3 Desperate Libyan Voices Downing St Demo 24 Oct [video]
108morris108
October 24, 2012
Everyone talking has lost relatives and experienced endless tragedy since the troubles started in Libya. And now they are seeing more, and they gathered opposite the residence of the British Prime Minister with full knowledge that he will do nothing.
Protesters break into grounds of Libya’s parliament
by Ali Shuaib
Reuters
October 21, 2012
(Reuters) – About 500 protesters broke into the grounds of Libya’s parliament building on Sunday to demand an end to violence in Bani Walid, a former stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi that is being shelled by militiamen from a rival town.
Militias, many from Misrata and aligned with the Defence Ministry, have been shelling the hilltop town of 70,000 people for several days. State news agency LANA said on Sunday 22 people had been killed and 200 wounded in the fighting.
“We are here to demand the government find a peaceful solution for the tribal war that is happening in Bani Walid,” protester Nasser Ehdein said.
Libya’s new rulers have led the nation to elections but have struggled to impose their authority on a country awash with weapons a year after Gaddafi was captured and killed.
Underscoring the chaos in the country, there were conflicting reports over the weekend over the fate of Gaddafi’s former spokesman and his son.
While Misrata spent weeks under siege by Gaddafi forces in last year’s war, Bani Walid was one of the towns that remained loyal to Gaddafi longest. It remains isolated from the rest of Libya and former rebels say it still harbors pockets of support for the old government.
The unarmed group of male and female protesters forced their way past security guards at the gates of the grounds of the parliament buildings in Tripoli, chanting “There is no God but God, and President (Mohammed) Magarief is God’s enemy.”
Security forces shot rounds into the air as they held their positions at the doors of the building, while elected members of the General National Congress met inside.
Ehdein said most of the protesters were residents of Tripoli who had family in or hailed from Bani Walid.
This is the second time protesters have broken into the grounds of the assembly since it took power in the summer.
The first time was on October 4 when a group of protesters who believed their town was underrepresented in a proposed Libyan government stormed the assembly as it prepared to scrutinize the prime minister-elect’s nominations.
ROCKETS
Bani Walid militia leader Abdelkarim Ghomaid said the attacks were continuing in the town, 140 km south of Tripoli.
“The shelling is coming from all sides,” he said by phone.
A Bani Walid resident said by phone: “Fighting is continuing today. There is smoke rising over certain parts of the city.”
Outside Bani Walid, hundreds of vehicles lined up in the village of Weshtata, 80 km (50 miles) from Tripoli, waiting to be checked by government forces as families fled the fighting.
“We are escaping the danger of the rockets, the shrapnel, and the deaths inside. There hasn’t been electricity for days,” said one man who had his family in a pick-up truck.
[hat tip: Land Destroyer]
Lebanon PM calls for national unity after Beirut blast
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati ([PressTV] file photo)
October 20, 2012
Makati said on Saturday he has offered his resignation to President Michel Suleiman, but it has been rejected.
The premier’s move came after a deadly bomb attack in the capital on Friday that killed eight people, including General Wissam al-Hassan, the intelligence chief of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces. Scores of others were also wounded.
Lebanese protesters took to the streets shortly after the explosion to condemn Hassan’s assassination.
On Friday, Lebanon’s opposition March 14 bloc said it held Prime Minister Mikati responsible for the attack and called on his government to resign.
“This government must go, and the prime minister is asked to present his resignation,” the group said in a statement.
Lebanon’s powerful resistance movement Hezbollah also condemned the attack, describing it as “an attempt to destabilize Lebanon and national unity.”
The explosion occurred in Beirut’s eastern Ashrafiya district, which is a predominantly Christian district, and near the headquarters of the Phalange, a Maronite Christian party, during the rush hour as parents were picking up their children from school. Several buildings were damaged and many cars were set on fire as a result of the blast.
It was the first major bomb attack in Beirut since 2008. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Lebanese Premier Mikati said the government was trying to identify the perpetrators and that they would be punished.
PG/JR/SS
‘Day of Rage’: Lebanon prepares to bury slain security chief [video included]
Russia Today
October 20, 2012
Lebanon’s anti-Syrian opposition has called for a “Day of Rage” to coincide with the funeral of slain security chief Wissam al-Hasan. Friday’s deadly bombing and assassination risks putting Beirut on a collision course with Damascus.
Hundreds of protesters in downtown Beirut rallied outside the office of Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday as calls for his resignation continue unabated over his alleged role in the high-profile assassination. Thousands more had gathered on Martyrs Square in the heart of the capital.
PM Najib Mikati, who enjoys support from Hezbollah, Damascus and Iran, offered to step down to placate those who accused him of playing a role in Friday’s deadly car bombing. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman refused his resignation.
The March 14 coalition has also called for a “Day of Rage” in the Lebanese capital on Sunday as with opposition leaders accusing Syria of being behind the attack.
“Let tomorrow be … a day of anger in the face of the butcher Bashar Assad and the black regime that rules Syria with the power of fire and destruction and wants to export blood and devastation to our country Lebanon,” the Lebanese Daily Star cites MP Nuhad Mashnouq, an outspoken critic of Assad, as saying.
March 14 said that the protesters would call on the Arab League and the UN Security Council to take the appropriate measures to preserve Lebanon’s stability.
AFP Photo / Anwar Amro
“Such measures should include deploying the international troops United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon alongside the Lebanese-Syrian borders,” Mashnouq said.
Hassan will be interned near the tomb of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Martyrs Square, Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi told al-Mustaqbal television.
Hariri’s 2005 assassination sparked the 2005 Cedar Revolution which resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. The March 14 coalition takes its name from the date the revolution kicked off.
The funeral will be held at the al-Amine mosque in downtown Beirut, near the mausoleum, and will follow afternoon prayers.
Rafiq’s son and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri insisted “everyone of you is personally invited to attend the funeral on Sunday,” but said that the roads should remain clear so that access to Marty’s Square will not be blocked.
MP Sami Gemayel, from the Christian Phalange Party, also called on supporters to come out in masse to Sunday’s funeral. Gemayel accused the Syrian government of dragging Lebanon into a direct confrontation.
“We tried to disassociate our nation from the conflict in Syria, but the regime is challenging the Lebanese people once again by assassinating Hassan,” the MP said.
Gemayel drew a line in the sand, saying Lebanese officials must decide if they are loyal to their own country or Syria.
“It’s a battle between Lebanon and a foreign country that is violating its sovereignty and unity,” he added.
Gemayel also said the March 14 coalition should once again become a resistance movement that can safeguard both the Lebanese people and their state.
AFP Photo / Anwar Amro
“We will continue our struggle until we form a cabinet that is capable of protecting the Lebanese, the independence of the country and a one that can order the army to deploy along the Lebanese-Syrian border,”
continued.
The assassination is as a major blow the March 14 coalition, to which Hassan, a Sunni Muslim, was closely allied.
Hassan was also a close ally of former PM Saad Hariri, who fled Lebanon in April 2011 after his government collapsed in January of that year amid fears he would be assassinated.
Hezbollah recently accused Hariri and his Future Movement of supporting the Syrian opposition.
“I say to the Future Movement and to Saad Hariri: have mercy on Lebanon and its people, have mercy on Syria and its people and stop funding and arming the [Syrian] opposition,” the National News Agency quoted Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem as saying last Saturday.
“[Stop] managing armed groups in Turkey and involving Lebanon in the details of the Syrian crisis. [Stop] sheltering gunmen in Lebanon and smuggling weapons from Lebanon to Syria,” Qassem continued.
Hezbollah and the Future Movement have routinely accused each other of meddling in the Syrian conflict.
Hassan died when an explosive-laden car detonated in Ashrafiyeh district of Beirut, a majority Christian neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. Seven others were killed in the blast, at least were injured, and surrounding buildings were seriously damaged.
It was the first car bombing in Lebanon in four years, when the country’s top anti-terrorism investigator was killed along with three others.
The attack sparked riots and protests which continued into Saturday, as thousands of people across Lebanon demonstrated against the bombing in Beirut.
The UN has condemned the attack calling for a thorough investigation to find the perpetrators, while the US called the blast a“terrorist attack.”
Syria also condemned the deadly blast.
People set up tents and gather outside the Lebanese Grand Serail also known as the Government Palace, the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Lebanon, in downtown Beirut, on October 20, 2012 (AFP Photo / Anwar Amro)
3 Portland activists indefinitely detained for refusing to speak at grand jury hearing
Leah-Lynn Plante
by J.G. Vibes
Activist Post
October 12, 2012
Since late July, three activists have had their lives torn apart by the police and the legal system, simply because they refused to answer any questions in a grand jury case, regarding crimes that they have absolutely no connection to. As of right now, all three are behind bars, with no clue when they will be able to get out.
The most recent to be sent away was Leah-Lynn Plante, this week she repeated the same process that she just watched her roommates go through. After being summoned to speak twice and refusing to speak both times, the prosecutors in the case enacted a legal loophole which waived her 5th amendment right to remain silent. This decision was made for her by the court against her will.
The sneaky legal trick that the prosecutors pulled was granting her immunity, which meant that anything she said to them would not incriminate her. This may sound OK at face value, but when you are granted immunity you lose your right to remain silent and can be thrown into prison for what is called “civil contempt”. This actually happens a lot; video journalist Josh Wolf, for example, served seven-and-a-half months in 2006 and 2007 for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury and turn over his footage of a protest in San Francisco. Grand jury trials are very shady ordeals, which have totally different rules than the typical court case. Defense attorneys are not even allowed to be present, and the proceedings of the case are completely secret.
According to the grand jury infosheet on antipolitics.com:
Since their inception, both in England and in the United States, grand juries have been used against political dissidents, the jurors often being hand-picked to ensure indictment. A modern variation on this abuse of power relies on political activists’ reluctance to turn informant. Activists are subpoenaed with the expectation that they will refuse to testify, and thus end up in jail for lengthy periods. The person who was subpoenaed is thereby immobilized, while other activists are deterred from further participation.
At the end of the day, beneath all of the rhetoric, she is being persecuted for refusing to obey and refusing to spy on fellow activists. She was targeted in the first place because of her activist work and a collection of what the feds call “Anarchist Literature”. Her roommates Katherine “Kteeo” Olejnik and Matthew Kyle Duran have been faced with the same situation and both were nailed with the same tricky legal loophole.
It all started on the morning of July 25th when their house was raided on the apparent grounds of their connection to a May Day protest, where unidentified members of a crowd carried out random acts of vandalism. These acts of vandalism were isolated and there has been no proof that these three activists were involved in any way.
In fact, they all have alibis; all three of them weren’t physically at the protests, nor were they even in town at the time. A statement released by Leah just before her final court date described the experience in detail, and discussed the events leading up to the grand jury summoning. The statement read in part:
FBI agents from around Washington and Oregon and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents from Washington busted down the front door of my house with a battering ram, handcuffed my house mates and me at gunpoint, and held us hostage in our backyard while they read us a search warrant and ransacked our home. They said it was in connection to May Day vandalism that occurred in Seattle, Washington earlier this year.
However, we suspected that this was not really about broken windows. As if they had taken pointers from Orwell’s 1984, they took books, artwork and other various literature as ‘evidence’ as well as many other personal belongings even though they seemed to know that nobody there was even in Seattle on May Day. While we know that knowledge is powerful, we suspected that nobody used rolled up copies of the Stumptown Wobbly to commit property damage.
We saw this for what it was. They are trying to investigate anarchists and persecute them for their beliefs. This is a fishing expedition. This is a witch hunt. Since then, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, we have learned that this Grand jury was convened on March 2nd, 2012, two months before the May Day vandalism even took place.
Her fourth and final court date in front of the grand jury was this week, October 10th, where again, she refused to speak, only this time she was jailed as a result. Although there were supporters outside of the courthouse in protest, there has been minimal mainstream coverage of this legal battle. Most of the coverage that has come has been through online blogs and activist websites. Due to the censorship and secrecy that has surrounded this case, what exactly took place inside the court room is still a mystery. So far, the only message about Leah’s condition has come from a post that a supporter has made to her tumblr page. The message reads as follows:
Today, October 10th, 2012, Leah-Lynn Plante was thrown into prison for civil contempt.
This blog will now only be maintained by members of her support team, she will resume posting when she is free.
Please keep following so you can get updates about her and how to help.
Thank you on behalf of Leah and all the PNW Grand Jury Resisters.
Since these proceedings are completely secret there has been no word on her sentence, but it has been speculated that her roommate Matthew could be held in solitary confinement until March of 2014, and it appears that the same goes for Katherine and Leah as well.
Sadly, May Day has a long history of false flag vandal attacks and activist witch hunts. Matthew Kyle Duran referenced one of the most popular of these instances, the Haymarket protests of 1886, in his last statement before being incarcerated. Part of his statement read:
When the Haymarket massacre took place all those years ago and the martyrs were hung for their desire for a better life, the State attempted to crush all radicals. Clearly, this did not work then and it won’t work now. If this was their desire, they have failed in every aspect of it as I have not seen anything other than flagrant disregard for them across the globe. Keep the struggle in your hearts and minds and do not bend to their will. They will never be able to destroy us no matter how hard they try.
As in their case, every single person who was taken in an executed after the Haymarket protests were in fact innocent, many of them also not even being in town at the time. This was an important but rarely talked about part of history, which I cover in detail in my hardback book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance. In chapter 45 of the book I discuss how:
Two days into the strike on May 3rd, 4 workers outside the McCormick Harvester company were indiscriminately killed by police during protests, and dozens of others were injured. The following day the protests grew as a result of the murders and prominent activists of the time began to call national attention to what was going on in Chicago.
The next day on May 4th a bomb was set off in the midst of the protests and although there was no indication of who was responsible for the bombing, the blame was placed on the demonstrators and a witch hunt ensued. 8 of the most prominent antiestablishment speakers and writers of the time were rounded up for ‘inciting a murder’ and executed. Their only crime was exercising their right to free speech and speaking out against the establishment. 3 of the 8 activists that were executed were speaking and were nowhere near the explosion, the other 5 weren’t even in town at the time. The evidence that has surfaced since the Haymarket incident show that the blast was most likely set by an agent provocateur, in order to give the establishment an excuse to silence this growing political movement.
Now over a hundred years later history is repeating itself, and these non-violent people have been taken from their homes, their lives and their loved ones to be placed in a cage under constant supervision, with absolutely no clue when they will see the light of day again.
Websites have been established for Leah and her friends, but their futures are still uncertain. A massive public uproar could help spring them free sooner or later, so it is important for the alternative press and the activist community to stay up on this story and gather public support for their cause.
RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE:
Armed FBI Raid Targets Activist’s Political Literature
J.G. Vibes is the author of an 87 chapter counter culture textbook called Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance and host of a show called Voluntary Hippie Radio. He is also an artist with an established record label and event promotion company that hosts politically charged electronic dance music events. You can keep up with his work, which includes free podcasts, free e-books & free audiobooks at his website www.aotmr.com .
Libyan Embassy London Demonstration 10 Oct 2012 – For Bani Walid [video]
108morris108
October 10, 2012
It was quite moving to be with these people – the mood while perhaps defiant was also somber.
All more dignified than what the paid rats were doing last year
Press For Truth Presents: “The Turning Point” (Official Trailer) [video]
Press For Truth
October 8, 2012
Support independent media and pre-order the DVD: http://www.pressfortruth.ca/pft-shop/dvd-the-turning-point/
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