State Department, NED, Soros & CIA links to "regime
change" dissidents in Belarus, MidEast
Peter Myers, March 6, 2011.
My comments are shown {thus}; write to me at
contact.html.
You are at http://mailstar.net/nonviolence-State-link.html.
NED = National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA front
It works with George Soros' Open Society Institute, Freedom House (a
"nonprofit", ie a tax-free Foundation) and Gene Sharp's Albert
Einstein Institution. Gene Sharp wrote the manual for overthrowing regimes.
Chomsky, Zunes & Zinn defend Gene Sharp, say Meyssan wrong about
CIA link: Sharp-Soros-NED-CIA.html.
(1)
State Department, NED, Soros & CIA orchestrate Election riots
in Belarus - Israel Shamir
(2)
Cable VILNIUS 000732 - US Embassy on courier bringing USAid
to NGOs
(3)
Soros conference on Belarus organized by Open Estonia Foundation
(4)
Belarus declares Soros Foundation not eligible for tax concessions,
fines it $3 million
(5)
Soros says his Foundations "will not play by Mr. Lukashenko's
rules"
(6)
Guardian's misleading headlines attempt to
sway Belarus
election against Lukashenko - Shamir
(7) Iran's Fear Of A George Soros-Funded "Velvet Revolution"
(8)
Soros funding Iran opposition. Iran calls him "Jewish tycoon
and the mastermind of ultra-modern colonialism"
(9)
State Dep't organizes Youth Movements for further Color Revolutions,
with Google & Facebook
(10) State Dep't sponsors Alliance of Youth Movements for REGIME CHANGE
(11) The Wikileaks-Egypt-White House-US Government Connection
(12)
Egypt protests: secret US document discloses support for protesters
(13) Hillary confirms that State Dep't funded Egyptian labor unions
(14)
NYT traces Arab revolutions to Gene Sharp, Peter Ackerman's ICNC
& Stephen Zunes
(15) Middle East uprisings take cue from Gene Sharp's guide to non-violent
revolution
(16) Egypt's
April 6 Youth Movement modelled on Optor (links to Gene
Sharp & NED) - Eric Walberg
(17) Video game teaches how to conduct a large-scale peaceful protest
(18)
A page from a Leaflet distributed to Egyptian protestors
(19) Songs and chants to rally the demonstrators
(20) Russian military: "Airstrikes in Libya did not take place"
(21) Al Jazeera reports about Libyan jets firing on protesters are "unverified
and questionable"
(22)
Castro & Chavez say US is fomenting unrest in Libya
(23) "Progressives" paving the way for a US takeover of Libya?
(24) Peter Singer calls for military intervention in Libya
(25)
I.S.O. Trots arrested for plotting Egypt style protest in Zimbabwe
(26) International Criminal Court launches probe of Gadhafi
(27) China on guard against protests inspired by uprisings in North Africa
& MidEast
(1) State Department, NED, Soros & CIA orchestrate
Election riots in Belarus - Israel Shamir
From: Israel Shamir <adam@israelshamir.net> Date: 01.01.2011 06:45
PM Subject: [shamireaders] Belarus
http://www.counterpunch.com/shamir12312010.html
New Year's Edition December 31, 2010 - January 2, 2011
Paradigm in Belarus
The Minsk Election in a Wikileaks Mirror
By ISRAEL SHAMIR
Wikileaks once again has provided the proof positive to unlock a mystery.
It's not the stuff of attention-grabbing headlines and retweets, but it
does illustrate how the US State Department can orchestrate riots in a
quiet Eastern European country. As an international observer of the December
2010 elections in Belarus, I was witness to both the orderly vote and the
shocking riot. This is the story of Belarus and how dollars were used to
subvert and embarrass this peaceful constitutional republic.
The Setting
Belarus in December is the ultimate winter land; a fair Nordic forest
nymph dressed in a thick, luxurious lilywhite cloak - for it is much too
cold to go naked. Outside the city, an endless white expanse meets the
eye, broken only by a few sturdy houses and a church. The lonely roads
are enlivened by white hares that leap from icy roadsides and flocks of
wild geese that transverse the cloudy welkin. All is white in this country,
as if in order to justify its name, for Belarus means the White Rus. The
Rus were the Viking states established in the Slav hinterland a millennium
ago, and so Belarus is forever connected to the Great Rus of Russia.
The people of Belarus are not very different from their Russian neighbors
but they do have their own character, just as the Northerners of Yorkshire
differ from the Southerners of Somerset. They are fair and calm, peaceful
and orderly, obedient and enduring. The sparsely populated Belarusian borderland
was a battleground between East and West for centuries; the last war cost
them one third of their population, the highest loss suffered by any country
in WWII. The capital of Minsk was completely destroyed, Fallujah-style,
by the Luftwaffe. Once upon a time, its forests and marshes trapped crack
divisions of the German SS; now they sit again in peace, healed by many
snowfalls.
After all this incessant white wilderness, Minsk is surprisingly civilised
and human-sized; it was rebuilt in the comfortable 1950's and refurbished
fairly recently. The streets are neat and fit for pedestrians, small cafés
are made cosy with glowing fireplaces, and there are English newspapers
on every table. A large and festive Christmas tree marks the main square,
which has been turned into an ice rink for the holidays, and pretty young
girls in white skirts and red scarves skate the day through with smartly
dressed boys. The rink is open and free for all, just as in Scandinavia.
Indeed, Belarus is the East European counterpart of the Scandinavian socialist
states of yesteryear; but while the Swedes and the Danes are busy dismantling
their social systems, Belarus has so far resisted the drive toward privatization.
It will take you a long time before you spot your first policeman, usually
a simple traffic cop. There is no sign of a police state here: no mysterious
black cars, no furtive stillness, no Soviet-style drabness, no post-Soviet
garishness. The youngsters are stylish, friendly and open. The streets
are crowded, paved and clean. The President of Belarus, the man the US
State Department calls the last dictator of Europe, walks freely among
his people.
But what is a dictator these days? The epithets aimed at world leaders
are surprisingly consistent, but the words themselves have been redefined.
To earn the title of 'dictator', it seems that a leader need only spurn
the advice of the IMF. If a leader chooses not play along with NATO, he
may well qualify for the title of 'bloody dictator'. We have been told
that Castro is a 'dictator'. We have been told that Chavez is a 'dictator'.
We are now being told that Ahmadinejad is a 'bloody dictator'. Long-time
thorns in the flanks of US imperial might are eventually upgraded to 'monster'
status, as were Stalin and Mao. Belarus itself has one of these State Department
titles: it is to be called a 'rebel state'. When the USSR was broken down
into digestible chunks, it was tiny Belarus that chose to keep the Soviet
flag, the Soviet arms, and the socialist ethos. Belarus was not as quick
as other countries to cast off what was stable and good within the Soviet
system. While other countries suffered under IMF-imposed privatization,
Belarus took the slow and steady path to intelligently upgrade and restore
their industries and cities. End result: Belarus is as up-to-date as any
country in the East.
December 19, 2010
I was in Belarus to observe the Presidential election, and to tell the
truth I was expecting some sort of staged little event to mar the day.
The outcome of the election was in little doubt. The people were happy,
fully employed, and satisfied with their government. They were well aware
of what had happened when neighboring countries had embraced the IMF, and
they felt no ideological need to tread that same dark road. Some people,
however, are more motivated by dollars than patriotism, and these are the
people I was expecting. The pro-Western 'Gucci' crowd can always be counted
on to protest the choices of the majority. They actually overturned the
vote in nearby Ukraine in 2005, and the orange gangs succeeded in stealing
the presidency for five long years. If they cannot convince the people
with Western dollars, then they simply riot and try to take it by force.
All day long I watched the people of Belarus queuing at their election
booths. I spoke to many of them. Their President Lukashenko is an East
European Chavez, who stubbornly sticks to the socialist way. A friend of
Hugo Chavez and the Castro regime, he gets his oil in Venezuela and Russia,
does business with the Chinese, and tries to maintain good relations with
his neighbours. The people know him, and know what to expect from him.
Hardly anybody knew the opposition candidates by name. There were official
election posters hanging in every election centre, and these posters carried
the name and photo of each candidate, but these strangers and their feel-good
slogans could not touch the national spirit.
The voting was as clean as any other European election, and was attended
by hundreds of international observers; no one noticed any irregularities.
Each person's vote was secret, and they cast their ballots without fear.
Even most pro-Western analysts, like Alexander Rahr of Germany, concurred:
Lukashenko carried the elections with an astounding 80 per cent of the
popular vote. Exit polls showed similar results. Like it or not: he won.
It was only after the news began to report the exit poll results that
the opposition forces in Minsk perhaps some five thousand strong
- began to march from the main square towards the government offices. They
walked peaceably, and so did not attract much police presence. There were
certainly much fewer police on hand than what a similar march would draw
in London or Moscow. The government expected a rally at the square. They
did not expect these well-dressed people to begin storming the building
where the votes were counted! This mob of educated and well to do urbanites
smashed the windows and broke the doors in an effort to break into the
building. It was clear to all bystanders that this riot was anything but
spontaneous and that this was a determined attempt to destroy the ballots
and invalidate the election.
The live broadcast of rioters forcing their way into the building shocked
the republic. The people of Belarus expect and demand an orderly, law-abiding
society. This is always the moment of truth for authority: challenges from
outside the law must be met with immediate and lawful force. The police
waded into the violence and detained the rioters. But Belarus is not China,
and this was not Tiananmen Square. It was not even Seattle or Gothenburg.
There were no casualties; the whole event was comparable to the kind of
riot raised by Manchester United, or say Luton fans after their defeat
by York. Certainly the thing was disgraceful; yet suddenly, as if on cue,
my colleagues, my fellow journalists in the press centre, began to send
hysterical cables extolling the dreadful bloodshed caused by the last dictator's
secret police. Thank God, the Belarusians are too orderly for such excesses.
Even the opposition Communist party approved of sending in the riot police.
A threat to an orderly election is a threat to everyone; it is a threat
to the basis of any democracy.
My cynical friend, the professor of local university and no sympathiser
of Lukashenko (the President is a boorish moron in his eyes) said this
to me: the opposition had to make a good show to justify all the grants
and subsidies. The dollars pour in from the State Department, the NED,
from Soros and the CIA in an effort to undermine the last socialist regime
in Europe. All this money keeps the opposition leaders in the style they
are accustomed to, but once in a while they are expected to show their
mettle.
Wikileaks has now revealed how this undeclared cash flows from US coffers
to the Belarus "opposition". In the confidential cable VILNIUS
000732 {http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=05VILNIUS732}, dated
June 12, 2005, an American diplomat informs the State Department that Lithuanian
customs detained a Belarusian employee of a USAID contractor on charges
of money smuggling. The courier was arrested as she attempted to leave
Lithuania for Belarus with US$25,000. In addition, she admitted that had
moved a total of US$50,000 out of Lithuania on two prior trips.
In case it's not obvious by now, these dollars are just the tip of the
iceberg of cash that flows from US taxpayers to fund the Belarus opposition.
A Lithuanian official boasted that the Government of Lithuania "uses
a variety of individuals and routes to send money to groups in Belarus,
including its diplomats". Lukashenko has always maintained that the
US has spent millions of dollars to dismantle the government of tiny Belarus.
Western officials automatically denied it. The Western press ridiculed
it: BLOODY DICTATOR BLAMES OPPOSITION ON YANKEE MEDDLING. The proof is
written in a confidential cable from a US Embassy to the US State Department.
It is undeniable.
The Allure of Lukashenko
Why does the US need to pay people to oppose Lukashenko? What is the
secret behind Lukashenko's charm? He was democratically elected in 1994
just as the USSR was disintegrating. In a way, he was able to transform
a chaotic collapse into a graceful denouement. He stopped privatization,
he ensured full employment for everybody, he fought and defeated organized
crime; in short, he preserved order and maintained the existing social
network intact. For a visiting Westerner, Belarus is a rather neat and
well-functioning minor East European state, not very different from its
Baltic neighbors. But for an arrival from Russia or Ukraine, their immediate
neighbors, it is the Shangri-la of the post-Soviet development they could
have had. They, like Belarus, could have had clean streets, full employment,
shops selling local products, police that do not extort bribes, pensions
for old people, and economic equality.
Lukashenko stopped the kind of IMF privatization schemes that had ruined
Belarus' neighbors. In Russia, a few cronies of then-President Yeltsin
(like the now-imprisoned billionaire Khodorkovsky) walked away with whole
industries, iron mines and oil basins. Much of it they sold to the Western
companies who raided the East in a rapacity unprecedented since Cortez'
visit to America. While ordinary Russians lost their jobs, their homes,
and their social services, the super-rich oligarchs began shopping for
real estate in Belgravia and the Cote d'Azur, for big yachts and football
teams. It was President Putin who put a stop to this IMF-organized fire
sale of assets and saved Russia, but no one will ever forget the nightmare
of the "awful Nineties".
Organized crime is a big problem in the post-Soviet space. Just last
month Russian citizens read about a gang that had forced its rule upon
the prosperous Kuban district of Russia, raping and murdering at will for
years, the gangsters and the cops sharing alike in the crimes and the spoils.
But in Belarus, there is no organized crime, no Mafia-like secret structures.
"The gangsters ran away in the Nineties," I was told by the natives.
Policemen take no bribes in Belarus, a feat still beyond the reach of any
other ex-Soviet state. Lukashenko achieved this police compliance by granting
retired policemen decent pensions, well above average, and by mercilessly
ridding the service of corrupt cops.
In Belarus, there are no oligarchs. Socialism is limited to major employers;
private property and private businesses are absolutely respected. The local
businessmen told me that there is little corruption, and much less than
in neighboring countries. There are plenty of prosperous people but no
super-rich; there are many nice cars on the streets of Minsk, but much
fewer and much fancier are the cars in Moscow, where it might be said you
are in a Bentley or on foot. The vast majority of cars in Minsk are modern
European and Japanese economy vehicles. The old Soviet cars are practically
gone.
Belarus has no national, ethnic or religious strife. Catholic and Orthodox
churches share the same square; the many mosques and synagogues were built
centuries before multiculturalism appeared. The East was always multicultural:
Orthodox peasants, Catholic nobility, Jewish traders and Tatar horsemen
lived together in Belarus long before the 15th century when this land was
a part of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, then the greatest state of Europe.
The old Belarusian language was the language of the Duchy, and Belarusian
warriors together with Polish and Russian soldiers defeated
the crusaders on the fields of Grunwald 500 years ago.
The opponents of Lukashenko tried to play the ethnic card that was so
efficient in Ukraine and Lithuania at alienating traditional allies. They
promoted Belarus nationalism and the old Belarus language, but both turned
out to be non-starters. The opposition's beatific vision of a Belarusian
ethnic revival is very poetic, like the revival of Welsh, but this practical
people is not willing to fight over it. Lukashenko's Soviet-style economy
preserved the sources of local production, and alongside the ubiquitous
imports you will find that the core staples are provided locally. Belarusian
cheese, milk, bread and vegetables are all organic and Russian visitors
always buy and carry home as much as they can carry of the delicious, healthy
and inexpensive stuff. Their industry also remained intact, even as the
IMF shepherded their neighbors into third world status with a speedy process
of de-industrialization. Belarus still produces everything from TV sets
to tractors, from giant lorries to Ives Saint Lauren-designed fashions.
Belarus has no political parties. This is not a case of one big political
party like in Russia, nor is it the good-guy/bad-guy dual party system
as in the US. No political parties at all. The parties are not forbidden,
but they just have not developed. This was one of the great ideas of Simone
Weil, the profoundly radical French philosopher, though she would have
them banned altogether.
Belarus represents an interestingly successful model of economic development.
It has reminded the world that a wise ruler can save a country. This lesson
is an especially timely one since the IMF has littered the globe with bankrupt
and insolvent countries. The world is now looking at the IMF and other
international investors with caution. Monetarism is bankrupt. Military
aggression, on which Bush relied, has failed. We live in the post-crisis
era. A search for other ways of development is now underway. Now people
are starting to think: isn't there a better way? Belarus may lead the way.
One of Belarus' major achievements is that it was able to fend off the
large international companies. During the 20 years of western raids around
the world, tiny Belarus was able to preserve its assets. This is a very
important lesson for many countries. Belarus may not have produced a single
Abramovitch, but the country is home to millions of rather content ordinary
citizens.
The vast majority of the Belarusian people are content with their lives.
Their salaries are modest, on a par with neighboring Russia, but they have
no unemployment and they do not worry that their place of work will get
shut down. Their cities are clean, their food is inexpensive, the heating
and rent are heavily subsidized, and transport is well organized. They
are not subservient to the Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, the Pentagon, nor
to the Masters of Discourse. They are the cause of soul-searching for their
neighbors, a living proof that the Soviet Union did not have to be destroyed,
that socialism can work, and that it often works better than financial
capitalism.
It is exactly for this reason that the bad guys wish to destroy Belarus.
The country is isolated from the West: it is very difficult for a Belarusian
to go and visit his cousin in neighboring Poland or Lithuania because the
EC will not give them visas. Poland is especially hostile: previously colonial
masters of Belarus, the Poles view themselves as enforcers of the West's
will in the East. The visas are extremely expensive by local standards.
The only international airport is practically empty; there are very few
flights in or out.
Relations with Russia are far from perfect. The Russian oligarchs have
struggled to squeeze loose Belarusian assets, industries and pipelines.
Lukashenko resisted the raiders from New York and Berlin and has no intention
of giving up the national jewels to raiders from Moscow. The result is
tension. While there is much to be said for a close alliance to Russia,
Belarus is well aware that the oligarchs lie somewhere behind the Russian
smile. The more Russia can muzzle the voracity of the oligarchs, the less
suspicion there will be to poison their natural affinities and mutual support.
For now, Lukashenko prefers to play a complicated game with the EC,
even discussing the possible entry of Belarus to the united Europe. It
is not impossible: economically Belarus is in much better shape than the
majority of East European states who are EC members.
Belarus has friendly relations with Venezuela and Cuba, with China and
Vietnam. It is a socialist country, but the socialism is soft, with plenty
of room for private enterprise and personal freedoms. Belarus has found
new life in preserving and developing the elements of socialism which in
the early 1990s were most discredited. In the wake of IMF despair, socialism
suddenly pops back up with a confident gait, in new clothes and carrying
with it a new hope. It is wonderful that Belarus has managed walk this
tightrope between freedom and responsibility in the midst of a disintegrating
union and foreign interference. The Russian political analyst Sergey Kara
Murza has said that the Belarusian system could serve as the pattern for
the resurrection of the socialist state. The lesson for neighboring Russians
is especially valid, and even poignant.
Edited by Paul Bennett
Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net
(2) Cable VILNIUS 000732 - US Embassy on courier bringing
USAid to NGOs
http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=05VILNIUS732
Subject
GOL EAGER TO DEAL QUIETLY WITH DETAINED BELARUSIAN COURIER Origin Embassy
Vilnius Cable time Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:12 UTC Classification CONFIDENTIAL
Reference id 05VILNIUS732 Source http://213.251.145.96/cable/2005/07/05VILNIUS732.html
Release time Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:12 UTC History First published on Fri,
18 Feb 2011 17:31 UTC
C O N F I D E N T I A L VILNIUS 000732 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/NB AND EUR/UMB
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/12/2015 TAGS: PREL?[External Political Relations]
PGOV?[Internal Governmental Affairs] EAID?[Foreign Economic Assistance]
BO?[Belarus] LH?[Lithuania]
SUBJECT: GOL EAGER TO DEAL QUIETLY WITH DETAINED BELARUSIAN COURIER
Classified By: Political/Economic Officer Alexander Titolo for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Senior GOL officials are focused
on managing the detention by Lithuanian authorities of a Belarusian employee
of a USAID contractor on charges of money smuggling. The courier was arrested
as she attempted to leave Lithuania for Belarus with US$25,000, well over
the limit set by Lithuanian law. The arrest puts the GOL in a delicate
position as it seeks to balance its commitments to the rule of law and
heightened anti-terrorism measures (established in large part at USG urging)
with the desire not to hand the Minsk regime an excuse to further crack
down on civil society and externally funded projects. End Summary. ¶2.
(C) The July 8 arrest of --------------- by the Lithuanian Financial Crimes
Investigation Service touched off a series of phone calls between Embassy
Minsk, Embassy Vilnius, and various GOL law enforcement and MFA officials
over the weekend. ------------ was detained, along with two unidentified
males, after GOL officials found US$25,000 hidden in their car. The money
was intended for use by the International Research and Exchanges Board
(IREX), which operates a USAID-funded project in Belarus. Anti-terrorism
provisions requiring banks to notify the GOL of withdrawals exceeding US$10,000
likely tipped GOL investigators off to ------------'s activities. GOL officials
told us they have records indicating that she had moved a total of US$50,000
out of Lithuania on two prior trips. ¶3. (C) We discussed this situation
on July 11 with Jonas Paslauskas, Director of the MFA's America's Department
who previously served for six years as the GOL's top envoy in Minsk. Paslauskas
told us that the MFA's leadership and other top GOL officials were working
intensively on the issue. He said the GOL was keen to avoid giving the
Lukashenko regime an excuse to make it harder for foreign governments and
NGOs to operate in Belarus. Paslauskas stressed that moving large amounts
of money across the border in such a matter is dangerous for several reasons.
He offered to coordinate with the USG and other organizations to avoid
similar circumstances in the future. Paslauskas said the GOL uses a variety
of individuals and routes to send money to groups in Belarus, including
its diplomats. ...
(3) Soros conference on Belarus organized by Open Estonia
Foundation
http://democraticbelarus.eu/node/5358
George Soros suggests giving Lukashenka opportunity to show intention
to change Belarus' relations with Europe
2008-11-10 10:10 / naviny.by
Alyaksandr Lukashenka should be given an opportunity to show an intention
not only to change Belarus' relations with Europe but also to improve the
internal situation, international financier George Soros said at the 13th
Open Society Forum that was held in Tallinn, Estonia, on November 6 and
7.
The main subject of the conference, organized by the Open Estonia Foundation
in cooperation with the European Foreign Policy Council, was the relationship
between the European Union and Russia, but participants also touched on
the theme of EU-Belarus relations.
Mr. Soros noted that the return of European Humanities University from
Vilnius to Minsk would be appreciated, as its students want to study in
their country.
It is very encouraging that high-level European politicians do not forget
about the problems of Belarus and want it to return into civilized Europe,
said Belarusian student Ihar Sluchak, who has to study in Estonia for political
reasons.
Participating in the forum were 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti
Ahtisaari, Finland's president between 1994 and 2000; Estonian President
Toomas Hendrik Ilves; former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga; and
other prominent politicians.
(4) Belarus declares Soros Foundation not eligible
for tax concessions, fines it $3 million
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=100891§ioncode=26
Belarus turns on Soros
9 May 1997
Vera Rich
THE SOROS Foundation of Belarus has been fined US$3 million for alleged
tax offences following an interim report on its activities from tax inspectors
commissioned by the Belarusian Security Council.
The tax authorities decided that 19 projects supported by the foundation
are not eligible for tax concessions, and ruled that the back tax on them
must be paid forthwith, together with penalties for not having paid previously.
Under the present Belarusian tax regulations, programmes promoting science,
education, culture, health care and environmental protection do not have
to pay tax or customs duties. But the inspectors say that not all the foundation's
programmes fall into these categories.
The report cited, for example, the creation of "Chernobyl archives"
and "documentaries" entitled The history of small towns in Belarus
as not qualifying for tax relief.
Tax inspections - and the subsequent fines - are rapidly developing
into one of the main weapons of the authoritarian regime of President Alaksandr
Lukashenka against the democratic opposition. The tax regulations are so
ambiguously worded, and change so rapidly, as to leave considerable loopholes
for prosecution. The audit of the foundation (which officials maintain
contravenes the current Belarusian law on public associations) was ordered
by the Security Council in March after allegations that the foundation
had made grants available to well-known opposition figures and their families.
Veranika Behun, head of the foundation's information service in Belarus,
issued a denial.
The foundation, she said, had never given personal financial support
to opposition figures, although it had given money to certain organisations
in which they were active. The foundation, Ms Behun stressed, supports
"interesting ideas and projects, rather than individuals - whatever
their political views".
Simultaneously, with the start of the audit, Peter Byrne, director of
the Soros Foundation's office in Belarus, was expelled from the country
for "meddling in the affairs of a sovereign state". It was alleged
that he had helped organise opposition rallies - but the only "proof"
offered by the official Belarusian media was a film-clip showing his presence
at a demonstration last November.
To date, the Soros Foundation has given Belarus $13 million towards
educational, health and environmental programmes.
In the central Asian republic of Kirghizstan the foundation has also
been accused in the government press of interfering in the internal affairs
of the country by financing only opposition newspapers.
(5) Soros says his Foundations "will not play
by Mr. Lukashenko's rules"
http://www.sorostrading.com/art7_12_97.html
The New York Times
July 12, 1997
A Promoter of Democracy Angers the Authoritarians
By Judith Miller
MINSK, Belarus-- For the past decade, George Soros, the Hungarian-born
financier and philanthropist, has spent more than a billion dollars promoting
a free press and political pluralism abroad -- everything the world's authoritarian
rulers despise. Now some of those political leaders are fighting back.
In Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Croatia, Mr. Soros's foundations
have been accused of shielding spies and breaking currency laws. His employees
have been assaulted and threatened with imprisonment or financial sanction
for alleged crimes.
Here in Belarus, Mr. Soros recently suspended operations after the Government,
headed by Aleksandr Lukashenko, the popular but autocratic 42-year-old
President, fined a Soros foundation $3 million for alleged tax violations
and seized its bank account.
While expressing a desire to resolve the crisis here and lessen tensions
with other authoritarian governments, the man whose own fortune was made
in high-stakes business gambles is vowing not to back down.
"We would like to continue working in Belarus, to do what we can
wherever we can," Mr. Soros said in a recent interview in New York.
"But we insist that all our foundations remain independent. We will
not play by Mr. Lukashenko's rules."
The growing pressure on Mr. Soros's philanthropic empire, which stretches
from South Africa to Haiti and employs 1,300 people in 24 countries, with
two regional offices in New York and Budapest, appears to have only stiffened
his resolve.
This year he opened five new offices in Central Asia -- Mongolia, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia -- and one in Guatemala, his first in
Latin America. And soon he is to open nine new foundations in southern
Africa, he said, expanding the number of countries in which his foundations
are active to 40.
Moreover, given his growing personal fortune, which friends estimate
at $5 billion, his efforts are likely to continue at current levels for
at least a decade, and perhaps for two.
While American foreign aid in the last decade has been cut in half in
real terms, Mr. Soros, 66, recently signed a 20-year lease on his new headquarters
in New York.
In Central Europe alone, he spent more than $123 million between 1989
and 1994 trying to help democracy take root -- roughly five times the sum
spent by the United States Government's chief democracy-promoting foundation,
the National Endowment for Democracy. ...
Mr. Soros's troubles in Belarus can be traced to the 1994 elections,
when Mr. Lukashenko, a former boss of a collective farm, won an overwhelming
victory.
While Belarus's previous Government had stressed national identity and
sought to free the country from Russian control, Mr. Lukashenko campaigned
on a platform of reunifying Belarus with the Russian heartland and its
fellow Slavs, while ending corruption. ...
(6) Guardian's misleading headlines attempt to sway
Belarus election against Lukashenko - Shamir
From: Israel Shamir <adam@israelshamir.net> Date: 06.01.2011 04:57
PM
http://counterpunch.com/shamir01052011.html
The Secrets of Wikileaks
Julian Assange's Deal With the Devil
By ISRAEL SHAMIR
In Part One of my report last weekend here on the CounterPunch site
I showed that the US was secretly funnelling money into Belarus to fund
the unelected opposition. Previously, the claim had been routinely denied.
Now we have sterling proof. It is engraved in a confidential cable from
a US Embassy to the State Department. It is undeniable.
That is, if you found the cable and were able to understand it.
And you happened to understand the political background of the cable.
The cables are raw data. Not as raw as Afghan Diaries, the previous
coup of Wikileaks, but still quite raw. They are written in obscure state
department lingo; much of the story is implied, as the cables were composed
for colleagues and definitely not for strangers. They simply have to be
explained, interpreted, annotated and then finally delivered to the reader.
Dumping raw cables onto the web would not do: you'd never find the relevant
cables and probably you wouldn't be able to understand its significance
even if you did find it.
The main job of a newspaper or news website is to process raw data and
transmit it to a reader. This work requires an experienced and highly qualified
staff. Not every newspaper or website has such resources, and none of the
independent sites can compete with the mainstream outlets for readership.
If all the cables were published in a local newspaper in Oklahoma or Damascus,
who would read them? In order to get our news to you, our reader, we are
forced to make use of the dreaded mainstream media.
That is why Julian Assange chose to partner with a few important Western
liberal newspapers of the mainstream media. Let us make it perfectly clear
that we understand that all mainstream media are at their heart embedded;
in bed with the Pentagon, the CIA, with Wall Street and all its counterparts.
Let us also make it clear that we understand that not every journalist
on the staff of The Guardian, Le Monde or The NY Times is a crooked enforcer
of imperialist ideology; no, not even every editor. We do understand that
not everyone is willing to sacrifice their career to field a story that
will attract storms of protest. From this point of view, the difference
between the soft liberal and the hardline imperialist media is one of style
only.
For instance, if they plan to attack Afghanistan, the hardline Fox News
would simply demand a high-profile strike against the sand rats, while
the liberal Guardian would publish a Polly Toynbee piece bewailing the
bitter fate of Afghani women. The bottom line is the same: war.
Modern embedded media constitute the most powerful weapon of our rulers.
The modern Russian writer Victor Pelevin succinctly explained their modus
operandi: "The embedded media does not care about the content and
does not attempt to control it; they just add a drop of poison to the stream
in the right moment."
Furthermore, they skilfully arrange the information in order to mislead
us. The headline might scream MURDER MOST FOUL but the article describes
an unavoidable accident. We do not look beyond the headline, but the headline
has been written by the editor and not the journalist who penned the article.
Twitter is nothing but a mess of headlines; we are being trained to think
in terms of slogans.
In the case of Belarus, the Guardian published three cables the day
before elections in order to maximize the exposure and to influence the
results of the election. One of the headlines, published on December 18,
2010 said: "WikiLeaks: Lukashenka's [sic] fortune estimated at 9 billion
USD". It was a very misleading headline. Wikileaks made no claims
about Lukashenko's wealth. Read the entire article, and you will find that
it was nothing more than a US embassy employee who had heard a rumor and
transmitted it to the State Department. Only in the second to last sentence
of the article do they mention that the cable admits: "the embassy
employee couldn't verify the sources [sic!] or accuracy of the information".
So a corrected headline would read: "Wikileaks reveals: US diplomats
spread unverifiable rumors about Lukashenko's personal wealth." But
the Guardian made it appear as if it was Wikileaks itself that made the
claim.
Let us suppose that one day Wikileaks will publish cables from the Russian
Embassy in Washington to Moscow Centre. Shall we expect to see in the Guardian
a screaming headline like: "WikiLeaks: The Mossad behind 9/11!!"
Isn't it more likely we would be soberly told: "Wikileaks reveals
that Russian diplomats in Washington report the persistent rumors on Israeli
involvement in 9/11"?
Another cable on Belarus published on the same day was headlined: "US
embassy cables: Belarus president justifies violence against opponents".
Again, a misleading headline, and again the majority will never read beyond
it. In reality, this very interesting report contains the debriefing of
the Estonian Foreign Minister after his long chat with President Lukashenko.
The most interesting factoid was deliberately not highlighted in the article:
Lukashenko told the Estonian visitor that the opposition in Belarus would
never unite, and only existed "to live off western grants." When
you read the article, your eye gravitates to the highlighted section, skipping
the valuable information just above. In fact, the highlighted section itself
says nothing about justifying violence against opponents. The text says
something completely different: "Lukashenko stated the opposition
should expect to get hurt when they attack the riot police". Again,
it is sterling truth: in every country, people who attack riot police end
up getting hurt. In Israel they also get shot, but that's another story.
Thus the Guardian made use of Wikileaks in order to influence Belarus
voters and Western audiences, and prepare them for an Election Day riot.
So here we are: in order to get valuable data to the people, Julian
Assange had to make a deal with the devil: the mainstream media. It was
most natural for him to deal with the liberal flank of the mainstream,
for the hardliners would not even touch it. But since the liberal papers
are also embedded, they freely distort the cables by attaching misleading
headlines and misquoting from the text.
For me, a Guardian reader since I worked at the BBC in the mid-1970s,
it is painful to say that the Guardian has become an impostor. This paper
pretends to provide the thinking liberal and socialist people of England
with true information; but at the moment of truth, the Guardian, like a
good Blairite, will switch sides.
Next, the Guardian apparently decided to destroy Wikileaks after using
it. The Moor did his job, the Moor may go. The Guardian's embedded editors,
understanding full well that the Wikileaks crew won't be tamed or subverted,
are preparing a book called The Rise and Fall of Wikileaks. It's not quite
released yet; they have still to arrange for the fall.
This will be done in two ways.
First, by slandering the Wikileaks chief Julian Assange. Destroy the
head, and the body will wither and die. This is not the place to deal with
allegations in detail, but I've never seen an article more crooked and
lying than the one the Guardian published recently on Assange - and I've
seen some beauties. It is trial by media in the best tradition of Pravda
1937. Its author Nick Davies ingratiated himself into the vicinity of the
trustful Julian and then bit him in the best scorpion's manner. Davies
wrote years ago in his Flat Earth News that the practice of journalism
in the UK is "bent"; now he proven it beyond a doubt by his own
writing.
There is no doubt: Assange never raped. The day after the alleged rape,
the alleged victim boasted to her friends in a twitter that she had a wonderful
time with the alleged rapist. It was all published.
Moreover, if Swedish authorities are primarily concerned about prosecuting
Julian for rape, why do they attach a special condition to their demands
of extradition, specifically reserving the right to pass him on to US authorities?
Nick Davies clearly performed a cruel hatchet job. But was publishing
the article a simple case of bad judgement by the Guardian, or the beginning
of a smear campaign? "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence,
three times is enemy action", as James Bond in Goldfinger put it neatly.
Here is the second attack. The third piece was surprisingly an attempt
to smear Assange by association with me.
This last attack was written by Andrew Brown has been described as "The
Guardian's resident moron", and with good reason. I always enjoy discussing
my views, though Brown completely missed the subtleties and nuances of
my writings. Andrew Brown is a man who understands the public's need for
screaming headlines. Now we are left with a lot of crazy bloggers who claim
I am the Mossad's liaison to Wikileaks and that Wikileaks is a wholly owned
subsidiary of the Mossad.
I do not for a moment think that anybody sane takes these ridiculous
accusations seriously they are just more things to throw at Julian.
I am not a member of Wikileaks, not even a spokesman, just a friend. But
even without me, Brown will still be able to attack Assange for quoting
Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize winner and "notorious antisemite whose
works are being published by a racist site." Quoting a popular blog,
Brown "is beneath contempt, and, from now on, beneath notice".
Still, the Guardian editors let him off his leash from time to time, to
their eternal disgrace.
The second mode of attack on Wikileaks is to use it as a source of misinformation.
These US State Department cables are double-edged swords. They are full
of rumors, trial balloons, and hopeful thinking. Worse, the newspaper headlines
often declare that Wikileaks is the source of the rumor, and leave it to
the discerning reader to discover that an embassy staffer was the real
source of the story. Readers often do not understand that headlines are
little more than come-ons, and reflect a very loose interpretation of the
article content. They tend to believe the misleading headline that says,
"Wikileaks: Iran prepares nuclear weapons" or, "Wikileaks:
all Arabs want the US to destroy Iran". Wikileaks never said it! It
was the Guardian and the NY Times that said it, and loudly. A corrected
headline would look like this:
Wikileaks reveals that US diplomats spread unsubstantiated rumours on
the Iran nuclear program in order to ingratiate themselves with the State
Department
But you will not live long enough to see this headline. Such is the
price for using mainstream media: they will eventually poison the purest
source.
However, I would rather place my bet on Assange. He is smart, and he
has a mind of a first-class chess player. He has many surprises up his
sleeve. It is possible that the Guardian will have to rename their book
The Rise and Rise of Wikileaks.
The Israeli Angle
Now you can understand the mystery of Israeli satisfaction with Wikileaks.
While the US officials were furious at the disclosure, Israelis were rather
smug and complacent. Haaretz has this headline: "Netanyahu: WikiLeaks
revelations were good for Israel."
Simple-minded conspiracy junkies immediately concluded that Wikileaks
is an Israeli device, or, in the words of a particularly single-minded
man: a "Zionist poison".
The truth is less fantastic, but much more depressing. The Guardian
and the New York Times, Le Monde and Spiegel are quite unable to publish
a story unacceptable to Israel. They may pen a moderately embarrassing
piece of fluff, or a slightly critical technical analysis in order to convince
discerning readers of their objectivity. They may even let an opponent
air his or her views every once in a blue moon. But they could never publish
a story really damaging to Israel. This is true for all mainstream media.
Furthermore, no American ambassador would ever send a cable really unacceptable
to Israel unless he intended to retire the next month. Yet even supposing
this kamikaze ambassador would send the cable, the newspapers would overlook
it.
Even with thousands of secret cables about Israel in their hands, the
mainstream media delays and prevaricates. They don't want anyone to yell
at them. That is why they have postponed publishing the articles. Once
forced by circumstance or competition to publish the contents of the cables,
you can bet they'll twist the revelations into toady headlines and bury
the truth in the final paragraph.
Always kind, Julian Assange attributes this behavior to the "sensitivity
of the English, German and French audience". I am not that kind; I
call it cowardice, or if you insist, prudence. Any journalist who confronts
the Jewish state will be made to suffer.
In such a situation, the mainstream media just can't help us. Professional
journalists have families and careers to protect. We can't count on them
when the rubber meets the road. We shall never know and will never fully
understand the truth behind any Israel-connected event as long as the cables
remain only in the hands of the mainstream media.
Edited by Paul Bennett
Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net
(7) Iran's Fear Of A George Soros-Funded "Velvet
Revolution"
by ukit
Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 01:24:09 PM PST
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/14/742385/-Irans-Fear-Of-A-George-Soros-Funded-Velvet-Revolution-
As the aftermath of the contested Iranian election continues, it's worth
remembering that it isn't a military attack by the U.S. or Israel that
the Islamic Republic of Iran fears most. It's a bloodless toppling of the
regime as the result of reform and closer ties to the West.
The trademark green of Mr. Mousavi's campaign, while in theory representing
of Islam, aggravated those fears, as many in power saw parallels with the
"Orange" and "Rose" revolutions that overthrew repressive
regimes in Georgia and the Ukraine.
Ironically, the bogeyman pointed to by fundamentalist Iranian clerics
is the same one often cited by American right-wing conspriracists - liberal
currency speculator and political philanthropist George Soros.
In 2007, Iran arrested and interrogated Haleh Esfandiari, an academic
linked to Soros' Open Society Institute. The Iranians accused her of plotting
to lure Iranian reformers and dissidents into a network aimed at devising
a non-violent overthrow of the Islamic government.
The ministry said the foundation had "played key roles in intrigues
that have led to colourful revolutions in former Soviet republics in recent
years" and now aimed to overthrow Iran's government.
"In primary interrogations, she reiterated that the Soros Foundation
has established an unofficial network with the potential of future broader
expansion, whose main objective is overthrowing the system," it said.
Esfandiari's alleged confession then led to the arrest of another Soros/
Open Society associate, Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American social scientist.
The Iranian government called Tajbakhsh "the manager and representative
of American Soros Foundation in Iran." Both Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh
were eventually freed after wrangling between the Iranian and American
governments, but not before eliciting the following "confession"
from Tajbakhsh.
The long-term goal of the Soros Foundation is to achieve an open society
[in Iran]. The way to achieve this is to create a rift between the rulers
and the people. Through this rift, those parts of civil society which were
formed and strengthened according to the concept of open society will exert
pressure on the rulers to change their conduct. This rift can be created
like what happened in Georgia, or else this conduct can be altered gradually,
through elections and other "soft" methods. In order to create
this rift, either you weaken the central government, or else you strengthen
that part of civil society which opposes the government.
The Iranian government's paranoia even led them to produce this bizarre
public service message, featuring a CGI George Soros conspiring with John
McCain and the CIA.
Iran's depiction of the American political elite includes a figure most
Americans probably haven't heard of - Gene Sharp, a political scientist
and author of the book "The Politics of Non-Violent Action."
Sharp's writings were critical in the over throw of repressive governments
in Eastern Europe. He outlined strategies for destroying a regime's power
by undermining their credibility with the people.
(8) Soros funding Iran opposition. Iran calls him "Jewish
tycoon and the mastermind of ultra-modern colonialism"
George Soros Taking Heat Over Ties To Pro-Iranian Group
Courtney Comstock
Nov. 18, 2009
http://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-taking-heat-over-ties-to-pro-iranian-group-2009-11
He's not just being blamed for the weak dollar and everything else wrong
with America. George Soros is also getting a beating for his financial
ties to NIAC, a pro-Iranian engagement group.
NIAC is in the news for potentially dodging federal rules for the registration
of all lobbyists because NIAC isn't registered. A journalist says NIAC
lobbies, NIAC says it doesn't.
Soros is taking heat because he funds NIAC, the company whose head of
"The New American Policy On Iran" portion, Patrick Disney, is
the author of emails that are among other documents suggesting (not very
convincingly, it turns out) that NIAC does indeed lobby in breach of federal
rules.
The leaked emails emerged during a court case against the Iranian-American
journalist, Hassan Daioleslam, who was the first to publicly accuse the
group of lobbying.
The group's leader, Trita Parsi, sued Daioeslam for defamation in 2007.
Accusations have since emerged that Soros is tied to the group and that
the hedge fund king's speculative "Soros-style" investment habits,
of all things, are further evidence of his being anti-American.
The general consensus is that it will be tough to prove that NIAC is
in breach of federal rules, but critics of Soros are speaking out as if
he's been in on the grand scheme the whole time. Ed Lasky titles his American
Thinker piece "George Soros's tentacles wind through pro-Iranian groups."
Daniel Luban points out in a counter-argument against all of the Soros-haters
that this view of "Soros as a shadowy, dangerous and destabilizing
servant of the enemy" is pretty anti-Semitic. He then goes on to post
another example of Soros-related anti-Semitism, an Iranian propaganda video
in which a cartoon version of Soros is cast as the "Jewish tycoon
and the mastermind of ultra-modern colonialism."
Brief plot synopsis: Soros is in a White House office with John McCain
and two CIA agents, Bill Smith and Gene Sharp. The four men devise an evil
plan for Iranian regime change that involves contacting powerful people
with common interests (at which point the camera swings over to sly George
Soros who knowingly tips his glasses).
It's probably unlikely that he is involved in much more than throwing
money around; Soros also donates to J street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace
counterparty to NIAC's pro engagement, pro-Iran bent. But Soros is not
exactly shying away from political agenda either. Earlier he released a
statement about his confidence in Sierra Leon as an emerging market in
which he talks about the need for political reform.
(9) State Dep't organizes Youth Movements for further
Color Revolutions, with Google & Facebook
Google's Revolution Factory - Alliance of Youth Movements: Color Revolution
2.0
by Tony Cartalucci Global Research, February 19, 2011
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23283
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/223894-Google-s-Revolution-Factory-Alliance-of-Youth-Movements-Color-Revolution-2-0
In 2008, the Alliance of Youth Movements held its inaugural summit in
New York City. Attending this summit was a combination of State Department
staff, Council on Foreign Relations members, former National Security staff,
Department of Homeland Security advisers, and a myriad of representatives
from American corporations and mass media organizations including AT&T,
Google, Facebook, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and MTV.
{click the following link, to see the official report showing State
involvement}
http://allyoumov.3cdn.net/f734ac45131b2bbcdb_w6m6idptn.pdf
One might suspect such a meeting of representatives involved in US economic,
domestic and foreign policy, along with the shapers of public opinion in
the mass media would be convening to talk about America's future and how
to facilitate it. Joining these policy makers, was an army of "grassroots"
activists that would "help" this facilitation.
Among them was a then little known group called "April 6"
from Egypt. These Facebook "savvy" Egyptians would later meet
US International Crisis Group trustee Mohamed ElBaradei at the Cairo airport
in Februrary 2010 and spend the next year campaigning and protesting on
his behalf in his bid to overthrow the government of Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak.
The Alliance of Youth Movements mission statement claims it is a not-for-profit
organization dedicated to helping grassroots activists to build their capacity
and make a greater impact on the world. While this sounds fairly innocuous
at first, even perhaps positive, upon examining those involved in "Movements.org,"
a dark agenda is revealed of such nefarious intent it is almost difficult
to believe.
Movement.org is officially partnered with the US Department of State
and Columbia Law School. Its corporate sponsors include Google, Pepsi,
and the Omnicon Group, all listed as members of the globocrat Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR). CBS News is a sponsor and listed on the globocrat
Chatham House's corporate membership list. Other sponsors include Facebook,
YouTube, Meetup, Howcast, National Geographic, MSNBC, GenNext, and the
Edelman public relations firm.
Movement.org's "team" includes Co-Founder Jared Cohen, a CFR
member, Director of Google Ideas, and a former State Department planning
staff member under both Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Clinton.
Founding Movements.org with Cohen is Jason Liebman of Howcast Media
which works with mega-corporate conglomerates like Proctor & Gamble,
Kodak, Staples, Ford, and government agencies such as the US State Department
and the US Defense Department, to create "custom branded entertainment,
innovative social media, and tardeted rich-media campaigns." He was
also with Google for 4 years where he worked to partner with Time Warner
(CFR), News Corporation (FoxNews, CFR) Viacom, Warner Music, Sony Pictures,
Reuters, the New York Times, and the Washington Post Company.
Roman Sunder is also credited with co-founding Movements.org. He founded
Access 360 Media, a mass advertising company, and he also organized the
PTTOW! Summit which brought together 35 top executives from companies like
AT&T (CFR), Quicksilver, Activison, Facebook, HP, YouTube, Pepsi (CFR),
and the US Government to discuss the future of the "youth industry."
He is also a board member of Gen Next, another non-profit organization
focused on "affecting change for the next generation."
It is hard, considering these men's affiliations, to believe that the
change they want to see is anything less than a generation that drinks
more Pepsi, buys more consumerist junk, and believes the United States
government every time they purvey their lies to us via their corporate
owned media.
While the activists attending the Movements.org summit adhere to the
philosophies of "left-leaning" liberalism, the very men behind
the summit, funding it, and prodding the agenda of these activists are
America's mega-corporate combine. These are the very big-businesses that
have violated human rights worldwide, destroyed the environment, sell shoddy,
overseas manufactured goods produced by workers living in slave conditions,
and pursue an agenda of greed and perpetual expansion at any cost. The
hypocrisy is astounding unless of course you understand that their nefarious,
self-serving agenda could only be accomplished under the guise of genuine
concern for humanity, buried under mountains of feel-good rhetoric, and
helped along by an army of exploited, naive youth.
What we see is not a foundation from which all activists can work from,
but a foundation that has a very selective group of activists working on
"problem spots" the US State Department would like to see "changed."
Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Eastern Europe, Venezuela, and even Thailand
- where ever protesters and movements are working to undermine governments
non-conducive to corporate America's agenda, you will find Movements.org
supporting their efforts.
The April 6 Movement of Egypt is one of them, and their role in the
apparent success of the US ousting of Hosni Mubarak that may see their
man Mohamed ElBaradei in office is a perfect example of how this new army
of prodded youth will be deployed. It is color revolution 2.0, run directly
out of the US State Department with the support of corporate America.
It would be strongly recommended that readers go to Movements.org themselves
and explore the website, in particular the 3 summits they have held and
those that were in attendance. Everyone from the RAND Corporation to the
Council on Foreign Relations comes to "prod." Movements.org truly
is a new tentacle for manipulating and undermining the sovereignty of foreign
nations.
(10) State Dep't sponsors Alliance of Youth Movements
for REGIME CHANGE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_Youth_Movements
Alliance of Youth Movements
The Alliance of Youth Movements was an event in 2008 which led to the
creation of Movements.org, a non profit organization dedicated to identifying,
connecting, and supporting, digital activists. ...
Movements.org began with a December 2008 summit in New York City to
identify, convene, and engage 21st century movements online for the first
time in history. The United States Department of State partnered with Facebook,
Howcast, MTV, Google, YouTube, AT&T, JetBlue, Gen-Next, Access 360
Media, and Columbia Law School to launch a global network and empower young
people mobilizing against violence and oppression. The inaugural summit
was called the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit. Later when the organization
launched its website in 2011, Movements.org, they began to refer to the
organization as Movements.org.
Founders of Movements.org include Jared Cohen, former advisor to both
Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton and now Director
of Google Ideas at Google, Jason Liebman, CEO and co-founder of Howcast
and Roman Tsunder, co-founder of Access 360 Media.
Speakers at the inaugural 2008 summit included actress Whoopi Goldberg,
Facebook Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz, The Obama CampaignÕs New Media
Team, and then-current Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs of the United States James K. Glassman.
In March 2009 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced and
endorsed the Second Alliance for Youth Movements Summit[1], which was held
October 1416, 2009, in Mexico City . This Summit explored the role
of technology in mobilizing young people working to end violence throughout
Latin America and around the world. Young delegates, described by Secretary
Clinton as Òthe vanguard of a rising generation of citizen activists,Ó[2]
were joined by more than 15 private and public partners, including the
worldÕs leading technology companies. Together they launched discussions
on how to best use the latest technological tools to catalyze change, build
movements, and transform lives.
Recent activities
AYM's most recent summit look place in London March 9-11, 2010. Speakers
included: Scott Heiferman, CEO of MeetUp.com , Martin Sorrell, CEO and
Founder WPP Group, and skype conversation with Jack Dorsey Co-Founder and
Chairman of Twitter.
References
1.^ "Remarks At TecMilenio University" . U.S. Department of
State. 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
2.^ "Secretary Clinton Delivers Video Message for Alliance for
Youth Movements Summit" . U.S. Department of State. 2009-10-16. Retrieved
2010-02-01.
This page was last modified on 15 February 2011 at 00:03.
(11) The Wikileaks-Egypt-White House-US Government
Connection
January 30, 2011
Douglas Stewart
http://ameristroika.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/the-wikileaks-egypt-white-house-us-government-connection/
This is a little tough to follow so I am going to keep it as simple
and as clean as possible. On January 28, 2011 Wikileaks released a cable
that showed US Government awareness and involvement in Egyptian affairs.
Now we are going to look at the Òbehind the scenesÓ players;
their motives, their actions, etc. By the end of this post you will know
who is involved and what the State department knew-Before hand! Are you
ready?
The Wikileak Cable and Alliance of Youth Movements
IÕm not going to go over this. Read the document for yourself
before proceeding. The cable (created on 12-30-08) refers to an April 6
activist that was detained returning to Cairo from the Alliance of Youth
Movement in NYC. Well, who else was there that may have had an interest
in Egypt? According to their program (pg. 2) the list of attendees includes
Maajid Nawaz of The Quilliam Foundation. Oh and the Obama Media Team was
there as well-no big deal. (The conference took place on Dec. 3-5 Õ08Éstick
with me here)
Maajid Nawaz, a former radical who was imprisoned in Egypt for 5 years,
later denounced his radical associations, and focused on being a good democrat.
He was such a good democrat that before the Alliance of Youth Movements
meeting Undersecretary James K. Glassman mentions NawazÕs organization
by name. Not only that, the interviewer shares his concern with possibly
unleashing something that may come back to bite them. And also that the
State Department is funding Howcast to host this at $50K
*From State Dept interview earlier*
GLASSMAN: Actually, one good example of one of these groups is the Qulliam
Foundation
Later
É these governments may not appreciate your involvement in inspiring
or in helping to create this network of people that are that they
could would see, and in the case of Egypt, they do see as a threat.
DonÕt you run the risk of unleashing something here that is going
to come back to bite you, especially with our allies?
GLASSMAN: We are very supportive of pro-democracy groups around the
world. And sometimes, that puts us at odds with certain governments.
Yeah, but thatÕs
UNDER SECRETARY GLASSMAN: Now, we have to work with those governments.
And let me also just say, thereÕs a difference on an operational
level between public what we do in public diplomacy and what is often
done in official diplomacy. We are communicating and engaging at the level
of the public, not at the level of officials. So you know, it certainly
is possible that some of these governments will not be all that happy that
at what weÕre doing, but thatÕs what we do in public
diplomacy.
UNDER SECRETARY GLASSMAN: And I think this is an important part. We
as a government have been engaging with such civil society organizations
in places like Egypt for a long time.
Later the State Department made note in its report that Egypt had even
prevented at least one activist from attending the Alliance of Youth Movements.
(12) Egypt protests: secret US document discloses support
for protesters
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html
Here is the secret document sent from the US Embassy in Cairo to Washington
disclosing the extent of American support for the protesters behind the
Egypt uprising.
10:30PM GMT 28 Jan 2011
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 002572 SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA, R, S/P
AND H NSC FOR PASCUAL AND KUTCHA-HELBLING E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/30/2028
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, EG SUBJECT: APRIL 6 ACTIVIST ON HIS U.S. VISIT
AND REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT REF: A. CAIRO 2462 B. CAIRO 2454 C. CAIRO 2431
Classified By: ECPO A/Mincouns Catherine Hill-Herndon for reason 1.4 (d
).
1. (C) Summary and comment: On December 23, April 6 activist xxxxxxxxxxxx
expressed satisfaction with his participation in the December 3-5 \"Alliance
of Youth Movements Summit,\" and with his subsequent meetings with
USG officials, on Capitol Hill, and with think tanks. He described how
State Security (SSIS) detained him at the Cairo airport upon his return
and confiscated his notes for his summit presentation calling for democratic
change in Egypt, and his schedule for his Congressional meetings. xxxxxxxxxxxx
contended that the GOE will never undertake significant reform, and therefore,
Egyptians need to replace the current regime with a parliamentary democracy.
He alleged that several opposition parties and movements have accepted
an unwritten plan for democratic transition by 2011; we are doubtful of
this claim.
xxxxxxxxxxxx said that although SSIS recently released two April 6 activists,
it also arrested three additional group members. We have pressed the MFA
for the release of these April 6 activists. April 6's stated goal of replacing
the current regime with a parliamentary democracy prior to the 2011 presidential
elections is highly unrealistic, and is not supported by the mainstream
opposition. End summary and comment.
---------------------------- Satisfaction with the Summit ----------------------------
2. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx expressed satisfaction with the December 3-5 \"Alliance
of Youth Movements Summit\" in New York, noting that he was able to
meet activists from other countries and outline his movement's goals for
democratic change in Egypt. He told us that the other activists at the
summit were very supportive, and that some even offered to hold public
demonstrations in support of Egyptian democracy in their countries, with
xxxxxxxxxxxx as an invited guest. xxxxxxxxxxxx said he discussed with the
other activists how April 6 members could more effectively evade harassment
and surveillance from SSIS with technical upgrades, such as consistently
alternating computer \"simcards.\" However, xxxxxxxxxxxx lamented
to us that because most April 6 members do not own computers, this tactic
would be impossible to implement. xxxxxxxxxxxx was appreciative of the
successful efforts by the Department and the summit organizers to protect
his identity at the summit, and told us that his name was never mentioned
publicly.
------------------- A Cold Welcome Home -------------------
3. (S) xxxxxxxxxxxx told us that SSIS detained and searched him at the
Cairo Airport on December 18 upon his return from the U.S. According to
xxxxxxxxxxxx, SSIS found and confiscated two documents in his luggage:
notes for his presentation at the summit that described April 6's demands
for democratic transition in Egypt, and a schedule of his Capitol Hill
meetings. xxxxxxxxxxxx described how the SSIS officer told him that State
Security is compiling a file on him, and that the officer's superiors instructed
him to file a report on xxxxxxxxxxxx most recent activities.
--------------------------------------------- ----------
Washington Meetings and April 6 Ideas for REGIME CHANGE
--------------------------------------------- ----------
4. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx described his Washington appointments as positive
...
7. (C) xxxxxxxxxxxx said that the GOE has recently been cracking down
on the April 6 movement by arresting its members. xxxxxxxxxxxx noted that
although SSIS had released xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx \"in the
past few days,\" it had arrested three other members. (Note: On December
14, we pressed the MFA for the release of xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx,
and on December 28 we asked the MFA for the GOE to release the additional
three activists. End note.) xxxxxxxxxxxx conceded that April 6 has no feasible
plans for future activities.
The group would like to call for another strike on April 6, 2009, but
realizes this would be \"impossible\" due to SSIS interference,
xxxxxxxxxxxx said. He lamented that the GOE has driven the group's leadership
underground, and that one of its leaders, xxxxxxxxxxxx, has been in hiding
for the past week.
8. (C) Comment: xxxxxxxxxxxx offered no roadmap of concrete steps toward
April 6's highly unrealistic goal of replacing the current regime with
a parliamentary democracy prior to the 2011 presidential elections. Most
opposition parties and independent NGOs work toward achieving tangible,
incremental reform within the current political context, even if they may
be pessimistic about their chances of success. xxxxxxxxxxxx wholesale rejection
of such an approach places him outside this mainstream of opposition politicians
and activists.
SCOBEY02008-12-307386PGOV,PHUM,KDEM,EGAPRIL 6 ACTIVIST ON HIS U.S. VISIT
AND REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT
(13) Hillary confirms that State Dep't funded Egyptian
labor unions
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7798594/sec_clinton_admits_funding_opposition.html?cat=9
Sec. Clinton Admits Funding Opposition Labor Unions in Egypt
State Department Transcripts Put Conspiracy Theory to Rest
Douglas Stewart, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Feb 25, 2011 "Contribute content like this. Start Here."
While the ties to Labor Unions and the Egyptian youth revolution have
been brushed off as a conspiracy theory a recent interview with Secretary
of State Hilary Clinton actually reveals the relationship. Interviewed
for Masrawy.com, an Egyptian news site, Secretary Clinton confirms the
long standing relationship with Egyptian labor unions and their State Department
funding. The Secretary also acknowledges that the government of Egypt wasn't
at all happy about this support according to the State Department transcript
.
When asked by an Egyptian youth, over Facebook, if the Administration
had any involvement before, during, or after the uprising Clinton's response
was "Well, as many people know, the United States supported civil
society inside Egypt. We gave grants that the government did not like to
support union organizing, to support organizing on behalf of political
opposition to the regime. That goes back many years." ...s Caribbean
coast. ...
(14) NYT traces Arab revolutions to Gene Sharp, Peter
Ackerman's ICNC & Stephen Zunes
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/middleeast/14egypt-tunisia-protests.html
A Tunisian-Egyptian Link That Shook Arab History
Holly Pickett for The New York Times
{caption} Tunis, Jan. 14 Demonstrators climbed the walls of the Interior
Ministry as thousands gathered outside to demand the resignation of President
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The protests that brought down Mr. Ben Ali that
day began on Facebook. {end}
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and DAVID E. SANGER Published: February 13,
2011
CAIRO Ñ As protesters in Tahrir Square faced off against pro-government
forces, they drew a lesson from their counterparts in Tunisia: ÒAdvice
to the youth of Egypt: Put vinegar or onion under your scarf for tear gas.Ó
The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration
that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world Ñ a pan-Arab
youth movement dedicated to spreading democracy in a region without it.
... Breaking free from older veterans of the Arab political opposition,
they relied on tactics of nonviolent resistance channeled from an American
scholar through a Serbian youth brigade Ñ but also on marketing
tactics borrowed from Silicon Valley. ...
The Egyptian revolt was years in the making. Ahmed Maher, a 30-year-old
civil engineer and a leading organizer of the April 6 Youth Movement, first
became engaged in a political movement known as Kefaya, or Enough, in about
2005. ...
For their part, Mr. Maher and his colleagues began reading about nonviolent
struggles. They were especially drawn to a Serbian youth movement called
Otpor, which had helped topple the dictator Slobodan Milosevic by drawing
on the ideas of an American political thinker, Gene Sharp. ...
The April 6 Youth Movement modeled its logo Ñ a vaguely Soviet
looking red and white clenched fistÑafter OtporÕs, and some
of its members traveled to Serbia to meet with Otpor activists. ... ==
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17sharp.html?_r=1
Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: February 16, 2011
BOSTON Ñ Halfway around the world from Tahrir Square in Cairo,
an aging American intellectual shuffles about his cluttered brick row house
in a working-class neighborhood here. His name is
Gene Sharp. Stoop-shouldered
and white-haired at 83, he grows orchids, has yet to master the Internet
and hardly seems like a dangerous man.
But for the worldÕs despots, his ideas can be fatal.
Few Americans have heard of Mr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical
writings on nonviolent revolution Ñ most notably ÒFrom Dictatorship
to Democracy,Ó a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available
for download in 24 languages Ñ have inspired dissidents around the
world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia
and Egypt.
When EgyptÕs April 6 Youth Movement was struggling to recover
from a failed effort in 2005, its leaders tossed around Òcrazy ideasÓ
about bringing down the government, said Ahmed Maher, a leading strategist.
They stumbled on Mr. Sharp while examining the Serbian movement Otpor,
which he had influenced.
When the nonpartisan International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which
trains democracy activists, slipped into Cairo several years ago to conduct
a workshop, among the papers it distributed was Mr. SharpÕs Ò
198
Methods of Nonviolent Action,Ó a list of tactics that range
from hunger strikes to Òprotest disrobingÓ to Òdisclosing
identities of secret agents.Ó
Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian blogger and activist who attended the workshop
and later organized similar sessions on her own, said trainees were active
in both the Tunisia and Egypt revolts. She said that some activists translated
excerpts of Mr. SharpÕs work into Arabic, and that his message of
Òattacking weaknesses of dictatorsÓ stuck with them.
Peter Ackerman, a onetime student of Mr. Sharp who
founded
the nonviolence center and ran the Cairo workshop, cites his former
mentor as proof that Òideas have power.Ó ...
ÒHe is generally considered the father of the whole field of
the study of strategic nonviolent action,Ó said Stephen Zunes, an
expert in that field at the University of San Francisco. ÒSome of
these exaggerated stories of him going around the world and starting revolutions
and leading mobs, what a joke. HeÕs much more into doing the research
and the theoretical work than he is in disseminating it.Ó
That is not to say Mr. Sharp has not seen any action. In 1989,
he
flew to China to witness the uprising in Tiananmen Square. In the early
1990s, he
sneaked into a rebel camp in Myanmar at the invitation
of
Robert L. Helvey, a retired Army colonel who advised the opposition
there. They met when
Colonel Helvey was on a fellowship at Harvard;
the military man thought the professor had ideas that could avoid war.
ÒHere we were in this jungle, reading Gene SharpÕs work by
candlelight,Ó Colonel Helvey recalled. ÒThis guy has tremendous
insight into society and the dynamics of social power.Ó ...
(15) Middle East uprisings take cue from Gene Sharp's
guide to non-violent revolution
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/02/23/f-carol-off-gene-sharp-middle-east.html
By Carol Off, CBC News Posted: Feb 23, 2011
For anyone who witnessed the Orange Revolution in Ukraine six years
ago, the recent scene on the Arab streets might provoke a twinge of déjà
vu. The similarities are uncanny, but they are also very real.
The People Power uprisings in the Middle East and corresponding movements
that erupted in Eastern Europe in the past decade appeared as spontaneous
outcries. And for hundreds of thousands of citizens who joined the young
people on the streets, that is the case. But the mass protests were stirred
Ñ and steered Ñ by groups of youth who planned, consulted
and even trained for the events.
Indeed, the remarkable discipline of the young leaders, their tactics
and strategies, their slogans and posters are all torn from the same handbook
- a guide to non-violent revolution called From Dictatorship to Democracy.
And they've all been inspired by the same guru: An 83-year-old American
activist named Gene Sharp.
Professor Sharp lives in a modest little house in Boston from which
he publishes and distributes his guide in dozens of languages. His Albert
Einstein Institution attracts revolutionaries from around the world, though
he guffaws when I refer to his followers as "disciples." In an
interview on As It Happens, the retired professor says his role is simply
to provide devices to help depose dictators.
Anatomy of a revolution
I first heard of the professor and his "198 Methods of Non-violent
Action" in late 1999 when a movement in Serbia known as Otpor managed
to oust the bad man of the Balkans Ñ Slobodan Milosevic.
In a CBC documentary called Anatomy of a Revolution, Belgrade student
Srdjan Popovic explained that he and his young friends went into training
a year in advance and spent many weeks honing the skills outlined in Gene
Sharp's handbook before they took to the streets.
In the CBC documentary, we show how Popovic and his friends then turned
up in many other parts of former East Bloc countries brandishing copies
of From Dictatorship to Democracy translated into every language. When
hordes of young people suddenly stormed the parliament in Georgia in 2003,
Serbs Ñ and Gene Sharp's manual Ñ were there. The students
refused to leave the streets of Tblisi until the Kremlin-backed president,
Eduard Shvardnadze, departed.
The Georgian student movement appeared to be improvised and messy. But
the opposite was true. They had planned almost every step of their campaign.
The young people managed to overthrow the regime, allowing Mikheil Saakashvili
to take his place.
A year later, Serbs and Georgians turned up in Maidan Square in central
Kiev, where they trained and helped to conduct the Orange Revolution, toppling
the Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych.
Telltale tactics
Whether in central Europe or the Middle East, demonstrators shared the
same tactics: they occupied symbolic locations of their respective cities;
they established tent villages; and they refused to leave until they achieved
their principal goal Ñ toppling the dictator. They eschewed violence,
even when provoked.
The leaders who ultimately fled had no idea what the movement was or
how it had come to be full blown so suddenly. ...
(16) Egypt's April 6 Youth Movement modelled on Optor
(links to Gene Sharp & NED) - Eric Walberg
From: israel shamir <israel.shamir@gmail.com> Date: 03.03.2011
04:31 AM Subject: [shamireaders] Corrected Egypt/Serbia/Georgia: Learning
from othersÕ mistakes
http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=314:egyptserbiageorgia-learning-from-others-mistakes&catid=40:middle-east&Itemid=93
Egypt/Serbia/Georgia: Learning from othersÕ mistakes
in similar revolutions in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, notes
Eric Walberg
Thursday, 03 March 2011 02:40
There is a Russian proverb: only a fool learns from his own mistakes.
As Georgia's foreign minister visits his Egyptian counterpart, there are
lessons for Egypt
Central to EgyptÕs revolution was a tiny group of Serbian activists
Otpor (resistance), who adapted nonviolent tactics of in the late 1990s
and successfully forced Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to resign
in 2000. Egyptian youth in the 6 April Youth Movement even adopted their
clenched fist symbol, bringing Otpor once again into world headlines and
TV screens.
It was the 2008 strike El-Mahalla El-Kubra to protest high food prices
and low wages that brought about this unforeseen Serbian-Egyptian alliance.
A group of tech-savvy young Cairenes decided to start a Facebook group
to organise solidarity actions around the country, attracting a surprising
70,000 supporters. The results of the strike were mixed, with police attacking
strikers and killing two demonstrators, and solidarity protests quickly
dispersed.
Determined to build on their networking success, writes Tina Rosenberg
in Foreign Policy magazine, Mohamed Adel, a 20-year-old blogger and 6 April
activist, went to Belgrade in 2009 and took a week-long course in the strategies
of nonviolent revolution with Otpor veterans, who had established the Center
for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in 2003 for just
such activists. He learned how to translate ÒInternetworkingÓ
into street protests, and passed on his skills to others in the 6 April
Youth Movement and Kefaya (Enough).
The rest is history. A relatively peaceful overthrow of the Egyptian
regime has made Egyptian youth the darlings of the world -- Egyptian-American
scientist Faruq El-Baz even suggested they be nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize.
The nonviolent revolutionary tactics made famous by Otpor and used to
such remarkable success by Egyptians are an outgrowth of soft power strategies
developed most famously by Mohandas Gandhi in the anticolonial struggle
in the 1920-30s, and also by the US government during the Cold War to undermine
the socialist bloc; in both cases, where direct military action against
the enemy was not feasible.
Most directly relevant in the case of Otpor is ReaganÕs National
Endowment for Democracy (NED, 1983), which was instrumental in bringing
about the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, funding all
opposition groups left and right intent on undermining the socialist regimes.
Warren Christopher, president Bill ClintonÕs first secretary of
state, argued, ÒBy enlisting international and regional institutions
in the work, the US can leverage our own limited resources and avoid the
appearance of trying to dominate others.Ó NEDÕs first president,
Allen Weinstein, admitted that Òa lot of what we do today was done
covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.Ó
The socialist bloc collapsed just as the Internet was taking off in
the early 1990s. The tactics work well in soft dictatorships which are
open to Western penetration, and Soviet leader Mikhail GorbachevÕs
glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) were the vehicles for
introducing them in East Europe and the Soviet Union, as the degree of
repression by the state had eased from the days of Cold War paranoia.
The techniques involved continued to be honed through the 1990s by Gene
Sharp (From Dictatorship to Democracy, 1993) dubbed oxymoronically Òthe
Clausewitz of nonviolenceÓ, and Robert Helvey, a former US Army
colonel and defense attache at the US Embassy in Burma in the 1980s. Given
economic stagnation (hardly unique to dictatorships), using a combination
of defiance and ridicule of an aging autocratic regime, and seduction of
a large, poorly paid, young army and police security apparatus, the young
revolutionaries are able to moblise mass support for change and convince
the security apparatus to step aside.
Though the details are slightly different, a scenario similar to events
in Cairo in 2011 took place throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
in 1989-91. In the latter case, Boris YeltsinÕs charisma pushing
the military to his side after the putsch in August 1991, bringing an end
to Communist Party hegemony.
The collapse of Yugoslavia was more traumatic. It had also been blessed
by a charismatic leader Josip Tito who had used his monopoly on political
power to build a prosperous, relatively open socialist society. However,
the pressures for disintegration built after its socialist neighbours had
collapsed. Financed by the US and Germany, power-hungry ethnic leaders
declared independence and civil war ensued, with the Serbian heartland
under Milosevic trying desperately to hold together what had been a peaceful
and popular union. By 1999, the writing was on the wall -- with the West
sanctioning, bombing and otherwise subverting the rump Yugoslavia, a restless
people turned against an aging dictator, with a media-savvy core of activists
the catalyst.
As did all opposition groups in the former Yugoslavia, Otpor took money
from NED, though it denied it at the time, disillusioning many Otpor members
who quit after helping to overthrow Milosevic, Òfeeling betrayedÓ
according to Rosenberg. CANVAS participates in workshops financed by the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations
Development Program, and Freedom House, an American group financed by NED.
The results of Otpor-inspired revolutions have been mixed to say the
least. Activists from Zimbabwe, Burma, Belarus and Iran -- over 50 countries
-- have taken CANVASÕs training. The only attributable ÒsuccessesÓ
until Egypt were in Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004) and Kyrgyzstan (2005)
-- the so-called colour revolutions, all of which have been a bitter disappointment,
and along with Serbia, clearly manipulated by the US to serve its geopolitical
ends.
In the case of Georgia, a boyish 37-year-old Mikheil Saakashvili was
catapulted to power on the wave of a youth movement Kmara (Enough) modelled
on Otpor, winning the 2004 presidential elections with 97 per cent of the
vote. He invited in thousands of US and Israeli advisers, launched a disastrous
war in 2008 against Russia, and quickly assumed dictatorial powers himself.
Most of the Israelis scurried home after the war, and even his US patron
is balking at supporting his plans to take on Russia again.
The Georgian opposition has been trying to oust Saakashvili ever since
he launched war against Russia, but he is using his media smarts (and beefed-up
security forces) to hold on to power, slavishly sending thousands of troops
to Iraq and Afghanistan in hopes of earning enough points to join NATO.
A fractious opposition must unite around an equally charismatic figure
and future elections must be rigorously monitored if it expects to oust
him.
The rule-of-thumb is if you play your cards extremely well, you may
be allowed one Otpor-style revolution, so you better make good use of it.
A second one is hard to pull off, and if it happens, as in 2010 in Kyrgyzstan,
it is more a sign of political dysfunction than something to cheer about.
And Western-style electoral democracy rarely leads to social justice, especially
when the country in question is central to US geopolitical schemes, as
is the case with both Serbia and Egypt.
The strategy worked well for small ethnic groups wanting their own state,
like the Estonians, Slovenians and other eastern Europeans, ironically
with the exception of Serbians, who experienced severe economic hardship
as a result of their ÒrevolutionÓ and continue to resent
the role of Europe and the US in their political affairs. As Egyptians
massed in Tahrir Square, on 5 February, 70,000 Serbs marched in Belgrade
protesting unemployment and poverty, charging that the government (in typical
democratic style, a razor-thin coalition majority) is pursuing policies
dictated by Europe. It is the NATO invasion and the loss of Kosovo that
Serbs remember with bitterness now, rather than the dictatorship of Milosevic.
Otpor tried to enter the political arena in 2003 but got only 1.6 per cent
of the vote and gave up, joining the Serbian President Boris TadicÕs
centrist pro-Europe Democratic Party.
Egyptians should keep the experience of Russia, Serbia and the colour
revolutions in mind as they navigate the perilous waters of US-style democracy.
Interestingly, Georgia's Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze is visiting Egypt
1-2 March to share his experience in post-revolution transition -- not
with the 6 April Youth Movement and the other revolutionaries, but with
ex-Arab League head Amr Moussa and Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit,
both intimately connected with the Mubarak regime.
There is little to cheer Egypt's idealistic revolutionaries in such
confabs or in general in the state of politics in Georgia or any of the
other colour revolutions today. It would be a tragedy if a few years down
the line, Egyptians look back wistfully at pre-revolutionary times, as
do many Serbs, Georgians, east Europeans and Russians.
(17) Video game teaches how to conduct a large-scale
peaceful protest
http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/can-a-video-game-teach-the-kind-of-nonviolent-protest-practiced-by-tunisian/
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
BY BRANNON CULLUM
CAN A VIDEO GAME TEACH THE KIND OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST PRACTICED BY TUNISIANS
AND EGYPTIANS?
{photo} A page from the leaflet distributed to Egyptian protesters.
{end}
Could people learn how to conduct a large-scale peaceful protest with
a video game? Leading game designer Jane McGonigal believes so.
At the Dice Summit video game conference held earlier this month, McGonigal
pitched an idea for a new game: ÒCiv DÓ -- short for civil
disobedience -- Òthe first AAA game about surviving a peaceful revolutionÓ
(AAA refers to the quality of the game; AAA is the highest quality). Her
idea was sparked after seeing the leaflets that were being distributed
to Egyptians last month with tactical and practical advice for confronting
riot police. McGonigal noticed that the contents of the ÒHow To
Protest IntelligentlyÓ action plan resembled the instructions for
completing tasks in a video game, telling the summitÕs audience,
ÒIf you look at them, itÕs really quite conducive to game
as scenarios.Ó (Watch a video of her entire presentation here.)
The leaflets in question contained information like what routes to follow
to reach Tahrir Square, diagrams of crowd formations, advice on how to
defend yourself against riot police, ways to recruit participants, how
to break through police blocks, and how to march on a government building.
(Check out The Atlantic's translated excerpts from the pamphlet here.)
McGonigal thinks that even virtual goods could be integrated into the
game, with players purchasing items like the hoods, shields, and accessories
that were mentioned in the pamphlets to protect demonstrators. With all
of the games made these days about war, McGonigal thinks that other intense
action games like ÒCiv DÓ could Òput us in a frame
of mind to think about something bigger than ourselvesÓ and bring
Òreal life positive impactÓ to the world through games.
While McGonigalÕs newly launched game development company Social
Chocolate wonÕt be taking on the task of developing the game themselves
-- right now their attention is focused on two other games in development
(SuperBetter, which aims to motivate people recovering from serious injuries,
and Dhoom Machale, a dancing shooter game) -- will another game development
company pursue it? If someone got started on ÒCiv DÓ today,
McGonigal believes that it could be ready for the market by 2014.
What do you think? WeÕve already seen how a number digital games
for social change have tackled real-world issues like food security, climate
change, and disease. Could a game about civil resistance equip protesters
with better skills, training, and confidence and act as a launching pad
for offline action?
(18) A page from a Leaflet distributed to Egyptian
protestors
http://www.movements.org/page/-/images/content/blog/large/egyptian_leaflet.jpeg/@mx_500/
1. Assemble with your friends and neighbours in residential streets
far away from where the security forces are.
2. Shout slogans in the name of Egypt and the people's freedom (positive
slogans).
3. Encourage other residents to join in (again with positive language).
4. Go out into the major streets in very large groups in order to form
the biggest possible assembly.
5. Head towards important government buildings - while shouting positive
slogans - in order to take them over.
(19) Songs and chants to rally the demonstrators
http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/music-of-the-revolution-how-songs-of-protest-have-rallied-demonstrators/
MARCH 03, 2011 BY BRANNON CULLUM POSTED IN CITIZEN MEDIA, SUSTAINING
PROTEST MOVEMENTS | SHARE
MUSIC OF THE REVOLUTION: HOW SONGS OF PROTEST HAVE RALLIED DEMONSTRATORS
Music almost always plays a pivotal role in protest movements, with
songs and chants unifying dissidents in their rallying cries. Unlike movements
of decades past, however, protest music made popular during the recent
revolution in Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond spread virally with the help YouTube
and Facebook.
TUNISIA
Twenty-one-year-old Hamada Ben Amor, known as El GénéralÑan
underground rapper living in the town of Sfax south of TunisÑuploaded
a song he had written called "Rais Le Bled" ("President,
Your Country") to Facebook on November 7. The rap called out then-president
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for the problems faced by average Tunisians trying
to make a living, including food scarcity, a lack of freedom of speech,
and unemployment with lyrics like: "Mr. President, your people are
dying/People are eating rubbish/Look at what is happening/Miseries everywhere
Mr. President/I talk with no fear/Although I know I will only get troubles/I
see injustice everywhere." ...
EGYPT
Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm ("Uncle Ahmed"), a popular
voice for the poor who has spent 18 of his 81 years in Egyptian prisons,
wrote ÒThe Donkey and the Foal," a commentary about then-president
Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal. Musician Ramy Essam, who had taken to
playing in Tahrir Square during the protest, set the poem to music and
sang the song as Negm stood beside him.
Essam then penned the song "Leave," inspired by the slogans
and chants being shouted around Tahrir Square:
ÒWe are all united as one, And what we ask for, Is just one thing:
Leave! Leave! (x3) Down, down Husni Mubarak! (x4) The people demand: Bring
down the regime! (x4) He is going away. We are not going anywhere! (x4)
We are all united as one, And what we ask for, Is just one thing: Leave!
Leave! Leave! (x4)Ó ...
LIBYA
Traditional songs have also played an important role in demonstrations.
Libyans in the liberated eastern parts of the country forged bonds by singing
the old national anthem while waving the tricolor flag from before Gaddafi
came to power in 1969 as Òa symbol of the reinvention of the Libyans.Ó
In this video, the massive crowd in Beghanzi sings the old anthem to
share their pride in being liberated. ...
(20) Russian military: "Airstrikes in Libya did
not take place"
2 MARCH 2011
{photo} Reports: Colonels defected after orders to bombard protestors
{end}
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168682.html
The reports of Libya mobilizing its air force against its own people
spread quickly around the world. However, RussiaÕs military chiefs
say they have been monitoring from space and the pictures tell a
different story.
According to Al Jazeera and BBC, on February 21 Libyan government inflicted
airstrikes on Benghazi the countryÕs largest city and
on the capital Tripoli. However, the Russian military, monitoring the unrest
via satellite from the very beginning, says nothing of the sort was going
on on the ground.
At this point, the Russian military is saying that, as far as they are
concerned, the attacks some media were reporting have never occurred.
The same sources in RussiaÕs military establishment say they
are also monitoring the situation around LibyaÕs oil pumping facilities.
(21) Al Jazeera reports about Libyan jets firing on
protesters are "unverified and questionable"
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168588.html
Libya: Are the US and EU Pushing for Civil War to Justify NATO Intervention?
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya*
25 FEBRUARY 2011
The Libyan government has shut down the internet and phone lines and
an information war is underway. Although one of the most professional news
network in the world, it has to be cautioned that Al Jazeera is not a neutral
actor. It is subordinate to the Emir of Qatar and the Qatari government,
which is also an autocracy. By picking and choosing what to report, Al
JazeeraÕs coverage of Libya is biased. This is evident when one
studies Al JazeeraÕs coverage of Bahrain, which has been restrained
due to political ties between the leaders of Bahrain and Qatar.
Reports by Al Jazeera about Libyan jets firing on protesters in Tripoli
and the major cities are unverified and questionable. [9] Here too, the
reports that Libyan jets have been attacking people in the streets have
not been verified. No visual evidence of the jet attacks has been shown,
while visual confirmation about other events have been coming out of Libya.
Al Jazeera is not alone in its biased reporting from Libya. The Saudi
media is also relishing the events in Libya. Asharq Al-Awsat is a paper
that is strictly aligned to U.S. interests in the Middle East-North Africa
(MENA) region. Its editor-in-chief is now running editorials glorifying
the Arab League for their decision to suspend Libya why were such
steps not taken for Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, or Yemen? Inside and outside
the Arab World, the mainstream media is now creating the conditions for
some sort of intervention in Libya.
(22) Castro & Chavez say US is fomenting unrest
in Libya
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168600.html
25 FEBRUARY 2011
Venezuela: US behind Libyan violence VenezuelaÕs top diplomat
has echoed Fidel CastroÕs accusation that Washington is fomenting
unrest in Libya to justify an invasion to seize the North African nationÕs
oil reserves.
Foreign minister Nicolas Maduro claimed the United States was trying
to create a movement inside Libya aimed at toppling Muammar Gaddafi.
Maduro did not condemn or defend the violent crackdown on Libyans participating
in the popular uprising against GaddafiÕs long rule.
He called for a peaceful solution to the upheaval in Libya and questioned
the veracity of media reports on the bloody uprising, which has crept closer
to GaddafiÕs stronghold in Tripoli.
ÒThey are creating conditions to justify an invasion of Libya,Ó
Maduro said.
ÒLibya is going through difficult times, which should not be
measured with information from imperial news agencies,Ó Maduro added,
referring to Western media.
Gaddafi has been a close ally of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and
ChavezÕs political opponents have strongly criticised those close
relations.
VenezuelaÕs leftist president said on Thursday: ÒViva
Libya and its independence! Gadhafi is facing a civil war.Ó
It was the first time that Chavez had publicly referred to the violence
in Libya.
On Tuesday, Castro, ChavezÕs mentor, said the unrest in Libya
might be a pretext by the US to push for a Nato invasion.
Castro said in a column published by Cuban state media that it was too
early to criticise Gaddafi. But he did urge protests against something
that he claimed is planned: A US-led invasion to take control of LibyaÕs
oil.
Venezuela and Libya are both members of the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries.
Chavez, who has forged close ties with Gaddafi since taking office in
1999, has repeatedly accused Washington of conspiring to topple his own
government. The self-proclaimed socialist says the United States wants
to control VenezuelaÕs immense petroleum reserves.
US officials have scoffed at suggestions that Washington is plotting
against VenezuelaÕs government.
Earlier on Thursday, Afif Tajeldine, VenezuelaÕs ambassador to
Libya, said dozens of Venezuelans who were working in the country had been
evacuated by their employers. At least 76 Venezuelans were living in Libya,
the embassy said.
Tajeldine said they had all been staying at the embassy in the capital
of Tripoli and only 13 remained on Thursday.
He described the capital as calm.
(23) "Progressives" paving the way for a
US takeover of Libya?
From: Israel Shamir <adam@israelshamir.net> Date: 03.03.2011 02:32
AM
U.S. Prepares to Make Its Lunge at LibyaÕs Oil Fields
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
BAR, March 2, 2011
http://blackagendareport.libsyn.com/u-s-prepares-to-make-its-lunge-at-libya-s-oil-fields
"It is time for the American anti-war movement to remember who
is the biggest enemy of peace on planet Earth."
American progressives and peace forces have been in a state of joyous
delirium in recent weeks as they experienced vicarious, televised popular
victories in Tunisia and Egypt. Watching unarmed crowds achieve tentative
victories against entrenched, U.S.-backed regimes produced a kind of giddiness
on this side of the ocean an otherworldly feeling that somehow, the
foreign outposts of U.S. empire might suddenly disintegrate by popular
demand. But now, the U.S. naval war machine lies off the coast of Libya,
and it is time for the American anti-war movement such as it is
to remember who is the biggest enemy of peace on planet Earth: U.S. imperialism.
It is certainly not Muamar Khadafi, no matter what you think of him.
And the conflict that is raging in Libya seems in important ways very much
unlike the events in Tunisia and Egypt. The anti-Khadafi forces were armed
from almost the very beginning of the uprising, and included elements of
the military. Unlike the opponents of EgyptÕs President Mubarak,
we know very little about who these rebel Libyans are except that
they have been getting lots of material help from the Americans and the
French and other Europeans. It is also becoming clearer by the day that
a vicious, racist pogrom is raging against the 1.5 million sub-Saharan
Black African migrant workers who do the hard jobs in Libya, work that
is rejected by the relatively prosperous Libyans. Hundreds of Black migrant
workers have already been killed by anti-Khadafi forces yet the U.S.
corporate media express absolutely no concern for their safety. One western
report noted that large numbers of Black Africans were seized in Benghazi,
and were assumed to have been hanged. That is a war crime, whether these
men were soldiers or migrant workers, but the western correspondent seemed
unconcerned. One suspects there are many atrocities occurring in the rebel-held
areas of Libya, especially against people that are not members of the locally
dominant tribe. Benghazi is not Harir Square, in Cairo.
"A vicious, racist pogrom is raging against the 1.5 million sub-Saharan
Black African migrant workers who do the hard jobs in Libya."
How convenient that most of the Libyan voices we hear on corporate media
call for armed western intervention. How in synch with the increasing American
and European threats of "no-fly zones" and amphibious naval actions
all, of course, for humanitarian reasons, rather than having something
to do with the fact that Libya is a major producer of some of the worldÕs
sweetest crude oil.
American United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who is at least as warlike
as Condoleezza Rice, is visibly eager to invade Libya under humanitarian
pretexts. The U.S. is the last country in a moral position to criticize
Khadafi for his treatment of Arab civilians. Remember Fallujah, the Iraqi
city of a quarter million people that the U.S. leveled after first bombing
its hospitals, inflicting many thousands of casualties. If most Americans
don't remember Fallujah, the Arab world certainly does.
Many Americans that claim to be anti-war are actually just looking for
a U.S. military action that is to their liking. Fortunately, the United
National Anti-War Committee, UNAC, understands that U.S. imperialism is
the ultimate enemy of peace, and says "no" to the U.S. invasion
of Libya.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
(24) Peter Singer calls for military intervention in
Libya
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/singer72/English
Global Justice and Military Intervention
Peter Singer
March 1, 2011
MELBOURNE The world has watched in horror as LibyaÕs Colonel
Muammar el-Qaddafi uses his military to attack protesters opposed to his
rule, killing hundreds or possibly thousands of unarmed civilians. Many
of his own men have refused to fire on their own people, instead defecting
to the rebels or flying their planes to nearby Malta, so Qaddafi has called
in mercenaries from neighboring countries who are more willing to obey
his orders.
World leaders were quick to condemn QaddafiÕs actions. On February
26, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose an
arms embargo on Libya, urge member nations to freeze assets owned by Qaddafi
and his family, and refer the regimeÕs violence to the International
Criminal Court for possible prosecution of those responsible.
This is the first time that the Security Council has unanimously referred
a situation involving human rights violations to the International Criminal
Court, and it is remarkable that countries that are not members of the
Court including the United States, Russia, and China nevertheless
supported the referral. The resolution can thus be seen as another incremental
step towards the establishment of a global system of justice able to punish
those who commit gross violations of human rights, regardless of their
political or legal status in their own country.
Yet, in another way, the Security Council resolution was a disappointment.
The situation in Libya became a test of how seriously the international
community takes the idea of a responsibility to protect people from their
rulers. The idea is an old one, but its modern form is rooted in the tragic
failure to intervene in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. A subsequent UN inquiry
concluded that as few as 2,500 properly trained military personnel could
have prevented the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis.
Former US President Bill Clinton has said that the mistake he most regrets
making during his presidency was his failure to push for intervention in
Rwanda. Kofi Annan, who was then UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace-Keeping
Operations, described the situation at the UN at the time as a Òterrible
and humiliatingÓ paralysis.
When Annan became Secretary-General, he urged the development of principles
that would indicate when it is justifiable for the international community
to intervene to prevent gross violations of human rights. In response,
CanadaÕs government established an International Commission on Intervention
and State Sovereignty, which recommended that military intervention could
be justified, as an extraordinary measure, where large-scale loss of life
is occurring or imminent, owing to deliberate state action or the stateÕs
refusal or failure to act. These principles were endorsed by the UN General
Assembly at its special World Summit in 2005 and discussed again in 2009,
with an overwhelming majority of states supporting them.
The principle fits the situation in Libya today. Yet the Security Council
resolution contains no mention of the possibility of military intervention
not even the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Qaddafi
from using planes to attack protesters.
One body with a special concern to transform the idea of the responsibility
to protect into a cause for action is the Global Center for the Responsibility
to Protect, at the City University of New York. It has called on UN members
to uphold their 2005 commitments and put the responsibility to protect
into action in Libya. It urges consideration of a range of measures, several
of which were covered by the Security Council resolution, but also including
a no-fly zone.
In addition to arguing that the responsibility to protect can justify
military intervention, the International Commission on Intervention and
State Sovereignty recommended a set of precautionary principles. For example,
military intervention should be a last resort, and the consequences of
action should not be likely to be worse than the consequences of inaction.
Whether these precautionary principles are satisfied in Libya requires
expert judgment of the specifics of the situation. No one wants another
drawn-out war like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Libya is not Iraq
or Afghanistan its population is only about one-fifth of either countryÕs,
and there is a strong popular movement for a democratic form of government.
Assuming that foreign military forces rapidly overwhelmed QaddafiÕs
troops, they would soon be able to withdraw and leave the Libyan people
to decide their own future.
At the time of writing, it is arguable that other sanctions or threats,
short of military intervention, would be sufficient to deter more widespread
bloodshed. Perhaps the rebels and the sanctions can overthrow Qaddafi unaided,
without great loss of life. It is also unclear whether military intervention
would cause more deaths than it prevented.
But these are questions that the international community needs to ask,
and that the Security Council should have been discussing, so that the
principle of the responsibility to protect and its possible implications
for military action become part of our understanding of the requirements
of international law and global ethics.
Peter Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate
Professor at the University of Melbourne. His most recent book is The Life
You Can Save.
(25) I.S.O. Trots arrested for plotting Egypt style
protest in Zimbabwe
http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-1492-article-46+Arrested+for+plotting+Egypt+style+protest+in+Zimbabwe.html
46 Arrested for plotting Egypt style protest in Zimbabwe
by Byo24NEWS
2011 February 21 11:44:59 | 880 Views
On Saturday the Harare police arrested 46 people for allegedly trying
to organise an Egypt style protest through the internet's social media.
Included in the accused 46 is former Highfield MDC MP Munyaradzi Gwisai.
Police confirmed the arrests and said 46 people were rounded up at an
undisclosed place in central Harare on Saturday.
Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau declined
to disclose the exact location where the arrests were made.
He said the suspects had organised a meeting where they played video
footage of the Egypt uprising allegedly "to inspire and motivate people
to demonstrate against the government".
Sabau said the 46 were arrested on Saturday after Gwisai, an official
of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), invited people from
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the Zimbabwe National StudentsÕ
Union (Zinasu) and other unions to attend the meeting.
"On February 19 it is said Gwisai invited people from ZCTU, students
from Zinasu, Medical Professionals and Allied WorkersÕ Union and
International Socialist Organisation to attend a meeting with a theme -
ISO calls on workers, students and the working people to support the struggle
in solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian workers," said Sabau.
"The agenda of the meeting was the revolt in Egypt and Tunisia
- what lessons can be learnt for the working class in Zimbabwe and Africa.
"Videos of the uprising in Egypt and revolts in Tunisia were being
shown to the guests who attended as a way to motivate the people to subvert
a constitutionally-elected government."
Sabau said police would not allow any plots to take Zimbabwe the Egypt
way and would clamp down mercilessly on plotters of any revolts.
"It has been said before by our commanders and I will also say
it that the Egyptian style (revolution) has no place in Zimbabwe and it
will not take place here. We have responsible citizens as compared to the
irresponsible citizens in other countries - hence it (revolt) will not
work," he said.
The police spokesperson declined to disclose where the arrested people
were being detained saying they were being held somewhere "within
Harare" and that they would appear in court "soon".
A lawyer representing the 46, Marufu Mandevere, however said his clients
were being held at Harare Central Police Station and they would probably
appear in court Monday.
Mandevere said Gwisai and others were arrested in the city while they
were holding a lecture.
"The arrested deny the allegations and say they were just having
an academic debate where they were having discussions with the people who
attended the function," said Mandevere.
Source: Byo24NEWS
(26) International Criminal Court launches probe of
Gadhafi
Published 17 minutes ago
By Olivia Ward Foreign Affairs Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/948536--international-criminal-court-launches-probe-of-gadhafi
As Moammar GadhafiÕs army hurled bombs and bullets at opposition-held
towns in eastern Libya, the worldÕs top prosecutor launched an investigation
of possible crimes against humanity and warned that neither the brutal
strongman nor his sons and supporters would be immune to justice.
ÒIf forces under their command commit crimes, they could be criminally
responsible,Ó the International Criminal CourtÕs prosecutor
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters Thursday at The Hague. ÒNo one
has the authority to attack and massacre civilians.Ó
Though the prosecutor did not mention the suspects by name, they included
seven of GadhafiÕs inner circle: among them his national security
advisor (his son Mutassim) and the commander of the 32nd battalion (his
son Khamis).
(27) China on guard against protests inspired by uprisings
in North Africa & MidEast
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/05/china-unrest-idUSTOE72400920110305
China internal security spending jumps past army budget
Sat Mar 5, 2011 4:55am EST
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) - China's spending on police and domestic
surveillance will hit new heights this year, with "public security"
outlays unveiled on Saturday outstripping the defence budget for the first
time as Beijing cracks down on protest calls.
China's ruling Communist Party also issued its loudest warning yet against
recent Internet-spread calls for "Jasmine Revolution" protest
gatherings inspired by popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle
East. ...
{end}
Chomsky, Zunes & Zinn defend Gene Sharp, say Meyssan wrong about
CIA link: Sharp-Soros-NED-CIA.html.
Write to me at
contact.html.
Terry
McAuliffe all too eagerly remains silent about the scourge of sexual
abuse in public schools, and does so while taking blood-money. He then
brags about the tainted support of a Union wrought with criminals.
