The Irish Republican Forum - International Debate http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/ Díospóireacht Idirnáisiúnta en Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:50:22 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/images/styles/zen/misc/rss.png The Irish Republican Forum - International Debate http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/ <![CDATA[Football hooligans to launch 'European Defence League' in Amsterdam]]> http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57496-Football-hooligans-to-launch-European-Defence-League-in-Amsterdam&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:08:59 GMT EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The English Defence League (EDL), the anti-Muslim 'street army' composed largely of football hooligans that burst onto the front pages of British newspapers in the last year as a result of its often violent protests, is to hold a rally in Amsterdam in October, EUobserver has learnt.


The EDL is to demonstrate in support of Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigrant firebrand, with a recently launched French Defence League and Dutch Defence League, modelled on the English group, to join them along with other anti-Islamic militants from across Europe.

Formed in 2009, the EDL has held over a dozen often rowdy marches and demonstrations in cities across Britain over the last year. Protests that attracted only a couple hundred militants at the end of last year are now bringing thousands out. On Saturday (28 August) a rally in Bradford, West Yorkshire, home to the second-largest community of south Asians in the UK, turned ugly when members clashed with police and pelted anti-racist activists with bricks, bottles and smoke bombs. Thirteen were arrested, according to media reports.

Anti-racist watchdogs call the EDL one of the most worrying developments on the far-right scene in the UK since the 1970s and the days of the National Front, an openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi political party. The group now appears to be meeting with some success in exporting its novel brand of nativism to the continent, a combination of anti-Muslim vitriol, aggressive street marches and attempts to rope in football hooligan gangs by holding rallies around the same time as matches.

Graeme Atkinson, European editor of Searchlight magazine, a UK anti-fascist journal, says that the group is "tapping into a widespread and growing Islamophobia in society," in a way that other far-right groups, weighed down with explicitly fascist iconography and discourse, have not been able to.

He warns against panic regarding the new group, but says authorities should not be blind to the growth of such movements, describing the new formation as "an utterly socially divisive, politically toxic ideology."

New kind of far-right outfit

Distinct from the traditional far right, the EDL, which originally grew out of the "football casual" subculture, claims to be multi-ethnic, to target "jihadism" rather than Muslims, and employs a rhetoric more in keeping with the fringes of neo-conservative anti-Islamism than the nostalgia for Nazism of other far-right formations.

The group's mission statement declares that anyone is welcome, so long as they are "integrated:" "We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life."

"English Defence League members recognise that this threat is one that must be stopped at all costs. Our Christian, Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu friends all have tales to tell with regard to Islamic Imperialism," the group's "Exposing the myths" page reads.

One of its leaders is Guramit Singh, a Sikh born in Britain, and it says it is, like Mr Wilders, strongly pro-Israel and maintains both Jewish and LGBT "divisions" while backing a ban on the building of mosques and seeking the burqa to be outlawed. Its LGBT wing was set up after the Dutchman visited the UK in March when he had been invited to show his short anti-Islam film, Fitna, in the House of Lords. At a demonstration in Bolton in March, a man held up a pink triangle alongside anti-Islam placards and banners. Its LGBT division has 107 members at the time of writing.

In what would normally be anathema to traditional, antisemitic far-right outfits, the group has taken to brandishing the Israeli flag at rallies and, according to the Jewish Chronicle, its Jewish division had signed up hundreds of members on its Facebook page until the page was recently deleted, though Jewish leaders in the UK actively discourage young people from joining, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews describing the organisation as "built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely."

Links to BNP, Swedish Democrats

As with other formations in Europe that far-right monitoring organisations describe as "far-right-lite," notably Mr Wilders, Denmark's People's Party and the late Pim Fortuyn, some in the EDL try to distance themselves from, in the words of the group's website, the "Adolf-worhipping neanderthals."

But these same monitors say that while the EDL is not an outright "fascist" or neo-Nazi formation, links with the traditional far right remain, with many leaders being ex-members of the British National Party. Its leader, Tommy Robinson, is an ex-BNP activist. One of the organisation's main strategists is 45-year-old IT consultant Alan Lake, who has advised the far-right Swedish Democrats on tactics.

Meanwhile, at every demonstration but two in the last year, dozens have been arrested. The group's marches regularly involve anti-Muslim sloganeering and frequently descend into violence. At a rally in Dudley in July, a Hindu Temple was attacked as well as a number of shops, restaurants, cars and homes.

Figures for the size of the organisation and its supporters are hard to pin down and no figures have emerged for the new continental franchises. The group claims it has "thousands" of supporters and has spawned a Scottish Defence League and a Welsh Defence League, both of which have held rallies in their respective countries, as well as an Ulster Defence League. Police meanwhile reckoned that 1,500 to 2,000 EDL demonstrators marched in Newcastle upon Tyne in May this year, one of its bigger rallies.

Ground Zero 'Mosque'

The EDL has received endorsements from Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, two of the main agitators behind the right-wing movement opposed to a Muslim community centre being built two blocks away from the site of Al Qaeda's attacks on New York in 2001, the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. Geert Wilders, for his part, is scheduled to speak at a protest in Manhattan on 11 September this year by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) against the building of the community centre.

Although Mr Wilders is not thought to have direct links with the EDL, SIOA is an affiliate organisation of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), which has marched alongside the English hooligan movement. SIOE itself was founded in 2007 by Anders Gravers, previously the leader of a tiny Danish party called Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark), in reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoon controversy. On 11 September 2007, the SIOE staged a demonstration in Brussels.

Other affiliate organisations have been created in 10 European countries including Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden and the United States of America. Mr Gravers is reportedly on friendly terms with Mr Wilders, is his "friend" on Facebook and will be speaking alongside him at the anti-Mosque rally in New York.

The demonstration in Amsterdam is due to take place on 30 October, according to the EDL website. Mr Wilders heads to court at the end of next month on charges of inciting racism. The case begins 5 October, with a verdict expected 2 November.

Joining them there will be members of the recently formed Dutch Defence League' and French Defence League, both modelled on the EDL. The latter draws its members from the ranks of far-right supporters of the Paris Saint Germain football club, known in France for long harbouring a far-right element among the club's supporters, although elsewhere on the continent, according to EDL spokesman Steve Simmons, not all the defence-league-linked groups have their origins in football hooliganism.

Paris Saint Germain supporters

The French Defence League, which employs both an anglophone version of its name and "Ligue Francaise de Defense," founded in May and more latterly takes the name Ligue 732, after a group of Paris Saint Germain supporters, that, according the outfit, "tries to unify all French Casuals, Ultras and French Fans to fight against Radical Islam."

The 732 figure references the year that the French king Charles the Hammer, the grandfather of Charlemagne, won a victory at the Battle of Tours halting Islamic expansion in western Europe.

Mr Simmons told EUobserver that militants from the "anti-Jihad movement" in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and "other European states" will join them in Amsterdam for the launch of what is termed the "European Defence League" or, alternately, the much cuddlier "European Friendship Initiative."

"I would also like to take this opportunity to announce a new demonstration that is to take the English Defence League global," Tommy Robinson, the pseudonym of the group's leader, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a former member of the BNP, wrote on the EDL website in a missive in July.

"You may be aware that the great man Geert Wilders is in court for race hate charges," he continued. "The EDL has been in contact with our European brothers and sisters and we have decided that on Saturday, 30 October the European Defence League will be demonstrating in Amsterdam in support of Geert. We hope that all of you will be able to join us for this, what promises to be a landmark demonstration for the future of the defence leagues."

"We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him," the group's spokesman, Steve Simmons, told EUobserver.

Counter-Jihad conferences

In June this year, the EDL sent two representatives to Counter-Jihad 2010 - a conference in Zurich held by the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which does not focus on civil liberties at all but is instead an anti-Muslim movement. It was the fourth such pan-European conference in as many years.

The Zurich conference may have been where the idea for a European Defence League originated. According to an EDL report back from the meeting, which attracted "counter-Jihad" activists from Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, the UK and the US, the conference "built on the important work that had already been done as well as doing the groundwork for new initiatives and the inclusion of new organisations and activists in the work of the global counter jihad."

Mr Simmons for his part in a slight detour from the announcement of Mr Robinson, told EUobserver that the Amsterdam rally will see the launch of the "European Friendship Initiative," and that a "European Defence League" will be just part of this broader alliance of "Defence-League"-branded movements.

He said that talks are ongoing with in particular German, Dutch, Belgian and French groups ahead of the Amsterdam demonstration. Already, in April this year, the EDL took part in a small pro-Wilders rally of 100 people in Berlin outside the Dutch embassy, organised by the Burger Bewegung Pax Europa (Pax Europa Citizens' Movement).

He also explained why the EDL and allied groups are heading to the Netherlands: "We feel that freedom of speech is being eroded and there is a lot of appeasing of radical muslims and Islam in general. Geert has the courage to take this on and we want to support him."

He downplayed the group's rowdy reputation: "We want to turn it into a sort of celebration rather than a protest, with food, drink and entertainment."

He claimed that off-duty serving UK, Dutch and German soldiers which had joined "Armed Forces Unite," (which grew out of "Armed Forces Defence League," a Facebook group for EDL-supporting soldiers and sailors) have offered to help Dutch police to steward the event.

The city of Amsterdam government for its part is aware of the plans for a demonstration and is tracking developments, but will not discuss details of preparations due to "security considerations."

In Bradford over the weekend, in what was a massive police operation, some 1,600 officers from 13 forces took part.

http://euobserver.com/9/30691 ]]> International Debate Poblachtach Sóisalach http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57496-Football-hooligans-to-launch-European-Defence-League-in-Amsterdam Iraq war in figures http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57436-Iraq-war-in-figures&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:29:18 GMT http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11107739 its not all about nos, and these like others are disputed ... what a tragic waste of life ... and the americans are still there and... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11107739


its not all about nos, and these like others are disputed ...

what a tragic waste of life ...

and the americans are still there and fighting even after their withdrawl .. the iragi forces cannot handle the mess the west has left
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11192265 ]]> International Debate youngmyre1888 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57436-Iraq-war-in-figures <![CDATA[Article: Pakistan 'suicide bomber' targets police station]]> http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57434-Pakistan-suicide-bomber-targets-police-station&goto=newpost Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:00:21 GMT A suspected suicide bombing in north-west Pakistan has killed at least six people, officials say. The explosion took place at a police station in the town of Lakki Marwat in the Khyber region... A suspected suicide bombing in north-west Pakistan has killed at least six people, officials say.

The explosion took place at a police station in the town of Lakki Marwat in the Khyber region south of Peshawar.

There are reports that police officers are among the casualties.

Nearly 100 people were killed in suicide bomb attacks on Shia Muslim processions in the cities of Lahore and Quetta last week. The attacks ended a lull in violence during severe floods.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11195797 ]]> International Debate finn-27 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57434-Pakistan-suicide-bomber-targets-police-station Pathological egomania and crocodile tears http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57405-Pathological-egomania-and-crocodile-tears&goto=newpost Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:37:22 GMT This week has seen the publication of the most hotly anticipated work of fiction since the last Harry Potter book. So what have we learned with the publication of the life and times of Anthony... This week has seen the publication of the most hotly anticipated work of fiction since the last Harry Potter book.

So what have we learned with the publication of the life and times of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, except that he's a bigger liar and fantasist than ever?

We've seen some whitewashes recently - the Butler report, the Hutton report, the probing at the Iraq inquiry are three which immediately spring to mind - all of which have one thing in common: they saved Blair's blushes.

But there was no need to hire a retired Whitehall mandarin to bleach his smalls prior to public inspection this time.

No, when it comes to revisionism and self-aggrandising Blair has shown himself to be rivalled by no man with the possible exception of Baron Munchausen.

A Journey he grandiloquently entitled his tome, though it's not so much a mea culpa as a "what, me?"

What to make of this over-the-counter ordure?

For reasons of taste we will gloss over the romantic elements of the book much in the way that Blair has glossed over any reference to wrongdoing or duplicity on his part. Although there is at least one reference to him "devouring" Cherie's love "like an animal" and an equally alarming Women In Love-style homoerotic reference to Blair and Brown being like "two lovers" who couldn't wait to get down to love-making, conjuring up the queazy image of the two of them wrestling naked on the rug in No 10.

But his bid for Barbara Cartland's pink-tinged tiara aside, his attempt to cast himself as a reluctant hero facing the forces of darkness shows just how self-deluded he really is.

One of the most bizarre excerpts shows that he deliberately sabotaged the fox-hunting ban because he did not know the depth of feeling it would evoke.

Blair claiming that public outrage swayed his opinion?

Two million people on the streets didn't "sway" his opinion about the war did it? But a few uppity horsey types complaining that they were being deprived their "sport" and prevented from hounding an innocent animal to its death and he backflips quicker than a Romanian gymnast on steroids.

And speaking of the war, Blair claimed he was desperately sorry for those who died and indeed had wept tears for them, but surprise, surprise, won't apologise for it.

He even has the gall to tell people to "keep an open mind" which one can't help feeling is advice he should probably have heeded himself in 2003.

Then, in time-honoured fashion he played the "I'm just an ordinary guy" card by admitting that he turned to drink to deal with the stresses of the job. Not "excessively excessively," he is quick to state.

Although it appears that Blair may have been indulging in a cheeky Vimto or two while penning his book. Having done his best to play down the achievements of Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam in bringing about the peace process and claim the glory for himself, he makes a further bid to boast of his earnest intervention, this time with the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday - but he drops the ball spectacularly.

He states: "To assuage nationalist opinion and under pressure from the Irish, I also ordered an inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings in 1972, when British troops had opened fire on protesters in Belfast, killing a number of people."

Belfast! Not Derry then?

If you're trying to claim credit for something you would think you might actually try to get your facts straight.

Further proof if any were needed that whether it be the murdered people of Derry or the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians slaughtered in his name, Blair couldn't care less.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/i...iew/full/94834 ]]> International Debate Costello39-77 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57405-Pathological-egomania-and-crocodile-tears <![CDATA[Army 'to axe injured soldiers']]> http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57376-Army-to-axe-injured-soldiers&goto=newpost Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:16:57 GMT Up to 5,000 troops could be discharged from the armed forces because they are medically unfit for combat duties, including many injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was reported. The Sunday Times... Up to 5,000 troops could be discharged from the armed forces because they are medically unfit for combat duties, including many injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was reported.

The Sunday Times quoted a leaked Ministry of Defence document as saying that 5% of the Army's 102,000 personnel were no longer fit to be deployed in action.

The newspaper suggested that the worst affected 1,500 troops were in line to be discharged first, with 750 following in each of the next few years. While "only a proportion of those discharged are likely to have been injured on operations... this number is likely to grow as operations in Afghanistan continue", the document said.

The MoD refused to comment on the leaked document, but a spokesman played down suggestions that a mass cull of injured troops was in the offing and insisted there was no quota for numbers to leave the Army.

"The number of soldiers medically discharged is done on a case by case basis and it is inappropriate to speculate on future numbers," said the spokesman.

Earlier this year, the MoD unveiled a £70 million project to help injured troops to either remain in the forces or make a transition to civilian life.

The Army Recovery Capability scheme envisaged 12 "personnel recovery units" around the UK providing programmes aimed at either getting them fit to return to a military post or preparing them for life outside the Armed Forces.

Launching the programme in February, General Sir David Richards, the head of the Army, said: "I confidently expect that no soldier who thinks it is in his interest to stay will be forced out."

But the new document, drawn up by a civil servant at UK Land Forces HQ in Wiltshire and circulated to ministers, senior MoD officials and Army top brass, suggested that the discharge of injured troops was likely to prove controversial.

Entitled Management of Army Personnel who are Medically Unfit for Service, it conceded that discharges of injured troops may be seen as the "MoD discarding those who have sacrificed much on our behalf", said the Sunday Times. And it added: "Difficult decisions will inevitably need to be made about individuals who already have a significant media profile. These will require careful handling."


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...#ixzz0ybMrxjPn ]]> International Debate gerard_black00 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57376-Army-to-axe-injured-soldiers <![CDATA[Fidel Castro warns of 'nuclear war']]> http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57338-Fidel-Castro-warns-of-nuclear-war&goto=newpost Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:06:08 GMT Former Cuban leader says US pressure over Iran's nuclear programme will lead to war, in first public speech since 2006.

Thousands flocked to the University of Havana to see Castro deliver his first major public speech in four years [EPA]

Fidel Castro has warned against the dangers of nuclear war in his first public speech since undergoing surgery in 2006.

Castro, 84, said a nuclear conflict was inevitable if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tried to enforce international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

Addressing around 10,000 people, mostly students, at the University of Havana on Friday, he slammed Washington for creating a "system that threatens the survival of humanity".

"The problem of people today, the more than seven billion human beings, is to prevent such a tragedy from happening," he said.

"Faced with the skeptics, our duty is to keep up the fight, I am convinced that a good number of people are becoming conscious of the reality."

The crowd shouted "Fidel, Fidel Fidel" and applauded at several points during the nationally televised address.

"In this, like in many battles of the past, we can win," he said in reference to his efforts to warn the world of the nuclear danger he fears.

Standing behind a podium at the top of steps, he spoke for about 40 minutes, far shorter than the hours-long speeches he once gave.

As has been his custom since resurfacing, he did not talk about Cuba's domestic issues.

Shifting roles

His speech was the latest in a string of appearances since he returned to the public eye in July, giving his first television interview in at least three years.

Castro's renewed public presence has raised questions about whether he could resume a larger role in running the country now officially led by his younger brother Raul Castro.

Last month, he spoke to a session of the National Assembly, again mentioning the possibility of nuclear war.

Castro ceded power to his brother after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment in July 2006, then officially resigned as president in February 2008.

He remains head of the ruling Communist Party and has continued to play a significant behind-the-scenes role, but there has been no sign that his brother is not in charge of the government.

Raul Castro, the Cuban president, did not attend his brother's speech.

The Cuban president has lately stepped up the pace of small economic reforms he has initiated to revive Cuba's struggling economy and, in own words, assure the survival of the revolution after its current generation of leaders were gone.

Some details of Castro's illness have trickled out over the years.

Castro himself recounted how ill he was in an interview with a Mexican newspaper last month, describing being close to death.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/am...317799564.html ]]> International Debate brian21051 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57338-Fidel-Castro-warns-of-nuclear-war Death toll at all-time high http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57334-Death-toll-at-all-time-high&goto=newpost Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:46:16 GMT Hector Ortega stumbled across the body of a fellow migrant as he walked across Arizona's harsh desert in the searing summer heat. He tried not to look too closely.

With nothing to be done for the deceased, Ortega and the others trudged on, guided by a smuggler across the US border, determined to complete their illegal odyssey even as they endured record-high temperatures and fever-pitch resentment.

At 64, the farm labourer with a weathered face, strong hands and silver hair protruding from his baseball cap was stoic about the body - someone's journey cut short near a stand of scrub bush and cactus.

"What can you do about it in the desert?" he asked.

Deaths of illegal immigrants in Arizona have soared this summer toward their highest levels since 2005 - a fact that has surprised many who thought that the furore over the state's new immigration law and the 100-plus degree heat would draw them elsewhere along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border.

But at the Pima County morgue in Tucson, Arizona, the body bags are stacked on stainless-steel shelves from floor to ceiling. A refrigerated truck has been brought in to handle the overflow at the multimillion-dollar facility.

In July, 59 people died - 40 in the first two weeks when nighttime temperatures were the hottest in recorded history, hovering around the low 90s.

The single-month death count is second only to July 2005, when 68 bodies were found.

Of this July's deaths, 44 were on the Tohono O'Odham Nation, a reservation that shares 75 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico. The tribe is opposed to humanitarian aid on its lands, believing it invites violence by people smugglers.

Eighteen more people died in the first 23 days of August.

Even with the prospect of a torturous death and the bitter wrath they face in Arizona, immigrants, including Ortega, say the state's vast, sparsely populated terrain is still the best place for border jumpers.

"In Tijuana, you have two walls that you have to get over," said Ortega, who first came across in 1976 to work in West Coast agricultural fields. "This is much easier here. You just have to watch out for the snakes. That's why I prefer to walk in the daytime and not at night."

He admits he's afraid when he crosses, but states flatly, "It's worth the risk."

Resting at a shelter for failed border crossers that sets atop a steep hill in Mexico overlooking the city of Nogales, Ortega expanded on his motives. "It's the only way to make a little money to support my family," he said.

Sofia Gomez, of an aid group called Humane Borders, said crossers are travelling through even more remote areas than in previous years. At the same time, anger over illegal immigration has led to people shooting up the water stations her group has placed in the desert.

"They're taking a higher risk and they're not making it," Gomez said.

So far this year, the body count is at 171, the same number the Pima County medical examiner's office had seen at this time in 2007, the year the office saw a record 217 deaths.

"We thought the political climate in Arizona would be a significant deterrent to people crossing but as far as the deaths are concerned, they certainly have been what looks like is going to be the highest they've ever been," said the morgue's Dr Eric Peters.

Most of the deceased were young, healthy men - at least at the outset of their trips. By the time they reach the morgue, many are in advanced stages of decomposition and beyond recognition, with bag after bag tagged with "John Doe" or "Jane Doe." Many will probably never be identified.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/i...iew/full/94833 ]]> International Debate Costello39-77 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57334-Death-toll-at-all-time-high Another Oil Rig Explodes In Gulf Of Mexico http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57251-Another-Oil-Rig-Explodes-In-Gulf-Of-Mexico&goto=newpost Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:02:39 GMT An oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the platform where the BP disaster occurred. All 13 people working on board the oil rig are alive and have been accounted for, the coastguard... An oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the platform where the BP disaster occurred.

All 13 people working on board the oil rig are alive and have been accounted for, the coastguard has said.

Unconfirmed reports said the rig is the Vermilion Oil rig 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy and is not believed to be an active well.

There are currently no sightings of oil in the water.

More follows...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wor...m_That_Blew_Up ]]> International Debate *chucky* http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57251-Another-Oil-Rig-Explodes-In-Gulf-Of-Mexico Blair book launch protest : London http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57224-Blair-book-launch-protest-London&goto=newpost Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:20:38 GMT Image: http://stopwar.org.uk/images/stories/blair_book_protest.jpg http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2038/1/

http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2038/1/ ]]> International Debate Poblachtach Sóisalach http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57224-Blair-book-launch-protest-London Zapatistas http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57214-Zapatistas&goto=newpost Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:15:09 GMT This is a thread for all information on the Zapatistas. *EZLN Declarations:* First Declaration of the Laconda Jungle http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezln/ezlnwa.html Second... This is a thread for all information on the Zapatistas.

EZLN Declarations:
First Declaration of the Laconda Jungle
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...ln/ezlnwa.html

Second declaration:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...ec_june94.html

Third:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...claration.html

Fourth
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezln/jung4.html

Fifth:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...lj_july98.html

Sixth delaration (2005-- Very important Document)
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=805


Declaration of La Realidad against Neoliberalism
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex..._dec_real.html
Second:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...count_aug.html

By Subcommandante Marcos
The Southeast in Two Winds (A Manifesto and a great look into pre-revolutionary life)
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...se_2_wind.html

SubCommandante Marcos Archive:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mex...cos_index.html

The Zapatista Archive
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezlnco.html ]]> International Debate An Oglacht http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57214-Zapatistas Gunman takes hostages at Discovery Channel HQ http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57204-Gunman-takes-hostages-at-Discovery-Channel-HQ&goto=newpost Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:05:03 GMT Image: http://cdn.photos.tmz.com/gallery_images/images/2010/09/l_78c2742981e34e9602fb0906682bccb7_full.jpg Police in Silver Spring, Maryland have responded to reports that a man with a handgun...

Police in Silver Spring, Maryland have responded to reports that a man with a handgun entered the Discovery Channel headquarters building and took a hostage. It is thought he may also be armed with explosives.

A Discovery employee told ABC television the building was on lockdown and said she thought she had heard five or six gunshots. The building and surrounding area have been evacuated.

A SWAT team has been is among the services attending the scene.

Children inside a daycare centre inside the building have also been evacuated.


Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...#ixzz0yJI1GlRf ]]> International Debate MarkyMark http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57204-Gunman-takes-hostages-at-Discovery-Channel-HQ Article: Global War crimes and atrocities! http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57199-Global-War-crimes-and-atrocities!&goto=newpost Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:28:01 GMT I thought Id start this thread so people could post up relevant information about war crimes etc that others might never have heard of, my one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane ... I thought Id start this thread so people could post up relevant information about war crimes etc that others might never have heard of, my one is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane

Oradour sur Glane!

On 10 June, Diekmann's battalion sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres and ordered all the townspeople – and anyone who happened to be in or near the town – to assemble in the village square, ostensibly, to have their identity papers examined. In addition to the residents of the village, the SS also apprehended six people who did not live there but had the misfortune of riding their bikes through the village when the Germans arrived.

All the women and children were locked in the church while the village was looted. Meanwhile, the men were led to six barns and sheds where machine-gun nests were already in place.

According to the account of a survivor, the soldiers began shooting at them, aiming for their legs so that they would die more slowly. Once the victims were no longer able to move, the soldiers covered their bodies with fuel and set the barns on fire. Only six men escaped; one of them was later seen walking down a road heading to the cemetery and was shot dead. In all, 190 men perished.

The soldiers proceeded to the church and placed an incendiary device there. After it was ignited, women and children tried to flee through the doors and windows of the church, but they were met with machine-gun fire. A total of 247 women and 205 children died in the carnage. Only two women and one child survived; one was 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche. She slid out a rear sacristy window, followed by a young woman and child [1]; the Germans' attention was aroused and the three were shot. Marguerite Rouffanche was wounded and her companions were killed. She crawled to some pea bushes behind the church, where she remained hidden overnight until she was rescued the following morning. Another group of about twenty villagers had fled Oradour-sur-Glane as soon as the soldiers had appeared. That night, the village was partially razed.

A few days later, survivors were allowed to bury the dead. No less than 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane had been murdered in a matter of hours. Adolf Diekmann claimed that the episode was a just retaliation for partisan activity in nearby Tulle and the kidnapping of Helmut Kämpfe.

[edit] Aftermath
On 12 January 1953, a military tribunal in Bordeaux, heard the case against the surviving sixty-five of the approximately two hundred German soldiers who had been involved. Only twenty-one of them were present. (Many were living in East Germany, and the German Democratic Republic would not allow them to be extradited.) Seven of them were Germans, but fourteen were Alsatians, French nationals of German ethnicity who had been regarded by the Nazis as members of the "Reich". All but one of them claimed to have been drafted into the Waffen-SS against his will, the so-called malgré-nous (a term which means "in spite of us").

The trial caused a huge protest in Alsace, forcing the French authorities to split the tribunal into two separate proceedings, according to the nationality of the defendants.[citation needed] On 11 February, twenty defendants were found guilty. Continuing uproar (including calls for autonomy) in Alsace pressed the French parliament to pass an amnesty law for all malgré-nous on 19 February, and the convicted Alsatians were released shortly afterwards. This, in turn, caused bitter protests in the Limousin region.

By 1958, all of the German defendants had been released as well. General Heinz Lammerding of the Das Reich division, who had given the orders for the measures against the Resistance, died in 1971 after a successful entrepreneurial career. At the time of the trial, he lived in Düsseldorf, which was located inside the British occupation zone of West Germany, and the French government never obtained his extradition from the British authorities.[2]

The last trial against a former Waffen-SS member took place in 1983. Shortly before, former SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Barth had been tracked down in the German Democratic Republic GDR. Barth had participated in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre as a platoon leader in the Der Führer regiment, in charge of forty-five soldiers. He was one of several war criminals charged with having given orders to shoot twenty men in a garage. Barth was sentenced to life imprisonment by the First Senate of the City Court of Berlin. He was released from prison in the reunified Germany in 1997, and he died in August 2007.

After the war, General Charles de Gaulle decided that the village would never be rebuilt. Instead, it would remain a memorial to the cruelty of the Nazi occupation. In 1999, French President Jacques Chirac dedicated a memorial museum, the Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour, near the entrance to the Village Martyr, ("martyred village").


]]> International Debate brendanhughes1980 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57199-Global-War-crimes-and-atrocities! Hunger striker dies in Venezuela http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57155-Hunger-striker-dies-in-Venezuela&goto=newpost Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:57:03 GMT A VENEZUELAN farmer has died after months on hunger strike in protest at the seizure of his farm in 2003 during a government land reform drive. Franklin Brito suffered a heart attack in a military... A VENEZUELAN farmer has died after months on hunger strike in protest at the seizure of his farm in 2003 during a government land reform drive.

Franklin Brito suffered a heart attack in a military hospital in the capital Caracas on Monday night, according to family members. He had demanded that president Hugo Chávez compensate him for the seizure of his holding in the south of the country where he had grown yams and watermelons.

In a statement his family said Mr Brito “lives on in the struggle of the Venezuelan people for the right to property, access to justice, for liberty and the respect of governments for human rights, both collective and individual”.

Recent photos showed a severely emaciated Mr Brito, and his family said the father of four’s weight had dropped to just 35kg. The 49-year-old farmer, who had undertaken eight hunger strikes since 2005, had become a hero for many opponents of Mr Chávez’s rule who say the firebrand left-winger is turning the country into a Cuban-style socialist dictatorship.

But the government said Mr Brito did not have legal title to the land seized and was trying to extort money from it. It also claimed he was mentally unstable. As well as the series of fasts which started in 2005 Mr Brito had once sewn up his mouth and cut off one of his fingers on live television.

Mr Brito suspended his protest last December after the government offered to return the farm but resumed it shortly afterwards saying that while authorities were ready to give him back his land they refused to hand over the title deeds or compensate him for the six years during which it was nationalised. State television later showed a video in which it claimed Mr Brito demanded €550,000 to call off his protest.

The government of Mr Chávez has nationalised roughly 2.5 million hectares in recent years as part of a land reform drive which it says is aimed at reversing centuries of rural inequality.

But the reform, combined with increased government control over the economy, has exacerbated food shortages in the country with the government forced to step up imports despite abundant land and a tropical climate.

The death of Mr Brito comes just four weeks ahead of midterm elections in which the opposition hopes to capitalise on growing alarm at spiralling urban violence and economic mismanagement.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...277973458.html ]]> International Debate Ó LUAIN http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57155-Hunger-striker-dies-in-Venezuela Fidel Castro takes blame for persecution of Cuban gays http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57133-Fidel-Castro-takes-blame-for-persecution-of-Cuban-gays&goto=newpost Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:18:51 GMT Fidel Castro has said that he is ultimately responsible for the persecution suffered by homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959. The former president told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada... Fidel Castro has said that he is ultimately responsible for the persecution suffered by homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.

The former president told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that there were moments of great injustice against the gay community.

"If someone is responsible, it's me," he said.

In the 1960s and 70s, many homosexuals in Cuba were fired, imprisoned or sent to "re-education camps".


Mr Castro said homosexuals had traditionally been discriminated in Cuba, just as black people and women.

But, nevertheless, he admits he didn't pay enough attention to what was going on against the gay community.

"At the time we were being sabotaged systematically, there were armed attacks against us, we had too many problems," said the 84-year-old Communist leader.

"Keeping one step ahead of the CIA, which was paying so many traitors, was not easy."

In 1979, homosexuality was decriminalised and, more recently, there have been efforts to legalise same-sex unions.
'At death's door'

In the interview with La Jornada, Mr Castro also spoke of the economic embargo against the island, which was imposed by the United States in 1961. He said it was just as damaging today as it was then.

"The biggest problem was always medicine and food, which is true even today," he said.

Mr Castro's comments came in the second instalment of a lengthy interview with the journalist Carmen Lira.

On Monday's instalment, he said he had been "at death's door" during the long illness which forced him to step down as Cuba's leader.

Mr Castro fell ill in 2006 and handed power to his brother Raul in 2008.

He underwent several operations for an intestinal illness.

"I asked myself several times if (the doctors) would let me live under these conditions or whether they would allow me to die," he told La Jornada.

Mr Castro led Cuba for almost 50 years after toppling the government of Fulgencio Batista in a revolution.

The Communists remain in power and Fidel Castro remains head of the Communist Party, although his brother Raul is president of the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11147157 ]]> International Debate freethepeople1916 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57133-Fidel-Castro-takes-blame-for-persecution-of-Cuban-gays <![CDATA[Taliban dismiss Time cover as 'desperate propaganda']]> http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57062-Taliban-dismiss-Time-cover-as-desperate-propaganda&goto=newpost Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:44:00 GMT (AFP) – Aug 9, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Taliban have dismissed the use of a mutilated Afghan woman on a Time magazine cover as "desperate propaganda" and denied being the culprits, a US monitoring group said Monday.

The Taliban said Time was lying when it accused the group of slicing off 18-year-old Aisha's nose and ears after she fled her abusive in-laws in southern Uruzgan province last year.
"This desperate propaganda by Time magazine has shown the whole world the lengths which the world media will go to please America, even at the cost of their journalistic integrity," a Taliban spokesman said.
Independent US monitoring agency SITE said the English-language statement from the Taliban spokesman was posted on Saturday on the website of the group, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The statement accused the Americans of "publishing these lies to divert attention of the people from their clear and disgraceful defeat.
"This picture published by Time magazine and the barbaric story wrongly attached to Islamic Emirate is not only false, but publishing these images are against the morals and ethics of professional journalism," it said.
"A lot of journalists worldwide have condemned this act of Time magazine and called it a crime against journalism.
"As far as the story of Aisha is concerned, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has condemned this barbaric, inhumane and un-Islamic act and declares that this case has never been forwarded to any court or persons of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."
The statement goes on to point out that under Islamic law the "cutting of human ears and noses whether the human is alive or dead is illegal and prohibited."
"We call on Time and other Western media to stop trampling on their own moral principles, just to hide and divert people?s attention from America's military and political defeat by publishing such fabrications," it said.
"We also call on Afghan media to stop spreading the lies of Islam-hating Western media by becoming their translators. Journalism is an important duty, thus it should not be used in spreading mischief."
Aisha has become a symbol of a debate amongst commentators over the nature of the US mission in Afghanistan, with Time arguing Aisha's case demonstrates why the Taliban should never be allowed to return to power.
Aisha is soon to undergo surgery in the United States to rebuild her face.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...0P3My43OZkMDjw
]]> International Debate brian21051 http://www.irishrepublican.net/forum/showthread.php?57062-Taliban-dismiss-Time-cover-as-desperate-propaganda