Hariri's kidnapping is just part of a major coup in Saudi Arabia

This intereview with Lebanese journalist Marwa Osman at The Corbett Report is most interesting:

The most luxurious hotel in Riyadh is now a prison for all the princes in the realm. Furthermore at least one key prince, Fahed bin Abdullah was killed by gunfire. Incidentally this man was best friend since childhood of kidnapped Lebanese PM Hariri and his business partner.

Israel and Washington behind the scenes

In min. 14:55 she says: "He [Mohamed bin Salman] sees Hizbollah as a threat to himself. I don't know why, because Hizbollah is a threat to Israel not to him".

To understand that one has to take in account the revelations that Prince Khalid bin Farhan al-Saud made in June to the Middle East Monitor: Mohamed has made a deal with Trump by which the USA backs his bid for total power, including speedy ascension to the throne (his father, the nominal king, has Alzheimer). in exchange for Saudi blessing and financing for the Final Solution against Gaza Strip, a territory that Israel now covets for their version of the Suez Canal. 

I discussed this and the sudden hostility against Qatar here.

Very weird: Saudi Arabia kidnaps Lebanese Prime Minister and forces his resignation

The weirdest of all things is that Saad Hariri is widely considered as very close to Saudi Arabia.

In spite of that affinity, the Lebanese PM is effectively kidnapped in Riyadh and had to record a resignation, written in the Saudi dialect of Arabic, which was broadcast by the Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya. The statement also included a total rejection of Hezbollah, something very Saudi but very much non-Lebanese.

Watch this interview (TRN) for further details:

Saudi strongman and heir to the throne, Mohamed bin Salman, has been doing all kind of weird things as of late: kidnapping many of his own relatives, what seems intended to quell all possible opposition to his takeover, backed by the USA in exchange for very cruel favors to Israel (they are planning the "final solution" to the Palestinian "problem").

This seems like yet another move intended to consolidate Mohamed's power by paying the horrible price of genocide and treason to Israel and its US colonial motherland. It's wacko but it fits. 

Surely the USA already has orchestrated the replacement and is one that will serve the interests of Zionism.

Catalonia: Spain escalates repression, shoots itself on the foot.

Military police car taken over by protesters

Telegraphically: This morning the Spanish state has assaulted the Catalan Government (Generalitat) and arrested 12 people, including many high officers of the elect government. Last minute info indicates that masked police forces have surrounded the offices of the radical left independentist party Popular Unity Lists (CUP). Several separatist parties have abandoned the Spanish Congress as result. The center of Barcelona is full of people in spontaneous demonstration. Protests are being held in other places as well, including here in Bilbao (Basque Country). The only de facto all-Spain opposition party Podemos has called for a conference of mayors and other elect officers tomorrow in Zaragoza (the Spanish nationalist right-wing parties PP and Ciudadanos have not been invited, the Spanish nationalist center-left PSOE has rejected to go but all other forces are going). While we can't say the situation is "revolutionary", it is certainly most anomalous and in many sense "pre-revolutionary", particularly because the Spanish state cannot effectively fight against the peoples, much less with the extremely low level of legitimacy it has after so much corruption, austericide and repression. We cannot exclude at this point that a general strike of political nature could be called, even if the main unions are quite sheeply and definitely unionist.

The situation is definitely critical in any case. Some relevant Twitter hashtags: #ReferèndumCat, #MAMBO.

Killed in "mysterious circumstances" the judge that scared Brazilian putschists

The Brazilian neo-colonial coup that aims to put the South American giant back into square one of corruption and submission to "western" corporations has gone one step further into the achievement of its goals: Supreme Court judge Teori Zavascki (pictured) died in "mysterious" airplane accident, along three other people, near Rio. 

Zavascki was investigating the so called Lava Jato scandal, which deals with corruption in state-owned Petrobras. This upcoming week 77 executives were going to be interrogated, enjoying partial immunity for reporting on corruption of high officers, many of whom are believed to be supporters of putschist "president" Temer, and quite possibly most of the cabinet and the "president" himself.

Interestingly it is Temer the one who is supposed to chose his successor in the investigation, what basically means the end of the case. There is an exception in case of "conflict of interests" but it is unclear if it will be used at all. 

Once again evil wins, wake up people, sharpen the pitchforks! Or do you really want your sons and daughters to become slaves in the hell-on-earth that is being forged by the oligarchs?

Source: Público[es].

Erdogan arrests MPs in a new phase of his totalitarian coup

The Islamist President has launched a new offensive against what may remain of "democracy" in the Turkish Republic. Tayyip Erdogan, self-proclaimed admirer of Hitler and one of the main backers of Islamist terror in Syria and Iraq, has taken yet another step forward in his career to become an absolutist tyrant, ordering the arrest of many leaders of the Democratic Party of the Peoples (HDP), including its two co-presidents, which are both MPs. In order to do that he has decreed the end of Parliamentary immunity. 

Among the victims of Erdogan's fascist repression are Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag (photo), Turkish and Kurdish, male and female, co-presidents of the internationalist and socialist party that was in the last half-transparent elections (the last ones were a partial fraud) the third largest in the Turkish state and, by far, the largest one in Northern Kurdistan and some other "less Turkish" areas of the East. Also arrested have been the co-mayors of Diyarbakir, Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli, who have been replaced by some guy directly appointed by Ankara. Many other HDP MPs have been arrested as well.

Connection to Internet in North Kurdistan and possibly other areas of the Turkish state has been severed. In the rest of the state access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. is extremely difficult. 

Coverage of what is happening, in Western as well as in Russian media, is scant at best, very distorted at worst. 

Erdogan's slow motion coup recap

Right after the (staged?) military putsch attempt of July, Erdogan began purging the state from everyone who disagreed with him: public officers, judges, teachers, etc. were expelled en masse. This was the real coup, something Erdogan had prepared beforehand. A new phase of the coup is happening this week: first he jailed key progressive journalists of the main independent newspaper Cumhuriyet, now he's frontally charging against the HDP. If someone blinks, as Merkel just did, he says that they are "aiding terrorism", by which he means not the terrorism of his Islamist paramilitary dogs nor the one perpetrated by the Turkish state against Kurds recently as well, but the armed struggle of the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK). 

Incidentally the very first part of Erdogan's coup was to break the years-long truce with the PKK (using, as the Nazis did so often, a false flag attack as pretext) in September 2015. This change of Kurdish policy awaited almost exactly until the arm of Syriza was broken in the Greece-EU standoff of early 2015. Why? Because earlier he was ready to stage a war against Greece if Athens dared to disobey the Troika's mandate. Only once the "western front" was clear, he turned to the "eastern front" with all his might and cruelty. That is because the petty dictator knew that Turkey would have a very hard time fighting in those two fronts simultaneously, plus the still not healed internal Turkish class front (remember the widespread 2013 protests). 

But why would Turkey attack Greece? Because the Western powers asked them maybe? Well, I can't say for sure but most probably yes. It was mainly because of the unspoken but known Turkish threat that Greece could not afford to challenge the Troika, exactly the same reason why Cyprus could never incorporate the British colonial bases because, well, Turkey invaded the north of the island back in the day.  

So when Erdogan now, after the mysterious military coup of which we know almost nothing, appears to have pushed him towards Russia, I just have a very hard time believing anything. Putin is here behaving very naively, in my opinion, unless he has some hidden cards that I am unaware of. It would not be the first time the retorted maneuvers of the Western secret services catch the Kremlin off guard anyhow, look at what happened in Ukraine! 

Russia is tough in the military aspect no doubt but when it comes to intelligence they seem to be always behind NATO and particularly Washington. It is not the first time that Russia plays unwillingly the West's game: a lot of UN Security Council resolutions that gave the USA pretext for war against small countries, from Afghanistan to Syria itself, were passed with the approval of Moscow and Beijing. Putin is not that smart, really: he's been conned too often. Maybe this Turkey's flirting is just another instance of the same NATO convoluted power games, or maybe is just Erdogan on his own tricking Russia into not backing the PKK (a well funded Kurdish guerrilla would be a nightmare for his totalitarian aspirations), only to backstab Moscow later again when he feels stronger.  

In any case Erdogan, Hitler's 21st century apprentice, is clearly consolidating his totalitarian power in the Turkish state, without making any major concessions to anyone, blackmailing the EU into submission by manipulation of refugee flows and quite possibly terrorist attacks signed by his loyal DAESH puppet, making peace with Russia after shooting down their airplane and keeping the very all-powerful USA unwilling to make any sudden move against him. 

One could say it's masterful, I say it's devilish. 

Turkey's coup: Erdogan is doing it right now.

Who was behind July 15th coup has become less important than what is going on after it in Turkey. For all we know, Erdogan himself may have staged or induced the failed military coup (whose structure is still unknown) in order to make a much hardest putsch from the government. About one third of all state officers at nearly all levels are being purged (either arrested, dismissed or ordered to resign), including not just military officers but police, judges, civil servants and lots of teachers. Right in the aftermath of the putsch, massive purge lists, obviously prepared long before, were issued so Erdogan and his islamo-fascists can take full control of the state, beginning by the judiciary. 

The fact that the military putsch failed to achieve anything of note, not capturing a single minister or taking any institution other than, briefly, a few media outlets, strongly suggests that the coup was staged or induced by the Machiavellian Hitler-loving Turkish President, although direct, definite, evidence of this has not yet surfaced. 

In any case, real or fake, the military uprising has led to another much more clear type of putsch, a self-coup by Erdogan himself against the last remnants of democracy and secularism in Turkey. The first stage, that of taking full control of the state apparatus is well under way, while a second stage is foreseeable and will begin with the illegalization of the multiethnic, left-wing federalist party HDP, which represents the spirit of the 2013 popular uprising against Erdogan's islamo-fascism. As happened with the rise of Hitler, openly admired by Erdogan, the social-democratic (and Kemalist) CHP, the largest opposition party, will be left in limbo, boiling in internal contradictions, until the final decree of dissolution is issued in due time. The secularist fascist MHP will be in turn forced into assimilation to the AKP, purging any dissidence. 

Alternatively a soft fascism will be implemented instead (as in Iran, Russia or Hungary), allowing token democracy and only illegalizing the HDP, whose legal fate is surely sealed. This option would allow for Turkey to remain in NATO without causing excessive scandal (not that outright dictatorships have been absent of NATO in the past but it seems harder to defend nowadays). In any case Erdogan's hold on power and the political islamization and fascistization of Turkey can be taken for granted. 

Whatever the case, it seems that Erdogan's islamo-fascism is becoming entrenched in the Turkish state and that this failed coup is serving his totalitarian pursuit as the Reichstag's fire served his admired precursor Adolf Hitler.

Saber-ratting ahead of Catalan "independence" elections

After the Catalan independence referendum of November 2014 produced a 80.72% in favor of independence, but with very low voter turnout, and this result was flatly ignored by Spain, the Catalan government decided to call plebiscitary elections, which are normal regional elections a bit before schedule and with a twist. 

This twist was initially to gather all pro-independence parties and social movements into a single list that, assuming victory, would manage the declaration and implementation of independence, unilaterally if need be, in two years. Finally the leftist CUP (Popular Unity List) abandoned this plan because it was too much under the control of the two bourgeois parties allied in the current governmet (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, CDC, and Catalan Republican Left, ERC) and is running on their own ticket. 

The joint list Junts pel Sí (Together for the Yes) is set to win and nearly all polls announce an independentist majority, which must count with the CUP in any case. The key legitimacy question is whether that majority of seats will correspond to a majority of votes. They are close (48-49% in most polls) but not quite there yet. On Sunday night we should get to know, stay tuned because this may be a game changer. 

It must be mentioned that another left-leaning list, Catalunya sí que es Pot (Catalonia Can Indeed, blend of Podemos, United Left and independents), set to be the third group in Parliament, is formally neutral on the issue of independence and tries to focus on social issues instead. Usually the media counts them as anti-independence but they are just not defined and do defend the right to self-determination in any case. The truly unionist parties could get some 38%, mostly around the quasi-fascist Ciutadans (Citizens), while the traditional Spanish twin party is just collapsing to anecdotal irrelevance. 

The latest Diada (Catalan National Day) demo on September 11th, rallied again some 1.5-2 million people in the streets, what is a huge figure in a country of just 7.5 million inhabitants. It may be unclear if they can muster a technical majority but it is very clear that they are a huge force. 

Diada 2015 (ETB photo)

Meanwhile in the military barracks

Yesterday I read that the 22nd Telecommunications Regiment of the Spanish Army, whose base sits right besides the state-owned Spanish Radio-Television (RTVE), has "invited" all workers of this company to swear loyalty to Spain precisely this week. The direction of the entity has backed the offer, which has no precedent whatsoever, not even in Franco's time. 

The poisonous invitation is very symptomatic of which are the state's plans for Catalonia: military intervention and suppression of the autonomy. As the campaign is still ongoing, ministers and other unionist politicians are avoiding this issue and focusing on "how bad" it'd be for Catalonia to become independent, but what will happen after Sunday? 

My expectation is that at some point Spain will just declare the martial law in the secessionist territory and try that way to block their ongoing process of self-determination. The consequences of such development are truly unpredictable. That's how Yugoslavia fell into war: by blocking manu militari the Kosovar process of self-determination. 

Mingled into all this are the all-Spain elections, expected to take place at the latest possible date: December, in which the ruling party PP, as well as the traditional other party PSOE, are set to lose much of their previous support. However a right-wing PP-Ciudadanos coalition or a great coalition PP-PSOE are being speculated about. 

So you are aware of what's going on when the events that will take place. I hope for the best but fear the worst.

Was June 27 the day the EU began its implosion?

Rally yesterday in Madrid in solidarity with Greece (source)

Often only historians can in a retrospective manner gauge properly the relevance of key events like yesterday's series of door slams at Brussels, but, from the limited viewpoint of someone actively following the developments around Greece's neo-colonial demolition and the Euro-crisis in general, I would think it was: yesterday, June 27 2015, marks the beginning of the end of the European Union as we used to know it. 

Said that, the collapse will be played at slow-motion and the EU will not vanish overnight but it already bears deadly injuries that nobody seems able or even willing to heal, because healing them would imply to challenge the dictatorship of the bankster and other big capital's mafia and would imply also to challenge the national-imperialist attitudes of many of its members, especially Northern ones, worried only about striking a colonial plunder profit rather than about "building Europe".

People's choice

Some 33 hours have passed since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced that he would call a referendum on a still unsigned deal with the so-called "Troika" or "the institutions". Since then, the Greek Parliament has held a 14-hour session which approved by a large majority the holding of such referendum. Also the conservative pro-bankster opposition, the much eroded New Democracy party of A. Samaras, announced a vote of no-confidence against Tsipras that is just a mere show, as it has no chances of success whatsoever. 

The exact content of the matter to be put to vote is unclear to me, as no deal was ever reached in the end. 

In any case it is clear that Tsipras cannot force, as Venizelos first and Samaras later did, the Greek People to sign something they are not willing to accept, even if reluctantly. The referendum is a must and it ends with half a decade of one-sided anti-democratic impositions by the bankster mafia and its bureaucratic puppets. 

It is not an easy decision but it is one that nobody can take in place of the sovereign Greek People. 

Euro-putsch!

The real sign of the incipient collapse of the European Union was not the referendum however. It was the illegal and putschist decision of excluding Minister Varoufakis from the Eurogroup meeting yesterday. 

The exact details are unclear but by all accounts Yanis Varoufakis was impeded from access to the second trench of the Eurogroup meeting yesterday. This is simply illegal and underlines the lack of democracy and transparency that plagues the European Union.

Tsipras qualified this episode as "a black day" in the history of the Eurozone. I would rather describe it as a full-fledged coup. 

Spain's Finance Minister Luis de Guindos instead watered down the relevance of the incident considering that the meeting was "informal" and that "nobody contemplates the exit of Greece from the Euro" (that would be illegal as well, of course: only Greece can legally take that decision on account of its sovereignty). 

However the maimed Eurogroup issued a communication as such institution with a mere footnote noticing that the Greek minister was absent and did not ratify the decision. So it was indeed a Eurogroup meeting, even if an illegal one: the Euro-putsch has begun!

Ripple effect

The underlying problem of all this is that the official "austerity" policies are totally rigged and do not work. In the case of Greece, it is being demanded to once and again to kill their hens, destroying the egg production altogether and making recovery impossible. 

Instead of taxing the wealthy and capitalist profits, the whole plan is about taxing the common people for their daily needs, while at the same time cruelly slashing their income sources such as salaries and pensions. Instead of cutting in wasteful expenditures such as the military, the burden of austerity is totally placed on social expenditure. Instead of taking from the profits of public companies, the Greek state is being forced to suppress that source of income by underselling its property to greedy speculators.

But it does not only affect Greece: it affects every other EU state. A major collateral risk, five times the size of Greece, in all this crisis is Spain, where the situation is also very bad, with extremely high unemployment and destruction of the productive fabric. And all to pay the bailout of some stupid bank that was managed in a most corrupt way and which is engaged, like the rest of its mafioso ilk, in the criminal activity of evicting people from their homes and other scams.

A takeover of power by the "radical" Left is still unlikely to happen in this case but some of that is already taking place at local and regional institutions, putting upside down the corrupt power schemes of the pro-Troika Spanish Right. Key in this matter will be the stand of the Spanish equivalent of the PASOK, the PSOE. So far it has mostly chosen (with important exceptions) to cut deals with Podemos and popular unity lists in towns and regions (implying important programmatic concessions) but at state level, when the real substance is being decided, I bet they will rather choose to form a "great coalition" with the conservatives, following the suicidal example of the PASOK but also a model that has been worked out in Germany and, briefly, in Italy, with varied results.

But, considering that the greed of the bankster mafia knows no bounds, and that "loot while you can" is the only plan that Global Capitalism has, the situation in Spain and other EU states, probably most, will only worsen in the next few years, so I would forecast the full collapse of the EU by the end of the decade. 

It won't be simple but one thing is clear: there is nothing substantial they can do to impede it other than foster civil war via terrorist mercenaries as in Syria or Ukraine. Not a very productive plan if you ask me, really. And such developments within the core of the US Empire (i.e. Western Europe, which is about the last meaningful solid holding it has overseas) can only spell the end of the Western World Order as we have known it for the last five centuries or so. 

We are going to witness and very possibly be part of major dramatic changes in no time, that is for sure. Get ready!

Documentary: Nazi Ukraine 2014

A few days ago I linked to a self-made Donetsk uprising video-documentary, here there is the other side of the coin: an up-to-date scary documentary on the Nazism right now in control of Ukraine:

Ukraine Crisis Today- Democracy caught on... por yeniyoruk

Judge yourself who are the good guys in this European war. There is no doubt for me.

My apologies for the annoying publicity inserted. It comes like that.

Via: Webguerrillero[es].

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.

Egypt: did Morsi lose the support of the Army for his plans to attack Syria and Ethiopia?

That's what Press TV and some other media say, echoing an analysis issued first by the Washington Post.

The combination of Morsi’s aggressive designs against Syria, together with some trial balloons from presidential circles about a possible conflict with Ethiopia, plus the massive anti-Morsi demonstrations organized by the National Salvation Front and the Tamarod movement, convinced military leaders that the incompetent and erratic Morsi, who had destroyed his own popularity by selling out to the demands of the International Monetary Fund last November, represented an intolerable risk for Egypt.

According to the Washington Post, the dissatisfaction of the Egyptian military with Morsi “peaked in June, when Morsi stood by twice as officials around him called for Egyptian aggression against Ethiopia and Syria, threatening to suck Egypt into conflicts that it could ill afford, former military officials said.” 

Regarding Ethiopia:

In the spring of this year, tensions rose between Egypt and Ethiopia when the government in Addis Ababa announced its intention to build a dam on the Blue Nile, prompting concerns by some in Egypt about future water supplies downstream. On June 2, with Morsi in attendance, Islamist politicians recklessly discussed how to sabotage the dam by funding Ethiopian rebel groups, followed by an attack by the Egyptian air force. Unknown to the participants, this incendiary discussion was broadcast on live television. Many were long to see that Morsi did not repudiate these proposals for naked aggression, but instead later commented that “all options are open.” 

Of course these would be at most just elements of a more complex scenario in which the disgraced President threw himself, his movement and all Egypt by repeatedly bowing to Washington, Tel Aviv and the IMF.

Egypt: the plans of the military are bourgeois, not democratic

According to the transition plan designed by the military, before any elections take place the current provisional government (or a committee named by it) will design a new constitution on which the citizens will only be able to say yes or no. That's not democratic: there will be no new constituent assembly and the current islamist constitution will only be amended, retaining elements like the officialdom of Sunni Islam and the Sharia as inspiration for the law.

The government is already full of imperial puppets like Mohamed El-Baradei and neoliberal economist Hazem El-Beblawi, supporter of the cut of subsidies to basic food and oil. This non-democratic government is, in the analysis of the Revolutionary Communist Grouping (ACR) of Chile, a "Bonapartist" regime determined to keep the cooperation with the Zionist colonial enclave and to carry on a deeply anti-social economic policy.

All this shows that the military intervention, far from being the culmination of the Egyptian Revolution is still a mere incident in a clearly unfinished process because all those were exactly the reasons that brought millions to the streets to oppose Morsi and Mubarak before him. As soon as the anti-social neoliberal policies manifest in full, the streets of Egypt will be boiling again most probably. These people will solve nothing, their only advantage being the lack of a class movement worth that name among Egyptians.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Egypt: the "coup" is product of the popular revolution, not the other way around

image from WG

Let my stand on this matter be absolutely clear: regardless of whatever contacts and interactions between the actors involved, when millions walk out persistently in demand of change it cannot be caused by any single nor composite socio-political force but it responds to the real demands, anger and outrage of the People. In Egypt as in Turkey, Brazil or anywhere else.

Another thing is where the processes triggered by such a human tsunami leads to. Probably nowhere without a socialist alternative that can fulfill the popular demands of "bread, freedom and social justice", and this alternative seems so far not in the menu. 

But in any case:

1. Morsi was ruling almost illegally: when the Supreme Court annulled the Parliamentary and Constitutional Assembly elections (on quite good grounds), he did not obey and call new elections, obviously fearing that their pool position advantage (tolerated by Mubarak, sponsored by Saudi Arabia) had been already very eroded.
2. Critically, Morsi was ruling illegitimately, just as Rajoy does in Spain or Erdogan in Turkey. When you do not have the backing of a clear majority anymore, you must put your power at the disposition of the People, calling new elections. It is not and never will be legitimate to stay in power when popular support wanes in such dramatic manner. No matter what laws and constitutions say, they should say otherwise. 
3. Morsi has been an obedient puppet of the USA and its main regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Against the clear will of the Egyptian People he did not even open the border with Gaza in order to alleviate the Zionist siege and he has played always in favor of the Capitalist system of exploitation and therefore has not been able or even willing to solve the dire problems of the Egyptians, which cannot be solved in a Capitalist frame, be it fundamentalist or secular, authoritarian or pseudo-democratic. 
4. The Egyptian Army is highly dependent on US subsidies, being (with Israel and Colombia) one of the top beneficiaries of US military aid. The reason is obvious: the canals (Suez Canal in this case), as well as Egypt being a major regional power, at least potentially. Therefore we should not expect it to bite the hand that feeds them: their main interest is the stability within the Western-Capitalist imperial order, as that is what their master commands. Therefore their intervention is clearly intended to canalize the protests to a stable outcome and nothing else. 
5. Similarly the Muslim Brotherhood is highly dependent on financing by Saudi Arabia and other Arab tyrannies and therefore they will negotiate their place in the new system, knowing that they still have many supporters which will grant them a place under the sun in the new parliament and maybe government. If they do otherwise they will surely fragment and become quite irrelevant. 

The only one who is not dependent on foreign subsidies is the Egyptian Working People. Their demands are clear: bread, freedom and social justice. Will they be met by the new government? I doubt it but only time will tell.

Honduras: large demonstrations in the 4th anniversary of the coup - many murdered this week

The FNRP marched in large numbers through the streets of the Central American country in repulse of the coup staged four years ago against President Zelaya with obvious support of the USA and the "libertarian" (fascist ultra-capitalist) mafias of The Empire. 

The party sponsored by the FNRP, LIBRE, is set to win the announced November elections if there is no vote rigging, followed by the maverick "Anti-Corruption Party" of S. Nasralla. The coup-sponsoring "traditional" parties ("National" and "Liberal") are set to become third and fourth forces respectively.

Source: LINyM[es] (includes many more images).


At least 8 murdered on Wednesday alone

Three members of LIBRE were shot dead in Juticapa, Olancho, (Silvia Aguiriano, Teresa Matute and an unnamed bodyguard). The attack was blamed on the narco mafia gang of Lucio Rivera by Aguriano's husband.

Denis del Cid Oliva, a trader from Francisco Morazán, was also shot dead earlier in the day.

Early in the day, in San Pedro Sula, a van was found with four corpses inside, apparently all them young people who were tied and put in plastic bags.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Venezuela: clash between conspirators at the heart of the bourgeois opposition

A tapped conversation between MUD deputy María Corina Machado and a close friend, the historian Germán Carrera Damas, illustrates how leading sectors of the opposition are conspiring with the USA to precipitate a crisis leading to a coup or civil war.

The tape, made public by the ruling party PSUV in TV, shows that Machado feels displaced within the MUD by Secretary General R.G. Aveledo and that there are some serious differences between both about the international and national strategy to follow, including it seems the strategy of de-stablization of Venezuela a so called "coup" or "self-coup". The particulars are not too clear so judge yourselves but my impression is that Aveledo wants to trigger a crisis and promote a coup, while Machado, while very extremist herself, seems more interested in diplomatically isolating Venezuela instead. But it's hard to discern the details. Judge yourselves because I have transcribed all the relevant discussion (essentially a nervous monologue by Machado) below:

Translation:

MCM: I am seeing that of Henrique Capriles, who has taken some firm stands but who when retracted on that Wednesday 17 gave us a horrible signal. If you say that you were robbed the election, then you are elect president, right?

GCD: Right.

MCM: If you are elect president...

GCD: ... either you act as such or you are admitting that yours has been, don't know, a fall a...

MCM: No, and then another thing: the reaction of Guillermo Aveledo to the meeting of Jaua and [US Senator John] Kerry seems to me so terrible. Let's see: which was the answer? "It is marvelous that relations are reestablished because we want Venezuela to have relations with all countries"...

GCD: No, please, not that.

MCM: But didn't you see what he declared?

GCD: I saw it, I saw it, I saw it. I was almost crying. I said: well, this people...

MCM: Also more untimely it could not have been. I feel outrage also because I should have gone earlier to the Department of State, I should... you know? We should have done other things. One has to meet with the key actors, bringing them key information, let the Congress react! So it can be that here it's happening what is happening in Venezuela and the people doesn't know because the Department of State don't think this is severe. Or because it does not have the slightest idea of what to do with Chávez and Chavismo. They are very scared: they fear that I go and meet with the Department of State, with the senators, or with people who may have influence, and set up a radical line, as they describe me: "non-dialogging confrontations" (nervous laugh) "not electoral"...

GCD: Great, right?

MCM: How? Now, I learned that Ramón Guillermo Aveledo has told... Yes, sir, Ramón Guillermo Aveledo has told the Department of State that the only way to exit this is to provoke and deepen a crisis. A coup d'etat or a self-coup because... Or a process of screwing and domestication in which a system of total social control is generated.

GCD: He's putting himself under the shadow of the Empire, isn't he? ... Ramón Guillermo?

MCM: Yes, sir. And not just Ramón Guillermo but the group which surrounds Capriles asked him... Then I tell you, doc, it is very hard. Because I for example went to Washington and Ramón Guillermo goes next week. And he decided to go after a conversation with me because, what's the matter?, he doesn't want me to be in charge of the international area, and he said already at the Board that a requirement, an element... a honor point for him to preserve, for him to be the Secretary General of the MUD is that the coordination of everything international remains in his hands. So he wants both hats, just as you hear it: they want to kick me out!

GCD: But that's disrespectful!

MCM: No, no, disrespectful! And then look: I think that there have been many achievements in these times but you have to acknowledge that these achievements of today are product of the work done before... and that the context changed. I... don't know, yes... surely the context changed. That's what we have, what he says, the things he says. I listened to him and I said... I didn't imagine the meanness and pettiness in a man whom I have respected so much always, didn't I? This...

GCD: Listen: this you're telling me I have got stuck inside.

MCM: It gave me...

GCD: He gave me that impression as well.

MCM: ... there's people who say he's a misogynist, I wish he was misogynist, I wish he was misogynist!  But I believe it is worse than that: he has a strategy different to what I represent. He thinks it is dangerous to have me as a free electron, legitimated, saying what I want and also saying that in the name of the Board of Unity. Because we have to raise the political cost to these vagabonds, beginning by the Gringos and following by the Colombians and the Brazilians. Well, those got the record prize, I mean the Nobel, the Oscar.

GCD: But you have to bite your tongue, hear?

MCM: No, I know, but I have so much inside that I am relieving with you. Now, what I do with Ramón Guillermo?

GCD: Dribble him, as they do in football.

MCM: I think I could gain some time but I don't see... I mean: advancing my stuff... but I don't see easy that I could keep a whole parallel structure and that Ramón Guillermo approves it. Because he sees me with... That is... Because he has a huge blackmail capability. Look, doc, one last thing: with the military issue and what we commented of the coup that already happened...

GCD: Yes.

MCM: Do you think that I should insist on that matter?

GCD: I think so.

MCM: I have an email... you, I have to open for you a hotmail. A hotmail is a safe mail, very safe, encrypted. It is very easy to open and there we could send each other safe information.

GCD: Ah, good, I'd like that very much.

MCM: The last thing I want is someone watching me sending that mail.

GCD: Why?

MCM: Because I don't want to appear as if I would be undermining, conspiring against Henrique. I don't want.

GCD: Against what regime?

MCM: Against Henrique Capriles!

GCD: Ah, against Henrique.

MCM: But in any case I am conspiring with you...

GCD: You don't know how good it feels seeing you, doc, truly...

MCM: I see that at least I'm being useful to you to sort up your thoughts (laughs). 

Venezuela: bourgeois opposition bought 18 war aircraft in USA

This is absolutely irregular and, if confirmed, it means a declaration of civil war.

According to José Vicente Rangel (former Vice-President of Venezuela and a journalist by profession, pictured), the bourgeois opposition of Venezuela purchased nothing less than 18 war aircraft in the USA, which are to be stationed in a Colombian base.

In his weekly TV program José Vicente Hoy, Rangel declared that the purchase was signed in San Antonio, Texas, in a meeting between opposition leaders and members of the US military-industrial complex. 

The new rebel 'air force' would be located at a Colombian air base with the coordinates P 11° 25′ 31”, M 72° 7′ 46”. P and M surely stand for parallel and meridian, in Colombia meaning N and W respectively, what means a location in the Guajira Peninsula, North of Maracaibo, just a few kilometers away from the Venezuelan border (→ map).

The rebellious purchase is meant to be effective by November this year and may signal the beginning of an armed rebellion of some sort.  

The veteran journalist did not reveal the source of his information but asked the security agencies to check the veracity of it.

Rangel also mentioned that the travels and expenses of the bourgeois opposition coalition MUD are financed by the US Congress via the National Democratic Foundation. 

Sources[es]: TeleSur, Tercera Información, El Diario.

Spain: growing military and police budgets

While there are budgetary cuts for every sector, the Armed Forces are instead being well fed in what the Basque antimilitarist committee Gasteizkoak compares to a military coup against the populace and their interests. While everything else is cut down brutally, no matter if its pensions or solar energy, the Armed Forces and the Police are totally unscathed (at most with purely aesthetic retouches).

They also warn to the very unusual accumulation of military voices, very specially against Catalan independence, in what seems a clear attempt to take the power back into military hands.

In 2012 alone the real military budget has grown 40% by means of extraordinary credits which total € 2,537 billion. These include € 755 billion for foreign missions (notably Afghanistan but also Bosnia and Kosovo), while € 1,783 were approved, in the very eve of the two-million demo of Barcelona for Catalan independence, to buy new weaponry, in what Gazteizkoak interpret as an attempt to limit military discontent by buying new toys for the angry kids. 

The situation is similar in the Police Forces, which are the only state body that has offered new employment (45,300 new jobs in the National Police and Guardia Civil) in 2012 and will repeat in 2013 according to all predictions. 

In the Western Basque Country, some 520 new regional police have been recruited in the last few years as well. The Interior Department (essentially: police) has seen its budget cut since 2009 in a mere € 29 million, a totally symbolic amount.

Gasteizkoak also denounces the military industry, which they denounce as useless and parasitic, being the only sector with a clear growth in these times of crisis. A clear sign that public budget, even if camouflaged, has not decreased at all for the weaponry industry. Among them are Basque companies ITP, Sener and Sapa, whose profits have grown strongly in the crisis. 

Source: Gara[es].

Coup in Curaçao may want to prevent elections

Schotte

There are contradictory interpretations on whether it is a coup or a legitimate democratic act with the blessings of the colonial power (Netherlands) and the secret service but the facts on the ground of the South American island are quite straightforward:

On August 3rd PM Gerrit Schotte dissolved Parliament and called for new elections after he lost the support of the majority. 

The elections are schduled for October 19th. 

On September 29th, the dissolved Parliament gathered and deposed Schotte, appointing a new interim Prime Minister, Stanley Betrian, who was sworn not by the actual Governor General, Frits Goedgedrag, but by some acting governor Adeel van der Pluijm-Vrede (Goedgedrag is allegedly hospitalized overseas[nl] but according to Schotte, he left the country after first attempting to stage the coup himself).

Betrian

Schotte and his government have denounced this as a coup because, in agreement with the constitution, the dissolved parliament cannot gather, much less replace the Prime Minister. He has accused the secret services of being behind the coup, which he thinks is an attempt to sabotage the upcoming elections.

The Schotte cabinet refuses to abandon government buildings, while some people protests outside. They have suspended all the powers of the secret service, previously involved in other scandals.

I do not have a clear stand (not enough information yet) but I do fear and reject any attempt to prevent the people speaking out freely in elections. 

Curaçao is a country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, whose main language is Papiamentu (a distinct creole language based on Portuguese with diverse other influences, specially African ones), Dutch being co-official (but commonly spoken by a small minority only). In recent years it attained quasi-independence in all but foreign relations and defense, which are still in Dutch hands. The country is not part of the European Union but has an association treaty instead.

Sources: LINyM[es], Curaçao Chronicle, Caribbean 360, Radio Netherlands Worldwide 

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Spanish military officers threaten secessionists with military trial

The association of Spanish military officers Asociación de Militares Españoles (AME[es]) has threatened the Catalan President Artur Mas and all those who promote the "fracture" of the residual empire known as "Spain" with military trial for "high treason". 

This is pretty unusual because, according to the Spanish Constitution and regulating laws, military officers cannot organize themselves in any way other than the military hierarchy nor take part in politics (unless they first retire). There are legal grounds in fact to indict all the members of this illegal and blatantly criminal association, however the current neo-fascist government is more likely to protect them, as has happened already with some outspoken individual officers. 

The organization does not just threaten separatist politicians but also apparently unionist ones, claiming that they are the ones to blame for allowing a territorial representation system that allows some residual power to nationalist parties as pivot in the bipartisan game. 

Incidentally the representation system actually favors Castile and the twin imperialist parties (PP and PSOE) by giving excess representation to the provinces, a modern invention, regardless of population (most semi-deserted provinces are in the central nationalities of Castile and Aragon), demonstrating once again that, in general, military officers are a dumb, ignorant, yet arrogant and dangerous endogamous caste - at least in Spain.

Another association (Asociación Unificada de Militares Españoles, AUME) responded that the Military must remain neutral because they are subordinated to the civilian power.

Technically the AME has stepped into illegality and it should be dissolved and its relevant members brought to military trial themselves. But so far none of these criminal putschist-fascist attitudes has been persecuted.

Source: Público[es].


Update: it has been known that this organization is one of retired officers only. This may make the difference of making their political activity technically legal but diminishes nothing the fascist saber rattling.

CIA: most notorious terrorist organization (must-watch short video)

According to Ted Gundersen, former Station Chief of the FBI in Los Angeles, Dallas and Memphis, the CIA is not just behind Al Qaeda, as we know, but also behind most of the terrorism in the World:

Why? Mostly these reasons:

• Internally (in the USA and other core areas of The Empire): demolish civil and human rights and impose a permanent state of emergency, a police state.
• Justify military interventions (i.e. Afghanistan, etc.)
• Divide along sectarian lines by mean of hard to forget and forgive pointless brutal massacres (i.e. post-invasion Iraq, etc.)

The video offered here is from years ago (posted at YouTube in 2009 but looks even older). There are more recent online videos of Gundersen retelling his story but they are much longer, so I decided not to post. Also I find the content of this one particularly interesting because it dwells mostly on stuff that happened before 2001 (1993 WTC bombing, 1995 Oklahoma attack), revealing that the institutional conspiracy to demolish civil and human rights in the name of the "war on terror" had been planned since at least the Reagan and Bush Sr. presidential terms (let's not forget that Bush Sr. was once a CIA Director himself). 

Although the murderous pantomime continued under Clinton (and now with Obama) it is important to notice that the 104th US Congress that passed the first antiterrorist legislation (mentioned in the video) had a Republican majority and that it was not until a new Republican President (Bush' son incidentally) that the terrorist sockpuppeteering plan was retaken in full. Even if I do not believe in the twin party false democracy, let's admit that the Republicans are much more hawkish and ruthless.

Main source and more info: Naked Capitalism.