De tot nu toe meest belachelijke premier van dit land, is zonder meer de gemuteerde CDA kleiaardappel Balkenende. Als hij in het nauw kwam door de volkomen verkeerde beslissingen die hij en z’n afbraakkabinet namen, heeft Balkenende, ik dacht, een paar keer het meer dan lamme excuus gebruikt: “Met de kennis van nu…..” en dat in de bedoeling >> met die kennis had ik destijds anders gehandeld…..
Balkenende zei dit onder meer na het rapport van de Commissie-Davids over de door hem en de Hoop Scheffer (plus natuurlijk de rest van het waardeloze Balkenende kabinet) gesteunde illegale inval in Irak. Terwijl Balkenende en de Hoop Scheffer, destijds minister van BuZa, al vele malen waren gewaarschuwd dit niet te doen…… Ze werden o.a gewaarschuwd door het team van VN wapeninspecteurs o.l.v. Blix, die het vuur uit z’n sloffen liep met de mededeling dat Irak geen massavernietigingswapens had en ze zelfs niet verstopt kon hebben…..
Overigens zei CDA opperschoft de Hoop Scheffer later dat hij geen spijt had van het steunen van de oorlog tegen Irak, zowel politiek als militair…. Terwijl hij toen al wist (of had kunnen weten) dat meer dan 1,5 miljoen Irakezen waren omgekomen door die illegale oorlog…… Deze oorlogsmisdadiger mag (zoals oorlogsmisdadiger Balkenende) les geven aan hoge scholen en universiteiten…… Als beloning mocht de Hoop Scheffer van de VS (destijds onder lijpo G.W. Bush) een paar jaar secretaris-generaal van de NAVO spelen…….*
Het voorgaande schoot onlangs nog eens door m’n hoofd toen ik weer eens de dooddoener hoorde van Duitsers die na WOII werden gevraagd naar de concentratiekampen: “Wir haben es nicht gewusst….’ Inderdaad deze uitspraken hebben dezelfde strekking. Meen trouwens dat zowel de grijnzende VVD hufter Rutte als PvdA grofgraaier Bos (afzonderlijk) ook al eens hebben gewezen op ‘de kennis van nu’, i.v.m. één van de vele door hen gemaakte blunders, leugens en/of andere oplichterij….
* De Hoop Scheffer ontkent deze bewering, echter hij werd secretaris-generaal in 2003, hetzelfde jaar dat Balkenende 1 politieke steun uitsprak voor de illegale oorlog van de VS tegen Irak, dit besluit werd overgebracht middels een bezoek van hem en Balkenende aan het Witte Huis, om 7 uur ‘s morgens, met de pet in de hand, aan de dienstingang van het Witte Huis….
Nadat zaterdag 23 maart jl. een Russisch militair vliegtuig ongeveer 100 Russische militairen en militaire goederen afleverde in Caracas is men in het Witte Huis volgens gebruikelijke hypocriete manier theatraal de bol uitgegaan….. Eerst liet Trump al weten dat deze provocatieve actie van Rusland een ernstig gevaar is voor de ‘internationale vrede’ (waar? ha! ha!) en veiligheid in de regio……
Bolton de psychopathische adviseur van Trump, als Trump een oorlogsmisdadiger, herhaalde deze woorden en voegde daar de waarschuwing aan toe voor partijen van buiten de westerse ‘hemisfeer’, niet te proberen een bruggenhoofd te vormen in Venezuela of andere gebieden in het westen, daarbij uiteraard doelend op Rusland als ‘bruggenhoofd bouwer….’ (hoewel hij met deze woorden natuurlijk ook China waarschuwt…)
Je vraagt je werkelijk af waar de twee het gore lef vandaan halen anderen te beschuldigen van zaken en hen daarvoor te waarschuwen, zaken die de VS bij herhaling zelf elders doet, sterker nog: de VS heeft meer dan 800 militaire bases over de wereld en dat bepaald niet alleen in de ‘westerse hemisfeer……’ De VS gaat trouwens ook op ander gebied veel verder, dat middels een genocide gestolen land voert de ene illegale oorlog na de andere en bemoeit zich met binnenlandse aangelegenheden zonder daarvoor te zijn gevraagd, zoals nu weer in Venezuela…… Rusland trad niet eigenhandig op in Syrië en Venezuela, maar op uitdrukkelijke vraag van het bevoegde gezag in die landen, want wat de VS ook vindt en zegt over die landen, het zijn en blijven soevereine landen waar de VS niets, maar dan ook helemaal niets te zoeken heeft…..
Het is maar goed dat de Trump administratie niet in Moskou is gevestigd, immers dan hadden we al lang en breed in WOIII gezeten, gezien de westerse agressie langs de grenzen met Rusland, een plek waar de VS, noch haar oorlogshond de NAVO, iets te zoeken hebben, zoals blijkt uit een overeenkomst in 1991 gesloten met Michail Gorbatsjov, de ex-president van de Sovjet Unie… Dit alles terwijl Rusland niet eens hetzelfde doet langs de grenzen van de VS……. (mocht Rusland hetzelfde proberen langs de grens van de VS >> het land zou te klein zijn voor de verontwaardiging en hysterie die dit zou oproepen, zie het voorbeeld daarvan: de Cubacrisis in 1962…… de link is naar dat onderdeel op Wikipedia, dus let op, daar deze site tegenwoordig deels is afgeladen met niet te corrigeren onzin…)
Tot slot nog dit: als er één land is dat zelfs de wereldvrede bedreigt en overal waar het illegaal ingrijpt dood en verderf zaait, is het de VS wel, of het nu gaat om de westerse of oosterse hemisfeer…..
De VS is verreweg de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde en heeft vanaf WOII tot nu toe al meer dan 22,5 miljoen mensen vermoord in illegale oorlogen; geheime militaire acties onder bevel van de CIA; het organiseren van opstanden in meerdere buiten landen; voorts vielen de doden bijstaatsgrepen gepleegd door de CIA en bij standrechtelijke executies van verdachten, nu vooral gedaan middels drones…..* Veel van de hiervoor genoemde VS terreur werd NB uitgeoefend in Latijns-Amerika…….
Het volgende bericht komt van Zero Hedge en werd geschreven door Tyler Durden:
Stay Out Of Western Hemisphere! Bolton Warns Russia Over Troops In Venezuela
The White House has dramatically stepped up its rhetoric threatening action against Russia’s military presence in Venezuela after the Kremlin deployed a troop contingency to Caracas last Saturday.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton took tensions to a new level, on Friday issuing a new Monroe doctrine of sorts, telling Moscow any attempt to establish or expand military operationsin the western hemisphere constitutes a “provocative” and “direct threat” to international peace and security in the region.
“We stronglycaution actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations,” Bolton said in a statement.
“We will consider such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region,” he added. This follows the president’s own warning on Wednesday that“all options” are on the table regarding potential expanding Russian presence in Venezuela.
Two Russian aircraft carrying about 100 servicemen and 35 tons of cargo arrived in Caracas last Saturday, led by Russian General Vasily Tonkoshkurov, identified as chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces and First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of Russia.
This prompted Trump’s Wednesday warning to Russia against involvement in the Latin American nation; he told reporters in the Oval Office that:
“Russia has to get out.”
Kremlin officials responded by explaining that it deployed military specialists merely to service preexisting arms contracts with Venezuela, and that Russia is not interfering in the Latin American country’s internal affairs.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday when asked how long the Russian troop contingency led by a high ranking general will stay:
“How long? As long as they need to, and as long as the Venezuelan government needs them. It all is being done based on bilateral agreements.”
Russia’s position is that it is not interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs by merely cooperating on legal and existing service contracts, and that no other country should do so either. It said that only “specialists”had entered Venezuela under a pre-existing agreed upon military cooperation deal.
However, the White House isn’t buying it, as Bolton’s Friday statement further condemned Maduro’s “use of foreign military personnel in his attempt to remain in power, including the introduction of Russian military personnel and equipment into Venezuela.”
“Maduro will only use this military support to further repress the people of Venezuela; perpetuate the economic crisis that has destroyed Venezuela’s economy; and endanger regional stability,” Bolton said.
All of this also comes as the Maduro government stripped US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido of his position in the National Assembly, further barring him from holding public office for 15 years.
(de opgeblazen oorlogshitser en oorlogsmisdadiger Pompeo beweert dat Hezbollah werkzaam is in Venezuela en daar een leger heeft dat gezien zijn woorden amper onderdoet voor de gezamenlijke NAVO troepen… ha! ha! ha! Ook hier is totaal geen bewijs voor deze belachelijke beschuldiging…)
MintPressNews bracht afgelopen vrijdag een artikel van Ahmed AbdulKareem over de strijd die lokale stammen in Oost-Jemen voeren tegen Saoedi-Arabië, daar dit land samen met de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten (VAE) bezig is met het inrichten van militaire bases in dat deel van Jemen (genaamd al-Mahrah….)……
De stammen blokkeren de invoer van militair materieel en dat is niet de eerste keer, al wordt de huidige blokkade gevoerd met wapens en niet zoals een eerdere vreedzame sit-in (demonstratie) die Saoedi-Arabië in 2017 bloedig heeft neergeslagen….. In Jemen woedt een vergeten (illegale) oorlog, een oorlog die is uitgemond in een genocide tegen de sjiitische bevolking van Jemen, een zaak waarover de reguliere westerse media amper berichten en al helemaal niet in combinatie met het woord ‘genocide…’ Niet vreemd dus dat dit feit, het neerslaan van vreedzame demonstraties in 2017, al helemaal niet werd gemeld, zelfs niet op de sociale media die wel echt nieuws brengen (althans ik ben die berichten niet tegengekomen)…..
Hoe lang laat de wereld de Saoedische terreurcoalitie doorgaan met haar genocide, zonder zelfs maar commentaar te geven??? De hoogste tijd voor een boycot van Saoedi-Arabië en haar terreurcoalitie, die verder bestaat uit de VAE, Egypte en Marokko, waar dan meteen een boycot aan vastgeknoopt moet worden tegen de VS en GB, die Saoedi-Arabië blijven voorzien van wapens, munitie, naast training en de levering van rollend, varend en vliegend oorlogstuig. Waar nog extra moet worden gewezen op de al helemaal kwalijke rol die de VS speelt: tot november vorig jaar voorzag de VS het vliegend oorlogstuig van de Saoedische terreurcoalitie 9.000 keer van (veelal gratis) brandstof in de lucht, deed de coördinatie van de bombardementen en hielp fysiek mee met commando’s op de grond en met de zeeblokkade tegen de sjiitische bevolking van Jemen….. Voor zover bekend doet de VS nog steeds de coördinatie van de bombardementen (met haar radarvliegtuigen) en helpt het nog steeds mee aan de zeeblokkade, een blokkade die NB de honger in Jemen heeft veroorzaakt….. Ook aan de levering van oorlogstuig is geen eind gekomen, al schijnt het congres nu voor een volledige stop op de hulp aan de Saoedische terreurcoalitie te zijn……
Lees het volgende artikel van Ahmed AbdulKareem en zegt het voort, de reguliere media doen er het zwijgen toe als het gaat om de genocide die de Saoedische terreurcoalitie uitvoert in Jemen, waar diezelfde media wel volledig de plaat uitgingen over de moord op Khashoggi*, die het grootste deel van zijn leven de reli-fascistische dictatuur Saoedi-Arabië heeft verdedigd…….. (waarmee ik niet wil zeggen dat het niet een enorme schande is dat Khashoggi werd vermoord…) Dezelfde reguliere media die keer op keer durven te zeggen dat Iran de Houthi’s** militair steunt, een leugen van enorme proporties, nooit heeft men deze leugen kunnen bewijzen…….. blijft ook Nederland Saoedi-Arabië steunen met de genocide, door levering van wapenonderdelen aan deze reli-fascistische dictatuur, ook aan deze schandelijke gang van zaken dient onmiddellijk een eind te komen!!
The latest incident came amidst a precipitous rise in tensions in eastern Yemen, where local residents have been grappling with an increasingly brazen military buildup by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Al-MAHRAH, YEMEN — Fierce clashes have erupted between local tribes and Saudi forces supported by local mercenary groups in the Haat district of Yemen’s eastern Mahrah province. The clashes were sparked when local tribal members prevented Saudi shipping containers containing military equipment and household appliances from entering the country via al-Shihan border crossings with Oman, where Saudi Arabia plans to build anew military base..
Witnesses told MintPress News that the tribal groups stopped the trucks and checked them, then forced them to return. In the wake of this incident, fierce clashes erupted leaving Saudi mercenaries injured. Saudi warplanes could also be seen circling the skies above the area.
The latest incident came amidst a precipitous rise in tensions in eastern Yemen, where local residents have been grappling with an increasingly brazen military buildup by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Just last week, Saudi troops, tanks, and artillery arrived at the coastal area of Eienah, east of al-Gaydah, without coordinating with local authorities, a Yemeni official who spoke on condition of anonymity, told MintPress.
The attack has dangerous connotations for the region and comes less than six months after three protesters were killed by Saudi forces during a sit-in opposing the Saudi Coalition’s military buildup in eastern Yemen. Following the attack on the peaceful protest, local tribes in al-Mahrah vowed to take up arms against Saudi-led forces in order to prevent the construction of more checkpoints and military bases in their country.
Al-Mahrah residents see the build-up of Saudi troops in the district as part of a pattern of malign and colonial Saudi policies in their country. Riyadh has deployed its forces in al-Mahrah under the guise of reconstruction and counter-smuggling operations. But Saudi forces have taken control of an increasingly long list of local government facilities, including the al-Ghaydah Airport, the Nishtun port, Sarfit, and the Shehn border crossing, as well as a number of coastal areas.
Last week, Ali bin Salem al-Huraizy, al-Mahrah’s former deputy governor said: “The Saudis are determined to militarize the sea and land. They [Saudis] try to build a Saudi camp [base] every ten kilos.” He called on the people of al-Mahrah province to prepare to defend their sovereignty against Saudi Arabia by force of arms if necessary.
The Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the peaceful sit-in, Aboud Qamasit, said that Saudi Arabia and its local allies have not shown any goodwill — quite the contrary, they increasingly build military bases in the province. He promised that al-Mahrah’s residents will continue to hold sit-ins and protests.
The sit-in committee, which was formed by al-Mahrah residents, said in a statement on March 12 that Saudi Arabian forces kidnapped two civilians, taking them to al-Ghaydah Airport prison, a Saudi secret prison in the region, where dozens of detainees are subjected to serious abuses and assaults according to the sit-in committee.
Ahmed Belhaf, a leader in the protest movement, said in a statement on March 2, that “there are an estimated 24 Saudi camps in the Ghaydah Airport operating under the supervision of the airport commander and training hundreds of extremist and terrorist militias.”
Saudi Arabia launched a brutal military campaign in late 2017 against al-Mahrah, which borders Oman and has remained largely immune to the broader war in Yemen, as both the Houthis and other armed groups have little presence in the province. Saudi Arabia claims that arms smuggling operations by the Houthis are being carried out from Oman into Yemen via the al-Mahrah border crossing, though the Saudis have provided no evidence to back their claim, which Oman has repeatedly denied.
Saudi meddling in Mahrah politics
Protesters in al-Ghaydah demand the expulsion of Saudi forces from the province. Photo | Ahmed AbdulKareem
A local Yemeni official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Saudi Arabia has begun implementing a plan to eliminate Oman’s allies in the province, including the Mahri General Council, the largest opposition party to Saudi policies and plans in al-Mahrah, which is comprised of political and tribal forces and led by Sultan Abdullah bin Isa Al Afar, a key ally of Oman.
In an effort to undermine local opposition to its military expansion in the region, Saudi Arabia plans to establish a new tribal council, replacing the Mahri General Council, which is to be led by Rajeh Said Bakrit. Bakrit was appointed by the Coalition as a governor of al Mahrah on November 27, 2017, to replace Mohammed Abdullah Kuddah after Kuddah spoke out against Saudi Arabia’s presence. The first phase of that plan includes monthly payoffs of 30,000 Saudi riyals ($8000) to 60 tribal elders and influential figures.
Many strategic analysts see the Saudi plan as a way to apply pressure on Oman, which enjoys long borders and solid relations with the residents of al-Mahrah. Much to the dismay of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Oman also enjoys cordial relations with Saudi rival Iran, a relationship that the Coalition is eager to undermine.
In an effort to stem Saudi influence in the region, residents of al-Hawf, which lies east of al-Mahrah, announced the formation of a General Forum to bring area management back into the hands of local Mahrahi residents and organize civil projects in the area. The General Forum is being supported by the government of Oman and the effort is expected to spread to nearby districts.
Saudi forces in eastern Yemen have recently been accused of planting monitoring devices into local communications networks — developed by a foreign engineering team and supported by Bakrit, according to a local official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said that the devices would allow Saudi forces to monitor and spy on residents and leaders who oppose the Saudi occupation and undermine the local opposition identifying and then assassinating or arresting its leaders.
Infiltration, assassination
al-Mahrah residents in the Hwaf district carry slogans rejecting the militarization of the province, the presence of militias, and Saudi intervention, Jan, 2019. Photo | Ahmed AbdulKareem
A Saudi military commander in al-Mahrah allegedly asked Bakrit to reveal the names of the most prominent leaders who oppose the Saudi presence in the province, threatening to ‘physically liquidate’ them. On Wednesday, members of a UAE assassination squad arrived in al-Ghaydah. The same squad is thought to be responsible for the assassination of 27 religious leaders in Yemen who opposed the Saudi-led occupation.
Saudi Arabia has also launched a campaign to recruit hundreds of al-Mahrah’s young for a local security force, called the “Mahri Elite Forces” and modeled around other Coalition-backed mercenary forces operating in Yemen, including the Hadhrami Elite Forces in Hadhramaut province, the Shabwani Elite Forces in Shabwa, and the Pioneer Security Belt Forces (al-Hizam) brigades in Aden.
The campaign has sparked dismay amongst al-Mahrah’s tribes, who held a meeting and issued a subsequent statement on Monday saying: “Trying to copy the bad experience of the security belts in Aden and transfer them to al-Mahrah would open the way for armed conflicts and undermine local authorities.” The tribes called on the young Mahrahis to refuse to join the Saudi forces, saying the creation of the paramilitary group would create a combustible environment that threatens to upset the local balance.
Like many paramilitary forces created by the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen, the Mahri Elite Force was formed by recruiting members from specific tribes, not on the basis of one national army for the country as a whole. The predictable impact has been to exacerbate tribal differences, revive the desire for revenge among tribes, and create the desire for separate states. Al-Huraizy said in a statement:
The UAE seeks through its armed formations to create a new situation that will enable the UAE to dominate Yemen, control its ports and capabilities, and rob the national decision, violate its sovereignty and bring the country into chaos.”
Saudi Arabia’s policies in eastern Yemen lack a realistic reading of dangers and consequences, according to Abaad Studies and Research Center, a Yemeni research center closely aligned with Saudi Coalition allies in the country. As Saudi Arabia dismantles traditional social structures, ideological systems, and political parties, militia alternatives have predictably emerged.
Top Photo | Mercenaries allied with the Saudi-led coalition are pictured at the port of Aden in Aden, Yemen, Dec. 12, 2018. Jon Gambrell | AP
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.
Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
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* Hetzelfde geldt voor de situatie in Venezuela, ondanks dat de situatie in Venezuela niet is te vergelijken wat betreft doden en verdere ellende in Jemen, doet men of het in Venezuela om veel ernstiger zaken gaat, alweer een leugen van gigantische proporties (terwijl de VS één op één verantwoordelijk is voor de situatie in Venezuela….)…… **De Houthi’s, de sjiitische rebellen, die eerder IS en Al Qaida met succes bestreden in Jemen….. De huidige juntaleider van Jemen is Al-Hadi, die eerder opstapte daar de Houthi’s hem tot aftreden dwongen. Saoedi-Arabië dwong hem zijn presidentschap weer op te nemen, zodat hij hen te hulp kon roepen in de strijd tegen de Houthi’s….. Al-Hadi was de schoft die Al Qaida en IS onderdak gaf in Jemen, waarna dit geteisem begon met haar strijd tegen de sjiieten, die zelfs niet veilig waren in hun moskeeën….. Over die aanvallen was het ook behoorlijk stil in het westen, vergelijk dat eens met reactie in die media na de terreuraanval op de 2 moskeeën in Christchurch….. Zie ook: ‘Saoedische ambassadeur bij VN geeft Iran schuld van genocide in Jemen‘
De show van Stephen Colbert is een propaganda orgaan voor de rechtse democraten en is dat in feite al heel lang. Daarmee staat Colbert ook achter de illegale oorlogen die onder de democratische ‘vredesduif’ Obama werden aangegaan, dit onder regie van zijn rechterhand destijds Hillary Clinton (minister van BuZa), een oorlogsmisdadiger van formaat…..
Colbert had onlangs de democraat Tulsi Gabbard in zijn show en in tegenstelling tot de omgang met andere politici van de Democratische Partij, was dit geen gesprek met opgeklopte ‘humor’.
Colbert probeerde Gabbard zelfs in het kamp te duwen van fascist David Duke (voormalig Ku Klux Klan top), en dat van rechtse rotzakken als Steve Bannon en Matt Gaetz……
Wat betreft de illegale oorlogen van de VS, liet Colbert ten overvloede in zijn gesprek met Gabbard blijken dat hij die volledig steunt, ondanks het enorme aantal doden en landen die in puin achterblijven als de VS klaar is met haar grootschalige terreur tegen in feite de bevolking van de landen die het illegaal aanvalt…..
Ook de illegale oorlog van de VS tegen het bewind van Assad kwam ter sprake, waar Gabbard Colbert fijntjes liet weten dat de CIA in 2011 de ‘opstand’ tegen Assad heeft georganiseerd en geregisseerd en dat de oorlog van de VS in dat land niet gericht was tegen IS, maar tegen het bewind van Assad, waar ze ook de wapenleveringen aan terreurgroepen als IS en militaire training door de VS aan die terreurgroepen noemde…..
Jammer dat ze Assad wel een dictator noemt, terwijl hij met grote meerderheid democratisch tot president werd verkozen in 2014, een verkiezing die door internationale waarnemers als eerlijk en goed werd beoordeeld……
Vergeet voorts niet dat onder Assad alle geloven hand in hand naast elkaar leefden, een zaak die door handelingen van de VS bijna de nek werd omgedraaid…. Gelukkig leven de teruggekeerde vluchtelingen, in de gebieden die door het reguliere Syrische leger worden gecontroleerd, weer vreedzaam naast elkaar, ongeacht het geloof dat men aanhangt……
Helaas voor Colbert, maar hij is geen partij voor Gabbard die hem flink bij de lurven had >> lezen en zien mensen!!
Hawaii Congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where instead of the light, jokey banter about politics and who she is as a person that Democratic presidential candidates normally encounter on late night comedy programs, the show’s host solemnly ran down a list of textbook beltway smears against Gabbard and made her defend them in front of his audience.
Normally when a Democratic Party-aligned politician appears on such a show, you can expect jokes about how stupid Trump is and how badly they’re going to beat the Republicans, how they’re going to help ordinary Americans, and maybe some friendly back-and-forth about where they grew up or something. Colbert had no time to waste on such things, however, because this was not an interview with a normal Democratic Party-aligned politician: this was a politician who has been loudly and consistently criticizing US foreign policy.
After briefly asking his guest who she is and why she’s running for president, Colbert jumped right into it by immediately bringing up Syria and Assad, the primary line of attack employed against Gabbard by establishment propagandists in American mainstream media.
Colbert: Do you think the Iraq war was worth it?
Gabbard: No.
Colbert: Do you think that our involvement in Syria has been worth it?
Gabbard: No.
Colbert: Do you think that ISIS could have been defeated without our involvement and without our support of the local troops there?
Gabbard: There are two things we need to address in Syria. One is a regime change war that was first launched by the United States in 2011, covertly, led by the CIA. That is a regime change war that has continued over the years, that has increased the suffering of the Syrian people, and strengthened groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, because the CIA was using American taxpayer dollars to provide arms and training and equipment to these terrorist groups to get them to overthrow the government. So that is a regime change war that we should not have been engaging.
Colbert: So, but if it is someone like Bashar al-Assad, who gasses his own people, or who engages in war crimes against his own people, should the United States not be involved?
Gabbard: The United States should not be intervening to overthrow these dictators and these regimes that we don’t like, like Assad, like Saddam Hussein, like Gaddafi, and like Kim Jong Un. There are bad people in the world, but history has shown us that every time the United States goes in and topples these dictators we don’t like, trying to end up like the world’s police, we end up increasing the suffering of the people in these countries. We end up increasing the loss of life, but American lives and the lives of people in these countries. We end up undermining our own security, what to speak of the trillions of dollars of taxpayer money that’s spent on these wars that we need to be using right here at home.
Like I said, this is not a normal presidential candidate. How often do you see a guest appear on a network late night talk show and talk about the CIA arming terrorists in Syria and the fact that US military interventionism is completely disastrous? It just doesn’t happen. You can understand, then, why empire propagandist Stephen Colbert spent the rest of the interview informing his TV audience that Tulsi Gabbard is dangerous and poisonous.
This was unwatchable. Colbert just went down the list of scripted Gabbard smears (Assad, David Duke) then sermonized about how US military intervention is a force for good in this world. All without telling a single joke. Late night “comedy” shows are propaganda for livestock.
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳added,
Suzann@cmputrwiz
Colbert twice interjected the State Dept.’s line about the alleged Assad chemical attack on his own people; Tulsi then corrected him saying several of the groups, including al Qaeda & ISIS, had been trained by the US and had been reported as being a part of those alleged chemical https://twitter.com/DraftTulsi/status/1105323025489121280…
3:33 PM – 12 Mar 2019
Colbert: You got some heat for meeting with Bashar al-Assad. Do you not consider him a war criminal? Why did you meet with that man?
Gabbard: In the pursuit of peace and security. If we are not willing to meet with adversaries, potential adversaries, in the pursuit of peace and security, the only alternative is more war. That’s why I took that meeting with Assad. In pursuit of peace and security.
Colbert: Do you believe he is a war criminal? Do you believe he gassed his own people or committed atrocities against his own people?
Gabbard: Yes. Reports have shown that that’s a fact.
Colbert: So you believe the intelligence agencies on that. Because I head that you did not necessarily believe those reports.
The reason I call Colbert a propagandist and not simply a liberal empire loyalist who happens to have been elevated by billionaire media is because these are carefully constructed narratives that he is reciting, and they weren’t constructed by him.
Trying to make it look to the audience as though Gabbard is in some way loyal to Assad has been a high-priority agenda of the mainstream media ever since she announced her presidential candidacy.
We saw it in her recent appearance on The View, where John McCain’s sociopathic daughter called her an “Assad apologist” and demanded that Gabbard call Assad an enemy of the United States. We saw it in her recent CNN town hall, where a consultant who worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign was presented as an ordinary audience member to help CNN’s Dana Bash paint Gabbard’s skepticism of intelligence reports about an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government as something that is weird and suspicious, instead of the only sane position in a post-Iraq invasion world. We saw it in her appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last month, where the entire panel piled on her in outrage that she wouldn’t call Assad an enemy of the United States. It’s such a common propaganda talking point that the New York Times‘ Bari Weiss famously made a laughingstock of herself by repeating it as self-evident truth on The Joe Rogan Experience without having the faintest clue what specific facts it was meant to refer to, just because she’d heard establishment pundits saying it so much.
This is an organized smear by the mass media attempting to marry Gabbard in the eyes of the public to a Middle Eastern leader whom the propagandists have already sold as a child-murdering monster, and Colbert is participating in it here just as much as the serious news media talking heads are. It’s been frustrating to watch Gabbard fold to this smear campaign by acting like it’s an established fact that Assad “gases his own people” and not the hotly contested empire-serving narrative she knows it is.
Gabbard is being targeted by this smear because she challenges US political orthodoxy on military violence (the glue which holds the empire together), so no amount of capitulation will keep them from trying to prevent the public from trusting her words.
(de video in het volgende Twitterbericht kan ik niet overnemen, zie hiervoor het origineel)
The journalist interrogating Tulsi seems to believe that US forces in Syria are fighting Assad. Tulsi corrects her, says those troops were deployed there to fight ISIS. These people don’t even know what’s happening in the places they want the US to occupy
“I don’t know whether America should be the policemen of the world,” Colbert said after Gabard defended her position.
“It is my opinion that we should not be,” Gabbard replied, causing Colbert to launch into a stuffy, embarrassing sermon on the virtues of interventionism and US hegemony that would make Bill Kristol blush.
“If we are not, though, nature abhors a vacuum, and if we are not involved in international conflicts, or trying to quell international conflicts, certainly the Russians and the Chinese will fill that vacuum. And we will step away from the world stage in a significant way that might destabilize the world, because the United States, however flawed, is a force for good in the world in my opinion. Would you agree with that?”
Again, this is a comedy show.
Gabbard explained that in order to be a force for good in the world the United States has to actually do good, which means not raining fire upon every nation it dislikes all the time. Colbert responded by reading off his blue index card to repeat yet another tired anti-Gabbard smear.
“You’ve gotten some fans in the Trump supporter world: David Duke, Steve Bannon, and, uh, Matt, uh, Gaetz, is that his name? Matt Gaetz? What do you make of how much they like you?”
This one is particularly vile, partly because Gabbard has repeatedly and unequivocally denounced David Duke, who has a long-established and well-known history of injecting himself into the drama of high-profile conversations in order to maintain the illusion of relevance, and partly because it’s a completely irrelevant point that is brought up solely for the purpose of marrying Tulsi Gabbard’s name to a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Colbert only brought this up (and made Newsweek totally squee) because he wanted to assist in that marrying. The fact that there are distasteful ideologies which also happen to oppose US interventionism for their own reasons does not change the undeniable fact that US military interventionism is consistently disastrous and never helpful and robs the US public of resources that are rightfully theirs.
This interview was easily Colbert’s most blatant establishment rim job I’ve ever seen, surpassing even the time he corrected his own audience when they cheered at James Comey’s firing to explain to them that Comey is a good guy now and they’re meant to like him. Colbert’s show is blatant propaganda for human livestock, and the fact that this is what American “comedy” shows look like now is nauseating.
When Tulsi Gabbard first announced her candidacy I predicted that she’d have the narrative control engineers scrambling all over themselves to kill her message, and it’s been even more spectacular than I imagined. I don’t agree with everything she says and does, but by damn this woman is shaking up the establishment narrative matrix more than anybody else right now. She’s certainly keeping it interesting.
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Gisteren stortte een toestel van Ethiopian Airlines neer, vlak nadat het was opgestegen van het vliegveld van Addis Abeba met aan boord 149 passagiers en 8 bemanningsleden……. In oktober stortte er ook al een Boeing 737 MAX neer in Indonesië….. Het vreemde aan deze vliegrampen is het feit dat het hier gaat om in feite nieuwe toestellen…..
Niet voor niets ook dat Ethiopian Airlines en de Chinese plus de Indonesische luchtvaartautoriteiten hebben besloten dat deze toestellen voorlopig aan de grond blijven….
Maar niet voor TUI, je weet wel de smakeloze reisorganisatie die in haar schijtvervelende reclames continu spreekt over ‘discover your smile’, dit bedrijf heeft laten weten dat ze ‘geen smile’ verwachten van passagiers die vanwege de twee rampen hun reis willen annuleren, daar ze hun geld niet terug zullen krijgen…….
Nogmaals: het gaat hier om relatief nieuwe toestellen en het is niet meer dan normaal, deze toestellen aan de grond te houden, nadat twee van deze toestellen in een halfjaar tijd uit de lucht vallen…..
Blijkbaar vertrouwt men in Nederland liever een bedrijf als Boeing, of vliegt men over oorlogsgebied, waar ook nog eens alle radarposten zijn uitgeschakeld (zoals bij rampvlucht MH17), dan dat men het gezonde verstand gebruikt, maar dat krijg je als je constant met een ‘smile op je gezicht rondvliegt….’
Nederland, een land waar alles leuk moet zijn, zelfs als de VS illegale oorlogen voert, oorlogen die worden gesteund met ons leger en belastinggeld, ja men lacht zelfs nog als een goede handelspartner en vriend van het koningshuis, een genocide uitvoert, zoals Saoedi-Arabië in Jemen…… (S-A, waaraan Nederland nog steeds wapenonderdelen levert…..)
Nee, Nederland wenst geen negatief nieuws en gezeur over gevaarlijke vliegtuigen…….. Waar Nederland dan wel negatief over wil zijn en over zeurt, zijn de vluchtelingenstromen, die op gang zijn gekomen door de illegale oorlogen die de VS onder andere met onze steun voert……
TUI? Laat het ‘smilen’ maar over aan de grofgraaitop van dat bedrijf en vlieg met een andere maatschappij!! (als je al moet vliegen, ga als het mogelijk is zoveel mogelijk met de trein, zeker als het gaat om reizen binnen ons gebied van de EU, ook nog eens positief in de poging de klimaatverandering te vertragen!)
PS: de NOS heeft op haar website nu 3 berichten staan over deze laatste vliegtuigramp, waarin niet één keer wordt gemeld dat TUI bange reizigers niet tegemoet wenst te komen, als zij hun reis willen annuleren….. Blijkbaar is het de taak van de ‘onafhankelijke NOS’ om naast zoveel mogelijk het waardeloze beleid van Rutte 3 te beschermen tegen negatief nieuws, ook bedrijven op die manier te bedienen…..
Ongelofelijk maar waar: Sam Harris, volgens de schrijver van het hieronder opgenomen artikel, Caitlin Johnstone, een goeroe van de atheïsten, heeft laten weten dat hij het verhaal gelooft dat Rusland de presidentsverkiezingen van 2016 heeft gemanipuleerd, ondanks dat daar totaal geen bewijs voor is gegeven en dat na 2 jaar lang leugens over deze zaak (zonder dat men in die tijd met bewijzen kwam…)….
Harris liet als atheïst o.a. weten het niet te begrijpen dat mensen een geloof omarmen, een geloof bijvoorbeeld in een god, waarvoor elk bewijs ontbreekt…….. Nu doet deze Harris precies hetzelfde als christenen doen, geloven in een zaak die niet te bewijzen is, daar deze nooit heeft plaatsgevonden….
Je vraagt je wellicht af waarom Harris gelooft dat Rusland de verkiezingen manipuleerde, wel dat is héééél simpel: de geheime diensten van de VS zeggen dat het zo is……. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Als er nu één ding duidelijk is, is het wel het feit dat de geheime diensten in de VS vooral goed zijn in liegen, zelfs als het tegendeel meer dan bewezen is, neem de leugens die hebben geleid tot de illegale oorlog in 2003 van de VS en haar NAVO partners tegen Irak. De claim dat Irak massavernietigingswapens had, was al 10 keer naar de prullenbak verwezen door het VN team van wapeninspecteurs o.l.v. Blix…….
The other day RT reporter Dan Cohen flagged how New Atheism guru Sam Harris recently had a shady cold war manipulator on his podcast promulgating the establishment narrative that Russian hackers and trolls interfered in the 2016 US election, despite the fact that there is no more publicly available evidence for this than there is for the existence of biblical Jehovah. I find this both fascinating and hilarious.
(uiteraard is dit niet de ‘video’ die bij het Twitterbericht hoort, echter in deze gesproken tekst gaat Harris uitvoerig in op de leugen die men ‘Russiagate’ is gaan noemen, voor het origineel klik hier) Harris, author of The End of Faith and commonly mentioned in the same breath as atheistic thought leaders like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, once wrote the following:
“While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society. Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about. It is telling that this aura of nobility extends only to those faiths that still have many subscribers. Anyone caught worshipping Poseidon, even at sea, will be thought insane.”
Belief in the establishment Russia narrative is very much the same. As Ray McGovern of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity recently documented in an excellent article for Consortium News titled “A Look Back at Clapper’s Jan. 2017 ‘Assessment’ on Russia-gate”, the entire election meddling narrative was built upon an ODNI* assessment by two dozen analysts hand-picked and overseen by James Clapper. McGovern notes how Clapper, then the Director of National Intelligence, is notorious for having helped sell the lies that led to the Iraq invasion, for lying to congress about NSA surveillance, and for multiple instances of claiming that Russians are genetically predisposed to nefarious behavior.
We the public have never seen the evidence that led to this extremely shady assessment’s findings, yet those findings have gradually been integrated into mass media reports as infallible fact upon which the rest of the establishment Russia narrative has been built. Like belief in mainstream religions, the only reason its lack of evidence fails to come into question is because it has been made popular by mainstream politicians and credulous media talking heads who have been reporting it as fact day in and day out for two years, without adding any solid, tangible evidence to the equation beyond the unsubstantiated say-so of intelligence agencies with an extensive record of lying to the public to manufacture support for preexisting geopolitical agendas. It’s an entirely faith-based narrative, only instead of placing faith in the words of priests and books authored by long-dead men, faith is placed in the authoritative say-so of the imperial intelligence community.
Waking Up Podcast #145 – The Information War | Sam Harris
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Renée DiResta about Russia’s “Internet Research Agency” and its efforts to amplify conspiracy thinking and partisan conflict in the United…
samharris.org
It’s funny then, given the aforementioned quote, that Harris escalated his already highly credulous relationship with the CIA Russia narrative in a podcast earlier this month titled “The Information War” in which he nodded faithfully along with a guest whose organization was recently exposed as having manufactured the appearance of Russian election meddling in an Alabama Senate race. His guest, Renee DiResta, is named in a December New York Times report for her involvement in a project by narrative control firm New Knowledge, which claims in an internal document to have “orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the [Alabama Senate candidate Roy] Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet.” This same narrative control firm which manufactured the bogus story that Moore was being amplified by Russian bots also authored two reports on Russian social media meddling for the US Congress in December which set off a week’s worth of hysterical shrieking headlines.
At no time in Harris’ interview with DiResta does he question any of her cold war rhetoric or baseless assertions, and indeed he eggs her along with agreeable questions along the lines of the CIA/CNN Russia narrative.
“Many people, certainly most Trump supporters, continue to doubt whether Russia interfered in anything in 2016,” Harris said, as though skepticism of the unproven claims of shady intelligence agencies is a bad thing, then asked point-blank, “Is there any basis for doubt about that at this point?”
“Nope,” DiResta replied.
“This is just crystal clear as a matter of what our intelligence services tell us, and a matter of what people like you can ascertain by just studying online behavior?” Harris helpfully added.
“It happened,” DiResta replied. “There’s really nothing else to say about it. The intelligence agencies know it happened, foreign governments know it happened, the platforms acknowledge it happened.
There may be some small group of people that continues to live like ostriches, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Intelligence agencies know something happened, therefore it happened. The Pope knows bread and wine transubstantiates into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ, therefore it happens. Sam Harris went right along with this, completely unquestioning like a good little cult member.
In an article for The Nation, journalist Aaron Maté breaks down how the data within the establishment Russia narrative itself shows that Russia’s social media involvement in US politics was “small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the 2016 election,” with only a tiny fraction of the Russia-based Internet Research Agency’s US content having anything to do with the election at all, a very small amount of funds allocated to the total project, and making up an infinitesimally small percentage of total social media content viewed by Americans. Maté has also noted that the total expenditure on IRA posts for the entire US election is actually comparable to what New Knowledge spent on its “false flag operation” in the Alabama Senate race alone, which New Knowledge claims was too small to have impacted the election.
If that’s not enough reason for you to be skeptical, Maté and the Moon of Alabama blog point out that there is no evidence that the Internet Research Agency had any intent to influence the election, nor indeed that it is anything other than a for-profit clickbait operation. Looking at the content of the posts we’ve been shown and the statistics we’ve been told about them, this is very difficult to argue against, which is probably why nobody ever tries to.
Sam Harris the credulous atheist never brings any of this up, uncritically letting his guest spout faith-based doctrine about both Kremlin social media interference and Russian hacking.
“Let’s talk about the WikiLeaks data dump,” DiResta said later in the podcast. “So as you mentioned at the start, the GRU** had this hack, they had these emails and they laundered these emails through WikiLeaks. They gave them to WikiLeaks.”
There is no more publicly available evidence that this happened than there is that the Qur’an is the actual, literal word of actual, literal Allah, yet Sam Harris the credulous atheist never asked her for evidence of her claims. He uncritically let her advance not just establishment narratives but establishment agendas as well, nodding agreeably along as she called for social media platforms to collaborate with intelligence agencies and grieved about America being legally unable to respond with propaganda of its own to Russian online manipulations.
Support for establishment cold war narratives against Russia is not the only front along which Sam Harris finds himself in alignment with neoconservatism, whose push for a more aggressive posture toward the USSR was one of the early tenets of the movement. Harris’ extensive history of Islamophobic comments and his sympathetic attitude toward the so-called “war on terror” and US military interventionism in Muslim-majority nations play right into the hands of neoconservative agendas in the Middle East, and he’s been accused of being a closet neocon so much he’s had to publicly address it. Neoconservatives have been consistently wrong about literally everything to do with foreign policy for decades, yet Sam Harris the credulous atheist finds theirs a sufficiently rational ideology to ride alongside. There is no more evidence that US interventionism in the Middle East is helpful than there is for the existence of Vishnu, yet Sam Harris the credulous atheist uncritically endorses it.
Establishment-fueled Russia hysteria is a religion. It is an entirely faith-based belief system which has toxic effects on the people who subscribe to it, and toxic effects on the world as it manufactures support for insane escalations between two nuclear superpowers. As we discussed yesterday, if you don’t have a functioning radar for detecting malignant narratives, you might get lucky and find yourself in opposition to some pernicious belief systems, yet also find yourself selling CIA narratives to your very large online audience as well.
Credulous atheist Sam Harris doesn’t oppose all religions. He is critical of some of them, and he is a zealous bishop of others.
URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-1vY Hier nog een gesprek tussen Harris en Renée DiResta, ‘Waking Up Podcast #145’ waarvan zoals je ziet de afbeelding al te zien was in het op één na laatste Twitterbericht:
* ODNI: Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
De suïcide aanslag in het Syrische Manbij waarbij 2 militairen van de VS en 2 VS ‘burgers’ die samenwerken met het VS leger (ofwel huursoldaten) omkwamen, was het sein voor de reguliere media in de VS om hysterisch te gillen dat IS niet is verslagen en de VS moet doorgaan met haar illegale oorlog in Syrië….. IS heeft inderdaad de aanslag opgeëist, maar dat heeft IS intussen al zo vaak onterecht gedaan, dat het maar de vraag is of deze aanslag inderdaad door deze terreurorganisatie is uitgevoerd.
De schrijver van het hieronder opgenomen artikel, Caitlin Johnstone heeft zich goed pissig gemaakt over de reactie van de reguliere media in de VS, terwijl deze reactie volledig voorspelbaar was en is…. Maakt verder niet uit, de meer dan belachelijke reacties van de verschillende media-oorlogshitsers zijn het lezen meer dan de moeite waard. Met het voorgaande geven de reguliere massamedia in de VS nog eens aan dat ze volkomen in de zak zitten van: -de oorlogshitsers in het Pentagon, -de geheime diensten van de VS, -de wapenfabrikanten (inclusief de fabrikanten van rollend, varend en vliegend oorlogstuig), -de NAVO en -de oliemaffia (de laatsten verdienen in tijden van oorlog ook fiks meer)….. Overigens ook banken, de farmaceutische maffia en aandeelhouders kunnen fikse winsten boeken door oorlogsvoering…. (zo verdiende Nederland zich scheel aan de raffinage van cocaïne tijdens WOI, waar Nederland alle legers die in Frankrijk vochten van deze drug voorzag….)
Het hieronder opgenomen artikel komt van de site van Caitlin Johnstone en is door mij overgenomen van Anti-Media:
War Whores Scramble to Say Syria Attack Means US Troops Must Remain
(CJ Opinion) — A suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria has reportedly killed 19 people including four Americans, two of whom were US soldiers and two of whom worked with the US military. ISIS, which has an extensive history of falsely claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Despite the fact that ISIS would claim responsibility for a housewife stepping on a Lego block, and despite the complete absence of evidence that it had anything to do with the deadly explosion, all the usual cheerleaders of endless war are pointing to the Manbij suicide bombing and shrieking “See?? Trump said ISIS is defeated and it’s not!”
“ISIS is still a very real threat here,” CNN international corespondent Clarissa Ward told Jake Tapper from northern Syria. “And the real concern that we are hearing over and over again on the ground, Jake, is that when US troops withdraw, a power vacuum is created, and that only gives them more strength.”
Virulent Syria war pundit Charles Lister, who is notorious for praising Al Qaeda and is a senior fellow at the Gulf state-funded neoconservative think tank Middle East Institute, told AFP that this attack invalidates Donald Trump’s order last month to withdraw troops from Syria.
“Trump’s order was reckless and driven far more by domestic political concerns than it was by facts on the ground,” Lister said, adding, “To suggest ISIS is ‘defeated’ because it no longer controls territory is to fundamentally misunderstand how ISIS and similar organizations seek to operate.”
Former John McCain ventriloquism dummy Lindsey Graham pounced like a rat on a cheese doodle on the opportunity to call for continued US troop presence within hours of the attack, interrupting the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee William Barr with an ejaculation about Trump’s Syria withdrawal.
Senator @LindseyGrahamSC this morning spoke about the attacks on American service members in Manbij, Syria.
“I would hope the President would look long and hard at where he’s headed in Syria,” Graham said after repeating the baseless claim that the attack was perpetrated by ISIS. “I know people are frustrated, but we’re never going to be safe here unless we’re willing to help people over there who will stand up against this radical ideology.”
Not to be left out when there are moronic war agendas to be sold, Fox News leapt into the fray with a quote from an anonymous foreign diplomat saying “This attack today is a direct result of the announcement made by President Trump that U.S. forces are pulling out. These troops had a bullseye on them when the president telegraphed that he was ordering a pullout.”
“ISIS has already claimed responsibility for today’s suicide attack, a reminder that the group is not defeated,” added Fox’s Jennifer Griffin.
MSNBC’s deranged intelligence analyst Malcolm Nance topped everyone as usual with a babbling nonsensical post about how US troops were killed in Manbij because there were no US troops in Manbij, proving that Assad and Putin may have allowed the attack to happen, which proves Trump is a Russian asset.
“The moment Russia and Assad took over patrolling Manbij on Trumps go ahead we get hit with suicide bombers for the first time. It’s possible Russia/Assad let the attack happen. Trump’s treachery on this matter now kills our special operators. #RussianAsset,” Nance tweeted between huffs of paint thinner.
The moment Russia and Assad took over patrolling Manbij on Trumps go ahead we get hit with suicide bombers for the first time. It’s possible Russia/Assad let the attack happen. Trump’s treachery on this matter now kills our special operators. #RussianAsset.
Other voices are treating the reports about the bombing with a little more skepticism.
“If ISIS were smart it would hold its fire especially against Americans,” tweeted professor and author Max Abrahms. “The main justification for leaving Syria is the (contested) assessment ISIS is defeated. ISIS attacks convey the opposite, weakening the strategic rationale of withdrawal while making it politically harder.”
“Ok, so Trump announces that the U.S. will begin a phased withdrawal from Syria, which according to his critics, would only benefit ISIS who they say is still operational and would welcome a U.S. pull out. But not waiting for pull out ISIS then targets U.S. troops! Yeah right,” tweeted former Green Party vice presidential nominee Ajamu Baraka.
These are interesting points. If ISIS is indeed responsible for the bombing, as war pundits are unquestioningly asserting is the case, then they’re either really, really stupid or they really want US troops to remain in Syria. Or perhaps the attack was engineered by someone else who has a vested interest in keeping a US military presence in Syria, either using ISIS as a patsy or completely separate from ISIS. Wouldn’t be the first time a suspicious attack took place in Syria while the Trump administration was working to withdraw troops.
Of course, this whole debate ignores the most obvious point of all: that if there was no US military presence in Syria, there would be no US military personnel being killed in Syria. The fight against the terrorist forces who nearly overtook the nation with the help of the western power alliance’s imperialist support have been beaten to the brink of total defeat not by the US, but by the Syrian government and its allies. If US troops were removed Damascus would quickly restore stability to the region and continue rebuilding the war-ravaged nation. But this is precisely what these war whores do not want.
Syria is a strategically crucial geopolitical nation for reasons having to do with natural resources and the power dynamics of Israel, Iran, and the empire-aligned Gulf states. It is not a coincidence that so much energy gets poured into this small stretch of land and its surrounding nations by the western military alliance and its propaganda machine, and it’s unlikely that the global dominators will lose interest in Syria any time soon. Stay skeptical.
Erdogan liep afgelopen week te pochen dat hij op verzoek van het beest Trump de voorgenomen militaire actie in Syrië heeft afgeblazen, de actie van Turkije die bestaat uit een inval op Syrisch grondgebied dat in handen is van de Koerden……
Kan best kloppen, immers de ommezwaai van Trump was wel zeer plots, zonder zelfs een verkiezing voor de deur!* Deze stap, ‘zéééér toevallig’, op het moment dat Turkije klaar is met de troepenopbouw om Syrisch grondgebied binnen te vallen. Kan me zelfs voorstellen dat Trump het wel prima vindt als Erdogan die ‘vieze Koerden’ de zoveelste bloedige les leert……. Zeker gezien het volgende: ‘hoge militairen’ (korporaal eerste klasse of zo) hebben bevestigd dat de VS ook haar luchtmacht terug zal trekken…… Erdogan zei verder nog dat Trump hem had gevraagd of Turkije groepen als IS kan bestrijden en uiteraard heeft Erdogan die vraag met een bevestiging beantwoord….. ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Tja, als je onder bestrijden verstaat het afnemen van IS olie, of het bewapenen van groepen als IS, kan je Turkije inderdaad aanwijzen als de beste partij die dit kan doen (al is de VS daar nog beter in, maar die zal zich zoals gezegd terugtrekken uit Syrië, althans als je Trump moet geloven)
Eén ding is zeker, van de VS hoeven de Koerden niets meer te verwachten, wat dat betreft was de stap van Mattis vreemd genoeg ‘een mooi gebaar’ naar de Koerden…… Ach, Mattis wil nog liever vandaag dan morgen Iran aanvallen dan morgen en aan de Koerden zal hij een broertje dood hebben…….. Laten we wat dat betreft hopen dat Trump niet wordt omgeluld door Bolton, die als ik me niet vergis Iran met kernraketten zou willen aanvallen….. Niet voor niets dat de haviken in de VS over de rooie zijn gegaan na de aankondiging van Trump de VS troepen terug te trekken uit Syrië……
Onbegrijpelijk dat andere westerse landen, voor een fiks deel NB NAVO-partners, de VS en Turkije laten begaan met de vreselijke terreur die ze begaan in landen waar ook wij en de rest van het westen niets te zoeken hebben……. Je kan dit ook de militairen voorhouden die daar illegaal opereren, zij zien toch de verschrikkingen, de vernietiging, de lijken, de vreselijke ellende onder de bevolking en ze zouden zelfs moeten kunnen bedenken dat we daar i.d.d. niets te zoeken hebben……..Dit alles en dan te bedenken dat de militaire missies eindeloos zijn en kapitalen aan belastinggeld opslokken…. Natuurlijk zijn de reguliere westerse (massa-) media een grote verantwoordelijkheid hebben van wat er allemaal is gepasseerd in Syrië, zonder correspondenten, anders dan embedded bij westerse troepen, in het land te hebben…. Als kippen zonder kop herhalen deze media de leugens van geheime diensten, het Pentagon en politici die ten koste van alles de regering Assad willen laten vallen…….. Om het voorgaande te bewerkstelligen, herhalen deze massamedia zelfs de berichten van het Syrisch Observatorium voor Mensenrechten (SOHR), terwijl dit SOHR nauwe contacten heeft met de terreurgroepen in Syrië en aantoonbaar een hele berg leugens heeft gebracht in de loop van een paar jaar….. Het SOHR dat wordt geleid door een voormalige misdadiger die zogenaamd een politiek vluchteling is, terwijl hij terechte gevangenisstraf in Syrië heeft ontlopen……. De meest belachelijke reacties zijn die wel van de reguliere (massa-) media in de VS, dezen doen het voorkomen als zou de VS met de stap van Trump, Syrië weggeven aan Assad, Rusland en Iran……. Terwijl de VS volkomen illegaal opereert boven en op Syrische bodem en Syrië allesbehalve bezit is van deze grootste terreurentiteit op onze aarde!!
Het volgende bericht komt van TurkishMinutes(weer eens wat anders dan ‘Times….’), een zeer beperkt bericht, waar geen woord van kritiek is te lezen op Erdogan, precies zoals de media zich onder een dictatuur moeten gedragen, al valt het me mee dat er niet in lovende woorden over Erdogan wordt gesproken:
Erdoğan postpones military operation east of Euphrates after Trump call
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday said Turkey had decided to postpone a military offensive in northern Syria against Kurdish militia after a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Sputnik Turkish service reported.
“Actually, we announced our decision to launch the operation east of the Euphrates last week,” Erdoğan said at a business meeting in İstanbul.
He told the audience Trump had asked him on the phone whether Turkey could get rid of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“We did it before, we can do it again,” Erdoğan said he answered.
According to Erdoğan, Turkey has killed around 3,000 ISIL militants in Jarabulus, a Syrian city in Aleppo province.
US support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in the fight against ISIL had been a complication in relations between the two NATO allies.
Een nieuw rapport dat is uitgekomen over de bemoeienis van de VS met de genocide die de Saoedische terreurcoalitie uitvoert in Jemen, spreekt van grote onregelmatigheden in de boekhouding van het Pentagon……. Het zou gaan om vele tientallen miljoenen dollars…..
Moet je nagaan, dan zijn er in Nederland en in de meeste andere NAVO landen anders dan de VS, figuren die stellen dat we veel te weinig uitgeven aan defensie, waarbij ze naar de VS wijzen, er niet bij vertellend dat de VS de laatste 17 jaar continue in illegale oorlogen was verwikkeld, waarbij de NAVO, haar eigenlijke bevelhebber, de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde, t.w. de VS steunt in haar ongebreidelde en smerige terreur……
Het voorgaande is nog maar één voorbeeld, waaruit duidelijk zou moeten zijn dat de VS een achterlijk godsvermogen aan belasting uitgeeft voor illegale oorlogsvoering…….. Als we een voorbeeld aan de VS moeten nemen, hoort daar ook een uitermate slechte boekhouding bij, immers de VS is o.a. door die boekhouding al honderden miljarden kwijtgeraakt in de loop van de jaren…… (ook wapenleveranties aan terreurgroepen in Syrië werden niet verantwoord in de boeken, ofwel die fouten in de boekhouding zijn voor een groot deel expres gemaakt….) Overigens als ons oorlogsapparaat efficiënt zou worden geleid, zou ook Nederland vele miljoenen kunnen besparen…..
Echter het meest valt te verdienen door niet meer deel te nemen aan de terreur van de VS, zoals Nederland dat deed in: -Afghanistan, een totaal zinloze illegale oorlog, -Irak, een illegale oorlog waarin tot nu toe NB meer dan 1,5 miljoen mensen zijn vermoord….., -Libië, eens het rijkste en meest vooruitstrevende land van Afrika, nu straatarm, gedompeld in terreur, waar godbetert openlijk slaven worden verkocht en waar als resultaat nu ook Mali is veranderd in oorlogsgebied, waar Nederland ook al een rol speelt (die stopt op 1 januari a.s.) en als laatste -Syrië, al evenzeer in puin gebombardeerd, waar de VS al vanaf 2006 bezig was met de voorbereiding van de opstand die tot het afzetten van de democratisch gekozen president Assad had moeten leiden……… Tijd dat iemand eens uitrekent hoeveel de Nederlandse belastingbetaler in totaal heeft bijgedragen aan de ongebreidelde VS terreur.
Lees het volgende artikel en zie nogmaals dat de VS maar al te graag meewerkt aan de genocide in Jemen……. Daarover gesproken, gisteren is een motie weggestemd om de VS bijdrage aan de oorlog in Jemen, die zoals gezegd is uitgemond in een genocide, te stoppen……. Hoe is het gvd mogelijk??
PENTAGON ACCIDENTALLY REFUELED SAUDI JETS OVER YEMEN FOR FREE
United States (Sputnik) – Amid a push by the Senate to vote on ending US support for the Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen this week, a new report indicates that American tankers have been refueling Saudi coalition jets with gas paid for by US taxpayers because of “errors in accounting.”
Millions of dollars have likely been drained from US coffers to support the Saudi-campaign, according to the report.
Though Washington “believed” Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates “had been charged for the fuel and refueling services, they in fact had not been charged adequately,” wrote William S. Castle, principal deputy general counsel at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in a November 27 letter obtained by The Atlantic.
In the letter, one of the Pentagon’s top attorneys acknowledges that free refueling services for the Saudi coalition cost more money than he could calculate. While one might think that someone at the 3 million-person organization that is the Pentagon would know exactly how much the US is owed, Castle said in the letter that the department is “currently calculating the correct charges.” The Pentagon reached its conclusion following an inquiry sent by Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island who sits as the second most powerful member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Tens of millions of dollars is probably a decent estimate of how much US taxpayers have contributed to the Saudi campaign, according to The Atlantic.
A spokesperson from the Pentagon confirmed the letter’s contents and its authenticity to the publication late last week.
“Although DoD has received some reimbursement for inflight refueling assistance provided to the Saudi-led coalition (SLC), US Central Command recently reviewed its records and found errors in accounting where DoD failed to charge the SLC adequately for fuel and refueling services,” said Commander Rebecca Rebarich, speaking to The Atlantic.
A spokesperson for CENTCOM specifically said the command was “still working through the calculation” of how much the Saudi coalition has paid for the refueling services and jet fuel.
In other military finance news, the Pentagon failed its first-ever audit last month, as accountants found myriad discrepancies in the department’s books that may take years to reconcile. “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan.
Weer eens een staaltje ongelofelijk maar waar: de 15 activisten die op 28 maart 2017 verhinderden dat een vliegtuig voor deportatie van vluchtelingen kon opstijgen van de Britse luchthaven Stansted, zijn aangeklaagd voor terrorisme…… De Stansted 15, zoals deze mensenrechtenactivisten sindsdien worden genoemd, zijn mensen uit 3 verschillende vreedzame actiegroepen, t.w.: End Deportations, Plane Stupid en Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.
De Stansted 15 hebben geen geweld gebruikt en blijkbaar vindt men een dergelijke geweldloze actie in Groot-Brittannië een daad van terreur……. Waar deze groep zou moeten worden geprezen voor de juiste, niet gewelddadige inzet!
De deportaties vinden plaats zonder enig toezicht van mensenrechtenorganisaties en te vrezen valt dat mensen met grof geweld worden uitgezet, zeker gezien de voorbeelden uit het verleden (overigens ook door onze overheid….). De veiligheidsbeambten die de vluchtelingen vanuit GB begeleiden staan bekend om het gebruik van grof geweld…… Om de publieke opinie niet tegen zich te krijgen zorgt de Britse overheid ervoor dat de deportaties van vluchtelingen altijd midden in de nacht plaatsvinden…….
Niet alleen in Groot-Brittannië, maar overal worden de strafeisen en straffen van dit soort activisme opgeschroefd, echter dit slaat wel alles van wat we hebben meegemaakt, althans in de westerse wereld……… Te vrezen valt dan ook dat na het uitspreken van de straf op 4 februari 2019, men ook elders nog zwaarder zal gaan straffen…….
Het zal toeval zijn, maar het is wel opvallend dat de strafeis tegen de Stansted 15 net na het meer dan lamme overleg in Marrakech over ‘de vluchtelingencrisis’werd uitgesproken, een overleg wat leidde tot het volkomen overbodige Marrakech pact…… Een pact waar geen rechten aan kunnen worden ontleend, maar waarbij men weer eens publiekelijk de handen in het bloed van duizenden omgekomen vluchtelingen heeft gewassen…….
Daar er in het Marrakech pact een aantal keren werd gesproken over het tegengaan van vluchtelingenstromen, is de kans levensgroot dat regeringen zich achter dit pact zullen verschuilen, als zij weigeren vluchtelingen op te nemen……..
Nergens in het Marrakech pact wordt gesproken over het tegengaan van vluchtelingenstromen, door westerse landen te veroordelen die illegaal oorlog voeren tegen landen in het Midden-Oosten en Noord-Afrika, oorlogen geleid door de VS met hulp van haar NAVO partners, waar de VS in feite het opperbevel heeft over diezelfde NAVO……..
Intussen stuurt men mensen terug die grote kans lopen vermoord te worden, zoals een lesbische vrouw, wiens man al heeft gezegd haar te zullen opwachten na deportatie, hoogstwaarschijnlijk om haar te vermoorden……… Om nog maar te zwijgen over de vluchtelingen die teruggestuurd worden naar Afghanistan en Irak, omdat Buitenlandse Zaken met rammelende rapporten (ambtsberichten) komt die stellen dat men veilig is in die landen…….
De verantwoordelijken voor illegale oorlogen die vluchtelingenstromen op gang brachten en brengen, die bovendien het gore lef hebben vluchtelingen te weigeren, zouden terecht moeten staan wegens ernstige mensenrechtenschendingen en het moedwillig in levensgevaar brengen van mensen…….. Verantwoordelijken van landen die in feite direct schuldig zijn aan de dood van de vele duizenden die in de Middellandse Zee en de Egeïsche Zee zijn verdronken! Zoals je al had begrepen zijn de verantwoordelijken voor de enorme vluchtelingenstromen de VS en andere NAVO-lidstaten (inclusief Turkije), met hulp van Saoedi-Arabië, de Golfstaten, Egypte en Marokko.
De hoogste tijd dat het Internationaal Strafhof wordt uitgebreid en zich meer gaat roeren in de media met beschuldigingen aan het adres van bijvoorbeeld de VS en de andere NAVO-lidstaten!
Hoe is het mogelijk dat mensen die zich inzetten voor mensenrechten en die de dood van vluchtelingen willen voorkomen, worden aangeklaagd door het Britse openbaar ministerie, een ministerie dat tegelijkertijd geen actie onderneemt tegen het elders illegaal oorlogvoeren (één van de ergste vormen van terreur!) door haar eigen overheid, waardoor alleen deze eeuw al 2,5 miljoen mensen zijn vermoord…….
De wereld alweer totaal op de kop!!
ACTIVISTS WHO STOPPED DEPORTATION FLIGHT CONVICTED OF TERRORISM CHARGE, FACE LIFE IN PRISON
United Kingdom (NM) – A group of 15 activists who prevented a deportation charter flight from leaving Stansted airport by locking themselves together around the aeroplane have been found guilty of a terrorist offence.
The so-called Stansted 15 spent nine weeks on trial charged with an offence that has never been used before in response to a non-violent direct action and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
They were convicted by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday 10 December and will be sentenced on 4 February 2019.
Ben Smoke, who was arrested after being cut away from the front wheel of the aeroplane, said the guilty verdict would have “huge ramifications on the ability of people to engage in what is a very long tradition of direct action in this country”.
The 27-year-old told Novara Media:
“I’m obviously terrified for myself, terrified for what the future holds, but more than that I’m terrified about how we carry on fighting a government that just won’t listen, how we carry on fighting a government that has been proven to be so disgusting and despicable every way you turn.
“You look at the UN report that came out recently that said that austerity is a choice, they have made a choice to kill 120,000 people, if we’re in a situation where we can’t fight that how do we go on? How do we carry on? How do we change our society?”
The activists, from campaign group End Deportations, were originally charged with criminal damage and aggravated trespass after the action on 28 March 2017, offences too small to warrant trial by jury and carrying a maximum of just three months in prison. The prosecution later sought special permission to add an additional charge of “endangering safety at an aerodrome”, a terrorism offence created in response to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people died.
They stood accused of putting the safety of the airport and passengers at risk and causing serious disruption to international air travel for taking part in the non-violent direct action, in a move Amnesty International described as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”. The human rights organisation, which observed the trial for its duration, was concerned that the severe and unprecedented charge may have been brought in order to discourage other activists from taking non-violent direct action in defence of human rights.
Labour’s Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti condemned the verdict on Monday, pointing out that it coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“What a sad International Human Rights day, when non-violent protestors are prosecuted for defending the Refugee Convention, and are treated like terrorists,” she said . “Labour in Government will review the statute book to better guarantee the right to peaceful dissent.”
Smoke said he believed the verdict could violate “the contract of our democracy” by obstructing channels that should be available for everyone to demand change.
He referenced the harsh sentences given to the suffragettes when they used direct action to challenge laws preventing women from voting in the early 20th century and said he feared the outcome of the Stansted 15 trial would have the same deterrent effect. “These people are people who were denigrated at the time and now are being heralded as heroes,” he said. “I’m not for a second trying to put us in that category but what they then experienced… imprisonment and being force fed, really, really meant that it became a harder thing to do to take a direct action to try and change the society you live in and to try and make society better… that’s what I’m terrified of seeing coming out of this action.”
Wearing pink bobble hats, hi-vis vests and jumpers emblazoned with the words “mass deportations kill, no one is illegal”, the coalition of activists from End Deportations, Plane Stupid and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, chained themselves to a plane set to deport 60 people to West Africa on 28 March 2017 and stopped it from taking off.
In protesting against the injustices of the UK border and immigration system, the group focused their efforts specifically on the issue of mass deportation charter flights on account of the flights being the hardest form of deportation to individually resist. End Deportations campaigners argue that the flights were introduced by the government for that very reason.
Activist Helen Brewer explained that the group spent months considering the best and safest way to blockade the flight. “After coaches arrive from detention centres they go into a private car park,” she said, “then you have the crew coming down from their hangar to ready the plane. So [we knew we had to act] before the coaches drive from the car park to the plane to board people… So that’s what we did.”
Strategically, Brewer said, it made sense to target the aeroplane itself because people may be taken from all over the country to be deported on a charter flight, “but there’s only one plane”.
Deportations used to take place on regular commercial flights. But when passengers and pilots started to object on moral and political grounds, the Home Office changed tack and begun chartering deportee-only planes.
Shrouded in secrecy, these planes leave from undisclosed locations in the middle of the night. By doing this, they are more insulated from public opinion and the kind of reputational pressures that caused Virgin Airlines to announce it would no longer assist the Home Office with forced deportations.
Notorious for their violence, the only people on the flights are deportees and security guards. With no independent monitoring or documentation of what takes place on the way to the airport, during the flight or after landing, deaths in transitare not unknown.
At the heart of the group’s decision to take action was the desire to protect vulnerable people from the myriad violences of the UK border regime.
In her closing statement, Mel Evans, one of the defendants who represented herself throughout the trial, said about the action:
“This was never about politics. It was always about people. We wanted people to be safe… And now some of them are safe, and they’re able to be with their families and be with the people they love. And that’s all we were trying to do.”
One manifestation of this violence is in the way the flights themselves are enacted. Chains and restraints are commonly used to subdue passengers, sometimes even fatally. In 2010, 46-year-old Jimmy Mubenga died of suffocation after being pinned down in his seat by G4S security guards, despite already being handcuffed from behind with his seatbelt on.
Beyond the immediate danger of being on the plane, there is also the issue of the potential further violence awaiting passengers when they arrive in the country they are being deported to. Addressing the jury, Evans read the testimony of one of the passengers on the flight:
“[There] was a lesbian woman who was terrified of what would happen if she saw her ex-husband: ‘[He] said he knows I am being deported next week. He is waiting for me. He is planning to kill me. I don’t want to go on that plane. I can’t go. I am begging.’”
But this is far from an isolated incident. According to Brewer, “a deportation happened on Tuesday to Nigeria and Ghana. This was one flight we stopped out of thousands.” Using this logic, each of these individual acts of violence is connected – part of what Luke de Noronha, aspokesperson for the End Deportations campaign, described as “the architecture of racialised border violence”.
‘WITHOUT THEIR ACTIONS I WOULD HAVE MISSED MY DAUGHTER’S BIRTH’
Out of the 60 people set to be deported on the flight, 11 are still in the UK as a result of the action. Two out of those 11 now have indefinite leave to remain and four have been referred to the National Referral Unit For Human Trafficking. Five are still waiting for their appeals to be heard.
Kevin*, one of the passengers on the flight, was set to be deported to Ghana where he lived up until his late teens. He has since been granted leave to remain.
As a young child, Kevin was left in the care of his abusive father after his mother moved to England, but once he had finished school in the mid 2000s, he was finally able to join her in London.
In the UK he successfully applied for indefinite leave to remain. However, this was revoked after he received a criminal conviction. As a result of the loss of his immigration status, he faced deportation and with it, the prospect of being forced to leave behind his elderly mother, pregnant partner and children.
For Kevin, the impact of the action was life-changing. He said:
“For me a crime is doing something that is evil, shameful or just wrong – and it’s clear that it is the actions of the Home Office that tick all of these boxes. The Stansted 15 were trying to stop the real crime being committed.
“Without their actions I would have missed my daughter’s birth, and faced the utter injustice of being deported from this country without having my [now successful] appeal heard.
“My message to them today is to fight on. Your cause is just and history will absolve you of the guilt that the system has marked you with.”
Indeed, current government policy is widely known as ‘deport first, appeal later’. An asylum decision-maker for the Home Office recently described the process as a “lottery” in which “pushy managers [tried to drive] results through fear and intimidation.”
‘EVERYDAY IS A FIGHT IN THE COURTROOM’
The nine week trial began on 1 October 2018 at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex, during which seven of the 15 gave evidence. Despite allowing the defendants to give their political reasons for the action during the trial, Judge Christopher Morgan ruled that they could not rely on the defence that they acted to stop human rights abuses. However, one of the lawyers for the defence, Mr Wainwright, described them as having “a real and genuine concern for the sanctity of human life”.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution repeatedly deployed anti-immigration rhetoric in discussing the case. A “fence” became “a protective membrane” – there to stop unknown foreign bodies from passing through. While, in his closing speech, lawyer for the prosecution Tony Badenoch QC repeatedly referred to the activists as a “swarm” – a denigrative metaphor routinely deployed by right wing media and politicians in the migration debate.
Listening to the prosecution without being able to defend themselves was a constant source of frustration for the group. Speaking to Novara Media shortly before the trial ended, Brewer said:
“We have to be in court usually from ten until four everyday, in a windowless courtroom, under fluorescent lights, sitting silently in the dock. [We] can’t speak except through [our] barristers and [we] have to listen to someone talk about [us] and…what we did and interrogate that and really smear that and present to the jury something that most of us completely disagree with. It’s hard. And it’s hard when you’re constantly battling; everyday is a fight in the courtroom.”
Following Morgan’s summing up on 4 December, the Guardian has reported that barristers defending the 15 argued the jury should be discharged because the judge’s final words were so severe they amounted to a direction to convict.
The length of the trial, combined with the threat of life in prison, has had a negative impact on the mental and emotional health of the group.
Activist Laura Clayson said she had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication as a result of the stress of the trial. “Given that it’s been nearly 19 months since we took action, 15 since the charge was escalated to endangerment, and we have only just come out the other side of the trial, I haven’t even begun to be able to start processing or unpacking it,” she said. “Living with such uncertainty and precarity makes life incredibly difficult and it has been hard to function normally, to think ahead or plan anything. The trial has always been there, looming over us.”
they found us guilty. we’ll get sentenced 4th february. we’re reeling.. but whatever they do to us, it will never be as bad as the suffering the home office inflict on people every single day. we will keep fighting in solidarity with those people.
The 15 activists intend to fight the conviction. In a statement released after the verdict was announced the group said:
“We are guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm. The real crime is the government’s cowardly, inhumane and barely legal deportation flights and the unprecedented use of terror law to crack down on peaceful protest. We must challenge this shocking use of draconian legislation, and continue to demand an immediate end to these secretive deportation charter flights and a full independent public inquiry into the government’s ‘hostile environment’.”
“Justice will not be done until we are exonerated and the Home Office is held to account for the danger it puts people in every single day. It endangers people in dawn raids on their homes, at detention centres and on these brutal flights. The system is out of control. It is unfair, unjust and unlawful and it must be stopped.”
The guilty verdict marks a huge blow to the landscape of UK activism at a time when there has been a concerted effort to clamp down on the right to protest. From today’s guilty verdict, which itself was only made possible by the use of an unprecedented terrorism charge, to the jailing of the so-called Frack Free Fourearlier in the year, the future of non-violent direct action in the UK is far from certain.
Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director said:
“It’s deeply disturbing that peaceful protesters who caused disruption but at no time caused harm to anyone, should now be facing a possible lengthy prison sentence. This whole case will send a shiver down the spine of anyone who cares about the right to protest in our country. Around the world, human rights defenders are coming under increasing attack. The UK should not be bringing such severe charges against those who seek to peacefully stand up for human rights.”
Meanwhile, the End Deportations campaign will continue its fight to abolish deportations and detention centres and end the violence of the UK border regime.
In November, women in Yarl’s Wood detention centre again went on hunger strike to protest against their indefinite detention, describing the experience of living in Britain’s only female detention centre as a form of “hell”. It is clear that activists like the Stansted 15 are vital in resisting the UK border regime alongside those who feel the full force of its violence.
*Identifying details have been changed to protect anonymity
This report prepared by Beth Perkin for Novara Media
Tom Elliott
