Serving members of Britain’s Armed Forces have secretly joined a pacifist organisation directly opposed to war and the carrying of weapons, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In a remarkable breach of military law, members of the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy have joined Veterans For Peace UK, which campaigns against armed conflict. It also campaigns to stop the UK Government ‘intervening in the internal affairs of other nations’ and has organised protests at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day as well as visits to schools to teach pupils the ‘true nature’ of armed conflict. Veterans For Peace UK founder Ben Griffin, 36, refused to name the troops because they would face disciplinary action if their identities were known... .
Serving members of Britain’s Armed Forces have secretly joined a pacifist organisation directly opposed to war and the carrying of weapons, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In a remarkable breach of military law, members of the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy have joined Veterans For Peace UK, which campaigns against armed conflict. It also campaigns to stop the UK Government ‘intervening in the internal affairs of other nations’ and has organised protests at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day as well as visits to schools to teach pupils the ‘true nature’ of armed conflict. Veterans For Peace UK founder Ben Griffin, 36, refused to name the troops because they would face disciplinary action if their identities were known... .
Serving members of Britain’s Armed Forces have secretly joined a pacifist organisation directly opposed to war and the carrying of weapons, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In a remarkable breach of military law, members of the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy have joined Veterans For Peace UK, which campaigns against armed conflict. It also campaigns to stop the UK Government ‘intervening in the internal affairs of other nations’ and has organised protests at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day as well as visits to schools to teach pupils the ‘true nature’ of armed conflict. Veterans For Peace UK founder Ben Griffin, 36, refused to name the troops because they would face disciplinary action if their identities were known... .
Military Resistance: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 6.2.14 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.
Military Resistance 12F2
British Soldiers Secretly Join Group Opposed To War: Wants To Stop UK Government Intervening In Other Nations Internal Affairs; Veterans For Peace UK Refused To Name The Troops Because They Would Face Disciplinary Action If Their Identities Were Known
31 May 2014 By Mark Nicol, the Daily Mail [UK]
Serving members of Britains Armed Forces have secretly joined a pacifist organisation directly opposed to war and the carrying of weapons, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In a remarkable breach of military law, members of the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy have joined Veterans For Peace UK, which campaigns against armed conflict.
It also campaigns to stop the UK Government intervening in the internal affairs of other nations and has organised protests at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day as well as visits to schools to teach pupils the true nature of armed conflict.
Veterans For Peace UK founder Ben Griffin, 36, refused to name the troops because they would face disciplinary action if their identities were known.
Mr Griffin, who resigned from the Special Air Service (SAS) in protest over its role in secret US operations in Iraq, said: While retired troops are free to declare their membership, those in uniform are not. They would almost certainly face official sanction, and perhaps personal reprisals that may threaten their safety.
These men have taken the brave step of joining us because they have come to the conclusion that war is not the answer to our problems.
Given the issue with Queens Regulations and membership of political organisations we were not actively seeking to recruit serving troops. But we were not going to turn them away and will not do so in future.
Under these regulations, regular troops are forbidden to play an active role in political organisations. But Mr Griffin confirmed the troops had done so.
In the past year, the group - which was founded in the US by veterans of Vietnam and has 120 UK members - has undertaken fasts in solidarity with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and highlighted lies told by the Army in recruitment campaigns.
The troops, who are believed to include soldiers who saw frontline action in Iraq and Afghanistan, have agreed to abide by the groups principle of non-violence and to increase public awareness of the costs of war. Veterans For Peace UK also obliges its members never to carry weapons of any kind.
The former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, said: The authorities should investigate the group to ascertain whether they are encouraging servicemen to break the law by joining.
It is also wrong for the taxpayer to be paying wages to people whose principles do not allow them to do the job. These troops should undergo disciplinary procedures and either sever their association with the group or cease to serve in the Forces.
Last night an MoD spokesman said: If an individuals beliefs were incompatible with their commitment to the Army then both the Army and the individual would need to consider whether it was appropriate for them to continue serving.
MILITARY NEWS
[Thanks to SSG N (retd) who sent this in with caption. She writes: What problem was solved by this action?]
Veteran Beaten To Death By Five Cops
May 19, 2014 by Cecil Iscool, Corruption News
Tommy Yancy, 32 and father of two, was savagely beaten to death by five law enforcement officers during a routine traffic stop near the city of Imperial, California last Sunday, on Mothers Day.
Yancy, a veteran who suffered from PTSD, served in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 259th Field Service Unit following the 9/11 attacks.
Officers claim Yancy swung at an officer and attacked the K-9.
Yancy was stopped on his way to the store after a highway patrol officer spotted a missing front license plate on his vehicle.
He was subsequently pulled from his car and attacked by a police K-9 unit, hit by a taser, and attacked by five officers until he succumbed to the beating and died.
A witnessed, who filmed the incident, can be heard screaming on the recording: How long before you guys call an ambulance? Call an ambulance!
According to the source of the video, who asked not to be named, his family has not been permitted to see his body, nor have they been given a cause of death.
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FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.
Frederick Douglass, 1852
Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder and it is the working class who fights all the battles, the working class who makes the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely sheds their blood and furnishes their corpses, and it is they who have never yet had a voice - in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war.
They are continually talking about patriotic duty. It is not their patriotic duty but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line or chucks them into the trenches. -- Eugene V. Debs
Ukraine Menaced By Large Threatening Arrows
May 20, 2014 By G-Had, The Duffle Blog
KIEV, Ukraine Ukraines acting president Oleksandr Turchynov has put out an international call for assistance after his nation came under threat from what he described as a group of large hostile arrows.
We have received reports from border posts of many arrows of varying sizes moving towards Ukraine, Turchynov said in a panicked phone call. They are coming by land, sea, the air! There is no stopping them!
According to Turchynov, the arrows are pointing across the Ukrainian border and are poised to push deep into the countrys vulnerable heartland.
No one knows what the strength, composition, or even demands of the arrows are. Turchynov described the arrows as various shades of red and said they had been lurking along Ukraines eastern border for years, disguised as circles and squares and other innocent little shapes.
Turchynov said Ukraines badly depleted arsenal of smaller arrows was already moving in full retreat away from the big arrows and has asked NATO and neighboring countries to lend any geometric shapes they can spare.
In response, NATO head Anders Rasmussen said the alliance would be sending a group of smaller, highly-mobile blue arrows into western Ukraine and other neighboring countries, to guard various strategically important stars, dots and squiggly lines.
Turchynov added he has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, since any arrows that threaten Ukraine can just as easily threaten Russia. Putin allegedly responded that Russia is aware of the arrows, but claimed they are actually disgruntled Ukrainian arrows which merely want to point away from Russia.
U.S. President Barack Obama has also vowed to draw a red line on the crisis in support of Ukraine, prompting Turchynov to go into a state of panic until his advisers assured him that it was a just a harmless red line segment.
Based on the pattern of red and blue arrows, Ukrainian intelligence has not ruled out a third group of arrows, either yellow or some sort of purplish hue, coming from the south.
I Have A Neighbor Who Insists On Working On The Sabbath Am I Morally Obligated To Kill Him Myself, Or Should I Ask The Police To Do It?
[Thanks to Ward Reilly, Veterans For Peace, for passing this one along.]
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding Gods Law. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you would be for banning same sex marriage.
As you said in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man a woman. I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can.
When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of Gods Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
Why cant I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I dont agree. Can you settle this? Are there degrees of abomination?
7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot.
Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldnt we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
11. And one of my real concerns is that gay lobsterman who wears clothes made of two or more fabrics and hauls lobsters on the Sabbath....Four abominations in one day....Wow......
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that Gods word is eternal and unchanging.
Bible Readers of America
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ANNIVERSARIES
June 1913: A Heroine In Action; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
The Rebel Girl In Person
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, J une 1913, speaking against capitalism and for working class revolution to a mass audience
J oe Hill dedicated his song The Rebel Girl to her a few months before he was executed November 19, 1915 by firing squad in Utah for organizing workers to join labor unions affiliated with Industrial Workers Of The World.
June 2, 1863: Glorious Anniversary: Col. Montgomery And His Gallant Band Of 300 Black Soldiers, Under The Guidance Of A Black Woman, Dashed Into The Enemys Country, Struck A Bold And Effective Blow, Striking Terror Into The Heart Of Rebeldom
It is significant as the only military engagement in American history wherein a woman black or white, led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted .
Carl Bunin Peace History May 28-J une 3
J une 2, 1863
Abolitionist and former slave J ames Montgomery led 300 African-American troops of the Unions 2nd South Carolina Volunteers on a raid of plantations along the Combahee River. Meanwhile, backed by three gunboats, Harriet Tubmans forces set fire to the plantations and freed 750 slaves.
The following dispatch, quoted in part, appeared on the front page of The Commonwealth, a Boston newspaper, on Friday, J uly 10, 1863:
**********************************************
HARRIET TUBMAN
J uly 10, 1863:
Col. Montgomery and his gallant band of 300 black soldiers, under the guidance of a black woman, dashed into the enemys country, struck a bold and effective blow, destroying millions of dollars worth of commissary stores, cotton and lordly dwellings, and striking terror into the heart of rebeldom, brought off near 800 slaves and thousands of dollars worth of property, without losing a man or receiving a scratch.
It was a glorious consummation.
After they were all fairly well disposed of in the Beaufort charge, they were addressed in strains of thrilling eloquence by their gallant deliverer, to which they responded in a song. There is a white robe for thee, a song so appropriate and so heartfelt and cordial as to bring unbidden tears.
The Colonel was followed by a speech from the black woman, who led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted.
For sound sense and real native eloquence, her address would do honor to any man, and it created a great sensation.
Since the rebellion she had devoted herself to her great work of delivering the bondman, with an energy and sagacity that cannot be exceeded. Many and many times she has penetrated the enemys lines and discovered their situation and condition, and escaped without injury, but not without extreme hazard.
The Combahee River, in South Carolina, was the first one visited by the Spaniards in the year 1520. Vasque de Ayllon, having discovered it, gave it the name River J ordan.
Although subsequently renamed the Combahee, the stream now became a River J ordan literally for more than seven hundred and fifty Negroes who, under the leadership of Harriet Tubman and the auxiliary command of Colonel J ames Montgomery, delivered this number of blacks into the free lines.
The River J ordan has been in biblical history a reality, and in modern Negro allusion a symbol of the barrier between bondage and freedom, and it is an interesting coincidence, therefore, that the Combahee campaign should so parallel the ancient situation.
It is significant as the only military engagement in American history wherein a woman black or white, led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted .
The N.Y. Tribune says that the Negro troops at Hilton Head, S.C. will soon start an expedition, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, differing in many respects from any heretofore projected.
The Combahee strategy was formulated by Harriet Tubman as an outcome of her penetrations of the enemy lines and her belief that the Combahee River countryside was ripe for a successful invasion.
She was asked by General Hunter if she would go with several gunboats up the Combahee River, the object of the expedition being to take up the torpedoes placed by the rebels in the river, to destroy railroads and bridges, and to cut off supplies from the rebel troops.
She said she would go if Col. Montgomery was to be appointed commander of the expedition
Accordingly, Col. Montgomery was appointed to the command, and Harriet, with several men under her, the principal of whom was J . Plowdenaccompanied the expedition.
Actually in this raid it was Montgomery who was the auxiliary leader. The whole venture owed its success to the complete preliminary survey made by Harriet Tubmans espionage troops.
Captain J ohn F. Lay, the Confederate investigating officer, discussing the movement afterwards, said, The enemy seems to have been well posted as to the character and capacity of our troops and their small chance of encountering opposition, and to have been well guided by persons thoroughly acquainted with the river and country.
It was a commentary, however indirect, on Harriets work and the labor of her subordinates.
About ten miles north of Port Royal Island, Harriets station, was St. Helena Island, and between this island and the mainland of South Carolina was the water known as St. Helena Sound. The Combahee River, a narrow, jagged stream that ran about fifty miles into the interior of the State, began at the Sound: and on its banks were rice fields and marshes.
During the night of J une 2, 1863, Harriet and Colonel Montgomery, with a party of about 150 Negro troops in three gunboats, started up the Combahee River. Pickets located at stations near the mouth of the stream spotted the oncoming boats and dispatched word to the Confederate commander, Major Emanuel, located deeper inland at Green Pond
Every plantation on both sides of the river was aroused; the Union soldiers, in small detachments, raced from one to another, creating a general devastation of the zone.
In the Combahee Ferry region the Blake, Lowndes, Middleton and Heyward plantations were in ruins. The Negroes fled to the gunboats and the slavemasters skedaddled inland. The bridge at Combahee Ferry was burning too but not badly.
As the gunboats passed up the river, the Negroes left their work and took to the woods, for at first they were frightened.
Then they came out to peer, like startled deer. But scudding away like the wind at the sound of the steam-whistle.
The word was passed along that these were Lincolns gunboats come to set them free. From that moment on, the overseers used their whips in vain, for they failed to drive the slaves back to the quarters.
They turned and ran for the gun-boats; they came down every road, across every field, dressed just as they were when they left their work and their cabins.
There were women with children clinging around their necks, hanging onto their dresses, or running behind, but all rushed at full speed for Lincolns gun-boats.
Hundreds crowded the banks, with their hands extended toward their deliverers, and most of them were taken aboard the gun-boats to be carried to Beaufort.
This is about what happened all through the night and morning of J une 2 when Harriet, Montgomery and the colored soldiers overran the Combahee.
CLASS WAR REPORTS
The Bullshit About Socialist Venezuela Wearing Thinner And Thinner: Venezuelan Supreme Court Decides For Agribusiness And Large Landowners Claims To Land That Has Been Cultivated By Peasant Collectives For Over 12 Years: What We Have In Yaracuy Is A Government That Calls Itself Revolutionary, But Serves The Capitalists, Ranchers, And Industrial Powers Of That Area
May 27th 2014.Venezuelanalysis.com
On Monday, hundreds of peasant workers, or campesinos, gathered in a central plaza of the Venezuelan capital Caracas to protest a Supreme Court decision.
The ruling upheld agribusiness and large landowners claims to ownership of land that has been cultivated by peasant collectives for over 12 years.
The men and women stood defiantly in the Plaza Bolivar, showing no intention of accepting the claims made on their cultivated land. An older man from Yaracuay state warned reporters, I want to tell the Supreme Court of J ustice that the vanguard of the peasant movement has been activated across the country. Do not make the mistake of becoming our enemies, because he who becomes an enemy of the farmers is pitting himself against those who produce the food he eats every day.
In all of Latin America, the latifundio represents a large barrier for autonomous growth in rural areas, often promoting what many call modern-day feudalism.
From the beginning, the Bolivarian Revolution has put emphasis on an agrarian reform; resulting in the expropriation of unused land, some of which dates back to when European descendant families acquired vast plots by questionable means during the post-colonial era.
A new Land Law passed by former president Hugo Chavez promoted production among farmers and fishermen by evening the scales between these historic landowners and the corresponding peasant class.
In 2001 Chavez personally imposed the Land Law in Barinas state. The Hato Santa Rita was a large piece of allegedly unused land belonging to economist Rogelio Pea Aly, an ex-mayor of the region who, according to the peasants, had acquired the land through corruption and intimidation. A farmers cooperative known as Brisas de Masparro then occupied the land and, with support from the National Land Institute (INTI), turned it into productive farmland.
Earlier this month the Supreme Court ordered the INTI to dispossess this 12 year cooperative from Hato Santa Rita in order for it to be returned to Pea Aly.
Additionally, Ruben Dario Mendoza, representative of cattle and agribusiness federation Fedenaga, recently made a statement to broadcaster Globovision citing ten different plots of land he says are the rightful property of their federation.
He referenced one of them, Olla Grande, as a farm that produced 700 bushels of plantains weekly before it was invaded by its current occupants.
The peasants deny his claim. This week, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Mendozas claim.
The Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Front and other organized peasant groups traveled yesterday to Caracas to defend the land granted to them for public use by late President Chavez. Gathered in the Plaza Bolivar they chanted, We are not invaders, we are rescuers, insisting the land was uncultivated when Chavez stepped in.
The Fronts national spokesperson, Kevin Rangel, said For 15 years we have been accompanying the Bolivarian Revolution, and the fight against the latifundio, against rural inequality and constructing Agrarian Socialism. We have come to Caracas, our peasant movement is on alert to reject the declarations of landowners, of Fedenaga and the other bankers, corrupts thieves and murders of more than 300 peasant workers.
In a statement released earlier this month, the Front accused the corporation of using threats and intimidation and even hiring paid assassins to take down leaders of local farming cooperatives.
They attribute over 300 murders from the past 30 years to assassins in the pay of agribusiness.
How is it that now they try to appear as the ones who wish to stimulate national production, the statement read. We know this latifundio and all its land to be the product of the usurpation of peoples land and riches obtained by the historical exploitation of the peasant worker.
Formal claims have also been filed by members of the cooperatives. Eloy Arrieta, an elderly man from Guarico state, told reporters that he meant to expose the unprofessional tactics employed by an INTI coordinator and two generals involved in his communitys forced removal.
A number of pro-government National Assembly deputies have signaled their strong rejection of the Court decision. Among them is Braulio Alvarez (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV) of Yaracuy state, who stood with the protestors yesterday.
We are publicly soliciting our comrade, (Agriculture) Minister Ivan Gil, to ask that the state, the legitimate proprietor of all land whether it be of public, private of collective ownership to recognize the illegitimacy of this decision. It is not in line with our dignity, our morals, or with the liberation plan of the peasant masses which was laid down in our Bolivarian Constitution, where the laws of land and agrarian development are established.
J ose Tapia Coiran, a coordinator for the peasant militia who led the movement to seize the farm land that is now destined to return to Pea Aly said, In articles 305, 306, and 307 (of the constitution), we are told the latifundio goes against social interest. We do not negotiate with oligarchs what Fedenaga said of us is false, there is production there. We produce 30,000 liters of milk a day, our number of livestock is over 25,000. We have 14 schools, four electoral centers, we have built over 230 km of agricultural roadways. Our production is for the people, for the state, for the institutions. These lands were rescued.
Ramon Garcia of the Aroa Valley Ecological Peasant Movement warned, We are willing to defend the Bolivarian and Agrarian Revolution at all costs. What we have in Yaracuy is a government that calls itself revolutionary, but serves the capitalists, ranchers, and industrial powers of that area. So we, who sow and reap the lands daily, are here to reject being run over. Nicolas (Maduro), take a strong hand against the latifundio.
A National Peasant Congress has long been planned in Barinas for late J uly. Though the event was created to address issues such as transportation, financing, distribution, and farmers markets, it seems inevitable that it will become a hotbed for organizing. After all, the court decision marks what some campesinos have long expected. In a press release the Ezequiel Zamora Front refers to this moment as the preamble, as two conflicting perspectives on property and national land begin to march.
Anyone Who Tells You Ukraine Is A Battle Between Russia And The West Is Wrong It Is A Lazy Narrative Told By Ignorant People
This is what the revolution is about: Ukrainians trying to wrest control of their country from the oligarchs of Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and elsewhere who with help from east and west have robbed them for 23 years.
The left should be cheering them on.
19 May 2014 by Oliver Bullough, The Guardian [Excerpts]
Anyone who tells you Ukraine is a battle between Russia and the west is wrong. It is a lazy narrative told by ignorant people, but is helping create a genuine tragedy that we should all be concerned about.
The history of Ukraines crisis began not in February, with Viktor Yanukovychs flight, but in 1991, with independence.
By moving their wealth offshore to Austria, the Caribbean or the various UK-owned tax havens Ukraines property owners could enjoy western property rights, while benefiting from chaos at home.
Insiders snatched Ukraines industries, with particularly powerful business clans in the cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk. They fought for control of the government in Kiev, but all had the same basic interest: to perpetuate chaos. The longer Ukraine was a mess, the richer they got.
This was not Russia against the west; everyone piled in.
J ust look at the needless intermediary company created by Dmitry Firtash in 2004 to buy gas from Russia and sell it to Ukraine, making more than $600m a year. RosUkrEnergo was a west-east joint venture: half owned by Russias Gazprom, half owned via an Austrian bank. Every dollar it earned was a dollar less for ordinary Ukrainians.
Some would have you believe that Yanukovych was a democratic, pro-Russian president driven out by western spies yet he held his palaces and hunting estate via British shell companies, and his sons assets were owned through the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Ukraine was a modern Prometheus, chained to the ground, while vultures of all geopolitical persuasions companionably pecked at its liver.
The corruption was obscene.
Ukraine has Europes second-highest HIV rate, with 230,000 Ukrainians infected with the virus, yet in 2012 and 2013 more than a fifth of the budget for anti-retrovirals was embezzled through rigged auctions.
Anti-corruption campaigners estimate 30% of the annual procurement budget was stolen: thats $15bn a year, the same amount Ukraine is now begging from the IMF.
In the three years of Yanukovychs rule, his son became Ukraines second richest man.
And Yanukovych jailed Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival who had run against him as president, to show how tough he was.
In the parallel reality of some commentators, she was pro-western and Yanukovych was pro-Russian. In fact she is from Dnepropetrovsk, and he is from Donetsk, and they are both pro-themselves.
Ukraines real political split has always been between different industrial clans, whose placemen dominate parliament. Now Yanukovych has fled, Donetsk has lost power and, by default, Dnepropetrovsk has taken over.
Ukrainians did not revolt to swap one business clan for another, however, so they insist on immediate elections. (Tymoshenko is polling in the single figures.)
The protesters are still on the Maidan in central Kiev because this isnt their first revolution.
Back in 2004-5 they ousted Yanukovych and elected a president who appointed Tymoshenko to head his government.
They trusted her to make things better and went home, but corruption continued. This time theyre keeping the pressure on.
Whisper it, but its working. A new procurement law scraped through the corrupt old parliament and removes the loopholes that allowed the annual $15bn to be stolen. Punishments for corruption are tougher, registers on property are better, checks on officials expenditure are tighter.
This is what the revolution is about: Ukrainians trying to wrest control of their country from the oligarchs of Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and elsewhere who with help from east and west have robbed them for 23 years.
The left should be cheering them on.
The east against west story does have one beneficiary: the Kremlin.
In Ukraine Moscow is trying to preserve a crooked regime against the wishes of Ukrainians who want to live with dignity, because the old ways made it money.
It also fears a united and stable Ukraine would join NATO.
Russia is deploying its propaganda apparatus to present this as an ideological struggle rather than a mercenary one. RT, the channel formerly known as Russia Today, addresses the outside world, while state television channels bombard Russian-speakers with denunciations of the "fascists" in Kiev.
Journalists who grew up in a world when Moscow and the west were equal adversaries feel comfortable in this narrative.
Its far easier to sell Ukraine if its Czechoslovakia 1968, rather than a messy failed state, a European Congo.
With media on all sides forcing Ukraine into a west v east narrative, Ukrainians keep hearing that this battle is geopolitical and inter-ethnic, rather than an attempt by ordinary people to take control of their destinies.
There is enough truth in the caricature west Ukrainians do speak Ukrainian, east Ukrainians do speak Russian that Ukrainians have started believing it, and started fighting about it. And people got killed. And the propaganda is turning into the truth.
J ournalists have a responsibility at a time like this. They should learn whats really happening before making sweeping conclusions.
They should remember this is about ordinary Ukrainians, not about Moscow or Washington.
And they should be aware that their lazy judgments are tomorrows incendiary propaganda.
DANGER: CAPITALISTS AT WORK
OCCUPATION PALESTINE
17 Olive Trees On Palestinian Land Uprooted By Zionists In Jenin; Large Herds Of Wild Pigs Were Released, Preventing Palestinian Farmers From Planting Their Lands
05/18/2014 The Palestinian Information Center
J ENIN, - More than 17 olives trees were completely knocked down on Saturday by a horde of Israeli extremist settlers in Palestinians native lands in Um al-Rayhan village south-west of J enin.
Sheikh Nafaa Zaid Al-Kilani, a targeted landowner told PIC: Ive been told by a shepherd who comes to graze his sheep in the area that my olive trees have been wrecked. I was shocked when I caught sight of 17 olive trees, more than 10-years old each, reduced to rubble.
Nafaas land is located at the southern corner of Khilet Al-Eis, one of the largest forest areas in the West Bank.
The Israeli occupation erected a checkpoint between West Bank and 48 occupied Palestine areas, where large herds of wild pigs were released, preventing Palestinian farmers from planting their lands. The boars wreck whatever comes in their way, even the small plants that Palestinian farmers have tried by all means to preserve, Sheikh Nafaa further maintained
Um al-Rayhan village is a home to 500 citizens, all Zaid Kilanis offspring, surrounded by Israeli settlement from all sides.
To Bring In Gas We Need A Permit To Bring In Sacks Of Flour In We Need A Permit And When We Get A Permit, We Arrive At The Checkpoint And They Tell Us We Have No Permit Maybe We Will Eat Dry Bread, But We Will Not Leave
Nabi Samuel resident Eid Barakat stands in front of the mosque holding a picture of his village, destroyed by Israeli bulldozers in 1971, when Eid was seven years old. (Photo: Mareike Lauken and Keren Manor/Activestills.org)
May 18, 2014 By Moriel Rothman, +972 Magazine
Moriel Rothman is an American-Israeli writer, poet and activist who works with J ust Vision. This piece was originally written for J ust Visions channel on the new Hebrew- language website, Local Call.
There are only 10 homes left in the small Palestinian village of Nabi Samuel, just northwest of J erusalem.
The remaining families are fighting an uphill battle to continue living in their homes.
As its name indicates, Nabi Samuel is home to the proclaimed burial site of the Prophet Samuel. In the 11th century, Christian crusaders built a fortress and church on top of the tomb.
When Salah a-Din conquered Palestine in the late 12th century, the church was turned into a mosque and the village of Nabi Samuel was built around it; layers upon layers.
Then came the bulldozers.
Eid Barakat lays out demolition orders given to his family over the years: among them, demolition orders relating to a storage unit, a fence and olive trees. (Photo: Mareike Lauken and Keren Manor/Activestills.org)
Eid Barakat was seven years old in 1971 four years after Israel occupied the West Bank and the small village of Nabi Samuel. They came at dawn and loaded us onto trucks. We were young, so we treated it as a game. We didnt understand why our parents were weeping.
Israeli bulldozers destroyed most of the village that day, leaving only 10 homes standing on the edge of village.
Today, the area around the tomb and mosque is a popular Israeli tourist site, replete with signs that go into detail about the ancient past but make no mention of the contemporary destruction.
The 10 houses on the outskirts of the village make up what remains of Nabi Samuel. And those remains are being threatened as well.
Since Israels completed its construction of the separation barrier in the Nabi Samuel area some four years ago, the village has been trapped inside what residents and activists call an invisible cage.
To the east and west, the village is fenced in by the separation barrier; the nearest checkpoint to Ramallah is located five kilometers away. To the north it is blocked off by Highway 443, which Israelis may know as a convenient bypass road running from J erusalem to Ben-Gurion Airport, but which Palestinians have come to know as a direct source of dispossession and of subsequent segregation for much of the past decade.
And while south of the village there is seemingly unrestricted passage to the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramot and the rest of holy city, in reality it is unrestricted for Israelis only.
If a Palestinian resident of Nabi Samuel is caught in J erusalem without a permit, he or she is likely to face fines or jail time.
In this corridor between Ramot and Highway 443 lie the settlements of Heruti, Har Shmuel, Givon HaHadashah and Givat Zeev.
The only things preventing the corridor from becoming a J ewish-only zone are the small village of Al-Khalayleh, which has been subjected to harassment and arbitrary demolition by the Israeli army and civil administration, and little Nabi Samuel.
It would be very convenient for Israel if Nabi Samuel simply disappeared.
Toward that goal, the Israeli military has put great pressure on Nabi Samuel and its residents, making their lives almost unlivable.
Forbidden Flour And Smuggled Chickens
We cant bring anything in here, says Eid Barakat, a 50-year-old farmer who has recently become involved in activism aimed at protecting his native village.
To bring in gas we need a permit. To bring in sacks of flour in we need a permit. And when we get a permit, we arrive at the checkpoint, and they tell us we have no permit, he explains.
But residents of Nabi Samuel have literally found ways around these draconian restrictions. Nawal Barakat, Eids wife, is the president of the Feminist Association of Nabi Samuel, which focuses on building and strengthening the community through planting gardens, organizing photography workshops, and, in February of this year, smuggling in chickens.
Smiling, Nawal tells how the association received a donation of egg-laying hens from the Norwegian Consulate.
Like flour and gas, it was clear that the hens would not be allowed through the checkpoint.
They claim we will sell the eggs to the Jews in Jerusalem, Nawal says, laughing, but we dont want to sell the eggs to the Jews in Jerusalem. We want the eggs for our community.
So what did you do? I ask. We carried the chickens through the hills, Nawal replies, pulling up a picture of the fowl-smuggling expedition on Facebook .
A young man carries chickens, donated by the Norwegians, through the hills and into Nabi Samuel in order to avoid harsh limitations at the Israeli checkpoint. (Photo: Nawal Barakat)
I asked if I could use the picture for this piece, and she replied, without a moments hesitation, of course. I am not afraid. I would do it again.
National Parks And National Discrimination
The Rabin government declared the 3,500 dunams (865 acres) around Nabi Samuel to be a national park in September of 1995, just before the Oslo accords came into effect, after which it would no longer have been possible do so. In addition to functioning as a method of unilateral takeover, the national park designation allows Israeli authorities to enforce a strict, no-changes-allowed park building policy.
Eid goes inside and comes back with a stack of papers. These are demolition orders, he explains, and as he lays them on a small table, each orders absurdity outdone by the next. An extension to a house? Demolished. A small fence to keep animals in? Torn down. Nineteen olive tree saplings planted? Uprooted.
IDF Civil Administration chief planner Daniel Halimi was recorded last year saying about Nabi Samuel: There is no village. There is a park.
Around the same time, Eid, Nawal and other residents got word that the Civil Administration was planning to confiscate an additional 187 dunams (46 acres) of privately owned land in Nabi Samuel in order to further expand the park.
Fed up, Nawal, Eid and others erected a protest tent at the entrance to the tomb/Mosque/tourist park/remains of the village. On the first day, Eid says, the Israeli army captain came to me and said, you have five minutes to get out of here. I said to him, Five minutes is a lot. If youre going to force me to leave, do it now. The captain and others consulted amongst themselves for a longtime, and then left us alone.
For the next few months, residents of Nabi Samuel, sometimes joined by Israeli, Palestinian and international activists, erected the protest tent every week, seeking to call the worlds attention to the story of Nabi Samuel.
When I asked Eid and Nawal if theyd seen any successes stemming from their protest they both nodded. Media has started to pay attention; foreign consuls and activist groups have stopped by. There were even tourists, says Nawal, who stopped, listened to us, and were shocked by what they heard.
Over the past few months, however, activity in the protest tent has slowed. According to Eid, only about 20 percent of the village ever took part in the public protests. People are scared: theyre scared that the army wont let them pass through the checkpoints, that theyll be targeted and singled out. And theyre right.
Two days ago, Eid and Nawals son was barred from crossing the checkpoint, and when he argued, he was a soldier hit him and detained for 24 hours.
Since the wall closed in on the village, almost a third of its residents have left, deciding to seek a life a bit farther away from the national park and its demolitions, siege and threats.
We are staying here, though, Eid says. Maybe we will eat dry bread, but we will not leave.
Occupiers Grab Disabled Palestinian: The Soldiers Left His Wheelchair In The Middle Of The Street Aabdeen Is Paralyzed, Cannot Move Without His Wheelchair
May 23, 2014 by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC & Agencies
On Thursday Evening, May 22, 2014, Israeli soldiers violently attacked and kidnapped a disabled Palestinian man, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, after forcing him into their jeep, and threw his wheelchair away.
Amjad Najjar, head of the Hebron branch of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), stated undercover soldiers of the Israeli military kidnapped Kamal Khairy Aabdeen, 40 years of age, and took him to an unknown destination.
Najjar added that Aabdeen is paralyzed, cannot move without his wheelchair, and that the soldiers left his wheelchair in the middle of the street in Ras al-J ouza area, in Hebron.
Aabdeen was shot in his spine during the Ibhrahimi Mosque massacre in Hebron. The massacre took place on February 25, 1994, when an American-born fanatic Israeli settler, identified as Baruch Goldstein, stormed Hebrons Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 worshipers and injuring 125, many of the wounded became disabled.
To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation commanded by foreign terrorists, go to: http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx and http://www.palestinemonitor.org/list.php?id=ej898ra7yff0ukmf16 The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves Israeli.
DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK
KERRY TO SNOWDEN:
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U.S. soldier in Beijia village Iraq, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
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