Turkish government blocks YouTube afer leak showing plans to frame up Syria into a casus belli

After banning Twitter it was already speculated that the next in line in Erdogan's fascist spree of repression would be YouTube, because it was the main window to what is happening in the country. 

Therefore this development would not come as surprise, except for the direct trigger: a conversation between three top Turkish officers on framing up Syria into a casus belli in order to invade the Arab country. 

The video has already been deleted from YouTube (why? Uncle Sam's long hand obviously) but the transcription is as follows:

(from Russia Today)

So Turkey's beleaguered Islamist PM Erdogan is looking for a pretext to invade Syria, what in this conversation is transmitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Davutoglu. 

Let's remember that Syria is a secularist modern state, similar to what Turkey used to be before Erdogan, and that relations between both states used to be good.

Let's remember that it was not Syria but Israel which actually made an act of piracy against the peaceful humanitarian Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, murdering several Turks and injuring many others. There you have an spontaneous casus belli, not just for Turkey but for all NATO (the ship is Turkish territory and it was in the area guaranteed by NATO, north of the Tropic of Cancer). 

So the Chief Spy Fidan has a plan: send some Turkish spies to bomb some Kurdish border village or whatever is needed to create the pretext. The Deputy Chief of Staff Guler seems to back the idea.

So the Deputy Foreign Minister Sinirlioglu doesn't seem too happy about how the "national security" has become a mere pretext for Erdogan's pathetic and corrupt domestic policies. Guess who may get fired for thinking too much?

We seldom see from so close the way key political and in this case war and false-flag attack decisions are made. We are bound to look back over what has happened and try to deduce some logic out of it and whatever evidence the powerful wrongdoers may have left. 

Naturally if you do, you're often insulted as "conspiranoid". Well conspirations happen and much more often than we appreciate. By this I do not mean that every conspiration theory floating around is just right but that we can't decide without looking first at the evidence. As I learned from my father, who grew up under Fascism, one must read "between lines" and not literally in order to understand, in other words: one must discern the hidden meaning behind the propaganda we have for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. This is not easy and requires training and, to some extent at least, a sharp mind.

The Deep State is real, call it Gladio, call it Ergenekon, call it CIA/NSA/HS or call it just your usual elite-serving and self-serving political and military elite.

World Word III risk

No kidding. Turkey intervening in Syria would most likely cause a war spiral: Iran no doubt would back Syria right away and Russia, so extremely pressed with the Ukranian putsch, will feel the need and opportunity to intervene here or there, backed by its huge nuclear arsenal, which is probably the only one matching Washington's. 

Turkey is a NATO member and in this case NATO would have no qualms to intervene, unlike what happened with the Mavi Marmara (which was a genuine casus belli). The hawks in the USA and Europe alike have been looking for a pretext to attack Syria for a long time. So this can quickly spiral out of control into a nuclear war. 

No kidding, really. 

In fact we are probably now more at risk of nuclear war than almost any time during the Cold War. And mostly we can blame US-led aggressive imperialism for it (it's Syria but also Ukraine and the overall Brzynski plan to besiege both Russia and China in Eurasia. Plan for which the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan are key spearheads, as well as the incorporation of much of Eastern Europe into NATO and EU.

What happens with YouTube and Twitter?

An Ankara court has supported Twitter appeal against the Turkish decision to block it, however the authorities have a whole month to comply, what means that the social media will most likely be unavailable for the local elections of March 30, which may well be a major defeat for Erdogan's fundamentalists, judging on the state of massive uprising that the country is since last year.

In any case, if the false flag attack is performed and there is intervention against Syria and, as I forecast, the situation spirals into generalized war, forget about freedom of speech at all in the Internet as in any other media. We will all have to resort to TOR encryption and IP hiding systems and even then we will be persecuted by the Gestapo, whatever its new name may be. 

The first victim of any war is always freedom of speech.

Main source: Russia Today.

Spain: Madrid mobilizations and police repression move to university: 50 arrested

Yesterday there was another popular assembly in Puerta del Sol surrounded by aggressive riot police forces. Eventually they decided to call another assembly for today at 18:00. Some of the members joined the occupation of university grounds by students on strike.

The student strike at the Universidad Autónoma was violently repressed by police forces, who entered at request of the rector, just as happened under Fascism. 

Police occupation of the university (SoliObrera)

At least 50 people have been arrested.

Occupation of the faculties have been called for tonight in solidarity with the victims of police repression.  Tomorrow a festive march ("pasacampus") has been called as well.



Recap: 

1. Police attacked first in order to divert media attention to clashes they provoked

How to make a 2+ million demo into a public order issue where you can criminalize the masses? The reactionary Spanish government decided to send the dogs in just before the news hour. There were no provocations other than some people trying to set camp, although there was indeed self-defense with whatever was at hand. 

By controlling all the mass media via their bourgeois mafia, the government has managed to turn the tables on: they don't almost mention the millions marching and all the support necessary (half the country?) but the "violence". They don't invite march leaders to the media but police agents and reactionary journalists trained to bark in favor of their master. Not a single network escapes this trap, what implies that there is no media democracy in Spain de facto and you need to resort to Internet in order to grasp some of the truth.

2. They are using "Venezuelan" defamation tactics

Just as it became notorious in the Venezuelan fascist "revolt of the posh", where images of repression from around the world were relabeled as if they were happening in Venezuela (Basque victim of Spanish torture became "Venezuelan", Tahrir repression by Mubarak's police became "Venezuelan", etc.), the Spanish authorities are resorting to falsification of information in order to defame and criminalize the masses. 

To the right one such example: a cold case of a weapon hidden in a crutch has now been presented by police as "evidence" of the "hidden weapons" that demonstrators on March  22 carried in their fantasy alt world. 

3. Scapegoating

The case of the latest political prisoner is a clear one of frame-up: Miguel has been sent to prison for allegedly taking part in the incidents of Atocha but he was actually arrested 2 km away in Recoletos, where he was probably among those trying to set up camp.

There is no evidence beyond police declarations. In the Spanish inquisitorial "justice" system, these may be enough (depending on the credibility the judge gives them) but it is well known that police lies almost systematically and the previous example is one of those. 

Freedom for Miguel

4. Tortures

Those arrested were treated worse than animals and subject to practices that can only be considered torture. They were kept for eight hours standing against a wall with their arms up, deprived of water and not allowed to use the toilet, deprived of food for 24 hours, menstruating women were not allowed to change their tampons in the almost two days of their arrest. 

Sources[es]: La Haine (link 1, link 2, link 3), @Acmp.Diginidad.Madrid, @SolidaridadObrera





Evening update: 53 students arrested, protests continue

The last info on the arrested students is that they are 53. The Vice-Rector had the whole building locked and with many activist students locked inside. They could eventually open a door but police had already arrived (on the Rector's request) and rounded up some 25 inside and the rest while they attempted to find refuge elsewhere in the campus.

Much of the focus of the Madrid protests has therefore been derived to the Universidad Autónoma, where road blockades and occupations continue, now also demanding the resignation of the Rector.

The daily assembly at Sol continues but they have by the moment desisted from setting up camp and are also focusing on the students' struggle.

Sources[es]: La Haine, Acamp.Dignidad.Madrid (Twitter). 

 

Spain: Dignity Camp evicted by police

At dawn (7:30 CET) police forcibly evicted the people still resisting at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid. They identified those present and arrested two. 

They also blockaded again the access to the plaza. 

A rally has been called for today evening (19:30) in Sol in support. Earlier (19:00) there is a rally against mysoginist violence (5 women killed in the state last week alone).

Other rallies have been called in several cities, notably Barcelona and Valencia.

Sources[es]: La Haine, Kaos (incl. video of the eviction).

Relatedly, a student strike is ongoing in Madrid today. Clashes have erupted as, again, the only answer by the government to popular demands is repression.

Fire barricades at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (→ Iniciativa Comunista)

See also for background:

• Almost 3 million people take Madrid demanding Dignity in spite of media silence and brutal police repression (Saturday 22)
• Protests continue gripping Madrid in spite of police (Sunday 23)
• Thousands march in Madrid again. Camp set up at Puerta del Sol (Monday 24)

Spain: Thousands march in Madrid again. Camp set up at Puerta del Sol

Less than three years after the landmark takeover of the Puerta del Sol plaza in Madrid by the so-called "indignados" (outraged), thousands have taken again the iconic plaza in demand of bread, jobs and housing for all and the liberation of those arrested on Saturday. 

On Saturday, at least 2 million people, took over the city, arrived from all the corners of the residual empire known as Spain, being almost totally ignored by the mass media... but not at all by police forces, which charged brutally against them.

This photo is yet to be published by any bourgeois newspaper or TV station

Dozens were arrested and many others injured. At least part of the crowds were angry enough to attempt self-defense against police violence. 

On Sunday, the protests continued in smaller but still powerful numbers, under heavy police pressure (kettling, provocations) and also with some groups resorting to more direct action, blockading several times the main avenue Gran Vía. 

Some 20 people spent last night protesting in Sol, even if police did not allow them to set up camp. 

Today Monday, protests continue as way too many are determined to have a social and political impact after the huge effort of the march. 

In the morning people rallied around the tribunals, where the arrested were finally declaring before the judge. Again the cops pressed heavily against the protest.

In the afternoon the arrested were finally set free (under charges, I presume). The first reports denounce police abuse:

Seven hours against a wall with arms up, not allowed to go to the bathroom nor drink.

Around 16:30 some people had already managed to set up camp in Sol and the call became viral: everyone to Sol. 

Again, three years of outright misery and lies later. 

Popular assembly at Sol

The assembly ratifies the points of the march:

• No to paying the banksters' debt
• No more cuts
• Out with Troika governments
• Bread, jobs and shelter for all

They also call to set camp at the plaza.

In the evening another demonstration marches through the city under the slogan "Dignity".

Thousands join.

They chant: "it's not cuts, it's class war", "freedom for the arrested in struggle" or "Juan Carlos I is Franco's heir".

Attorney Doris Benegas announced that all but one of the arrested have been set free. One remains accused of "homicide attempt", an unusually severe accusation, and has been imprisoned. However it was later known that the accusation has been reduced to "lesions". 

The government decides to declare illegal the demonstration when this one was already about to reach its destination: Cibeles Plaza. The final act is held at Nuevos Ministerios and the march is peacefully dissolved.

Those camping at Puerta del Sol are surrounded by police forces who do not let anyone enter. In spite of that, the square seems pretty much populated, judging from the direct streams:

→ http://bambuser.com/v/4474133

→ http://www.wouzee.com/acampadadignidad-22h51

Sol tonight (credit: Danips)

Is this a second "Spanish Spring"? Where will it lead? Outrage, frustration and rage are much greater than three years ago. 

Sources[es]: La Haine and, in Twitter: @LaHaineInfo, @Acmp.Dignidad.Madrid y #AcampadaDignidad.

Malaysian missing plane: qui bono? The death of four passengers benefits US corporation

Apparently four of the Chinese passengers are co-holders of a key semiconductor patent along with their employer Freescale Semiconductor, a Texas company detached from Motorola in 2004 and owned by Jacob Rotschild, the main heir of the infamous bourgeois dynasty.

These Chinese workers Peidong Wang, Zhijun Chen, Zhijong Cheng and Li Ying, all them native to Suzhou (near Shanghai) held each 20% of the patent rights, while the rest belonged to their employer, Frescale. All them traveled in the missing airplane, which was probably diverted to the US-UK base of Diego García.

According to the patent agreement, if any of the co-owners would die, its share would revert to the others. In this case the only beneficiary remaining "alive" is the company Freescale. 

Source: Votaire Network[es], citing Russia Today.

Basque Nationalist Left grows in Northern municipal polls

Voting in Hazparne

The first round of municipal elections was held yesterday in the state of France, whose artificial borders include the Northern Basque Country. The most notable development was the advance of the Basque Nationalist Left lists, many of whose candidates will be able to run in the second round. 

The most notable successes took place in Ustaritze, where Bruno Carrere got the first place with 38% of the popular vote,  Ziburu, where the Basque Nationalist list got 21% of the vote, forcing the conservative unionist mayor Guy Polou to fight in the second round next week, Baigorri, where the Basque Left won in the first round and in Arbona. 

In many other towns the Basque Left has reached more than 10% of the vote, allowing them to fight the second round. Examples are Baiona (Bayonne), Miarritze (Biarritz), Hendaia, and Maule-Lexarre. In Baiona, the largest city, it seems likely that the French Left (5%) will support the Basque Left list of Jean-Claude Iriart next Sunday.

Instead some other towns (Donibane-Lohitzune, Hazparne, Donibane-Garazi, Kanbo) were settled in the first round but still the gains of the Basque Left are important. 

Overall in the state, it is worrisome the advance of the fascist lists affiliated to the National Front, which has gathered a 4.78% of the overall votes (notice that they did not run in many towns). In some areas they have shown much more strength, as in the northern town Henin-Beaumont, where they won in the first round (>50% of the vote), or Perpinyá  (Perpignan, Northern Catalonia) where they gathered 38%.

Overall the "French" polls show a growth of the Right (~47%), while the so-called Left (including the social-liberals of the PSF) gathered only the 38%. Abstention was high (39%).

Sources[eu/es]: Gara, Kazeta (details of all municipalities), Berria, Naiz Info.

Spain: protests continue gripping Madrid in spite of police

A large demonstration has gripped Madrid again, following the massive one of Saturday. Thousands have marched following the morning assembly's decision to the iconic Puerta del Sol plaza, where they have been confronted by riot police. Last minute negotiations have allowed the march to "walk around the plaza" but, as the police had taken all access, it became stuck inside it (kettling?)

Some protesters have detached themselves from the main march and blocked the Gran Vía (main artery of Madrid) several times in spite of intense police repression. 

The leit motiv of the protests today has been the victims of police repression and the demand that they are immediately set free. 

Tomorrow Monday it was scheduled (with official authorization) a protest surrounding the stock market (La Bolsa) but with the pretext of the state funeral for the former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, the government has forbidden it.

Source: La Haine[es] (link 1, link 2).

Almost 3 million people take Madrid demanding Dignity in spite of media silence and brutal police repression

The Marches for Dignity, which began weeks ago all around the state of Spain, after a call from the Andalusian Left, seconded by many other groups (unions, parties, social movements), have resulted in some 2.5 million people taking the capital of the realm this Saturday. That is about half the population of the city and about 7% of the total population walking out of their homes and marching into the capital.

Obviously all who are there are, but not all who are are there. So the actual figure of sympathizers can well be five or ten times greater. In other words: almost all Spain is very angry and demand immediate change. 

What did the protesters demand? Simple:

• Not to pay the public debt (mostly imposed to save the banksters)
  
• No more cuts (to public budget nor salaries)
• Out with the government and the Troika
• Food, jobs and housing for all

The full manifesto can be read in English HERE.

In any democratic country such a massive protest should cause the immediate fall of the government and snap elections. But democracy is more and more just a farce and Spain is not different in that but actually avant-guard in this devaluation and falsification of Democracy. 

Since 20:15 police began charging against the marchers near the conservative headquarters of Génova Street and those who attempted to set camp at various locations. They did not even allow for the final act to proceed. According to reports, those present faced them and set up barricades. They even forced the armed police forces to pull back several times just fighting back with whatever they had at had, such as pebbles from the fountain. 

The bourgeois media have reported 50 agents injured, what is rejected with outraged disbelief by the people who were there. What seems more certain is that from the popular side, some 29 citizens have been arrested and 33 injured by police weaponry, which they shot directly against the protesters, in clear breach of all legality. 

Clashes lasted until at least midnight, when protesters gradually pulled back. 

Sources and more info: 

• Webguerrillero[es]: massive demo, police charges against the protest before it even finishes, more on the clashes
• La Haine[es]: detailed chronological report, photos and audios of the southern column
• Marchas por la Dignidad[es/en/it]: police charges against the main meeting, generic info
• Bambuser: videos from the street
• Twitter: #22MTomaMadrid, #22MDignidad, #22mMarchasporlaDignidad, etc.

Update (Mar 23): some protests and meetings continue on Sunday

Hundreds met this morning at the Reina Sofía Theater in a popular assembly to decide what to do next. Some proposals included calling for a general strike but in the end a new protest was called in Puerta del Sol this evening (19:00), mostly to demand the immediate release of those arrested yesterday, and tomorrow at 10:00 in Plaza Castilla. 

They also called for rallies in all the government delegations across the territory of the state (19:00 also). 

The assembly was determined to proclaim the right to self-defense: "yesterday we exerted sefl-defense and we must say that proudly", what is a development in itself. 

The meeting was heavily watched by police forces, which tried to provoke the assistants to no avail. 

It was known that police had used tear gas CS (ATL-1) in the evening attacks, something that has no precedents in the Spanish capital (although it has been used in the periphery). 

Dozens also attempted to set camp near Recoletos train station but were violently evicted by police forces. 

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, La Haine.

Erdogan desperate: blocks Twitter in Turkey

The authoritarian and growingly besieged Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan has just crossed another red line by blocking the social network Twitter in the bicontinental state. 

The popular uprising against his corrupt and reckless government, whose leading export is jihadist terrorism to Syria, has not ceased at all, rather the opposite, in spite of brutal repression. The only thing this simple minded thug can think of to hold to his "Neo-Ottomanist" power is to attack freedom of speech in the Internet. The latest is the banning of Twitter, in spite of the disagreement of his political comrade and President of the Republic Abdullah Gül. 

It seems obvious that the days of Erdogan and his rotten fascist camarilla on power in Ankara are set. The only question is when and how he will be forced to leave his throne of oppression.

Source: WG[es] (link 1, link 2).

Post-Fukushima Fascism in Japan

From Energy News, citing KFPA Flashpoints (audio):

KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 10, 2014 (at 3:00 in):

Steve Zeltzer, reporting from Japan: We went to Osaka […] we were told there’s continuing repression. Activists here are being threatened, including Professor Shimoji who was arrested for handing out leaflets. The government is trying to suppress opposition to nuclear power by passing the secrecy law which just passed the parliament and also by intimidating antinuclear activists and saying they have to keep quiet. [...] We also learned from Dr. Helen Caldicott that she was threatened. She spoke at a meeting in Kyoto on the 8^th and it was reported at the meeting that she had been threatened by right-wingers with death for speaking out about the dangers of nuclear power.

KPFA Flashpoints, Mar. 11, 2014 (at 3:15 in):

Zeltzer: There were also students there from different universities that are reporting that they’re being repressed. They’re being charged with disturbing the peace for handing out flyers against the burning nuclear rubble and against nuclear power plants.

Full Flashpoints broadcasts available here

(Bold type is mine)

How are you going to face the huge nuclear problem if you just deny it?

Worker genocide at Fukushima: 800 workers missing!

There were over 800 day laborers who have disappeared from contact by the union, which means they may have been killed or died during work.

Steve Zeltzer at KFA Flashpoints (audio, via EneNews).


Update (Mar 22):

Fukushima workers die suddenly but it is not reported → EneNews (various Japanese sources).

Almost certainly the lost Malaysian flight is in Diego García (US base)

Some days ago I speculated, based on the very fragmentary data available and my limited ability to understand some of it, that the missing Malaysian Flight 370 could be in île Amsterdam.

Even if I was cautious in my wording, I was surely wrong in my tentative conclusion. I misunderstood the satellite ping data to mean a more precise location than it actually was, confused by journalist wording, i.e. "1000 miles west of Perth". That is actually just the range of where the satellite could have picked the signal from, which includes most of the Indian Ocean, large parts of Asia and theoretically even Africa, as can be seen in this map by The Washington Post.

But now more information (→ Daily Mail) has arisen that clearly points to the main alternative suspected destination: Diego García, a US military base in British colonial territory, whose inhabitants were forcibly evicted in 1971.

Notably Maldivian witnesses have reported a plane that fits the description and the timing flying south at very low altitude, something that shocked them being such a large craft.

Also the last reported radar data and Malaysian witnesses accounts point to the airplane having crossed Peninsular Malaysia back into the Malacca Strait and Bay of Bengal.

Finally the home computer of the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had deleted files of training for landing in Diego García, as well as Indian and Maldivian airports, all them with enough length for such a heavy craft to make safe landing.

So everything points to the pilot having planned in advance to kidnap that craft and bring it to Diego García, training also for alternative landing places in other airports of the region, maybe in prevision of complications if the flight could not reach its destination.

This is my best reconstruction of the route taken by the airplane:

click to expand

Why didn't the pilot fly in straight line to Diego García? I can only guess that without land support he could only rely on visual and radar clues from landforms, otherwise risking to get lost in the vastness Indian Ocean.

Why did he fly to Diego García? I can fathom two theories: one is that he was collaborating with the US military apparatus to do precisely that, the other that he meant to attack the military base with some sort of biological agent that was carried in the plane. However if this is the case, why didn't the US military shot the plane down? Or did they?

The main reason to think that a biological agent of some sort is involved is that it has been reported in some media that the plane landing was quickly followed by flight in of a number of top medical staff from both the USA and China. 

According to that report, Flight 307 carried some sort of biological weapon delivered originally by US military via Seychelles, with the involvement of the private mercenary agency The Trident Group (made up of former Navy Seals). That biological weapon was intended for China but Beijing got notice so they decided to divert the plane to Hainan island in the south of the country.

According to this theory it was then when the Pentagon chose to divert the flight to a safe place: the military-only atoll of Diego García. 

However this does not explain why the pilot had trained to land in that island. Maybe it is a false lead, potentially thrown around to prepare public opinion for the "discovery" of the missing plane in the island or maybe he actually did and the biological cargo story is the false lead. 

Or whatever else. Honestly I do not know what to think at this point. 

But what seems clear is that the missing flight headed to Diego García and that some convoluted spy story is behind, maybe even a would-be biological attack against a major superpower, what is as akin to open war as I can think of. 

Not that this is of any help to the passengers and their relatives and friends, of course. Because they still await release and knowledge respectively.

Crimea massively votes to join Russia

95% of voters, out of a 81% turnout, chose to join Russia. 3% voted to remain in Ukraine with an improved status and 1% issued null votes (→ RT). 

Crimea was once part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Federative Republic (now Russian Federation) but was given away to Ukraine by decree of Krushev, who was Ukranian himself. After the dissolution of the USSR, it remained part of Ukraine in spite of some tensions, although Russia was allowed special military rights in the area of Sevastopol, which hosts a major naval base. 

After the fascist coup in Kiev, Crimeans quickly moved to establish their own independent status under Russian protection and soon their Parliament decided to unilaterally change the status quo, calling for a referendum in which citizens would vote for either remaining in Ukraine under much greater self-rule or join Russia. 

Poll propaganda

They also voted to improve the status of the reluctant Crimean Tatar minority and make their language co-official. 

It is clear to me that all peoples have the fundamental right to self-determination and while the circumstances leading to this episode are no doubt exceptional and I am no fan of Putin's Russia at all, I can't but congratulate the Crimean people for exerting their right to self-rule, more so in front of outright fascism. 

Ukrainian Army marches to the east but is contested by civilians

As heavy military equipment marches to the rebellious East of Ukraine, civilians have confronted them in many places. Often blocking them. 

While the soldiers appear to be reluctant to take part in the militaristic build up and especially to confront the civilians in any way, armed groups without badge, most likely political commissaries of the fascist parties, have threatened the civilians with their guns and pressed the soldiers to obey orders.

Blockaded military convoy

→ RT.

Where is the Malaysian lost airplane?

The airplane (CC by Laurent Herrera)

We all have already heard about the Malaysian missing airplane Flight 370, which was lost in the Gulf of Thailand never to be found again. 

You may also have read the reports of ringing but unanswered mobile phone calls that clearly indicate that the plane is not under the sea but somewhere on land, even if passengers and crew are not able to answer. 

This led to speculations that the airplane might be in some jungle area in SE Asia and that it could have been kidnapped rather than suffering an accident. 

However the latest information is that satellite data has allowed to track the plane to some 1000 miles West of Perth (Australia) in the middle of the Indian Ocean, not too far from the French colony of île Amsterdam. 

After gathering all the data, it seems that whoever kidnapped the plane deactivated the radar transponder (which identifies the flight to radars) and also another tracking device known as "Acars". Disabling this element is technically complex. However they did not deactivate the satellite antenna, what has allowed this tracking, providing a raw geographic location every hour. 

Other radar data suggests that the airplane was making abrupt altitude changes as it flew back into Malaysia and across the Malacca Strait. 

Source: Bloomberg.

Approximate route (my reconstruction) from published satellite and other tracking data

Many questions arise:

Which is the target of the attack? First claims by a previously unknown organization of alleged Islamist ideas suggested that they were targeting ethnic Chinese and China itself, however the claim may well be a false lead considering that the plane was most likely never blown up, judging on the evidence. Nevertheless China or some still ill-defined Chinese interest flying in the aircraft may still be the target but the issue remains blurry. 

Even more intriguing is where the heck are the kidnappers flying to? The flight was scheduled to land in Beijing, so it probably did not have too much extra fuel at its last reported location on the Indian Ocean. Therefore, as the aircraft must be on land, there are not so many places to search anymore: mostly the Easternmost French Antarctic Territory. 

Both Île Amsterdam and its neighbor Île Saint-Paul are uninhabited except for intermittent research activities, so it is very possible that the kidnapped plane is to be found in either of them. Of course it is difficult to judge without knowing the exact fuel amount carried but they are good candidates. Île Saint-Paul seems to be devoid of human presence most of the time (while Île Amsterdam has a more semi-permanent research base and it is still summer in that part of the World, so it is likely that some researchers are present right now).

The landscape of the islands is dominated by grasslands, however most of it is rugged, so there are probably only some few spots where such a large plane can take land.

Map of Amsterdam and Saint-Paul islands (1976, public domain).

Another question is why this satellite and radar data has not been available to the Malaysian and other Asian authorities performing the search? Or, if it was available, why was it ignored?

Finally why would the kidnappers fly to those forgotten islands under French jurisdiction (OK, unconfirmed but quite plausible)? Are French and other NATO secret services involved? Were they just chosen because of their desertic status? Did the kidnappers and (some of) the hostages take another plane or ship waiting for them there? Where to?

And then of course: are the hostages still alive?


Update (Mar 18): new informations suggest that the actual route of the plane was actually more northerly, through the Bay of Bengal in westward direction. If this is correct it is very possible that the plane actually took land in Diego García, a UK-US military base, whose native population was forcibly evicted long ago to make sure that the key strategic base was unmolested.

Quite worrying is the information that claims that soon after the plane's arrival to Diego García top medical experts from both the USA and China flew to the remote island, located south of the Maldivas. If confirmed, this would be most intriguing indeed.

In any case it seems extremely unlikely that a plane could fly undetected by at least the USA in that area. Therefore the lack of clear information about the whereabouts of the aircraft strongly imply US participation in the "diversion" of the plane, whatever means they used to do it.


Update (Mar 19): RT also seems to think that the plane headed westwards and they argue that the maneuver was deliberate and possibly controlled by hacking the autopilot computer. 

A new speculative destination is Afghanistan but Pakistan says it did not cross its airspace.

It seems more and more clear in any case that the airplane was intentionally diverted (kidnapped) and that that at least some authorities do know what is going on (the USA for sure but probably also other countries, although it's being kept secret so far).

Relatives of the passengers have threatened with a hunger strike if the Malaysian government does not release all the information.


Update (Mar 20): almost certainly the airplane is in Diego García. See: this new entry. 

Qatar World Cup built on the corpses of slave workers

Some 900 workers have already died in the construction of the Qatar World Cup facilities, and they have just begun. 

For comparison, 25 workers died in Sochi Olympics and 6 in the World Cup works of Brazil. 

The ITUC estimates that, at this pace, the human cost of the Qatar football festival will be of at least 4000 lives.

Why do so many workers die in Qatar? It is just normal in that area (not just Qatar but all the other fascist regimes of Arabia): the legal conditions for foreign workers are those of slavery and workers die in troves as result, not even considering all the other related abuses. 

Between 2010 and 2012 at least 700 Indian workers died in the Qatar construction industry (and that is just one nationality among many). Workers are retained wages (sometimes never paid) and passport, have no legal rights whatsoever and are being forced to work at 50 degrees Celsius (122F) without even access to free water. 

This is a true working class genocide being executed with all the blessings of the Western Capitalist Empire.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine.

Ukraine: fascists launch attacks against Kharkov and Donetsk

On Thursday fascist squads attacked protesters in Donetsk, one of the industrial cities of the East which resists the fascist de-facto authorities. 29 people were injured in the clashes between the pro-democracy demonstrators and the fascist thugs, who carried weapons. 

However the only deadly victim was a nazi of the Svoboda party, who was apparently stabbed while being carried in an ambulance.

On Friday Pravy Sektor armed thugs attacked local militias in Kharkov, the second largest Ukrainian city, injuring three citizens with bullets. The nazis have barrickaded themselves in their offices and police is allegedly planning to storm the building. 

Source: Russia Today (link 1, link 2 - both links include videos of the incidents).

Who is who in Ukraine's putschist government: all are fascists in fact

Interesting entry (in Spanish) at Project Goliath, explaining who is who in the new self-appointed government in Kiev:

Paraphrasing the popular Spanish TV show El Intermedio, they begin: you know the news already, now we will tell you the truth.

And the truth is that this is the new Ukrainian government:

Key:

• Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland"): Julia Timoschenko's party, oligarchic-reactionary. 87/450 seats in Parliament.
• Svoboda ("Freedom"): former Ukraine's National-Socialist Party, outright nazis advocating white supremacy, antisemitism and xenophobia. With the renaming of the party they have tried to present a less aggressive face, more in the line of the French National Front but it's obviously just facade. 20/450 seats in Parliament.
  
• Pravy Sektor ("Right Sector"): nazis, self-identified with the army which fought for Hitler in Ukraine, a key force in the Maidan putsch, making up the organized core of the "protest" and taking the Parliament by force. No representation.

It is important to note that they only represent a minority (107/450 seats) of the country and that they self-elected themselves by clicking the voting buttons of MPs impeded to access the Parliament, occupied by fascist squads. 

"Election" of the fascist government (more photos at WG)

President of the Republic: Oleksandr Turchinov (Batkivshchyna), pictured at right falsifying votes at his own election.

Cabinet:

• Prime Minister: Arseni Yatseniuk (Batkivshchyna).
• Vice-Prime Minister: Aleksandr Sych (Svoboda).
• Minister of Foreign Affairs: Andrei Deshitsa (Batkivshchyna).
• Minister of Defense: Igor Teniuj (Svoboda).
• Minister of Justice: Pavel Petrenko (Batkivshchyna).
• Minister of European Integration: Boris Tarasiuk (Batkivshchyna).
• Minister of Interior: Arsen Abakov (Batkivshchyna).
• → full list of ministers (there are more nazis, these are just a few).

National Security Council (military and intelligence coordination):

• President: Andrei Parubii (Svoboda).
• Vice-President: Dmitri Yarosh (Pravy Sektor).

Other key offices:

• Attorney General: Oleh Makhnitsky (Svoboda).
• Presidente of the Depuration Committee (in charge of purging the followers of the last elect President Yanukovych out of the administration and public life): Yegor Sobolev (independent, close to Batkivshchyna).
• President of the Anti-Corruption Bureau: Tatiana Chornobil (Batkivshchyna, former press chief of the fascist party National Ukrainian Rally). 

Even more fascist than its members are their extremist measures: they have banished the major Party of the Regions (of the only elect President Viktor Yanukovich) and the Communist Party as well, they have slashed pensions to half, extended retirement age, raised gas and electricity prices by 40-50%, also transport taxes by 50%, extended the VAT, they have privatized mines, removed all subsidies to municipal social services, as well as to school meals and textbooks, allowed again the privatization of public land, remove agricultural subsidies. Although unconfirmed, witnesses' information strongly suggest that they have sent the whole national gold reserves (40 tons) to the USA already. 

These are the "democratic" forces that the EU and the USA so strongly supports.

Gysi (Die Linke) denounces fascists in Ukraine

It seems one has to be a communist to recognize a fascist and the dire threat they represent to Humanity. All the rest, conservatives, liberals and socialdemocrats alike, look elsewhere and pretend nothing is happening. The same happened when Hitler came to power: only the communists faced him, while all the rest extended the red carpet for the worst dictatorship Europe has known. 

Gregor Gysi leads the main opposition party in Germany, Die Linke (The Left), and angrily criticized on Thursday the bourgeois coalition government of Angela Merkel for supporting the Fascist putsch in Ukraine. Excerpts:

They formed a new government..... Immediately recognized by president Obama by the EU and German government as well. Miss Merkel! The vice- prime minister, the defense minister, minister of agriculture, environment minister, the attorney general.. They are fascists!

With fascists in Ukraine we are doing nothing. Svoboda party has tight contacts with NPD and other Nazi parties in Europe.. The leader of this party, Oleg Tyagnibok, has recalled that literally.

He also acknowledged that European peoples have the right to self-determination and that this applies equally to Crimea, the Basque Country and Catalonia, exactly as happens with NATO-protected Kosova:

The Basques are asking why can't they make their choice, whether they want to stay within Spain or not? Catalans are asking, why can't they decide whether they want to belong to Spain or not. Of course people living in Crimea are asking the same thing. I think that Crimea breaking away from Ukraine is just the same as Kosovo.

NATO's aggressive policies in Europe were not spared:

When we restored Germany's unity, the US, German and other foreign ministers proclaimed there will be no NATO expansion to the east. But this promise has been broken. There was an expansion of NATO in Russia's direction. 

Source: Russia Today.  

Ukraine and the return of hardcore fascism to Europe.

Taken from the site of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM):

Europe’s Anti-Fascists, wake up! The Brown Plague is back!

13 March by Yorgos Mitralias

 

No doubt about it this time: Monstrous and horrible, the fascist threat is back, and our Europe doesn’t seem that bothered. The proof? Full-blooded Nazis who identify with the Third Reich and its SS divisions and who make Golden Dawn almost look like choirboys have some of the most painfully sensitive jobs (public order, defense, justice) in the interim Ukrainian cabinet! And more than that. Them being there doesn’t shock either the media, who are falling over themselves to describe them as “nationalists”, or our own dear European leaders of every stripe (including social democrats) who are quick to recognize them as completely suitable partners.

Altogether, it’s as if the Nuremburg Trials had never happened! But that’s not all. What’s worse is that the followers of these ghosts of a world we wrongly thought had vanished are now parading in their thousands armed to the teeth through the streets of Kiev and Lviv, and above all they are winning the confidence of a lot of their compatriots. Because, paradoxical or not, it is sadly a fact that the genuinely popular revolt which has just swept the Yanukovitch regime away includes among its leaders the Svoboda people full of nostalgia for Bandera’s collaboration with the Nazis and ̶ above all ̶ the rising star of the Praviy Sektor neo-Nazis.

Now if Svoboda and Praviy Sektor can be part of the Ukrainian government without our European and North American leaders ̶ or our leading media and other international institutions for that matter ̶ getting too upset, don’t be surprised if one fine day all these nice neo-liberals accept without a quibble the presence of a party like Golden Dawn in a future Greek government. If Dmytro Yarosh, the Praviy Sektor party boss, can be Andriy Parubi’s deputy (and he was the founder of the Ukrainian National Socialist Party) at the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, why shouldn’t Golden Dawn Führer N. Mihaloliakos be minister of defence or public order in Greece tomorrow? One more reason to see what is going on in Ukraine as a real turning-point in post-war European history, a huge qualitative leap in the neo-fascist menace now hanging over all of us.

But that’s not all. Quite apart from the turn events are going to take in the unfolding confrontation on Ukrainian soil involving not just Russia and Ukraine (both as reactionary as each other and held as medieval fiefs by oligarchs) but also the big imperialist powers of our day, everything indicates that the already powerful Ukrainian neo-Nazis will be the only winners from the ravages which not only the IMF austerity policies but the warlike nationalist winds sweeping the region are bound to inflict. The consequences are not hard to foresee: The armed Ukrainian neo-Nazis will probably be able to extend their influence beyond Eastern Europe and spread the gangrene across our whole continent! How? First of all by imposing a relationship of forces more favourable to militant neo-Nazism inside the growing far-right camp in Europe. Then, by serving as a model to export at least to near neighbours (including Greece) already smarting badly under austerity policies and contaminated by the racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and neo-fascist viruses. And obviously not forgetting the sizable “argument” of the thousands and thousands of weapons ̶ some of them heavy ̶ in their hands which they will not fail to export. The conclusion is eye-watering: the whole landscape, the balance and relationship of forces, will inevitably be shifted, at the expense of working-class trade unionists, left-wing organisations and social movements. In simple words, the stuff of nightmares…

So what more does it take to rouse the European left out of its present torpor, sound the alarm, mobilise urgently and as fast as possible to take the only initiative capable of containing the approaching fascist and crypto-fascist tsunami: an initiative which cannot but aim to create a united, democratic, radical, long-term, mass European anti-fascist movement which combines the struggle against draconian neo-liberal austerity policies with the struggle against the Brown plague wherever it shows itself. The time has long gone for hesitations and the illusion that it’s all happening far away, or hiding behind the daily routine of anti-fascist work in your own locality or your own country, and not giving much of a damn what is going on over the border. First, because even before the wake-up call from the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, the situation in eastern Europe was ̶ and remains ̶ beyond alarming and fully justifies a general mobilisation against the impetuous rise of the extreme right. And then, because, necessary as they are, national and regional anti-fascist struggles are not enough; they don’t have what it takes to deal with today’s completely exceptional and historic circumstances.

In other words, Anti-fascists of Europe, wake up, because it is already five minutes to midnight and history looks like repeating itself just as tragically as the past…

Yorgos Mitralias, member of the Greek Committee of the Initiative of the European Anti-Fascist Manifesto (www.antifscismeuropa-ellada.gr)

Commentary: 

Pretty much my own feelings: if we allow that a Nazi government establishes itself in Ukraine or anywhere in Europe, it will be only the beginning of the end for all us Europeans. 

Ukraine has been "punished" with the imposition of a putschist Nazi government whose first measure has been to slash pensions by half, to a mere $80, and send all its gold reserves abroad, under US "custody", because it dared to resist, even if just weakly, the colonialist pressure by the IMF and the Troika.

Tomorrow it will happen in your country unless the working class gets organized and ready to fight. 

A key element of the Ukrainian case is that, with the exception of Zaporozhia, where the Communist Party and allies formed popular militias even before the coup was consolidated, the social fabric lacked grassroots organization, especially class organization. As we know from historical experience, only decided worker class action (by all means necessary because fascists are not people you can convince with mere words nor peaceful demonstrations) can stop fascism on its heels. 

Ukraine is not any exception. It is just the first symptom of the European fascist illness reaching a new dramatic stage. Capitalists are plundering us and they mean to continue to do so by all means, and those means include naked fascism. Now is Ukraine, tomorrow may well be Greece, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Britain, Germany... It's not any paranoia: it is a most real armed threat against our beloved human rights. A threat that, if we do not stand firmly against, will swallow us into the worst nightmare of all. 

No pasarán! No, they won't... if we do ready for the unavoidable fight. 

See also: European Antifascist Manifesto.

Zionist murder machine bombs Gaza massively

On the Wednesday-Thursday night, the Zionist military aviation bombed the Gaza macro-ghetto not less than nine times. This was followed by artillery bombing. 

Miraculously this time no personal victims are reported in spite of at least 50 impacts.

The attack comes as growing escalation happened between Palestinian militias and the Zionist genocidal forces, after these killed a militant, what was responded by the firing of some 130 homemade rockets.

The Zionist minister Avigdor Lieberman (a crudely Nazi Russian settler) demanded the re-occupation of Gaza Strip by the colonial army, something that obviously would report more costs than benefits to the Western colonial enclave known as "Israel". However I guess it sounds populist enough in the bully cowboy mentality of the Zionist settler community that controls Palestine with full NATO support.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

NATO and Russia piling up armies around Ukraine

The latest news are that the USA is reinforcing its military in Poland, while Russia is doing the same at their border with Ukraine. This happens after Crimea has formed its own separate Army (they already took over most of the Ukrainian Navy) and Gazprom declared Ukraine in default, threatening to cut the gas (what should also affect Central Europe, as we know from previous such experiences). 

The latest tweets indicate that the Russians already control the air traffic in Crimea and that the border with Ukraine is controlled by Russian troops, temporarily closing all commercial transit tonight, except with Russia (it's expected to be open again by tomorrow). Transiting between Crimea and Ukraine now needs a stamped passport.

It is very possible that the situation escalates in the next hours or days, as there is no legitimate authority in Ukraine anymore, with the new Kiev government being appointed directly by Washington, packed with Nazi ministers, lacking any sort of democratic legitimacy and acting like the proverbial elephant in the china shop with the most chaos-provoking measures, such as slashing the pensions to a mere $8, persecuting Russian language or banishing major political forces like the Party of Regions or the Communist Party. Not to mention their reliance on fascist local forces and mercenaries from abroad. 

It is as if Ukraine became almost overnight no man's land in the imperialist gameboard... but then of course it is packed with some 50 million people. Sadly for them, most have no political conscience nor organization and now the whole country has become free for grabs in the "Pipelinestan" wars, in which every dirty oligarch hopes to win but not of course the Ukrainian people... or should I say "peoples"?

Ukraine is reported by some to have about 1/4 or 1/3 of the known shale gas reserves on Earth, however most of it is in the Russian-speaking East, a traditional coal mining and heavy industry area. The USA and its EU protectorate want it, Russia wants to be able to manage it somehow, as their own economy heavily depends on gas exports. But for Russia much more is at stake than just the gas or the pipelines: Moscow itself is not too far away from the Ukrainian border.

The big question is: how far is the USA and its protectorates willing to bet in this conflict, because I guess it is pretty clear that Russia cannot yield a meter without signing its own death sentence in the upcoming scene of the Pipe-Wars. 

Similarly China cannot and will not abandon Russia in this fight because, if Russia falls to the Western imperialism, then China would become terribly isolated, even in the highly complex case that they manage to retain Siberia in their orbit somehow. China is less and less reliant on the Russian military might, inherited from the Soviet Union, however it is probably still not ready to face the Empire alone either. 

What seems clear is that Ukraine has become destitute and without any credible central power that can keep the country together, much less under such heavy foreign pressure by both sides. Crimea is already effectively and quite willingly in Russian hands, the rest of Ukraine may end up splitting in two. 

But will both imperialist states actually come to war over it?

USA invades Ukraine

US paramilitary troops (Academi, former Blackwater) have been seen and filmed occupying the city of Donetsk, one of several in Eastern Ukraine which have risen up against the new Nazi government of Kiev.

The soldiers carry no ensign but use US style uniforms, and behave as occupying troops, being identified as "Blackwater" by onlookers (Academi has not commented on the accusations). They are most likely US mercenaries according to the Daily Mail:

After the Nazi coup in Kiev, the new government gave the Eastern provinces to oligarchs as if they were conquered territories to be administered by feudal lords. Most of them (at the very least Kharkov, Donetsk and Zaporizhia) have experienced popular uprisings against the Nazi authorities imposed with the help of NATO and Israel. 

All this is not just the concern of Ukraine and Russia but actually has a potentially devastating effect in all Europe. And I'm not talking of the possibility of open war but of the most worrisome development of the imposition of a Nazi government in any European state: today it is Ukraine but tomorrow it may be your own. 

If this experiment works, if Europeans do not rise up against Fascism in Ukraine now, then we face a similarly horrible future in the rest of the continent. There's only one thing to do versus fascism: to oppose it actively by all means. Otherwise we will suffer the consequences. 


Update: Russia Today informs that the incident happened on February 5th in the context of a requested "safe evacuation" of the imposed Nazi-oligarchic new authorities, rejected by the vast majority of the locals who were besieging the local government building.

They also mention a fascist shock attack against demonstrators in Kharkov, the second largest city of Ukraine, demanding a similar referendum as the one to be held in Crimea this week with the options of joining Russia or establishing relations with Kiev on equal footing.