Anarchopedia:Current events

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Anarchopedia:Current events archive

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Special Forces do not merely carry out the increasingly criminal actions ordered by their superiors (eg the assassination of foreign leaders with drone strikes)-sometimes they go so far off the rails that they have to cover up the crimes (eg the killing and mass burial of 10 villagers in Wardak, Afghanistan--interview with Matthieu Aikins on Democracy Now!. Alteratively, the deaths could have been commanded, the soldiers truly guilty of participation but not instigation and then the coverup instigated to the seeming benefit of all but in the end, only to the benefit of command. There is something of a third stage attached to this incident as well. The first stage would be, the US acting atrociously, even criminally, in secret. The second, doing this openly, because they know they can mostly get away with it. And the third stage is utter immunity from prosecution. The US government is making immunity for the armed forces a condition of aiding Karzai's government, and immunity for international corporations a condition for trade, with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Evidence of unusually dire extremes of criminal activity by command in Afghanistan is shown by torture on tape released by Rolling Stone in November 2013-Afghan security forces holding down and beating prisoners while Special Forces watch.

Yassar Arafat's (WP) body had eighteen times the normal amount of radioactive Polonium-210 in it, enough to kill him. The Swiss team's findings contradict those of a Russian team. However, Russia is at pains to deny Polonium as a cause as it would point to them, however vaguely and incredibly, as per the results of Alexander Litvinenko's autopsy. Russia set up as a convenient patsy is a good reason to use Polonium, and its use points to the great likelihood of a government agency, as its short half-life makes it incredibly rare in nature. ²¹⁰Polonium has a half-life of 138.376 days.

Bradley Manning's treatment was cruel and inhuman, UN torture chief rules-The Guardian. UN investigator found that Manning might also have been tortured.

Cast the net wide enough, and you will surely catch something: As a hunger strike begins, by prisoners in California against the practice of long-term solitary confinement, investigative journalist Shane Bauer appeared on Democracy Now!, showing that the rationale for treatment that the prisoners call torture is sometimes no better than 1.-almost- 2.thought crime to 3.associate with criminals who 4.again, -might- commit crimes. That is to say, they might be thinking about talking with people who fit a profile determined by their captors, of potential wrongdoers.

the criteria for determining whether somebody is a member or an associate of those gangs is kind of notoriously loose. I have seen cases of people who are put in the SHU and deemed gang members because they have academic books by the Black Panthers or journal writings about African-American history. Even the materials for gang investigators teach that the use of the words "tío" or "hermano," "uncle" or "brother" in Spanish, can indicate gang activity - Shane Bauer. Interview on Democracy Now!

This is a degree of separation that inspires one to think of words other than tenuous. Nebulous might be a better word. A rationale that rewards belief and confounds understanding.

Operation Pillar of Cloud: Palestine is a dog that Israel keeps starving and chained up in its back yard, and kicks nearly to death every four years. Less than four years after the Hypocrites of the Apocalypse used banned white phosphorus, and illegally used cluster bombs against civilians in the midst of a massive bombing campaign, in which even UN convoys and headquarters were hit with 'friendly fire', they are doing it all again. And let us not forget, partisans are not stationed in civilian areas because they want to use civilians as shields, but because they live there. And what gives Israel the right to complain of human shields, when they plan on killing the civilians standing in the way, in any case? Giving someone ten minutes to get out of their house does not excuse blowing it up. And the hypocrisy and war crimes go on and on.

Rebel suicide bomber kills top Syrian officials
It has been pretty hard to tell who the bad guys are in Syria, a regime used by the US to torture extrajudicial prisoners, that is now being double-crossed by the US, perhaps to the point of backing the rebels against them. Someone has been massacring civilians, and possibly both sides.

The grey area has grown and darkened now that the rebels have used assassinations, like the Obama administration's drone strikes...only with suicide bombers. Like Al-Qaeda, the PLO, and almost every group on the US' terrorist list. So does that mean that the rebels supported by state leaders all around the world, in lockstep with the US, are terrorists? Or is suicide bombing now OK? Is this something the US opposes? Is there an outcry of "terrorist actions"? No. How about something like "brutal"? Well, no. In fact, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta used the same blaming the victim technique as was used on Haiti's Aristide, when rebels tried to take over his country; Assad will be held responsible if it does not safeguard its stockpile of chemical weapons.

Does this utter absence of criticism means that suicide bombing is going to follow torture in the transition from a crime with which the US pot can call its enemies' kettles red, to just another military option? And if it does, then that means that the rest of the 'terrorists' are just irregular military with fewer military options than the US, as Anarchopedia has always contended.

Legislative coup d'état removes President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay
Lugo’s opponents’ had planned the coup, and U.S. officials had known about it, as early as 2009. "Capitalize on any Lugo missteps to break the political deadlock in Congress, impeach Lugo and assure their own political supremacy", reads a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

The announcement of Lugo's impeachment proceedings came just a day before he was given two hours to prepare his legal defense; Lugo declined to address the proceedings. Legislator's statements were long on quotes of constitutional rules and short on rationale. In particular, there were no concrete examples of his 'misconduct'. Lugo has strong support in the populace, but the legislature was filled with the same party as had ruled Paraguay for 61 years. On the 25th of June, 2012, Fernando Lugo said he would create a parallel cabinet, and bring his case before the coming week's summit of the Mercosur trade bloc in Mendoza, Argentina

"The two things to look out for is, one if military aid to Paraguayan army will continue. The U.S. is a supplier of much material and financial support to the security forces in Paraguay, and two, if it will take advantage of the crisis to go forward with a long sought military base in the region, which the Pentagon, Southcom (WP), has wanted for a while"-Greg Grandin (WP)

O, Drug War, where is thy Sting?..Really, where did it go, have you seen it around anywhere?
One of Project Gunrunner's (see Operation: IRONY) plans to deprive Mexican drug cartels of weaponry, the ATF's (WP) Operation Fast and Furious, gave them weapons instead. It thereby achieved optimum Oppositeness. Or did it? See CIA drug trafficking

Labor Day protests
International Workers' Day (WP) also known as May Day (also, outside of the US and UK, known as Labor Day) rallies and protests were a mix of the traditional yearly events and a resurgence of Occupy Movement (WP) events
Guardian full day listing of events , and in pictures
SFGate: 15 minutes, 30 people, 30 businesses trashed, no arrests

The Sacred Temple of the All-Seeing Eye, Bluffdale, Utah
During the Cold War, the National Security Agency intercepted the communications of Russia and China and a handful of communist states, while the US busied itself with taking over the world secretly. Now that other countries are fighting back, and the US does its regime changes largely in the open, the NSA has given itself the task of intercepting, decoding, and assessing ALL communications, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME.

In order to do this, the NSA is building the largest intelligence complex ever; more than five times the size of the US Capitol, in Bluffdale, Utah, in the heart of Mormon country.

The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say), by James Bamford. James Bamford interview on Democracy Now!

Logo of Xe Watch, representing opposition to Blackwater Worldwide. Blackwater became Xe Services in October 2007

Logo of the Central Intelligence Agency; a large bureaucracy with many branches; these divisions do not necessarily reflect an operational separation of CIA activities (WP)

"Seven countries in five years"
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran
See:Seven countries in five years
Seven government and countries, all of which have already been the targets of extra-diplomatic actions and military US action in past years, were overtly targeted for invasion and overthrow by the Bush administration in late 2000. This objective has been achieved in two, although resistance to foreign occupation of Iraq and Libya will continue for the foreseeable future.

General Wesley Clark, not the staunchest ally of human rights himself (authorizing the use of depleted uranium rounds and attacks on civilians in Yugoslavia, for example), was nonetheless moved for whatever reason to deplore this policy publicly. However, it was six years before he did so, in an interview with Democracy Now!, a conference at the Commonwealth Club of California, and elsewhere.

The third name for Blackwater, Academi

Blackwater is now Xe is now Academi

Blackwater Worldwide changed its name to Xe, and has most recently (better to not say now, as it could change again any day, it seems) changed it again to Academi. This was more than sufficient to get the Blackwater Watch article and its other two incarnations removed from Wikipedia entirely; see Xe Watch#Deletion from Wikipedia

Archived

Anarchopedia:Current events archive

• Raymond Allen Davis incident : On January 27, 2011, Raymond Allen Davis, a US citizen claiming to be working as a consultant at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore and later said to be a CIA operative killed two armed men in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
• King hearings
• Social programs cut by 112th USA Congress
• BTJunkie BitTorrent site shuts down