what happened in Libya was a civil war. The second problem with the ICC’s intervention is that the agency only has jurisdiction over its member nations’ territories and citizens. Libya was not and, at the time of this writing, is not a member.
The Libyan Liberal Youth, a resistance group, issued the following statement online: “This war has not been about the Gadhaffi family, it's about the majority of Libyans rejection of foreign invasions, massacres, and intrusion into Libyan affairs.”
http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/signs-of-resistance-to.html
Radio interview: NATO’s expanding horizons
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/55918
NATO’s expanding horizons
November 21st, 2011
Featured Guest: Rick Rozoff
CIUT 89.5 FM
The Taylor Report
November 25, 2011
====
====
Program Description:
NATO is more and more becoming the center of all things in every quarter of the globe, so Phil speaks with a very important news source: Rick Rozoff, of “Stop NATO.” They cover the whole gamut: from Eastern Europe to the Northwest Passage to Libya. And while NATO appears to be receding from the Libyan story, even Saif Gaddafi’s current trial was enabled by NATO airpower. Rozoff suggests that NATO now wishes to avoid a trial for Saif because of the earlier embarrassment of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic mounting a legal defense after the Kosovo war. It would be more convenient for Gaddafi to die at the hands of the new “independent” Libyan government.
Meanwhile, the guiding objectives are the same, whether in NATO’s East European frontiers in Kosovo and Georgia, or the shores of Tripoli. In Libya, NATO spokespeople are forecasting “NATO interoperable forces,” and kings and dictators are supported in Georgia and elsewhere. NATO also seeks a “Middle Eastern Partnership” to bring that area into their fold.
While NATO and clients commit acts of aggression around the world, only those who “resist assault” end up on the docket. The U.S. plays with fire, engaging in brinkmanship with Syria, Iran, and North Korea. We could wake up any day to terrifying news of a new war. So why does Harper want to be a wolf in this wolfpack?
https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/radio-interview-natos-expanding-horizons/
Spinning Invasions from the Nile to the Euphrates and Beyond
by Felicity Arbuthnot / November 25th, 2011
If a man seeks to understand Rome’s casuss reason for each foreign conquest, he needs only look into the Treasury.
— Tacitus, AD 56 – AD 117
As the US and UK lead towards more illegal overthrows, invasions and destruction in Iran and Syria, a political pattern of manipulation and disinformation has become an art form.
Libya, under Colonel Gaddafi, with highest (UN) Human Development Index in Africa, and living standard which drew immigrants from across the region, has been air brushed out and replaced with a “mad dog” – and a liberating lynching. Oil, spoils and reconstruction contracts, though, are being divvied out apace.
Iraq, formerly described in UN Reports as approaching “First World” standards, also much in ruins, shattered infrastructure trumpeted as due to “thirty years of neglect.” No mention of over fifteen years of decimating embargo and bombings, culminating in “Shock and Awe.” Pretty glaring omissions.
Now President Assad of Syria is being subject to the same build up – or taking down – with calls for a Libya-style “no fly zone.” Being an independent-minded Arab leader certainly comes with a health warning.
On 20th November, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak commented: “And it’s clear to me that what happened a few weeks ago to Qaddafi… and what happened ultimately to Saddam Hussein, now might await him.”
Another day, another “despot”, more chilling alarm calls. Ehud Barak is surely in line for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But a decade or so is a long time in politics, especially with Western allies emboldened by a lynching or two.
Consider this from political analyst Sami Moubayid, author of Steel and Silk, Men and Women who have Shaped Syria and other scholarly literary over-views of the country’s modern history.
In December 2000, six months into Bashar Al-Assad’s tenure, he wrote of a “cultural revolution” the new President was implementing, entitling the piece “A Modern-Day Attaturk.”
“Overnight the thousands of pictures of Hafez Al-Assad … disappeared”, following a statement committing to a “realistic” policy that did not immortalize and over-exaggerate leaders. “A relief … from the ever increasing photo-mania” of Syria (and the region’s) political culture.
Decades old bureaucratic laws were scrapped, a 25% wage increase was instituted – not universally welcomed, as rumors had been circulating that it would be far higher, but quite a start. Compulsory military service was “somewhat” reformed – a service instituted to counter the perceived “ever present” Israeli military threat.
Freedom of speech was “marginally” restored and the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, jailed since 1982, perceived a threat to the regime’s existence, were released. A conciliatory hand extended. An Ex-chief of staff to his father, Hikmat Shihabi, with close links to Washington, who had fled the country after allegations of corruption, was welcomed back and received as a guest in the Presidential palace. Another returnee was an “outspoken” newspaper Editor, Aref Dalila, formerly critical of the regime – who resumed his criticisms.
Before becoming President, Bashar had opened the country up to internet and mobile ‘phone use.
When his father had traveled : “… roads were sealed (and) his entourage comprised ten cars, a mine detector and an ambulance.” Bashar began driving himself, with two car security, eating in public restaurants and attending prayers in various mosques.
He was, concluded Moubayed: “ … revolutionizing Syrian society at a slow and delicate pace”, warning of the ”the challenge of living up to his people’s very high expectations.”
Given the subsequent turmoil in the region and Syria’s hosting of nearly two million post-invasion Iraqi refugees, he has walked a challenging political and financial tight rope.
Media, politicians and rights groups citing human rights abuses as excuse for regime change, seemingly forget Guantanamo, Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca, and uncounted renditions to unknown detention dungeons across the world; torture, water boarding, and simply disappearing.
In an imperfect world, threatened Syria is fighting an enemy within, but the US, UK and allies most recent marauding, is uncounted horrifying deaths, acres of communities turned to rubble, culminating in the second lynching of a sovereign leader.
The remodeling of the Middle East, however, has been long on the cards .”9/11”, it is increasingly clear, provided the perfect excuse.
Maidhc Ó Cathail, in a recent article, recalled a 2003 comment written by Patrick Buchanan:
In the Perle-Feith-Wurmser strategy, Israel’s enemy remains Syria, but the road to Damascus runs through Baghdad.
The road to Baghdad, of course, had been planned since 1998, when the Iraq Liberation Act declared:
… that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.
(Authorizing) the President … to provide to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations: (1) grant assistance for radio and television broadcasting to Iraq; (2) Department of Defense (DOD) defense articles and services and military education and training …
Directs the President to designate: (1) one or more Iraqi democratic opposition organizations that meet specified criteria as eligible to receive assistance under this Act; and (2) additional such organizations which satisfy the President’s criteria.
Expresses the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq’s transition to democracy….
By July 2002 when a bunch of US funded Iraqi opposition were welcomed by the British government and hosted in Kensington Town Hall, in a pattern now depressingly familiar in countries doomed to “democratization”, US officials “have reported that SAS troops and MI6 agents are already in Iraq working with opposition groups in the northern Kurdish areas of the country.”
In 1946 a US State Department Report had described Iraq as “… a stupendous source of strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history”.
Compared to that, Syria does not have vast natural resources (comparatively limited petroleum, with phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower). However, it is geographically “The doorway to Asia and the Middle East.”
Iraq had its “liberation Act”, in May 2004, the United States imposed the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, imposing, in all too familiar words: “ …a series of sanctions against Syria for its support of terrorism … weapons of mass destruction programs and the destabilizing role it is playing in Iraq.” Jaw dropping stuff from a country which illegally attacked Iraq, having worked tirelessly on its destabilization for years. (Emphasis mine.)
In 2006, the US Department of the Treasury imposed “special measures” against the Commercial Bank of Syria. As ever, Judge, jury and executioner.
In 2007, Israel bombed an undeclared “nuclear facility” – except it wasn’t. Another weapons of mass destruction myth. It was a textile factory. A German journalist tracked down machine suppliers, but the designing engineer.
A re-run of the Iraq baby milk factory, declared a chemical weapons factory and flattened – transpiring to be a British engineered baby milk factory. The Al-Shifa pharmacetical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, suffered a similar fate under US bombs in August 1998, also accused of making chemical weapons.
It manufactured mainly veterinary medicines and malarial drugs, antibiotics, at prices which undercut the Western multinationals. The suppliers for construction had included the US, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.
Beware of Western governments making assertions.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister and Conservative Friend of Israel, William Hague, met “Syrian opposition representatives” (insurgents?) on Monday declaring: “…we will do what we can to support democracy in Syria in the future.” He appointed former Ambassador to Lebanon and Yemen, Frances Guy, to lead London’s co-ordination with them.
Iraq and Libya revisited.
In the myriad political games, arm twisting, manipulation and propaganda, it should be remembered that President Assad is Regional Secretary of the Arab Ba’ath Party. With Saddam Hussein gone and the concept of a Pan-Arab state now outlawed in Iraq, Syria is the remaining symbol of America’s nemesis, but a concept close to many Arab hearts.
The fathers of the vision of Pan-Arab national ideals combined with socialism, of course, were Damascus born Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who formed the Ba’ath Party in the early 1940s.
The commitment included freeing the Arab world of Western colonialism.
Arguably, the overthrow of the last bastion of this ideal on the road through Damascus would be a powerful Crusaders “victory.”
Echoing Foreign Minister Hague, President Genghis Obama has vowed that the US will: “continue to work with our friends and allies to pressure the Al Assad regime and support the Syrian people as they pursue the dignity and transition to democracy they deserve.” He omitted the “delivered by tens of thousands of air strikes.”
Assad’s hand of conciliation to the Muslim Brotherhood has been badly bitten as they push for a “no fly zone”, implemented by NATO Member, neighbouring Turkey.
Further, Tony Cartalucci argues that:
The ‘’Free Syria Army’ is literally an army of militant extremists, many drawn not from Syria’s military ranks, but from the Muslim Brotherhood, carrying heavy weapons back and forth over the Turkish and Lebanese borders, funded, supported, and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey.
Pepe Escobar concurs, citing:
A report by a Qatar-based researcher for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) even comes close to admitting that the self-described ‘Free Syria Army’ is basically a bunch of hardcore Islamists, plus a few genuine army defectors, but mostly radicalized Muslim Brotherhood bought, paid for and weaponized by the US, Israel, the Gulf monarchies and Turkey.
He adds:
As Tehran sees it, what’s really going on regarding Syria is a ‘humanitarian’ cover for a complex anti-Shi’ite and anti-Iran operation.
The road map is already clear … And psy-ops abound …
In context, one Washington allegation last week accused Syria of aggression towards Lebanon by mining their common border. Lebanese de-mining teams combed the border and found none. (Jordan Times, 18th November 2011.)
This week both Iran and Lebanon have claimed to have arrested alleged CIA spy rings. The Lebanese Cabinet is to summon the US Ambassador, Maura Connelly to question her on the issue. They have also submitted a complaint to the UN on alleged Israeli covert activities.
Baghdad, so extensively destroyed in 2003, was the “Paris of the 9th Century.” Damascus ,“City of Jasmin”, is widely thought to be the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The superb Umayyad Mosque,built in the 7th century, is a monument to inspirational wonders of that millennium.
Inside a shrine to John the Baptist, believed by Christian scholars to have baptized Jesus, is perhaps a reminder across the millenia of the secular nature of Syrian society – as broadly, Iraq and Libya before Western intervention.
Saint Paul was sent to what is now Syria to destroy the Christians, believers are taught. His conversion on the road to Damascus changed all that. It can only be fervently hoped that today’s marauders also have a Damascene conversion for the sake of Syria’s population of today and most ancient of nations.
Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger's Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) Read other articles by Felicity.
This article was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2011 at 8:00am and is filed under Disinformation, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Libya, Military/Militarism, NATO, Obama, Propaganda, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/11/spinning-invasions-from-the-nile-to-the-euphrates-and-beyond/
Tarpley Brings Greetings from Western Anti-NATO Forces to the Patriots of Syria
Webster G. Tarpley Ph.D.
November 24, 2011
This demonstration was held at the Hijaz Railway Station in Damascus on Sunday, November 20. It was also addressed by a Russian delegation, and by French blogger Marc George of Media Libre.
http://tarpley.net/2011/11/24/tarpley-brings-greetings-from-western-anti-nato-forces-to-the-patriots-of-syria/
| US-recruited Al Qaeda snipers terrorize Syrian civilians |
[Photo: U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert S. Ford (left) is, according to reliable sources, the key State Department official who has been responsible for recruiting Arab “death squads” from Al Qaeda-affiliated (CIA funded) units in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Chechnya to fight against Syrian military and police forces in embattled Syria.]
The West is doing its best to destabilize the situation in Syria, author and journalist Webster Tarpley told RT. According to him, civilians have to deal with death squads and blind terrorism, which is typical of the CIA.
“What average Syrians of all ethnic groups say about this is that they are being shot at by snipers. People complained that there are terrorist snipers who are shooting at civilians, blind terrorism simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country. I would not call this civil war – it is a very misleading term. What you are dealing with here are death squads, you are dealing with terror commandos; this is a typical CIA method. In this case it’s a joint production of CIA, MI6, Mossad, it’s got money coming from Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” he explained.
He added that Syrian society is the most tolerant society in the Middle East, the one place where all kinds of people live together in remarkable harmony, Muslims and Christians of all kinds.
“This is a model of a peaceful coexistence of various ethnic groups. The US policy right now is to smash the Middle East according to ethnic lines,” he added.
Assad’s rule is increasingly being called illegitimate. But the US and Europe do not seem concerned that getting rid of the Syrian president could cause even more violence, as was seen in Egypt, believes Tarpley.
“After Libya becoming a bloodbath with 150.000 dead and now with Egypt showing what it was all along – there was no revolution there, it was a complete failure and now people are beginning to understand that. Still, Mrs Clinton and Ms Rice (sic) continue to push this bankrupt model of the colour revolution, backed up by terrorist troops – people from Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. There is a growing movement inside the Islamic community, which says ‘We want reconciliation, we want law and order, and we want legality’,” he said.
http://www.voltairenet.org/Webster-Tarpley-from-Damascus-CIA
NATO conceals preparations for military action against Syria
The
United States has decided to disengage itself from certain obligations
on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE). In particular, the
USA will no longer inform Russia about the plans connected with the
redeployment of its forces. Those restrictions are not touching upon any
other country.
"Today the United States announced in Vienna, Austria, that it would cease carrying out certain obligations under the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty with regard to Russia. This announcement in the CFE Treaty's implementation group comes after the United States and NATO Allies have tried over the past 4 years to find a diplomatic solution following Russia's decision in 2007 to cease implementation with respect to all other 29 CFE States. Since then, Russia has refused to accept inspections and ceased to provide information to other CFE Treaty parties on its military forces as required by the Treaty," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday.
According to her, the USA does not refuse from the dialogue with Russia within the scope of the Treaty. However, Russia must get back to the institution of the CFE, the US diplomat added.
Nuland also said that the United States did not intend to tie the CFE with the missile defense talks.
The remarks from the US diplomat look like another attempt to turn everything up side down again. It is worth mentioning here that the first edition of the CFE Treaty was signed in 1990, during the existence of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The document stipulated a reduction of the number of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery (larger than 100 mm in caliber), combat planes and helicopters, as well as information exchange.
A renewed variant of the treaty was signed in 1999. The new edition reflected such changes in Europe as the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the expansion of NATO. However, only Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan ratified the new treaty. Russia moved a big part of its arms behind the Ural mountains, but the Western countries did not even want to execute it. The expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance continued, and NATO neared Russian borders.
At the end of 2007, Vladimir Putin decided to suspend Russia's participation in the CFE until the USA and its European allies ratified the renewed variant of the treaty. The Americans did not want to make any moves in that direction. Now they have decided not to inform Russia about the redeployment of its forces. This is obviously another violation of the treaty which the United States committed.
What consequences may Russia face as a result of the US decision? Pravda.Ru asked expert opinion from the director of the Center for Military Forecasts, Anatoly Tsyganok.
"The USA will stop informing Russia about military redeployments. The Americans can technically send their troops to Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia, which did not sign the treaty. Will the Baltic states turn into an uncontrollable military center near Russia's borders?"
"When Russia suspended its participation in the CFE Treaty, she had the right to say that some NATO's newcomers, such as the Baltic states and Slovenia, had never signed the treaty. Now NATO eyes Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and all other former members of the Warsaw Pact.
"When they were deciding on the unification of Germany in 1990, Germany and France said in the appendix to the adequate agreement that NATO would not move beyond the Oder River (the river separates Germany and Poland - ed.). However, the West does not take this appendix into consideration. They only follow the agreement itself, which does not say a word about the non-expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance. It just so happens that the USA and its allies played a trick on Russia.
"Why did it take the United States four years to decide not to inform Russia about military redeployments?"
"Apparently, it is connected with the situation in the Mediterranean Sea. One may assume that NATO will create a military group near Russia's southern borders to strike Syria. They will most likely raise this issue at the NATO summit in December. They will try to analyze Syria's actions in case NATO conducts a military operation against the country, like it already happened in Libya."
"Is Russia a big obstacle for conducting NATO's operation against Syria? Does the USA have anything to conceal from us at this point?"
"Russia is an obstacle, yes. We have a naval base in Syria's Tartus. The base is protected with air defense complexes, so the chances for aggression from NATO or Israel from the sea are slim. If they decide to attack, it will most likely happen from the side of Saudi Arabia. So the USA has something to conceal.
"There is another aspect to this. There are approximately 120,000 Russian citizens living in Syria. Presumably, it goes about Russian women, who married local men. Russia can use this detail to interfere into the events in Syria. In addition, 20 percent of the Russian defense complex will simply tip off the perch in case Russia loses the Syrian market. It is not ruled out that they are regrouping NATO forces to get ready for the war against Syria, and they don't want to notify Russia of that."
Vadim Trukhachev
Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/24-11-2011/119733-nato_syria-0/
|
||||||||||
If you perform the job of an actual journalist in the US, telling truth to power, you won't even be admitted into the building.
By Pepe Escobar Last week, independent journalist, Sam Husseini, went to a news conference by Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia at Washington’s National Press Club - where Husseini is a member. Then he did something that is alien to United States corporate media culture. He behaved as an actual journalist and asked a tough, pertinent, no-holds-barred question. Here it is, as relayed by Husseini's blog:
Prince Turki, former Saudi intelligence supremo, former pal of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, former Saudi ambassador to the US, reacted by changing the subject: (For full text see video description). Were this to happen in the Middle East, Husseini would have been duly kidnapped by Saudi intel, tortured and snuffed out. For much less - saying out loud in an Arab League meeting that King Abdullah was a traitor, because he was encouraging the George W Bush administration to invade Iraq - the House of Saud did everything in its power, for years, to make sure Gaddafi was taken out. Turki exhibits all the trademark democratic credentials of the House of Saud. He refers to the push for democracy in the Arab world as "Arab Troubles". After the Turki shoot According to Husseini, on the same day of the news conference, he received "a letter informing me that I was suspended from the National Press Club 'due to your conduct at a news conference'. The letter, signed by the executive director of the club, William McCarren, accused me of violating rules prohibiting 'boisterous and unseemly conduct or language'." Husseini, Communications Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, which showcases critical journalism from all over the world, is a calm, thoughtful man with impeccable credentials. The accusation is not only bogus - it is downright pathetic. Was this a one-off? Obviously not. Flashback to January 2009, at the same National Press Club, during a news conference by then-Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. When Livni was asked a tough question - once again by Husseini - the mike was cut, and the conference abruptly terminated. My cameraman, Sebastian Pituscan, was there with me. So this is how the much-lauded "freedom of the press" myth in the US actually works. If you perform the job of an actual journalist, telling truth to power, forget about attending press conferences at the White House, Pentagon or State Department. You won't even be admitted into the building. If you are an official from a "valuable ally" - such as the House of Saud or the regime in Israeli - you are assured a tough question-free pulpit anywhere you choose, especially if you're fluent in English. But if you are an official from a "rogue" regime, the maximum you can aspire is to be humiliated in public, as happened to Iranian President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, at Columbia University in New York. Especially if you don't speak English, and most of what you say is lost in translation. On the other hand, if you are a travelling US corporate media hack, you can get away with murder. Example: During the Asian financial crisis, in 1997 and 1998, I went to countless press conferences where parachuted US hacks intimidated Asian leaders as if they were a bunch of hooligans (the hacks, not the leaders). Perky chicks emerging from some two-bit journalism school in the flyover states treated the then-Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, as if he was a child rapist, because he had established capital controls. Mahathir turned out to be right - as Malaysia overcame the crisis much earlier than those, such as Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea, that surrendered to the International Monetary Fund's dreadful "adjustments". In 1989, Chinese students protesting in Tiananmen Square were hailed by US media as heroes standing up to tyranny. In 2011, American students protesting all across the country against financial tyranny are "lazy", "bastards", both, or downright criminalized. United States corporate media could not possibly admit that repression in Tahrir Square by Egyptian riot police is exactly the same as repression in New York, Oakland, Portland or Boston by American riot police. Still there's no word from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization about setting up a "humanitarian" no-fly zone over selected Occupy sites in US cities. They are still consulting with the House of Saud. Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepe...@yahoo.com. (Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.) |
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988)
Video Documentary
Coverup
exposes a tale of politics, drugs, hostages, weapons, assassinations,
covert operations and the ultimate plan to suspend the US Constitution.
Accusations are levied that a "shadow government"
regularly carries out covert activities at home and abroad, and the CIA
is implicated in dealing in huge shipments of cocaine and with the
profits supplying weapons to the right-wing activities of the Nicaraguan
Contras. Also examined are the actions of Oliver North, who willfully
ignored the Constitution in masterminding covert weapons deals with
Middle-Eastern governments to additionally fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
This documentary raised more questions than answers in a post-Watergate
political climate where the public had become desensitized to scandal.
Illuminated are the delays by the Reagan-Bush
ticket in releasing the American hostages until after the election --
after outgoing President Jimmy Carter worked tirelessly to free them.
This is the only film which presents a
comprehensive overview of the most important stories suppressed during
the Iran Contra hearings.
Video - Posted October 03, 2009
CHECK OUT VIDEOS: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23621.htm
| Global Times | November 25, 2011 00:16 By Global Times |
Share
 E-mail
 Print
Comments(5) |
Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev sent a harsh warning to the US over its
missile defense installations in East Europe on Wednesday. Despite these
strongly-toned remarks, the White House firmly insists on keeping its
missile shield, risking the destruction of easing tensions and improving
relations.
Moscow has been making efforts to reduce hostility
with the US since Mikhail Gorbachev was in office. However it is
frustrated because the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and
the collapse of the Soviet Union did not remove US vigilance. Former US
president Bill Clinton initiated NATO's eastward expansion in the
1990s, which smashed the Russian dream of emerging into the West. The
Russians realized that the US and the whole Western world did not truly
wish to embrace Russia. What they want is to take advantage of Russia's
difficulties and extend their influences into the area Russia formerly
controlled.
To avoid being isolated, Russia joined the G7,
developing a partnership with NATO. It even considered joining NATO.
This did not work. Russia is too big and has a very strong national
pride, so the West decides to keep it out.
Entering the Putin
era, Russia was further alienated from the West. The West again began to
criticize Russia from an ideological perspective, redefining Russia as
an autocracy. Although strategic confrontations between the Soviet Union
and the US have ceased, it is no easier for Russia to improve relations
with the West than 20 years ago.
If Moscow really wants to
please the US and the West, it needs to do the following things:
implementing a Western-styled democracy, accepting US arrangements on
nuclear disarmament, opening its energy to the West at low prices,
allowing self-determination for the Russian people, and cooperating
fully with the West in international affairs such as the Iran nuclear
issue. Only such a Russia would no longer be seen as a threat by the
West and would contribute to maintaining Western centralism. However,
this might cause the second round of disintegration of the country.
Responding to pressure of the West, Putin chose to be tough and
Medvedev, known for being comparatively moderate, has also made strong
reactions sometimes.
The ups and downs between Moscow and the
West are a vivid lesson for non-Western countries who hope to align
themselves with the Western world. It demonstrates that for powers like
Russia and China, they cannot obtain sincerity from the West through
concessions and obedience. They need to work out some innovative ways to
see good relations with the West.
China in particular should
learn lessons from Russia. It cannot initiate confrontation with the US
but must develop some deterrents at the same time. China cannot be as
innocent as Russia in the 1990s. The US will not give China outward
respect, but China could force it to. As long as China is not na?ve, it
can avoid confrontation with the US and not let itself be easily
infuriated by any frustration in bilateral relations. China should learn
to be patient when dealing with the US. Chinese philosophy, such as tai
chi, will offer many help.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/685675/Reward-for-Russian-appeasement-is-futility.aspxNorthern Kosovo: Serbs make their last stand
Published: 26 November, 2011, 04:19
A fire burns next to a German KFOR Armoured Personnel Carrier as it guards the border crossing Jarinje between Serbia and northern Kosovo on September 16, 2011 (AFP Photo / SASA DJORDJEVIC)
(26.9Mb) embed videoTAGS: Arms, Breakaway regions, Conflict, Military, NATO, Kosovo, Protest, Politics, Human rights, Kevin Owen, Igor Ogorodnev
Tensions run high on Serbia's border with northern Kosovo, as neither of the conflicting sides is prepared to rule out a further escalation of violence.
Local Serbs say NATO forces are to blame, for breaking an agreement
by trying to remove a barricade blocking the way to one of a number of
disputed checkpoints.
The move prompted violent clashes that left dozens injured on both sides.
Last night in Northern Kosovo passed without violence though this does not mean that the source of tensions has disappeared.
On November 23 the NATO’s KFOR forces attempted to remove a barricade put up by ethnic Serbian minority of the region. The resistance was tense so the soldiers used tear gas. More than 20 people were injured but the Serbs got it their way and the KFOR operation was ceased.
RT crew traveled around the area and saw the barricades that have been there for the last four months still up. They are constantly maintained and people there say they are not going to abandon them in any case and in fact are planning to build more of them.
To an untrained eye those barricades seem to be mere piles of rubble, amateurishly constructed. One would never say they could become a cause of armed conflict.
But in order to comprehend why the barricades appeared in the first place, the developments in July in Kosovo must be remembered.
The Serbian minority, that constitutes 10 per cent of the Kosovo population, lost any kind of legal status once Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008. The Kosovo Serbs still consider themselves the citizens of Serbia. Needless to say that the Kosovo Albanians do not consider Northern Kosovo to be independent and expect Serbs to leave their homes and move to Serbia.
Until July the Serbs in northern Kosovo were allowed a measure of self-independence and an ability to be in free contact with mainland Serbia. But then the official Pristina (Kosovo capital) decided to take the border with Serbia under control, to install customs stations to administrate the goods flow and all the cars and trucks coming into the area.
The Serbs did not see that as a mere formality, but as an infringement of their remaining freedoms. They called it a slippery slope, first comes the customs control – then they become hostages of a political will of Albanian Pristina.
To prevent that from happening they erected barricades.
Then it appeared a compromise was found when it was announced that the customs stations will be controlled not by Albanians, but by KFOR forces.
The only matter is that the Serbs never trusted KFOR, seeing it as a force that conducts NATO policies in the region, making the separation of Kosovo from Serbia possible in the first place and protecting Albanian interests only.
And Serbs have every right to stick to their opinion since KFOR has never been noticed in any sympathies with Serbs.
This time it was exactly the same. Once the tensions run high and an attempt to remove the barricades was made, KFOR opened fire at protestors with live ammunition, later claiming they were using rubber bullets.
But doctors of that region that were treating the wounded – they have seen enough to tell the difference between a rubber bullet wound and a real one. Luckily enough, no one was killed.
In the last decade of November KFOR started another operation to remove the barricades and again the Serbs who were born in Kosovo made a stand, clearly understanding this might be their last one, saying firmly they will not leave their land.CHECK OUT VIDEO: http://rt.com/news/kosovo-serbs-barricades-kfor-267/
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT
November 26, 2011 "Associated Press" -- ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government has demanded the U.S. vacate an air base within 15 days that the CIA is suspected of using for unmanned drones.
The government issued the demand Saturday after NATO helicopters and jet fighters allegedly attacked two Pakistan army posts along the Afghan border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Islamabad outlined the demand in a statement it sent to reporters following an emergency defense committee meeting chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Shamsi Air Base is located in southwestern Baluchistan province. The U.S. is suspected of using the facility in the past to launch armed drones and observation aircraft to keep pressure on Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan's tribal region.
By Shams Momand
YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO helicopters
and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan
on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan
relations deeper into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down NATO supply
routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in nearly half of the
alliance's land shipments. It also said it would ask U.S. forces to quit
an air base used for CIA drone strikes on militants.
The attack is the worst incident of its kind
since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington following the
September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan confirmed that
NATO aircraft had probably killed Pakistani soldiers in an area close to
the Afghan-Pakistani border.
"Close air support was called in, in the
development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely
caused the Pakistan casualties," said General Carsten Jacobson,
spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
He added he could not confirm the number of
casualties, but ISAF was investigating. "We are aware that Pakistani
soldiers perished. We don't know the size, the magnitude," he said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said
the killings were "an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty", adding: "We
will not let any harm come to Pakistan's sovereignty and solidarity."
The Foreign Office said it would take up the
matter "in the strongest terms" with NATO and the United States, while
the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, said steps would
be taken to respond "to this irresponsible act".
"A strong protest has been launched with
NATO/ISAF in which it has been demanded that strong and urgent action be
taken against those responsible for this aggression."
Two military officials said up to 28 troops had
been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the outposts, about 2.5 km
(1.5 miles) from the Afghan border. The Pakistani military said 24
troops were killed and 13 wounded.
EARLY MORNING ATTACK
The attack took place around 2 a.m. (2100 GMT) in
the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban
militants. Across the border is Afghanistan's Kunar province, which has
seen years of heavy fighting.
"Pakistani troops effectively responded
immediately in self-defence to NATO/ISAF's aggression with all available
weapons," the Pakistani military statement said.
The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan,
General John R. Allen, offered his condolences to the family of
Pakistani soldiers who "may have been killed or injured".
Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts,
military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead. "They
without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep,"
said a senior Pakistani officer, requesting anonymity.
The border is often poorly marked, and Afghan and
Pakistani maps have differences of several kilometres in some places,
military officials have said.
However Pakistani military spokesman
Major-General Athar Abbas said NATO had been given maps of the area,
with Pakistani military posts identified.
"When the other side is saying there is a doubt
about this, there is no doubt about it. These posts have been marked and
handed over to the other side for marking on their maps and are clearly
inside Pakistani territory."
The incident occurred a day after Allen met Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced cooperation.
A senior military source told Reuters that after
the meeting that set out "to build confidence and trust, these kind of
attacks should not have taken place".
BLOCKED SUPPLIES
Pakistan is a vital land route for nearly half of
NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO
spokesman said. Land shipments account for about two thirds of the
alliance's cargo shipments into Afghanistan.
Hours after the raid, NATO supply trucks and fuel
tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber
tribal region near the city of Peshawar, officials said.
The border crossing at Chaman in southwestern
Baluchistan province was also closed, Frontier Corps officials said.
A meeting of the cabinet's defence committee
convened by Gilani "decided to close with immediate effect NATO/ISAF
logistics supply lines," according to a statement issued by Gilani's
office.
The committee decided to ask the United States to
vacate, within 15 days, the Shamsi Air Base, a remote installation in
Baluchistan used by U.S. forces for drone strikes which has long been at
the centre of a dispute between Islamabad and Washington.
The meeting also decided the government would
"revisit and undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities
and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic,
political, military and intelligence".
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed
two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's
supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days. NATO apologised for that
incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning
shots by Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan
were strained by the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S.
special forces in Pakistan in May, which Pakistan called a flagrant
violation of sovereignty.
Pakistan's jailing of a CIA contractor and U.S.
accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. embassy
in Kabul have added to the tensions.
"This will have a catastrophic effect on
Pakistan-U.S. relations. The public in Pakistan are going to go berserk
on this," said Charles Heyman, senior defence analyst at British
military website Armedforces.co.uk.
Other analysts, including Rustam Shah Mohmand, a
former ambassador to Afghanistan, predicted Pakistan would protest and
close the supply lines for some time, but that ultimately "things will
get back to normal".
(Additional reporting by Bushra Takseen, Saud
Mehsud, Jibran Ahmad and Saeed Achakzai in Pakistan, Tim Castle in
London, and Hamid Shalizi and Christine Kearney in Afghanistan; Writing
by Augustine Anthony, Chris Allbritton and Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing
by Andrew Roche)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29820.htm
Pakistan-Nato Links Strained After Air Strike
8:53pm UK, Saturday November 26, 2011
Pakistan is reportedly set to review all diplomatic, military and intelligence links with the US and Nato following a deadly cross-border attack on a border checkpoint.
A spokesman for Nato troops in Afghanistan has admitted that it is "highly likely" its aircraft were behind the assault on Pakistani troops while hunting insurgents near the border.
As many as 28 soldiers died and 14 others were wounded in the strike, according to reports.
The Pakistani government has responded by blocking the vital supply route for Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan.
It has also ordered the US to vacate a controversial airbase within 15 days, reports say.
The site, a remote desert outpost in southwest Pakistan, is reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes. Pakistan previously told the US to leave it in June.
Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), said earlier: "Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties.
Pakistanis protest after news spread of Nato's alleged attack on its territory
"We are aware that there are Pakistani casualties, we don't know numbers, we don't know the magnitude of the incident."
Senior government official Mutahir Zeb said: "We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post."
Pakistan's foreign office condemned the pre-dawn raid.
"Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned in the strongest terms the Nato/Isaf attack on the Pakistani post," spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said in a statement.
"On his direction, the matter is being taken (up) by the foreign ministry in the strongest terms with Nato and the US."
Pakistani officials said the attack happened at the Salala checkpoint, about 1.5 miles from the Afghan border, near where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.
"Nato helicopters carried out an unprovoked and indiscriminate firing... casualties have been reported and details are awaited," a military spokesman said.
The spokesman said the attack in the Baizai region of the Mohmand tribal area started at about 2am on Saturday. Convoys were then blocked at Jamrud town, west of Peshawar.
According to an official, helicopters attacked two outposts around 1,000ft apart from each other, one of them twice, and two officers were among the dead.
Pakistan shut the strategically important border crossing, halting Nato convoys
"The latest attack by Nato forces on our post will have serious repercussions, without any reasons," the senior Pakistani officer said.
Nato's spokesman Bgd Gen Jacobson was asked about the expected length of the convoy blockade and its effectiveness. He told Sky News: "I will not speculate on how long this will last.
"For the time being, there is no problems on the Isaf side."
Convoys entering Afghanistan from Pakistan have become crucial to Nato operations, as Isaf learned last year when militants repeatedly attacked fuel tankers.
Saturday's attack is believed to have been the deadliest Nato strike on Pakistan soil during the 10-year war in Afghanistan. It is likely to destabilise already extremely tense US-Pakistani relations.
It is a little over a year since US helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border, whom the pilots mistook for insurgents.
Pakistan responded at that time by closing the Torkham border crossing to Nato supplies for 10 days until America apologised.
The latest deaths come just days after Pakistan forced its US envoy to resign.
Relations between the US and Pakistan have been especially strained following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May.
The unauthorised attack on the terror boss by US special forces inside the Pakistani military garrison town of Abbottabad caused widespread outrage across the troubled nation.
Pakistan called that raid a flagrant violation of its sovereignty.
Freedom- Justice – Peace
It's time for justice to triumph
This is a message from Palestine to every free human being in the world.
We send revolutionary greetings from Palestine, the holy land of prophets and peace; from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus; from Jerusalem, where Muhammad, peace be upon him, ascended to the heavens; as we continue to hold the olive branch, the symbol of peace, from the homeland of peace.
We continue our prayers for peace at mosques and churches. We struggle and resist using peaceful and civil resistance, and by every form of legitimate resistance to obtain freedom, justice, independence and peace just like any nation which is oppressed by occupation and the domination of capitalism.
Here, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories we have suffered under the Israeli occupation for decades, and we still suffer from it, from daily killings and violence of the Israeli Army against civilians. We still suffer from the apartheid wall, racist treatment against Arabs, even ones holding an Israeli citizenship, the so-called "Buffer Zone Area", which is in reality the “No Go Zone” imposed on the Gaza Strip (eating 20-25 % of its arable and most fertile farmland) and from the illegal settlements in the West Bank. We still suffer from the illegal siege imposed on Gaza Strip. We still suffer from the displacement of the citizens Palestine, especially of Arab Jerusalem, and the demolishing of our houses. Such systematic suppression is meant to ethnically cleanse Arab Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (1948). Further, there are thousands of Palestinians detainees held behind the bars at the Israeli prisons, imprisoned without even a fair trial. Yet, our Palestinian People seeks peace and fights for dignity and freedom.
On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, November 29, 2011, we, kindly, call on the free world to do the following:
1- Stand in solidarity and support with the Palestinians all over the world.
2- Engage in every possible form of boycotting Israel (political, diplomatic, academic, economic, cultural and scientific boycotts).
3- Call upon civil society activists to organize protests around the world on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (November 29, 2011).
4- Organize conferences, meetings and youth activities at universities, educational institutes and schools to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause.
5- Call for protests and sit-ins at the Israeli embassies around the world demanding that they end the occupation and stop committing crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories.
To the Free People around the World,
It is time to mobilize in favor of supporting humanity, to defend dignity and freedom, and insist on the enforcement of international justice on the side of the Palestinian People.
Youth of Palestine
Local initiative – Popular resistance- Gaza Strip
Rage in Israel as BNP Paribas pressured to pull out
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Banks Supervisor David Zaken and their top officials believe the bank's board of directors caved to pressure groups, contrary to its claims.
By Moti BassokThe powers that be are furious at BNP Paribas for shuttering its operations in Israel, and suspect it is acting due to Arab and anti-Israeli pressure in France, the bank's home base.
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Banks Supervisor David Zaken and their top officials believe the bank's board of directors caved to pressure groups, contrary to its claims.
This is the first case in years of a foreign bank leaving Israel. BNP Paribas has had operations in Israel since 2003. Most of its business here involved financing large projects that involve French companies.
The bank recently decided to shut down its local offices and dismiss its 60 employees. The bank claims this is because it sustained serious damage from the Greek crisis. Yet the only foreign branch is closing is its Israeli one, even though BNP Paribas has branches all over the world, including in Israel's neighbor countries.
The French bank is leaving a very limited representation in Israel. It does not need the Bank of Israel's approval for this, even though its operations are still supervised by the central bank.
Fischer and Zaken held several harsh discussions with BNP Paribas executives, which brought no results, and also denounced the bank's actions in internal meetings. Fischer reportedly said that one of his goals as Israel's chief banker was to convince large foreign banks to do business in Israel. There is no reason for BNP Paribas to leave, he reportedly said.
The Bank of Israel said it could not comment on a specific bank.
http://english.themarker.com/rage-in-israel-as-bnp-paribas-pressured-to-pull-out-1.397408
Why Are They So Angry?
"He's lying! He's lying!" the man at the back of the hall shouted, in a tone as desperate as it was angry. "He hasn't read the Geneva Conventions. You haven't read them, so you don't know he's lying."
The primary object of his rage was me. The secondary object, it seemed, was his fellow congregants, who'd allowed me to lecture at his New York-area synagogue. I'd spoken about threats to Israel's democracy, including those posed by ongoing expansion of West Bank settlements. This was the first time, I'd been told, that the congregation had hosted a speaker on Israel from outside a spectrum running from right-wing to very right-wing. During the question-and-answer period, I was asked about my statement that the legal counsel of Israel's Foreign Ministry had warned before the first West Bank settlement was established that it would violate the agreement of the Fourth Geneva Convention. That's when the man in the back came unstuck. The congregation's rabbi, who was moderating the Q&A session with the trained calm of a psychologist running group therapy for fractured families, slipped to the back of the room and talked him down.
The incident stayed with me, demanding to be decoded. True, the particular synagogue was Orthodox, and more Orthodox Jews espouse hawkish views than do members of other Jewish denominations. But I've been lecturing around North America for three weeks, and the experience fit a pattern. I've been told repeatedly that it's a breakthrough for a congregation to invite someone with my views, which back home in Israel register as well within the political mainstream. On previous trips to America, I've faced similar outbursts in non-Orthodox synagogues and on college campuses.
High-pitched as Israeli political disputes are—and as eager as the Israeli parliamentary right is to restrict dissent, an Israeli dove visiting Jewish North America can still feel that he's stumbled into a constricted, out-of-joint alternate universe. The moderate Israeli left's argument that West Bank settlements undermine democracy and peace efforts is sometimes greeted in the U.S. as treasonous, sometimes as daringly unconventional. Ideas that have gone extinct in Israel still wander the American landscape, as if it were a Jurassic Park of the mind. What's going on?
Part of the answer is that Jewish politics reflect general American politics, where conservatives hurl forged-in-Fox, counterfactual cannonballs rather than discuss ideas. And the minority of American Jews who are devoted to the single issue of defending Israeli policy, and who can dominate discussion within the Jewish community, inhabit an echo chamber that may be even better sealed than the conservative separate universe in domestic politics. Golda Meir—remembered in Israel as the prime minister who failed to see signs of oncoming war in 1973—is still regarded as a hero in America. (Imagine visiting some distant "pro-American" island where people put up busts of James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover.)
Inside the echo chamber, advocacy groups provide "facts" on key issues. Press reports or historical accounts that tell a different story are seen not only as mistaken, but as deliberately false. So, for instance, the tiny minority of scholars of international law who defend the legality of Israeli settlements—especially Reagan Democrat Eugene Rostow—are endlessly quoted on advocacy websites. This half-explains the despairing anger of the man in the back of the room when I quoted a top Israeli official saying the opposite.
Of course, there are many American Jews whose liberal views on domestic issues are matched by their support of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Some feel constrained in speaking as clearly as they'd like about Israel for fear of being identified with another rigidly ideological contingent: Diaspora Palestinians with their own overdone nationalism, and a small coterie of Jews whose express their disappointment with Zionism through mirror-image anti-Zionism—as if denying Jewish rights to national self-determination were somehow more progressive than denying Palestinian rights. But realistic, moderate progressives always face the challenge of portraying a more complex reality than extremists recognize.
And a third factor—besides the echo-chamber effect and concern about extreme anti-Israel positions—is at work in the sudden hostility of some American Jews at criticism of Israel. It has to do with the place that Israel often fills in Jewish identity in America. An incident my son recounted after a visit to the United States as a teen alluded to the issue: He'd come to take part in an international interfaith camp, and one day the campers were brought to a nearby city to visit a church, synagogue, and mosque. At the synagogue, he was surprised to see an Israeli and an American flag in the sanctuary. He couldn't recall seeing an Israeli flag in an Israeli synagogue, and asked the executive director of the congregation why it was there. "The Holocaust is very present in our hearts," came the response.
At first glance, that's a non sequitur. Unpacked, the comment means that victimhood is part of the story that Jews tell about their past. In that story, a besieged, endangered Israel is the sequel to the Holocaust. Like most narratives, this one contains pieces of truth alongside distortions and anachronisms. The victimhood was very real. But for most Jews living today in America, the trauma is a taught memory, passed on by previous generations, out of sync with their current condition. And seeing Israel as the symbol of victimhood is discordant: Zionism was a rebellion against Jewish powerlessness, and present-day Israel testifies to the rebellion's success.
One of the first rules of conflict resolution, though, is that when you challenge a group's narrative, some members will take that as a denial of their identity. They'll get angry. They will repeat their story more loudly. They may accuse you of telling falsehoods.
This is not a reason for a journalist, historian or activist to silent. It does make sense of the fury with which people sometimes defend the old story. It explains why changing the story takes time. I needed to tell the facts as best I know them. I'm glad someone else was there to calm the guy at the back of the room.
PCHR Press Release |
|
Ref: 116/2011
Date: 24 November 2011
Time:12:50 GMT
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Efforts Must Be Exerted to Stop Violence against Women
Tomorrow, 25 November 2011, marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which was adopted by the UN in December 1999 to eliminate violence against women around the world and to urge governments and governmental and international organizations to organize activities to raise awareness on the magnitude of this issue.
The significance of this day lies in addressing what has been achieved and what has to be achieved in the field of elimination of violence against women.
In recent years, Palestinian women have suffered severely due to the violence they have been subjected to for years as a result of the exceptional conditions they are forced to endure. They are victims of the crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) which created harsh and cruel living conditions. Furthermore, they are subjected to local community's physical and psychological violence practiced against them as part of socio-cultural heritage.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented the killing of three women in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) in 2011, while 35 other women were wounded. On 1 January 2011, Jawaher Abu Rahma, 35, was killed due to the inhalation of tear gas fired by IOF during a demonstration organized by Palestinian and international activists against the construction of the annexation wall in Bil'in village, west of Ramallah. On 08 April 2011, Najah Harb Salem Qdaih, 41, and her daughter Nidal Ibrahim Hamdan Qdaih, 19, were killed, while her other daughters, Nida', 18, and Fida', 15, sustained serious wounds, in an Israeli raid on their house in 'Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis.
This deterioration of the human rights situation and living conditions in oPt greatly affects the Palestinian women generally and in the Gaza Strip in particular. Additionally, the ongoing Israeli-imposed closure prevents thousands of women from enjoying their right to an adequate standard of living. As a result, their social life has been affected, due to which the local community's violence against them has increased.
Moreover, Palestinian women suffer from violence practiced against them by the local community in its many forms. In 2011, PCHR documented the killing of three women in the Gaza Strip and West Bank due to security chaos and misuse of weapons.
The year 2011 witnessed a clear improvement in the measures taken to put an end to violence practiced by the local community, particularly crimes committed to maintain "family honor". On 15 May 2011, President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decision with power of law, which would abolish the eased sentences issued against the crimes committed to maintain "family honor". Under this decision, article 340 of Chapter I/Part VIII of the Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 of 1960, applicable in the West Bank, is abolished. The decision also stipulates the amendment of article 18 of the Palestinian Penal Code No. 74 of 1936, applicable in the Gaza Strip, as the phrase “that does not include crimes committed against women to maintain ‘family honor’” was added at the end of the article.
PCHR welcomed the decision at the time and hoped that this decision would be a step towards the elimination of these crimes, as those who commit these crimes enjoy the immunity granted to them through the issuing of eased sentences against them. As a result, this phenomenon has been prevalent in the Palestinian society and resulted in opening the door for undermining the principle of the rule of law.
In light of the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian women in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, PCHR emphasizes the need for putting an end to this suffering. PCHR:
1- Calls upon the international community to urge Israel to respect human rights and international humanitarian law and to put an end to the violation of the Palestinians' rights, including women's right;
2- Calls upon the international community to an urgent intervention to force Israel to lift the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip and enable civilians, including women, to enjoy all of their rights, which are denied due to the closure;
3- Calls upon the Palestinian Authority to take the necessary actions to put an end to the internal violence practiced against the Palestinian women;
4- Calls for joint efforts of the government and civil society organizations to put an end to violence against women in oPt; and
5- Hopes, in view of the Palestinian reconciliation, that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will resume its activities and will develop a unified Palestinian penal code that conforms to the spirit and essence of the Palestinian Basic Law and to international human rights standards in order to guarantee public rights and freedoms.
Public Document
**************************************
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 - 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pc...@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
-----------------------------------
If you got this forwarded and you want to subscribe, send mail to req...@pchrgaza.org
and write "subscribe" in the subject line.http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3348.html
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Thirty
artists from different art expressions and representative people
in the world of communications have joined the Cuban campaign I
Say NO to Violence Against Women, promoted by the United Nations
System and Cuban Organizations. They took part in a Workshop for Artists held yesterday in Havana. This was a replication of one for Latin American colleagues held in Ciudad de Panama from September 28 to 30 when the Island was represented by musicians Haila María Mompié and David Torrens.
Cirenaica Moreira and Michel Pou (photographers), Carlos Díaz and his theatre company El Público, Carlos Celdrán and Alain Ortiz (theatre performers), Obinní Batá, Rochy Ameneiro, Sexo Sentido (musicians) and Abraham Bueno (transvestite Imperio) organized their own I Say NO at the end of the meeting at the Casa del ALBA.
Thus, "I say no to male chauvinism", "I say no to abuse", I say no to the accomplice silence of the media"… were some of the statements made by director of photography Luis Najmías Jr. in front of the TV cameras.
The spots will be shown at the Campaign Concert (entrance is free) next November 25 and after this through media.
The campaign organizers call for participation in the audiovisual materials of sportspeople, farmers, workers and other persons who wish to join in representing our diversity.
In this way, Cuba takes part for the first time in the multiannual campaign, ÚNETE, to put an end to violence against women, launched in 2008 by United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
UNETE…, will be active until 2015 and has the aim to foster public awareness and increase political will and resources to prevent and react against one of the most generalized violations of human rights in the world: violence against women
The actions of I say No to violence against women include the training of jurists jointly organized by CENESEX and the Unión Nacional de Juristas de Cuba next December
The Cuban campaign is organized by the Oficina de la Coordinadora Residente de ONU [UN Resident Coordinator Office] , UNESCO and UNFPA, with participación of UNDP, UNICEF and FAO, and the support of Cuban institutions CENESEX, the Unión de Juristas de Cuba, the Ministerio de Cultura, the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas and the Comisión Nacional de la UNESCO.
I say No to Violence Against Women CampaignReaching for a blue sky a hand with fingers of different skin colors, genders and professions to indicate the unity of a Cuba that acknowledges its diversity. This is the image chosen for the Campaign
The hand says stop the violence against women. But it is also a hand that rises, and joins in the movement to stop this phenomenon.
Likewise, through e-mails and social networks the organizers are asking the followers of this campaign to paint their right thumb nail red, as in the photo.
One+One…
"I'm concerned that there have been several actions on the subject which have not been included in a campaign inviting the whole country," said Cuban singer composer Rochy Ameneiro.
Ameneiro who leads cultural project Mujeres Contracorriente recently launched a video clip with Cuban Singer Omara Portuondo
"The challenge I see is how to achieve that all Cuban people and organizations, as well as the cooperation agencies that work on the subject, unite in the Campaign I say No to violence against women," she declared.
The Oscar A. Romero (OAR) Group for Dialogue and Discussion, the Centro Nacional de Prevención de las ITS/VIH/sida (CNP-sida)[National Center for the Prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS], the Sociedad Cubana Multidisciplinaria para el Estudio de la Sexualidad (Socumes) [Multidisciplinary Cuban Society for Sexuality Studies] and the Red Iberoamericana de Masculinidades [Ibero American Network of Masculinities] are organizing prevention, training and awareness activities on the subject.
They have received the support of foreign organizations like the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) [Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development] , OXFAM Canada and the Agencia Suiza para la Desarrollo y la Cooperación (COSUDE) [Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation].
Ver programa en Próximos eventos.
Descargar en PDF programa completo
http://files.sld.cu/sexualidadiversidad/files/2011/11/programa-yo-digo-no1.pdf
www.freethecuban5.com
freeth...@gmail.com
718-601-4751
Casa de Las Americas
182 E. 111th St.(btwn. Lexington Ave. and 3rd Ave.)
Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.
Suggested Donation: $5-10 (no one will be turned away)
On Friday Oct. 7th, Rene Gonzalez of the Cuban 5 was released on parole and returned to Miami, where Cuban 5’s unjust trial took place! The Cuban 5 are five U.S. held political prisoners incarcerated for fighting against terrorism in the United States and Cuba.
Miami is a city full of right wing anti-revolutionary Cuban Americans who could harm Rene. He has not seen his wife in 13 years, has no family in Miami and is being forced to spend the next three years there to serve his parole, instead of going back home to Cuba.
Join The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5 for our Artist benefit for Rene Gonzalez. Our goal is to raise money for his transition from prison to the outside.
Let Rene know that New York City loves him! Come out and enjoy this amazing afternoon of art, food, and film!
Poets/Film:
Sandra Maria Estevez
Louis Reyes Rivera
The Film: Will the real terrorist please stand up by Saul Landau:
This film chronicles half a century of hostile US-Cuba relations by telling the story of the “the Cuban five”, intelligence agents sent to penetrate Cuban exile terrorist groups in Miami and now serving long prison sentences. The film highlights decades of assassinations and sabotage at first backed then ignored by the very government that launched a “war against terrorism.” In the film, viewers see leading terrorists, now in their 80s, recounting their deeds, and Cuban state security officials explaining why they infiltrated agents into violent Miami exile groups. The film, featuring Danny Glover and 84 year old Fidel Castro in key scenes, raises and tries to answer the question: what did Cuba do to deserve such hostile treatment?
www.ProLibertadWeb.com
ProLi...@hotmail.com
718-601-4751
The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5
|
||||||||||
Every year, ProLibertad sponsors an event during November, Puerto Rican Heritage month, as a reminder of our rich heritage/history/legacy of struggle and resistance to U.S. colonialism. This year we are sponsoring, "Remembering the Vieques Struggle." Many people thought the struggle was over when the Navy stopped bombing on May 1st, 2003, but in reality the movement had just only begun! Join us for a night of conversation and agitation!
Monday Nov. 28th, 2011 at 6:30pm
Casa de Las Americas
182 E. 111th St. (btwn. Lexington Ave. and third Ave.) Take the 6 train to E. 111th St.
Suggested donation: $5-10 (no one will be turned away due to lack of funds)
BEFORE WE OCCUPPIED WALL STREET;
BEFORE THE UPR STUDENT STRIKE;
BEFORE THE PROTESTS OF THE GAS PIPELINE
THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE PROTESTED THE MOST POWERFUL NAVY IN THE WORLD AND WON!
Join the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign as welcome veteran Vieques activist Robert Rabin, Director of the Fort Count Mirasol Museum in Vieques and spokesperson of El Comite Pro-Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques, to New York!
Come hear an update on:
The Community Struggles in Vieques
The work for de-contamination
The devolution of Vieques’ lands
--
“They have succeeded in dominating us more
through ignorance, than through force”.
Simon Bolivar
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" - Steve Biko