Peace is Terror, Protest is Terror

"I'm a terrorist, you're a terrorist - we're all terrorist, la-la-la!" Yes the 'terrorist label is being thrown around to mean not "somebody who uses indiscriminate asymmetric violence to advance a political or religious cause" but "anyone who disagrees with me.." Hmmm:

Eric Blair, a.k.a. George Orwell, is often wrongly thought to have been writing science fiction in his seminal novel, 1984. In fact, he was simply warning about certain tendencies in governmental practice as actually observed not only in the mass authoritarian regimes but often in his own Britain.

Thus, newspeak, whereby the government calls things by their opposite, is an arrow in the quiver of the abject everywhere. So when the far rightwing government of Israel names anti-war peacenik Kenneth O’Keefe a “terrorist”, it is being Orwellian, but only in the sense of behaving as the worst governments typically do in contemporary times, not in the sense of resembling a dystopian future.

Rightwing Zionism is one of the more dangerous purveyors of newspeak nowadays. Former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz tried to invoke anti-terrorism laws forbidding attacks on US troops to keep peaceful protesters away from US military bases.

And it isn’t just governments. Israeli music promoter Shuki Weiss referred to the rash of cancellations by Western bands such as the Pixies of their scheduled appearances in Israel this summer as “cultural terrorism.” The musicians are protesting the aid flotilla massacre, in which 9 innocent persons were killed and 30 wounded. Come on. I’m not big on cultural or academic boycotts myself, but ‘cultural terrorism?’ How is declining to come a way of inspiring fear in someone? Maybe you could call it cultural passive-aggression. But terrorism?

So, Israeli logic:
The Pixies = terrorists.
Gil Scott-Heron = terrorist.
Peace protester = terrorist.
Aid convoy = terrorist convoy.

FFS - what a crock of shit. See if you can spot the difference...





Tough call.

More Links from the Freedom Flotilla

Here's a few more articles I think worth a read...

This is a power analysis of the defence of Israel of is violent actions:

The Israeli hyper-nationalists argue from contiguity, from things being next to each other, demonizing entire groups and peoples rather than considering their actions in the real world. Thus, IHH, the fundamentalist Turkish charity that sponsored the lead ship in the aid convoy, sympathizes with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The ship was then branded a “Hamas” vessel. But none of the passengers is known ever to have actually engaged in anything like terrorism and the Turkish government would not allow it to operate if it were actually considered radical (look at the way Turkish security tracks down the Turkish Hizbullah).

And, since Iran sympathizes with Hamas, as well, and since IHH is a known sympathizer with the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, actually the ship is not just a Hamas ship but is an Iranian one. Even though Iran had nothing to do with it and even though it had no weapons aboard. All of Gaza is transformed by this way of thinking (if you are sympathetic with a group, you are identical to that group and they are identical to you) into an “Iranian port on the Mediterranean.” In fact, of course, the Israelis do not allow the Gazans to have a port at all, much less an Iranian one. And, if that were the danger, then surely Tyre (in Lebanese Hizbullah territory) is already an ‘Iranian port on the Mediterranean,’ since Iran is a patron of Hizbullah. But wait, that situation already exists. And no one in Europe has been menaced by Tyre, of which most of them have not heard. Imaginary dangers in the future can always be dressed up as more menacing that mundane existing situations.

The fallacies of guilt by association, appeals to emotion, poisoning the well, etc., etc. reach such a crescendo in this Israeli discourse that the IHH charity is simultaneously accused of being a stalking horse for Shiite Iran and for Shiite-killing hyper-Sunni al-Qaeda. The absurdity of a whole host of European parliamentarians, former US diplomats, Nobel prize winners, and a Swedish novelist, being fronts for ‘al-Qaeda’ is so profound that it is like a Monty Python skit. ‘No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!’

Plus the Israli's are not doing themselves any favours in looking competent - first this botched raid and now botched propaganda:

The Israeli Ministry Foreign Affairs posted on its Flickr account pictures of the terrifying weapons they found on the IHH ship. You know, things like bulletproof vests for emergency services, pepper spray, kitchen knives, bits of wood and other weapons of mass destruction. Except that they did not realize that Flickr displays EXIF data, which is the information that cameras record when they take pictures: aperture, shutter speed, flash status... and the time the picture was taken.

Which, as Flickr commenters quickly pointed out, was sometime in 2006.

Now it is possible that the camera user did not set the correct date, which is why the camera is recording the wrong date on the photos - or it is possible that these photos are not from the flotilla - thus it looks either incompetent or dishonest.

Israel Plans to 'Revoke' Citizenship

Chilling plans to remove the citizenship of people found guilty of 'terrorism':

Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill Sunday to revoke citizenship of Israelis convicted of terrorist activity or of espionage for terrorist organisations.

At first some people might be tempted to think 'well why not, they are terrorists...' except that first the definition of terrorism is getting ever broader from what people might agree is terrorism, say planting bombs to just disagreeing with you:

Use of the term implies a moral judgment; and if one party can successfully attach the label terrorist to its opponent, then it has indirectly persuaded others to adopt its moral viewpoint.' Hence the decision to call someone or label some organization terrorist becomes almost unavoidably subjective, depending largely on whether one sympathizes with or opposes the person/group/cause concerned. If one identifies with the victim of the violence, for example, then the act is terrorism. If, however, one identifies with the perpetrator, the violent act is regarded in a more sympathetic, if not positive (or, at the worst, an ambivalent) light; and it is not terrorism.

Second, it seems to me that the emotion that terrorism generates can often lead to wrongful arrests and convictions; think of the Birmingham 6 - a group of innocent people wrongly convicted of terrorism - now add to the injustice the remove of their citizenship...

Seems to me this is further evidence of a right-ward and Orwellian movement of the Israeli state.

Israel's Moral Limbo

Following on from my last post about Israel, I noted this impassioned plea for progress and peace by the Israel paper Haaretz:

"Unfortunately, Israel's 62nd Independence Day finds it in a kind of diplomatic, security and moral limbo that is certainly no cause for celebration. It is isolated globally and embroiled in a conflict with the superpower whose friendship and support are vital to its very existence. It is devoid of any diplomatic plan aside from holding onto the territories and afraid of any movement. It wallows in a sense of existential threat that has only grown with time. It seizes on every instance of anti-Semitism, whether real or imagined, as a pretext for continued apathy and passivity. In many respects, it seems that Israel has lost the dynamism and hope of its early decades, and is once again mired in the ghetto mentality against which its founders rebelled."

It seems that the current military and diplomatic strategy, born in the fires of Neo-Conservatism, has not delivered anything except more perpetual war. The problem is that Israel will not will a demographic war with the Palestinians. Peace is their only hope, but it is held in check by extremists on both sides and a militarised state that can only envision war.

Fighting Islamic Terror with Help from Muslims

One of the most dull and wrong-headed ideas you hear of is all the bollox about islam being fundamentally violent. Yes, there are islamic extremists and they are nutty and brutal fuckheds but - and this is a huge but - all religions have their nutters. I don't want to be killed by some idiot with delusions of martyrdom, so I also have an interest in stopping radical islam. The question is what works - and time and time again it is shown that the Bu$h approach of 'with us or with the terrorists' is a simplistic and violent and counter-productive way to go about it. The shouting angry grrr of the BNP/EDL is also counter-productive, forcing moderate muslims into the arms of radicals who'll say 'see, we told you there is a war on islam, you must join us blah blah infidels blah glory of god'.

Back in 2005 I quoted from Jason Burke's book on the best way to stop islamic terrorism;

"Currently military power is the default, the weapon of choice, in fact the greatest weapon available in the war on terrorism is the courage, decency, humour and integrity of the vast portion of the worlds 1.3 billion Muslims. It is this that is restricting the spread of al-Qaeda and its warped world view, not the activities of counter-terrorist experts or the military strategists."

So here's an example of how that approach gets results, from the New York Times/Observer section on 20th December and the quote is by Audrey Kurth Cronin of the National War College (can't find a URL!) talking about the arrest of some guys who were allegedly plotting some terror attacks;

"To me, the most interesting thing about the five guys is that it was their parents that immediately when to the FBI. It was members of the American Muslim community that put a stop to whatever those men may have been planning."

My guess would be that the parents are prepared to shop them in partly because they didn't agree with their sons actions and partly because they believed that this administration would give them a fair trial and not ship them off to be tortured. Another victory for human rights.

A prediction for the future from the past

Check this out...

The hope of the future does not rest, as commonly believed, in winning the people of the "buffer fringe" to one superpower or the other, but rather in the invention of new weapons and tactics that will be so cheap to obtain and so easy to use that they will increase the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare so greatly that the employment of our present weapons of mass destruction will become futile, and on this basis there can be a revival of democracy and of political decentralization in all three parts of our present world. This possible development in political and military matters, would, of course, require the development of decentralized economic techniques such as would arise if sunlight became the chief energy source for production and the advancement of science made it possible to manufacture any desired substance by molecular rearrangement....

Now this was written in 1961!!! It seems to be that it argues that big weapon systems will becomes pointless - which is happening as proliferation grows and the scenario of mutually assured destruction arises. But also the use of non-state forces - i.e. terrorism - to wave war means that such weapons are useless because how can you nuke a tiny cell of people that might only number 10 hiding within your own city? Answer - you can't. It's also prescient because it envisions the decentralization of power (economic/energy) that seems to be about to happen. Very interesting...

Reading Room - Killing Rage

I've just finished reading Killing Rage by Eamon Collins.

This book is the personal account of Eamon Collins – an IRA man during the worst of the troubles, then turned state's witness, who is now dead, assassinated as he walked his dogs. Early on in the book a key formative event occurs that send Collins from by-stander to terrorist. A sniffer dog get excited during a search of their farm mistaking the small of creosote for explosives. The army (some of whom Collins claims had been drinking) then moved to arrest him, his dad and also his brother in a violent and protracted assault. Here is a sample of the account:

“They told me to lie on the floor [of the jeep] as three soldiers got in on either side of me. They began to hit me with their rifle buts on my legs arms, back and buttocks. I could hear my mother screaming hysterically. One of my guards shouted, 'fuck off you old whore!' as the jeeps drove off.”

During the journey and back at he army base, the torture and humiliation – akin to what we've seen in Guantanamo – continues until the army finally realise they've make a mistake and arrested 3 innocent men and release them...

“Other times I would feel a surge of rage whose power would unbalance me: I would sit alone in my room and think with pleasure of blowing the heads of those para[chute regiment] scum.”

A threat he would later make real as he proceeds to join the IRA and run intelligence operations targeting soldiers and cops. Other points he makes that are vial to understanding how a terror group operates are that without the support of committed and sizable groups of civilians to hide, provide intelligence and recruits, to finance and assist the IRA, they would simply not exist. Put simply while some of the ordinary people felt that the army and police were not there to protect them but to oppress them, they will support groups like the IRA. Here's that writ large in a reported discussion between Collins and a British intelligence officer, after he had turned against the IRA:

“One of his most interesting questions was: 'If I had unlimited resources to fight the IRA, how would you advise me to use them?' I had a simple answer: Support, encourage and make possible at every turn the development of Sinn Fein...once the Republican movement got sucked into the constitutional political system they would eventually be waving goodbye to the armed struggle.”

Which is exactly what happened. This is why the west should be taking to Hamas and the Taliban. There is simply no other choice and this book lay out why this is the case from an 'insider' point of view. Collins is also blunt about the damage the armed struggle does to the communities that support it, on how it forces the most aggressive and militant to the fore and how all involved- from the IRA to the British army – becomes locked in a military struggle of ever-descending depths.

This book should be read by all those making policy for the failing War of Terror. It gives the tactical - never mind moral – importance of why our human rights matter – more so during a time of war than in peace.

Death Threat to Student

In my inbox is an urgent call for help. A student organiser from Colombia, descendent of Maroon fighters against slavery, who has been involved in positive organizing among youth in his community. He is a member of a popular hip-hop band creating positive lyrics well-received by black Colombian youth. So naturally, the right-wing reactionary forces view organising and rapping as a threat and used the email account agente926@gmail.com to email him the following:

(I hope get it subversive son of bitch)

Good Day Mr _______, or better [nickname used here] as you choose, bad news I am afraid. For some time now we have been investigating you. The result of this investigation has helped us to deduce that you are a person attempting against the sovereignty and the economical growth of the people, bringing about the possibility of unleashing an era [this word era was wrongly spelled: “hera” is actually “era” in Spanish as well] of violence, bloodshed and terror for many people.

We know that at the moment you are organizing a subversive movement, which is growing fast, your recent connections with terrorists make you a deserver of this communicate. This administrative community orders you to desist of this terrorist idea, otherwise you will have to be exterminated for every ones well-being.

We want to clarify that this IS NOT a threat, neither a friends’ game, we know everything about you for example: which are the places you frequently go to, we know you have an account number with movistar (telephone company) N [number given here] with the line number [other number given], your email address is ___________ you are also part of a music group called _________, we know you have a double identity [the fact that he is in the university is one of the identities from what I can make out – translator’s note], you study in the university __________ currently doing 5 semester of foreign languages degree, we know that you have a long list of telephone calls registered to your account, including to members of the organization abroad, you have been going out of the country to meet them, a trip to Jamaica (ticket bought in London), and in the last two weeks you HAVE traveled with Avianca company to Medellin and Bogota Colombia to meet with new members and plan moves for this guerrilla organization. [Note: this was actually performance travel with his band.]

As you can see, we know more about you than you about us.

If you want to continue to be at the side of those you love and don’t want to get to know the other world that you think you can get. Mr. _____________ WITH CODE [this might be his id number] _________ This administrative community orders you to desist of this terrorist idea, otherwise you will have to be exterminated for everyone well-being.

THIS IS NOT A GAME DON’T TRY TO ESCAPE THROUGH THE ALLEY BEHIND YOUR HOUSE.

BECAUSE WE GOT AN EYE ON YOU.

Scary stuff. This is trying to silence people though fear; aka terrorism. You can email the Colombian Embassy to ask what they are doing to investigate - mail at colombianembassy.co.uk and send messages of solidarity to www.peoplesorganizing.org.

Gaza: The War Goes Outwards

With rocket strikes coming into Israel from Lebanon now, it looks like the war is escalating:

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to kill US troops in Iraq in revenge for the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. "I call upon the honest Iraqi resistance to carry out revenge operations against the great accomplice of the Zionist enemy,"

I had speculated before that in some respects Hamas may be happy to see Israeli ground troops in Gaza as it gives them a chance to hit back. Other pundits I have read are suggesting that Hamas's command and control is broken and the movement is only just hanging on. I'm not so sure - yes, I think they have taken a pounding (how could they not) but now video footage has emerged of their combat with Israeli forces:



In it you can see two attacks - one a sniper hitting a tank commander and the second is an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a rooftop hitting troops there. The second is of more significance as in advance, Hamas must have mapped were they thought the Israeli troops would go and planted the bombs there. Not only that, got a camera ready to film the moment when the explosives were detonated. This suggests a guerilla army that is far from dead - thought without independent journalists allowed in to verify what is going on it is speculation.

Other links of interest....

Not all Israeli's agree with the war.

The Gaza war has killed Neoconservatism.

Big protest in Bristol Friday.

Gaza: The Killing Goes On

So the killing goes on and on. Israel is pushing the idea that bombing schools will somehow bomb away terrorism and bomb their way to peace?

In 1996, Israeli jets bombed a UN building where civilians had taken refuge at Cana/ Qana in south Lebanon, killing 102 persons; in the place where Jesus is said to have made water into wine, Israeli bombs wrought a different sort of transformation. In the distant, picturesque port of Hamburg, a young graduate student studying traditional architecture of Aleppo saw footage like this on the news [graphic]. He was consumed with anguish and the desire for revenge. He immediately wrote out a martyrdom will, pledging to die avenging the innocent victims, killed with airplanes and bombs that were a free gift from the United States. His name was Muhammad Atta. Five years later he piloted American Airlines 11 into the World Trade Center....

You wonder if someone somewhere is writing out a will today? I bet there is. Why do we allow Isreal to threaten our peace and kill innocent people to appease the land-rights written the Bible. It's bonkers. Nice once Hugo Chavez for expelling the Israeli ambassador. We should too.

As to who is at fault for the current bout of fighting;

Thus, a systematic pattern does exist: it is overwhelmingly Israel, not Palestine, that kills first following a lull. Indeed, it is virtually always Israel that kills first after a lull lasting more than a week.

The lessons from these data are clear:

First, Hamas can indeed control the rockets, when it is in their interest. The data shows that ceasefires can work, reducing the violence to nearly zero for months at a time.

Second, if Israel wants to reduce rocket fire from Gaza, it should cherish and preserve the peace when it starts to break out, not be the first to kill.

Indeed.
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Gaza Moves Towards Endgame

As you will probably know, ground forces are now in Gaza and the fighting is intense. While Israel used it's air-power there was little Hamas could do other then fling inaccurate rockets in their general direction, but now there are boots on the ground - Hamas is in a position to strike back: so the situation reaches it's end-game. However this is still an asymmetric war where Israel has the advantage of armour, air-power, better weapons and better financing for its forces. Hamas has the ground and a willingness to embrace death.

The global fallout continues: on Friday in Kabul 3000 protesters took to the streets;

In the capital Kabul, up to 3,000 protesters gathered for several hours outside a key mosque where they shouted "Death to Israel", "Death to infidels" and Islamic chants such as "God is greater," an AFP reporter witnessed.

This is key because of the 'hearts-and-minds' that the West is trying to win over. This is a huge blow for that campaign and you can be sure the Taliban will be making hay out of this. So to more links of interest:

Very interesting essay from Juan Cole on the situation, history and most importantly the longer-term political and population demographics;

The main immediate problem for the Israelis is that simply preventing Hamas from waging an ever more sophisticated microwar is an extremely short-term and technical objective. It may or may not be achievable by the methods of the current war, which appear so far to be conventional methods. Its outcome is not very material to a settlement of the larger issues.

Helena Cobban writes on the options open to Isreal now - remember the famous von Clausewitz quote; 'war is a continuation of politics by other means' - so when the fighting stops (or indeed grinds on) - where next? Unlike a conventional war, all Hamas have to do to win is survive whereas the unclear aims of the Israelis seem not lead to definitive outcomes;

At the end of the day, to extricate itself from the uber-quagmire that Gaza represents, both physically in itself and politically throughout the region and the world, Israel will still have to engage in a negotiation with Hamas. Here's why....

Also of note is the use of micro-blogging like Twitter to follow events;

Here's the main Twitter #Gaza feed which the IDF are posting to) and Al Jazeera's one. Both are worth a look.

Some News Updates: Afganistan, Bristol, So-Called 'Eco-Terror' and Bristol

A few quick links that might be of interest updating some news I have been blogging about;

I blogged about the drug-wars of Mexico: things have got even worse since then. Recently the severed heads of 8 soldiers were found in a bag with a warning. A former DEA agent is claiming that elements in the US law enforcement are on the cartel's payroll;

One of Celerino [“Cele” Castillo III is a former DEA agent]'s discoveries, in particular, likely incurred the wrath of a particular federal agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco (ATF), Castillo claims. As part of his part-time work as a consultant on criminal cases, Castillo contends that he uncovered evidence that two ATF agents “were on the payroll of a Mexican cartel.” That “cartel,” Castillo asserts, is a paramilitary offshoot of the Mexican military that is being supplied with U.S. weapons, some only available through the U.S. military, by operatives on the U.S. side of the border.

Now the Guardian article above claims the army are seen as 'cleaner' than the corrupted and compromised cops. But are they?

But several other federal law enforcers who spoke with Narco News, on the condition their names not be used, don’t find his analysis to be far-fetched. “The Mexican military and government are corrupt,” one law enforcer says. “The Military escorts smugglers to the border. It’s a daily occurrence. The video cameras at the El Paso Intelligence Center have it all on video, filed away. If we report the suspicious activity to our superiors, nothing ever happens. It’s just covered up. “The Mexican military cartel has taken over Juarez. Our government knows it; they’re not stupid, but they’ve made some backroom deal with the Mexican government.”

It's a fuck-up. And from one fuck up to another: Afghanistan. Check this quote:

"The problem is the British. They support the Taliban." Why? "Because they want to control Afghanistan. They want us to stay fighting forever. The British only kill the innocent, they don't kill the Taliban."

And that's from a fucking police man! Yes, there are Afgan coppers who think the UK military are there to facilitate the drugs trade. Here's another one;

Crossing his long fingers, and speaking quietly, the uncle explained his trade. "If we smuggle 40kg, we give the Taliban 4kg. We pay the 10% as a zikat [Islamic tax] to the Taliban. And we pay another 10% to the government officials and the police.

Yup - both the Taliban and the cops are on the take. While the government, police and army of Afghanistan are so corrupt - and they are - the war there can never be won. UK soliders and cash are being used to prop-up a dysfunctional, corrupt and dead-end narco-state (like Mexico?).

And from one dead-end to another - so-called Eco Terrorism; Monbiot has weighed into the issue that us bloggers have been on for a while now;

Just as the misleading claims of the security services were used to launch an illegal and unnecessary war against Iraq, [National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit]'s exaggerations will be used to justify the heavy-handed treatment of peaceful protesters. In both cases police and spies are distracted from dealing with genuine threats of terrorism and violence.

And while NETCU were busy helping out polluters and corporations under the guide of 'fighting terrorism' this is what they should be doing;

A right-wing extremist who wanted to "secure a future for white children" and kept explosives at his Yorkshire flat was convicted on terrorism charges on Tuesday. Martyn Gilleard, 31, from Goole in East Yorkshire, was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of the preparation of terrorist acts and of collecting information useful for an act of terrorism. He had pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to possessing live ammunition and 39,000 indecent images of children. Police conducting a child pornography raid last October had discovered racist literature, home-made bombs, knives and a rifle at Gilleard's flat.

Finally another shout-out to the protesters in Bristol taking on Raytheon. Great work people!
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Bonkers Logic From The Right

I'm reading Al Franken's book 'Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right' - it is very US-centric (as you'd imagine as he is writing about US politics) but funny and the examples of logical and intellective dishonesty are staggering. Now I'm not pretending that dumb thinking is the preserve of the right, far from it, (witness examples of so-called progressives defending the Neo-Labour party) but sometimes - sometimes, well, it takes your breath away. Witness this example from singer and evangelical nutter, Pat Boone;

What troubles me so deeply, and should trouble all thinking Americans, is that there is a real, unbroken line between the jihadist savagery in Mumbai and the hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of our homegrown sexual jihadists [protesting for the rights for marrage for gay couples].

I spluttered tea everywhere when I read that. Duh!!! Is there not common ground between the Muslim jihadists and the Christian right in that they are both anti-gay (to say the least) and both very conservative about sexual issues? If so there is not an unbroken line between struggles for sexual liberation and jihadist savagery in Mumbai at all as they are on opposite sides of the issue. Now the question becomes, is there an unbroken line between Ronald Regan's support from jihadists in the 1980s and jihadist savagery in Mumbai?
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Police Soften Up Public for Clampdown on Environmental Activists

You can see the beginning stages of a campaign by police to soften the public up for a repression of environmental protesters as campaigns around global warming hot up. As it looks possible for the government to push forward/allowing a number of massive carbon-white elephants, from locals schemes like the Bristol Ring Road or Bristol Airport Expansion to national projects like Heathrow or more coal fired power stations. There is a long tradition of non-violent direct action in the country from opposition to slavery, for universal suffrage to stopping apartheid. However the power-that-be don't seem to want to see it this way. This article shows how the cops have been briefing the media;

Police have warned of the growing threat of eco-terrorism after revealing they are investigating a group which has supporters who believe that reducing the Earth's population by four-fifths will help to protect the planet....Officers from a specialist unit dedicated to tackling domestic terrorism are monitoring an eco-movement called Earth First! which has advocates who state that cutting the Earth's population by 80 per cent will ease pressure on other species. Officers are concerned a 'lone maverick' eco-extremist may attempt a terrorist attack aimed at killing large numbers of Britons.

rIIIGHT. A lone maverick would be just that - a lone maverick outside any group. This could and sadly does happen anyway with or without the ideology of environmentalism. Interesting how the article then links the lone maverick to various groups like Earth First! who use non-violent direct action. This is lazy journalism to take the cops story at face value, for there have been a couple of people wounded by a bomb related to Earth First!....but those wounded (Judi Bari & Darryl Cherney) were from the group itself and while initially the cops tried to frame them for the bomb that nearly killed the activists themselves. A court case subsequently decided that the cops never bothered trying to find out who really did it, but were intent on framing the environmentalists and gathing more data about the protest movement. The jury in the case awarded the pair $4.4 million total damages for the illegal police actions;

The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD [Oakland Police Department] defendants framed Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer [protests].

We have seen this type of media operation before; All the major summits have a pre-ceding media campaign where the police express their 'fears' of violent protesters. For example in Genoa the police even uncovered actual weapons! However it turned out they were planted by the cops. The police who battered protesters without provocation turned out to the the real purveyors of violence. Another good example comes from Donson et al's 2004 research;

This paper argues that we are currently witnessing the development of a new type of folk devil...The paper examines the way in which anti-capitalist activists are constructed as a new class of folk devil through the media portrayal of protests and the associated political and expert comment. In this process prominent politicians and senior police officers identify activists as 'violent', 'mindless thugs', views widely reproduced in print and broadcast media. The reasons for, and results of, this construction are varied but it is argued that primary amongst these is the ability to trivialise and dismiss activists through a rejection of their behaviour as simply destructive and dangerous. This then facilitates a silencing of these alternative voices in terms of both wider debates on the pros and cons of citizens rights to protest within neo-liberal capitalist democracy and wider contested issues of social and economic justice.

The Observer article is a big 'un - almost 1000 words to drive the message home. Compare this with less than 100 words written about the arrest of a man accused of carrying a Waffen SS UK Members Handbook and two improvised explosive devices last week. The Observer article have this classic statement;

Reports on the Earth First! Journal website, which tells users how to send encrypted emails, reveals connections to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) which has been linked to a series of violent attacks in the US. ELF was classified as the top domestic terrorism threat in the US by the FBI in March 2001.

I would contest the use of the term 'violence' - and there are a couple of good debates about this issue on Bristol Indymedia (1,2)- no people were hurt by Earth First! only property. So that would be the March 2001, 6 months before radical Islamic terrorists crashed planes into the twin towers and killed thousands and the FBI failed to stop them? Oh the irony: perhaps they were too busy looking in the wrong place?

When is a Terrorist not a Terrorist?

One of the insanities on the war of terror is the idea of stopping terror, a dumb concept as I bet most people can't agree on what is and is not a terrorist - freedom fighter/insurgent/terrorist - depends on your point of view. The Nazi's called the French resistance fighters 'terrorists' - I'd call them freedom fighters. On this subject:

Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday....It's a horrible and sordid story of idiots with guns, but in scanning the various news sources, there is a curious but obvious word missing — a word that normally our media and government fling about with unscrupulous abandon.

Indeed. I would apply the same logic to the UK and US use of extra-judicial killings in Iraq and beyond - state terrorism. This is also interesting - that Sarah Palin refused to acknowledge the existence of right-wing domestic terrorists in her NBC interview that aired last night.

The Expanding (and Failing) War or Terror

As the twilight of the failed Bu$h presidency comes to a close, the war of terror that is his legacy is spinning out of control. We can see cross-border raids, counter to international law in Syria (and analysis);

The Bush administration seems to be ratcheting up action against Syria during its last days in power. The cross border raid undertaken on Sunday, which killed eight people, seems to fit into a broader pattern of the Bush administration initiating cross boarder attacks into countries that it is not officially at war with.

In Pakistan, in an attempt to prop-up the failing war in Afghanistan;

[In] Afghanistan another 33,000 embattled American troops (and tens of thousands of NATO troops), suffering their highest casualties since the Taliban fell in 2001, are fighting a spreading insurgency backed by growing anger over foreign occupation. The disintegration seems to be proceeding apace in that country as the Taliban begins to throttle the supply routes leading into the Afghan capital of Kabul, while the governor of a province just died in an IED blast. "President" Hamid Karzai was long ago nicknamed "the mayor of Kabul." Today, that tag seems ever more appropriate as the influence of his corrupt government steadily weakens....In the meantime, in Pakistan, a new war, no less unpredictable and unpalatable than the last two, develops, as American strikes fan the flames of Pakistani nationalism. Already the Pakistani military may have fired its first warning shots at American troops. Part of the horror here is that much of the present nightmare in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be traced to the sorry U.S. relationship with Pakistan's military and its intelligence services back in the early 1980s.

Possibly in Iran:

I think it is too late now for the 'bomb Iran' networks that are deeply dug into various portions of the US political elite to launch an 'October surprise,' i.e. a military action against Iran designed to escalate tensions in the Gulf region-- and also, crucially, toincrease the climate of fear within the US in a way that would push voters to rally round John McCain....However, it is not too late for an 'inter-regnum surprise', that is, a military attack against Iran designed to escalate tensions in the Gulf region to the point that that region and the whole world system become a chaotic stew of catastrophe that would then be handed to President-elect Barack Obama to deal with, come January..

All this in the face of the former head of MI5 pointing to the war in Iraq bringing MORE nor LESS security:

She challenges claims, notably made by Tony Blair, that the war in Iraq was not related to the radicalisation of Muslim youth in Britain. Asked what impact the war had on the terrorist threat, she replies: "Well, I think all one can do is look at what those people who've been arrested or have left suicide videos say about their motivation. And most of them, as far as I'm aware, say that the war in Iraq played a significant part in persuading them that this is the right course of action to take." She adds: "So I think you can't write the war in Iraq out of history. If what we're looking at is groups of disaffected young men born in this country who turn to terrorism, then I think to ignore the effect of the war in Iraq is misleading."

All this while the media are busy with the financial crisis made in part by the cost of the war of terror and the leaders who fostered it.
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al-Qaida's Supposed Defeat

There is a good piece in response to the CIA's claims that al-Qaida is on the ropes by Jason Burke (His book on al-Qaida is a good read);

When CIA director Michael Hayden last week spoke of the imminent "strategic defeat" of al-Qaida, he surprised many. Some, such as Professor Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University, immediately pointed out that Hayden is a political nominee speaking in election year and that the new optimistic analysis flew in the face of everything the intelligence community had been saying for months....

Burke talks about a guy, al-Suri, who wrote lots on the strategy of global terror and has a different idea of how they should fight from Bin Laden. I checked out more about this and found an interesting quote by al-Suri in another article where he remarks that the actions of the US and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown him that they are so evil that it justifies a nuclear/chemical/biological terror attack. The implication is that prior to the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan he was not convinced of the need for such destruction, after he was. I don't have the original documents, but this suggests another example of how the War of Terror (TM) is making us less not more safe.

It is also costing some serious money and freedom in the process;

The total Pentagon budget represents more than our combined spending on education, environmental protection, justice administration, veteran's benefits, housing assistance, transportation, job training, agriculture, energy, and economic development. No wonder, then, that, as it collects ever more money, the Pentagon is taking on (or taking over) ever more functions and roles.

And it is set to grow. This is why the 42 days must be opposed, why the war of terror must be stopped.
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The War on Terror: Hearts & Minds Loss

I watched the documentary 'Age of Terror' by Peter Taylor the other day about the IRA bombing of the remembrance day parade back in 1987. Part of the discussion of the attack was around if the IRA planned to kill civilians and it seemed to be the consensus that they did not, but they were more than prepared to accept them as 'collateral' for the attack on the security forces. The framing of this bit was with revulsion, of course. But if you follow this line, this is the same justification Britain and America uses in Iraq and Afghanistan, that some resistance groups in Iraq use when they plant an IED and so on. Some groups are deliberately targeting civilians, a further jump down the moral pit. I would argue that the UK/U$ abandonment of any pretense of morality in this war is not much different from the 'evil dooers'. This brings me to my 'quote for the day';

The war on terror, O'Connor [counsel to Salahuddin Amin, tortured with complicity the of MI5] suggested, "has led those on both sides ... to share common standards of illegality and immorality".

The same documentary also highligted how the IRA's war could only have been ended politically. So click here is a 'picture for the day';

Says it all really.
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Neo-Labour's CONsultation (again, again).

You can't read about the actions of this government without a strong surge of anger each time a minster opens their mouth. Conforming to the stereotype of a politician in that they say whatever and ignore the people;

Another big recent consultation concerned changes to the planning laws now going through parliament. Here too the ghost of Ambrose Bierce hovers: it is widely believed among those consulted that the bill was drafted before their responses were analysed. The bill was inspired by the public inquiry into Heathrow terminal five, which lasted five years - too long, to the government's mind. The terminal, which opens next month, was authorised by that inquiry on condition it is the final expansion of Heathrow, a condition accepted by the government and now rather forgotten about. The bill severely curtails the right to object to planning applications, and it will become law before the British Airports Authority submits its application to build a third runway.

Yes, it's a stitch-up of colossal proportions. The way is being cleared for BAA, a Spanish-owned private company, to displace thousands of people; to flatten the historic village of Sipson (no consultation roadshow has been held there, owing to lack of a "suitable location") - all in order to build a runway generating annual carbon emissions equivalent to those of Kenya.

This government claims to care about what 'the people' say, but clearly does not. It claims to care about climate change, but clearly does not. Do I think any other government would act differently? No, they are addicted to the growth model and nothing, not climate-chaos or democracy, will change the government. And don't think it is just here, this government and now. Recently released papers in the U$A show how the government there turned a blind eye to terrorism;

Cuban exiles based in the United States – during George H.W. Bush’s year in charge of the CIA – outpaced Palestinian terrorists in terms of a total body count... After the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, the U.S. government presented itself as the innocent victim of international terrorism with a moral right not only to pursue the “bad guys” across the globe but to subject some captives to torture, to lock others up indefinitely without trial, and to launch attacks that have killed many thousands of innocents.

In the years that have followed, there were few recollections of the days under the current president’s father when the bloodiest terrorists were 'our guys.'

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Maori Resistance and the War of Terror


I read an article in the Guardian recently about a group of Maori's who were arrested under a giant terrorist sweep:

Sixteen people are on trial in Auckland district court following the raids, the culmination of a year-long police undercover operation that involved up to 300 officers and was centred on the isolated North Island hamlet of Ruatoki, gateway to the Urewera mountains that are home to the fiercely independent Tuhoe tribe. The raids followed sightings of "armed men in camouflage and balaclavas moving through forests carrying heavy packs and firearms". There are unconfirmed claims that among the weapons seized was a napalm bomb, or perhaps some molotov cocktails, and rumours that the prime minister, Helen Clark, may have been a target

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It all sounds very dramatic and seems to follow the pattern of similar UK raids that were all hype and no substance; the duff Forest Gate raid the so-called ricin plot and so on - the War of Terror gone mad (or exploited for political reasons). Thanks to Indymedia New Zealand we are able to find out loads more about this case and how it has panned out, and yes, so far the 'terrorism' looks like all smoke and mirrors:

At a press conference broadcast live on radio new zealand, solicitor-general David Collins has announced his decision denying a police request to lay charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act. This means that none of the 17 people arrested in so-called "terror raids" will be charged under the terrorism act. The solicitor general had access to police evidence which has not been made public. Although he stated that the police had 'acted properly' in their investigation, he denied the request to lay charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The War of Terror has always had a duplicitous and insidious hidden agenda of geo-strategic control and this is now becoming increasingly clear - it is a War on Democracy, for example we see Musharraf in Pakistan, our ally, arresting democracy supporters under the guise of 'combating extremism', given the billions of dollars he receives in military aid, his move could not have happened without some form of complicity.

PS. Its remembrance day and a couple of links of note:
http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/
http://www.ppu.org.uk/poppy/index.html

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