Bloody uprising in Bahrain

"Bahrain is forgotten now, and it was forgotten when the Arab Spring started, because what is happening in Bahrain is not the result of the regime's rule only. It is the result of the joint collaboration, interests and political unity of more than one country. Bahrain's allies (Great Britain and the United States) do not want to interfere in what is taking place because Bahrain has been a good ally for them in the region. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries (which besides Bahrain include Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) also cannot allow Bahrain to have more democracy and freedom because it will pressure other countries to do the same, and they do not want that. So, basically Bahrain has not been forgotten ... but, in fact, it had been deliberately wiped out from the media coverage for political reasons." / Lamees Dhaif

Al Khalifa ascendancy to Bahrain and their treaties with the British

Inhabited since ancient times, Bahrain occupies a strategic location in the Persian Gulf. The Al Khalifa family moved to Bahrain in 1797. Originally, they lived in Umm Qasr where they preyed on the caravans of Basra and pirated ships. In 1820, the Al Khalifa tribe were recognized by Great Britain as the rulers of Bahrain after signing a treaty relationship. Eventually the Government of British India overpowered Bahrain when the Persians refused to protect it. Colonel Pelly signed a new treaty with Al Khalifas placing Bahrain under British rule and protection. Following the Qatari–Bahraini War in 1868, British representatives signed another agreement with the Al Khalifas. It specified that the ruler could not dispose of any of his territory except to the United Kingdom and could not enter into relationships with any foreign government without British consent. The British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. Other agreements in 1880 and 1892 sealed the protectorate status of Bahrain to the British. Unrest amongst the people of Bahrain began when Britain officially established complete dominance over the territory in 1892. The first revolt and widespread uprising took place in March 1895. In 1926, Charles Belgrave a British operating as an "adviser" to the ruler became the de facto ruler. At the same time, the pearl diving industry developed at a rapid pace. In 1927, Rezā Shāh, then Shah of Iran, demanded the return of Bahrain in a letter to the League of Nations. A move that prompted Belgrave to undertake harsh measures including encouraging conflicts between Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to bring down the uprisings and limit the Iranian influence.

The discovery of oil in 1932 by the Bahrain Petroleum Company brought rapid modernisation to Bahrain. Relations with the United Kingdom became closer, as evidenced by the British Royal Navy moving its entire Middle Eastern command from Bushehr in Iran to Bahrain in 1935. After World War II, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab World and led to riots in Bahrain. The riots focused on the Jewish community. On 15 August 1971, Bahrain declared independence and signed a new treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom.  Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999. On 14 February 2002, Bahrain changed its formal name from the State of Bahrain to the Kingdom of Bahrain. Human rights state deteriorated in the period between 1975 and 2001 which saw wide range repression. The country participated in military action against the Taliban in October 2001.  As a result, in November of that year, US president George W. Bush's administration designated Bahrain as a "major non-NATO ally".

Bahraini uprising

Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, large protests started in Bahrain in early 2011. The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout. A month later it requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries and declared a three month state of emergency. Thousands of protesters marched to the Saudi embassy in Manama denouncing the GCC intervention, while clashes between security officers using shotgun and demonstrators took place in various locations. The government then launched a crackdown on opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests. Almost daily clashes between protesters and security forces led to dozens of deaths. More than 60 people have died including protesters and police, 3,000 arrested, 4,500 people sacked in almost 20 months of political turmoil in the strategic island nation. Protests, sometimes staged by opposition parties, are ongoing. Bahrain is relatively poor when compared to its oil-rich Gulf neighbors; its oil has "virtually dried up" and it depends on banking and the tourism sector. Bahrain hosts the United States Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the home of the US Fifth Fleet; the US Department of Defense considers the location critical to its attempts to counter Iranian military power in the region. 

1961 massacre of Algerians in Paris

source: guardian.co.uk

The French president, François Hollande, has acknowledged that Algerians were massacred during an independence rally in Paris in 1961, ending decades of official silence over one of the darkest chapters of postwar French history. The massacre has been widely recorded by historians, who say more than 200 people may have been killed. The statement, which came as Hollande tries to improve relations with Algiers before a visit there in December, was the first time a French president had publicly accepted the killings took place. As Algeria's battle for independence spilled into France, The Nazi collaborator and Paris Police chief in 1961, Maurice Papon  ordered police to crack down on thousands of Algerian protesters who had defied a curfew. "On 17 October 1961, Algerians who were protesting for independence were killed in a bloody repression. The Republic recognises these facts with lucidity," Hollande said in a statement on Wednesday. "I pay homage to victims 51 years later." Any suggestion that the French authorities were to blame remains a highly sensitive issue, particularly among Hollande's rightwing opponents. The head of the conservative UMP party in parliament, Christian Jacob, accused the Socialist leader of stirring up divisions by appearing to implicate the state in the massacre. "While denying the events of 17 October 1961 and forgetting the victims is out of the question, it is unacceptable to blame the state police and with them the whole Republic," Jacob said in a statement. Many historians say the massacre was the deadliest use of force by French authorities on home soil since police helped to round up thousands of Jews and other minorities during the 1940-45 Nazi occupation. In the months and years after the massacre, the government banned publication of a book about the killings and suppressed the few photographs taken by journalists that night. Historians have compiled witness reports of protesters being chased through the streets of Paris and bludgeoned to death in the courtyards of police stations. Bodies were thrown into the Seine river, witnesses said. Research was hampered by the fact that police documents from the time were never opened to the public. As a result, there is still no consensus on the number of deaths. Algeria celebrated 50 years of independence from France in July. Paris was its colonial master for 132 years and only let it go after the trauma of the 1954-1962 Algerian war.

In 1998, the Algerian newspaper Liberté was seized by police to prevent distribution of this article in France. According to Reporters Sans Frontières, on 19 October 1998, French police seized the 17 October edition of the Algerian daily Liberté at Lyon airport. No official reason was given for the move. However, Reporters Sans Frontières believed it to be connected with an article by Hakim Sadek entitled "When the Seine was full of bodies". Liberté was publishing this article to mark the 35th anniversary of a demonstration by Algerians in Paris that led to an estimated 200 Algerians being killed by police. Most of the world paid little attention to the thin news coverage that the massacre did receive. Even now, the events of that time are not widely known and many people had never heard of them at all. It seems astonishing today, from this perspective, that such a thing could happen in the middle of a major Western capital closely covered by the international media. This was not Kabul, Beijing, Hebron or some Bosnian backwater, after all, but the City of Light - Paris. The full horror of this inglorious 1961 episode in French history was largely covered up at the time. Though harrowing personal accounts did eventually percolate to the surface in the French press, the newspapers -enfeebled by years of government censorship and control - for the most part stuck with official figures that only two and, later, five people had died in the demonstration. Government-owned French TV showed Algerians being shipped out of France after the demonstration, but showed none of the police violence.

"The police waited for the Algerians to come up out of the metro stations, made them stand still with their hands above their heads, then hit them with truncheons.... Corpses were found hanging in the Bois de Boulogne, and others, disfigured and mutilated, in the Seine... Ten thousand Algerians had been herded into the Vel' d'Hiv' [stadium], like the Jews in Drancy once before. Again I loathed it all -- this country, myself, the whole world" 

/ one of the leading French opponents of the 1954-62 Algerian War, the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir

In October 1999, the former Vichy official Maurice Papon, went into hiding in Switzerland rather than face ten years in prison for helping in the wartime murder of over a thousand French Jews. He was soon found by the Swiss authorities (amid allegations that he had once been a spy for MI6) and sent back to France to serve his ten year sentence. In 1998, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity in connection with the wartime deportation of 1,690 Jews (including 223 children) to Nazi Germany in 1943. He was the Vichy official responsible for Jewish affairs in Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944.

Here's what happened:

The vicious war in Algeria, marked by bloody atrocities committed on all sides, had been grinding on for nearly seven years. Terrorist attacks in Paris and other French cities had claimed dozens of lives of police, provoking what Interior Minister Roger Frey called "la juste colère" - the just anger - of the police. They vented that anger on the evening of Oct. 17. About 30,000 Muslims - from among some 20,000 Algerians, ostensibly French citizens, living in and around Paris - descended upon the boulevards of central Paris from three different directions. The demonstration of men, women and children was called by the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front) to protest an 8:30 p.m. curfew imposed only on Muslims. The demonstrators were met by about 7,000 police and members of special Republican Security companies, armed with heavy truncheons or guns. They let loose on the demonstrators in, among other places, Saint Germain-des-Prés, the Opéra, the Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysée, around the Place de l'Étoile and, on the edges of the city, at the Rond Point de la Defense beyond Neuilly.

Washington Report news agency correspondent counted at least 30 corpses of demonstrators in several piles outside his office near the city center, into which he had pulled some Algerians to get them away from rampaging police. Another correspondent reported seeing police backing unarmed Algerians into corners on sidestreets and clubbing them at will. Later eyewitness reports recounted stranglings by police and the drowning of Algerians in the Seine, from which bodies would be recovered downstream for weeks to come.

Thousands of Algerians were rounded up and brought to detention centers, where the violence against them continued. Scores of Algerians were murdered in full view of police brass in the courtyard of the central police headquarters. In the Palais des Sports, then in the "Palais des Expositions" of Porte de Versailles", detained Algerians, many by now already injured, [became] systematic victims of a 'welcoming committee'. In these places, considerable violence took place and prisoners were tortured. Men would be dying there until the end of the week. Similar scenes took place in the Coubertin stadium... The raids, violence and drownings would be continued over the following days. For several weeks, unidentified corpses were discovered along the banks of the river...

Siege of Bani Walid

On 25 September, Libya’s parliament of foreign mercenaries, the "General National Congress" (GNC) authorized the "Ministries of Interior and Defence" to use force if necessary to arrest suspects including those responsible for the alleged torture and killing of Omran Shaaban, traitor credited with capturing Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi on 20 October 2011. Following the decision, members of the "Libyan army", "Libya Shield" forces and armed militias from various parts of the country, including Misrata, surrounded Bani Walid, about 140 kilometres south-east of Tripoli. “It is worrying that what essentially should be a law-enforcement operation to arrest suspects looks increasingly like a siege of a city and a military operation,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Omran Shaaban (22), died at the American hospital in France, 57 days after being kidnapped, shot and tortured by supporters of the late Colonel Gaddafi in city of Bani Walid, south west of Libya.

Omran was freed on September 11 along with two others and flown by aero-ambulance to Misrata where he was found to have torture marks on his body and a bullet wound close to his spinal cord. When Amnesty International visited him in hospital in Misrata on September 12, he was paralyzed and in a coma. He was then flown to Paris where he died. He came to prominence on October 20 last year when he found and captured Gaddafi who was hiding in a sewer tube in Sirte. It was Omran who dragged him out of his hiding place, the drainage pipe. It was in July this year that Omran was kidnapped. He was on his way back from a "military task" with his friend Mohamed Alawiab (members of the "Libya Shield 2" forces) in one of the roads outside of Bani Walid that leads to city of Misrata, when the car he was in came under fire. Since then family and friends lost contact with him, until a month later when he phoned his family to tell them that he had been detained in Bin Waleed and had been paralysed due torture.

Bani Walid was among the last cities to fall under the control of anti-Gaddafi forces during Libya’s internal conflict last year. Everyone probably remembers the way proud towns like Sirte, Sabha and Bani Walid resisted the take-over by NATO and its collaborators in 2011. After long and fierce clashes the gangs were able to enter the city and even install an American Libyan mayor. But that didn't last long: the people in Bani Walid remained opposed to the Armed Collaborators of the Western imperialistic powers who ruined a once lovely country with tens of thousands of missiles. The entrance of anti-Gaddafi forces into Bani Walid in October 2011 was accompanied by widespread looting and other abuses. Hundreds of residents from Bani Walid have been arrested by armed militias. Many continue to be detained without charge or trial across Libyan prisons and detention centres, including in Misrata. Many have been tortured or other-wise ill-treated. At an open session of the United Nations Security Council, the UN special Envoy for Libya Ian Martin said he has “credible information” on several episodes where people have been tortured to death in the country’s secret detention centers. As of November 2011, there were an estimated 7,000 detainees in prisons around the country without any hope for a fair trial. In March, a shocking video emerged on the Internet, showing Libyan rebels torturing a group of black Africans. People with their hands bound were shown locked in zoo-like cages and allegedly being forced to eat the old Libyan flag.

Chemical Warfare

Oct 12, 2012

Gangs from Misrata stationed outside Bani Walid have fired chemical weapons on the city causing numerous casualties and injuries of types that cannot be explained by any "legal" weaponry. Although last year the city was also subjected to such chemical weapons during a siege that cut the population off from water, medicine and food for months, these appear to be new types. Over one hundred citizens are confirmed hospitalised over the past week, at least a quarter of whom are verified as suffering from horrific injuries and effects including hallucinations, muscle spasms, foaming at the mouth, coughing, eye irritations, dizziness, breathing difficulties and loss of consciousness, indicating that the inhalation of toxic gases is a strong possibility. The Tripoli-based occupation regime which has failed to form a government for the past year, with tens of thousands of political prisoners languishing under illegal detention and torture, has denied responsibility. Some pro-regime forces withdrew from their positions outside Bani Walid after the mass protests at the GNC in Tripoli, with commanders saying that they wished to play no further part in the siege. They allowed some supplies to trickle in to the city from Tarhuna after their withdrawal, but these are inadequate after the latest 2 week long siege. 

The siege of Bani Walid, Libya’s ongoing political instability, and the alleged torture of Gaddafi loyalists has left the country a far cry from the vision that western powers had when they supported last year's NATO bombing. The residents of Bani Walid have been left without food and other supplies – and are appealing to the UN for help. A petition circulating around the city on Friday night asked the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting and “to immediately intervene to protect the civilians in the town.” The situation is very bad. No fuel, no food, no drugs, no communication. Everything is in a very bad situation. But there is little hope for help from UN. The United Nations hasn’t done anything of value in the last decade or two. It’s a complete failure led by the United States and its ‘Mini me’ Britain.

Libyan militias turning on each other

global affairs researcher Benjamin Schett.

US military adventurism, and the war crimes committed by the country's forces, impoverish the entire region and ultimately lead to a rise in the number of Islamic militant groups. The United States supported militant extremist Islamic groups in order to topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi last year. And one example is the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. It is, according to the Washington Post, a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, in 1996, they received support from British Secret Service MI6 to kill Gaddafi, which did not work out, as we know. After 9/11, in 2001, they still got support from Western powers during the so-called uprising in Libya last year and the NATO bombing campaign. They got support from the US and Saudi allies, so obviously the US never stopped supporting militant Islamist groups as long as it’s in their geopolitical interests. We saw what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq after the US invasion – the clashes between Sunnis and Shias. We see what’s happening now in Syria, where the sectarian violence is being supported from the outside – from the Gulf states, from the US, and from France. And it’s what’s happening in Libya – all these different militias that received support in order to fight against Gaddafi are now turning against each other and are pushing for a tribalization of Libya. 

The whole story of the clash of civilizations and Christianity versus Islam – all these stories, they don’t show the real picture. The real picture is that the majority of Muslims are as peaceful as the majority of Christians or Jews or whoever. The policy of supporting militant extremist Islamist groups as long as it serves geopolitical interests and fighting secular independent governments in the Middle East, or direct military intervention and war crimes, impoverishing of the whole region – certainly this leads to an increase of Islamic militant movements, which can turn out to be a threat to US citizens, as we’ve just seen.

Hugo Chavez and the next War for Oil

Source: Global Research

Dutch islands Aruba and Curazao are situated less than 50 miles off Venezuela’s northwest coast. Both small islands host US air force bases as a result of a 1999 contract between Washington and Holland establishing US Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) in the Caribbean colonies. Originally, the contract stipulated US military presence in Aruba and Curazao soley for counternarcotics missions. However, since September 2001, Washington uses all its military installations to combat perceived terrorist threats around the world. The military bases in Aruba and Curazao have been used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaisance missions against Venezuela during the past several years.

In 2006, Washington began conducting a series of high level military exercises using Curazao as the principal zone of operations. Hundreds of US aircraft carriers, warships, combat planes, Black Hawk helicopters, nuclear submarines and thousands of US military troops have been engaging in different military exercises and missions in the Caribbean region during the past  years, causing substantial alarm and concern to nations in the region, particularly Venezuela, which has also been subject to hostile and agressive diplomatic actions from Washington.

In 2008, the Pentagon reactivated the Navy’s Fourth Fleet, charged with defending US interests in the Latin American region. The Fourth Fleet was deactivated in 1950, after accomplishing its original defense mission during World War II. The fleet’s reactivation nearly 60 years later was perceived by a majority of nations in Latin America as a direct threat to regional sovereignty and provoked South American countries to establish a Defense Council to deal with external threats. The Pentagon responded by proudly admitting the Fourth Fleet’s reactivation was a “showing of US force and power in the region” and a demonstration that the US “will defend its regional allies”. This was perceived as direct support to Colombia, and an attempt to intimidate Venezuela. 

Colombia and the US have signed a military cooperation agreement authorizing US occupation of seven military bases in Colombian territory and all other installations as required. The agreement is seen as the largest US military expansion in Latin American history. Although the two governments publicly justified the agreement as an increased effort to fight drug trafficking and terrorism, official US Air Force documents revealed that the US would conduct “full spectrum military operations” throughout South America from the Colombian bases. The Air Force documents also justified the disproportional military expansion as necessary to combat “the constant threat…from anti-US governments in the region”.

In the case of the latest U.S.-Colombia base deal, many Latin American leaders spoke out against such a move as a dangerous development that can lead to war in the region and act against Colombia’s neighboring countries – Ecuador and Venezuela. Excluding huge presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are about 900 U.S. military facilities in 46 countries and territories, accommodating 190,000 U.S. troops and 115,000 civilian employees, according to official figures. However, some analysts say the real figures may be far greater. All together, the Pentagon owns or rents 322,000 hectares of land overseas, with an inventory of weapons worth trillions of U.S. dollars according to some estimate.

Since 2006, Washington has classified Venezuela as a nation “not fully collaborating with the war against terror”. In 2005, Venezuela was labeled by the State Department as a nation “not cooperating with counter-narcotics operations”. Despite no substantive evidence to prove such dangerous accusations, the US has utilized these classifications to justify an increase in aggression towards the Venezuelan government. In 2008, the Bush Administration attempted to place Venezuela on the list of State Sponsors of terrorism. The initiative was unsuccessful primarily because Venezuela is still a principal supplier of oil to the US. Should Washington consider Venezuela a terrorist state, all relations would be cut off, including oil supply.

Nevertheless, Washington still views Venezuela as a major threat to US interests in the region. The US is particularly concerned about Latin American nations engaging in commercial relations with countries such as China, Russia and Iran, perceived as economic threats to US control and domination in the region. Let's see why: 

THEIR OWN NEW WORLD ORDER

"We are creating a new world, a balanced world. A new world order, a multipolar world," 

/ Hugo Chavez .

"The unipolar world has collapsed. The power of the US empire has collapsed," he said. "Everyday, the new poles of world power are becoming stronger. Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran ... It's moving toward the East and toward the South."

It was the year 2000. Standing at attention, a relatively unknown Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, only 18 months after taking office, was positioned right next to one of the world's "most-controversial dictators." Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, then seeking alternative alliances with leaders in other parts of the world, was receiving Chavez with military honors on August 13 of that year. Chavez appeared proud, standing next to his new and powerful friend in North Africa. The friendship between Chavez and Gaddafi solidified in 2004, when the Libyan leader awarded Chavez the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, an honor he had already given to another Latin American leader, Cuba's Fidel Castro in 1998. By 2009, the friendship had become very close. On September 1 of that year, Gaddafi welcomed Chavez to Libya with a warm embrace. Chavez was one of various world leaders attending festivities there, held to commemorate Gaddafi's 40 years in power. Chavez would return the compliment later that month when Gaddafi visited Venezuela, presenting the Libyan leader with a replica of the sword that belonged to South American independence hero Simon Bolivar, one of the greatest honors in Venezuela. It was Gaddafi's first visit to Latin America in his 40-year rule. And just in case there was any doubt about their closeness, Gaddafi named a stadium just outside Benghazi the "Hugo Chavez Stadium." The stadium was renamed in 2011 "Martyrs of February" by Libyan rebels, who would eventually form the National Transitional Council and put an end to Gaddafi's regime.  Libya was Venezuela's partner under OPEC -- a relationship that has to be rebuilt as well. In March, after the conflict in Libya had started, Chavez proposed an international goodwill commission to mediate the crisis while accusing the United States and other Western powers of blowing the situation out of proportion to justify an invasion...

"I was talking with (Cuban leader) Raul Castro. He was telling me Gaddafi is going to get killed for sure," / Hugo Chavez 

While China's communist leaders have been low-key in response to Chavez's political rhetoric, Beijing's state-run industries have been eager to use Venezuela as a jumping-off point for their entry into South America. Chinese companies in the mining and petroleum sector have been especially keen on securing South American mineral resources.

During his visit to China in 2009, Chavez said he planned to review with Chinese leaders a goal of boosting exports of Venezuelan oil to China from 380,000 barrels last year to 1 million barrels by 2013 - part of Venezuela's strategy of diversifying oil sales away from the United States, which buys about half the South American nation's heavy crude despite political tensions. Included in that strategy are plans for China and Venezuela to build four oil tankers and three refineries in China capable of processing Venezuela's heavy, sulfur-laden crude.

China and Venezuela have also invested in a $12 billion fund to finance joint development projects in areas including oil production, infrastructure and agriculture.

Moscow and Caracas stand for forming a fair new world order that would not depend on the wishes and prosperity of just one country, President Medvedev said, following talks with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in 2010. According to Medvedev, Russia and Venezuela share a similar stance on many international problems, including combating terrorism, crime, drug-trafficking, addressing ecological challenges, and global economic development.

The two countries firmly stand for “forming a modern and fair world,” Medvedev told a joint media conference with Chavez after their talks at the Kremlin. The Russian President added, there should be “a world order where our future would not depend on the will, desire or mood of some country, but on joint efforts of the international community, and, indeed, internal development.” Medvedev believes that is the only kind of world order that would provide for steady development of humanity in the 21st Century. As a result of the talks, a whole bunch of important agreements have been signed in areas such as energy, defense, finance ventures and construction. One of the most crucial agreements is on Russia building a nuclear power plant in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Venezuela became one of the few nations that have so far joined Russia in recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

“We live in the sea of oil. Nevertheless, the population lives in poverty,” adding that imperialism should be blamed for that, Chavez went on to say that his country is at the very beginning of the path to “complete emancipation”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart have also declared  they are united in efforts to establish a "new world order" and warned their enemies would be relegated to the "graveyard." The rhetoric wrapped up Chavez's visit to Iran in 2010 meant to boost cooperation between the allies in their oil, gas and petrochemical industries. Iran and Venezuela are united to establish a new world order based on humanity and justice," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Chavez has staunchly defended Iran's nuclear energy program, siding with Tehran by insisting it is for peaceful uses and not for nuclear bombs.

So, his flerting with the "Axis of Evil" and his friendship with the "Evil dictators" around the globe, makes him a clear and present danger to the original New World Order designers and their next target. Socialism, nationalization of oil-industry, economic independence, bipolar or multi-polar world... these are all very bad and dangerous ideas. What can be done? Let's see...

CIA infects South American leaders with cancer?

Recent years have seen a series of leftwing Latin America leaders diagnosed with cancer including Brazil's current president, Dilma Rousseff, Paraguay's Fernando Lugo, and the former Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In late June Chávez admitted he was also being treated for cancer, telling Venezuelans that doctors had removed "cancerous cells" from his body.

"It is very hard to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some leaders in Latin America. It's at the very least strange, very strange,"  / Hugo Chavez 

"Evo take care of yourself. Correa, be careful. We just don't know," Chavez said, referring to Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador.

Chávez said he had received words of warning from Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, reputedly the target of dozens of failed and often bizarre assassination plots including a fungus-infected diving suit and an exploding cigar.

"Fidel always told me, 'Chávez take care. These people have developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you eat, what they give you to eat … a little needle and they inject you with I don't know what," he said.

Chavez has warned that the disease may be a "new weapon of the empire to eliminate unwanted leaders." Maybe, but oddly enough, the result was the opposite. All politicians not only did not stop their political life and moved away from responsibilities, but on the contrary, dramatically increased their rating and rallied around the supporters.

First, in August of 2010 60-year-old Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was diagnosed with a tumor of lymphatic system. After six sessions of chemotherapy in Sao Paulo and Asuncion, doctors reported that the tumor was gone. He was elected in 2008 with a mandate for five years. He resigned his ecclesiastical rank and became the second leftist president in the history of the country.

66-year-old former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was diagnosed with larynx cancer in October of 2011, nine months after the transfer of power to Dilma Russef. The doctors did not operate on Lulu, saying that as a result he may lose his voice forever - an extremely important tool for policy and communication. Lula, who was in power from 2003 to 2010, reduced poverty in the country, united Latin America and made Brazil one of the world's largest economies.

57-year-old Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began treatment for cancer at the end of June of 2011. There is still no official data on what type of cancer he has. He was operated in Havana on July 20. After four rounds of chemotherapy, a series of medical tests confirmed a positive trend.

Finally, in late December, the media reported that 58-year-old Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will undergo surgery in early January of 2012 for cancer of the thyroid gland and the prognosis for recovery is quite favorable. Kirchner was re-elected for the second term in December of 2011 and takes a firm anti-American stance.

Oct 2012

President Hugo Chavez has yet again been democratically elected by the people of Venezuela with 54.42 per cent of the vote. Democratically elected as he has been numerous times since 1998, and why?

Maybe because he has implemented social justice, has curbed the power of the elites which ruled the country for decades, because he created jobs and wealth by injecting money into the economy, because he distributed wealth instead of harnessing it, because all Venezuelans are stakeholders in their society and not just a few born with a silver spoon in their mouths, because he is reducing levels of poverty, because he paid off the country's debts to the leeches in the IMF, because he has invested in education, he has invested in the creation of jobs, he has invested in housing programmes and he has invested in healthcare.

Let us examine a few shining examples of the Bolivarian Revolution: reduction of extreme poverty from nearly 50% to under 10%. In 14 years. The Human development Index of Venezuela rose from medium to high development, Venezuela is officially free of illiteracy. Unemployment has decreased by 50 per cent, the minimum wage has risen to around 400 USD, workers receive a monthly food subsidy, pensions are indexed to the minimum wage, basic food products are distributed directly to the people for low prices without the hand of intermediaries and as a result, agricultural produce was increased substantially, creating jobs in rural areas, and for those who accuse Chavez of squandering money, Venezuela's international reserve fund has quadrupled. 

Now if one state needs a coup d'état, it certainly isn't Venezuela. However, watch your back, Comandante Hugo!

Faith No More

Faith is under attack all around the globe. New World Order puppets are trying to provoke a holy war on all fronts and ultimately the clash of civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future. It is the next pattern of conflict. 

Samuel Huntington was one of "America’s greatest political scientists". In 1993, he published a sensational essay in Foreign Affairs called “The Clash of Civilizations?” The essay, which became a book, argued that the post-cold war would be marked by civilizational conflict. Human beings, Huntington wrote, are divided along cultural lines — Western, Islamic, Hindu and so on. There is no universal civilization. Instead, there are these cultural blocks, each within its own distinct set of values. The Islamic civilization, he wrote, is the most troublesome. "People in the Arab world do not share the general suppositions of the Western world. Their primary attachment is to their religion, not to their nation-state. Their culture is inhospitable to certain liberal ideals, like pluralism, individualism and democracy."

If your goal is one world government, one currency, one central bank and one army, then you must also have one world religion or none at all.

Anti-church hysteria spreads across Russia and Ukraine

Four Orthodox Christian crosses have been chopped down in different parts of Russia. The incidents come after the Femen movement attacked a cross in Kiev to protest the sentence of the punk band Pussy Riot, who received two years in prison. Three crosses have been taken down in the Urals’ Chelyabinsk Region, and one in the Archangelsk Region, northern Russia. In a statement Femen declared that the cross was taken down in solidarity with the members of punk band Pussy Riot, who were sentenced to two years in jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. A topless activist from confrontational group Femen has attacked Russian Patriarch Kirill during his visit to Ukraine. Yana Zhdanova ran up to Patriarch Kirill screaming "Get out" and tried to block his way as he was reportedly walking towards the press at Kiev Airport. The Femen member had “Kill Kirill” painted on her back and was protesting against “anti-state activities of the patriarch” and the arrest of anti-Putin activists, the Femen’s online Livejournal blog explains. The activist has been sentenced to 15 days behind bars for the assault. The Femen movement of female Ukrainian protestors has a flair for topless stunts. Some of their recent activities included a topless protest in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square.

Behold The Gay Jesus

Ecce Homo is the most publicised Swedish photography exhibition of the century. It consists of 12 pictures of Jesus in the company of homosexuals, and is inspired by biblical themes by artists such as Michelangelo, Doré and Caravaggio.Ecce Homo was shown in Stockholm for the first time, in 1998. Immediately, it gave rise to very strong reactions in both the Church and the media. Many felt that Ecce Homo was sacrilegious, but thousands waited patiently to see the exhibition and experience "a different picture of Jesus". Shortly after the first opening, Elisabeth Ohlson (the "artist" behind the exhibition) was also invited to show her pictures in Uppsala Cathedral, the foremost cathedral in the country. This decision created a great deal of opposition within the Church, and led to the cancellation by the Pope of a planned audience with Swedish Archbishop K-G Hammar. On several occasions, Elisabeth Ohlson has needed police protection during exhibitions in churches, following repeated bomb threats. Ecce Homo has travelled around Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia and Europe. However, the European Parliament in Strasbourg cancelled the exhibition, after some hesitation. Originally, only one photograph, which depicting Jesus naked, was to be censured. However, after a comprehensive debate, the entire exhibition was cancelled. As of May 1999, the exhibition was viewed by 160,000 visitors, and later it was shown in Rome in July 1999. It has broken several attendance records, and Elisabeth has won a number of prizes for her work. This autumn, a book will be published by Albert Bonnier, the largest publishing house in Sweden, compiling all the reactions and public discussion, and examining the impact of the exhibition on Sweden.  Ecce Homo exhibition opened on 3 October 2012 in Belgrade as a part of the "Pride Parade" week, Serbia. Belgrade is the only city in this part of Europe in which he held an exhibition Ecce Homo. It too, gave rise to very strong reactions by the Orthodox Christian believers in Serbia. "Pride Parade" (one of the preconditions for joining European Union) has been cancelled because of the security risks. Amid a heavy police presence, about two dozen flag-waving activists briefly appeared outside an office building in central Belgrade and sat down on the sidewalk for what they described as a "small, silent, non-violent and motionless protest." Police have banned the parade for the last two years, saying they fear a repeat of the violence from 2010 when more than 100 people were injured in day-long clashes with the extremists. The Ecce Homo Gay Jesus campaign was not helping "their cause" at all.

 Innocence of the Muslims

"Innocence of Muslims" is the title given for an anti-islam video reported to have been written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, using the pseudonym of "Sam Bacile". While he initially denied being the controversial figure, records uncovered by the Associated Press and confirmed by American federal authorities established Nakoula as the same person as Sam Bacile. Nakoula (reportedly a Coptic Christian, who initially claimed to be an Israeli property magnate, using funds from "Jewish donors") a convicted fraudster, claimed that he was creating an epic, two hour film, however no such film has been located. The 14 minute video clips were initially uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, under the titles The Real Life of Mohammed and Mohammed Movie Trailer.  YouTube said the video fell within its guidelines as the video is against Islam, but not against Muslim people, and thus not considered "hate speech". According to a consultant on the project, the videos are "trailers" from a full-length film which was shown only once, to an audience of fewer than ten people, at a rented theater in Hollywood. Posters advertising the film used the title Innocence of Bin Laden. The video production, "Innocence of Bin Laden" was advertised in the Anaheim-based newspaper Arab World during the months of both May and June. The advertisement cost $300 to run three times in the paper and was paid by an individual identified only as "Joseph".  The film's original working title was Desert Warrior, and it told the story of "tribal battles prompted by the arrival of a comet on Earth." Though the story had no religious references, anti-Islamic content was added in post production by overdubbing, over the original spoken lines, reportedly without the actors' knowledge. The film was supported and promoted by pastor Terry Jones, known for a Quran-burning controversy which also led to riots around the world. It's a case of "freedom of speech vs blasphemy" yet again.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's non-movie is a bigoted piece of poison calculated to inflame the Muslim world. It ought to be treated with the contempt it deserves. A Moscow court has ruled that the controversial 'Innocence of Muslims' film contains extremist material, banning it nationwide. The short film, satirizing the prophet Mohammed, has also been banned by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sudan. YouTube access in these countries has been blocked -until, according to official statements, the film is removed.

Such measures were deemed necessary after the movie sparked international outrage and led to mass violence around the world, raging for more than a week not only in Arab countries, but throughout Europe, Australia and Canada. Over the days of the protests, which turned violent at times, over 80 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

A French magazine has published nude cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, a move that could further inflame tensions after violent global protests over an anti-Islam film.

The cover of Charlie Hebdo shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title ''Intouchables 2'', referring to an award-winning French film about a poor black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic. Another cartoon on the back page of the magazine shows a naked turbaned Mohammed exposing his posterior to a film director, a scene inspired by a 1963 film starring Brigitte Bardot. Charlie Hebdo's website crashed after being bombarded with angry comments. The Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said anyone offended by cartoons could take the matter to the courts after expressing his ''disapproval of all excesses''. But he emphasised France's tradition of free speech. ''We are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed, including the freedom to caricature,'' he said. He also said a request to hold a demonstration in Paris against the controversial US-made anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims would be refused. The magazine's editor, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time. An Afghan cleric has offered rewards totaling $400,000 for anyone killing the producer of a U.S.-made anti-Islam film and a French cartoonist who drew caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

The “Innocence of Muslims”, a crudely made film that mocks Islam, triggered violent protests in at least 20 countries including Afghanistan after excerpts were posted online last month.

Immediately after the film gained notoriety, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons caricaturing the Muslim prophet. A Pakistani government minister last month placed a $100,000 bounty on the head of the maker of the film. Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also called on the Taliban and al-Qaeda to join the hunt and help accomplish the “noble deed”.

The Vatican's official daily Osservatore Romano condemned the decision to publish cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed as "fuel on the fire".

Anti-Christian persecution

A report by two U.S.-based religious freedom groups says anti-Christian persecution is on the rise in America. The report says government agencies around the U.S. are trying to push Christian expression out the door. There are children being prohibited from writing Merry Christmas to the soldiers, senior citizens being banned from praying over their meals in the Senior Center, the VA banning the mention of God in military funerals, numerous attempts to have veterans memorials torn down if they have any religious symbols such as a cross etc. An effort by the U.S. government is underway to whitewash God from American history.

The Arab Spring started in Tunisia. On 19 December 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi, set fire to himself in protest after police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a street stall. It was touted as a spontaneous, grass-roots groundswell of democratic ideals and liberty. The people of the Middle East were at last to have self-determination. The movement quickly spread across North Africa. Protestors hit the streets from Tunis to Benghazzi. But, the main attraction was Egypt. The US supported the movement even committing American military power through NATO to oust Gaddafi from Libya. But, this Arab Spring has a darker side. With the rise of Islamization comes the rise of oppression and violence against Christians across the Middle East. Now, emboldened by the Muslim Brotherhood rising to power in Egypt, Muslim jihadist organizations are openly calling for genocide against the Egyptian Christian population. After their churches were repeatedly attacked and burned in October 2011, Egypt's Coptic Christians took to the streets of Alexandria in protest. The response from the Egyptian military was swift and brutal. The army opened fire into the crowd and then charged in with armored personnel carriers, running over the Christians. At least 25 Christians were killed and many more injured. Egypt’s so-called Arab Spring quickly turned into a Christian fall following the political rise of Islamists and increased assaults on Christians and churches. As a result, an estimated 100,000 Christians have fled or are preparing to flee the country. Sadly, the Obama administration and most of the American news media ignore these latest examples of brutality and oppression in order to avoid criticism for buying into the whole Arab Spring nonsense. The Christian church in eastern Libya, which traces its roots back two millennia to the era of Christ, is fighting for survival because war has forced nearly all its worshippers to flee. 

Shot like a dog

"He risked his life to stop a tyrant and gave his life trying to build a better Libya,"
 / Hillary Clinton 

US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed when about 20 gun-wielding attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on US consulate. Stevens was not seen by his colleagues until his body was brought later that evening to the Benghazi airport, where all U.S. personnel taken for a flight to Tripoli. The U.S. official said that all U.S. staff had now been sent to Europe and the wounded are being treated in Germany. The two other Americans also died during the incident. New intelligence suggests the attack was tied to al-Qaeda, and particularly an associate of Osama bin Laden. the finger is being pointed at 53-year-old Sufyan Ben Qumu, a veteran of the Libyan Army who has previously been interned at America’s military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba over accusations that he was linked with al-Qaeda. Qumu was released from Gitmo in 2007 despite being considered a threat by American authorities, and sent back to Libya.

The following is a part of the transcript of President Obama's address to the U.N. General Assembly.


OBAMA: " Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin today by telling you about an American named Chris Stevens. Chris was born in a town called Grass Valley, California, the son of a lawyer and a musician. As a young man, Chris joined the Peace Corps and taught English in Morocco, and he came to love and respect the people of North Africa and the Middle East. He would carry that commitment throughout his life. As a diplomat, he worked from Egypt to Syria, from Saudi Arabia to Libya. He was known for walking the streets of the cities where he worked, tasting the local food, meeting as many people as he could, speaking Arabic, listening with a broad smile.

Chris went to Benghazi in the early days of the Libyan revolution, arriving on a cargo ship. As America's representative, he helped the Libyan people as they coped with violent conflict, cared for the wounded, and crafted a vision for the future in which the rights of all Libyans would be respected. And after the revolution, he supported the birth of a new democracy, as Libyans held elections, and built new institutions, and began to move forward after decades of dictatorship. Chris Stevens loved his work. He took pride in the country he served, and he saw dignity in the people that he met.

Two weeks ago, he travelled to Benghazi to review plans to establish a new cultural center and modernize a hospital. That's when America's compound came under attack. Along with three of his colleagues, Chris was killed in the city that he helped to save. He was 52 years old. I tell you this story because Chris Stevens embodied the best of America. Like his fellow Foreign Service officers, he built bridges across oceans and cultures, and was deeply invested in the international cooperation that the United Nations represents. He acted with humility, but he also stood up for a set of principles: a belief that individuals should be free to determine their own destiny, and live with liberty, dignity, justice and opportunity."

The Obama’s portrayal of Stevens seems odd as more information about him emerges. He is said to have a huge love for the Libyan people, which is odd considering several leaders of the Libyan revolt against Gaddafi have stated they fought against the United States, and the rebel leader claimed that many al-Qaeda members were working with him on the front lines. Stevens snuck into the war torn country on a cargo ship, and he travelled to Morocco, Germany and Sweden. It's a bit suspicious that he did not travel in the more protected, but more obvious, armored vehicles. That sounds a little more like CIA to me. Stevens was in fact the CIA operative who was the CIA weapons dealer in the region, and Stevens was the one who brokered the deal to give Libyan rebels weapons to fight against Gaddafi. They were rounding up weapons supplied by the United States to Libyan rebels during the uprising last year and al-Qaeda didn't like that. So, according to Obama, smuggling weapons and helping terrorists to overthrow foreign governments is the best of America. UN General Assembly is nothing more than a chat room where anyone can babble senselessly. Obama's fairytale can't be further than the truth. Stevens wasn't just an US Ambassador, he was more like a governor in Benghazi. His murder was a statement. This could never happened in Gaddafi's Libya.

OBAMA: "So let us remember that this is a season of progress. For the first time in decades, Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans voted for new leaders in elections that were credible, competitive and fair." 

...And the new leaders are al-Qaeda terrorists and islamist militias.

" We came, we saw, he died, ha, ha, ha!"  / Hillary Clinton

Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to die in office since the 1988 aircrash in Pakistan. Early news coverage said that the attack was a spontaneous response to an online preview of a movie considered offensive to Muslims, but the attackers use of military-grade weapons (including RPGs) and apparent knowledge of the locations of the secret safe house sites led to speculation that the raid was pre-planned. There was no demonstration. They came with machine guns, with rockets. Upon his arrival in April last year, Stevens became the highest-ranking US representative to travel to Libya since the uprising began. Prior to joining the foreign service, Stevens was an international trade lawyer in Washington, DC. From 1983 to 1985 he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. “I had the honor to serve as the US envoy to the Libyan opposition during the revolution, was thrilled to watch the Libyan people demand their rights. Now I am excited to return to Libya to continue the great work we started.” / Christopher Stevens. Three separate U.S. intelligence officials knew within 24 hours of the attack that it was "planned and the work of al Qaeda affiliates operating in Eastern Libya." The attack was pre-planed, and that the anti-Islam film had nothing to do with the attack. Sensitive documents were missing after the attack, including documents listing the names of Libyans working with the Americans, and documents relating to oil contracts. Libyans held demonstrations in Benghazi and Tripoli on September 12, condemning the violence and holding signs such as, "Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans", and apologizing to Americans for the actions in their name and in the name of Muslims. On September 16, Libyan authorities arrested some 50 people in connection with the attack, and Mohamed Magarief said that the attack was pre-planned. He said that suspects were connected to al-Qaeda, or its "affiliates and maybe sympathisers" and said that it was "planned by foreigners" that has entered the country from "Mali and Algeria" a few months before the attacks. On September 21, about 30,000 Libyans marched through Benghazi calling for the support of the "rule of law" and for an end to armed militias. Carrying signs with slogans such as "We Want Justice For Chris" and "Libya Lost a Friend," the protestors stormed several militia headquarters. At least 10 people were killed and dozens more wounded as militiamen fired on demonstrators at the headquarters of Sahaty Brigade, a pro-government militia "operating under the authority of the ministry of defence.". By early the next morning, the protestors had forced militia members to flee and seized control of a number of compounds, releasing four prisoners found inside. Protesters burnt a car and a building of at least one facility, and looted weapons. The militia compounds and many weapons were handed over to Libya's national army in what "appeared to be part of a coordinated sweep of militia bases by police, weak national army under direct control of the Tripoli occupation government and activists" following the earlier demonstrations. Some militia members accused the protestors of being Gaddafi loyalists, looking to disarm the militias in the wake of the revolution. Tunisian Salafis are now calling for an attack on their country's US embassy, Tunisian media outlets said. Salafis militants had previously attempted to attack the embassy, but were repelled by security forces. Many in the region believe another attack is imminent. President Obama has ordered increased security for US diplomatic personnel around the world, and a Marine fleet anti-terrorist security team has been dispatched to Libya to "boost security".

More than a year after being swept to power by U.S.-led neo-colonialist forces the occupation regime head-quartered in Tripoli is now even unable to defend itself against attack. At least 200 militia forces from Zawia entered the so-called General National Congress to deliver a clear warning to the regime that it has no legitimacy and should give up its power attempts. The Libyan people want to activate the popular congresses system which had become corrupted in recent years due to the imposition of returned stray dogs into seats of power. Stray dogs were those Libyans who had been stripped of citizenship and forced to live a low life of indignity as hostile traitors in the care of Britain, the USA and other imperialist powers. After the unpopular compromise reached without the Authority of the People to install stray dogs into key positions over the heads of the masses, the Jamahiriya became weakened from within. Benghazi where the support for the Libyan Jamahiriya was in some places below 90 percent and thus the lowest support level due to a small minority of heretics which conspired with foreign forces to occupy Libya last year, remains out of control to the Tripoli regime since over 3 weeks...The attempts to form an illegitimate regime without the People's Authority (the so called democracy), remain doomed for failure, with only the Jamahiriya being the lawful governing system in Libya. This is underscored by Libya still being in flames and with the popular resistance forces gaining strength each week.

United States invaded Afghanistan to eradicate al-Qaeda after 9/11. Yet today, we read of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Pakistan, al-Qaeida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaeda in Syria. And Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda affiliate, has taken over northern Mali, a slice of land the size of France. So those are all countries on the war on terror hit list. The U.S. retaliation attack is imminent.