Terrorist suspects freed pending trial

April 9, 2011 ekathimerini

Three alleged members of Revolutionary Struggle get conditional release;
another three still in custody

Three suspected members of the Revolutionary Struggle urban guerrilla
group were granted conditional release by a council of appeals court
judges on Wednesday after almost exactly a year in custody.

Christoforos Kortesis, Evangelos Stathopoulos and Sarantos Nikitopoulos
were allowed to leave jail after posting 3,000-euro bail payments and
agreeing to report to their local police station twice a month.

Nikos Maziotis, a self-professed member of the group and its presumed
leader, is to remain in custody along with his girlfriend Panayiota Roupa
and the sixth suspect Costas Gournas.

The six suspects were arrested last April following police raids in Attica
and other parts of Greece.

The group emerged in 2003 with the boming of an Athens court and
subsequently claimed a string of hits on government and business targets.
It is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the US Embassy
in 2007.

Call for solidarity: Social Center Satama under threat of eviction (Helsinki, Finland)

April 6, 2011 Anarchist News

The situation at Social Center Satama is critical. The city of Helsinki is
threatening Satama and the Roma camp at the social center's yard with an
eviction. No one knows currently when the eviction will come - if it comes
- if the city will not agree on our conditions.

At this point the Roma living in the camp have said that a camp without
electricity in the yard of the social center is better than one under a
bridge. The Rescue Department has stated, that they will not accept the
camp in any way. To make sure that the Roma camp and Social Center Satama
stay, and that activities in both are possible to continue, it is crucial
to get as many people as possible to defend their existence. It is also
possible to create pressure on the city's officials by other means so that
they must make a political decision in favor of the social center and the
Roma people. All kinds of solidarity actions are more than welcome at this
point.

We need the help of our friends and comrades to ensure that the outcome
will be victorious, but also pleasant. We hope to have you with us in
erecting barricades, helping in cooking, as well as playing music and
hanging out with us. Autonomous spaces are part of the cityscape and will
stay so!

We can expect anything from the city and the situation may change
dramatically soon, or this state of standoff may continue. To shed some
light on how this state of affairs came to be, here is some background:

The city of Helsinki got their best excuse to evict the Roma camp, which
has been a thorn in their side for several years, on last November, when
there was a fire in the yard of Social Center Satama. After this
unfortunate incident, the Rescue Department started harassing the camp.
Despite all efforts to improve the safety of the camp (e.g., arranging
training about fire safety for the Roma), the Rescue Department has
refused to cooperate with the social center. In the end the city pressured
the Roma to leave the country giving each 300 euros for travelling
expenses and stating that there is no place for them stay here.

About a month ago some Roma came to ask from Social Center Satama if the
camp in the yard could be re-opened. The answer was clear, as it has
always been - the Roma could camp in the yard and they could get
electricity from the social center. The city officials and the Rescue
Department responded quickly to the re-opening of the camp by stating that
the camp is not suitable for living as opposed to staying under a bridge
where you can't get running water or electricity for heating. Even though
we tried to negotiate with the Rescue Department to make improvements in
the safety of the camp, they were unanimous that the camp must be closed.
It seems obvious that behind this decision is the hostility of certain
leading officials of the city against the Roma and the social center. The
safety of delivering electricity to the camp has been improved all the
time, and the current arrangements have been approved by a professional
electrician. Still, the Rescue Department hasn't accepted it and they
state that the problem is in the user. Which basically means that they are
saying that Roma are incapable of using electricity.

Thus, after long negotiations with the Rescue Department on Thursday the
24th of March it seemed that an eviction was certain. Barricades to defend
the camp were erected immediately around the yard and many supporters of
the camp showed up. At this point though, the officials had not yet
requested for help from the police. In the end we agreed on a temporary
solution with the Rescue Department to house the Roma of the camp in the
social center over the weekend. In addition the Rescue Department removed
all vehicles from the yard and one trailer, so that no-one could live in
it, and made sure that it's not possible to drive into the yard. The deal
was in many ways stupid, and didn't improve the safety of the camp or the
social center in any way, as it also made it impossible for emergency
vehicles to drive into the yard.

After the weekend the social center stopped being a "fire safe" space
during the nights and the Rescue Department was again in favor of evicting
the camp. The barricades were re-erected and made stronger, and the people
of the social center began to guard the camp to keep police and other
unwanted types away. At the same time the city continued talking about
"solving the problem", without achieving anything. Jarmo Räihä, the
so-called Leading Expert from the Social Services Department, who is
appointed by the mayor, Jussi Pajunen, into a working-group about Roma
affairs, managed to screw up many times during the week. Räihä offered
accomodation for the Roma in a housing unit for homeless people, which was
already over-burdened. The Roma refused the deal, stating that they didn't
want to take space from other homeless people. After this, we turned on
the electricity to the camp, started renovating it and continued waiting
and preparing for an eviction.

On Thursday the 31st of March the Youth Department's Director Lasse
Siurola, told that he had requested the police to evict the camp. Later we
learned that the request had been illegal, as the landlord cannot evict
the tenants with the help of police without first changing the contract.
After this failed, the Rescue Department took yet again the role of the
harasser. After that we have been staying in the house and behind
barricades keeping an eye on police patrols and other "concerned citizens"
in the immediate vicinity of the social center.

On the morning of the 5th of April two officials came to discuss about the
situation. The officials were surprisingly rational and said that their
employer was against the camp, but also that the Rescue Department and
police are unwilling to have an eviction, as it would only mean that the
social center and the camp would be re-opened somewhere else or even at
the same location. They promised not to continue harassing us any longer,
but a couple of hours later a truck with a load of large blocks drove to
the yard in an attempt to fence off the yard. After a while the trucked
deemed it best to drive off.

The latest requirement from the Rescue Department is a 24/7 monitoring of
the social center and the yard, and sending the bill to the Youth
Department. We all understand that the Youth Department has better ways to
spend their money than to pay for the ridiculous surveillance of adults
around the clock.

The latest rumor is that the eviction is just around the corner, but as we
said, we can expect anything from the city.

For more info:
http://www.satama.org and sosiaalikeskushki (at) gmail.com

Solidarity to Mapuche communities! Freedom for all Mapuche political prisoners NOW!

April 7, 2011 Void Mirror

From Athens Greece, from Mexico city to London, from New York to Bilbao,
from Hamburg to Sofia and from Katmandhou to San Francisco, from all the
active cells of Void Network we are expressing our solidarity to the
struggle of Mapuche for Mother Earth, for the Dignity and Freedom of their
communities, for the Freedom and Dignity of all of us. The Struggle of
Mapuche people is our own struggle, their dreams are our own dreams!
Freedom for all political prisoners, Freedom for all Mapuche prisoners
NOW!

Dear Friends,
this is a message from
Mexico City, 23rd March 2011.

Last September we contacted you during the more than eighty day hunger
strike staged by Mapuche political prisoners in Chile. At that time we
also made a call for international support, numerous individuals and
organizations signed up to this cause and responded to the call for
support. This included various meetings in the Chilean Embassy in Mexico
City in Europe and in other countries around the world which formed part
of the international events to provide solidarity and support to these
political prisoners in Chile. The hunger strike was ended with an
agreement on the part of the Chilean government to not try the detained
under terrorist law (which also permits repeated prosecution for the same
crime). The hunger strike and the mass support in Chile and beyond made a
huge impact, pressurising the Chilean government to respect the basic
individual guarantees for the prisoners. Last March all of the seventeen
Mapuche political prisoners, persecuted for supposed terrorist crimes,
were cleared of those supposed crimes and the majority of them were freed.
However, four prisoners who are members of the Arauco Malleco Organisation
(Coordinadora Arauco Malleco) have been condemned to prison sentences of
between twenty and twenty five years. These are Ramón Llanquileo
Pilquiman, José Huenuche, Jonathan Huillical and Héctor Llaitul. It is
important to note that the Arauco Malleco Organisation is one of the
Mapuche organisations which is most active in the defence of communal land
against forestry companies and which vindicates indigenous autonomy most
rigorously. It is clear that the sentences are not only severely
disproportionate however there are also political reasons behind their
invention. The prisoners have now begun another hunger strike which
started on the fifteenth March. At the time of writing this hunger strike
continues. The prisoners defence will appeal against the sentences,
presenting a call to declare the charges void to the Chilean Supreme Court
of Justice. The principal arguments are that in these cases “faceless
witnesses” were permitted. These secret witnesses are anonymous and the
defence is not permitted to have any form of contact with them.
Furthermore, during their detention and time in prison there have been
violations of constitutional guarantees, confessions under torture,
declarations outside of the allowed time limit and without the presence of
defending lawyers. There has also been repeated trial for the same
alleged crime.
It is therefore that support groups from various parts of the world will
impulse diverse actions of solidarity for the prisoners and pressure on
the Chilean government. The objectives are to support the demand to
declare the charges and trial void that have been declared against these
four prisoners. In these actions we also send a message of solidarity to
those prisoners on hunger strike.
As part of these actions we also send another letter to you with the hope
that we can once again count on your signature. We send you warm regards.

Support Organisation for the Mapuche political prisoners in Chile [
Mexican Section.]
We, artists, academics, indigenous, civil and popular organisations of
various nationalites wish to make public our concern for the sentences
against the Mapuch political prisoners in Chile, Ramón Llanquileo
Pilquiman, José Huenuche, Jonathan Huillical y Héctor Llaitul. We find
the enormous sentences against them alarming as well as the fact that they
have not had the legal guarantees that protect the most basic of human
rights. It must be considered that the State can not respond to
indigenous demands of land, territory and autonomy by criminalising social
protest. We call upon the Chilean State to guarantee the due and proper
trial of the detained, a trial without the use of secret witnesses, with
tribunal impartiality, dignified conditions of detainment and an end to
repeated trial for the same alleged crimes. We call upon the Chilean
State to the rights and basic guarantees of the Mapuche people, to
recognise the rights of indigenous peoples consecrated in the 169th
declaration of the WLO and to respond urgently to the demands of the
hunger strikers. We send a message of solidarity from all over the world
to the prisoners and their families.


autonomía! autogestión! horizontalidad! libertad!


Jovenes en Resistencia Alternativa

www.espora.org/jra

ciudad de méxico: 36266692

Void Network
[Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts]
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com

please send your messages of solidarity:
the signs will be received in

libertadpresosmapuche@gmail.com

for more info about the Mapuche Nation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche

for a short intro of the struggle of Mapuche in 21st century:
http://www.13point7billion.org/2009/12/still-fighting-chiles-mapuche.html

Syrian protests turn deadly; 32 reported killed

By BASSEM MROUE and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press April 8, 2011

BEIRUT – Mass protests calling for sweeping changes in Syria's
authoritarian regime turned deadly Friday, with the government and
protesters both claiming heavy casualties as the country's three-week
uprising entered a dangerous new phase.

The bloodiest clashes occurred in the restive city of Daraa, where human
rights activists and witnesses said Syrian security forces opened fire on
tens of thousands of protesters, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds.

At the same time, state-run TV said 19 policemen and members of the
security forces were killed when gunmen opened fire on them. It was the
first significant claim of casualties by the Syrian government, which has
contended that armed gangs rather than true reform-seekers are behind the
unrest — and it could signal plans for a stepped-up retaliation.

The protests were in response to calls by organizers to take to the
streets every Friday to demand change in one of the most rigid nations in
the Middle East. Marches were held in cities across the country as the
movement showed no sign of letting up, despite the violent crackdowns.

At least 32 protesters were killed nationwide, according to human rights
activists. The bloodshed lifted the death toll from three weeks of
protests to more than 170 people, according to Amnesty International.

The calls for reform have shaken the regime of President Bashar Assad,
whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years. Assad, a
British-trained eye doctor, inherited power from his father 11 years ago
and tried to help the country emerge from years of international isolation
and lift Soviet-style economic restrictions.

But despite early promises of social and political change, Assad has
slipped back into the autocratic ways of his father.

As the wave of protests have gathered steam, Assad has offered some
limited concessions — firing local officials and forming committees to
look into replacing the country's despised emergency laws, which allow the
regime to arrest people without charge. On Thursday, he granted
citizenship to thousands of Kurds, fulfilling a decades-old demand of the
country's long-ostracized minority.

But those gestures have failed to mollify a growing movement that is
raising the ceiling on its demands for concrete reforms and free
elections.

"The protests are about Syrians wanting freedom after 42 years of
repression," said Murhaf Jouejati, a Syria expert at George Washington
University. "Mr. Assad may fire all the people he wants, this still
doesn't touch on the basic issues and the basic demands of the
protesters."

Witness accounts out of Syria could not be independently confirmed because
the regime has restricted media access to the country, refusing to grant
visas to journalists and detaining or expelling reporters already in the
country. Daraa has largely been sealed off and telephone calls go through
only sporadically.

But residents, who spoke to The Associated Press independently of each
other, said mosques were turned into makeshift hospitals to help tend to
hundreds of wounded.

One man who helped ferry the dead and wounded to the city's hospital said
he counted at least 13 corpses.

"My clothes are soaked with blood," he said by telephone from Daraa. Like
most activists and witnesses, he requested anonymity for fear of
reprisals.

A nurse at the hospital said they had run out of beds; many people were
being treated on the floor or in nearby mosques.

Videos posted on YouTube showed demonstrations in at least 15 towns, large
and small, across the country. The videos could not be independently
confirmed, but they appeared to show the most widespread gatherings since
protests began.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads Syria's National Organization for Human Rights,
said 32 people were killed nationwide: 25 in Daraa, three in the central
city of Homs, three in the Damascus suburb of Harasta and one in the
suburb of Douma.

Douma has become a flashpoint after eight people were shot dead there last
Friday.

One activist said tens of thousands protested and dispersed peacefully in
the early afternoon, but he saw security forces open fire later in the
evening as a group tried to enter Douma. He said he saw security forces
taking a body away.

Protests were also reported in Latakia, which has a potentially volatile
mix of different religious groups. The city has seen violence in recent
weeks, and some fear it could take on a dangerous sectarian tone in
Latakia.

Syria had appeared immune to the unrest sweeping the Arab world until
three weeks ago, when security forces arrested a group of high school
students who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall in Daraa.

Protests then exploded in cities across the country.

A city of about 300,000 near the border with Jordan, Daraa is suffering
sustained economic effects from a yearslong drought.

___

AP writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Diaa Hadid in Cairo contributed to
this report.



Yemen's Saleh again rejects move to replace him

By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobari – Reuters Fri Apr 8, 2011

SANAA (Reuters) – Protests in Yemen descended into violence on Friday in
which at least four people were killed and dozens wounded as President Ali
Abdullah Saleh rejected a Gulf Arab plan to secure an end to his 32 years
in power.

Saleh, facing an unprecedented challenge from hundreds of thousands of
protesters, initially accepted an offer by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf
Arab states, as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), to hold talks
with the opposition.

On Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said
the GCC would strike a deal for Saleh to leave.

But on Friday, Saleh told tens of thousands of supporters in the capital
Sanaa "We don't get our legitimacy from Qatar or from anyone else ... we
reject this belligerent intervention."

Frustration with the impasse may push the thousands of Yemenis who have
taken to the streets closer to violence. Two protesters were shot dead on
Friday, bringing the death toll from clashes with security forces this
week to at least 23.

"I don't think the GCC or the West want Yemen to go down the road of
Libya, because that's exactly where it's going," said Theodore Karasik, an
analyst at the Dubai based INEGMA group.

"The more entrenched Saleh gets, the greater the outside pressure, so this
could really illustrate how much influence outside powers actually have
over Yemen."

Clashes broke out in Taiz between hundreds of protesters and security
forces who fired gunshots and tear gas. Two protesters were shot dead and
25 wounded by gunfire, doctors said. Some 200 were hurt by tear gas
inhalation.

The protesters were carrying to the cemetery the bodies of five people
killed earlier in the week when police halted them.

In the port city of Aden, once the capital of an independent south, police
fired shots to disperse thousands of protesters. Some 15,000 gathered in
the Red Sea port of Hudaida to demand Saleh quit and mourn six killed in
protests there on Monday.

"We're tired of this poverty and oppression in Hudaida and all of Yemen,"
said protester Abdullah Fakira. "Enough already."

Some 40 percent of Yemen's 23 million people live on less than $2 a day
and a third face chronic hunger. Poverty and exasperation with rampant
corruption drove the pro-democracy protests that began over two months
ago, protesters say.

AL QAEDA FEARS

Even before the protests erupted, inspired by regional uprisings, Saleh
was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shi'ite
insurgency in the north. The violence could give al Qaeda's Yemen-based
regional wing more room to operate.

All this adds to concern about stability in a country that sits on a
shipping lane through which more than three million barrels of oil pass
each day.

On Friday, local officials from Abyan, a center of militancy, told Reuters
that troops were trying to retake the city of Jaar, from which they
retreated two weeks ago saying they had been overpowered by militants.

Security forces surrounded Jaar with tanks and artillery and clashed with
"jihadist militants" who appeared to have fled, one official said. He said
troops would soon enter the city.

The United States and Yemen's key financial backer, Saudi Arabia, both
targets of attempted attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, appear
ready to push aside their long-time ally to avoid a chaotic collapse.

Apparently trying to avoid a snub to Saleh's main backer, a presidential
aide told Reuters Saleh's comments were not aimed at Saudi Arabia's offer
to host GCC mediated talks.

"The president welcomes the efforts of our brothers in the Gulf to solve
the crisis but rejects statements from the Qatari prime minister which he
considers interference in Yemen's affairs," the aide said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner released a statement saying
Washington welcomed the initiative.

"We strongly encourage all sides to engage in this urgently needed
dialogue to reach a solution supported by the Yemeni people," he said.
"President Saleh has publicly expressed his willingness to engage in a
peaceful transition of power; the timing and form of this transition
should be identified through negotiation and begin soon."

The Wall Street Journal said Washington froze its largest aid package to
Yemen in February, worth $1 billion or more over several years.

The Washington Post said a Yemeni opposition party leader had told a U.S.
embassy official in Sanaa there had been a secret plan to oust Saleh less
than two years ago.

COMPETING DEMONSTRATIONS

Pro-democracy protesters held a "Friday of firmness" in Sanaa, shouting
"You're next, you leader of the corrupt," as armored vehicles and security
forces deployed across the city.

Some 4 km (2.5 miles) away, tens of thousands of Saleh loyalists marched,
waving pictures of the president and banners that read "No to terrorism,
no to sabotage."

Around 700 riot police took up position close to General Ali Mohsen's
forces. The veteran commander defected from Saleh weeks ago, and his
troops are protecting a Sanaa protest camp. He said again on Friday he
would not try to take over the country, as some diplomats had suggested.

The defense ministry said Mohsen's forces killed two pro-Saleh
demonstrators in Sanaa. Mohsen's forces were not immediately available for
comment. A Sanaa doctor confirmed two people were killed but had no
information on their attackers.

Talks with the opposition to negotiate a transition stalled weeks ago, and
the GCC initiative is having trouble obtaining agreement from the parties.

"We want this regime to go. Enough lying and oppression. The initiative
came late and the only initiative we want is one to make him step down,"
said Mahfouz Salam, 45, a Sanaa protester.

The GCC plan would guarantee one key Saleh demand -- that he and his
family get immunity from prosecution -- an opposition source said on
Thursday, but youth activists rejected the idea.

(Additional reporting by Khaled al-Mahdi in Taiz and Mohammed Mukhashaf in
Aden; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Nick Macfie and Tim Pearce)

Dozens of raids as new investigation against anarchists begins (Italy)

April 6, 2011 325

Breaking news from the mainstream media, treat with caution:

The Digos, the Italian political police, in the city of Bologna, have
executed an operation investigating frequent visitors to the Bologna
activist circle ‘Fuoriluogo’. The provision for the operation was decided
by the prosecutor of Bologna within an inquiry carried out by the Bologna
Digos.

Whilst this morning, more than 300 police have carried out searches in
Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Rome, Padova, Trento, Reggio Calabria, Ancona,
Turin, Lecce, Naples, Trieste, Genoa, Teramo, Forli, Ravenna and Milan.
The comrades under investigation are accused of belonging to a ‘subversive
association for criminal intent’. 60 searches are reported, resulting, so
far, in 12 people under precautionary measures and one arrest according to
media.

The immense operation in all Italy regards ‘anarcho-insurrectionalist’
militants in the typical jargon of the press. In addition, the indication
regarding an anarchist link in relation to the attack perpetrated against
ENI Bologna on 29 March 2011 is reported by the mainstream media as being
used by the Digos as a pretext for the Bologna repression wave. The oil
company was attacked with multiple incendiary devices and despite no claim
or ‘evidence’ being found, the Digos are trying to link it to another
attack in the week prior, against IBM’s offices in Bologna, which was
claimed by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).

More clear news to follow from the comrades there…

Off Parole; On With Life: A Full Pardon March & Rally for the Scott Sisters

by Asinia Lukata Chikuyu - 6 April 2011

On the strength of about 500 enthusiastic college students, national justice
advocates, and local organizers, Jamie and Gladys Scott stood strong on the steps of
the Mississippi State Capitol and requested that governor haley barbour finish what
he started. On January 7, 2011, The Scott Sisters were released from the Central
Mississippi Correctional Facility by the governor to save the state the
embarrassment of their continued incarceration with potential death looping over
Jamie Scott due to kidney failure. At the same time, the governor wanted to save the
state the cost of providing for the kidney transplant he order as a condition of the
suspended sentence in granted the Scott Sisters.

On Friday, April 1, 2011 the Scott Sisters asked haley barbour to allow them to move
on with their lives. They told governor barbour that 16 years and 32 days was more
than enough time served for a crime that they didn’t commit. They told haley that
they wanted to vote, go on a get acquainted retreat with their children and
grandchildren. They said they wanted to devote their lives to improving the quality
of life for others wrongfully incarcerated. To do these things, they said they
needed to have freedom of movement and freedom of opportunity to seek gainful
employment. They needed the governor to show compassion and grant them a full
pardon.

The Scott Sisters said they needed to get "Off Parole and On With Life". And that
was the main chant of the 500 supporters who marched the streets of downtown Jackson
and stood at the Capitol Building as colonnade columns, like the ones in the
pyramids, for Jamie and Gladys. The students from Fort Valley State University,
Tougaloo College and Jackson State University stood tall with The Scott Sisters to
urging governor barbour to grant a full pardon out of righteousness.

After freeing five men who actually committed murder, the crowd exhorted haley to
earnestly consider the light his decision will shed on the image of mississippi.
Given the shameful history of this state, it was pointed out the healing and
redemptive quality of a compassionate decision in favor of Jamie and Gladys would
have on this state and this nation. Getting Jamie and Gladys "Off Parole and On With
Life" could be a shining star for a brighter future for them, the state and the
nation, if only the governor could be convinced.  Call the governor’s office
requesting a full pardon at 601.359.3150 or 1-877-405.0733 or email the governor to
request a full pardon at governor@governor.state.ms.us

As Afrikans in america continue to fight for freedom, justice and equity, we are
fighting because - "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be
respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society,
on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means
necessary". And we are sick and tired of being the only ones showing respect. That
is why we’re here without fear and we want our sisters totally free. That is why we
will be back here on September 15, 2011 again, bigger and stronger, if it is
necessary to convince the state that denying justice to Jamie and Gladys is a threat
to justice for all of us. On September 15th we’ll be facing the rising sun of our
new day begun, let us march on 'til victory is won. Our prayer is "may we forever
stand, true to our God, true to our native land".


DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION!
http://www.change.org/petitions/a-full-pardon-for-jamie-gladys-scott#?opt_new=t&opt_fb=f


Asinia Lukata Chikuyu
FREE YOUR MIND...
& see what follows

AFRIKAN TRUTH BE TOLD
(Afrikan_TBT)
for the love of our people

BROTHA LUKATA
The Challenge - "Impress Me!
w/ your deeds, not your words"

Enemies Unknown

[col. writ. 3/26/11] (c) '11 Mumia Abu-Jamal

  It is a measure of how powerful the U.S. military is, and how poor the media is,
that the nation wages war against peoples and countries it knows nothing about.
  All it apparently takes is a media campaign, calling someone a 'monster', a
'thug', or the clincher, a Hitler, and bombers begin hitting the skies.
  It does it, gets chastened or beaten, vows not to do it again, and of course,
does it again -- and again.
  When U.S. forces struck Vietnam (after a lie about an attack in the Gulf of
Tonkin), it did so almost as an afterthought; to assist a beaten European ally
(France), and in support of what scholars and analysts called 'the domino
theory', as if, if Vietnam 'fell', all of Asia would quickly tumble -- like
dominoes.
  This theory, like many such ones in support of Imperial wars, was false.  Decades
later, one of the war's foremost hawks, Defense Secretary Robert Strange
McNamara, would admit that American leaders knew next to nothing about Vietnam,
its language, history or culture, and that such ignorance made victory virtually
impossible.
  Then Somalia.  Then Iraq.
  Now Libya. How many of us know that much of the internal war is driven by tribal
conflicts? That one of the major eastern tribes, the Senussi, lost power and
influence when King Idris was overthrown in 1969 by the Free Officers Movement,
of which Col. Kaddafi was a part? That many of them don't want democracy but the
old kingdom restored?
  That many flew flags of the House of Idris -- a western puppet like Farouk of
Egypt or the Shah of Iran -- during initial rebellions?
  Does it seem strange that western so-called democracies are fighting on the side
of kings?
  Oh -- and backwards, poor Libya. Did you know that Libya has the highest per
capita GOP in Africa -- even higher than South Africa?? Or that it had one of the
highest literacy rates in the Arab world? (Almost 20% higher than Egypt?)
  I didn't either.  I read it (in a relatively obscure British journal).  And to
check it out, I looked it up.
  We don't know, because it's not in the interest of the corporate forces which
owns and utilizes the media, or for us to know.
  10 years after the Afghanistan war started, and 8 years after the Iraq war began,
and we haven't learned a damned thing.
--(c) '11 maj

Report from court hearings of “Khimki hostages”

Apr8, 2011 khimkibattle.org

On March 14 and 23, 2010 two court hearings in the case of antifascists Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov who were accused of organizing attack on the Khimki City Administration, took place at the Khimki City Court.

Accusation against Alexei and Maxim is absurd and based on false evidence of three alleged eyewitnesses identifying them as persons participated in the riots. However, during the investigation Alexei Gaskarov, Institute of Collective Action correspondent, passed a polygraph test which showed that he didn’t lie and participated in the riots. Besides, the case materials contain a large number of photos and detailed video which completely refute the Prosecution’s Case.

As for Maxim, he doesn’t deny his participation in the action; however he notes that he hasn’t committed any unlawful acts. His arguments are supported by a number of witness testimonies as well as he isn’t also
captured in the photos and videos. The State Prosecution alleges that he was in mask, its argument is supported by the testimony of three witnesses.

During the preliminary hearing Prosecutor Olga Egorova read out the indictment which Solopov and Gaskarov disagreed with and noted that none of investigators’ arguments was supported by evidence against the suspects. The trial was postponed to March 23 due to the absence of key witnesses and
victims’ representative.

Besides, it was revealed that Shevelev, representative of the aggrieved party (Khimki Administration), who had also failed to appear in court, wasn’t currently the Administration employee.

During the second hearing one of the key witnesses, resident of Yubileinoye town (Moscow region) Alexei Pitel was questioned. He and his friend Maxim Khramov, another prosecution witness, accidentally found themselves in Khimki, having arrived there from the center of Moscow by car together with two girls they were barely familiar with. According to the witnesses, the girls “flaked” them, but along the way they encountered a column of antifascists going to attack the Khimki Administration. It should be noted that Pitel had extremely bad memory and answered “I don’t remember” to most questions. Thus, he hasn’t remembered what the girls and the Administration looked like. He also didn’t recognized Maxim Solopov in court although he had identified him during the investigation and confrontation procedures. At the same time Solopov stated that he had never seen Pitel and the confrontation procedure had been carried out with another person.

The only one Pitel has remembered for 8 months after the events of July 28 was Alexei Gaskarov who had allegedly thrown something into the Administration building, then while passing by Pitel, had taken off the
mask. However he has remembered neither his face nor the color of the mask.

When Pitel’s testimony, given during the preliminary investigation, identification and confrontation procedures, was read out at the request of the State Prosecution, it was revealed that Pitel had remembered Gaskarov’s face because he hadn’t been wearing the mask at the moment of the commission of the unlawful acts. However he identified him by his body features. He hasn’t remembered what Gaskarov was wearing.

It should be noted that during the hearing it was revealed that Pitel had been tried for theft several years before.

Two other prosecution witnesses Sergey Smirnov and Anastasiya Krivoshanova, journalists, public activists, and spouses, changed their testimony given during the preliminary investigation. They explained that they had been forced to testify against Solopov and Gaskarov due to threats and psychological pressure exerted on them by investigators. According to Smirnov and Krivoshanova, first investigators attempted to force them to testify against Yevgenia Chirikova, leader of the Khimki Forest Protection Movement, and a famous antifascist Alexei Olesinov, however they later ceased to mention them. Sergey and Anastasia filed a complaint about pressure exerted on them during the preliminary investigation to the Prosecutor’s Office; however it has refused to initiate criminal proceedings against the investigators.

The next hearing, where the remaining prosecution witnesses are to be questioned as well as the defense witnesses’ questioning is to begin, is scheduled to take place at the Khimki City Court on April 14.

The guard told me ‘you are nothing like the Muslim prisoners’. He was wrong

by Andy Stepanian on April 7, 2011 mondoweiss

My friend Noor (above left) has beautiful eyes, but today they look sad. Noor's grandfather passed away and she has had no way of letting her father know because the simple forms of communication all of us take for granted can't help her reach out to her father with this news. Noor's father, Ghassan Elashi, (at right) is a political prisoner incarcerated in a highly restrictive and secretive federal prison program called the Communications Management Unit (CMU), in which I was also incarcerated.

Ghassan is imprisoned for providing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, a selfless deed that the Bush administration argued was analogous to indirectly supporting Hamas, by sending charity to Zakat Committees that prosecutors allege were fronts for Hamas. In the same year US AID, The Red Cross, the UN and dozens of other NGOs contributed to the same Zakat committee to which Ghassan and his charity, The Holy Land Foundation, is accused of giving aid. The US attorney's office appeared to be selectively applying one's freedom to give, and selectively prosecuting some charitable groups, while sliding on others. For this alleged charity, Ghassan is being denied all contact with the outside world and the news that comes from it, including the news of his father-in-law's passing.

The Communications Management Unit is a designer penal program that focuses specifically on isolating and silencing its inmates. The demographic of the CMU's designees is made up of an overwhelming 64% Muslim majority and a smaller minority group of designees that have either highly politicized cases or ones with abundant press attention. This apparent racial disparity and the political nature of these prisons was the focus of a recent two-part investigation on National Public Radio entitled "Guantanamo North." CMU inmates are isolated and silenced by administrative segregation and through heavy vetting or complete denial of contact with the outside world. To make things worse for Ghassan, he was recently stripped of what little communication he was previously able to have with his loved ones from within the CMU, and is now being denied all phone calls, all visits, and all emails.

The United States prides itself on not having any political prisoners and yet the federal CMU programs in Marion, Illinois, Terre-Haute, Indiana, and the Administrative-Maximum Unit at Carswell, Texas (an institution for female inmates) are filled with a disproportionate amount of inmates who are Muslim, and a smaller group of non-Muslims with cases related to tax protests, environmental advocacy, and animal rights activism, all of which are considered political causes. The CMU violates federal designation protocols because most of the inmates sent to the CMU have federal custody classification points congruent with that of prisoners normally designated to low and minimum security prison facilities, and yet they are housed in conditions that at times exceed that of the US's most restrictive "super-max" prison, ADX in Florence, Colorado. (See Alia Malek's story, Gitmo in the Heartland, in the Nation.)

When the CMU was first implemented it may have been done so illegally because it side-stepped the Administrative Procedures Act (a law that demands that federal programs such as these must first be brought to the attention of congress and made available for public comment.) Moreover the Center For Constitutional Rights has argued in Aref v. Holder that the CMU violates constitutionally mandated laws of due process because as of yet there is no administrative process to challenge an inmate’s designation to or transfer out of a CMU.

Ghassan Elashi was accused of providing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza through his charity The Holy Land Foundation. Specifically, the government alleges that Ghassan's charitable contributions of humanitarian aid could be deemed as indirect criminal material support of Hamas under the newly redesigned and over-broad Material Support for Terrorists statute. When Ghassan was arrested in 2004, he immediately saw a Dallas judge and was released pending trial because the judge determined that he would not be considered a threat to the community or a flight risk. Ghassan stood trial once in Dallas in 2007, was acquitted on some of the counts levied against him and the jury deadlocked on the remaining counts against him.

A mistrial was declared on the counts the jury could not render a verdict upon and only after a second trial in 2008 were Ghassan and 4 other men found guilty of allegedly giving Material Support for Palestinians.

Ghassan was later sentenced in 2009 to 65 years in federal prison.

Noor, who has often told me "I am my father's daughter," is currently working on a memoir about her father's experience with the working title Eyes Like My Father. Noor's pen is her expression and in her writing, she seeks to provide her father a voice. Noor works tirelessly to advocate for her father while he awaits appeal, and continues her father's work towards a free and peaceful Palestine by using the mediums she knows best, visual arts, design, and the written and spoken word. As a graduate student at The New School in Manhattan, Noor has combined all of these mediums in a program called Project Palestine, an initiative by New School students to re-center Palestine in contemporary dialogue. Project Palestine's monthly programs began in the fall and the programming continues to outdo itself each month, by bringing artists, poets, writers, scholars, and musicians to the school's midtown NYC campus. One of the programs, Mainstreaming Palestine, consisted of a panel of artists moderated by a student, a performance by Israeli-born hip hop artist by way of Detroit named Invincible, a talk from documentarian Fida Qishta, and a reading from a young woman from Oklahoma named Pamela Olson, who shared excerpts from her new book Fast Times in Palestine, a recollection of her experiences as a press coordinator for a Palestinian presidential candidate. Hundreds of New Yorkers from all walks of life, all religions, identity, race, and orientation attended the program helping to build an open-ended community dialogue around the continued plight of Palestinians. Re-centering Palestine in contemporary dialogue is of the utmost importance to Noor and through her work with Project Palestine, she is able to connect with and reach out to additional supporters who view the issue as having been a polarizing force for far too long in the hands of extremists on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

I recently attended one of Project Palestine's programs at The New School and Noor invited me to join her and her friends for a cup of coffee afterwards. Noor introduces me to her friends--they are Iraqi, Jewish, Korean, a wildly diverse group that transcends all boundaries of race, ethnicity, and identity. Noor wears a contemporary and stylish hijab but some of her friends who are Muslim do not. Noor is not to be pigeon-holed, nor can the group at this table be. They are a new generation of American justice seekers who are able to look past what those in power on both sides of the green line sometimes can't and to see the hearts of the people with whom they share a table. I could only imagine what the world would look like if the microcosm at this table was projected upon the rest of society.

One of the women at the table asks me if I was in the CMU with Noor's father. I explain that I was not, that I was released about a month before he was transferred there. She then asks me to explain what it was like. I did not know if I had it in me to fully explain and I worried about revisiting it in front of Noor, considering that this time out with friends over coffee could be a pleasant distraction away from the pain of thinking about her father. Fighting back tears felt like a rock rested in the back of my throat. In 2008 I spent the last six months of a three-year federal sentence for animal advocacy activism in the CMU in Marion, Illinois. The guards called me a "balancer," presumably to offset the numbers in an anti-discrimination lawsuit the Bureau of Prisons is now facing. During the half a year I spent there I was told in confidence that I was, "nothing like these Muslim terrorists" and that I "would be going home shortly." Indeed I did go home, but Ghassan Elashi and nearly sixty other men with stories similar to his have yet to come home.

That guard was gravely mistaken when he said I was "nothing like" those men. While I am not a Muslim, I am everything like those men. And just like them I felt the same uncontrollable sadness and anxiety when I could not use the phone to call home, when I could not touch my wife, or talk with my mother. Those men had stories exaggerated by prosecutors just as I did, their cases were compounded by politics and amplified by sensationalism in the press just like mine was. At the end of the day they were fathers, husbands, brothers, and friends who yearned to be free with their loved ones again as much as I did. These men showed such grace and selflessness towards each other and to strangers like me despite the glaring injustice and political repression inside the CMU.

Showing empathy towards these men and attempting to understand what it would be like to be in their shoes does not mean that one needs to have a bleeding heart. I lose sleep thinking of the men at the CMU with no way out--the ones with long sentences, the ones with administrative holds against them, the Palestinian stateless citizens who the US refuses to release on its soil and no other country is willing to accept them.

I knew of Noor for about four months before I finally reached out to her. I wondered if talking to her as someone who was where her father is now would be supportive and helpful to her. We met over coffee and I was not sure what to say when I saw her so I asked her if it was OK if I hugged her. I suddenly remembered what it felt like to sit in my cell thinking about hugging my wife again and then I thought of Ghassan. My head buzzed with possible things to talk about. I wanted to tell her everything was going to be all right yet I was certain that I didn’t know if that was true or not. I wanted to say the most encouraging things even though something malignant was gnawing away at her. She smiled at me. Her resilience was surreal.

Writing about the CMU consumes me emotionally. I pray that I can lend the best voice to Ghassan and all of these men stripped from their loved ones; it scares me to think that my voice is only one of a few who are willing to advocate on their behalf. They need more voices to demand accountability and reconciliation from our governing powers. They need you to break the silence of this secretive unit, to talk about it over dinner and to work draw it into the national discourse.

Imagine being told you can't speak to your father. Imagine what it would feel like to not know whether or not he was well, if he was hurt, sick, or simply needed someone to talk to. Imagine living your life in constant fear of never being able to touch him again. This is how Noor feels everyday. I remember vividly how it felt to be inside the CMU and to want so desperately to hug my wife and yet I can only imagine how it must feel to be a father in that situation. Ghassan deserves to be free to be with Noor again. For many people the grief would be debilitating, but in Noor's case we see the opposite--she shares with the world a renewed zeal to continue her father's struggle from outside the prison gates through creative dialogue and grassroots community building. When I ask her where she derives such resilience, she simply says that she "is her father's daughter." Reading her father's sentencing transcript reveals a man who was deeply patriotic, incredibly charitable and a shining example of what it means to be a strong, moral person. America should not bury Ghassan behind razor wire, concrete, and steel bars, instead we each should strive to mirror the brave example he and Noor have set for us to follow.

Stepanian is the co-founder of The Sparrow Project, a grassroots PR outfit that aims to braid popular culture, the arts, and revolutionary activism. In 2002 The Financial Times characterized SHAC as “succeeding where Karl Marx, the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Red Brigades failed.” Their actions drew the attention of Wall Street and the FBI resulting in a politically charged free speech case called the SHAC 7 trial where Stepanian and 5 others were charged and convicted as terrorists for their activism. Sentenced to 3 years in prison, Stepanian spent his last 6.5 months in a secretive federal prison program that NPR would later name ‘Guantanamo North’. Stepanian’s activism as part of the SHAC7 is the subject of a feature-length documentary due out in 2012 from Finngate Pictures. Since his release from prison Stepanian works for a publisher, consults for social justice groups, and speaks on his experiences at universities.

Russian anti-fascist sentenced to two years in prison

avtonom.org

Anti-fascist Rinat Sultanov was sentenced to two years in prison
yesterday in St. Petersburg, for causing “grievous bodily ham to a Nazi
during a fight, which took place 4th of November (“Day of national
unification”, main convergence day of Russian Nazis) three years ago.
Rinat Sultanov was born and spent his childhood in city of Labytnangi of
the far-northern Siberia, where he finished his school.
In 2002, he enrolled to St. Petersburg college of telecommunications
with a speciality of programming. Due to financial problems he could not
finished his education, but he stayed in St. Petersburg, he visited his
relatives in Northern Siberia each year, and also helped them
financially. During this time Rinat changed his workplace for several
times, educated himself and learned several professions.
While still in school, Rinat got interested about state of affairs in
the country. He set up first website of his region, “Anti-fascism should
be radical”, where he published leaflets, music and movie links.

>From a letter from Rinat in November of 2010:

“I do not think it makes difference who is who, if we all live under one
sky and walk on one earth, and when the time comes and nature around us
will be lost, so how may people consider important ones skin color and
worldview..”
In 2006, Rinat became acquintanced with anarchists and anti-fascists of
St. Petersburg. He immediately joined the struggle against the state, he
spread stickers, leaflets, made graffiti and joined anti-fascist actions
and anarchist demonstrations. He supported Food Not Bombs, often visited
weekly pickets against war in Chechnya in Nevski prospekt, helped to
prepare protests against G8 summit of 2006 in the city. 10th of July of
that year, before the summit, Rinat and three German activists were
arrested in flat of an activist of St. Petersburg league of anarchists.
Police officers were verbally abusing Rinat and beating him, demanding
testimony without a protocol, however Rinat did not gave any names.
Eventually Rinat got 10 days sentence with fabricated misdemeanor
charges. Rinat was not scared by repressions and stayed active in the
movement.
Rinat is a vegetarian for ethical reasons. He took often part to animal
rights actions, and helped to organise “A voice for animals”-festival in
Petrozhavodsk in 2009. In 2008 he took active part to campaign against
police brutality. During 2009, he was involved in several squats in St.
Petersburg.

A quote from a letter of Rinat from december 2010:

“Here (in prison) many people ask why I do not eat meat. Many think that
vegetarians do not eat meat for religious reasons, but I tell them about
other reasons, ecological among others. But besides me, nobody is yet
refusing meat-based diet.”.

Rinat was arrested by officers of Center of Counter-action against
Extremism (“E-center”) in night between 3rd and 4th of November 2010,
before festival “City against fascism”. During festival, officers of
E-center were threatening Rinat, demanding testimony against other
people and confessing actions he did not committed. However Rinat stayed
strong under the pressure.

In few weeks, Rinat will be sent to a prison camp to his home region to
do remainder of his sentence. But if you write him immediately, chances
are that letters will still reach him:

Rinat Sultanov
FBU IZ-47\4
ul. Lebedeva d. 39
195009 Saint-Petersburg Russia

source: https://avtonom.org/en/node/15414

Anarchist Black Cross Moscow
abc-msk A riseup D net
http://www.avtonom.org/abc
http://www.facebook.com/abcmoscow
http://www.twitter.com/abc_moscow
http://www.myspace.com/abcmsc
P.O. Box 13 109028 Moscow Russia

List of prisoners in former Soviet Union we support:
http://wiki.golosa.info/en/index.php?title=Category:Prisoners_in_former_Soviet_Union