SirFrancisBoyle_Lawyer

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Francis A. Boyle

Professor

EDUCATION
 
University of Chicago, A.B. (1971) in Political Science.  One of seven students in my entering Class of 1972  elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a Junior; winner as a Junior of the Sigma Xi Certificate of Merit and Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Scientific Research in Biology for 1971 for The Differential Effects of Three Simulated Systems of Inbreeding on the Frequency of the tw Allele in Wild Populations of Mus Musculuson nomination of Richard C. Lewontin; graduated in three years.
 
Harvard Law School, J.D. Magna Cum Laude (1976).   Third year paper designated "Honor Paper" by Richard R. Baxter, and deposited in H.L.S. Library.  A+'s in Federal Income Taxation (Stanley Surrey), Soviet Economic Law and Law of Foreign Trade (Harold Berman), United Nations Law (Louis Sohn), Sociology of Law (Lon Fuller), and Jurisprudence (Roberto Unger).
 
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Government, A.M. (1978) and Ph.D. (1983) in Political Science.  Awarded full Harvard Fellowship for all years of residence.  Offered Russian History (Edward Keenan), Soviet Politics (Adam Ulam), Modern Political Philosophy (Judith Shklar), and International Relations (Stanley Hoffmann) on Ph.D. General Examination.  Dissertation entitledRealism, Positivism, Functionalism and International Law under the supervision of Stanley Hoffmann.
 
Graduate Student Associate, Harvard University Center for International Affairs (1976-78) (elected to the Executive Committee for 1977-78).
 
TEACHING
 
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University Department of Government (1976-78) (international organizations, international law, international human rights).
 
Assistant Professor (1978‑81), Associate Professor with tenure (1981‑84), full Professor (from 1984), University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign; Professor, Unit of Criticism and Interpretive Theory (from 2010).
 
U.S. State Department, Scholar-Diplomat Program, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs (1981).
 
Lecturer, Nuclear Weapons and International Law, 21st Senior Conference on Nuclear Deterrence, U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1983).
 
Lecture Tour of Libya (1985).
 
Lecture Tour of the Soviet Union on Nuclear Weapons and International Law for the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy and the Association of Soviet Lawyers (1986).
 
Professor, U.S.S.R. Summer University for Jurists, Peoples= Friendship University, Moscow (1989).
 
Parhad Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada (2001).
 
Bertrand Russell Peace Lecturer, McMaster University, Canada (2007).
PRACTICE
 
Licensed to practice law in Massachusetts (from 1977), before the U.S. Tax Court (from 1977), the U. S. Supreme Court (from 1984), and in several other U.S. Federal Courts.
 
Attorney, Bingham, Dana, & Gould, in Boston (1977‑78) (primarily in international tax and tax).  See Hart v. U.S., 585 F.2d 1025 (Ct. Cl. 1978) (en banc); Globe v. U.S., 620 F.2d 841 (Ct. Cl. 1980).
 
Counsel, Concerned Academics for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (1984-86).
 
Attorney for Plaintiffs, Ali Aidi v. Yaron, 672 F. Supp. 516 (D.D.C. 1987) (Sabra-Shatilla Massacre).
 
Legal Adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (from 1987) and the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine (from 1988) on the creation of the State of Palestine, its accession to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, invocation of the Uniting for Peace Resolution, admission to the United Nations Organization, accepting the I.C.C.’s jurisdiction, etc.
 
Author, Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, Pub. L. No. 101-298 (1990) (adopted unanimously by both Houses of U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George Bush Sr.).
 
Counsel to Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez on H. Res. 34, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. (1991) (impeaching President George Bush Sr. for Gulf War I).
 
Legal Adviser to the Republic of Lithuania under President Vytautas Landsbergis (1991-92).
 
Legal Adviser to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations (1991-93).
 
Legal Adviser to the Syrian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations during their First Round in Washington, D.C. (1991).
 
Counsel to Libya, in Cases Concerning Questions of Interpretation And Application Of The 1971 Montreal Convention Arising From The Aerial Incident At Lockerbie (Libya v. United Kingdom) (Libya v. United States).  See Orders of 14 April 1992, 1992 I.C.J. Rep. at 3 and 114, 31 Int'l L. Mats. 662 (1992).
 
Special Prosecutor, International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations in the U.S.A., San Francisco (1992).
 
Author, Chicago MacBride Principles on Northern Ireland Ordinance (adopted unanimously by Chicago City Council on Feb. 10, 1993).
General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers before the International Court of Justice by appointment of President Alija Izetbegovic (March 19, 1993 to January 12, 1994).  I won two World Court Orders overwhelmingly in favor of Bosnia against the rump Yugoslavia to cease and desist from violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.  See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)), Order of Provisional Measures of 8 April 1993, 1993 I.C.J. Rep. at 3; and Order of Provisional Measures of 13 September 1993, 1993 I.C.J. Rep. at 325.  President Izetbegovic then instructed me to institute legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice against the United Kingdom for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1965 Racial Discrimination Convention in order to break the genocidal arms embargo against Bosnia as well as to stop the genocidal carve-up of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the so-called European Union Action Plan.  SeeStatement of Intention by the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Institute Legal Proceedings Against the United Kingdom before the International Court of Justice (15 November 1993), U.N. Doc. A/48/659-S/26806, 47 U.N.Y.B. 465 (1993).  This lawsuit was terminated under duress.
 
Lawyer for President Alija Izetbegovic, Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister, then President) Haris Silajdzic, and all the Members of the collective Bosnian Presidency, as well as the Leaders of the Bosnian Opposition Parties, during the Owen-Stoltenberg Negotiations in Geneva (1993).  There I disrupted the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan to carve-up the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina into three pieces, destroy Bosnia's Statehood, rob Bosnia of its Membership in the United Nations Organization, and subject 1.5 to 2 million more Bosnians to "ethnic cleansing."  President Izetbegovic then instructed me to draft and negotiate the Bosnian counter-offer to Owen-Stoltenberg.
 
Consultant on Independence, Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission, State of Hawaii (1993).
 
On 12 May 1997 in a ceremony at the Bosnian Presidency in Sarajevo, President Alija Izetbegovic and Vice President Ejup Ganic awarded me a valid Bosnian Diplomatic Passport and Visa as well as a Decoration for my services to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Serbian war of extermination against them.
 
On 17 May 2000 President Aslan Maskhadov appointed me  the Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers in order to conduct  their legal affairs. Acting pursuant to his instructions, on 1 August 2000 I sued the Russian Federation at the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.  On 14 February 2004 the Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov appointed me their Ambassador to Norway with instructions to open peace negotiations with the Russian Federation.

Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, proposes that Iran sue the U.S. in the World Court to enjoin it against threats to attack Iran

Francis Boyle: Iran Should Sue to Stop US Attack Pt 1



Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEcNVz2tB108 Jul 2009 - 11 min - Uploaded by TheAlexJonesChannel
Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. http://www.law.uiuc ...

Francis Boyle: Iran Should Sue to Stop US Attack Pt 1 - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TegRo4lUPDE28 Jul 2008 - 7 min - Uploaded by justforeignpolicy
Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, proposes that Iran sue the U.S. in ...


Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored Terrorsim


//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEcNVz2tB10

Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv


Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored Terrorsim

  • I was a student of Prof. Boyle in law school back in 1990 and was very inspired by him. Even now, 20 years later and a lot of living behind me, I still think he's absolutely right on politically. Unfortunately, I think his message would be more effective if his delivery were better. ..way to many "ahhs" and "ums" for the youtube world. Before a live audience.. it was not a problem.
  • It's the illiterate nature of all things public that encourage aggressive tax collection, and the welcoming of foreigners to overthrow anything smacking of Constitutional. There are many half-baked, queer recipes of unholy matrimony that have yet to be served up: group, incestuous, inter-species, inter-galactic, etc.
  • Here's another form of false flag terrorism: Go to my channel & see a recent, extremely hard hitting interview on the absolute fraud & danger of vaccines -- & about a simple tool to viralize the truth about vaccines. The more people that know the truth, the harder it will be to force these vaccines on those of us that would rather put our trust in God, eating right, our own immune systems, natural remedies, faith & prayer -- rather than on Big Pharma & their veritable witches brews.


Francis Boyle
October 22, 2012






Bush and Blair Wanted for War Crimes
by grtv
What the video of a prominent international lawyer discussion Bush and Blair wanted for War Crimes on this at
Kualar Lumpa War Crimes Tribunal Convicted George  Bush and Tony Blair and 
Bush,  Ashcroft, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for War Crimes




Francis Boyle
October 22, 2012
25:56
2,606 views









A prominent international lawyer says former US President George W. Bush, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair stand guilty of crimes against peace, war crimes and torture, Press TV reports.
In November 2011, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, in which Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, led the prosecution team, convicted Bush and Blair of crimes against peace and humanity, and genocide over their roles in the Iraq war.
On May 11, 2012, the tribunal also found Bush, former US Vice President Dick Cheney and former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld guilty of the crime of torture.
"We will keep after Bush and Blair for sure for crimes against peace, war crimes and torture in general," Boyle told Press TV in a recent interview.
"We got them both convicted of a Nuremberg crime against peace," he added while referring to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
According to Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances are crimes "punishable" under international law.
In September, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Blair and Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over their roles in the Iraq war.
"We are making efforts now to do this," Boyle stated, adding, "We tried to get Bush in Switzerland, but his lawyers advised him not to go to Switzerland. I tried three times to get Bush in Canada, but unfortunately the Canadian government protected Bush."
"The wheels of justice might turn slowly, but they do turn."
Boyle also criticized the ICC for its failure to bring to justice US, UK and Israeli criminals.
"So far, they are just going after black thugs from Africa and not dealing with this wholesale mass murderers and criminals from the United States, Britain and Israel," he said.
Boyle condemned the Israeli regime for "inflicting outright genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza," adding that there will be hearings in November in Malaysia on the issue of Palestine.

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2012 / 10 / 22
Rolland Miller says:
I am upset that our Canadian Government would protect Bush and Blair from arrest over War Crimes.
Both of them and their close suppoters should be taken directly to Jail, and be tried for War Crimes over Iraq.
2012 / 10 / 22
Luke says:
Another crazy american with a theory.
2012 / 10 / 22
Mike Corbeil says:
Luke says Francis Boyle is talking theory. What theory? Bush, Blair, et al, are guilty as charged and as described in the article provided with the video, and they're guilty of many other extreme crimes. There's nothing theoretical about that. It's all factual. Getting courts to accept to honestly and thoroughly prosecute these extreme criminals is sort of like theoretical, for it's based on the theory that courts that're corrupt can come to eventually change, improvably; but, it is possible, just that it isn't at the present time.
2012 / 10 / 23
Bea says:
I truly hope that those two, (although not only as I would actually began to investigate also crimes by Obama and Cameron) will be prosecuted and jailed during my life span. This is taking bloody long and I cannot get it as no one (no one) should be beyond the law.
2012 / 10 / 23
susan says:
I hope the day comes when those two smug, pompous, killers, get theirs, as in prison time. It is sickening that they are walking around like normal people after what they have done! This is so wrong!
2012 / 10 / 23
Vuki says:
Herman and Peterson state (major powers) operate in self interest (Victor’s justice.) when honesty and integrity should be the the norms. NATO nations define Genocide and war crimes for others differently than for themselves. When Medline Albright was told by her British allies that invasion of Serbian province of Kosovo was illegal she replied get new lawyers. She also stated that killing 500 000 in Iraq with sanction was worth the price. Lets add the NATO leaders who caused the Yugoslav wars to the list.

Employees of Romney family’s secret bank tied to fraud, money laundering, drug cartels and the CIA

Global Research, October 21, 2012
romney-crop
As previously reported in by the Columbus Free Press, the Romney family, namely Mitt, Ann, G Scott and Tagg Romney, along with Mitt’s “6th son” and campaign finance chair have a secretive private equity firm called Solamere Capital Partners. This firms ties to Romney’s campaign and bundlers is already well documented, along with its connection to the manufacture and distribution of voting machines. What is not as well documented is a subsidiary of that private equity firm hiring employees of a failed firm tied to a Ponzi scheme that has a long history of money laundering for Latin American drug cartels and to the Iran-Contra scandal.
As reported by ThinkProgress, Solamere Capital Partner’s subsidiary Solamere Advisors is a investment advisory group, providing advice to Solamere clients and boosting sales. Would-be corporate pugilist Tagg Romney is a director. According to the New York Times, all but one of its 11 employees came from the Charlotte office of the Stanford Financial Group, the US investment arm of convicted felon R. Allen Stanford’s offshore banking and fraud network that comprised a host of companies including the Stanford International Bank, Stanford Capital Management, The Bank of Antigua, Stanford Trust and Stanford Gold and Bullion. Three of these employees, Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips, received incentive compensation related to their direct sales of securities linked to a fraud that brought down this banking network.
Tim Bambauer has left his position as managing partner at Solamere Advisors. May and Phillips remain employed as partner and chief compliance officer respectively.
Allen Stanford is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence for convictions on 13 counts of fraud. His companies were placed in receivership. $8 billion of Stanford’s stolen money has yet to be recovered and the victims are in court to recover those funds and incentive pay bonuses to Stanford employees (including Bambauer, May and Phillips) for fraudulently getting people to invest in an operation that later bilked many of them out of their life’s savings.
Stanford’s shady history and criminality did not begin with the fraudulent investments that lead to his downfall, nor was it unknown at the highest level of United State’s Government. In a 2006 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, the US Ambassador to Antigua advised “Embassy officers do not reach out to Stanford because of the allegations of bribery and money laundering. The Ambassador managed to stay out of any one-on-one photos with Stanford during the breakfast. For his part, Stanford said he preferred to conduct his business without contacting the Embassy, resolving any investment disputes directly with local governments. It is whispered in the region that Stanford facilitates resolution with significant cash contributions.”
Similarly investigations by the SEC, FBI and Scotland Yard into Stanford’s empire stalled or failed all the way back to the 1980s. The Independent Newspaper in the UK alleges that Stanford’s network was on the FBI’s radar for more than 20 years. Stanford set up his first offshore bank in 1986, just as Eugene Hausenfaus, shot down while gun running for the CIA in Nicaragua, was being connected to another company named Stanford, in this case the “Stanford Technology Trading Group” owned by Richard Secord, Albert Hakim, and 4 unknown other persons, perhaps including Allen Stanford. According to Iran-Contra Whistleblower Al Martin (Lt. Cmdr. USNR ret.) “Anything with the name Stanford on it belonged to Secord”. When finally brought to trial, Stanford employed the same defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, as Iran-Contra defendant Oliver North.
As the Iran-Contra explosion crippled the CIA’s Caribbean bank of choice, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), Stanford’s offshore banking empire was using the same techniques and embracing the same moral category of clients. Stanford’s banks were known to have laundered money from the Juarez Cartel and alleged to have done so earlier for the Medellin Cartel, and one of his private planes has been seized by the Mexican government in a drug case.
On top of legal woes in the United States and Mexico, the London Daily Telegraph reported that Stanford’s Venezuelan offices were raided by Venezuela’s military intelligence over claims that its employees were paid by the CIA to spy on the South American country. When asked about this in a CNBC interview which was cited in a story by independent journalist Tom Burghardt, Stanford declined to comment on any involvement with the CIA rather than outright deny it.
All of the these dealings by Stanford, and the complicity of his employees in facilitating them, was public information before January 2010, when Mitt Romney addressed the first full meeting of Solamere’s investors. Yet his son Tagg chose to hire into his family these alleged white collar criminals as soon as Stanford’s criminal empire collapsed. The Romney family stands by the new employees associated with their secret bank, as evidenced by Tagg’s response to interview questions from ThinkProgress regarding Solamere’s ability to reign them in: “Hey guys, We’re done here”.

A Case Study In Capitalist Democracy: “You’ve been Trumped”

Review of Anthony Baxter's 2012 documentary

Global Research, October 23, 2012

ukmap
If you have not yet watched the documentary ‘You’ve been Trumped’ (2012) by Anthony Baxter, you should try to. It’s a film about how money and power, with the collusion of politicians, the media and the instruments of state, have complete contempt for and ride roughshod over ordinary people. It’s a lesson in how capitalist ‘democracy’ functions.
Here is the synopsis.
A group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon. At stake is one of Britain’s very last stretches of wilderness. US billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland. Trump needs to get some locals to move out of their homes to make the deal come true. He is going to build two golf courses alongside a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast and sand dunes, described by one leading scientist as Scotland’s Amazon rain forest. The handful of local residents who reside there don’t want to move out or have the land destroyed.
Despite the local council rejecting the proposal, the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light. This causes much consternation as the area is a designated ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’. As the bulldozers spring into action to demolish the dunes and dig up the land, local residents’ water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have mountains of earth piled up next to their homes to try to force them out. Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film’s director, Anthony Baxter. Apparently, filming in public constitutes a ‘breach of the peace’! The police are firmly in Trump’s court.
Adding insult to injury, Trump also gets an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.
‘You’ve Been Trumped’ encapsulates the chasm between the powerful, glamorous, jet-setting Donald Trump and a deeply rooted, relatively powerless Scottish community. For Trump, the golf course is just another money-making deal. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives and an eventual influx of rich foreigners who will jet in and out for a quick round or two on their newly constructed millionaire playground.
The film raises issues that strike at the very heart of democracy. Seduced by Trump’s wealth, it’s the politicians, the media, much of the business community, a local university and the police that cow-tow to the billionaire. The police are his protector. Politicians overturn their own laws in the face of dubious promises of jobs, which are never genuinely investigated by them to see if they actually stand up to scrutiny.
Someone like Trump does not get to where they are without knowing how to play the media, or the politicians for that matter. The film shows his half truths, untruths, tacky PR gloss and ridiculous slurs against local residents who stand in his way are taken as facts by much of the media and many of those in authority. The rich have the knack of talking absolute rubbish, but say it with utter conviction that it becomes accepted as ‘fact’. That much was clear in the film.
‘You’ve been Trumped’ shows what most of us already know: money talks and officialdom – often ‘public servants’ – listens and looks the other way when the ordinary people they are supposed to serve end up paying the price.
The film is a depressing case study of how the ‘one per cent’ is able to control the world for its own benefit. Acting alone, the Trumps of this world exert enormous power.
But when they come together to forward a collective agenda, their influence is even more grotesque. Look no further than the International Crisis Group. Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institute and any other number of bodies populated, funded or controlled by big corporate interests on behalf of supremely wealthy individuals. Forget about the power of one billionaire to exert his influence in Scotland. Forget about one Donald Trump ever becoming US president. We already have a plethora of multi-billionaire interests dictating national and international policies!
Although Trump now has his golf course, something positive can be taken from the film: the spirit of ordinary people and their fortitude in standing up to money, wealth and power and its corrupting influences. They may not have prevented Trump’s scheme, but residents stood firm in the face of intimidation and threats. And they garnered the support of thousands of local people who knew wrong when they saw it.
What happened in Scotland is on one level similar to what is taking place right now in other parts of the world, not least in India: the corruption of democracy by power and wealth.
Thousands of ordinary people have been protesting against the building of nuclear plants in India. Notwithstanding safety concerns, unconstitutional land grabs resulting in people being booted off their lands have acquired headline status. The full force of the state has been brought to bear on protesters via police and paramilitary violence and intimidation.
In South India for example, local people are peacefully protesting against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. More than 56,000 have been falsely charged, including 6,000 for the offence of ‘sedition’. 53 have been imprisoned.
Why? Again, because of the influence of money; because of unaccountable power.
India’s expanding multi-billion dollar nuclear sector represents rich pickings for the key players both within India and abroad. The Indian government has agreed to buy US$150 billion worth of nuclear reactors, equipment and other materials from the US, whose companies will benefit for decades from Indian orders for military equipment. It has also promised various other countries that their companies will receive lucrative contracts in India. The French company Areva, US companies GE Hitachi and Westinghouse and the Russian company Atomstroy export are all building nuclear plants in the country. In return, the US lobbied to allow India to engage in civilian nuclear trade, despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
What is happening concerning the expansion of nuclear sector is however symptomatic of the wider situation in India. Anti-nuclear activist Neeraj Jain says the Indian elite’s vision for the country is to freely allow Western multinationals to access the Indian market and hand over thousands of hectares of land to them to set up projects like mines, refineries, airports, shopping malls and expressways, while dispossessing people from their mineral-rich lands in rural areas, and demolishing slums in urban areas.
Some like to call this ‘progress’. Others choose to call it ‘development’.
But let’s state it for what it actually is: self-serving, powerful, wealthy elite interests acting in collusion with politicians and demonstrating utter contempt for democracy and ordinary folk.
Whether we live in Scotland, India or elsewhere, it begs the question: Are we  willing to be ‘Trumped’ on a massive scale?
Well, that all depends on us, the 99 per cent, and what we are prepared to do about it.
You’ve been Trumped trailer:  //www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Gq2kj4ryg

GR Radio: 9/11 and the Afghan War – Eleven Years Later

GR RADIO: The Global Research News Hour


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Global Research announces the launch of the first episode of The Global Research News Hour, broadcast weekly by CKUW News, 95.9 fm  out of Winnipeg, Ma. and on Canadian community radio networks. The weekly programme is available for download on the Global Research website. 
“There’s absolutely no evidence to the effect that Afghanistan actually attacked America on September 11, 2001.
-Michel Chossudovsky
October 7, 2001, marked the eleventh anniversary of the US/NATO military intervention in Afghanistan. The Bush Administration, within hours of the dreadful 9/11 attacks, declared that Al Qaeda was responsible. Afghanistan had provided a haven for Osama Bin Laden. Having invoked Article 5 of the NATO Charter which declared an attack on one member, in this case the United States, to be an attack on all members, the NATO countries launched attacks on Afghanistan in tandem with the Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban government and crush the terrorist network.
Michel Chossodovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, explains in this feature interview that there is absolutely no basis for the statement that Afghanistan in any way attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, making the NATO alliance attacks on Afghanistan an act of aggression, rather than self-defense under the doctrine of collective security.
Moreover, the enemy known as Al Qaeda is and always has been a US Intelligence asset. These proxies of US Intelligence have likewise been at work in Syria leading to counter-attacks by the governments of those countries. MIchel Chossudovsky concludes this interview with an anticipation of an international intervention in Syria, similar to the one in Libya, in the name of “protecting the people”.
Length: 59:13
Interview by Michael A Welch

Gladio – Death Plan For Democracy

Global Research, February 05, 2008
5 February 2008


In late January 2008, a secret paramilitary group (formerly?) allied with America was busted in Turkey.
 Thirteen members of a shadowy right-wing group in Turkey were charged with “forming an armed terrorist group in order to provoke members
 of the public into armed revolt against the government.” 
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373933                                
“The detention in Istanbul last week of alleged members of a shadowy Turkish ultranationalist group has revived charges that elements
 within the Turkish security apparatus have long tried to destabilize the country through a campaign of bombings and assassinations. 
These allegedly include false flag operations that have been attributed to Kurdish separatists and violent Islamists… 
The Turkish media have claimed that the latest arrests follow intelligence reports that the gang was planning to carry out a series of high level assassinations…
what Turks call… deep state has its origins in what are commonly called Gladio operations “  
 – Mass Arrests Expose Operations of Turkey’s “Deep State” -  By Gareth Jenkins 
The use of proxy mercenary forces to terrorize nations into submitting to US political demands
 has been the cornerstone of American foreign policy since at least the era of the Berlin Wall, and it still is.  
 ”Terrorism – the use of violence and threats to intimidate or to coerce, esp. for political purposes.”             
According to this definition from Dictionary.com, the government of the United States of  America is the primary source of state terrorism in the world.  
In Europe, the American government actively sought to eliminate political opposition to its fascist world plans through the use of open violent repression and covert terroristic “false flag” attacks upon popular patriotic resistance movements and their leaders.  Using ultra right-wing homegrown fascists, in both Europe and America, secret paramilitary militias were created, called “Stay Behind” forces at the end of World War II.  Since then, the CIA activated these groups to successfully quash anti-American liberal and social democratic popular resistance movements.  The agency denies this, but the series of exposes of their network in Europe since 1990 have proven the professed denials to be false. 
The secret American plans to turn dissent into a weapon for destroying democracy were applied equally, yet differently, in America and Europe.  Here, the procedure called for using more subtlety, as opposed to Europe, where everything would happen outside of the controlled environment of the corporate US media.  In Europe, so-called “pro-communist” forces could be fought more aggressively, using secretive groups like Gladio to physically attack the antiwar, Labor-oriented and liberal protest movements.  Behind the scenes, terror attacks were carried-out by anonymous sources to be blamed on the opposition party.  Using the extreme right-wing Gladio forces in this manner, as well as infiltrating and sabotaging leftist groups from within, proved devastating at the polls.  People ran away from the resistance in droves, seeking security in the waiting arms of the fascists and the all-powerful state.  But many people did also see through the BS of the “official story” of events like the bombing of a train stations in Bologna, Italy. 
The secret plans for Europe entailed large covert paramilitary units in every NATO nation, that were trained and ready to suppress all anti-American protests by liberals and social democrats.  The official name of the covert programs was “Gladio.”  The official cover story (and its original purpose) was that these right-wing paramilitary units were “Stay Behind” forces, which were created as copies of the French “underground” resistance, to be activated upon a Soviet conquest and occupation of Europe.  The Stay Behind/Gladio forces saw a change of mission in the sixties, when the European socialist/liberal alliance began to awaken strong nationalist movements in every NATO country.1     
The Timewatch investigation documents the secret formation of these neo-fascist units throughout Europe, highlighting individual local leaders and their personal testimony about participating in armed attacks upon government armories and supermarkets, as well as terror bombings, like the bomb that was detonated at Bologna’s train station, killing 85 and wounded over 200.  Other revelations from the video about the operation include a damning investigation of Gladio by the European Union, interviews with key Gladio players like neocon Michael Ledeen, shadowy Iran/Contra figures Gen. John Singlaub, CIA spokesmen like former Director William Colby and Ray Cline, as well as pivotal controversial documentation on secret Army participation.
In contradiction of CIA denials about the true purpose of Gladio and the scope of its operations and neoconservative lies that there was no Gladio, the following excerpt, from joint resolution (EP 22.11.90) of the European Parliament condemns actions of US and allied intelligence agencies involved.   http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm         
“Whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries… these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law…      whereas the various `GLADIO’ organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military resources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating…”  
This officially condemns the lame official excuses, like that given by former CIA Director William Colby (claiming on the video that these were small contingency plans for providing covert intelligence sources only, in case of Soviet occupation), while exposing the duplicity of stooges like neoconservative Michael Ledeen (who was implicated in the Gladio political action while working for a right-wing Italian news service), who falsely argues that Gladio was merely a Soviet disinformation program that was based:
“on an old forgery, designed to show that there’s some kind of… accusing the United States basically of what the Soviet union was doing in Italy, which was creating a secret underground paramilitary organization capable of organizing to subvert Italian democracy.”  
This, “there is no spoon” explanation echoes the equally lame counter-story given by alleged Gladio participant, Licio Gelli, Grand Master of super-secretive P2 Masonic lodge, that the dreadful Bologna train station bombing was a “transportation accident,” taking place in an open marketplace, where explosives were commonly sold, when “someone threw a cigarette away.”     
The “old forgery” that Ledeen referred to was a document known as “US Defense Training Manual 30-31B.  The State Dept. claims that the CIA “debunked” this document as a Soviet forgery, even though it is somehow listed within the classified sections of manual libraries .  
The allegedly forged document, signed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. W.C. WESTMORELAND, contained the following admission: 
“There may be times when host country governments show passivity or indecision in the face of Communist subversion…US Army Intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince host country governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger… To this end, U.S. Army intelligence should seek to penetrate the insurgency by means of agents on special assignment, with the task of forming special action groups among the more radical elements of the insurgency. When the kind of situation envisaged above arises, these groups, acting under U.S. Army intelligence control, should be used to launch violent or non-violent actions according to the nature of the case.”   
Since this is a very precise description of the known activities of Gladio given by participants in it, we must assume that history has confirmed that 30-31B is real.  In Gladio operations, like those attributed to the “Deep State” group in Turkey, the plans for covert acts of terrorism  (which were theoretically intended to implicate the Communists or other enemies of the US, thus turning the population against them) were supposed to be activated at that moment in the national struggle where the Communist/liberal forces turn away from armed struggle, to embrace non-violent democratic elections, according to the  (CIA-alleged) disinformation known as “Army Field Manual 30-31B.”  But, as described so vividly in the BBC documentary, the right-wing terror attacks upon leftist leaders preceded the use of those tactics by the “pro-communist” forces.  In addition to staging false flag attacks meant to be blamed upon the leftists, an intensive effort was made to infiltrate those movements, in order to incite radicals within them into carrying-out their own copycat attacks. 
While Ledeen and the CIA try to claim that Gladio is a “legend,” fabricated by the  Soviets in an attempt to blame the US for their actions, the revelation of historical evidence is indicting America and the agency for introducing political terrorism to Western electoral politics.  Gladio is an ongoing operation by our government to savagely kill and wound thousands of our own allies, in order to blackmail them into supporting America’s fascist plans for the world.  “Political action” took on a whole new meaning at the hands of the CIA and its hidden allies.
Terrorism, as political action, became the driving force in American foreign policy, and any nation that sought our aid, or to become allied with us, had to accept this reality and the necessity to keep blaming others for our own commissioned attacks.  The historical record of “terrorist” bombings throughout the world is, for the most part, a record of our actions, done under the cover of layers of “plausible deniability,” created by the compartmentalization of terrorist strike forces into different secret levels.   
If the mercenary Gladio paramilitary forces could not provide a sufficient level of violence to satisfy the Company’s needs, then the agency could rely on its own paramilitary units, or on special troops from Defense Intelligence under the 30-31B provision.  If the work required an extra layer of “plausible deniability” then there were always criminal organizations for hire and the super-secret network of “rogue operators” like Ed Wilson, who were officially alleged to be “former CIA.”   In the book, Charlie Wilson’s War, former agent Wilson told President Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua that he could raise an army of 1000 “ex” agents to defeat anti-government rebels, for the right price. 
In America we have seen that same commitment to the use of political violence play-out within the CIA/corporate/Republican alliance, especially during the Nixon Administration as seen in bloody incidents like the Kent State massacre, where right-wing Republican Ohio Governor James Rhodes strove to impress his Republican masters by having young unsuspecting National Guardsmen fire live ammunition into a crowd of young unsuspecting college students.  Behind the scenes government provocateurs led radical movements like the SDS, the Weathermen and the Black Panthers into violent actions, intended to discredit and slander the antiwar movement.  With the empowerment of Reagan, Bush and agency director Casey, CIA involvement in American politics was out in the open. 
Co-opting the highly patriotic party Republican Party and the American right-wing in a subversive program to eliminate democracy by turning it into a weapon in this country was not a simple task.  It took a great deal of foresight, intricate planning and an enormous amount of cash.  In order to gain control over America’s right-wing as it had in Europe, the Company had to formulate a program of intricate deception, in order to gain their trust, as a first step to dominating their efforts.   
Since grassroots conservatism in this country is based on a conspiracy theory-based belief system, the agency had to promote the far-reaching conspiracy theories that were common to the movement.  This meant that the CIA had to promote evidence of all-encompassing theories, such as those concerning Jews, the “Illuminati” and international bankers, to win the trust of suspicious Republican bigots.   Undercover agents had to pose as movement leaders and researchers, who were committed to exposing the plots of our would-be “masters.”  The agency chose to play both the race card and the religion card, by making the “Zionist” plot to colonize Palestine (a real conspiracy) the cornerstone of the CIA/corporate plot against the world.  The agency promoted joint CIA/MOSSAD actions for the dual purpose of forwarding both US corporate plans for the world and Israeli designs to reclaim the land of “Greater Israel,” which were critical to conspiracy plans for the Middle East and creating a state of permanent war there.    
The master manipulators at the agency underwrote secret efforts by Zionist agents, who also served US interests, to undermine American democracy and simultaneously cuddling-up to the American extreme right-wing.  The Gladio-styled plan was to take over the ultra-nationalist right and to infiltrate and corrupt the anti-government left.  They helped to create secretive anti-Semitic organizations, as well as Zionist groups.   The two-pronged attack focused on exposing Zionist subversives, while working to build a popular wave of anti-Semitism as a national counter-reaction to Zionist crimes which they had helped to expose.   
The key to convincing the masses of conservative Republican voters of this vast covert conspiracy was found in the “big lie,” where the government agents chose to expose choice tidbits of its own massive brainwashing and social control campaigns, attributing them to agents of “Zion.”  The brainwashing science possessed by the government and applied through its foundations and institutes (such as Rand, Ford, Carnegie, Stanford and Tavistock Institute) dwarfs the alleged manipulative powers of any imagined conspiracy.  This proved to be extremely successful, especially when combined with spectacular fear producing terror attacks.   
In truth, mind control science, developed and implemented since World War II (largely by Jewish scientists and psychologists), is all CIA.  With the rise of former CIA director George Bush to the position of “vice president elect,” (and their “October surprise” obtained with a purloined speech prep book for the great debate) the agency began to apply those behavioral control techniques of Gladio to the political process. 
The political product of that behavioral research, which became known as “neoconservatism,”   http://rense.com/general77/neneo.htm      was a deliberate attempt to duplicate the psychology of pre-WWII Europe  (especially that of Nazi Germany) here in America, based on the scientific research of the Jewish intellectuals, who had fled from there for their lives.  The recreation of a radical anti-Semitic political belief system here would be enhanced by popular resistance and reaction to the fascist neoconservative policies of Zionist dual-citizenship neocons.  Leaders were found who could inspire armies of individuals to believe that there is a powerful dark conspiracy afoot that can mobilize secret armies of millions, to control every aspect of every life, or nearly so.  The success of the brainwashing program can be measured directly by the number and intensity of individuals who believe in theories of “racial superiority,” whether they be believers in ideas of either “Jewish superiority” or in counter-theories of white or “Aryan” superiority. 
Today’s resistance movement of counter-reaction to neoconservative/Zionist fascism is under assault by dueling forces, who either want to silence the movement, or to misdirect and co-opt it.  If the movement is silenced by Zionists or divided by anti-Zionists, it will not be able to disrupt the neoconservative plans to launch nuclear war against Iran and thereby usher in a state of permanent war. 
The over-eager Zionist zealots who willingly became part of this conspiracy have unknowingly sealed Israel’s fate, as the intended target for the coming wave of anti-Semitism.  Little did they know that their Republican friends planned to drag-up Zionism’s historical record of utilizing anti-Semites in their secret plans to force the Jewish “Diaspora” out of Europe to forcefully colonize Palestine, as proof of a global “Jewish conspiracy.”  The intensive campaign of lies and subterfuge that have been used to hide fascist Israeli intentions to “ethnically cleanse” Palestine and the surrounding area of its Arab inhabitants, confirm all the negative stereotyping of the “Jewish state,” especially in light of “Israel lobby” plans to force America to fight Israel’s wars, even the ones started by Israel. 
The Gladio-centered US foreign policy, which was so successfully played-out in Europe, effectively countered the Soviet expansion at a high cost to European democracy.  The application of that policy to Islamic countries facing a Soviet threat, such as Afghanistan, helped to roll-back the Soviets, but at a terrible cost.  The training of Islamic paramilitary forces to carry-out terror attacks for political reasons, evolved into the unfolding nightmare known as the war on terror.  
In Afghanistan, the CIA armed, trained and supported Islamic “Gladios” who carried-out Brzezenski’s plans for staging terrorist attacks upon popular local Afghan tribal leaders, as a means to instigate the widespread tribal warfare which eventually lured the Soviets to intervene in December 1979.  (July 3, 1979, President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.)  Reagan whole-heartedly supported the new terror politics as a weapon for attacking the Soviet empire, even expanding the Islamic militant form of Gladio to all member states of the Soviet Union and their allies, when he signed National Security Decision Directive 166 in March 1985.   In Central America, his Gladio-like duplication trained paramilitary armies and death squads.  
This policy became known as the “El Salvador option,” when George W. Bush embraced it in Iraq,
 making it the centerpiece of his strategy for the “war on terrorism.” 
Note
1. The following three-part investigation from the BBC, entitled  “Timewatch – Operation Gladio” can be seen at either YouTube (part 1 of 15 is embedded below),
or at Google Video (in three parts).  You can download the Google videos here.  
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Poverty, Unemployment, Homelessness in America: “Rage Against Austerity”

lendman_smallendsmall
The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Together they planned force-fed pain. They met secretly. They mandated poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and hunger during hard times.
They did it when vital help is needed. Officially it’s called “austerity.” Obama calls it “shared sacrifice.” In other words, ordinary people “sacrifice” to let rich ones “share.” Rape, pillage, loot, steal, or plunder best describes it.
The name of the game is shifting public wealth to bankers, other corporate favorites and wealthy elites already with too much.
It’s gone on for decades. Post-9/11, Bush and Obama took it to a higher level. They represent wealth, power and privilege. Serving them means throwing everyone else under the bus.
Robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul is policy. Destructive neoliberal harshness defines it. Ordinary people bear extraordinary burdens. They’re oppressed by problems they didn’t cause. The usual IMF prescription is mandated.
Hammer people hard when they’re down. Preserve capital at all costs. Prioritize bankers most of all. Do it the usual way. Cut wages and benefits. Curb social spending.
Shift full-time good jobs abroad. Turn workers into wage slaves. Turn corporate predators lose to do what they please. Privatize, privatize, privatize, and crack down hard on resisters.
In the 1980s, it was called Reaganomics, trickle down, and Thatcherism. Post-Soviet Russia got “shock therapy.” In America and across Europe, it’s “austerity.”
Capital rights are pitted against humanity. Disposable workers are denied so Big Money gains. Moral depravity defines policy measures harming so many so much for so few.
 
How much human suffering is tolerable? Upper limits haven’t been tested. The worst is yet to come. It’s baked in the cake and agreed on. No one asked ordinary people how they feel?
Who cares! Dominant parties in America and across Europe plan trillions of dollars in social benefit cuts as far as the eye can see. Degeneracy has no limit. What’s most needed is eroding en route to being entirely lost.
Policymakers don’t care how many people lack jobs, can’t afford healthcare or college tuition, sleep on streets when homes are lost or rent is unaffordable, go hungry, or die young for lack of basic care.
Ordinary people are fair game. Western societies aren’t fit to live in. They’re being banana republicanized. American writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter: 1862 – 1910) coined the term. His fictional Republic of Anchuria represented it.
It refers to a politically repressive country. Privileged few in it have inordinately high wealth. Diktat power lets them keep it and get more. Ordinary people are exploited, persecuted, and thrown overboard when no longer needed.
Workers bear enormous debt burdens. Make ‘em pay for corporate crimes and political corruption compounding them.
Kleptocracy is policy. Gangsterism rules. Ordinary people are left high and dry.
It’s happening in plain sight in America and across Europe. Western civilization hasn’t been this bad since 19th century harshness or perhaps the dark ages.
Personal freedoms are denied. Democratic values are illusory. Ideological extremism wages war on humanity. It’s soulless, morally depraved, anti-populist, anti-labor, anti-welfare, anti-government of, by and for everyone, pro-business, and pro-wars on one country after another without end.
What kind of leaders govern this way? What kind of society lets them? They claim democratic credentials. No one checked public opinion. No one took a vote on whether ordinary people are comfortable about shifting public wealth to corporate favorites and rich elites at their expense.
Pain is force-fed. Anti-progressivism is policy. Fascism bites hard. It inflicts suffering the old-fashioned way. Buck the system and feel its harshness.
Imagine daily life this way. Imagine things getting progressively worse. Imagine sacrificing humanity on the alter of privilege for society’s few. Imagine politicians telling people it’s for their own good.
No matter how much pain is inflicted, more follows. Take a stand and fight. Do it nonviolently. Do it because it matters. Do it because austerity is poison. Do it because no one will do it for you.
On October 27, attend United Front Against Austerity’s (UFAA) New York Public Assembly. Fight America’s existential threat. No matter who wins in November, “working families will be thrown over the proverbial ‘fiscal cliff….’ ”
Political bosses plan it “in the name of debt and deficits” reduction. It’s a hoax. It’s about greater wealth transfers. It’s about waging imperial wars without end.
It’s about empowering corporate bosses more than ever. It’s about elevating political corruption to higher levels. It’s about Washington harming ordinary people most.
“Cutting Social Security, Medicare and other threads in our fragile social fabric is not only grossly unjust – it won’t work! The so-called ‘Grand Bargain’ threatens to unleash a death spiral of unemployment and poverty which our nation is not certain to survive.”
UFAA calls on ordinary people to defend their economic rights. Mobilizing effective opposition is urgent. Agitate for change. Make Wall Street crooks pay for the mess they created. Build momentum for “a genuine political revolution of, by and for” everyone.
October 27 isn’t a conference. It’s an assembly. It a gathering of like-minded people. It’s about mobilizing for our common defense.
StopImperialism.com‘s Eric Draitser launched UFAA. November 6 choices offer none at all. No matter who wins, ordinary people lose. It’s vital they “organize NOW” ahead of post-electoral war on working Americans.
Draitser calls October 27 “an organizing tool – one that is primarily focused on proposals (including economic recovery, organizing, leadership, demands, etc.) and floor debate, so that real strategy and mobilization can follow.”
Talking shop conferences accomplish nothing. Battle plans are needed followed by action. Two segments are planned:
(1) “(I)intelligence reports” will outline today’s threats. Domestic and international ones will be covered. Distinguished speakers will explain.
(2) Debate will follow proposals. Speakers and audience members will interact. At issue is reaching consensus. It’s much more than about what’s wrong. It’s about what do we do about it starting now.
Everyone is welcome to come, participate, or just listen, learn, and pass on information to others. Speakers are being scheduled. So far they include:
Everyone is welcome to come, participate, or just listen, learn, and pass on information to others. Speakers are being scheduled. So far they include:
  • Peace mom Cindy Sheehan
  • Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford
  • Greek Political economist/SYRIZA founding member Yanis Varoufakis
  • African-American Studies Professor Tony Monteiro
  • Author/lecturer Webster Tarpley
  • Dr. Randy Short
  • National Jobs for All Coalition (NJFAC) organizer Eric Lerner
  • NJFAC’s public housing advocate Jay Arena
  • Community Progressive Radio founder Don DeBar
  • This writer will also participate.
  • “The time for whining and ‘waking people up’ has passed,” says Draitser. One option alone remains. “Organize to defend our economic rights.”
Doing it now is crucial. Join others cooperatively. Assemble at perhaps the most perilous time in world history:
United Front Against Austerity
Public Assembly
Saturday, October 27th (12-6pm)
56 Walker St.
New York, NY
Stand up. Turn out. Tell others. Build on Wisconsin and OWS. Fight for fundamental rights. Save what’s being attacked and destroyed. Do what’s important because it matters. Do what no one will do for you. There’s no other way.

The Colombian “War on Drugs”, A Family Affair

Teflon President? Noose Tightens Around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans

Extractive Capitalism and the Divisions in the Latin American Progressive Camp









Last month’s capture of Colombian drug lord Daniel “El Loco” Barrera by Venezuelan police was hailed as a “victory” in the “War on Drugs.”
Barrera, accused of smuggling some 900 tons of cocaine into Europe and the U.S. throughout his infamous career, was described by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who announced the arrest on national television, as “the last of the great capos.”
But what of the “capo” who enjoyed high office, is wined and dined by U.S. corporations and conservative think-tanks, owns vast tracks of land, is a “visiting scholar” at a prominent American university (Georgetown) and now sits on the Board of Directors of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation?
When will they be brought to ground?
A Family Affair
To clarify the questions above, one need look no further than the kid-gloves approach taken by the media when it comes to former Colombian President, the U.S. “Presidential Medal of Freedom” recipient Álvaro Uribe.
Accused by human rights organizations over his role in the forced disappearance of thousands of Colombians during two terms in office (2002-2010), Uribe may still land in the dock as a result of ongoing investigations by Colombia’s Supreme Court into official corruption, drug trafficking and mass murder.
Recent arrests by Colombian authorities and revelations by the president’s former allies however, are beginning to draw a circle around Uribe and the U.S. secret state in some of the hemisphere’s worst human rights abuses of previous decades.
As the net tightens, members of the president’s own family are sharply focused in the cross-hairs of investigators. Back in June, Antifascist Calling reported on the arrest of Ana Maria Uribe Cifuentes and her mother, Dolly Cifuentes Villa on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. The U.S Treasury Department froze their assets last year.
Accused by the Justice Department of having trafficked some 30 tons of cocaine into the U.S. as business partners of Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the women, members of the Cifuentes Villa crime family led by Dolly’s brother, Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, are prominent members of Colombia’s jet-setting narco-bourgeoisie.
According to the Justice Department, the investigation revealed that “the Cifuentes Villa drug trafficking organization was using sophisticated drug trafficking routes to distribute multi-ton cocaine loads from Colombia through Central America, for ultimate distribution in Mexico and the United States.” In 2009, some 8.3 tons of cocaine which the family were attempting to export to Mexico were seized by law enforcement officials in Ecuador.
Federal prosecutors charged that the Cifuentes Villa family owns or controls 15 companies operating in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador involved in a variety of ventures that supported their narcotrafficking enterprise.
Among the firms targeted were Linea Aerea Pueblos Amazonicos S.A.S., a newly-created airline operating in eastern Colombia, Red Mundial Inmobiliaria, S.A. de C.V., a real estate company located near Mexico City, along with Gestores del Ecuador Gestorum S.A., a consulting firm located in Quito, Ecuador.
It is also worth noting that the Cifuentes Villa organization, as the Center of Public Integrity reported, have also profited from illegal mining operations that traffic rare-earth minerals destined for the world market.
Accordingly, the Cifuentes Villa clan employed the same smuggling routes that trafficked cocaine to move precious metallic ores such as coltan and tungsten, used by the communications industry and weapons manufacturers, onto the international market. When the Treasury Department placed family members onto its drug kingpin list they identified their mining fronts as “a money-laundering operation in support of a cocaine-smuggling enterprise.”
While U.S. media were mesmerized by the extradition of Sandra Ávila Beltrán, whom the press had dubbed “La Reina del Pacífico” (The Queen of the Pacific), over her lavish lifestyle and family ties to legendary Mexican drug lord Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, onetime godfather of the Guadalajara Cartel, Uribe’s relatives inexplicably “disappeared” from “court records and authorities were unable to pinpoint the pair’s whereabouts,” Colombia Reports informed us.
Imagine that.
For his part, the former president denied allegations leveled against his brother Jaime, who died in 2001, and claimed that unnamed “criminals,” who conducted “business” from his brother’s car phone had cloned it. He also “denied any knowledge of his brother’s relationship with Cifuentes or the existence of his niece, despite a birth certificate that was uncovered proving Jaime Uribe was her father,” Colombia Reports averred.
What Uribe continues to gloss over however, is the inconvenient fact that brother Jaime had been arrested and interrogated by the Colombian Army after investigators recorded calls \made from his phone to none other than Pablo Escobar, the Nuevo Arco Iris political research center in Bogotá disclosed.
Among the unanswered questions surrounding these recent arrests, investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker wondered: “Did Álvaro Uribe okay the loading of 3.6 tons of cocaine at an airport he controlled in Rio Negro Colombia onto a ‘former’ CIA Gulfstream (N987SA) jet from St. Petersburg Florida that crashed in the Yucatan in 2007?”
That fateful crash eventually led to the deferred prosecution agreement between the U.S. federal government and Wachovia Bank, fined $160 million for laundering some $378 billion for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, “business associates” of the Cifuentes Villa clan.
More pointedly Hopsicker asked: “Why did two successive U.S. Administrations lavish billions of dollars to stop drug trafficking on a President of Colombia who was himself involved in the drug trade?”
As the investigative net is drawn around the family of the former president, another Uribe brother, Santiago, “is facing a criminal investigation for the alleged founding and leading of a paramilitary group,” Colombia Reports disclosed.
Investigations into that group, the notorious death squad the 12 Apostles, again surfaced when The Washington Post revealed that a former police chief, Juan Carlos Meneses, charged that Santiago “led a fearsome paramilitary group in the 1990s … that killed petty thieves, guerrilla sympathizers and suspected subversives.”
Meneses, who fled to Venezuela with his family, disclosed that the “group’s hit men trained at La Carolina, where the Uribe family ran an agro-business in the early 1990s.” For services rendered, Meneses told the Post “he received a monthly payment of about $2,000 delivered by Santiago Uribe.”
The former police official said he came forward “because associates in the security services warned him he would soon be killed for knowing too much.”
“The revelations,” according to the Post, “threaten to renew a criminal investigation against Santiago Uribe and raise new questions about the president’s past in a region where private militias funded with drug-trafficking proceeds and supported by cattlemen wreaked havoc in the 1990s. The disclosures could prove uncomfortable to the United States, which has long seen Uribe as a trusted caretaker of American money in the fight against armed groups and the cocaine trade.”
“Uncomfortable” perhaps, but not surprising given the U.S. track record in support of drug-trafficking death squads, especially those which advanced corporate America’s geopolitical interests throughout Latin America.
“Meneses,” the Post averred, “is the first close collaborator of the 12 Apostles to speak publicly about the group’s inner workings. His declarations are also the most extensive recounting by a security services official of how Colombia’s militarized police and its army worked in tandem with death squads in one community–a model that investigators of the paramilitary movement say was duplicated nationwide.”
For his part, the former president accused human rights’ activists who have leveled charges against his family “of being guerrilla stooges who disseminate false accusations against his government.”
However, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who was present when Meneses recounted his story during a taped interview in Buenos Aires, told the Post that the former police chief “‘incriminates himself and also the brother of the president who managed the paramilitary group, but also President Uribe’.”
Interestingly enough, Uribe’s appointment to News Corp’s board came while the former president is under investigation for illegally wiretapping human rights activists, journalists, Supreme Court justices and opposition politicians.
His former chief of staff is currently in jail awaiting trial on criminal wiretapping charges and his former secret police chief, Maria Pilar Hurtado, fled Colombia and sought asylum in Panama before similar charges could be filed against her.
And with two more senators now under investigation for suspected ties to paramilitary death squadsColombia Reports averred, Uribe’s teflon armor is slowly being chipped away.
Parapolitical Scandal
If, as Voltaire once said, “the history of the great events of this world are scarcely more than the history of crime,” what of the powerful actors who have looted entire nations and did so while serving the interests of their imperialist overlords?
Dubbed the “parapolitical scandal” by Colombian media, the investigation was set in motion when leftist opposition politician, Clara López Obregón, formally denounced and provided evidence in 2005 to the Supreme Court of links between drug trafficking organizations, the military/intelligence apparatus, right-wing death squads and members of Congress, including prominent officials of Álvaro Uribe’s then-governing coalition.
That investigation gathered steam when a laptop was seized by authorities in 2006 from Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, a leader of the Northern Bloc of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia(United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC).
The origins of the AUC can be traced to the take-down of the Medellín Cartel and murder of “cocaine king” Pablo Escobar by rival drug organizations, principally the Cali Cartel run by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, who were provided logistical support and firepower by the CIA and U.S. Delta Force commandos to eliminate the competition.
An umbrella group comprised of far-right militants and drug capos aligned with Colombia’s ruling class, the AUC and splinter groups such as the Águilas Negras, or Black Eagles, and the Ejército Revolucionario Popular Antiterrorista Colombiano (Popular Revolutionary Anti-Terrorist Army of Colombia, ERPAC), derive the bulk of their income from drug trafficking as they wage war against the leftist Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), trade unionists and land reform activists.
Readers will recall that during the 1980s both the Medellín and Cali cartels were given a leg up by the Reagan administration’s CIA as funds derived from the drug trade were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras as part of the administration’s anti-Communist crusade in Central America.
In fact, as the Agency was forced to admit in the wake of “suicided” journalist Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” investigation, the CIA and Reagan’s Justice Department agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that handed their dope-dealing Contra assets get-out-of-jail-free cards.
As political fallout from the latest “War on Drugs” scandal–the “gun walking” Fast and Furious affair that put thousands of high-powered weapons into the hands of cartel killers in Mexico–hovers like a radioactive cloud over the Justice Department, the old watchword of the 1980s, “drugs in, guns out,” is all the more timely.
And like the Contras, the AUC were more than simply an enforcement arm of Colombia’s narco-elites; they served as an unofficial though deadly instrument, to preserve the status quo. For Washington policy makers, this meant continued access by U.S. petroleum corporations, mining and agro-business interests to Colombia’s vast wealth. If thousands of tons of cocaine entered the United States as the price for stamping out “leftist subversion,” then so be it.
Along with incriminating evidence that linked Tovar’s gang to 550 murders, it later emerged that Tovar was a close political associate of Jorge Noguera, the former head of DAS, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (Administrative Department of Security), the Colombian equivalent of the CIA.
Noguera’s links to Tovar came to light when his deputy, Rafael García Torres, DAS’s former chief of Information Technologies, was arrested and charged by Supreme Court investigators of accepting bribes from right-wing sicarios (assassins) and drug traffickers in exchange for erasing their criminal histories, along with those of the Cifuentes Villa clan, from the state intelligence database.
In his testimony, García charged that Noguera, a Uribe crony, collaborated with Tovar’s Northern Bloc in a coordinated move by the AUC to support local, regional and national candidates for office who supported their hardline against the left.
More recently, the not-so-hidden hand of the United States emerged.
The Washington Post reported that “American cash, equipment and training, supplied to elite units of the Colombian intelligence service over the past decade to help smash cocaine-trafficking rings, were used to carry out spying operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices, Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups.”
Post reporters Karen DeYoung and Claudia J. Duque disclosed that despite billions of dollars of aid supplied by U.S. taxpayers under Plan Colombia, “the DAS under Uribe emphasized political targets over insurgents and drug lords.”
In fact, Colombia prosecutors told the Post that the “Uribe government wanted to ‘neutralize’ the Supreme Court because its investigative magistrates were unraveling ties between presidential allies in the Colombian congress and drug-trafficking paramilitary groups.”
Based on “thousands of pages of DAS documents and the testimony of nine top former DAS officials, the prosecutors say the agency was directed by the president’s office to collect the banking records of magistrates, follow their families, bug their offices and analyze their court rulings.”
These black operations however, were not the work of a few proverbial “bad apples” but were a direct result of projects designed by the CIA.
“Some of those charged or under investigation have described the importance of U.S. intelligence resources and guidance,” the Post disclosed, “and say they regularly briefed embassy ‘liaison’ officials on their intelligence-gathering activities.”
“‘We were organized through the American Embassy,’ said William Romero, who ran the DAS’s network of informants and oversaw infiltration of the Supreme Court. Like many of the top DAS officials in jail or facing charges, he received CIA training. Some were given scholarships to complete coursework on intelligence-gathering at American universities.”
As with the previous Clinton and Bush regimes, the Obama administration vociferously denies any knowledge of corrupt practices by Colombian officials and in fact, “anti-drug” programs such as Plan Colombia “are viewed as so successful that it has become a model for strategy in Afghanistan,” thePost reported.
By 2012 however, some 139 members of Congress were under investigation; five governors and 32 lawmakers, including President Uribe’s cousin, Mario Uribe Escobar, a former President of Congress, were convicted of paramilitary ties and subsequently jailed.
In late August, former Colombian senator Jorge Visbal, a Uribe ally, “was charged with the promoting and financing of paramilitary groups, held responsible for tens of thousands of human rights violations,” Colombia Reports disclosed.
“Former AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso testified before Colombian prosecutors that Visbal had an ‘identical ideology’ to the extreme-right paramilitaries and, on behalf of the cattle ranchers, brought ‘information and suggestions’ to meetings with paramilitary leaders to secure the expansion of paramilitary power in the north of Colombia.”
Mancuso, who took over the AUC when Israeli-trained narcotrafficker and death-squad führer Carlos Castaño “disappeared” in 2004, said during recent court proceedings that Uribe was aware that the organization supported his campaign for president in 2002 “economically and logistically,” according to Colombia Reports.
Prior to his arrest, the human rights organization Equipo Nizkor reported that Mancuso, the son of Italian immigrants, along with being an AUC “godfather,” was also a member of the ‘Ndrangheta, “the powerful Calabrian mafia which according to Italian police, exceeds the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in both strength and size.”
In fact, when Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri flew to Bogotá to investigate the‘Ndrangheta’s Colombian drugs network, Gratteri was told by Mancuso he had spied on him the entire time.
“I was in the center of Bogotá, with lots of security protecting me. I didn’t know that all the armored cars that I could see around my hotel belonged to Mancuso,” Gratteri told The Daily Beast. “He told me his protection consisted of 600 men! Not even the U.S. President has such an escort. Can you imagine how much money he had?”
Mancuso claimed Uribe was aware of the AUC’s backing. “There were previous meetings with members of Álvaro Uribe’s campaign, including those delegates that asked us to decrease military operations because it was affecting the campaign and image of the candidate,” Mancuso said.
During those same proceedings, another former AUC leader, Jorge Ivan Laverde, alias “El Iguano,” said that “no evidence exists of these financial transactions because the groups burned all of their paramilitary records before they demobilized.”
Rather conveniently, one might say.
“According to El Iguano,” Colombia Reports disclosed, “the support of the ex-president all began when the righthand man of AUC creator Carlos Castaño called all groups to give them the order that they must support the Uribe campaign and spend money where necessary.”
The former president denounced these claims and said he would launch “a criminal complaint against the former paramilitary for libel.”
However, former Congressman Miguel Alfonso de la Espriella, who was part of Uribe’s coalition government and later sentenced for ties to the AUC, told prosecutors in September that Uribe “knew he was receiving support from paramilitary groups during his 2002 election campaign,” Colombia Reports disclosed last month.
The now-disgraced politician said that Uribe “never objected” to meeting with the AUC-backed politicians, but “simply maintained a prudent silence.”
In a recent interview, de la Espriella told El Espectador that the AUC had donated some $134 thousand to Uribe’s 2002 presidential campaign.
The former senator told the paper that Mancuso said “our participation in the self defense forces was to seek a deal with his [Uribe's] government. He [Uribe] did not explicitly reject this possibility or the support. What he did say was that we wait and if he got elected we would talk again.”
More recently, Uribe’s jailed ex-security chief, Mauricio Santoyo Velasco, accused of illegally ordering driftnet surveillance over electronic communications and the forced disappearance of human rights workers in Medellín, “is willing to officially testify against his old boss and other senior officials,” according to Colombia Reports.
Santoyo is presently jailed in the U.S. for collaborating with the AUC and “previously acknowledged accepting bribes from paramilitary members in exchange for giving them information about police operations being carried out against them.”
According to “highly credible sources” cited by Colombia Reports, Santoyo “is willing to implicate the ex-president and other top officials,” in exchange for a “reduced sentence.”
Although U.S. prosecutors previously said that the Santoyo case was the “tip of the iceberg” and an opposition senator accused the former president of bringing “a criminal apparatus” to the presidential palace in 2002, the current director of Colombia’s National Police, General José Roberto León Riaño, denied that the U.S. is investigating anyone other than Santoyo.
“Yesterday I personally interviewed the toughest prosecutor of the United States on the matter of drug trafficking, Neil MacBride, who is running the case against [retired general Mauricio] Santoyo,”Colombia Reports averred. “He indicated: ‘there are bad apples in every institution, Santoyo is an apple that acted on his own, but that can’t affect the whole organization’.”
While evidence has yet to emerge that Uribe met with Mancuso as the former AUC chief testified, ubiquitous “facts on the ground” in the form of thousands of tons of exported dope, forced “disappearances” and the mass murder of peasants and left-wing activists tell a different tale and point to official complicity amongst Colombian elites and their U.S. “drug war” sponsors.
Back to the Future: U.S. Complicity and Cover-Up
The sordid history of collaboration between Colombian elites, drug gangs, the military and right-wing death squads was known for years by U.S. secret state agencies and federal prosecutors but was covered-up in the interest of “national security.”
In declassified documents published by the National Security Archive in 2004, we learned that then Senator “Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a ‘close personal friend of Pablo Escobar’ who was ‘dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels,’ according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia.”
Researcher Michael Evans revealed that the “newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of ‘the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations’.”
The former president, a “key U.S. partner in the drug war” and a major recipient of billions of dollars of taxpayer-supplied funds for Plan Colombia, “was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the United States” and “has worked for the Medellín cartel.”
Evans disclosed that “The document is marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL NOFORN WNINTEL,’ indicating that its disclosure could reasonably be expected to damage national security, that its content was based on intelligence sources and methods, and that it should not be shared with foreign nationals.”
One cannot help but ask: whose “national security” was threatened by the disclosure? Certainly not that of thousands of Colombian citizens murdered by drug-linked paramilitary gangsters or the hundreds of thousands of “drug war” victims incarcerated in American gulags for drug use or low-level sales.
“Uribe,” the Archive informed us, was “the 82nd name on the list,” and appeared “on the same page as Escobar and Fidel Castaño, who went on to form the country’s major paramilitary army, a State Department-designated terrorist group now engaged in peace negotiations with the Uribe government. Written in March 1991 while Escobar was still a fugitive, the report was forwarded to Washington several months after his surrender to Colombian authorities in June 1991.”
“Most of those on the list are well-known drug traffickers or assassins associated with the Medellín cartel,” Evans averred. “Others listed include ex-president of Panama Manuel Noriega [and] Iran-contra arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.”
Four years later in another release of previously classified documents, the Archive revealed that “U.S. espionage operations targeting top Colombian government officials in 1993 provided key evidence linking the U.S.-Colombia task force charged with tracking down fugitive drug lord Pablo Escobar to one of Colombia’s most notorious paramilitary chiefs.”
“The documents,” Evans wrote, “reveal that the U.S.-Colombia Medellín Task Force, known in Spanish as the Bloque de Búsqueda or ‘Search Block,’ was sharing intelligence information with Fidel Castaño, paramilitary leader of Los Pepes (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar or ‘People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar’), a clandestine terrorist organization that waged a bloody campaign against people and property associated with the reputed narcotics kingpin.”
After Escobar’s take-down, Los Pepes morphed into the AUC and led to a strategic realignment “between Colombian intelligence agencies, rival drug traffickers and disaffected former Escobar associates like Castaño, the godfather of a new generation of narcotics-fueled paramilitary forces that still plagues Colombia today.”
“The collaboration between paramilitaries and government security forces evident in the Pepes episode is a direct precursor of today’s ‘para-political’ scandal,” said Evans. “The Pepes affair is the archetype for the pattern of collaboration between drug cartels, paramilitary warlords and Colombian security forces that developed over the next decade into one of the most dangerous threats to Colombian security and U.S. anti-narcotics programs. Evidence still concealed within secret U.S. intelligence files forms a critical part of that hidden history.”
In this context, as Peter Dale Scott observed in Drugs, Oil, and War, “The true purpose of most of these campaigns has not been the hopeless ideal of eradication. It has been to alter market share: to target specific enemies and thus ensure that the drug traffic remains under the control of those traffickers who are allies of the Colombian state security apparatus and/or the CIA.”
“Allies” like Álvaro Uribe.
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, he is a Contributing Editor with Cyrano’s Journal Today. His articles can be read on Dissident VoicePacific Free PressUncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military “Civil Disturbance” Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.

Earthquake-Causing Fracking to Be Allowed within 500 Feet of Nuclear Plants

radiation4
No1 Earthquake Causing Fracking to Be Allowed within 500 FEET of Nuclear Plants
 Earthquake Causing Fracking to Be Allowed within 500 FEET of Nuclear Plants
Some plants are located in very high earthquake risk zones:

Nuclear Plants Vulnerable to Earthquakes
The American government has officially stated that fracking can cause earthquakes. Some fracking companies now admit this fact The scientific community agrees. See thisthisthisthis and this.
Earthquakes can – of course – damage nuclear power plants. For example, even the operator of Fukushima and the Japanese government now admit that the nuclear cores might have started melting down before the tsuanmi ever hit. More here.
Indeed, the fuel pools and rods at Fukushima appear to have “boiled”, caught fire and/or exploded soon after the earthquake knocked out power systems. See thisthisthisthis and this. And fuel pools in the United States store an average of ten times more radioactive fuel than stored at Fukushima, have virtually no safety features, and are vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks.And see this.
Indeed, American reactors may be even more vulnerable to earthquakes than Fukushima.
But American nuclear “regulators” have allowed numerous nuclear power plants to be built in earthquake zones:
And they have covered up the risks from earthquakes for years … just like the Japanese regulators didFor example:
  • The NRC won’t even begin conducting its earthquake study for Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York until after relicensing is complete in 2013, because the NRC doesn’t consider a big earthquake “a serious risk”
  • Congressman Markey has said there is a cover up. Specifically, Markey alleges that the head of the NRC told everyone not to write down risks they find from an earthquake greater than 6.0 (the plant was only built to survive a 6.0 earthquake)
  • We have 4 reactors in California – 2 at San Onofre 2 at San Luis Obisbo – which are vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis
For example, Diablo Canyon is located on numerous earthquake faults, and a state legislator and seismic expert says it could turn into California’s Fukushima:
 
On July 26th 2011 the California Energy Commission held hearings concerning the state’s nuclear safety. During those hearings, the Chairman of the Commission asked governments experts whether or not they felt the facilities could withstand the maximum credible quake. The response was that they did not know.This is similar to what happened at Fukushima: seismologists dire warnings were ignored (and see this.)
Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t even take earthquake risk into account when deciding whether or not to relicense plants like Diablo Canyon.

Are They Fracking With Us?

American nuclear regulators are allowing earthquake-inducing fracking to be conducted mere feet from nuclear power plants.
As the Herald Standard reports:
Chesapeake Energy has a permit to frack just one mile from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport. Whether that is cause for alarm, experts can’t say.
***
“Hydraulic fracturing near a nuclear plant is probably not a concern under normal circumstances,” [Richard Hammack, a scientist at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory] said. “If there is a pre-stress fault that you happen to lubricate there (with fracking solution), that is the only thing that might result in something that is (seismically) measurable.”
That’s not very reassuring, given that “lubrication” of faults is the main mechanism by which fracking causes earthquakes. (Indeed,  the point is illustrated by the analogous fact that leading Japanese seismologists say that the Fukushima earthquake “lubricated” nearby faults, making a giant earthquake more likely than ever.)
And as Akron Beacon Journal notes, fracking is allowed with 500 feet of nuclear plants:
“We’re not aware of any potential impacts and don’t expect any,” said FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young today. “We see no reason to be particularly concerned.”
***
[But] experts can’t say if the proposed well so close to two nuclear power plants is cause for concern.
***
DEP spokesperson John Poister told the Shale Reporter that there are no required setbacks specifically relating to a required distance between such shale wells and nuclear facilities, just a blanket regulation requiring a 500-foot setback from any building to a natural gas well.

Related content:

  1. Fracking Could Have Caused East Coast Earthquake
    Experts are looking for a reason behind Tuesday afternoon’s unlikely 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook people up and down the East Coast, and some are saying that a recent rise in fracking could be the culprit.
    Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is the man-made splintering of underground rocks to expedite the exploiting of natural resources.…
  2. In the Wake  of the Fukushima Disaster: "Problems" at  American Nuclear Energy Plants
    In the Wake of the Fukushima Disaster: “Problems” at American Nuclear Energy Plants
    Nuclear Regulatory Commission Finally Admits Safety Problems at American Reactors … But Doesn’t Go Far Enough
    As Reuters reported last month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has publicly been saying American reactors are safe, while privately expressing doubts:
    U.S. regulators privately have expressed doubts that some of the nation’s nuclear power plants are prepared for a Fukushima-scale disaster, undercutting their public confidence since Japan’s nuclear crisis began, documents released by an independent safety watchdog group show.…
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    Fukushima: Massive Radiation. Japan Admits TOTAL Meltdown at 3 Nuclear Reactors Within Hours of Earthquake
    For months, Tepco and Japanese officials refused to admit that there had been any meltdowns at Fukushima.
    Then they said there were meltdowns at reactors 1, 2 and 3 … but they might have only been partial meltdowns.
    Finally, today, they admitted the obvious: there were total meltdowns at all 3 reactors.…
  4. Are Most Nuclear Power Plants Vulnerable?
    Whenever there is a disaster, those responsible claim it was “unforeseeable” so as to escape blame.
    For example:
    It happened with 9/11
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    The big boys gamble with our lives and our livelihoods, because they make a killing by taking huge risks and cutting costs.…
  5. radiation4
    Researchers Determine 23 Plants and 74 Active Nuclear Reactors Vulnerable to Effects of Tsunami
    By Madison Ruppert
    The dangerous reality of nuclear power is becoming increasingly apparent in the wake of the continuing (and “profoundly man-made”) disaster at Fukushima as well as studies which project similarly devastating disasters in the future.
    Yet nations including Japan continue to press forward with nuclear power in spite of the clear dangers and the widespread public opposition to the deadly technology.…
Mossad returned the favourto 'French Intelligence for their  huge role in 
the assassination of President Yitzhak Rabin by murdering  Diana
 The death of Diana: an update [Issue 39 - 2000]


FBI investigates Continental pilot's encounter with 'rocket'

Continental pilot startled by encounter with 'rocket'
CINDY HORSWELL, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle | Monday, May 26, 2008

A Continental Airlines pilot reported being startled by what he described as a rocket that shot past his cockpit window Monday when the plane was about eight miles north of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating the incident, which occurred about 10:30 a.m.
"We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing," saidRoland Herwig, an FAA spokesman. "The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the rocket's trail (of smoke)."
Continental Airlines spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said Monday night that she could not discuss what was seen by the crew of Flight 1544. She would only say that the Boeing 737, with 148 passengers. left Bush at 10:17 a.m. and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 2:13 p.m.
She said the pilot made no diversionary maneuvers, and she added the plane was not damaged, and nobody was injured.
The FAA does not yet know how close the object came to the plane or what altitude it reached. "We will determine that by establishing a radar history," Herwig said.
FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap stressed that it is "routine" for the FBI to look into suspicious activity involving an aircraft.
"We don't know if it was a rocket or what. We will interview everyone and determine the validity of what was seen," she said.
If it was model rocket, investigators want to know the type and who launched it.
"Building rockets is a legitimate hobby, but hobbyists have to let the FAA know what they're doing," Herwig said.
Robert Morehead, an engineer who is president of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston, said the FAA would only need to be notified if a rocket would be entering controlled airspace.
He said the only danger to a plane might be if the rocket is ingested by a plane's engine.
"But their engines are designed to ingest birds and not come apart," said Morehead, who lives in Clear Lake. "The real question is if the rocket would tear up the engine instead of just shutting it off."
Model rockets can be made of cardboard and glue or have aluminum air frames, he said. Rockets also have no difficulty reaching the 30,000 to 40,000 feet, the altitude at which an airliner may cruise.
"There is a guy who claims his rocket has reached the threshold of space or 75 miles," Morehead said. "But there are lots of models that could fly as high as an airliner. You can do it with a 10- to 15-foot tall rocket and some little ones."
But Flight 1544 had recently taken off and might not have been flying that high, he said.
The models can be fueled with everything from black powder to ammonium percholorate and aluminum, he said.
"It's not rocket science when you use a kit," he said. His organization builds rockets from scratch to teach students the math and science behind it.
"We just built one using liquid fuel that had substantially more thrust than the models," he said.
Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington D.C., said the Monday incident is not the first time a rocket has crossed paths with an airliner. But so far, no plane has been hit by a launched model rocket.
"There are model rocket clubs operating around the country. This was a holiday weekend that would be good for a launch," she said.

Ron Paul: The Internet Revolution Is a Liberty Revolution

129 Responses
by RonPaul.com on  October 22, 2012

Ron Paul: The Internet Revolution Is a Liberty Revolution

129 Responses
by RonPaul.com on  October 22, 2012


Until the late 1990s, individuals interested in Austrian economics, U.S. constitutional history, and libertarian philosophy had few sources of information. They had to spend hours scouring used book stores or the back pages of obscure libertarian periodicals to find the great works of Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and other giants of liberty. Local library and university collections ignored libertarian politics and economics.
Today, however, the greatest classics of libertarian thought, libertarian philosophy, and libertarian economics are available instantly to anyone with internet access. Thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever before for liberty activists to spread news and other information regarding the evils of government power and the benefits of freedom. For the first time in human history, supporters of liberty around the world can share information across borders quickly and cheaply. Without the filter of government censors, this information emboldens millions to question governments and promote liberty.
This is why liberty-minded Americans must do everything possible to oppose– and stop– government attempts to censor or limit the free flow of information online.
One such attempt is known as “CISPA”, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. This bill will create a monstrous coalition of big business and big government to rob Americans of their protections under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.
CISPA permits both the federal government and private companies to view your private online communications with no judicial oversight, provided they merely do so in the name of “cybersecurity.” But America is a constitutional republic, not a surveillance state– and the wildly overhyped need for security does not trump the Constitution.
“Cybersecurity” is the responsibility of companies that operate and make money in cyberspace, not taxpayers. Those companies should develop market-based private solutions to secure their networks, servers, cloud data centers, and user/customer information. The role of the US intelligence community is to protect the United States from military threats, not to provide corporate welfare to the private sector. Much like the TSA at the airport, CISPA would socialize security costs and remove market incentives for private firms to protect their own investments.
Imagine security-cleared agents embedded at private companies to serve as conduits for intelligence information about their customers back to the US intelligence community– while enjoying immunity from any existing civil or criminal laws. Imagine Google or Facebook reporting directly to the National Security Agency about the online activity of US citizens. Imagine US government resources being wasted on a grand scale to “assist” private companies in the global market. All of this would become reality under CISPA.
As of this writing, it appears that the House and Senate will not agree on a final version of CISPA this year. However, the Obama administration seems ready to impose provisions of this bill by executive order if Congress does not act soon.
The past five years have seen an explosion in the liberty movement, fueled in large part by the internet. Preserving that freedom is crucial if the liberty movement is to continue its progress. Therefore, all activists in the liberty movement have a stake in the battle for internet freedom. We must be ready to come together to fight any attempt to increase government’s power over the internet, regardless of the supposed justifications. We must resist voices from both the political right and left which alternatively seek to legislate morality or enforce political correctness with force. Copyright protection, pornography, cyberterrorism, gambling, and “hate speech” are merely excuses for doing what all governments have done throughout human history: increase their size, scope, and power.
Once we understand this, we understand the critical link between internet freedom and human freedom.

Poll: Who Should Ron Paul Endorse?

370 Responses
by RonPaul.com on  October 16, 2012


Who should Ron Paul endorse if he doesn't run for President as an Independent or Third Party candidate this year?
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Disclaimer: This is a non-binding poll by and for Ron Paul’s supporters to express our opinions and make our voices heard. Obviously, the poll’s outcome has no binding effect on Ron Paul’s eventual decision.

Ron Paul: Real Unemployment Is at 22.8%

257 Responses
by RonPaul.com on  October 15, 2012


Last week, supporters of the current administration rejoiced over job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). For the first time since the administration came to power, the official unemployment number fell below 8%. Keynesian cheerleaders all claimed the numbers meant we are surely on the road to economic recovery, just in time for Christmas, and also, the election. Others saw through this ruse.
The situation on the ground looks nothing like a recovery. 23 million people are still out of work or chronically underemployed. This number is expected to rise dramatically next year.
The situation on the ground looks nothing like a recovery. 23 million people are still out of work or chronically underemployed. This number is expected to rise dramatically next year. The situation in Washington should not give anyone cause for optimism. Politicians refuse to look honestly and intelligently at the cause of our economic malaise, and so real solutions are not taken seriously or acted upon. It is much easier and less painful to simply recalculate the numbers and redefine the terms until a rosier picture is presented. There is only blind hope that at some point, for some reason, things might change. But nothing will change for the better if we only stay the course.
The truth is the long term solutions to our economic quagmire involve some short term pain. Re-evaluating the economic role of an institution as insidious and behemoth as the Federal Reserve will inconvenience some people, and those people happen to have a lot of power. Similarly, the idea of ending government programs and closing down superfluous departments will always upset someone because it means someone will stop getting a government check.
No one wants to upset the apple cart, even if all the apples are rotten.
Not all of the unemployed are counted in the BLS unemployment numbers. This is no secret. In 1994 government statisticians came up with the term “discouraged worker” to remove entire swaths of people from the unemployment statistic. Now all the government has to do to improve the unemployment numbers is discourage people from looking for a job.
Far more unintended consequences are created in Washington than jobs.
Ideally, the business sector should be able to depend on sound numbers from the BLS, but smart business leaders know that trust in these numbers leads to bad decisions and failure. In regards to the recent jobs numbers, investor Jim Rogers recently stated “I have learned not to take advice from the government, especially the US government, which frequently misleads its citizens.” He also noted the election just around the corner, suggesting timing as an extra incentive to keep fudging the statistics.
This is a difficult figure to accept as the actual truth. Perhaps if the politicians did, the people would finally demand real change and real solutions. 
The real drivers of the productive economy can’t afford to take risks based on false numbers. This is why economist John Williams created Shadow Government Statistics, utilizing more traditional methodologies and definitions to show business decision makers the real economic picture, warts and all. He shows the real unemployment rate to be a staggering 22.8%.
This is a difficult figure to accept as the actual truth. Perhaps if the politicians did, the people would finally demand real change and real solutions. Perhaps they would consider that all of the so-called stimulus spending, quantitative easing and mountains of regulation from Washington has only crippled the economy. Perhaps people would come to understand that fewer checks handed out from the public sector would mean more checks available in the private sector, and a return to real prosperity instead of just the appearance of it.

Ron Paul: We Must Fiscally Restrain Our Government

172 Responses
by RonPaul.com on  October 8, 2012


The media insists on characterizing statements about dependency on government handouts as controversial, but in truth such statements are absolutely correct.  It’s not that nearly half of Americans are dependent on government; it’s actually more than half.  If one includes not just people on food stamps and welfare, but also seniors on Medicare, Social Security and people employed by the government directly, the number is more like 165 million out of 308 million, which is 53%.
Some argue that Social Security and Medicare benefits are a right because people pay into these programs their whole lives, or that we need a government safety net in place for people who fall on hard times.  However, this all becomes a moot point when the funds people depend on become worthless due to government default or rampantinflation.
This is less an issue of dignity or dependence on government, and more about thedeceitfulness of government promises.
The Fed recently announced that it plans to keep interest rates near zero and keep buying near worthless assets from banks indefinitely.  This enables Congress to spend without having to take deficits or the debt seriously and there is every indication they intend to spend with impunity until the system collapses.  There are no brakes on the runaway train.  The federal debt ceiling law does nothing to limit spending. The ceiling will have to be raised yet again perhaps before the year is out.  What is happening in Greece with austerity measures and riots in the street will happen here within a decade according to some realistic estimates if we do not find some way to fiscally restrain our government.
There is little point in a debate about being entitled to healthcare or food or shelter from fellow taxpayers if the whole system has collapsed.  And, with the way our politicians have taken over and mismanaged vast amounts of resources, collapse seems almost unavoidable.  Yet the number of Americans who have significant dependency on government is dangerously high, and I honestly fear for them.
Worse, corporate welfare is also at an all time high with no signs of diminishing.  Though it is hard to quantify, Tad Dehaven at Cato has estimated that the government spends nearly twice as much on corporate welfare than on social welfare.  Both parties are equally guilty.  More and more, the business sector is learning to rely on taxpayer largesse in one form or another.  They used to be solely concerned with providing a better product to the consumer at a better price.  Now, success on Wall Street depends entirely too much on having the best lobbyists on K Street.  If one includes the employees of “private” businesses who depend on government contracts, grants or bailouts, there are even more people dependent on government in some way.
Government does not create resources when it taxes people and prints money; it merely redistributes the wealth, while supporting a massive, wasteful bureaucracy along the way.  Government is a giant, blood-sucking parasite on our otherwise healthy economy.  For too long we have entrusted too much economic power and influence to irresponsible politicians in Washington.  It’s the chaos that ensues after they run the system into the ground that will be so painful for so many people.  But realigning our economy with the free market and away from government mandates and handouts must happen in order for it to thrive again.
The answer is not to keep asking government to do more.  The answer is to extricate our economy and ourselves from the grasp of Washington DC as much as possible now, before our dependency becomes our downfall.

Memorable Quote

“Inflation, indeed, throws a veil of illusion over every economic process. It confuses and deceives almost everyone, including even those who suffer by it. We are all accustomed to measuring our income and wealth in terms of money. The mental habit is so strong that even professional economists and statisticians cannot consistently break it. It is not easy to see relationships always in terms of real goods and real welfare. [...] Inflation is the autosuggestion, the hypnotism, the anesthetic, that has dulled the pain of the operation for him. Inflation is the opium of the people.”— Henry HazlittEconomics in One Lesson
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Who is Ron Paul?

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Ronald Reagan and Ron Paul

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Ron and Carol: Married for 55 Years

Ron Paul has been married to his wife Carol Wells since 1957. They have five children: Ronald, Lori, Rand, Robert, and Joy. Paul's son Rand is the junior senator from the state of Kentucky.

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Sir Francis Boyle


Francis Anthony Boyle (born 1950) is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.[1] Boyle received a A.B. (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from Harvard University. He also practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould.

Background and legal work

Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the Palestinian Authority. He also represents two associations of citizens within Bosnia and was involved in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over his career, he has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. From 1991-92, Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He also served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as a consultant to the American Friends Service Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.[2]

[edit]Activism and views

[edit]Amnesty International

As member of the board of Amnesty International USA at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, he claimed that Amnesty International USA acted in ways closely related to United States foreign policy interests. He stated that Amnesty, along with other human rights organisations in the US, failed to sufficiently criticise the Sabra and Shatila Massacre inLebanon.[3] Boyle stated his suspicion that the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, based geographically in London, UK, was also subject to this bias. He attributes the alleged links between Amnesty International and US and UK foreign policy interests to the relatively large financial contribution of Amnesty International USA to AI's international budget, which he estimated at 20%.[3] Boyle also stated that Amnesty international was instrumental in publicizing the "Iraqi soldiers dumping children from incubators in Kuwait" hoax.[4] Boyle also claimed that aspects of organisational continuity and survival came ahead of human rights aims in Amnesty International. He stated "Amnesty International is primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes money. Third comes getting more members. Fourth, internal turf battles. And then finally, human rights, genuine human rights concerns."[3]

[edit]US foreign policy since 9/11

Boyle was a harsh critic of the foreign policy of former American President George W. Bush. In 2007 Boyle denounced the "ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by the Bush Jr. administration and its nefarious foreign accomplices in allied governments such as in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Georgia, etc." He also claimed that the Bush administration "would welcome the outbreak of a Third World War" and "is fully prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons against Muslim and Arab states and peoples." He also claimed that American treatment of Muslims and Arabs since the attacks of September 11, 2001 is "almost to the same extent that America inflicted upon the Japanese and Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor." He concluded his speech by calling on American lawyers to "lead the fight against the Bush Jr. dictatorship."[5]
Boyle has requested that the International Criminal Court Prosecutor obtain International Arrest Warrants for George W. BushDick CheneyDonald RumsfeldGeorge Tenet,Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales.[6]

[edit]Federal Government of the United States

In October 1992 Boyle participated in the International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nationalities in the United States of America that convened in San Francisco. Boyle, acting as a "Special Prosecutor," petitioned the Tribunal to issue the following:
In the conclusion of a 37-point legal brief, Boyle proclaimed that:
"[the Federal Government of the United States] is hostis humani generis: The enemy of all humankind! For the good of all humanity, this Tribunal must condemn and repudiate the Federal Government of the United States of America and its grotesque vision of a New World Order that is constructed upon warfare, bloodshed, violence,criminalitygenocideracismcolonialismapartheid, massive violations of fundamental human rights, and the denial of the international legal right of self-determination to the Indigenous Peoples and Peoples of Color living in North America and elsewhere around the world."[7]

[edit]Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement

In 1993, Boyle gave a speech in which he called for Hawaiian independence from the United States.[8]
In December 2004, Boyle stated that the United States is illegally occupying the state of Hawaii and has encouraged Native Hawaiians to press for independence and, if necessary, unilaterally proclaim their own state. In a three-hour speech entitled "The Restoration of Hawaii's Independence," Boyle claimed that the United States has conceded it unlawfully occupied the Kingdom of Hawaii and that fact alone "gives the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) the entitlement to restore their independent status as a sovereign nation state." Boyle argued that, like the Palestinians, Hawaiians should "exercise their right of self-determination," instead of asking the permission for it. Boyle stated that "the plight of the Hawaiian people is generally well known in the world and there's a great deal of sympathy." He concluded his speech by stating that "Hawaii should send the strongest message to Washington it can. Letters carry no weight. The number of people in the street do. Gandhi threw the mighty British out of India with peaceful, nonviolent force. People power, submit to it."[9]
Boyle, who has been advising Hawaiian independence groups since 1992, has argued that "The legal cause for the restoration of the kingdom is air-tight," In addition to devising a draft constitution for one group, the Nation of Hawaii, Boyle also filed suit in the US Supreme Court in 1998 to demand the restoration of Hawaiian independence and reparations "for all the harm inflicted on the Kingdom of Hawaii". The court later determined that the kingdom "was a non-recognised sovereign that does not have access to the US courts". Boyle susbsequently stated that Hawaiian independence groups will "have to wait until the Kingdom of Hawaii has achieved substantial diplomatic recognition and then I could file something in the international court of justice." Boyle further stated that "Native Hawaiians operate in accordance with the Aloha spirit, which is similar to Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha force, and I take the position that if Gandhi can throw the mighty British Empire out of India with Satyagraha, Native Hawaiians can throw the mighty American empire out of Hawaii with Aloha." In 2008, Boyle expresses confidence that Hawaii will at some stage achieve independence.[10]

[edit]Iran

Boyle has urged Iran to sue the United States in the International Court of Justice in order to discourage a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities and prevent the imposition of newsanctions by the U.N. Security Council. He has also offered to represent Iran and recommended that Iran begin drafting lawsuits for presentation to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).[11][12]

[edit]Israel

Boyle is a harsh critic of IsraelZionism, and American foreign policy towards Israel. In May 2008, Boyle offered to "represent Iran in an international tribunal for trying the Zionist regime on charges of genocide of Palestinians", and reportedly demanded that his proposal be submitted to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[13][14]
In 1986, Boyle filed a lawsuit against Israeli General Amos Yaron for alleged involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre on behalf of several relatives of victims, but lost when theUnited States State Department claimed that Yaron could not be tried due to the diplomatic immunity he enjoyed as a military attachè to the United States. Boyle countered that under the Nuremberg Principles, there are no privileges and immunities for suspected war criminals, but the court decided that since President Reagan had given Yaron a "formal certification", "this was a political question and the court could not do anything to the contrary". Boyle has since followed all lawsuits against Israelis internationally, and blames "Zionist control and domination of the American judiciary" for the failure of these lawsuits in the United States. Boyle also proposed that the United Nations General Assembly set up the "International Criminal Tribunal for Israel" (ICTI) as a "subsidiary organ" under Article 22 of the United Nations Charter. His suggestion was endorsed in the UN by Malaysia and Iran, and supported by several dozen Arab and Muslim countries.[15]
Boyle has campaigned for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel since first calling for the establishment of the movement in 2000.[15]
Boyle has referred to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as "genocide", and the Gaza War as a "massacre", claiming that Israel's actions raise the element in the Genocide Convention"of murder, torture, and things of that nature", and urged the Obama Administration to force Israel to lift its blockade.[15] In January 2009, Boyle wrote that "Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948... Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much touted “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide."[14] Following the Gaza War, he advised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to file a declaration under Article 12, Paragraph 3 of the Rome Statute, requesting the prosecution of Israeli officials.[15]
Boyle has referred to Israeli settlements as "clearly illegal and criminal", and stated that "all these so-called settlers are committing war crimes, except the children, who are obviously not old enough to formulate a criminal intent".[15]

[edit]Views on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

In interview which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on October 26, 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Boyle sharply criticized Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, stating that
"when it comes to US foreign policy to oppress the Palestinians, nothing has changed. Obama was bought and paid for by Zionists. That's why Rahm Emanuel was his chief-of-staff, until just recently, when he decided to run for mayor of Chicago. Emanuel was bought and paid for to be put in there, the same way with [Dennis] Ross and the White House. Mrs. Clinton sold her soul to the Zionists in New York to get elected as senator from New York."[16]

[edit]Statements on US Media and Higher Education

In interview which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on October 26, 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Boyle claimed that:
"all the major US news media sources are Zionist – every one of them. Likewise, higher education, here, in America, has become predominantly Zionist in its orientation."[16][17]

[edit]Views on Alan Dershowitz

Boyle is a sharp critic of pro-Israel scholar Alan Dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel. In a February 2010 interview, Boyle stated that:
"Dershowitz is not a trained international lawyer; he's not a trained human rights lawyer...Dershowitz is a {prima facie} war criminal, who should be prosecuted himself...it would be great to get him out of Harvard Law School - my dis-alma mater - and ship him over to Israel with all the other war criminals over there."
In the same interview, Boyle expressed support for other critics of Dershowitz and Israel such as Norman Finkelstein and Israel Shahak.[18]

[edit]Prediction of the collapse of Israel

In an article published in Veterans Today, Boyle stated that "God had no right to steal Palestine from the Palestinians and give Palestine to the Jews to begin with. A fortiori the United Nations had no right to steal Palestine from the Palestinians and give Palestine to the Zionists in 1947." In the same article, Boyle predicted that the state of Israel "will continue its rapid descent into pariah state status" and that "When Israel collapses, most Zionists will have already left or will soon leave for other states around the world...Palestinians will then be able to claim all of the historic Mandate for Palestine as their State, including the entire City of Jerusalem as their Capital."[19]
Regarding a potential peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, Boyle wrote that "The only thing that could save Zionism in Palestine is for the Palestinians to conclude any type of so-called comprehensive Middle East Peace treaty with Israel...There is no reason for the Palestinians to give the Zionists a new lease on life in Palestine by signing any sort of peace treaty with Israel...The Palestinians must sign nothing and let Israel collapse!"[19] Boyle has also written that "the Jewish Bantustan (will) collapse of its own racist and genocidal weight over the next two decades if not much sooner. In the meantime, the Palestinians must stall and delay the so-called peace negotiations until then. Time is on their side".[20]

[edit]Israel as a "Jewish Bantustan"

In interview which aired on Al-Jazeera TV, October 26, 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Boyle stated that Israel is "nothing more than a Jewish Bantustan, set up by the Western colonial powers, in the Middle East, to control and dominate the Middle East at their behest. It is that simple...The British, the Americans, and the French created Israel as a Jewish Bantustan and stuck it there in the heart of Palestine and the Arab world to control and dominate that region of the world."[16]

[edit]"Jewistan" suggestion

In an article published in several sources, including the Atlantic Free Press, in October 2010, Boyle suggested that Israel change its name to "Jewistan - The State of the Jews"[21]because:
"Israel has never been anything but a Bantustan for Jews setup in the Middle East by the White racist and genocidal Western colonial imperial powers in order to serve as their racist attack dog and genocidal enforcer against the Arab and Muslim world. From the very moment of Western imperialism’s genocidal conception of Israel in 1947-1948, Israel has historically always functioned as Jewistan...Israel might as well change its name today to Jewistan, own up to its racist birthright, and make it official the rest of the world to acknowledge."[22][23][24]
He concluded the article by stating:
"The Palestinians should sign nothing with Jewistan/Israel and let this Bantustan for Jews collapse of its own racist and genocidal weight. Good riddance!"[22][23][25]

[edit]References

  1. ^ Francis A. Boyle, Professor, webpage University of Illinois, College of Law.
  2. ^ Boyle, Francis A. (2005). Biowarfare and Terrorism. Atlanta: Clarity Press. ISBN 978-0-932863-46-1
  3. a b c Bernstein, Dennis (2002). "Interview: Amnesty on Jenin - Dennis Bernstein and Dr. Francis Boyle Discuss the Politics of Human Rights"Covert Action QuarterlyArchived from the original on 2009-08-05. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  4. ^ Dennis Bernstein, Interview with Francis Boyle, CovertAction Information Bulletin, 2002
  5. ^ Law and Resistance: The Republic in Crisis and the People’s Response by Professor Francis A. Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law. Address given Tuesday, November 20, 2007, at the Lincoln Auditorium of Northwestern University School of Law.
  6. ^ International Arrest Warrants Requested, January 19, 2010.
  7. ^ Columbus Day Promotes Genocide by Francis Boyle, first published September 18, 1992, (retrieved on December 6, 2010 (posted on Countercurrents.org and on Social & Legal Commentary - USA at Australia.to/2010
  8. ^ Restoration of the Independent Nation of Hawai'i Under International Law. Speech by Francis Boyle, Mable Smyth Hall, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai`i, December 28, 1993.
  9. ^ Law expert Francis Boyle urges natives to take back Hawaii by Carolyn Lucas, West Hawaii Today, December 30, 2004.
  10. ^ Queen of Hawaii demands independence from 'US occupiers' by Catherine Elsworth, The Telegraph, June 30, 2008.
  11. ^ Press TV. "US lawyer seeks to sue US over Iran threats". Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  12. ^ American Lawyer Says He'll Represent Iranian Regime if it Sues U.S., Special Report by Brit Hume, Fox News, July 29, 2008.
  13. ^ US professor wants to represent Iran
  14. a b US Promotes Israeli Genocide, on Turkish Weekly, January 24, 2009
  15. a b c d e http://current.com/1euhs4c
  16. a b c American Law Professor Francis Boyle: The British, Americans, and French Created Israel as a Jewish Bantustan to Dominate the Arab Region, MEMRI, Clip No. 2677 (transcript), October 26, 2010.
  17. ^ Holocaust Denial From U.S. Professors: Academic Freedom? by Alex Joffe, Pajamas Media, (republished by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research), December 1, 2010.
  18. ^ Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza by Michele Steinberg, Scoop News (New Zealand), February 3, 2010.
  19. a b Prof. Francis Boyle: The Impending Collapse of Israel in Palestine by Professor Francis A. Boyle (published in Veterans Today), October 1, 2010.
  20. ^ Right of Return – Book Review by Ludwig Watzal, The Palestine Chronicle, (reprinted in Industry News), November 11, 2011.
  21. ^ Jewistan: Finally Recognizing Israel as the Jewish State, Abstract, Connections@Illinois (University of Illinois)
  22. a b Jewistan: Finally Recognizing Israel as the Jewish State by Francis Boyle, Thursday, 21 October 2010 05:43 (published on the website Australia.to/2010
  23. a b Jewistan: Finally Recognizing Israel as the Jewish State by Francis A Boyle, Atlantic Free Press, October 21, 2010.
  24. ^ Response to Francis Boyle's Jewistan What Elephant? by Zahir Ebrahim, Salem-News.com, October 24, 2010.
  25. ^ See also: Francis Boyle, The Palestinian Right of Return under International Law, Clarity Press, 2011. Chapter 3.5 "The State of the Jews—Jewistan!".

[edit]External resources

[edit]Audio


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  • Romney 2012
  • Romney 2012
  • Romney 2012
  • Romney 2012

Mitt Romney campaigns in Derry, N.H. (AFP photo)

Houston Chronicle endorses Mitt Romney for president

Sunday, October 21, 2012
US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney boards his plane at Love Field airport in Dallas,Texas on September 19, 2012. (NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP/Getty Images)
For those of you who missed today’s print edition of the Houston Chronicle, here is a copy of the newspaper’s presidential endorsement.
The Chronicle’s backing of Barack Obama in 2008 broke a 44-year string of endorsing Republican candidates for president. Like so many others, we were captivated by the Illinois senator’s soaring rhetoric and energized by his promise to move American politics beyond partisan gridlock and into an era of hope and change.
It hasn’t happened. Four years later, President Obama’s deeds have failed to match his words, much less his specific vows to cut the national debt by half and bring the nation’s unemployment rate to 6 percent. As Texans, it is a particular vexation that this president’s attitude toward the interests of our state has occasionally bordered on contempt, particularly in decisions relating to the NASA budget and the energy sector. The hurtful symbol of this attitude of insensitivity to Texans’ feelings was the administration’s choice to deny Space City’s bid to become home to one of the retired space shuttles.
We do not believe four more years on the same plodding course toward economic recovery is the best path forward for Texas or the nation. And so we endorse the Republican team, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, in the belief that they can do better by Texas and the nation.
Starting with energy and continuing with NASA.
Concerns about the economy consistently register at the top for most voters, and for obvious reasons: Nearly 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up the job search. And national unemployment rates remain stubbornly high, especially among African-Americans and Hispanics.
There is a launching pad to reignite the national economy: It is the abundance of affordable domestic energy that has revealed itself so dramatically over the past several years. We refer primarily to the resources of natural gas and oil from shale rock that have become available through the technologies of horizontal drilling and fracturing.
These resources offer us a clear path to prosperity and energy security. This is a Texas story, to be sure. The state has huge shale resources, and they’ve been unlocked in large part due to the pioneering work of Houstonian George P. Mitchell.
But it is a national energy story, as well. Shale resources extend from Texas through Oklahoma and Kansas, east to Mississippi and north through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York state. The picture of abundance is further enhanced by the riches in North Dakota’s Bakken oil formation that has transformed that state into a major energy center and given it the nation’s lowest unemployment rate. Add to this the upward revisions of reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential for East and West coast offshore development, as well as in the Arctic.
Such a gift.
President Obama’s failure to identify the economic opportunities these resources offer is mystifying. In our 2008 endorsement we cautioned the president against demonizing the energy sector – good advice that he has never heeded (see Keystone XL Pipeline). By contrast, Gov. Romney has listed energy atop his five-point plan to rejuvenate the economy.
It can. Let us count the ways:
Jobs: The abundance of clean-burning domestic natural gas has raised the prospect of a manufacturing renaissance across the Rust Belt in the Midwest.
National security: Increased reliance on domestic fuels will lessen our dependence on oil and gas from unstable, unfriendly countries. With each passing day, the volatility across oil-producing areas in the Middle East becomes more apparent.
Balance of payments: Producing our own energy at home will stanch the flow of dollars to nations such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, while expanding the revenue base for governments at every level in this country through job generation.
Transportation: Conversion of fleet vehicles to natural gas is already well under way, but much broader use can be made as infrastructure is expanded for refueling automobiles and long-haul 18-wheeler trucks.
Cleaner air: Natural gas burns 50 percent cleaner than coal, the fuel traditionally used by electric utilities and heavy industry.
In the development and expanded use of these resources, utmost care must be exercised to protect air and water resources. We join many other Texans in insisting on that. We also view this windfall as the logical bridge to a sustainable energy future for the country.
The other launch pad ignored by President Obama is the literal one – NASA, and specifically the Johnson Space Center.
It has been an insult to the memory of American heroes like Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride to allow manned spaceflight to languish in the country that put men on the moon. The notion of paying $50 million a seat to Russia for commercial taxi service to the International Space Station is galling.
Obama has failed to articulate a bold vision of his own for the agency. That failure forsakes a legacy of scientific achievement that has showered benefits on the nation. This approach to NASA has abandoned the American imperative of lighting out for the territory and exploring new worlds. NASA’s legacy must be reclaimed.
In recent days we have seen a welcome return of popular enthusiasm for space exploration, thanks to the success of the Mars rover Curiosity. When NASA stuck the landing in a tour de force of technical precision, the international excitement was palpable. Let’s seize upon it.
That will require more effective presidential leadership.
Our endorsement of Mitt Romney is not unqualified. He must address the perception that he tailors his message to suit any given audience. And his economic plans lack specificity. There’s a lot of concern that his tax and budget proposals won’t add up without gutting our social safety net. “Trust me” is not good enough. Between now and Nov. 6, Romney needs to go to the blackboard and show us the math.
Let us stipulate: The Mitt Romney we are endorsing is the Massachusetts moderate who worked successfully alongside an 88 percent Democratic majority in the state Legislature to produce what the Obama administration says became its model for national health care reform.
Romney’s ability to negotiate successfully across party lines in the Bay State stands in contrast to the president’s baffling disengagement from the national health care debate. Obama’s decision to leave essential details to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, together with his failure to step in and insist that the Republicans’ version of health care reform have a fair hearing in the House of Representatives, needlessly polarized the process. Reports from his own staff that Obama is uninterested in process are troubling.
Should Romney be elected, we expect him to make good on his promise to negotiate in good faith with congressional Democrats on two major issues:
Health care: Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court opinion on the Affordable Care Act clearly left room for a political solution beyond the act. That solution is self-evident: It should combine the best elements of the Democratic plan signed into the law – coverage of pre-existing conditions, mandatory participation by all, coverage of children up to age 26 – with strengths in the Republican plan that were not included, such as freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines. There is room for debate over whether the tailoring of health care reform should be left to individual states. Texas is not Massachusetts.
The deficit, debt and spending: Forging a solution will require both cuts in government spending and additional sources of revenue. The opportunity for meaningful tax reform is within reach if the two sides will take it. As president, Romney would have specific responsibility for bringing true believers in the tea party wing of the GOP toward workable compromise. The challenges of the next four years leave no room for partisan triumphalism.
Gov. Romney impresses us as a focused, task-oriented problem solver, both by inclination and by experience – a “fix-it” guy.
A lot needs fixing in America, from a broken economy to a broken-down political system. Mitt Romney offers the leadership we require from the White House.

Operation Gladio

Operation is an example of a false-flag terror operation that remained secret for decades.
e x c e r p t
title: Sword Play: Attacking Civilians to Justify 'Greater Security'
author: Crhis Floyd
This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies. 

First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser, as Lila Rajiva reports on CommonDreams.org. 

Originally set up as a network of clandestine cells to be activated behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, Gladio quickly expanded into a tool for political repression and manipulation, directed by NATO and Washington. Using right-wing militias, underworld figures, government provocateurs and secret military units, Gladio not only carried out widespread terrorism, assassinations and electoral subversion in democratic states such as Italy, France and West Germany, but also bolstered fascist tyrannies in Spain and Portugal, abetted the military coup in Greece and aided Turkey's repression of the Kurds.
On November 22, 1990 the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Operation Gladio.
e x c e r p t
title: European Parliament resolution on Gladio
Joint resolution replacing B3-2021, 2058, 2068, 2078 and 2087/90
A. having regard to the revelation by several European governments of the existence for 40 years of a clandestine parallel intelligence and armed operations organization in several Member States of the Community,
B. whereas for over 40 years this organization has escaped all democratic controls and has been run by the secret services of the states concerned in collaboration with NATO,
C. fearing the danger that such clandestine network may have interfered illegally in the internal political affairs of Member States or may still do so,
D. whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries,
E. whereas these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law since they are not subject to any parliamentary ontrol and frequently those holding the highest government and constitutional posts are kept in the dark as to these matters,
F. whereas the various 'Gladio' organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military ressources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating,
G. greatly concerned at the existence of decision-making and operational bodies which are not subject to any form of democratic control and are of a completely clandestine nature at a time when greater Community cooperation in the field of security is a constant subject of discussion,
1. Condemns the clandestine creation of manipulative and operational networks and Calls for a full investigation into the nature, structure, aims and all other aspects of these clandestine organizations or any splinter groups, their use for illegal interference in the internal political affairs of the countries concerned, the problem of terrorism in Europe and the possible collusion of the secret services of Member States or third countries;
2. Protests vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network;
3. Calls on the governments of the Member States to dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary networks;
4. Calls on the judiciaries of the countries in which the presence of such military organizations has been ascertained to elucidate fully their composition and modus operandi and to clarify any action they may have taken to destabilize the democratic structure of the Member States;
5. Requests all the Member States to take the necessary measures, if necessary by establishing parliamentary committees of inquiry, to draw up a complete list of organizations active in this field, and at the same time to monitor their links with the respective state intelligence services and their links, if any, with terrorist action groups and/or other illegal practices;
6. Calls on the Council of Ministers to provide full information on the activities of these secret intelligence and operational services;
7. Calls on its competent committee to consider holding a hearing in order to clarify the role and impact of the 'Gladio' organization and any similar bodies;
8. Instructs its President fo forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General of NATO, the governments of the Member States and the United States Government."

WAYNE MADSEN REPORT

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COUNTRY FOCUS OF THE DAY: Cuba. Fidel Castro is alive and well.Rumors of his death sprout from same source who claimed Hugo Chavez had only a few weeks to live. The same source that Dan Rather used to spread the false story. Castro on the media: "Although a lot of people in the world are taken in by the organs of information, almost all of which are in the hands of the privileged and the rich that publish these stupidities, people are increasingly believing less and less in them." Viva Fidel!

WMR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES FOR SUBSCRIBERS

  October 22-23, 2012 -- OFF-TOPIC DAILY FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 22-23, 2012 -- ON-TOPIC DAILY FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 22-23, 2012 -- Another car bombing in Lebanon and the usual suspects points to Syria (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 21-22, 2012 -- George McGovern and an endorsement (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 19-21, 2012 -- ON-TOPIC WEEKEND FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 19-21, 2012 -- CIA continues to influence Australian politics (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 19-21, 2012 -- OFF-TOPIC WEEKEND FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 18-19, 2012 -- OFF-TOPIC DAILY FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 18-19, 2012 -- ON-TOPIC DAILY FORUM (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 
  October 18-19, 2012 -- UPDATE 1X. A genocidal nation all but approved for Security Council (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES October 2012) 

German court rejects attempt to ban neo-Nazi party

  • John Hooper in Berlin
  • The Guardian,  Wednesday 19 March 2003
  • The German government's efforts to curb the neo-Nazi right were thrown into disarray yesterday when the country's top court blocked its key initiative - an attempt to ban the skinhead-dominated National Democratic party.
    If the decision was an embarrassment for Gerhard Schröder's centre-left administration, the reasons for it were doubly so. The judges ruled that the government's case rested largely on the statements and actions of NPD members who had been shown to be agents of the German intelligence services.
    Indeed, the party was, in part, responding to the government's dictates, the court said. "The presence of the state at the leadership level makes influence on its aims and activities unavoidable," it concluded.
    It said evidence from the government showed that in recent years about 30 of the NPD's 200 top officials were secretly paid by the government. Eight of the spies have been unmasked in the two years since the case was brought.
    They include a former deputy chairman of the party and author of an anti-semitic tract that formed a central part of the government's case. A number of other intelligence services' agents remain undetected.
    Three of the court's judges said the issue of informants had blurred the government's case irreparably.
    The reliance on informers created a "lack of clarity that can no longer be overcome", the presiding judge, Winfried Hassemer, said in announcing the narrow decision. Only three of the seven judges voted to reject the government's case, but the court would have needed a two-thirds majority for the case to proceed.
    The centre-right opposition lumped the blame for the fiasco on to the interior minister, Otto Schily. The Christian Democrats' parliamentary home affairs spokesmen said in a joint statement: "Schily bungled." But that conveniently ignored the fact that the initiative to ban the NPD originated with a Christian Democrat, Bavaria's interior minister, Günther Beckstein, and that both houses of parliament voted for the move at a time when sentiment against the far right was at a high.
    The authorities singled out the NPD as a target after a spate of attacks on disabled people and immigrants. In so doing, they ignored advice from the intelligence services and other experts in the field, who argued that outlawing the party would drive its members underground, into the arms of more extreme movements whose activities would be difficult to monitor.
    Attempting to outlaw the party also ran up against a deep-seated reluctance in Germany to keep parties out of the democratic arena. Only two have been banned since the end of the second world war: a successor to the Nazis in 1952 and the Communist party in 1956.
    The NPD won only 0.4% of the vote at the last general election and does not hold any seats in the national or state legislatures. But one of the government's reasons for pressing ahead was to bar it from access to television advertising and public funding.
    In an unusual move, Mr Schily argued yesterday against the judges' decision. He said the agents were not employees of the state and had been recruited rather than infiltrated as agents provocateurs. He said the verdict was "very much to be regretted".
    The NPD leader, Udo Voigt, said his party would now "press ahead energetically with its political work", starting with a campaign for a boycott of US products in protest at plans for war against Iraq.
    Pussy
        Riot band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova during their court hearing
    Pussy Riot band members Maria Alyokhina (left) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage during their court hearing. Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty

    Pussy Riot band members sent to remote prison camps

    Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to serve sentences in Russia's 'harshest prisons' in Perm and Mordovia
    Two members of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have been sent to remote prison camps to serve their sentences, the group has said.
    Maria Alyokhina, 24, will serve the rest of her two-year term at a women's prison camp in Perm, a Siberian region notorious for hosting some of the Soviet Union's harshest camps. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, has been sent to Mordovia, a region that also hosts a high number of prisons.
    "These are the harshest camps of all the possible choices," the band said via its Twitter account on Monday.
    Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing an anti-Putin "punk anthem" in a Moscow cathedral in February. They argued that their conviction was part of a growing crackdown on free speech and political activism in Russia.
    They are expected to serve the rest of their sentences, which end in March 2014, in the camps, where conditions are reportedly dire.
    A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released earlier this month after being given a suspended sentence. Pussy Riot's supporters have argued that her release was designed to give the appearance of mercy from the authorities.
    Confusion reigned on Monday as relatives and lawyers tried to assess exactly where the women were sent. Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system. Prison authorities declined to comment on the women's whereabouts.
    Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had petitioned to serve their sentences in Moscow, arguing that they wanted to be close to their children. Alyokhina has a five-year-old son named Filipp, while Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter named Gera.

    Pussy Riot member uses freedom to resume protests against Vladimir Putin

    Yekaterina Samutsevich promises band mates, who remain in prison, she will continue struggle against president
    Yekaterina Samutsevich
    Yekaterina Samutsevich vows to continue taking part in Pussy Riot’s anonymous performances. Photograph: Max Streltsov for the Guardian
    Yekaterina Samutsevich, the Pussy Riot member freed by a Moscow court this week, has promised to continue taking part in the band's anti-Putin protests, saying she would be "more careful and more clever" to avoid another arrest.
    On Friday, in her first newspaper interview, Samutsevich said her parting words to the two band members who remain in jail were that she would continue their struggle against the president. But she expects state pressure on her to grow despite her new-found freedom
    "They didn't overturn the verdict, they didn't say I'm not guilty – they gave me a suspended sentence. If I do the slightest thing [wrong], even an administrative violation, they can send me back to jail," she told the Guardian.
    The three women were sentenced to two years in a prison colony on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" following their anti-Putin "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral. Samutsevich was unexpectedly freed by an appeals court on Wednesday after successfully arguing that she didn't fully take part in the performance.
    "I didn't expect it," Samutsevich said, sitting in a central Moscow cafe wearing the same jeans and white sweater she wore to the appeal hearing. At her feet lay a canvas sack and large plastic bag filled with clothes, letters and books. She had just collected her belongings from the southern Moscow detention centre that still holds her bandmates, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.
    Samutsevich described how the three friends had prepared themselves for prison during the appeal hearing. "In court, we were talking about how we would go to the prison colony, what it would be like. When they took us back into the courtroom, we said: that was a very short deliberation, they probably won't change the verdict." (A panel of three judges deliberated for just 40 minutes before announcing Samutsevich's release.)
    She struggled to explain the judges' thinking. "Maybe the authorities wanted to imitate the independence of the court system," she said. "But it is just that – an imitation."The case against Pussy Riot was one of most high-profile political trials in Russia since Putin first came to power 12 years ago. The president has condemned their performance and their name, while Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, said he was "nauseated" by the group's action.
    Samutsevich said Putin stood behind the decision to prosecute the band. "Such decisions don't happen without the president," she said. "It was either motivated by personal hate or it was a political step." The appeal judges held a rare press conference on Thursday to press that they made the decision independently and with no pressure from above.
    "They're trying to marginalise us, to say we're not normal people," she said. "We were jailed for our political beliefs."
    Pussy Riot formed after Putin announced late last year that he planned to return to the presidency – a move that prompted mounting discontent to spill into the streets with a growing protest movement which vowed to prevent a return to totalitarianism.
    The arrest of the three band members in early March was seen as a signal to other protesters. The Duma, Russia's parliament, has since adopted a series of restrictive laws imposing fines on illegal protests and broadening a law on treason. "Putin is a person who doesn't want to listen to the citizens of Russia," Samutsevich said. "People complain and he ignores it all. Instead his government adopts awful laws – that's his answer to citizens' attempts to talk to him," she said.
    Samutsevich said she would continue taking part in Pussy Riot's anonymous performances. She does not worry that she is now recognised, often by people on the street.
    "When a person is in a mask and a dress, she can become anonymous again," she said. As for the fear of getting caught, she said: "I will be more careful and more clever."
    She thought Russia's security services would step up their surveillance. "I must live imagining that everything is listened to, everything is read."
    Samutsevich said Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were happy with her release. As they hugged goodbye inside the courtroom's glass cage, her fellow band members said: "Finally, one of us is free." Samutsevich recalled: "They said: keep going with the group and I said: of course."
    Alyokhina, 24, and Tolokonnikova, 22, both mothers to young children, are expected to be sent to distant prison colonies to serve the rest of their sentence until March 2014.
    "Masha [Alyokhina] especially is suffering for her child," Samutsevich said. "It's a big blow for her– for Nadya too. They have hardly seen their kids."
    Samutsevich described her seven months in pre-trial detention as a time of cold isolation in which the system exercised "total control". Wake-up came at 6am and lights out at 9pm. In between, there were three meals a day – porridge for breakfast, soup or a potato for lunch, and porridge or soup for dinner.
    Once a week, she was allowed 30 minutes of privacy for a shower. Otherwise, she was led everywhere by a guard.
    She shared her cell with three women, all charged with economic crimes. They were subjected to random searches, as guards hunted for banned items such as mobile phones. "That's what they said, but they always read my letters." Samutsevich said she would get around a dozen letters a day from supporters.
    Sometimes she read classics from the prison library, turning especially to Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the philosopher who wrote Russia's classic revolutionary novel, What is to be Done? Other times, she watched television in her cell.
    At first, her cellmates treated her with suspicion. "They didn't understand who I was or what we did," she said. That changed as reports on the Pussy Riot case started to run on television. "Then they started to support me, and by the end they really took care of me," she said.
    Samutsevich said she was sorry to leave Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova – but added that even in jail they were unable to spend time together: each one was held on a separate floor. "I miss them. But I missed them [in prison] too – we could never talk.
    "We could only talk when we were driven to court and back during the trial," she said. "Those were the best times in the whole seven months. We had time to talk about different subjects – films, books, articles, and, of course the case, our thoughts about the day."
    The three women were deprived of information from the outside world, but kept informed of events by their lawyers.
    "One day in court, the lawyers showed us photos. We didn't understand what it was. Then they explained it was Madonna, with writing on her back supporting us," she said.
    That was when she understood the whole world was watching. Madonna was one of a handful of artists who performed in Moscow, and who came out in support of the jailed band.
    "All this solidarity meant we were understood in modern cultural society," Samutsevich said. "That was very important to us."
    She has spent her two days of freedom shuttling between Russia's few independent media outlets, hoping to keep the spotlight on her two jailed friends.
    Asked if she could repeat the church performance, she hesitated for just a moment. "Yes, I would probably do it. It was important for us to do it, to express our opinion.
    "I saw the system from the inside," she said of her time in prison. "I saw how this punitive system doesn't work, how it doesn't acknowledge personal dignity."
    Asked about performing with some of the western artists who have come out in support of the band, she declined. "Our group is made for unsanctioned concerts," Samutsevich said. "The symbol of the group is still a girl in a balaclava."

    Pussy Riot nomination for free speech prize divides Reformation town

    Council recommends Russian punk band for award named after Martin Luther, angering many German churchgoers
    Pussy Riot
    The Pussy Riot members Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in court. Samutsevich was freed on Wednesday. Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
    The town where the Protestant Reformation was launched 500 years ago has come under sharp criticism from churchgoers over its nomination of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot for a freedom of speech prize.
    The town council of Lutherstadt Wittenberg recommended Pussy Riot for the national prize named in honour of Martin Luther, who nailed his 95 theses to a church door in 1517 and was excommunicated by the Catholic church when he refused to retract them.
    Town authorities said the moral courage shown by Pussy Riot was similar to that demonstrated by Luther. But the decision has angered many Germans of various religious convictions who argue that they cannot support the decision to fete a band who protested in an Orthodox church.
    Three members of Pussy Riot were convicted this summer of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after staging a "punk prayer" in Moscow's Christ the Saviour church, where they urged the Virgin Mary to banish Vladimir Putin from Russia. One of the three was freed on appeal on Wednesday; the two others are serving two-year prison sentences.
    The theologian Friedrich Schorlemmer accused the band of blasphemy and said giving the band the prize would be an insult to Christians. "It would send a horrendous signal if Pussy Riot won this prize," he said. "Yes, support these young women, but not for the rubbish they were singing in a church. If that kind of performance had taken place in the cathedrals of Magdeburg or Cologne, imagine what the response would have been."
    Heiner Friedrich List, one of the Wittenberg town council members who opposed the nomination, said he would now fight for it to be quashed. He described the band members as "chaotic shrews" who after breaking into the church wearing masks "made bigoted and insulting statements".
    However, Volkmar Joestel, a local historian who has written several books on Luther, said the band's stand against the overly powerful Russian state was very much in the spirit of Luther. "Just that alone deserves every honour," he said.
    A final decision will be taken in November by delegates from 16 towns with links to Luther. Previous Luther prize winners have included journalists from the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, a Muslim woman attacked for not wearing a headscarf, and a policewoman who fought rightwing extremism.

    Lance Armstrong loses titles as UCI president lashes out at 'scumbags'

    • Armstrong to be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles
    • Whistleblowers Landis and Hamilton savagely criticised
    Link to this video
    Although Lance Armstrong was finally and definitively cast out of his sport and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles on Monday, the cycling world will have to wait a while longer to discover whether or not new winners will be declared for the races held between 1999 and 2005.
    Pat McQuaid, the president of the UCI, the international cycling union, announced at a press conference in Geneva on Monday that the governing body has accepted the verdict of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), which concluded that Armstrong and his US Postal and Discovery Channel teams colluded in what it called "the biggest doping conspiracy in the history of sport" and handed the Texan a lifetime ban.
    The UCI will not be appealing against Usada's 1,000-page "reasoned decision", with McQuaid making it clear that he would now like to erase the former seven-times champion from cycling's history.
    "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," McQuaid declared. "He deserves to be forgotten."
    McQuaid was equally severe in his condemnation of Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, two former Armstrong team-mates who tested positive, vehemently denied the charges, served suspensions and then wrote books in which they admitted guilt and turned whistleblowers.
    "Landis and Hamilton are being made out to be heroes," he said. "They are as far from heroes as night from day. They are not heroes. They are scumbags. All they have done is damage to the sport."
    On Friday his management committee will meet to decide whether the runners-up to Armstrong in those seven Tours will be retrospectively handed a winner's yellow jersey or whether those races will be deemed to have had no winner. The complication of elevating riders from second and third places is that so many of them have subsequently been implicated in doping scandals.
    The committee will also discuss whether or not Armstrong will be made to refund his $3m of Tour prize money, as was requested on Monday by ASO, the race's owners. Traditionally the winner's cheque is divided between all the riders of his team, many of whom testified against him to Usada.
    SCA Promotions, an insurance company, has said that it will demand repayment of $7.5m in bonuses and on Monday Armstrong lost the last of his big personal sponsorships when Oakley sunglasses announced that it was following Nike, RadioShack and Anheuser-Busch by terminating its relationship with the cyclist.
    McQuaid denounced the claims made by Landis and Hamilton that their team leader had given more than $100,000 to the UCI in order to persuade it to cover up an alleged positive test for EPO at the 2001 Tour de Suisse. The money was said to have been used to buy a blood analysis machine to increase the effectiveness of the UCI's dope testing programme.
    While admitting that Armstrong had indeed made two donations, one of $25,000 in 2002 and another of $100,000 promised in 2005 and paid in 2007, McQuaid said that any suggestion of a cover-up was "absolutely untrue". In similar circumstances, he said, he would accept further donations from riders – "but in a different way".
    Friday's committee meeting will also consider the possibility of setting up some sort of truth and reconciliation process on the lines of that utilised by the South African government in the wake of apartheid, including the notion of an amnesty. "The trouble is that amnesty means different things in different languages," Philippe Verbiest, the UCI's legal advisor, said on Monday. "It's not something that you can figure out in one day."
    The idea of an amnesty does not, however, appear to extend to journalists. McQuaid confirmed that he and his predecessor, Hein Verbruggen, will be continuing their legal action for alleged defamation against the Irish journalist and former rider Paul Kimmage, one of a handful of reporters who showed the persistence and courage to pursue the Armstrong story through years of veiled and explicit threats.
    "It's a straight defamation case," McQuaid said. "He called us corrupt." Supporters of Kimmage, whose book Rough Ride, published in 1990, was the first to expose systematic doping in the modern peloton, have raised a significant sum of money to help with his defence.
    The World Anti-Doping agency said on Monday night it was "encouraged" that the UCI felt it could use the case as a "catalyst" to thoroughly clean up the sport. But it also warned that the governing body needed to act on evidence of doping, no matter how long ago, and said it would await "with interest" the decisions the UCI planned to take on Friday.
    "The fact the World Anti-Doping Code only came into force in 2004 is not a valid excuse for an organisation failing to act on evidence of widespread doping, and nor is the Statute of Limitations contained within the Code an excuse not to investigate evidence of doping that dates back longer than eight years," said Wada's president, John Fahey.
    The organisation will have three weeks from the end of the month to decide whether to appeal against the UCI's verdict.
    Fahey added: "It will announce that decision in due course, and will continue to examine the evidence encouraged by the fact that the biggest doping scandal in the history of sport is close to reaching a correct conclusion."







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  • search terms: Clinton / Obama ticket is best, militia are always right wing, no left wing militia (well, except eco-terrorists), but plenty of crackpots, nut case, bigoted racist assholes, go ballistic if we elected a black man, half-black man, they won't assassinate Hillary, fear of being attacked, credible threats, vote for Obama and end the era of fear, no one ever tried to assassinate Clinton, just demonizing and stereotyping, no bat-shit crazies around here, its Barack not Barak, who is Doris Lessing, British Nobel literature laureate, first black president, expressed sympathy for the Palestinian people, Mossad won't like this, false flag, suicide bombing, Hillary is Israel's darling, he needs a bullet-proof vest, watch out for the Secret Service, Obama is a huge threat to southern whites and their evangelical offshoots, I pray to god that nothing happens to him, it would be blamed on white supremacists, Hillary billary, or even Colin Powell, the tragic irony of American democracy, a black JFK, Did Kennedy approve a Castro hit, and George Wallace, plenty people don't know about Nixon's involvement in his being shot, Warren Harding first black president, no Texas white supremacists,
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follow up, the act of following up. 2. an action or thing that serves to increase the effectiveness of a previous one, as a second or subsequent letter, phone call, or visit. 3. Also called follow. Journalism. a. a news story providing additional information on a story or article previously published. b. Also called sidebar, supplementary story. a minor news story used to supplement a related story of major importance. Compare feature story (def. 1), human-interest story, shirttail. –adjective 4. designed or serving to follow up, esp. to increase the effectiveness of a previous action: a follow-up interview; a follow-up offer. 5. of or pertaining to action that follows an initial treatment, course of study, etc.: follow-up care for mental patients; a follow-up survey. fol·low –verb (used with object) 1. to come after in sequence, order of time, etc.: The speech follows the dinner. 2. to go or come after; move behind in the same direction: Drive ahead, and I'll follow you. 3. to accept as a guide or leader; accept the authority of or give allegiance to: Many Germans followed Hitler. 4. to conform to, comply with, or act in accordance with; obey: to follow orders; to follow advice. 5. to imitate or copy; use as an exemplar: They follow the latest fads. 6. to move forward along (a road, path, etc.): Follow this road for a mile. 7. to come after as a result or consequence; result from: Reprisals often follow victory. 8. to go after or along with (a person) as companion. 9. to go in pursuit of: to follow an enemy. 10. to try for or attain to: to follow an ideal. 11. to engage in or be concerned with as a pursuit: He followed the sea as his true calling. 12. to watch the movements, progress, or course of: to follow a bird in flight. 13. to watch the development of or keep up with: to follow the news. 14. to keep up with and understand (an argument, story, etc.): Do you follow me? –verb (used without object) 15. to come next after something else in sequence, order of time, etc. 16. to happen or occur after something else; come next as an event: After the defeat great disorder followed. 17. to attend or serve. 18. to go or come after a person or thing in motion. 19. to result as an effect; occur as a consequence: It follows then that he must be innocent. –noun 20. the act of following. 21. Billiards, Pool. follow shot (def. 2). 22. follow-up (def. 3). —Verb phrases23. follow out, to carry to a conclusion; execute: They followed out their orders to the letter. 24. follow through, a. to carry out fully, as a stroke of a club in golf, a racket in tennis, etc. b. to continue an effort, plan, proposal, policy, etc., to its completion. 25. follow up, a. to pursue closely and tenaciously. b. to increase the effectiveness of by further action or repetition. c. to pursue to a solution or conclusion. —Idiom26. follow suit. suit (def. 13). fol·low·a·ble, adjective —Synonyms 3. obey. 4. heed, observe. 8. accompany, attend. 9. pursue, chase; trail, track, trace. 19. arise, proceed. Follow, ensue, result, succeed imply coming after something else, in a natural sequence. Follow is the general word: We must wait to see what follows. A detailed account follows. Ensue implies a logical sequence, what might be expected normally to come after a given act, cause, etc.: When the power lines were cut, a paralysis of transportation ensued. Result emphasizes the connection between a cause or event and its effect, consequence, or outcome: The accident resulted in injuries to those involved. Succeed implies coming after in time, particularly coming into a title, office, etc.: Formerly the oldest son succeeded to his father's title. —Antonyms 1. precede. 2, 3. lead. 4. disregard. 9. flee.



Mossad returned the favourto 'French Intelligence for their  huge role in 
the assassination of President Yitzhak Rabin by murdering  Diana


22. The death of Diana: an update [Issue 39 - 2000]

... 'Spy chief comes out of shadows', The Guardian 26 February 1999, p.10. Barry Chamish, an Israeli journalist who has investigated the assassination of President Yitzhak Rabin, has been quoted as saying that 'French Intelligence had a huge role in Rabin's hit...Mossad returned the favour with Diana.' (Posting by Geths to alt.conspiracy.princess-diana discussion forum, April 2000.) I have been unable to find any corroboration for this claim so far. Chamish does have his own website at http://www.webseers.com/rabin...

... ...providing details of guest movements, enabling the photographers to be in position to snatch pictures of the celebrities.'(53) Richard Tomlinson believed that he was an MI6 informer paid to spy on Diana and Dodi. Other sources claim that Paul was also a Mossad agent and an informant for the French foreign intelligence service. As Head of Security at the Ritz, Paul would have been ideally placed to observe and monitor the comings and goings of the guests. Regular reporting to the security services may also account for the money ...

... occupation of West Germany and established the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany); the first meeting of the Bilderberg Group; an unprecedented and thorough audit of the U.S. gold reserves at Fort Knox; and the establishment of a partnership agreement between the CIA and Mossad. Amounts substantial enough for Indonesian President Sukarno to consider using it as financial backing for the establishment of an international non-aligned bank. One of Guyatt's sources claims that the idea for the bank was planned in secret at the Bandung Conference of 1955. Sukarno was eventually ...

... 7) Another casualty of the Iraqi involvement was Gerald Bull, designer of the so-called 'supergun', whose murder remains unsolved. Eleven days after sections of the 'gun's' barrel were found at Teeside docks, Bull was shot in Brussels. Rumours circulated that it was Mossad- but no evidence accompanied them. For four years the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been persecuting Gerald James, former chairman of Astra, and three former directors of the company- but not the Astra director named Stephan Kock- trying get ...

... US military and intelligence personnel who were involved in, or claim to have been involved in, the various intelligence scandals of the Reagan/Bush years: October Surprise, Inslaw, BCCI, the arming of Iran and Iraq. And so Stich begins to learn about Mossad operations; factions within the CIA; assassination squads; drug dealing on a massive scale; corrupt politicians, judges etc. etc. He lists dozens of alleged CIA operations, personnel and front companies. This third section is the most interesting- and least satisfactory ...

Harassment by the state [Issue 45 - 2003]
... repeatedly broken into and articles left, taken or rearranged. No matter how often she changed the locks the break-ins continued. She had been to the police and MI5- large amounts of documentation on this- with no result. She assumed she was being harassed by MOSSAD. For reasons that I now cannot recall, we didn't really get on. But having come across similar stories before I said I would write something about her. She wanted to see it first, didn't like it when she did, and insisted I not ...

 Israel's Edwin Wilson [Issue 16 - 1988]
... (c) www.lobster-magazine.co.uk (Issue 16) June 1988 Last¦ Contents¦ Next Issue 16 Israel's Edwin Wilson David Teacher The 14th May 1988 issue of Middle East International carries an interesting article on the rise (but not yet fall) of a former high-ranking MOSSAD officer who, like Edwin Wilson, has turned his previous clandestine experience into profit through shady arms dealing. Mike Harari, leader of MOSSAD's Munich revenge hit-squad exposed in 1973 after the Lillehammer bungle, resurfaced in Panama in the late 1970s as security advisor to General Noriega's ...

Magazines/Articles [Issue 8 - 1985]
... assassination and conspiracy news. Subscribe to the following: Critique. A Journal of Conspiracies and Metaphysics. Explores high-tech murders, Gnostic Gospels, psychic warfare, global Elites, Russian spy schools, weather warfare, mind-control, anomalies, secret societies, UFO's, Sufis, Mossad, ideological indoctrinations, Nazism& the Occult, Assassinations, the Middle East,& cosmic mysteries. Send for free literature or send $5.00 for a sample issue (200 pages). CRITIQUE, POB 11451, Santa Rosa, CA 95406. USA. ...
Magazines/Articles [Issue 8 - 1985]
... assassination and conspiracy news. Subscribe to the following: Critique. A Journal of Conspiracies and Metaphysics. Explores high-tech murders, Gnostic Gospels, psychic warfare, global Elites, Russian spy schools, weather warfare, mind-control, anomalies, secret societies, UFO's, Sufis, Mossad, ideological indoctrinations, Nazism& the Occult, Assassinations, the Middle East,& cosmic mysteries. Send for free literature or send $5.00 for a sample issue (200 pages). CRITIQUE, POB 11451, Santa Rosa, CA 95406. USA. ...

SAS [Issue 5 - 1984]
... 'Tamil Tigers'. The five former SAS officers arrived in January from Oman to begin a year's programme training 300 men. The mercenary group has its headquarters in the Channel Islands and also runs operations in London and Oman. (Sunday Times 24th June 1984). Mossad, Israeli Intelligence, are also involved setting up an intelligence organisation. This involved David Mantani who set up a 'special interests section' in the American Embassy.*** Possible 'SAS in Vietnam' report from Beirut that Robert Thacker (28) was shot ...

... worth examining the source of what should have been absolutely critical information. Jon Kimche was the long-standing Middle East correspondent for the Evening Standard with a reputation for insider contacts. This was no accident. Kimche's brother, David Kimche, was a then senior figure in the Mossad and from 1981, Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and chief negotiator in the 1983 Israel-Lebanon accords.( [16]) However, notwithstanding the significance of source and detail in Matthew Smith's speculation here,( [17]) it seems more likely ...

... examples could be multiplied 10, 20-fold. This book is mostly junk, mere propaganda. I had it with me to read on the train when I visited Colin Wallace. I showed him the list of contributors and mentioned the Jonathan Institute. "Oh, a Mossad front, you mean", he said, and put it down. A Mossad front? I don't know. But misinformation at worst, wilfully partial at best, this sort of crude propaganda can only do the Israeli state harm in the long run. ...

... useful for laundering money as the Mob. When Hank Greenspan, the local semi-liberal and 'crusading' newspaper editor died- he was as close to an opposition as Las Vegas ever developed- it was discovered that he was not only on the CIA books but those of Mossad as well. His sizeable FBI file revealed not only his various corrupt business relationships, stretching over twenty years with everyone from Siegal to Howard Hughes and Frank Sinatra but also his other career as an arms smuggler. Mossad gave him posthumous recognition. Denton and Morris ...

Searchlight again [Issue 26 - 1993]
... added to the text by me refer to the points below. It had to happen. Larry O'Hara, who for more than two years has been slandering anti-fascists and accusing Searchlight of being the centre of a web of intelligence intrigue, in league with British intelligence, Mossad and probably the Salvation Army, has found his way into the arms of the very same MI5 he is alwasys going on about. Searchlight first ran into this now very paranoid "researcher" back in 1988. Since then he has found his way into the ...

Secrets from Germany [Issue 15 - 1987]
... are reprinted from American publications- on Vernon Walters from Covert Action Information Bulletin, and on John Singlaub from National Reporter (formerly Counterspy). Perhaps the most interesting article is "Gunning for Libya- anti-Libyan operations in West Berlin" by Peter Niggl. Niggl investigates Mossad involvement in assassinations of Libyan officials and in operations designed to ensure that terrorism remains on the front page of the Western media, thus souring Arab-European relations. He refers specifically to operations aimed at incriminating Syria and Libya in terrorist activities, such as the case of 

... . alt.illuminati Items on implants, conspiracies, the 'UFO uncoverup' (claims of future government revelations). alt.freemasonry Pro and anti freemasonry. Bilderberg, CFR and Trilateral Commission sci.skeptic 'Alien autopsy', remote viewing, CSICOPS, Randi and debunking, Geller, firewalking. MOSSAD Israeli secret intelligence organisationhttp://www.phoenix.ca:80/mossa d/ Site set up by an ex-Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky. Menu includes organisation, recruitment methods, liaison (covert and overt) and spycraft. Censorship/Civil liberties Electronic Frontier Foundation http

... ...providing details of guest movements, enabling the photographers to be in position to snatch pictures of the celebrities.'(53) Richard Tomlinson believed that he was an MI6 informer paid to spy on Diana and Dodi. Other sources claim that Paul was also a Mossad agent and an informant for the French foreign intelligence service. As Head of Security at the Ritz, Paul would have been ideally placed to observe and monitor the comings and goings of the guests. Regular reporting to the security services may also account for the money ...

 The View from the Bridge [Issue 28 - 1994]
... The author then states, inter alia, that 'intertextualism is itself an imperfect yet apt surveillance practice applied to the intelligence text'. Maybe so. More important- and more interesting- is the partial confirmation here that the so-called Bulgarian connection was the CIA (and Mossad?) disinformation campaign Edward Herman, Covert Action and all the others on the spook-wise American Left concluded at the time. How appropriate, what kharmatic insouciance, that the damned story blew back into the domestic intelligence process to the point where the Secretary of State ...

... boy in our compound here at Mt. Carmel was talking to one of his Jewish friends about how Christ was crucificed for our sins. Upon learning that Jesus himself was a Jew, his friend's eyes widened in surprise and exclaimed, 'Well, where the fuck was Mossad?' Last¦ Contents¦ Next ...

... , it does nothing to bring the 'secret state' back to life. That Rothschild did reactivate Wright is beyond doubt; his aim was to vindicate his own reputation, which had suffered after the exposure of his friend Anthony Blunt, not to mention his association with MOSSAD. Unfortunately Wright seized the opportunity to pursue his own vendetta against Roger Hollis, who is now known by all honest men to have been innocent of any involvement with the Soviets. This is, perhaps. the only merit of this tedious book: it does ...

David Mills revisited [Issue 50 - 2005/6]
... became a respectable citizen giving millions to charity. He continued in business there, numbering among his partners and associates, General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the former Israeli tourism minister and ex-chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. Other business associates included Danny Yatom, who headed Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. Gaydamak also employed Avi Dagan, Mossad's former head of intelligence gathering. As this article was being written, David Mills, along with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi and others, is threatened with prosecution by the Milanese magistrates on charges of money ...

... still following his old vocation, but now in Khomeini's SAVAMA. The CIA curried favour with Fardust by providing information to SAVAMA on left-wing opposition in Iran, chiefly on the Fedayin and the Tudeh Party. It was from this cooperation that the triangle between the CIA, MOSSAD and Speaker Rafsanjani developed: the arms deals began and Irangate came into its own. Opperskalski's article goes into depth, naming names on all sides, promising much for his forthcoming book on the subject with Kunhanandan Nair, CIA: Murder Club. But the real ...

... he brought Uri Geller to SRI in 1972. Throughout his career in this field CIA was interested in Puharich, partly due to his previous research findings in line with the CIA's work in mind control, and partly due to Uri Geller's participation in psychic research experiments. Mossad had provided SRI with an intelligence report on Geller's abilities.(26) At SRI the most notable individual subjects were Ingo Swann, Patrick Price and Uri Geller; the important projects were SCANATE [CIA-NSA] and Grill Flame [DIA].(27) ...

After Iraq: some FCO/SIS issues [Issue 48 - 2004/5]
... towards coordination with 'foreign' allies has grown because, unsurprisingly, the spooks cannot guarantee consistency in their officers, agents, sources and associate partners world-wide( 11) Therefore, the world is being divvied-up among confreres including, say, the CIA in South America, Mossad, or today's equivalent of the KGB, with each taking, in PR jargon, 'lead agency status' in their own areas. 'Coordination' will, of course, unravel. It always does. CIA imperatives, much like President Putin's, do not serve ...

Web Update [Issue 34 - 1998]
... initiation into the very real world of some of the more secretive government and military organisations in the UK.' e.g. MI5, MI6, GCHQ, SAS, SBS, others. Basic stuff but all we have at the moment; and links e.g. to Mossad, Seals, Green Berets, Special Forces and counter-terrorism site. Unofficial NSA Page http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa Menu includes: history, facilities, operations, organisation and functions, budget and personnel, plus many links to related resources. CIABASE ...

... annual budget of $32 million. For many decades they have been gathering information on U.S. citizens, using public sources as well as paid infiltrators, informants, investigators, and liaison with local law enforcement and the FBI. There is also evidence of connections with Mossad and South African intelligence. As a private agency the ADL enjoys no oversight, no requirements for probable cause prior to political spying, and no Privacy Act or Freedom of Information Act responsibilities to the public. By contrast, the FBI, CIA, and some ...


... Air Ministry backing Sinclair would not procede with the scheme. Such a project would have at least avoided the embarassment faced by CIA when their U2 pilot Gary Power was shot down. It was all the more galling when Young was tipped off by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad that they had detected very high-flying planes taking off from Turkish airfields and disappearing into the blue. He guessed what they were but at the time preferred to say nothing. It was a year or two before the Americans came clean. He got on well enough ...

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  •  WMR Aug 08 "Rather then appear, pursuant to a subpoena, before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his role in Justice Department prosecutions, including that of Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, Rove was winging off to Yalta to speak at a conference sponsored by the YES Foundation of Ukrainian billionaire steel tycoon Victor Pinchuk, considered one of the wealthiest of the Jewish Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who amassed their fortunes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Past participants in annual Yalta conferences have included Ukrainian neocon President Victor Yushchenko, who came to the aid of Saakashvili with military and political support after Georgia's attack on South Ossetia; International Monetary Fund President Dominique Strauss-Kahn; and, more interestingly, Georgia's Saakashvili." The presence of Rove and Saakashvili in Yalta at a conference sponsored by a billionaire pal of George Soros, have many observers suggesting that Rove helped engineer, along with Soros, the Georgian attack on South Ossetia as a way to prop up the sagging political fortunes of GOP presidential candidate John McCain. More interesting is the fact that McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a lobbyist for Georgia who has received hundreds of thousands in fees from Saakashvili's government and has lobbied McCain on 49 occasions over an almost four year period on behalf of his Georgian client.  ...   Pinchuk's YES Foundation and Pinchuk Foundation have worked with Soros to establish "legal clinics" in many eastern European nations that have experienced Soros-initiated themed revolutions, including those in Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus (the last two having been unsuccessful). Pinchuk is the only Ukrainian member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Crisis Group. The latter includes such anti-Vladimir Putin ideologues as Soros; Ken Adelman; Zbigniew Brzezinski, a top foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama; and imprisoned former Yukos boss and Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Pinchuk's Interpipe company is also the only eastern European company on Richard Holbrooke's Global Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS. Holbrooke was one the Democratic Party stalwarts who advocated taking a tough stand against Russia in its confrontation with Georgia. Pinchuk also supports local Jewish communities in eastern Europe and the Caucasus, including Ukraine and Georgia. Pinchuk and Soros also attended last January's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Soros spoke on a panel sponsored by Pinchuk.  ...  full story
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  • notes "Two weeks ago, 84-year old Ben-Ami Kadish, an accused longtime spy for the Israelis at the US Army Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, was arrested. FBI agents are trying to get Kadish to spill the beans on high-level Israeli spies inside the government. Israel’s Mossad and its allied assets inside the Russian- Israeli Mafia, have retaliated with a vengeance, according to WMR’s US intelligence sources."   .... Rigorous Institution reprints Madsen article.
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  • Austie Patricia McCrackenCIA Project Director  Austie Patricia McCracken, 62, former project director for the CIA's Counterintelligence Center, died Feb. 14 at her home in The Woodlands, Tex. The cause of death is under investigation by the Montgomery County, Texas, justice of the peace office.  ...  Ms. McCracken joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1967 and worked there for 23 years in field positions overseas as well as in the United States. She rose to personnel-evaluation management officer, directorate equal employment opportunity officer, and the branch and deputy branch chief before becoming the Counterintelligence Center's project director in 1989.  ...  When she retired in 1991, she received a Career Intelligence Medal and Citation, which noted that she was "known as a problem solver who possessed a phenomenal memory, keen insight and excellent judgment."  ...  She was born in Hempstead, N.Y., and graduated from East Texas State University in Commerce, Tex. After her retirement from the CIA, she moved to Orlando. She moved to Texas in November 2007.  ... Her marriage to Paul Dale Roche ended in divorce.  Survivors include two brothers.  Washington Post
  • AfroCubaWeb, reprints Madsen article:  Diamonds, Dubai, the Russian-Israeli Mafia and bin Laden 5/6/2008 Wayne Madsen: published 3/06 - "Osama was a rich man, a millionaire, but spend a lot on the Afghan war and reconstruction. While he was in Africa in exile, the Israelis approached him to take over the diamond business from the Lebanese in West Africa. (background: Muslims provide the strong arm for the raw diamond trade in West Africa, and it required a respected and tough Muslim like Osama to wrestle the trade away from the Shi'ites from southern Lebanon. The Israelis could not stand the thought of their Antwerp diamond industry financing suicide bombers in south Lebanon)." "With the diamond trade under his control, Osama became a billionaire (repeat), a billionaire . . . The diamonds were sent to the Russian mafiyah, who then sold to Antwerp."
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  • WayneMadsenReport "The London luncheon for McCain will place the GOP candidate amid the very same syndicates that have tainted and infiltrated the Bush-Cheney administration. Lord Rothschild lords over a number of European companies and entities, including the umbrella RIT, Ltd. (formerly Rothschild Investment Trust), which is invested in Lukoil, The Economist, Atticus International, Royal Dutch Shell, and Getty Images. The Rothschild Foundation built the Israeli Knesset building and the Israeli Supreme Court, the latter known for its unique design of a pyramid with an eye atop of it that juts through its roof.  Lord Rothschild also received the shares in the Yukos oil company of jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, shortly before his arrest for tax evasion. Rothschild is close to wanted Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, Henry Kissinger, and Rupert Murdoch.  The Rothschild connection to EADS, as reported by The Independent (UK), is through Diligence, a business intelligence firm chaired by former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard and founded in 2000 by ex-MI5 and Special Boat Service agent Nick Day and former CIA agent Mike Baker. Former Senior Bush chief arms control negotiator and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Burt was also a major force in the formation of Diligence. A Nathaniel Rothschild investment firm called JNR was reported by The Independent on February 18, 2007, to be involved in acquiring a stake in Diligence from a South American private equity firm. Diligence also attracted investments from the Republican lobbying firm Barbour [Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour], Griffith & Rogers. Diligence counts former CIA and FBI director William Webster and Carlyle Group managing director Edward Mathias among its advisory board members, along with Howard. Last, but not least, Diligence's clients have included Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old firm.  The link between Diligence and EADS is through Burt, who, in addition to being a major player in Diligence, is a member of EADS North America's Board of Directors, an international director of Barbour, Griffiths & Rogers, and an adviser to the Carlyle Group. The Chairman of EADS North America's Board is Ralph Crosby, Jr., former President of the Integrated Systems Sector of Northrop Grumman, EADS's tanker contractor partner. Significantly, another EADS North America board member is retired Admiral T. Joseph Lopez, a close confidante of Cheney when he was Secretary of Defense, later the Commander Naval Forces Europe/Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe, and then appointed by Cheney, after his retirement, to be Senior Vice President and Global Director of U.S. and Foreign Government Operations for Kellogg Brown & Root, the division of the Halliburton.  The McCain-EADS-Diligence- Rothschild connections have taken advantage of the emaciation of the 1933 Buy America Act, designed by President Herbert Hoover to force the federal government to buy from American firms to help propel the country out of the depths of the Great Depression. McCain and his foreign cronies have facilitated federal contracts with foreign firms to replenish McCain's campaign coffers. Currently, 45 countries are exempt from the Buy American Act. They include France (home of Airbus), the United Kingdom (base for McCain's Rothschild friends), Israel, Singapore, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Aruba, Switzerland, Sweden, Egypt, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia, Ireland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic." full story
The threat to a fistful of petrodollars By Liam Halligan (Filed: 23/04/2006)
From Russia, you might say, with love. This weekend, Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance minister, dropped a bombshell in Washington.  Attending the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Kudrin caused his American hosts discomfort by openly questioning the dollar's pre-eminence as the world's "absolute" reserve currency.
The greenback's recent volatility and the yawning US trade deficit, "are definitely causing concern with regard to its reserve currency status," he said. "The international community can hardly be satisfied with this instability."  Kudrin's intervention coincided with another meeting, also in Washington, of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven - which doesn't include Russia.
Top of the agenda: the effect of ever-rising oil prices on inflation and interest rates.  G7 countries are worried the spiraling price of crude - which closed at $72.79 a barrel on Friday and which has now trebled in three years - could inflict real economic damage. The US Federal Reserve, in particular, has been forced to take drastic action - raising interest rates 15 times since June 2004 to keep inflation in check.
Given that fragility, it is significant that Kudrin is now wondering aloud if the long-standing dollar hegemony can last. For him to do so is to highlight that America is vulnerable should that status be lost. That's because Russia, with its awesome oil and gas reserves, could kick-start a challenge to the dollar's supremacy.  Most nations stockpile their foreign exchange holdings in dollars. The US currency accounts for more than two thirds of all central bank reserves worldwide.
This reserve status means that the dollar is constantly in demand, whatever the underlying strength of the US economy.  And now, with massive trade and budget deficits to finance, America is increasingly reliant on that status. The unprecedented weight of US liabilities means a threat to the dollar's dominance could result in a currency collapse, plunging the world's largest economy into recession.
That won't happen immediately. The dollar has sat astride the globe for some time now - in fact, for most of the last century. But this statement from Russia - a country of growing financial and strategic significance - still caused the dollar to slide. It also fuelled speculation that central banks could increasingly diversify their holdings away from dollars.
Kudrin's statement followed news that Sweden has cut its dollar holdings, from 37 per cent of central bank reserves to 20 per cent, with the euro's share rising to 50 per cent. Central banks in some Gulf states have also lately mooted a shift into the euro. Such sentiments helped push the dollar to a seven-month low against the single currency last week.  But Russia's intervention will have raised eyebrows in Washington because the backbone of the dollar's reserve currency status - the main guarantee that status continues -is the fact that oil is traded in dollars. And that is something the likes of Kudrin can directly affect.
For historic reasons, the dollar remains the world's "petrocurrency" - the only currency for the settlement of oil contracts on world markets. That makes the EU and Russia dependent on it. But with central banks switching to euros, the logical next step would be for fuel-exporting countries to start quoting oil prices in euros too.  The EU is Russia's main trading partner. More than two thirds of Russia's oil and gas is exported to the EU. That makes Russia a strong candidate to become the first major oil exporter to start trading in euros. Such a scenario, in recent years, has become theoretically possible. But now, with these latest comments, Kudrin has thrust that possibility into the open.
The G7 meeting was dominated, of course, by concern over Iran's nuclear programme. The threat of military action against Iran, itself a major crude exporter, is one reason oil prices are now testing record highs.  It is worth noting that Tehran has ongoing plans to set up an oil trading exchange to compete with New York's NYMEX and with London's International Petroleum Exchange. In the light of Kudrin's comments, it is significant that the Iranians want to run their oil bourse in euros, not dollars.  Were the Iranians to establish a Middle-East based euro-only oil exchange, the dollar's unique petrocurrency status could unravel. That, in turn, would threaten its broader dominance - which, given America's groaning twin deficit, could seriously hurt the US economy.
Some cite this as the real reason the US wants to attack Iran: to protect the dollar's unique position. I wouldn't go that far, but the prospect of a non-dollar oil exchange in Tehran is certainly an aggravating factor.  The opening of Iran's new oil exchange has recently been delayed. But, having spoken with numerous officials in Tehran, and western consultants who've been working with the Iranians for several years, I think it will go ahead. The exchange entity has already been legally incorporated in Iran and a site purchased to house administrative and regulatory staff.
The reality is that as long as most of Opec's oil - read Saudi Arabia - is priced in dollars, the US currency will retain its hegemony. But the opening of an oil bourse in Tehran, which now looks likely, will signal at least tacit Saudi consent for euro-based oil trading. The US knows this, which is why it is nervous about the dollar's status being questioned.  From the G7's fringe, Kudrin has now touched this raw nerve. This weekend's meetings have been dominated by questions of global financial imbalance - in particular, America's huge deficits.
Kudrin's missive comes as central bankers, and currency dealers, start to conclude the only way to resolve the massive US external deficit is a somewhat weaker US currency. As the IMF itself warned yesterday, a "substantial" dollar decline may be needed.  One way to bring that about would be for the euro to enter the global oil trading system. This is unlikely to happen soon. It might not happen at all. But the idea is now not only realistic but firmly on the table in Washington. Perhaps not with love, but it was placed there by the Russians.
Liam Halligan is Economics Correspondent at Channel 4 News
 
The Secrets Behind ‘State Secrets’: How Turkey's Mafia-like 'Deep State' (and its Neocon Friends) Penetrated the American Government
by an internet researcher
French filmmaker Mathieu Verboud is set to release a new documentary for European television this fall, which will reveal important new insights into the case of former FBI translator and president of the National Security Whistleblower’s Coalition Sibel Edmonds.  Edmonds, a Turkish-American whose wrongful termination lawsuit was suppressed by the government’s invocation of the all-too-common “state secrets privilege”, reported to her superiors espionage and deliberate mistranslations on the part of fellow Turkish translator, Melek Can Dickerson.  It seems Ms. Dickerson had relationships with targets of FBI investigation working at the Turkish Embassy and the American Turkish Council, a fact which meant that anything she translated was likely to be false.  However, instead of receiving a promotion for bringing Ms. Dickerson’s’ espionage to the attention of her bosses, Edmonds was fired after she went in frustration to the U.S. Senate.  The FBI refused to investigate Edmonds’ claims, at least in part, because the contract linguist had discovered quite a messy scandal: the content of the mistranslated documents revealed that some very powerful people in the U.S. government, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, were connected to foreign organized crime.  Even worse, these foreign criminals connected to the high and mighty in the U.S. were also connected internationally, through the heroin trade and associated money laundering, to international terrorist organizations like al Qaeda. 
Okay, take a deep breath and take a step back: it’s not a pretty picture.  According to what we know so far from Sibel Edmonds’ many interviews and from the groundbreaking story on her case from Vanity Fair“An Inconvenient Patriot” , Edmonds found that within the U.S. a nest of Turkish spies, some working at the Turkish embassy, others affiliated with namely the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), the American Turkish Associations (ATA) and the American Turkish Council (ATC), were involved in espionage, bribery, illegal lobbying, drug trafficking and the infiltration of U.S nuclear research labs.  Separately, from a former CIA Counterterrorism official, Phillip Giraldi, who himself was once based in Turkey, we know that some arms sales meant for Turkey and Israel were actually meant for resale to countries like China and India- and perhaps even to international terrorists- using fake end-user certificates.  So we have Turkish nationals at the Embassy and NGOs stealing U.S. secrets for sale to the highest bidder, re-selling arms meant for Turkey, bringing in drugs from Europe, and pouring money into bribes and lobbying activities. 
To understand how these activities fit together- Americans must first understand what Europeans call the Turkish ‘deep state’.  In 1996, a car crash in a town called Susurluk revealed “link between politics, organized crime and the bureaucracy” in Turkey.  As it turns out, its crippled economy in the 1990s meant Turkey had become the European equivalent of Colombia- a state almost completely dependent on the Turkish mafia and by extension, the Southwest Asian Heroin trade.  Which is where the Turkish ‘deep state’ comes in- it becomes very difficult to determine where the ‘government’ ends and the ‘mafia’ begins.  What we do know from Sibel Edmonds and other sources is this:Turkey’s secular establishment, including the Turkish military and intelligence services (MIT), as well as political parties associated withformer Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, appear to have been more connected to the Turkish mafia than the Turkish Islamic Parties thatWashington abhors.  Furthermore, it appears from reading into some of Edmonds’ statements that the Turkish mafia was partnered with Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda network in the drug trade- meaning Turkey’s secular establishment was more connected to al Qaeda- pre/9-11- than were the Islamists in Turkey.  Which is quite ironic, to say the least. 
If you think this story sounds too convoluted to be true, and you feel the instinct to dismiss Edmonds’ claims, think again.  Every investigation into the whistleblower’s charges- from the Senate Judiciary Committee to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General Report, has found that Edmonds’ story is corroborated within the FBI, which means her translations, not those of Melek Can Dickerson, were the correct ones.  This also means that the aforementioned Turkish organizations, and certain Turkish diplomats, were indeed underFBI investigation.  And all this put together means that people like Dennis Hastert probably were- and perhaps still are- on the payroll of Turkish ‘deep state’ interests.
recent article published in the U.K. Guardian about the well-connected Kurdish Baybasin clan also gives important backing to the former translator’s story.  The article details how Europe’s “Pablo Escobar”, Huseyin Baybasin, has “alleged that he had received the assistance of Turkish embassies and consulates while moving huge consignments of drugs around Europe, and that Turkish army officers serving with NATO in Belgium were also involved." This information, of course, dovetails most precisely with what Sibel Edmonds has been hinting at for over 3 years now; that targets of FBI investigations linked with the Turkish embassy and Turkish organizations were involved in narcotics trafficking.  It is clear the Baybasin gang and the secular factions in Turkey had a seemingly symbiotic relationship, with the government providing the traffickers diplomatic passports and thus free reign to travel around the world without fear of prosecution.  Also involved in the scandalous Turkish drug running are the very notorious, Pope-killing Grey Wolves, a fascist organization connected to human rights abuses in Turkey.
As for who else besides Hastert might have been on the payroll of Mr. Baybasin and friends- we turn next to the Executive Branch.  In an interview with Chris Deliso of antiwar.com, Edmonds hinted at key roles played by some powerful unelected officials-important Neoconservatives like Marc Grossman of the State Department, and Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, formerly of the Defense Department.   If we hit the rewind button and go back to a CBS 60 Minutes’ interview in October, 2002, we remember the ex-contract linguist stated that Turkish targets of FBI investigation had spies inside the U.S. State Department and at the Pentagon in order to “obtain the United States military and intelligence secrets.”   It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Grossman, Feith and Perle might have been the persons to whom she was referring in 2002.  Furthermore, the language specialist has repeatedly stated in past interviews that investigations into pre-9/11 terrorist financing activities were blocked “per State Department request”, leaving open the question whether it was Mr. Grossman, then Undersecretary of State for European Affairs, who actively hindered investigations into the Turkey-Bin Laden link. 
Perle and Feith are an interesting case in this hidden scandal.   Their consultancy, International Advisors (IA), has done extensive work for the Republic of Turkey, though it is questionable who is paying the invoices.  Ms. Edmonds rhetorically asked the question of Phoenix radio personality Charles Goyette in January 2006, “For what [were they paid]?  One could imagine, hypothetically, that passing state secrets might be one “service” provided to the Turkish mafia/government by IA.  But would Perle and Feith have gone beyond that?  Would they have introduced the Turkish mafia types to Denny Hastert, and counseled “deep state” interests in how to skirt U.S. campaign finance laws?  After all, the Turks were reported to have made their initial payments from 1996-1998 through “unitemized (less than $200) contributions”, after which they allegedly delivered suitcases of cash to the Speaker’s front door.  Someone had to teach them the intricacies of campaign finance law: was it IA?  What we do know is that Perle was a key architect of the Israeli/Turkish alliance forged in the late 90s, and that Edmonds case also is connected to the AIPAC spy scandal- leaving lots of room for speculation on how the rest of the story pans out.
As messy and ugly as this, for lack of a better phrase, “Turkish DeepState Gate” scandal appears, the consequences of continuing to do nothing about it- of allowing the government’s outrageous use of ‘state secrets’ to insure Dennis Hastert, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman and others are never investigated, could be horrific.  Ms. Edmonds plans to take petitions to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months to finally force full and open hearings on her case.  She will try to do the type of lobbying that does not involve foreign bribery or ill-gotten gains.  This will be the simple type of petitioning guaranteed of every citizen in the Constitution under the First Amendment, a long forgotten portion of the Bill of Rights.  Americans aware of the situation can only hope, and do everything in their power to insure, that Ms. Edmonds’ type of lobbying prevails. 
 
Bob Woodward, book, The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, According to Simon & Schuster, Woodward's book "takes readers deep inside the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq.  ....   traces the internal debates, tensions and critical turning points in the Iraq War during an extraordinary two-year period"  ...  release date: Sept 8, 2008, Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward, assistant managing editor, Washington Post, investigative reporter, ... Carl Bernstein, search terms: uncover Watergate,  Nixon, resignation, 12 best-selling books, Pulitzer Prize, served in the Navy as an aid to Chief of Naval Operations, Moorer, met Mark Felt, FBI Assistant Director, deepthroat, inside source on Watergate, book 'The Secret Man', DNC convention, 1972, wrote All the President's Men, Redford Hoffman movie, Ben Bradlee, editor, reporting on 'Nixon dirty tricks, Woodward interviewed Bush 43 four times, books: Bush at War, Plan of Attack, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, with Dan Balz, Camp David, Worldwide Attack Matrix, too close to Bush, Kerry, involvement in Plame scandal: deposition to Fitzpatrick, told him senior administration official leaked Plame identity to him in June 2003, November 2005 article revealed his special knowledge, casual, offhand by Armitage, part of confidential conversation of a 'source', asked Libby questions about Armitage, interview on CNN Larry King, junkyard dog prosecutor, consequences of Plame outing not that great, Downie, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, exaggerations, fabrications in books: John Dean and Ed Gray: Felt not the only deepthroat, also Donald Santarelli. Brad DeLong: in Maestro and The Agenda, The Choice, Clinton Whitewater inconsistencies, abandon critical inquiry to maintain access to high-profile actors, for glory, stenographer to the rich and powerful, At the Eye of the Storm, see Maureen Dowd, and The Brethren, and his sitting on information for publication of a book,The Commanders ...Powell opposed Operation Desert Storm, published after war voted for in Congress,  and Veil  he did not reveal that William Casey knew of arms sales to the Contras until after the investigations, and see Martin Dardis ... Watergate burglars, and Committee to Re-elect the President, ...and accused of fabricating deathbead interview with Casey, ... Reagan called him a liar, for whatever that's worth, and other books: Wired, Shadow,
Aug 19: buzz: likely to propel re-examination of the Iraq War into the headlines, for fall presidential campaign, Hadley encouraged participation, interviews with Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gates, ... publisher: Simon & Schuster, Amazon, Alice Mayhew, and see CBS, Viacom, 496 pages, 900,000, red, white, blue, gold cover, administration infighting, will be best seller, he'll be on 60 minutes, Sept 7, How does Woodward, Miller, Cheney, Libby fit with declassifying classified information to hype the war?.. Woodward was leaked Plame info in June 03, but sat on it for years, ... John Bolton, Marc Grossman are the neo-con links to Turkey, and Plame / Edmonds working on uncovering WMD proliferation, black market activities of Bushco.
Seymour Hersh, on Chain of Command  NYTimes  "We now have two major accounts of the road to war in Iraq, Hersh's ''Chain of Command'' and Bob Woodward's ''Plan of Attack.'' Hersh is the anti-Woodward. Woodward is official scribe to the inner sanctum, and his access -- to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell -- gives his account real authority, but at a price. In Woodward's world, everything is what the principals say it is. In Hersh's world, by contrast, nothing the policy elites say is true actually is.
SourceWatch  Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus is "the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration's new Iraq 'surge' strategy." [1][2] Petraeus replaced Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., who was confirmed February 6, 2007, by the U.S. Senate, as Army Chief of Staff.   ...   Petraeus, who has "served two previous tours in Iraq", "sees the need for additional troops in Baghdad." He "helped oversee the drafting of the military’s comprehensive new" Counterinsurgency Field Manual published December 2006. [3]   ...   On September 8, 2005, Lt. Gen. Petraeus left Iraq "after handing off command" of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which he had commanded for 15 months. [4] He most recently served as Commander of the U.S. Army Combine Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. [5]
New York Sun Aug 26  ".... speculation is surging that it will portray the latest phase of the war in Iraq as a success, credited to the recently departed commander of forces there, General David Petraeus.   ...    one source familiar with an early draft said Mr. Woodward had extensive access to General Petraeus and his deputies, known in the military as the "Jedi Council." Mr. Woodward also interviewed the head of the Anbar Awakening, Sheik Ahmad al-Rishawi, who took over the Sunni Arab uprising against Al Qaeda in Iraq after his brother was assassinated last September."
Examiner "Woodward is also known for his Pulitzer Prize -winning reporting with fellow Washington Post writer Carl Bernstein . In the 1970s, they collaborated on the groundbreaking stories of the Watergate scandal that helped bring down  Richard Nixon and on two best sellers about the Nixon administration, "All the President's Men" and "The Final Days."  he can pry the facts from the most unlikely sources.
 

 Research:    Operation Gladio        top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • Global Research  The New US Sponsored Gladio: Sword Play: Attacking Civilians to Justify "Greater Security" by Chris Floyd and 
  • Global Research
  • GNN Rasputin
  • Indymedia, Houston, 
  • LoneStarIcon The Real Drill, false flag operations, war, Cheney.
  • MediaMonarchy
  • NoWorldSystem
  • Probe Magazine, 
  • RedIceCreations  
  • Rogue Government 
  • 911  Timewatch Gladio
  • Wayne Madsen Report
  • Notes: Francesco Cossiga, said 911 attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad and that this was common knowledge amongst global intelligence agency.
  • Kobi Alexander,  owners / developers, Odigo software, allows Israelis to communicate instantly on 9/11.  "buddy system" communicate to a large group of people that share a trait, Hebrew language,  thousands of Israelis warned,  9/11.
  • Aviation Nation, Houston, Continental Flight 1544, Boeing 737,  rocket-like object nearly missing the aircraft on take-off, George Bush International Airport, departing passengers saw the object, trail of smoke, flaming tail, ...  model rocketing spin not passing the smell test, FBI / FAA investigating, including Doug Hagman, Northeast Intelligence Network, and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, no hobby clubs granted clearance, pilots reported seeing the object zoom past their cockpit window,  
  • Gibson, Professor Donald, de-classified telephone transcripts form early Lyndon Johnson presidency, Warren Commission cover-up, Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK x-rays are forgeries, MLK killed by US government, journalist stories cleared with CIA, propaganda assets, Malcolm X, 
  • Guardian
  • History Matters, JFK, Cuba, drug traffic, CIA.
  • Hubritic Anamoly
  • StartNow72 Karnabe Carnaby
  • Wikipedia, Leonard Peltier
  • Wikipedia Pine Ridge Reservation, 1973, 
  • WilliamBowles Gladio
  • Wikipedia Francesco Cossiga, revealed the existence of Operation Gladio, elected President of the Italian Senate, 1983, and President of Italy, 1985. 
  • notes: Cossiga  revealed that Operation Gladio under NATO carried out bombings across Europe in the 60s 70s and 80s. ... false flag attacks ... by Gladio blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.  ... Gladio used right wing extremists who committed acts of terrorism and espionage, then blamed on left wing or Communist groups.   joint resolution (EP 22.11.90) of the European Parliament condemns actions of US and allied intelligence agencies involved
  • video
  • Ron Paul names neocons video
  • ------------------------------ ------------
  • Berlesconi
  • Chronicle, Houston, flight 1544
  • CIA
  • FBI
  • German Intelligence service, NPD 
  • Gladio players:Michael Ledeen, Iran/Contra figure Gen. John Singlaub, CIA Director William Colby and Ray Cline, 
  • Israel, Zionist, 
  • Ledeen, Michael
  • Neo-Nazis,  paid by German Intelligence services
  • RonPaul2008
  • USInfo, disinformation, Gladio, 30-31B
  • Veterans for Freedom 527 attack ads. Swiftboat
  • Operation Gladio, stay-behind network, Wikipedia terms: Italy, NATO, Christian Democrats, counter Warsaw pact,  CCWU, SHAPE, years of lead, paramilitary, ODESSA ratlines, Rheinhard Gehlen, MSI, internal subversion, Allen Dulles, CIA financing, founded by Aldo Moro, SDRA8, TD BJD, LOK, I&O, ROC, Aginter, P26, AGAG, OWSGV, P2, false flag operations, strategy of tension, carried out Operation Condor, DINA, Ezeiza massacre, Montejurra massacre, Taksim Square massacre, collapse of the Soviet Union, ... Order of the Solar Temple, 
  • 911 Review "This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies. ... First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser, as Lila Rajiva reports on CommonDreams.org. ... Originally set up as a network of clandestine cells to be activated behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, Gladio quickly expanded into a tool for political repression and manipulation, directed by NATO and Washington. Using right-wing militias, underworld figures, government provocateurs and secret military units, Gladio not only carried out widespread terrorism, assassinations and electoral subversion in democratic states such as Italy, France and West Germany, but also bolstered fascist tyrannies in Spain and Portugal, abetted the military coup in Greece and aided Turkey's repression of the Kurds."
  • Wayne Madsen Report "As a member of the West German Bundestag, Gedat brought about the cancellation at the Cannes Film Festival of the showing of a movie about a family of Jewish refugees from Prague during the Nazi regime. At the same time, Gedat was one of three of Vereide’s International Council for Christian Leadership (ICCL) representatives in Europe. The other two were also Nazis, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (married to Queen Juliana) and German Prince Max von Hohenlohe. The latter served under SS head Walter Schellenberg and, according to SS documents captured by the Soviets, Hohenlohe engaged in direct negotiations during the war with Allen Dulles of the OSS. Like Vereide and Buchman, Dulles was a strong anti-Semite who saw Communism and Jews through the same lens. Through the OSS’s and CIA’s "Rat Line" program, such infamous Nazis as Klaus Barbie (the "Butcher of Lyon"), Nazi "mad scientist" and butcher Dr. Joseph Mengele, concentration camp vaccine "tester" Kurt Blome, and SS Commander Adolf Eichmann, escaped from Europe to South America with the assistance of Opus Dei collaborators in the Vatican. These same Nazis were used to establish terror cells throughout Western Europe (the "Gladio" or "Stay Behind Networks"). These cells, established to act as fifth columns in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, would be by the United States used to carry out acts of terrorism and create public panic in countries such as Italy to prevent Communists from entering coalition governments.
  • Guardian "The German government's efforts to curb the neo-Nazi right were thrown into disarray yesterday when the country's top court blocked its key initiative - an attempt to ban the skinhead-dominated National Democratic party. If the decision was an embarrassment for Gerhard Schröder's centre-left administration, ... The judges ruled that the government's case rested largely on the statements and actions of NPD members who had been shown to be agents of the German intelligence services."
  • Global Research "In Europe, the American government actively sought to eliminate political opposition to its fascist world plans through the use of open violent repression and covert terroristic "false flag" attacks upon popular patriotic resistance movements and their leaders. Using ultra right-wing homegrown fascists, in both Europe and America, secret paramilitary militias were created, called "Stay Behind" forces at the end of World War II. Since then, the CIA activated these groups to successfully quash anti-American liberal and social democratic popular resistance movements. The agency denies this, but the series of exposes of their network in Europe since 1990 have proven the professed denials to be false."
  • .... ban the party of the ultra-right nationalists NPD for unconstitutional behavior and terroristic acts committed by party-members. but... they just couldn´t ban the NPD, because no less than half of the leadership of the party was on the pay-roll of the Verfassungsschutz (which has similar functions as the undercover units of the FBI). ... In Italy this covert CIA project financed in part the ultra-left Red Brigades in terror activities ... however it became a project for false-flag terrorism, whereby those terror acts were blamed on radical left-wing groups. terms: Masonic, P2, Ledeen (Rove's Brain)  NPD leader Udo Voight, NPD campaign: boycott US products, protest Iraq war.
  •  

FBI investigates Continental pilot's encounter with 'rocket'

Continental pilot startled by encounter with 'rocket'
CINDY HORSWELL, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle | Monday, May 26, 2008

A Continental Airlines pilot reported being startled by what he described as a rocket that shot past his cockpit window Monday when the plane was about eight miles north of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating the incident, which occurred about 10:30 a.m.
"We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing," saidRoland Herwig, an FAA spokesman. "The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the rocket's trail (of smoke)."
Continental Airlines spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said Monday night that she could not discuss what was seen by the crew of Flight 1544. She would only say that the Boeing 737, with 148 passengers. left Bush at 10:17 a.m. and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 2:13 p.m.
She said the pilot made no diversionary maneuvers, and she added the plane was not damaged, and nobody was injured.
The FAA does not yet know how close the object came to the plane or what altitude it reached. "We will determine that by establishing a radar history," Herwig said.
FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap stressed that it is "routine" for the FBI to look into suspicious activity involving an aircraft.
"We don't know if it was a rocket or what. We will interview everyone and determine the validity of what was seen," she said.
If it was model rocket, investigators want to know the type and who launched it.
"Building rockets is a legitimate hobby, but hobbyists have to let the FAA know what they're doing," Herwig said.
Robert Morehead, an engineer who is president of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston, said the FAA would only need to be notified if a rocket would be entering controlled airspace.
He said the only danger to a plane might be if the rocket is ingested by a plane's engine.
"But their engines are designed to ingest birds and not come apart," said Morehead, who lives in Clear Lake. "The real question is if the rocket would tear up the engine instead of just shutting it off."
Model rockets can be made of cardboard and glue or have aluminum air frames, he said. Rockets also have no difficulty reaching the 30,000 to 40,000 feet, the altitude at which an airliner may cruise.
"There is a guy who claims his rocket has reached the threshold of space or 75 miles," Morehead said. "But there are lots of models that could fly as high as an airliner. You can do it with a 10- to 15-foot tall rocket and some little ones."
But Flight 1544 had recently taken off and might not have been flying that high, he said.
The models can be fueled with everything from black powder to ammonium percholorate and aluminum, he said.
"It's not rocket science when you use a kit," he said. His organization builds rockets from scratch to teach students the math and science behind it.
"We just built one using liquid fuel that had substantially more thrust than the models," he said.
Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington D.C., said the Monday incident is not the first time a rocket has crossed paths with an airliner. But so far, no plane has been hit by a launched model rocket.
"There are model rocket clubs operating around the country. This was a holiday weekend that would be good for a launch," she said.









Inquirer Opinion/ Talk of the Town

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/talkofthetown/view/20090118-184001/Gaza-conflict

Gaza conflict

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:22:00 01/18/2009

Filed Under: Armed conflict, Gaza conflict

Gaza Strip fast facts

Area: 360 sq km (approximately 40-km long and 10-km wide)
Population: 1.5 million, many of whom are refugees of the land that became Israel in 1948. Roughly a third of the Gaza population lives in refugee camps funded by the United Nations.
Religion: Muslim (predominantly Sunni), 99.3 percent; Christian, 0.7 percent

Philistia: Gaza and the coastal towns to its north, for most of the years between 1250 BC and AD 135—the era in which Jews lived in and often ruled the land of Israel—eluded firm Israelite or Judean control.

In antiquity, Gaza was part of Biblical Pleshet or Philistia—the domain of the Philistines, a non-Semitic “sea people” hailing from the Aegean region, who probably invaded and settled along the coast in the 12th century BC (more or less simultaneous with the arrival in the Holy Land of the Hebrews from the east).

Samson and Delilah: From Gaza, Ashkelon and Jaffa, the Philistines controlled the coastal plain in 1150 BC. Samson and Delilah supposedly met in Gaza around that time.

The rule lasted until 586 BC, when Philistia was conquered (along with Judea) by the Babylonians and the Philistines were exiled and vanished from history. In the second century AD, after having quashed a Jewish revolt, the Roman rulers renamed the land of Israel—in order to de-Judaize it—Palestina (a derivative of Philistia).

They thus gave the Arabs, who were to arrive on the scene five centuries later, the name they were to adopt.

Zionist immigration: Palestinian Arabs, Christians and Jews harmoniously lived in Palestine for centuries. But in the late 1800s, a group in Europe, known as “Zionists,” decided to go to Palestine to create a Jewish homeland.

Initially, the immigration of Jews created no problems. However, as more and more Zionists immigrated into Palestine following the Holocaust, the indigenous Arab population became increasingly alarmed and threatened. Eventually, fighting erupted between the two groups.

Jewish state: In 1947, the United Nations decided to intervene. The UN set aside 55 percent of Palestine for a Jewish state—although the Jews represented only about 30 percent of the total population and owned less than 7 percent of the land.

By the end of the 1948 war, the Jewish state—having declared itself “Israel”—had conquered 78 percent of Palestine—far more than that proposed by the UN partition plan. As a result, three-quarters of a million Palestinians had been made refugees.

1967 and 1973 wars: Areas that were not incorporated into Israel became part of neighboring countries. Jordan took over the control of the West Bank and Egypt administered the Gaza Strip.
In 1967, following the Six Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians were again forced to leave the area. Israel also occupied the Sinai and the Golan Heights.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the holiest day of the Jewish year. Israel soon turned the tide of battle. Israel later returned the Sinai to Egypt, but annexed the Golan Heights.

Greater Israel: Devout Jews believe that Gaza and the West Bank were God-given and that it is their mission to live there as part of Greater Israel, the extension of the state of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. However, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have not ceased to struggle against Israeli rule.

Oslo accords, intifada: Open revolt broke out with the first intifada (uprising) in 1987. The Oslo accords, which sought to make the West Bank and Gaza parts of a Palestinian state, were signed in Washington D.C. in 1993, but these did not please hard-line Israelis and Palestinians.

The second intifada broke out in 2000. Much of 2001, 2002 and early 2003 saw an escalation of violence by Palestinian suicide bombers and the military reoccupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces.

Israeli withdrawal: In 2005, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled out troops occupying Gaza, along with more than 8,000 Jews who had settled in the territory.

Gaza soon became a venue of a power struggle between the Palestinian Authority—representing the secular Palestine Liberation Organization—and the forces of Hamas.

2006 war: Before the war, Hamas won a landslide victory in the Palestinian legislative elections, with Ismail Haniya becoming prime minister.

Hamas’ abduction of an Israeli soldier in June 2006 triggered a brutal response from Israel. A second front opened in Lebanon when Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers and took two others as hostages.

With the suspension of support from the international community and blockade by Israel, Gaza residents suffered from food, water and energy shortages.

Ceasefire: Hamas forces fired rockets into Israel as a sign of protest but in June 2008, they started a six-month truce brokered by Egypt.

The ceasefire was often broken. Even as Hamas continued to protest the economic blockade, Israel complained Hamas was smuggling arms into Gaza through underground tunnels from Egypt and firing rockets at Israel.

On Dec. 19, 2008, the ceasefire formally ended and rocket attacks from Hamas increased.

Operation Cast Lead: Eight days later, Israel began its attack on Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that “Cast Lead” operation has three goals: “To hit Hamas hard, to change the situation radically, and to prevent the continuation of rocket fire at Israeli civilians.”

Israel fast facts

Area: 20,770 sq km

Population: 7.1 million, including about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and about 20,000 in the Golan Heights (July 2008 est.)

Religion: Jewish, 76.4 percent; Muslim, 16 percent; Arab Christians, 1.7 percent; other Christians, 0.4 percent; Druze, 1.6 percent; unspecified, 3.9 percent (2004)

Israel Defense Forces

Total: 621,500; 176,500 (Regular), 445,000 (Reserves)

Equipment: 3,400 tanks (in service), 6,930 armored fighting vehicles, 520 combat aircraft, 184 helicopters, 3 submarines, 15 combat vessels and 50 patrol craft (as of March 2008)

Fatalities

More Than 1,100 Palestinians (as of Jan. 16), many of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health

13 Israelis, including 3 civilians

Compiled by Inquirer Research



In pictures: Israeli advance

Palestinian children take refuge at a UN-run school in the Gaza StripThe director of emergency services in Gaza, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, said half of the casualties were women and children.

Akram Abu Rukaa is treated for suspected phosphorus burns at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.Elsewhere, Palestinian medics and human rights activists accused Israeli forces of illegally firing phosphorus shells at civilian areas, causing serious burns. The Israeli army categorically denied their use.

Damage to a house in Ashkelon caused by a rocket is inspectedMilitant groups in Gaza have continued to fire rockets into southern Israel, despite the offensive. One caused damage in the city of Ashkelon, although there were no reports of any serious injuries.

A Palestinian woman reacts to an air strike in Rafah

Efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza have been continuing in Egypt, where the international Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, has held talks with President Hosni Mubarak.

Israeli artillery fire on the Gaza StripThe Israelis say they are close to what they describe as the end game, but say they want to keep up pressure on Hamas as well as exploring a diplomatic way out.




Gaza Conflict At 'Tipping Point'

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Gaza-Israel-Pushes-Further-Into-Gaza-City-Reservists-Being-Sent-In/Article/200901215201307?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15201307_Gaza%3A_Israel_Pushes_Further_Into_Gaza_City%2C_Reservists_Being_Sent_In

4:29pm UK, Monday January 12, 2009

Israeli troops have been fighting fierce gun battles with Hamas militants on the streets of Gaza.

Israeli soldiers stand at the border with the northern Gaza Strip Israeli soldiers move in from the border of the northern Gaza Strip Tanks and infantry units pushed into residential areas, as Israel maintains military pressure on the Islamist group while avoiding all-out urban warfare. Some neighbourhoods are filled with home-made bombs and booby traps, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. Major Avital Leibovich confirmed the army is "advancing more into urban areas".

Israel has also started sending in some of the thousands of reservists called up when the war began, Israeli television reported. Earlier, Israeli navy gunboats fired more than 25 shells at Gaza City, setting fires and shaking office buildings. And two women and four children were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, medics and witnesses said. A divided UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution condemning Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and accusing it of "grave" human rights violations against Palestinians. But the Israeli military has released new video images, which it claims show it is trying to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

In Jerusalem, Sky's Emma Hurd said: "This is Israel saying they are being careful within Gaza but Palestinians say the casualties tell a different story." Medical officials say the Palestinian death toll has risen past 900 and includes at least 380 civilians. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed combat or in rocket attacks since the operation began, said a military spokesman. Despite the continuing operation, Israeli officials have suggested the offensive might be approaching its end. "The decision of the (UN) Security Council doesn't give us much leeway," Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio. "Thus it would seem that we are close to ending the ground operation and ending the operation altogether." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel is nearing the goals it had set for its operation, but that fighting would continue for now. Hurd said: "There is a feeling now this conflict has reached a tipping point. Is it going to move forward, is Israel going to escalate or is it going to wind it down?" She added: "Maybe Israel is starting to wind down by playing up its gains to its population." Speaking in his final press conference as US President, George Bush has called for a "sustainable ceasefire", placing the blame for the conflict on Hamas. "That means Hamas stops firing rocket into Israel," he said, "I happen to believe the choice is Hamas' to make." Middle East envoy Tony Blair has said the "elements for an agreement for an immediate ceasefire" are in place. Speaking in Cairo after a meeting with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Mr Blair said the talks are "at a sensitive and delicate" stage.

Hamas, which also ignored the Security Council resolution, has vowed to keep on fighting.

On Sunday, 19 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, including four military-grade Grad rockets, without wounding anyone.


An Israeli army mortar squad prepares to fire a round towards a target in the Gaza Strip (Bernat Armangue/AP) An Israeli army mortar squad fires a round towards a target in the Gaza Strip

From January 12, 2009

Israel pounds Hamas leaders' homes as troops edge closer to urban areas

Israel and phosphorus: original story | picture of shells | interview with victims

Israel sought to deliver a knockout blow to Hamas in the Gaza Strip today, pounding the homes of Hamas leaders and edging troops deeper into populated urban centres. Israeli security officials said that the move was both tactical and psychological.

“We want to send a clear message to Hamas that we can keep going as long as it takes. We will do whatever we need to protect our citizens from rocket attacks,” said a member of the Israeli security council. The council has already voted to approve the use of reserves in Gaza, thousands of whom entered Gaza last night. Defence officials said that those units had been taking over areas cleared by the regular troops, allowing those forces to push forward toward new targets and sending a strong signal that Israel is planning on continuing its offensive. Israeli officials said that the Government was torn on whether to continue expanding the offensive, with Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, and Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister, pushing for the army to end the operation in the coming days and Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Prime Minister, arguing for an expanded offensive. “Israel is a country that reacts vigorously when its citizens are fired up, which is a good thing. That is something that Hamas now understands and that is how we are going to react in the future, if they so much as dare fire one missile at Israel,” said Ms Livni. Hamas, at least publicly, has vowed to continue fighting, though senior Hamas leaders in Gaza have signalled that the Israeli operation has dealt them a severe blow. In 17 days of fighting, Israel has moved from targeted air strikes to a massive ground operation aimed at combing the Gaza Strip for Hamas rocket-launching stations. Military analysts said that troops were edging into the populated areas slowly, avoiding the numerous booby-traps that Hamas had prepared. Israel has accused Hamas of endangering civilian populations by launching rockets from mosques and schools and using them to hide weapons. Israel also said that Hamas fighters were wearing civilian clothes and using ambulances to move around the Gaza Strip. Since Israel began its offensive, Gaza health officials have counted nearly 900 dead, at least half of them civilians. The Israeli military said that troops had killed some 300 armed militants. Thirteen Israelis have died, three of them civilians. German and British envoys have pressed efforts to negotiate an end to the war, even though Israel and Hamas have ignored a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and durable ceasefire. Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire include a complete stop to Hamas rocket fire and weapons smuggling from Egypt. Hamas wants Israel to open all border crossings with Gaza and implement an international border to monitor the crossings. If the elections are held today in West Bank and Hamas is allowed to compete they will win by landslide. Thanks to Israeli wisdom in Gaza. Jordan trained police funded by US cannot stop this in West Bank.

Asif, San Jose, USA

Held by a Haganah military policeman and an unidentified Jewish official, the flag of the newly proclaimed Jewish state of Israel.Times Archive: Foundation of Israel

A Palestinian boy wounded during Israel’s offensive is carried into Shifa hospital in Gaza. Israeli forces edged into the Gaza Strip’s most populous area on Sunday, killing at least 27 Palestinians in an offensive stepped up in defiance of international calls for a ceasefire   War in Gaza

Latest from the Palestinian territory

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Palestine for the Jews




http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0107/1230936731427.html?via=mr
IrishTimes.com

One-sided reality of combat in Israeli-Palestinian conflict


Despite reports of intense combat, Hamas weapons pose little threat to Israeli forces, writes Ed O'Loughlin  

YOU COULD be forgiven for thinking that there was a major ground battle going on in the Gaza Strip right now.

"Fierce fighting" vies for headline space with "intense combat", while Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters swap "heavy exchanges of fire" in "house-to-house clashes". But experience of Israel's many previous raids into Gaza in recent years - the Israeli government is blocking independent foreign journalists from witnessing this one - suggests a more one-sided reality. Unlike the Hizbullah men who fought the Israeli army to a standstill in Lebanon two years ago, Hamas's gunmen have no modern anti-tank missiles. Their mainly home-made rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are useless against the heavy armour of the Israeli defence force's tanks and armoured personnel carriers. The Palestinians have no artillery or precision heavy weapons, and no air defences to counter Israel's US-supplied fighter bombers and attack helicopters, or the armed robot aircraft which circle constantly overhead. Their automatic rifles would be lethal against unprotected soldiers encountered at short range, but the tactics which Israel has perfected for the Gaza Strip ensure that its soldiers are seldom exposed to effective enemy fire. In fact, only about a dozen troops have died while participating in numerous deep raids inside Gaza since the IDF's last major loss in May 2004. Then, 11 troops were killed in two separate incidents involving poorly armoured vehicles since withdrawn from service.Of the five Israeli soldiers killed so far in the current massive invasion, one was reportedly hit by mortar fire. Three others were killed and 20 wounded when one of their own tanks blasted the Palestinian house in which they were hiding. The fifth was also killed by so-called friendly fire, ie accidental fire from his own side. The Palestinian death toll from such incursions has been vastly higher: Operation Rainbow, May 2004, killed at least 53 Palestinian militants and civilians; Operation Days of Penitence, October 2004, killed between 104 and 133; Operation Summer Rains, June 2006, 400 plus; Operation Autumn Clouds, November 2006, at least 70; last year an unnamed raid on Jabaliya killed over 100. All these raids and numerous smaller ones were duly reported in the foreign media, condemned as disproportionate by much of the international community and then quietly forgotten. The present Operation Cast Lead (some 630 Palestinians killed, as of last evening, and rapidly rising), is well on course to dwarf them all combined - as evidenced by yesterday's single incident toll of 42 civilians, killed when an Israeli artillery shell landed near a UN-run school. In a typical Israeli invasion, small teams of undercover soldiers use the cover of darkness to seize control of civilian homes selected for their fields of fire, taking the residents hostage and building snipers nests to cover the tanks that rapidly join them. In ensuing operations, the tanks and snipers sit back and take a heavy toll of the young Palestinian gunmen who invariably rush to the scene - one of the most under-reported aspects of the Israeli-Palestine conflict is the ineptitude of the martyrdom-loving Palestinians when it comes to basic guerrilla tactics. While their comrades keep the neighbourhood pinned down, infantrymen typically use civilian hostages as human shields - this is known in the IDF as the "neighbour procedure" - as they go door to door rounding up the menfolk, most of whom are then marched off to Israel to be interrogated and, if suspected of militant links, convicted and jailed. (Torture of suspected terrorists is tolerated by the legal authorities and courts in Israel, and torturers are allowed to defend themselves by asserting that the torture was "necessary".) Although greater in extent and in its massive death toll, the present Israeli ground invasion of Gaza seems to have followed the same broad pattern so far, penetrating only the fringes of teeming Gaza City. And just like its smaller predecessors, Operation Cast Lead's massive Palestinian death toll has proved immensely popular with an Israeli press and public demanding further retaliation for missile fire from Gaza which has killed 20 people in eight years (in the same period Israel has already killed more than 3,500 Gazans, at least 1,500 of them civilians, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem). On Monday Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that public support for defence minister and former prime minister Ehud Barak was "rising with each missile that pounds Gaza". Barak and his coalition partner/rival, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, both have hopes of winning the premiership in elections on February 10th. Unfortunately for the besieged, blockaded, bomb-shocked people of Gaza, February is still a long way off. Meanwhile, Operation Cast Lead shows signs of escalating into something even worse. Most Israeli government spokesmen and women have so far denied that the aim of the current operation is to eliminate Hamas militarily in the Gaza Strip. But the underlying logic of Israel's internal political and military intrigues, and of both sides' stated aims, suggests otherwise. Hamas says it will not renew its previous six-month ceasefire with Israel, which unravelled last month following mutual violations, unless the Jewish state agrees to end its crippling three-year-old economic blockade of the Strip's desperate population - a demand echoed by human rights groups and local UN agencies. But Israel says this would legitimise the rule of an Islamic fundamentalist movement which refuses to renounce terrorism and violent resistance, and which itself does not recognise Israel's legitimacy. Instead, Israeli leaders said this week that they intend to pound Gaza until Hamas is forced to accept an imposed and unconditional ceasefire, with no requirement on Israel to end the blockade and no international mechanism to ensure that all sides, including Israel, behave in future. Also on Israel's wish list is the return to Gaza of its compliant Palestinian client, Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, which remains nominally in charge of the West Bank, where Jewish settlement activity continues unabated, despite having lost Palestine-wide elections in 2006. It was routed from Gaza following its failed US- and Israeli-backed putsch against the elected Hamas government last year. In company with Egypt, the EU and perhaps the US and allied Arab states, Fatah will then mop up whatever is left of Hamas and police Gaza's borders and crossings to prevent further smuggling of weapons. But the chances of Hamas agreeing to what amounts to an unconditional surrender are nil. Instead, its militants have stepped up their own rocket fire into Israel, using new long-range rockets to strike for the first time the major cities of Ashdod and Beersheba. Three Israeli civilians have been killed so far. The European Union has so far quietly joined with Israel and the US in the diplomatic and economic siege of Gaza. But there is no way it, or anyone else, will take on the job of policing Gaza on Israel's behalf, a task the mighty Israel defence force failed to carry out. Any Israeli attempt to subdue its entire area, whether by slow starvation, gradual bombardment or rapid ground assault, would cause civilian deaths on a scale never before seen in the lopsided Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The world may not yet be cynical enough to keep looking the other way.

Ed O'Loughlin reported on Gaza for more than five years as Middle East correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age




Masked Palestinian terrorists...

Masked Palestinian terrorists from Islamic Jihad place Kassam rockets before later firing them towards Israel on the outskirts of Gaza City, Saturday.
Photo: AP


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The fog of war: Root causes and resolution


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The fog of war: Root causes and resolution


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The notion that truth is the first casualty of war finds expression in the fog of the current Gaza conflict - a truth masked by oft-repeated cliches such as "cycle of violence" or unconscionable allegations of "genocide." If we want to prevent further tragedies in this conflict - let alone frame the basis for its resolution - then we have to go behind the daily headlines that cloud understanding and probe the real basis of the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

The proximate trigger for the present hostilities was the deliberate and consistent attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas. Over 6,000 rockets and mortar shells have been launched at Israel since its Gaza withdrawal in the summer of 2005, including hundreds while the supposed truce between Hamas and Israel was in effect.

When Hamas then unilaterally declared the truce over and tripled its rocket-fire, Israel was obliged to act in self-defense.

YET EVEN this proximate trigger does not tell the whole story. It is rather a symptom, or proxy, for the root cause: the unwillingness of Hamas - and its Iranian patron - to accept the legitimacy of Israel within any boundaries in the Middle East.

While the rejection by Hamas of any peace with any Israel - or the existence of Israel itself - is a foundational root cause, there is a much more pernicious and sinister one that is all but ignored in the fog of war. This is the public call by Hamas, in its charter as well as its contemporary declarations, for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews wherever they may be.

Jews everywhere - not just in Israel - are referred to as inherently evil, as responsible for all the evils of the world, as defilers of Islam, and, repeatedly during these hostilities, as the "sons of apes and pigs." This genocidal anti-Semitism - and I do not use these words lightly or easily, but there are no other words to describe what is affirmed in these genocidal calls, covenants and declarations - this culture of hatred, this is where it all begins.

In the words of Prof. Fouad Ajami following the 2002 terrorist massacre of Israeli civilians in Netanya sitting down for their Passover meal: The suicide bomber of the Passover massacre did not descend from the sky; he walked straight out of the culture of incitement let loose on the land, a menace hovering over Israel, a great Palestinian and Arab refusal to let that country be, to cede it a place among the nations.

The bomber partook of the culture all around him: the glee that greets those brutal deeds of terror, the cult that rises around the martyrs and their families.

MOREOVER, Iran not only joins in these genocidal calls, but has become the epicenter of calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map." In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, one finds the toxic convergence of the advocacy of the most horrific of crimes embedded in the most virulent of hatreds and propelled by the avowed intent of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons for that purpose. Iran is not just a bystander to the conflict, but an actor and choreographer involved in the training, supplying, financing, harboring and promoting of Hamas.

The Iran "connection" to the present hostilities is too often ignored or sanitized. As a senior commander of Hamas has said, "Iran is our mother. She gives us information, military supplies and financial support." It is all the more tragic that innocent civilians are dying in Gaza because of hostilities supported by Iran, whose criminal accountability is marginalized.

As well, Hamas not only threatens the safety and security of Israeli citizens. It shields itself behind its own Palestinian citizens, thereby threatening the safety and security of Gaza itself.

RECOGNIZING the root causes is important, not only to appreciate the basis of the conflict, but the basis and framework for its resolution. That resolution, in the end, will not be military but diplomatic, political and juridical - and organized around the following initiatives and undertakings:

1.A comprehensive - and enduring - cease-fire and framework to end hostilities must be put in place. For such a cease-fire to endure, the casus belli that gave rise to the hostilities must be addressed and redressed: Hamas must cease and desist from its policy of targeting Israeli civilians and terrorizing Israeli civilian populations.

2.A robust international protection force - with the necessary mandate, mission and numbers - should be employed to ensure that the cease-fire is respected, both to protect against the targeting of Israeli civilians and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields: the ongoing double war crimes of Hamas.

3. The international protection force must be empowered to secure a total interdiction of the smuggling and manufacture of weapons on Gaza, lest the capacity for the casus belli be renewed. For example, Hamas must not be permitted to resuscitate its tunnel system of weapons smuggling and the exploitation of the Philadelphi corridor for this purpose.

4.Another Hamas instigation underlying this conflict - remembered daily by Israelis - is the case of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. For two-and-a-half years he has been held incommunicado and denied his rights as a detainee; Hamas has even denied access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Such manifest disregard for his basic rights must end. Indeed, 100 Hamas terrorists captured in these hostilities can be returned in exchange - there is admittedly a severe disproportionality between the freeing of an illegally abducted soldier and hundreds of terrorists, but it is one that Israel may be ready to accept.

5.The deployment of an international protection force should allow for the opening of humanitarian corridors and border crossings, and the withdrawal of Israel forces from Gaza, following the lines of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access concluded with the Palestinian Authority.

6.Humanitarian assistance must be immediately deployed to those in need, and Israel and Hamas must allow this assistance to be delivered. There can be no mistaking the fact that Hamas's tactics of launching rockets from civilian areas and using border crossings to smuggle weapons directly hinders humanitarian efforts.

7. With order restored, an international trusteeship under the auspices of the United Nations should be given governing authority over Gaza. Ruling Gaza is a job that Hamas cannot be trusted with, that Egypt has rejected, that Israel does not want, and that the Palestinian Authority has not been given the authority to do by the Palestinians.
While a UN governing authority would understandably be treated with mistrust in Israel, it would be a stabilizing presence that is simply the best of all available options. It can serve as an institution-building, state-building authority that can be the basis for the emergence of a peaceful, rights-protecting Gaza as a constituent part of a nascent, peaceful and democratic Palestinian state.

8.Palestinian society in Gaza must be freed from the cynical and oppressive culture of hate and incitement. It is true that one makes peace with one's enemies and not one's friends, but it is equally true that no peaceful solution - to this particular conflict in Gaza, or to the larger geopolitical conflict in the region - will be possible if resources continue to be poured into textbooks, summer camps, refugee camps and pervasive state media that serve the sole purpose of demonizing Israel.

THE NEXT generation of Palestinians must be one capable of keeping the peace with Israel. It is in the interests of neither Israelis nor Palestinians themselves to perpetuate this false "clash of civilizations." Admittedly the implementation of these objectives may be difficult - some may say even impossible - to secure. But the time has come to realize that if we want to protect the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians in the long as well as the short run, such initiatives and undertakings are unavoidable. The death of any innocent - Israeli or Palestinian - is a tragedy. It is urgent to act now for a just resolution, and for the prevention of further tragedies.

The writer is professor of law (on leave) at McGill University and Opposition Critic for Human Rights. He has written extensively on the Middle East.

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Obama's Options for the Israel-Gaza Conflict




2007–2008 Israel–Gaza conflict

Main articles: Israel-Gaza conflict and Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Background
Since the latest truce, signed on November 26, 2006, militiamen of Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and Hamas with his ‘Izz ad-Din al-Qassam fight force have shelled the Western Negev with crude homemade rockets, called Qassam rockets. Hamas is the ruling faction of the Palestinian National Authority. Since the disengagement plan was executed, thereby removing the ongoing IDF military presence from the area, the militias, especially Hamas, have also smuggled large numbers of machine guns, anti-tank missiles, grenades, explosive devices, and even anti-aircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip, making it very dangerous for Israeli forces to operate. In late April, heavy Palestinian inter-factional fighting broke out, especially between Hamas and Fatah. Leaders of both parties asked for cessation of the violence, calling instead for uniting against Israel.[citation needed] The week before the conflict broke out, more than thirty rockets a day were fired at Israel. In response, on May 15 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided together with military leader Gabi Ashkenazi that they would increase efforts against the ongoing rocket fire.

Airstrikes
In the first days of the conflict Israel responded with airstrikes at the very mobile Qassam launching cells, vehicles carrying Hamas militiamen, and buildings belonging to Hamas. The airstrikes may have been chosen because Hamas has very little AA weapons to defend themselves, so that the Israeli casualties will remain low.[citation needed] On May 20, Amir Peretz told the IAF to maintain pressure on Hamas. As a result of the ongoing aerial attacks, Hamas members stopped using cellphones, driving in cars, and gathering in groups to avoid further assassinations. Thus far the airstrikes have killed over thirty Palestinians, about two-thirds militants and one-third civilians.[6

Arrest

On May 24, more than thirty members of the political wing of Hamas were arrested in the West Bank, including ministers and members of parliament. Some Hamas mayors and legislators were also seized by the Israeli military. The detained include the mayors of Nablus, Qalqilyah, and Beita as well as Education Minister Nasser Shaer.[7] Israel has said "as long as the Qassams will rain down on the Western Negev, all of Hamas' members will be responsible," including the political wing of Hamas. Hamas has similarly said as long as the "Zionist aggression" continues, their military wing will continue to fire Qassams on Israeli territory.[8]

On May 26, the Palestinian Minister of State, Wasfi Kabha of Hamas, was arrested by the IDF in a raid on his village close to the West Bank city of Jenin. An aide to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from Fatah, Saeb Erekat, reacted to the arrests: "We have urged the U.S. and the EU to intervene to release the ministers and lawmakers [...] this step does not help to achieve calm."[9]




TIME LINE for the Gaza Israel Conflict

May 2007

[edit] May 15

After more than 200 Qassam rockets attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz respond with airstrikes.

May 16 The Israeli Air Force attacked a building housing the Hamas headquarters of the Executive ForceRafah, leaving four dead and dozens wounded. The airstrike came in the middle of heavy fighting between forces loyal to Fatah and to Hamas, part of the ongoing Palestinian factional violence. Thirty Qassam rockets were fired at the Western Negev, leaving two residents of Sderot injured. Ten others suffered from shock.[10][11][12] in

May 17 Two people died in Rafah after their vehicle was hit by a missile fired by the IAF. The two had reportedly been in the process of launching Qassam rockets. More vehicles were hit by the IAF, leaving a member of a Qassam launching cell critically injured.

A Hamas base of operations was destroyed by Israeli missile attacks, leaving one militant dead and wounding more than thirty people, including civilians. Two people in Sderot were slightly injured by one of the ten rockets that landed on Israeli territory.[13]

May 18 Five members of Hamas were killed in an airstrike on a building in northeast Gaza that served as a meeting place for Hamas members. The IDF said "it was suspected that a tunnel was being dug there into Israeli territory." Hamas stated that the missiles were fired at members standing in an olive grove. In a Qassam rocket attack on Sderot, three people were injured. Twenty rockets were fired at a kibbutzim in Sderot.[14]

 May 19 The IAF killed two members of Hamas in an airstrike on their vehicle. A third passerby later died of his injuries. An empty school and several houses in Jabalya were destroyed by artillery shells. No injuries were reported.[15]

May 20 Ten rockets were fired from Gaza with four landing in southern Israel, but there were no injuries according to an Israeli spokesman. The IAF also launched an airstrike in Gaza City killing eight people, including Hamas militiamen, and at least thirteen others were wounded. Israel claims that five of those killed were militiamen, while Hamas claims only two were. The airstrike was targeted at the house of Hamas politician, Khalil al-Haya, who was not home at the time.

A second Israeli air strike killed one civilian and wounded three others, according to Palestinian medics. A spokeswoman for Israel claims that the strike was targeting militants loading ammunition onto a truck at a location that manufactures rockets. A third air strike targeted a plant that manufactured rockets for the Islamic Jihad group, which wounded two people according to medics.

Olmert said that he will attempt a diplomatic effort with the international community to resolve the conflict. However, he has also ordered an increase in airstrikes to destroy Hamas' infrastructure, in an attempt to halt the rocket attacks.[16][17]

May 21 After an airstrike from the IAF four members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed while driving a car in Beit Lahiya. They were part of a Qassam launching cell and had just launched some Qassams into Israeli territory. An Israeli spokesman also said that Islamic Jihad members will be targeted because they participate in the Qassam firing. A workshop used in the manufacture of Qassam rockets was bombed, killing a manufacturer. A first round of five rockets was fired towards Sderot, one striking the city, two landing south of Ashkelon, and two striking western Negev. A Qassam rocket that struck Sderot killed an Israeli woman, the first fatality from a rocket attack in the country since November. Another man was moderately injured from the attack. The rocket struck a commercial center near a bakery in Sderot. Israeli civilians burned tires in the street after the attack, though the protest was interrupted by the Red Dawn rocket early-warning siren.[18] A second round of three rockets was later fired towards Israel, which landed near a kibbutz in the western Negev. A third series launched two more rockets towards Israel. No injuries were reported from these attacks.[19][20][21]

May 22 Hamas militants say they had fired several rockets towards Israel, a total of ten according to various groups.[who?] A total of seven rockets landed in western Negev, but caused no injuries. The IAF also fired missiles in an airstrike at a munitions base, and secondary explosions were reported after the strike. The airstrike wounded seven people in the attack on Jabaliya, Gaza City, according to local residents and hospital officials.[22][23][24]

May 22 Militants fired eight rockets at southern Israel, but no injuries were reported. One rocket that was fired, landed in an open area of Sderot. No injuries or damage were reported from the rocket landing. Later, two rockets hit the Sderot area, one of them inside the city. One women suffered from shock after the attack. Two more rockets landed south of Asheklon, one of which killed a horse in Kibbutz Nir Am.

The IAF conducted an airstrike on the Gaza Strip, in which they destroyed two buildings. The Israeli army said the buildings were being used to store and manufacture weapons; however, Palestinians denied these allegations. Hospital officials said seven Palestinians were wounded in the attack. Two IDF solders were wounded by gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip and were evacuated to the Barzilay Medical Center in Ashkelon. The gunfire may have came from militants, but the IDF is looking into the possibility of friendly-fire. In an uncommon move, Israeli troops entered a small village in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli army officials said that after the raid, seven Palestinians were held for questioning. Samer Qdaih, one of those held, claimed the troops threatened to crush their area if rocket fire continues. All of the detainees were later released.[citation needed] President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas had called for Hamas and other militias to halt rocket attacks against Israel. But a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that due to Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, that any ceasefire attempt by Abbas would be "worthless." Hamas said they would only consider a ceasefire if Israel stops their military operations in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.[25][22]

May 24 Israeli forces entered Nablus in the northern West Bank, under Palestinian Authority self-rule. One Palestinian cabinet member, Education Minister Naser al-Shaer, was taken in the IDF raid. The IDF also captured at least three Hamas legislators, the mayor Adly Yaish and his deputy mayor, and other Hamas officials in nearby towns and villages. Israel's Defence Minister Amir Peretz says that the arrests "...can [be used to] speed up a return to a ceasefire rather than allow the region to slide into total escalation." Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert also says he has no intention of stopping his offensive in the Gaza Strip as long as "they will not control the situation." The IAF additionally conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least five people in Gaza City and Khan Younis according to local residents. The attack in Gaza City destroyed the housing used by the Hamas Executive Force and damaged nearby buildings. Another airstrike destroyed a Hamas forces post in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported as a result of the second attack. An airstrike in Rafah destroyed a metal-working facility which the IDF says is an Islamic Jihad weapons factory. A total of nine Qassam rockets were fired from Gaza, by Palestinians, towards the Israeli western Negev. Two of the rockets landed near kibbutzim in the area of Eshkol Regional Council, and the rest landed near Sderot and the area of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. After one of the rockets landed, a fire broke out close to one of the kibbutzim. Some of these rockets landed in Israel without warning, due to a malfunction in the Red Dawn system that notifies of incoming rocket fire. In the northern Gaza Strip, a mortar was fired towards Israel. The mortar round landed near the Erez Crossing. No injuries were reported, but the structure was somewhat damaged.  Palestinian President Abbas, after meeting with a European Union envoy, described rocket attacks against Israel as "pointless and needless." However, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri[26][27][28][29] responded saying that "Rockets will be fired as long as the Zionist (Israeli) aggression against our (Palestinian) people continues."

May 25 An Israeli missile landed near the residence of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. An IDF spokeswoman said though that "Haniyeh's home definitely was not the target [of the airstrike]." The IDF said that the airstrike was on a structure used by Hamas, located in the Shati refugee camp. Local residents said that an IAF airstrike hit a van in Gaza City, killing two Hamas militants and wounding five. The IAF also conducted an air strike on a Hamas position in the central Gaza Strip, south of Gaza City, lightly wounding three, and destroying the base.[30][31][32] Seven Qassam rockets were fired towards Israel's western Negev from the Gaza Strip. The first five Qassams landed in open areas close to the southern town of Sderot and south of Ashkelon. No casualties were reported from these, though a wheat field near Sderot caught fire due to a Qassam landing.[33] Two rockets were later fired towards the Israeli town of Sderot. One of them landed near a house inside the town. This Qassam lightly wounded four people from shrapnel, and ten other nearby residents suffered from shock. The other rocket landed in Sderot's industrial area, damaging some equipment in a facility.[32]

May 26 Hamas militants considered the lenient ceasefire terms offered by Fatah, specifically Palestinian President Abbas. They said they would be willing to accept a ceasefire alone, instead of their previous demand of the end of Israeli military operations in the West Bank. Fatah said that Hamas is giving Israel until May 27 to respond to a ceasefire agreement, though Hamas said they are not completely committed to their offer. A Fatah spokesman, Abdel-Hakim Awad, said that "The next 48 hours will be decisive for determining which way the factions are going, and it will depend on Israel and whether it wants to stop its aggression." Five Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, though no people were injured. Five airstrikes early in the day wounded three people, all bystanders near the targets; at least two were in Gaza City and one in the southern Gaza Strip, all Hamas positions. The IAF launched missile attacks on a Hamas Executive Force and its armed militia housing in Gaza City. At least five Executive Force members were killed and 30 other people were wounded, according to medics.[34] The explosion also damaged a kindergarten area next-door, though no people were wounded.[35] A security facility near Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh's home was also attacked in an airstrike. Another round of airstrikes in Gaza targeted buildings used by Hamas, wounding eight bystanders. The Palestinian Minister of State, Wasfi Kabha of Hamas, was arrested in an Israeli raid on his village close to the West Bank city of Jenin. An aide to the Palestinian President Abbas, Saeb Erekat, said that "We have urged the U.S. and the EU to intervene to release the ministers and lawmakers [...] This step does not help to achieve calm (attempts at a ceasefire)." Two Palestinian gunmen shot an Israeli police officer and security guard at the Israeli West Bank barrier on the Jerusalem border, and were killed by return fire. Two Israeli officers were wounded along with a Palestinian bystander, who the police say was hit by the Palestinian fire. No Palestinian militias have claimed responsibility for the attack. In response to the attack, Israeli police raised their alert status to the highest level possible without declaring an emergency. Dozens of IDF soldiers also raided villages south of Jerusalem, close to Bethlehem, in an attempt to find militants.[35][36][37] A spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed militia of Hamas, now warns that if Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh or any other senior Hamas official is harmed by Israel that there will be a "earth-shattering" response. This response included a threat that Israel will never see Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier whose abduction sparked the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict, and that "Suicide bombings in Israel are just a matter of time and proper condition…we can fire rockets even beyond Ashkelon, and we will resume the suicide bombing and kidnappings."[38]

May 27 Two Qassam rockets landed in Israel. One in Sderot killed a man and wounded another, and other residents suffered from shock. The Qassam hit the street, it caused shrapnel to hit the man's car, and he crashed into a wall. He got out of the car, but died of his wounds at Barzilay Medical Center in Ashkelon. Another Qassam later hit Sderot injuring one Israeli civilian.

The IAF launched airstrikes on posts belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. One strike targeted a Hamas charity building in Beit Hanoun and the other a Hamas executive force position in Jabalya, according to Hamas officials and other witnesses. A third airstrike was reported in the city of Beit Lahiya. No casualties were reported from the strikes.[39][40]

[edit] May 28

Seven rockets struck Sderot in southern Israel, but no injuries are reported. A senior Hamas militant was arrested in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.[41]

[edit] May 30

The IAF made an air strike targeting a "group of armed terrorists," near the Jabalya refugee camp, an IDF spokeswoman said. Two members of the Hamas militia were killed, several bystanders were wounded, and a house was damaged.

In the West Bank, the IDF arrested the mayor of a small town near the city of Nablus.[42]

Six Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit western Negev. One rocket hit a power line and an apartment building in Sderot. Some residents experienced and were treated for shock after the attack. The Qassam also caused a temporary blackout in some parts of the city, because of the hit on the power line. Another apartment building was hit, causing six people to experience shock, though no people were inside at the time. The latter had a claim of responsibility by the militia of the Popular Resistance Committees.[43]

[edit] May 31

The IAF made two air strikes on a rocket launching site and on militants in the Gaza Strip, injuring two Palestinians. Militants in the Gaza Strip fired three Qassam rockets into Israel, but caused no injuries.[44]

[edit] June 2007

[edit] June 1

The IDF killed two young Palestinians in the northern end of the Gaza Strip, after their location was hit with a shell, near Dugit, close to Israel. An IDF spokesman said that troops also saw people trying to plant an object on the border fence of the Israel-Gaza border, killing two other Palestinians. The spokesman also said that the IDF shot at three people, two which were evacuated by Palestinian ambulances. Also, a top Islamic Jihad militant, Fadi Abu Mustafa, riding on a motorcycle, near Khan Younis, was killed after an IAF air strike. An earlier strike on rocket launchers caused no casualties.

Four Qassam rockets were fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. Two of the rockets landed near a Negev kibbutz, causing some damage to a garage. Another rocket hit a kibbutz south of Ashkelon, causing serious damage to a warehouse. The fourth rocket did not reach Israel, and fell to the ground inside the Gaza Strip.[45][46]

[edit] June 2

The IDF killed two Palestinian waste collectors near a garbage dump in close proximity to the Gaza border fence. In Nabulus, West Bank, the IDF destroyed cement barriers in the city, which were being used to prevent IDF vehicles from moving through the streets. According to the acting mayor of Nabulus, Nihad Masri, several people were wounded in the attack. IDF soldiers also arrested four brothers in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, though their affiliation is unknown. The IDF also arrested four people in the Gaza Strip, stating they fired rockets into Israel. They were later released.[47]

[edit] June 3

Four IDF soldiers were injured, one moderately and three lightly, near the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. They were hurt after 3 mortar rounds hit their location, which Hamas says they are responsible for. The injured soldiers, and six who suffered shock, were evacuated to Barzilay Medical Center in Ashkelon. Two other mortar shells landed in other areas of the Gaza Strip.Report: IDF kills Fatah member in Jenin

Also an armed Palestinian, according to some sources a member of the Fatah militia, was shot and killed by the IDF. The IDF reports that Palestinian gunmen first fired and threw an explosiveJenin in the West Bank. None of the troops were injured.[48] at soldiers, during an operation in the city of

[edit] June 5

The IDF pulled out of the Gaza Strip, after an offensive two kilometers inside the Israel-Gaza border. Several Palestinians were detained by the IDF and were transferred to Israel for questioning.[49]

Two Qassam rockets were fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. One landed near Sderot and one landed inside the Gaza Strip, neither caused injuries.[50]

[edit] June 6

The IAF fired at two armed Palestinians, affiliated with Hamas, trying to plant an explosive device in Jabalya. The air strike killed one and wounded the other.[51]An elderly Palestinian experienced a raid on his home in Hebron, by the IDF, during the arrest of other men in this home. One soldier and three other Palestinians were wounded.[52]

Hamas fired eight mortar shells at the Erez Crossing, damaging the site, and causing a fire on the Gaza side of the border. Two Israeli trauma centers were opened in southern Israel near Gaza.[53]

[edit] June 12

Main article: Battle of Gaza (2007)

Hamas gained control over northern Gaza after fighting with Fatah Preventive Security ServiceBeit Hanoun. Four Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded. Hamas also takes control of central refugee camps, Bureij, Nuseirat and Maghazi with virtually no fighting with Fatah.[54] forces in the city of

[edit] June 13

Hamas destroys Fatah Preventive Security Forces' headquarters in Khan Yunis, killing five Palestinians.

[edit] June 14

Hamas forces seize and loot Abbas' presidential compound and Fatah Preventive Security Forces' headquarters in Gaza City. Other major security and intelligence compounds are also captured, finalizing Hamas' control over Gaza City. To the south, Rafah falls into Hamas control with minimal casualties. After controlling the majority of the Gaza Strip's cities and refugee camps, Hamas takes control over the main north-south road as well as the coastal road and southern border with Egypt.

[edit] June 27

Israel launches ground raids on Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Israeli tanks moved into Gaza and clashed militants there. Nine Palestinians were killed, of them two were civilians who died after an attack at house in the city. In Khan Yunis, two Islamic Jihad members were killed in clashes with Israeli Defense Forces and a Hamas militant was killed after mishandling explosives. Also this attack was one of the most deadly attack of this conflict

[edit] July 2007

[edit] July 1

During a raid in Jenin, the IDF kills a top commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,Muhammad el-Haija . He was considered to be second in command in Jenin, after the Brigades commander Zakaria Zubeidia. 6 other militants were detained by the IDF in the West Bank.[55]

[edit] July 5

IDF forces raided central Gaza, searching for weapons caches and smuggling tunnels, but met fierce resistance from Palestinian militants, especially Hamas. IDF forces noticed a large amount of Palestinian militants, and shot at them. Palestinians responded with gunfire, anti-tank missiles, explosive devices and mines. IDF now used bulldozers, tanks and choppers to fight the militants. At one point IAF jets joined the fight. In the clash, 11 Palestinian militants were killed, including nine from Hamas and one from Islamic Jihad. More than 20 people were wounded, including a Hamas cameraman and two Israeli soldiers. One of the killed was Mohammed Siam, a local commander.[56]

Three mortars and two Qassams were fired into Israel, causing no damage and injures. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility.

[edit] July 7

In an IDF operation in Gaza, seven Qassamrocket launchers were noticed. All were destroyed by the IDF. Some were detonated with a timer.

[edit] July 8

Five Qassamrockets were fired into Israel. Four landed in open areas, but one landed near a college in Sderot. Nobody was injured. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

[edit] July 9

A Palestinian militant, Mohammed Nazal, 24, is killed by IDF forces in an ambush near Jenin. He was a member of the Islamic Jihad, Palestinian sources confirmed.

Three Qassams are fired into Israel, causing damage but no injuries. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.[57]

[edit] July 10

Eleven mortars are fired into Israeli territory in three separate barrages. Two buildings contained damage, but there were no casualties. One mortar landed near the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.[58]

[edit] July 12

A soldier, Arbel Reich (21), is killed in Central Gaza in an ambush. IDF soldiers, together with tanks and bulldozers entered the area and when they entered the al-Bureij refugeecamp, they were ambushed by Hamas militiamen with a burst of machinegunfire and RPG rockets. Two other IDF soldiers were wounded. Two Palestinian militants were wounded by an IAF airstrike in the same area.

Despite the presence of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad managed to fire a Qassamrocket to Sderot. Nobody was injured.

An Palestinian man armed with an AK-47 and an explosive belt is killed in Tulkarem. The man drove with his car to a checkpoint and began shooting at the checkpoint with his Kalashnikov. He had The soldiers returned fire, killing the Palestinian. No militant group claimed responsibility.[59][60]

[edit] July 19

A Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday hit a home in the city of Sderot. Seven people suffering from shock were taken to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A number of buildings were damaged in the strike.[61]

[edit] July 22

Israeli aircraft killed two members of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The airstrike was a retaliation for the Qassams fired on Saturdayevening, which landed in the Negev, causing some damage. Islamic Jihad confirmed two of its militants were killed in the attack while launching rockets, carried out by a chopper.

Two Hamasmilitants are killed near the border fence while trying to plant explosive devices. They were spotted and killed by gunfire by Israeli soldiers. Hamas confirmed the dead of the two men. They were known as Mustafa Abbas en Mohammed Marouf.[62]

[edit] July 26

During a groundoperation in the Gaza Strip, the IAF was called in and spotted Hamas militants near IDF soldiers in Southern Gaza. Tankfire then killed a Hamas militant who was holding a RPG in his hands, Palestinian sources said. The IDF said the missile was fired by a helicopter. The killed was known as Sharif al-Baraeis (35), member of the Iz-ad-Din al Qassam brigades.[63]

More than ten mortars and Qassamrockets are fired at Israel this week, causing some damage and three injured.[64]

An Israeli airstrike south of Gaza City killed three Islamic Jihad men traveling in a car. One of the dead was Omar Khatib, who headed the group's military wing in the Gaza Strip. The other two were known as Khalil Daifi and Ahmed Abd Al-el. After the fight, Islamic Jihad members tried to retrieve items in the burnt car, but Hamas gunmen refused them to enter the scene. A firefight erupted, wounding four Palestinians.[65]

Israeli troops struck and killed a Palestinian who tried to stab a soldier. The man's family said he later died of his wounds and that he was mentally ill.[66]

Six Palestinians were wounded by airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in two separate events.[67]

[edit] July 28

Two al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants were killed while planting a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border after ignoring warning fire to leave the area.[68][69]

[edit] August 2007

[edit] August 1

A Hamas operative and a Popular Resistance Committees militant are killed in Beit Lahiya. The two were spotted by Israeli soldiers operating in the area in search for Qassamrockets and their launchers. In the firefight an antitank missile was fired at Israeli soldiers, causing no injuries. Hamas and PRC confirmed its men were fighting Israeli soldiers in Beit Lahiya.[70]

Four Qassamrockets are fired into Israel, causing some damage.

[edit] August 4

An Islamic Jihad commander, Raad Abu el-Adas, is killed by Israeli forces near his home in Nablus. IDF troops were already looking for him and when they encircled his house he decided to flee through a window, while another Islamic Jihad member fired at troops who were storming the house. The other member was wounded in the battle.

Three Qassamrockets are fired at Sderot, causing three injured people.[71]

[edit] August 5

An IDF officer was lightly injured in an operation in the Nablus area after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the force. Eight wanted Palestinian terror suspects were arrested across the West Bank on Sunday night. Three were detained in Nablus and the other five were arrested near Ramallah and in Hebron.

[edit] August 6

An IDF force operating in the West Bank on Monday morning uncovered an explosive device weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds), which was hidden inside the corpse of a sheep. The soldiers were led to the device by a Palestinian militant who was arrested and questioned by the defense establishment.[72]

A rocket launched from northern Gaza landed in a kindergarten schoolyard in Sderot, moments after the completion of a Monday afternoon meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, took credit for the attack, which caused damaged to nearby buildings, including two other kindergartens and a public elementary school. The Color Red system was activated.[73]

[edit] August 7

Two Hamas gunman are killed in the Gaza Strip. They were spotted near the Karni Crossing by soldiers outside the strip. The soldiers entered the Strip, exchanged gunfire and killed them.[74]

A Israeli soldier is lightly injured by an explosive device thrown at IDF forces by a Palestinian in Nablus.

[edit] August 9

IDF soldiers killed a Palestinian near the Suffa crossing in southern Gaza on Thursday afternoon. The army said soldiers had spotted the man crawling near the border fence. Suspecting he was planting a bomb, they called on him to stop and shot in the air. When he continued moving, they fired at him. Palestinian medics brought his body to a hospital in Gaza and said they did not find weapons near his body.[75]

[edit] August 10

A security guard at the Ateret Kohanim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem shot and killed a Palestinian man who snatched the weapon of another guard and used it to wound him. Eleven people were wounded in the shooting, including the guard, who was moderately hurt.[76]

[edit] August 17

A clash in the West Bank village of Kfar Dan leaves two Palestinians dead. The clash began when IDF forces entered the village were members of the Islamic Jihad an Fatah were hiding. After they were spotted, a firefight followed. A 16-year-old boy, Nur Mare'i, and a Palestinian gunman, Muhammad Darwish, of the tiny Abu Amar Brigades, linked with Fatah were killed with no casualties on Israeli side. [77]

An IDF soldier was lightly injured when an explosive device is hurled at his jeep in Nablus. The militant managed to escape.

In a rocket barrage, three Qassams and thirteen mortars are fired into Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. No casualties or damage was reported.[78]

A tunnel in Gaza, recently discovered by the IDF had been blown up. The 700-meter-long tunnel was made for terrorist activities, the IDF said. Palestinians said the tunnel was made to carry tomatoes.

[edit] August 18

Israeli forces shot three Palestinians near the border fence The army said they repeatedly ordered them to leave the area. One of them died, the other two were wounded. It is not sure if they were armed or unarmed.

Five Palestinian infiltrators are caught and brought back into Gaza. Apparently they were looking for work, because they were unarmed.[79]

[edit] August 20

Six Palestinians, all members of the armed wing of Hamas were killed when their vehicle was blown up by an Israeli missile. The Palestinians were driving back after they had fired some Qassams and mortars into Israeli territory.[80]

[edit] August 21

A Palestinian gunman from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus. The militant opened fire at Israeli forces operating the area, but was killed when IDF soldiers returned fire.[81]

Three Palestinians were killed near the Gaza border fence. The Palestinians were armed with sniper rifles, the IDF added. Palestinian sources haven confirmed the death of the men.[82]

Two Qassams were fired into Israel, one hitting a kindergarten, injuring and shocking some people.

[edit] August 22

In an airstrike in Northern Gaza, the IAF kills a top commander of Hamas, Yehia Habib in an airstrike. Two other members were wounded, one seriously.

In a fierce clash between the IDF and Islamic Jihad, three members of Islamic Jihad are killed by the IDF. Two children were caught in the crossfire and also killed. The IDF said they traced two men near a rocket launcher in Gaza. It is known that militant groups give children some money to collect the rocket launchers spokesman of Islamic Jihad said the man were on a mission against Israel.[83]

A Qassam is fired into Israel.

[edit] August 23

Islamic Jihad fired seven Qassamrockets into Israeli territory, causing some damage. A woman was treated for shock.

Three Israeli soldiers were lightly injured by explosive devices thrown by militant Palestinians in Nablus.

Four Hamas fighters were wounded in an aerial assault by the IAF.[84]

[edit] August 24

An 11-year-old boy was killed in the crossfire between Palestinian militants and the IDF. The IDF entered the Kfar Saidi village in the West Bank looking for wanted men, when they were attacked by militants. In the gunfight, the boy and an Islamic Jihad fighter were killed. A second IJ fighter was seriously injured and captured by Israeli forces. On Israeli side there were no casualties.[85]

Two Palestinian militants were using the morning fog to get unnoticed over the borderfence but were sensed by IDF soldiers. In the firefight the two, Khadar Oukel (20), from the Salah-ad-Din brigades the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees and Muhammad Sakar (22) of the National Resistance committees, the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine were killed while lightly injuring an IDF soldier.[86]

[edit] August 25

A senior commander of the Al Quds brigades in Jenin, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was killed when undercover forces opened fire on his vehicle, loaded with other PIJ militants. Another militant was seriously wounded in the raid.[87]

The militant wounded earlier this day, has succumbed to his wounds, Palestinian medical sources said.[88]

[edit] August 27

A Palestinian man was killed by IDF fire near the Gaza borderfence. He was unarmed. Palestinian sources said he was a farmer. IDF sources said the soldiers suspected the man tried to lay explosive devices near the border.[89]

A Qassamrocket was fired into Israeli territory. The launcher was minutes later destroyed by an Israeli missile.

An IDF major driving in the West Bank occasionally took the wrong turn, and drove to the Palestinian city of Jenin, instead of a settlement. The uniformed major was sensed by a mob and his car was burnt. Islamic Jihad militants tried to kidnap the officer, but were halted by Preventive Securityforces, who protected the major and called in nearby IDF forces for help.[90]

[edit] August 28

A Sderot resident is moderately injured by shrapnel from a Qassamrocket which fell on his house in his bedroom. The rest of the family was hiding in the bomb shelter after the Color Red system was activated. the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. 7 other Qassams are fired today, causing only some damage and two people shocked.[91]

[edit] August 29

Four Qassamrockets are fired into Israel.

Three Palestinian children are killed by artillery shells in the Gaza Strip, between Beit Lahiya and Jabalya. The IDF targeted five rocketlaunchers in Beit Hanoun. The three members were all member of the same family. Palestinians believed Israel wanted to target a militant cell.[92]

[edit] August 30

An elite Israel Defense Forces paratrooper unit shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian militant in Nablus' Old City early Friday. The militant, who belonged to a cell that operated jointly under Fatah's military wing—the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades—and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Three Qassam rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck open areas in the western Negev. There was no damage or injuries in either of the attacks.[93]

[edit] September 2007

[edit] September 6

Four Hamas militants were killed in an army operation in Southern Gaza. The four were hit by a tankshell which exploded near to them, Palestinian sources said. The IDF said the militants approached them but soldiers spotted them in time, causing a burst of Israeli gunfire, causing the deaths. Ten more militants were wounded, either by gunfire or tankshells.

IDF soldiers foiled a terror attack near the Gazan border. Two cars, filled with 6 heavily armed Palestinian militants were driving to the fence with automatic rifles, grenades, RPG's, suicide belts and TNT. IDF soldiers noticed the cars came with high speed to the fence and fired at them. IAF planes also fired at the vehicle. Palestinian reports say the vehicles made it into Israeli territory, sparking a heavy gunbattle in which all 6 militants were killed. Israeli reports said the vehicles did not make it into Israeli territory and that the militants were killed inside Gazan territory. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, claiming they had both 3 members involved.

An IDF soldier is lightly injured by mortars near the Gaza fence.[94]

[edit] September 10

Two Qassamrockets are fired at the Zikim Army Base in Israel near the Gazan Border. One of them lands safely in the Negev, but the other lands near unfortified barracks at the base where Israeli recruits were sleeping. Sixty-nine soldiers were wounded by the rocket, 60+ of them had only lightly-to moderately shrapnel wounds, but four of them were injured seriously. One of the four had to have his leg amputated and another one is still in critical condition. Both Islamic Jihad and PRC claimed responsibility. Despite Hamas wasn't responsible, they called the act a "Victory from God."[95][96]

In retaliation, Israeli choppers flew over the Strip, firing missiles at militant bases, wounding four Islamic Jihad members.

[edit] September 16

During an operation in the Nablus area, Israeli soldiers fired at two armed members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, killing both of them.[97]

[edit] September 18

In Hebron, two Palestinian families were fighting with each other, using sticks and stones, but also firing bullets near the settlement, causing an IDF patrol. In the patrol, a Palestinian family and the IDF clashed in a gunbattle, leaving one Palestinian dead, Baha al-Ajlouni, 27.

IDF forces shot and killed Yusuf al-A'achi, a gunman from Hamas in the Nablus area in the refugeecamp near Nablus.

Four Qassams rained down on Israeli Gaza border communities today. Nobody claimed responsibility.[98]

In another clash in the refugeecamp, an IDF soldier Ben-Zion Haim Henman, 21, was killed by an explosive device hurled towards him. His comrade was lightly injured by shrapnel. The IDF forces were targeting a PFLP cell. One of the members of the cell, Muhammad Halad, critically injuring him. He succumbed 15 minutes later to his wounds.[99]

[edit] September 19

Israel declared the Gaza Strip as an enemy entity, declaring that it would reduce its fuel and power supplies to the Hamas-run territory in response to continued rocket fire from Palestinian militants. The announcement coincides with a visit from United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [100]

[edit] September 26

Hours after militants launched more than twelve rockets and twenty mortar shells at Sderot, missiles hit a jeep as it crossed a crowded intersection in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing at least five members of the Army of Islam. The army said the jeep was carrying rockets ready for firing.

Palestinian security officials seized two homemade rockets, a possible sign that the attack techniques of Gaza militants are spreading. The projectiles, not yet fitted with explosives, were discovered in Bethlehem and handed over to the Israeli army.[101]

In Beit Hanoun, a Popular Resistance Committees gunman fired at Israeli troops. Troops fired back at his home, killing him and 3 other occupants who were non-combatants, according to witnesses. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report.[102]

September 27 A Qassam launching cell was spotted in the area while Hamas militants were preparing to fire another Qassamrocket. Soldiers opened fire and killed one of them, the rest was able to flee. Military sources said they would keep the pressure on the launching cells the coming days. [103]

October 2007

October 1 Two Palestinian gunmen, who were advancing to the Israeli Gaza border fence overnight opened fire and threw a handgrenade at Israeli soldiers. The soldiers, who were outnumbering the gunman heavily returned fire and killed both the gunmen. Both the gunman belonged to the military wing of Hamas.[104]

October 3 In an operation in Southern Gaza, in Rafah, IDF aimed to destroy Hamas infrastructure, two Palestinian gunman were injured critically by a missile. One of them, Muhammad Hassan, succumbed later to his wounds and died. Both the gunmen were member of the armed wing of Hamas.

In Khan Younis, a Palestinian, Said al-Amur, is killed by IDF gunfire who were operating in the area. It is not known whether he was armed.

A Hamas member is killed while digging a tunnel under the Erez Crossing. The tunnel collapsed while he was inside.

October 4  In the West Bank on Thursday night, Palestinians opened fire and hurled Molotov cocktails on IDF troops patrolling the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. No injuries were reported. In Hebron, an explosive device was also detonated next to a police car.

October 5 A Palestinian militant near the Israel-Gaza border fence fired at IDF troops after they identified him, and IDF troops returned fire and killed him. A bomb was thrown at the troops, but none were wounded in the exchange.[105][106]

October 7 After six weeks of being hospitalized in an Israeli hospital, a Palestinian civilian of Jenin dies of his wounds inflicted by IDF fire. [107]

In a rocket barrage fired by Palestinian militants, eight mortar shells, three Qassamrockets and one Katushya rocket landed inside Israeli territory. One studio was completely burned down by a mortar shell in Kerem Shalom. The Katushya rocket landed 400 meters from Netivot, 11 km away from the Gaza Strip. It was the first rocket to hit the Netivot area. Last week ten Qassamrockets and 20 mortars hit the Negev. Nobody was injured in the attacks.[108]

October 10 A member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is killed in the old part of Nablus by IDF troops operating in the area. Another member of AAMB was critically injured. Amar al-Anabusi was shot to death and Sufian Kandil, a prominent group member, was severely injured.[109][110]

October 11 Israeli Special Forces, operating in Jenin opened fire at a vehicle conducting Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members. IDF troops and Border Police killed a senior Tanzim member in Jenin overnight Wednesday, the IDF said. The target was identified as Mohammed Abu-Srur. Another militant was injured and arrested. The target, who had been planning to carry out terror attacks in Israel in the near future, aimed a pistol at the soldiers, who then shot and killed him. However, Palestinian officials said the man killed was a Palestinian policeman driving a wanted terror suspect. They said the Islamic Jihad operative he was driving escaped unharmed despite efforts by undercover soldiers dressed in civilian clothes.

October 13 Israeli aircraft fired at a group of militants busy launching Qassamrockets near Beit Hanoun. The explosion killed one militant and injured three more. All the militants belonged to Hamas.[111]

October 16 Two Palestinians were killed in a battle in the old quarter of Nablus a Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade stronghold. IDF forces, operating in the area and were looking for wanted Palestinian militants. While detaining Palestinians, a small firefight erupted leaving one Palestinian militant, a local commander dead and two others wounded. A civilian was also killed as he ran out his house but was lethally hit by a bullet. It is not sure whether the bullet was shot by an Israeli or Palestinian. [112]

October 17  In a gunbattle in Khan Younis, a IDF soldier from the Golani forces is killed by single bullet. Dragged away from the battle injured, he died in an ambulance driving to the hospital in Beer Sheva. A Palestinian militant was killed by a tank shell in the same battle. 4 other militants and 2 civilians were injured in the battle. Hamas confirmed one of its fighters died, Hazam Asfor (20).[113]

October 19  An Islamic Jihad member and a fisherman are killed by the Israeli navy on their vessel. The Islamic Jihad militant was known as Mizar Abu Arab.[114]

October 22  IDF undercover elite forces dressed in civilian clothes killed two Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Jenin. The two were killed during an arrest raid, when they were about to be arrested they grabbed their guns but were killed in the firefight. An Israeli soldier was lightly injured by the two militants. They were known as Tarek Abu Ali and Khaled Houssein.

More than fifteen Qassamrockets are fired into Israel on October 21 and 22, according to the IDF.[115]

October 23   A PRC commander of Qassam launching cells is killed by an IAF airstrike in the Strip. He was known as Mubarak al Hassanat and was an official in the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip. He was the main target of the airstrike, because of the large role of the PRC in the launching of mortars and Qassams on Israel.[116] Following the death of al Hassanat, eleven Qassamrockets and eight mortars hit the Negev.[117]

October 24   After a rocketbarrage on the Western Negev, with five Qassamrockets and several mortars, IAF planes circled above the Gaza strip, looking for launching cells. One of the planes found a launching cell and fired a missile at the five militants. Two were killed and three injured. All were members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. None of the rockets inflicted injuries, although a house was burnt down and two people suffered from shock in Sderot.[118]

October 25   IDF soldiers spotted two Hamas gunman near the fence. The reserve soldiers opened fire on them and killed both gunmen. Ten Qassamrockets are launched causing no injuries nor damage.[119][120]

An Islamic Jihad operative is killed while trying to plant explosive devices near the border fence. His comrade was nabbed and taken away for custody. It was further reported that the two were identified at Mohamed al-Khourdi, 20, and Mahmoud al-Abed, 24.[121]

October 26 Two armed gunman near the northern border are spotted by a unit of Golani soldiers, who were operating inside the Gaza strip. In the following firefight the gunman were killed, and two soldiers were lightly injured by the Palestinians. After the attack, two Qassamrockets were fired into Israel, causing neither damage nor injuries. In the Southern Strip, an Islamic Jihad gunman is taken under fire by a unit of reserve soldiers. The gunman immediately died. A Hamas militant is killed by an IAF aerial attack. Another militant was seriously injured by the attack. Hamas said the airstrike happened near Gaza city.[122] Seven Qassamrockets are fired into Israel. One woman in Sderot suffers from shock.[123]

October 28 An IDF soldier of the reserve unit is killed in battle. Ehud Efrati was killed in the Gaza strip near the border fence in a fierce clash with Palestinian gunman. It happened near the Sufa Crossing. The unit was surprised by a Palestinian ambush. 2 other soldiers were injured. A Palestinian of the Hamas branch was also killed. He was known as Mohammed Abu-Tahoon. IDF said they shot another Palestinian, but did not know his condition. Near Beit Hanoun, Palestinians fired an anti tank rocket at Israeli soldiers, seriously wounding a soldier. The militants were tracked by choppers and were taken under fire by a missile. A Palestinian gunman and a civilian died. During the operation, Palestinian gunman shelled a house were Israeli soldiers had sought shelter, leaving several soldiers lightly injured. In the West Bank, a soldier was moderately injured by Palestinian gunfire.[124][125]

October 30 After a barrage of mortar shells, the IAF shelled a policebuilding of Hamas in the Abasan village. Four Hamas militants died in the attack. After four Qassams are fired into Israel, IDF soldiers entered the strip and targeted a launching cell, but missed them. The missile slammed into a residence, injuring six Palestinian civilians.

October 31 Mahmoud al Hajj is killed by IDF forces operating in the central Gaza Strip. He was killed in a gunbattle near the border fence. Israeli forces often operate near the border fence in the Strip, trying to prevent Palestinian attacks and rocketattacks.

Eight mortars were fired into Israel. Some of them were fired from a schoolyard. The IAF had them in sight, but could fire, an IDF statement reported.[126][127]

November 2007

November 1 Two Hamas militants were spotted near the Northern Gazan border fence and were killed by Israeli soldiers. An armed Palestinian was noticed near the Karni Crossing. Golani soldiers rushed in the Gaza Strip and killed the militant. In an unprecedented rocket barrage, eight mortars and thirteen Qassamrockets are fired at the Western Negev within an hour.[128][129]

November 3 An Israeli aircraft targets a Hamas policestation run by the Executive Force, killing one Hamas militant. Two other were injured in the Southern Gaza aerial attack.[130]

November 4 Three Qassams are fired into Israel causing a blackout. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Shortly after the firing, Israeli choppers and planes flew over the strip, targeting a launching and fired several missiles at the cell. Three Palestinians were killed in the attack, and several others wounded. Palestinian doctors said all civilians, while Islamic Jihad said one of its members was killed and another clinically dead. In a second strike, minutes later, IAF fired missiles at another launching squad, according to the IDF. Two Palestinians died.[131][132]

November 15 Two Qassam launchers, two members of the Fatah affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are killed by an IAF attack while launching Qassams.[133]

Novermber 20 An Israeli resident of the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron is killed by Palestinians while driving in his car. Ivo Zoldan, 29, died in the ambulance. The militants were able to flee the scene. A small offshoot of Fatah clamied responsibility.[134] Three Palestinian militants tried to enter Israel by sneaking over the fence by night. They were spotted by Israeli forces, and two of them were killed. A third was able to flee into Gaza. In the Southern Strip, two militants tried to plant explosives at the fence but were noticed. Both were killed in the ensuing firefight by the IDF.

November 21 A rocket barrage of five Qassamrockets and eighteen mortars hit the Western Negev, including several kibbutzim, Sderot and Ashekelon. A woman in Ashkelon was treated for shock.[135][136]

November 24 Two brothers, both in their forties, are killed while acting suspicious near the Israel-Gaza fence. Later, it becomes obvious that the two civilians were killed while looking for scrap metal. They were hit by an artillery shell, meant for Qassam rocket launchers.[137]

November 25  The IDF kills two Palestinian gunman in a clash in central Gaza near the border. Some militants came together several hundred meters from the fence, sparking an Israeli incursion in Gaza. A gunbattle followed, leaving two militants dead. Both belonged to the PIJ faction.[137][138] A highly ranked commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is killed after Border Guard forces in the area tried to nab him. Another militant was wounded in the attack. The IDF operation came after AAMB killed an Israeli settler last week.[139]

November 26 A Hamas operative is killed as he and his cell were launching Qassams at Sderot. Three Qassams landed inside Israeli territory, causing an IAF attack at the launchers, killing one and injuring four more. Two Hamas militants are killed as they approach the border to plant explosive devices. They were noticed before they could plant them.[140]

November 27 The IDF killed two Hamas militants overnight.[141] IAF helicopters and planes bombed a Hamas post in Southern Gaza, after the militant group had fired at least 10 mortars into Israeli territory. A Hamas militant, who was inside the building when the planes attacked was killed in the blasts.[142][143]

November 28 Two Hamas militants are killed when the IAF fired a missile at two heavily armed militants, who were talking with each other, not far from the border. Two more Hamas militants are killed when they were noticed while trying to plant a bomb at the fence by IDF soldiers. In the ensuing firefight they were killed. Both the incidents happened in the dark. [144]

December 2007

December 1 Five Hamas militants are killed in two separate airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. After the strikes, Hamas threatened to strike deep into Israeli territory and to fire longer-range missiles. A Palestinian gunman is killed, while crawling near the border. Three other gunman were wounded.[145]

December 2 A mortar barrage hits a kibbutz, causing some damage.

December 3 A Hamas militant is slain after a battle with the Golani corps. The militant crawled to the border, but was noticed by IDF forces. Three more Hamas fighters are killed while trying to launch mortars near Beit Lahiya. They were killed by Armored Corps soldiers. Four IDF soldiers are hurt as a mortar explodes near their base, in Nahal Oz.

December 4 Three Hamas militants are killed as their training base was attacked in Deir el Balah by the IAF. The attack came after some mortars hit the Western Negev. Hamas claimed to fire back at the planes with machine guns, perhaps causing some damage. A Palestinian gunman is killed while trying to reach the Kissufim crossing, as IDF forces noticed him. A Negev home is accidentally hit by an Israeli bullet, but no one was injured. Later, IDF denied it had fired a bullet at Israeli territory. After investigation it became clear that the bullet was fired from the Gaza Strip, with a sniper rifle.[146]

December 5 Three Hamas militants are overnight killed while launching mortars at Sderot. One of the mortars hit a residential building, causing a woman in shock and a lot of damage.[147] A militant is killed by IDF fire. Israeli undercoverforces were operating in Bethlehem and looking for wanted Palestinians. Milliant forces mistook them for Hamas gunman and opened fire at the soldiers. The soldiers returned fire, killing an officer and wounding another.[148]

December 6 A Palestinian farmer is accidentily killed by IDF fire. He was acting on his fields near the border.

December 11 In a huge operation inside the Gaza Strip, the biggest since the Hamas take-over in June, six Palestinians were killed and more than 60 detained. More than 30 tanks and bulldozers entered the Southern Gaza Strip, backed by helicopters and airplanes. Three militants of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed by an Israeli tankshell, while missiles killed two other gunman, it was not immediately clear to what faction they belonged. Four Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian gunman, who fired several RPG missiles at the Israeli soldiers.[149]

December 12  The day after the operation, about 20 Qassams were lobbed into Israel, causing three lightly injured Israeli civilians. Fifteen people were treated for shock.

December 13 Two more Qassams are fired into Israel, causing a moderately injured woman in Sderot. Palestinians fired at Israeli farmers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, causing no injuries. Hours after the strike, Israel retalliated with an airstrike in the Gaza Strip, causing three deaths. IDF and Palestinian medics both confirmed all the deaths were militants. Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed they lost three of their men, but medics said the three belonged to the small Fatah offshoot which fired two Qassamrockets into Israel hours earlier. Later it became clear, that a top commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Tafesh was killed, together with two members of the launching rocket squad of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.[150]

[December 16 Shrapnel from a rocket lightly to moderately wounds a 2-year-old boy. His mother is treated for shock. The rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Kibbutz Zikim.[151]

December 18 Three Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants are killed in two separate airstrikes, some high ranked commanders were among the killed. In the first attack, the target was top commander, and the chief for firing Qassam rockets in the Strip, Majed al Harazin. He and two other PIJ militants were driving in a vehicle, loaded with Qassam and mortars. All men inside the car died. According to a spokesman of the PIJ, Harazin was the chief of the PIJ Qassam squads and hadn't traveled for years because he feared an assassination. He was wanted for nine years. The spokesman said his death would be revenged with suicide attacks and more rockets.

The second airstrike was aimed at a cell of PIJ militants who were trying to fire Qassam rockets into Israeli territory, to retaliate the death of their comrades. Two people died, and a second was seriously wounded. Later it became clear that one of the death was a top Qassam fabricater and commander, known as Karim Dahdouh.

Despite the air attacks, militants of all groups were able to fire at least fifteen Qassamrockets and mortars, causing only some damage.

In order to halt the rocket firing, IDF forces entered the strip looking for launching cells, but met fierce restistance from gunman in Jabalya. In the camp, four militants of the PIJ were killed in a fierce battle.

Another highly ranked commander from the PIJ was killed in the West Bank, Katabya. Tarik Abu al Ra-ali was killed when IDF soldiers noticed him. He was wanted for over five years.

In an airstrike at a Hamas post in Southern Gaza, two Hamas militants were killed.[152][153] A mortar shell lands near an IDF base north of the Gaza Strip overnight Tuesday, and six female soldiers are reported to have suffered from shock. One of the soldiers fainted.[154][155] A commando operation in the West Bank leaves an Islamic Jihad gunman dead.[156] Palestinians hurl rocks at the car of a civilian driver on route 443, which runs from Jerusalem to Modi'in. The man was driving a minibus used for the transport of handicapped children, and was treated for light injuries. IDF forces fire and identify hitting Sami salid Rashid Zayud, an Islamic Jihad militant who planned a mass terror attack on a residential building in central Israel five years ago. He was taken to hospital for medical treatment. A Palestinian, 17, tried to stab one of the Israel Defense Forces soldiers stationed at the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank.[157]

December 20 Five Qassam rockets struck Israel at open areas near Sderot and Ashkelon. One of the rockets landed in a schoolyard in Sderot, where twelve pupils had to be treated for shock. The Code Red alert was alarmed and children ran to shelter to protect them from shrapnel. After the barrage, Israeli forces entered the Central Gaza Strip in search for rocket launchers, killing six Palestinians. Palestinian gunmen launched mortar shells at troops and fired at Israeli aircraft with machine guns as Israeli snipers took up positions on the roofs of homes in the area. 3 militants were from Islamic Jihad, two from Hamas, and one from the Popular Resistance Committees. Twenty Palestinians were wounded, as well as a cameraman from Reuters. A Palestinian anti-tank rocket severely injures an Israeli soldier. At least three other soldiers are lightly wounded.[158][159][160][161][162][163]

December 25 Two Hamas militants are killed in their vehicle as Israeli airplanes dropped a missile at their car. Four men were in the car, and two survived. It happened near the al Bureijj refugeecamp.[164]

December 27 At around 1:00 PM, Israeli forces entered the Southern Gaza Strip, looking for Qassamlaunchers and infrastructure. This action took notice of several Hamas and Islami Jihad militants, who rushed to the scene, but were sensed by Israeli drones. Three of them were killed in a pretty fierce battle, in which several anti tank missiles and anti aircraft missiles were fired at Israeli forces, and Palestinian militants were shelled by Israeli artillery. Four Palestinian militants were wounded. All the dead belonged to the armed wing of Hamas. IAF planes fired a missile at a car fully loaded with rifles, rockets and other weaponry. At the moment of the strike, three persons were in the car, only one was killed. Two others were also hurt. The persons and weapons belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, meant to be used to fire rockets at Israel and hurting Israeli soldiers, the group said. Later another PIJ succumbed to his wounds.[165] Another topranked commander from the PIJ is killed in a missile strike. Muhammad Abu Abdullah was killed while driving in his car with other PIJ militants. He was the PIJ leader of Central Gaza and was killed, together with two of his comrades. Several other Palestinians were wounded in the attack.[166] A bodyguard of Ahmed Qurei, a top-ranked Palestinian politician, was killed by IDF forces south of Ramallah. The bodyguard, Muatassem a-Sharif was a close bodyguard of the IDF. the IDF reported that a-Sharif was also a weapons smuggler. A-Sharif was killed, according to eyewitnesses, when IDF forces in the area were looking for him for an arrest and tried to enter his house. At that moment a-Sharif opened fire at soldiers, but was killed in returning fire.[167]

December 28 Two armed Israelis and one Palestinian gunmen die from a firefight near Hebron. David Ruben and Ahikam Amihai were off-duty from the army but armed, and were hiking with two other Israelis. They were attacked by four Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunman. A firefight followed in which both armed Israelis received mortal wounds, one of the Palestinians was killed and another wounded. After the firefight, the two were still alive and the other hikers managed to hide them, but both died later. After the attack, the IDF unsuccessfully searched the area for the gunman.[168][169][170]

January 2008

January 2 Six Palestinians belonging to three terrorist factions were killed Wednesday morning in a joint Israeli air and ground action in the Gaza Strip near Gaza City. Five Palestinians, four from Hamas and one belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees, died when Israeli ground forces called in air support after the Palestinians fired anti-tank rockets at the soldiers. The sixth, a member of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, died in a gun battle with Israeli troops.[171][172]

January 3 Palestinian militants fire a long-range GRAD Katyusha rocket at northern Ashkelon, the longest reach of a Palestinian rocket (16.5 km). Israel sends aircraft and tanks to hit buildings used by extremists. Most were in Khan Yunis. In one clash, the IDF shelled a house in the city, killing an Islamic Jihad militant along with his mother, sister, and daughter. His brother was also killed and possibly affilitated with IJ. Israeli army spokeswoman Capt. Noa Meir said militants were intentionally using civilian areas to fire at troops and blamed them for the deaths. Nine Palestinians are killed, four of them civilians. The Palestinians responded to Israel's strikes with a barrage of Qassam rockets, one of which hit the yard of a house in Sderot.[173] In Nablus, Israel Defense Forces troops discovered two rockets-in-process, in an arms cache belonging to Hamas.[174][175]

January 4 Infantrymen near the Gaza-Israel border clashed with Hamas gunmen after spotting them approach the border, and killed two of them in separate incidents. Eight mortar shells were fired by Palestinians at southern Israel. Palestinians operating from Gaza launched six Qassam rockets at the western Negev on Friday, one of which struck the yard of a home in the town of Sderot, causing damage. One boy was lightly injured and evacuated to a hospital. Several residents suffered from shock. Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket hit a western Negev open field Friday morning. No damage or injuries were reported. [176][177]

January 17 In response to numerous attacks by Qassam rockets, Israel shut down all Gaza Strip border crossings.[178]

January 20 The full blockade suspended deliveries of supplies, causing power outage due to lack of fuel for generators. [179] Gaza resident reported shortages of important materials. Israeli officials stated that the closures were only in response to ongoing attacks, and that closures could cease if the attacks were stopped. [178] [180]

January 23 The Breach of the Gaza-Egypt border occurs.

February 2008

February 10

Some ministers in the Israeli cabinet called for the annihilation of some neighborhoods in Gaza in retaliation for the Qassam rockets.

February 17

The Israeli Defense Forces claim to have taken about 80 Palestinians to Israel for questioning following a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip. Four Palestinians, including at least three militants, were killed in the operation and an Israeli soldier was severely injured. Palestinian health officials claimed an additional 20 Palestinian civilians were wounded in the attack.[181]

February 27

An Israeli air strike targeting a van killed five Hamas members suspected of plotting an attack against Israel.[182] In response, about fifty qassam rockets were launched towards the Negev, one of which struck a parking lot near Sapir Academic College, killing a 47-year-old student there. Four long-range rockets struck Ashkelon, causing few wounded. The IAF retaliated with more airstrikes in Jabalia camp and the northern part of Gaza Strip. About seven killed in the attacks, most of whom were militants, however a six-month-old baby was also killed after a missile struck a house in the camp.[183]

February 28

Israeli forces killed eleven Palestinians in a series of airstrikes. At least ten civilians were killed, including four boys playing football on a waste ground. Militants launch a qassam rocket in retaliation, which injures one Israeli civilian.[184]

March 2008

See also: Operation Warm Winter.

March 1 Most intense fighting between the IDF and Palestinian militants occur since Israel withdrew from the strip in 2005. The fighting mostly took place in Jabalia camp. According to Palestinian medical sources, at least 52 Palestinians were killed, of which 16 were militants, while the remainder being civilians including several children. The Washington Post Reported that 60 persons were killed, at least half were militants and rest civilians including children[185] Two IDF soldiers were killed in the incursion and seven were lightly injured as well.[186] Hamas retaliates by firing over 50 Qassam rockets into southern Israel, wounding seven. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas referred to Israel's attacks as "more than a holocaust" while Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal descrbed Israel's actions as the "real holocaust". Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak regrets civilian casualties but vows a serious response to Gaza rocket fire, saying "We are not happy about civilians being hurt in Gaza... Hamas and those who fire rockets at Israel are responsible and they will pay the price."[186]

March 3

The two sides agreed under pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to resume the U.S.-backed talks on Wednesday after the Palestinians suspended them in protest of an Israeli offensive in Gaza that killed more than 125 people including 1 month old infant girl named "Amira Abu Asr".[187][185]. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signalled willingness to stop attacks after the five-day offensive, which killed many civilians in the territory, if the Islamist group Hamas stopped firing rockets into Israel. Hamas says attacks from Gaza, including rockets fired by its own militants and others, are a response to Israeli military operations in both Gaza[188] and the occupied West Bank and would end if Israel stopped all such activity and lifted its blockade.

November 2008

November 4 Israel breaches ceasefire by military raid into Gaza, in order to destroy a tunnel going towards its border, killing one Palestinian. Later air strike killed 5 more. In retaliation, 35 Qassam rockets were launched, one hitting Ashkelon. The Israeli military said the purpose of the tunnel was to kidnap additional Israeli soldiers and hold them as hostages.[189]

December 2008 Hamas and Israel both fail to agree on a renewal of the six-month ceasefire, with Hamas citing the November attacks and Israel's failure to lift the blockade as stipulated in the truce agreement, and Israel citing Hamas' rocket fire.



External links

Israel Politik A blog by Israel’s New York Consulate set up to present all aspects of the situation in Sderot to international media[10]


International response
  • United Nations - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon states that he believes that the Qassam rocket attacks by factions in Gaza are "completely unacceptable." He has also stated that he believes that the Palestinian Authority should "take the necessary steps to restore law and order, and for all factions to abide by the ceasefire." Ki-moon also stated he is "deeply concerned by the mounting number of civilian casualties from Israeli military operations in Gaza." The Secretary General also called on Israel "to abide by international law and to ensure that its actions do not target civilians or put them under risk."[190]Michael Williams to the Middle East for talks with both sides.[191][11]Williams met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr in Gaza City. After continuing Israeli attacks and arrests, and the continuing rocket fire from Gaza, Williams said that "I’m very troubled by the level of violence here [...] I think the UN, the international community in general, have been very concerned about the level of intra-Palestinian violence, but also by the Israeli attacks which I know have caused civilian deaths, considerable numbers."[12]The International condemnation of Israeli incursion were further augmented with a scathing report prepared by eight British-based rights organizations, highlighting humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip that has reached its worst point since Israel captured the territory in 1967. The report indicates more than 1.1 million people, about 80 percent of Gaza's residents, were dependent on food aid, and hospitals faced power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, and the water and sewage systems were close to collapse.[13] Ki-moon had appointed Williams soon said "I'm troubled when I see Israeli soldiers arresting Palestinian legislators. I'm troubled that the education minister was arrested," after Israel arrested several Hamas officials in the West Bank.
  • United States - After the death of a woman from a rocket attack in Sderot, a representative for the U.S. Government reaffirmed the position that Israel has the right to self-defense. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also stated that his country is aware of the difficulty of targeting terrorists without civilian casualties. He added that Israel must "take all possible actions in order to avoid any civilian casualties, to avoid any undue damage to the Palestinian infrastructure and always to consider the effects of their actions on the political process, the Israeli-Palestinian track and moving that forward."[190]
See also



  1. ^ BBC NEWS | Middle East | Gaza conditions 'at 40-year low'
  2. ^ UN 'troubled' by Hamas legislators' arrests - Israel News, Ynetnews
  3. ^ "Israel launches raids into Gaza", BBC News (2007-05-17). Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  4. ^ Sofer, Ronny (2007-05-15). "IDF may respond harshly", ynetnews.com. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  5. ^ "Israel pushes Gaza offensive amid rocket attacks"
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ Middle East Analysis: Israel Arrests Hamas Minister, Hits Targets in Gaza
  8. ^ [2]
  9. ^ [3]
  10. ^ AFX News Limited (2007-05-17). "Israeli air strike against Hamas in Gaza UPDATE", Forbes. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  11. ^ Xinhua (2007-05-16). "Israeli air strike kills four Hamas members in Gaza", China View. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  12. ^ Hadad, Shmulik (2007-05-16). "Sderot: Woman wounded in latest Qassam barrage", ynetnews.com. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  13. ^ "Gaza: 4 Palestinians killed in IDF strikes", ynetnews.com (2007-05-17). Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  14. ^ "IAF airstrike kills five Hamas members", Ynetnews (2007-05-18). Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  15. ^ "3 deaths from Gaza air strike", ynetnews.com (2007-05-19). Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  16. ^ Heller, Jefferey (2007-05-20). "Israel kills 9; 8 in raid on Hamas official's home", Reuters. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  17. ^ Associated Press (2007-05-20). "Gaza: 8 killed in IDF air strike", ynetnews.com. Retrieved on 20 May 2007. 
  18. ^ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3403094,00.html
  19. ^ Woman killed in Sderot rocket attack
  20. ^ Airstrike targets Qassam cell
  21. ^ Israel pounds Gaza, Palestinian attack kills 1
  22. ^ a b Israel strikes in Gaza after militants rebuff Abbas
  23. ^ Israel hits Gaza with more strikes, seven wounded
  24. ^ 7 Palestinians wounded in IAF strikes
  25. ^ Rocket fire on western Negev resumes
  26. ^ Israel seizes Hamas leaders, violence goes on
  27. ^ 9 Qassams hit Negev region Thursday evening
  28. ^ Israeli strike hits Hamas post in Gaza
  29. ^ Israel assault on Hamas to continue - PM aides
  30. ^ Gaza: 2 killed in IDF airstrike
  31. ^ militants signal softer terms, Israel hits again
  32. ^ a b 4 injured by Qassam in Sderot
  33. ^ 5 rockets fired at western Negev
  34. ^ Israel pounds Gaza and seizes Palestinian minister
  35. ^ a b Israel pounds Gaza and seizes Palestinian minister
  36. ^ Israel pushes Gaza offensive amid rocket attacks
  37. ^ Gaza: Palestinians say 5 killed in IAF attack
  38. ^ Israel Police on high alert Saturday night
  39. ^ ‘Israel can forget about Shalit if Hamas leaders targeted,’ spokesman says
  40. ^ Man killed in rocket attack on Sderot
  41. ^ Hamas rockets fall, Israel considers escalation
  42. ^ Israeli air strike kills 2 militants in Gaza
  43. ^ Qassam hits Sderot building
  44. ^ Israel, militants exchange limited fire in Gaza
  45. ^ IDF kills senior Islamic Jihad member in Gaza
  46. ^ Israeli troops kill two young Gazans: Palestinians
  47. ^ Israeli force kills W.Bank shopkeeper: Palestinians
  48. ^ IDF pulls out of Gaza, pledges further operations
  49. ^ Qassam lands near Sderot
  50. ^ Gaza: Gunman killed in IDF airstrike
  51. ^ Conflicting stories emerge after IDF kills 70-year-old
  52. ^ 8 mortar shells land near Erez crossing, no injuries
  53. ^ IDF kills top Aksa commander in Jenin
  54. ^ BBC NEWS | Middle East | How Hamas took over the Gaza Strip
  55. ^ Death toll in IDF's operation in Gaza rises to 11
  56. ^ IDF kills senior Islamic Jihad militant in West Bank ambush
  57. ^ IDF kills senior Islamic Jihad militant in West Bank ambush
  58. ^ 11 mortar shells fired at Israel
  59. ^ IDF soldier killed in Gaza; IDF kills armed Palestinian in West Bank
  60. ^ Israeli troops kill armed Palestinian man in West Bank
  61. ^ Sderot home hit by Qassam rocket
  62. ^ IDF Gaza strike wounds 2 Palestinians
  63. ^ Israel kills Palestinian gunman in Gaza
  64. ^ Hamas gunman killed by IDF near Sufa crossing
  65. ^ IDF kills senior Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza
  66. ^ Israeli troops kill two Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank
  67. ^ IAF kills 3 Islamic Jihad men, 2 Hamas gunmen in Gaza strikes
  68. ^ Two Palestinian militants killed planting explosive on Gaza-Israel border: officials
  69. ^ Two Fatah men killed as Israel to allow Palestinians cross border
  70. ^ IDF troops kill 2 Palestinian militants in northern Gaza clash
  71. ^ IDF kills Islamic Jihad commander in Nablus
  72. ^ Explosive device hidden in dead sheep
  73. ^ Qassam lands in Sderot kindergarten
  74. ^ IDF troops kill 3 Hamas gunmen in Gaza
  75. ^ Palestinian crawling near Gaza fence killed by IDF
  76. ^ Jerusalem: Security guard kills shooter
  77. ^ Report: Youth killed in clashes between IDF, gunmen
  78. ^ IDF troops kill Palestinian, detain 2 near Gaza Strip border fence
  79. ^ Palestinian killed near Israel-Gaza fence
  80. ^ Hamas men killed in Gaza airstrike
  81. ^ IDF troops kill PFLP member in Nablus
  82. ^ IAF airstrike kills Hamas militant in Gaza Strip
  83. ^ Senior Hamas commander killed in Gaza
  84. ^ [4]
  85. ^ 4 Palestinians killed in Gaza, West Bank clashes with IDF
  86. ^ IDF forces foil terror plot
  87. ^ Israeli forces kill Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin
  88. ^ IDF arrests 2 Palestinians for aiding Gaza infiltrators
  89. ^ Palestinians: IDF shoots man dead in Gaza Strip
  90. ^ Jihad: PA security forces thwarted kidnapping
  91. ^ Sderot: Man injured in Qassam attack
  92. ^ 3 children killed in IDF attack in Gaza - report
  93. ^ IDF seriously wounds Fatah militant in Nablus; three rockets hit Negev
  94. ^ IDF foils Kissufim kidnapping attempt
  95. ^ 67 wounded in Qassam attack
  96. ^ Olmert 'won't play into Hamas hands'
  97. ^ IDF troops kill gunman in West Bank raid
  98. ^ IDF kills two in W. Bank; six Qassams hit Negev
  99. ^ IDF soldier killed in West Bank
  100. ^ Israel declares Gaza "enemy entity" as Rice visits
  101. ^ [5]
  102. ^ Israel kills 9 in Gaza and warns of big sweep
  103. ^ IDF confirms killing Qassam cell member in Gaza
  104. ^ IDF clashes with Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza
  105. ^ IDF kills terrorist near Gaza security fence
  106. ^ IDF troops kill armed Palestinian near Israel-Gaza border fence
  107. ^ Palestinian shot by IDF in Jenin raid dies of his wounds
  108. ^ Police say Katyusha hit Negev
  109. ^ Report: IDF kills wanted Palestinian in Nablus
  110. ^ Nablus: Disguised troops kill gunman
  111. ^ Hamas man killed in IDF airstrike in Gaza
  112. ^ IDF troops nab 2 terror suspects in Nablus
  113. ^ Dichter hints at broadening IDF action after soldier dies in Gaza
  114. ^ Palestinians say 2 killed in Israeli Navy attack
  115. ^ IAF kills senior militant in air strike in Gaza Strip
  116. ^ Barak set to approve list of sanctions against Gaza
  117. ^ IAF kills senior militant in air strike in Gaza Strip
  118. ^ IDF kills 2 Palestinians following rocket barrage
  119. ^ IDF kills Jihad operative placing bomb
  120. ^ IDF kills 2 Hamas terrorists in south Gaza
  121. ^ [6]
  122. ^ Five Kassams land near Sderot
  123. ^ 5 rockets hit south; no injuries reported
  124. ^ Slain reservist Ehud Efrati laid to rest
  125. ^ reservist killed in gunbattles in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza
  126. ^ Video: Terrorists firing mortars from schoolyard
  127. ^ IDF troops kill Islamic Jihad militant in central Gaza gunbattle
  128. ^ IDF kills 4 terrorists in Gaza
  129. ^ rocket barrage hits Sderot
  130. ^ Israeli air strike kills Hamas member in Gaza
  131. ^ Kassam salvo causes Sderot blackout
  132. ^ 5 Palestinians killed in IDF strikes
  133. ^ Palestinians: IAF attack in Gaza kills 2
  134. ^ Israeli killed by terrorists in W. Bank
  135. ^ IDF kills four Gaza terrorist infiltrators
  136. ^ Mourners at terror victim's funeral block entrance to Palestinian village
  137. ^ a b Report: IDF forces kill 2 gunmen in Gaza
  138. ^ IDF kills 3 Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank
  139. ^ Border Guard kills wanted Palestinian in Tulkarm
  140. ^ IDF kills 3 operatives in Gaza
  141. ^ Israeli troops kill 2 Hamas operatives in Gaza
  142. ^ Air Force strikes Hamas position in south Gaza
  143. ^ Palestinians: 1 dead in IAF strike in Gaza
  144. ^ Air Force kills four Hamas men in Gaza
  145. ^ IDF kills four Hamas gunmen in clashes in northern Gaza
  146. ^ Shells near Negev home not ours, army says
  147. ^ Gaza: 3 killed in IAF strike
  148. ^ Special IDF force operating in Bethlehem kills Palestinian policeman
  149. ^ Defense officials: 'Limited Gaza ops having effect'
  150. ^ IAF strike kills three Palestinians detected launching Qassam
  151. ^ [7]
  152. ^ IDF strike in Gaza leaves 10 Jihad operatives dead
  153. ^ 13 Palestinians killed in two days of air strikes
  154. ^ Kassam rocket lands near IDF base
  155. ^ Mofaz: Israel should mull indirect talks with Hamas over Qassams
  156. ^ Top Palestinian militant in Gaza among 13 killed by Israeli raids
  157. ^ Palestinian teen tries to stab IDF soldier at West Bank checkpoint
  158. ^ Soldier seriously wounded in Gaza
  159. ^ IDF soldier seriously hurt, seven militants killed in Gaza raid
  160. ^ Six militants killed in Israeli incursion into central Gaza
  161. ^ Gaza Missiles and Israeli Operations Continue
  162. ^ Qassam lands near Sderot schoolyard
  163. ^ Israel offensive kills seven Gaza militants
  164. ^ Israel kills two militants in Gaza - Hamas
  165. ^ IDF kills 8 militants in Gaza, including Jihad commander
  166. ^ Islamic Jihad technical expert killed in IAF strike
  167. ^ Qurei's bodyguard killed by IDF
  168. ^ PA premier Fayyad says suspects in killings of 2 Israelis caught by PA
  169. ^ Hikers killed in West Bank shooting were soldiers on leave
  170. ^ PA: Terrorists sought to sabotage talks
  171. ^ Six Palestinians Killed in Israeli Strikes in Gaza
  172. ^ Israeli forces kill six Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip
  173. ^ Katyusha lands in northern Ashkelon; nine Palestinians killed in IDF respons
  174. ^ Nine Gazans killed by IDF fire; Katyusha hits north Ashkelon
  175. ^ Israeli Forces Kill 9 in Gaza
  176. ^ [8]
  177. ^ Palestinians fire barrage of rockets, shells at western Negev
  178. ^ a b Terror in Gaza: Eight months since the Hamas takeover,Israel Min. of Foreign Affairs, 14 Feb 2008.
  179. ^ Gaza power plant begins shutting down
  180. ^ Israeli blockade deepens hardship in Gaza, Reuters, 1/21/08.
  181. ^ Israel detains dozens of Gazans BBC News. 2008-02-17.
  182. ^ 60 Gazans Killed in Incursion By Israel2008.03.02
  183. ^ War in South: Daily update - 27.02.2008 walla.co.il . 2008-02-27.
  184. ^ Gaza rocket attacks claim young lives Telegraph.co.uk. 2008-02-29.
  185. ^ a b 60 Gazans Killed in Incursion By Israel Operation Follows Use of Longer-Range Rockets by Hamas Washington Post. 2008-03-02.
  186. ^ a b Dozens die in Israel-Gaza clashes BBC News. 2008-03-01.
  187. ^ Al Jazeera English - News - Tragedy Of Israel And Palestine
  188. ^ [9]
  189. ^ Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen
  190. ^ a b "UN chief concerned about Palestinian, Israeli attacks"
  191. ^ "Qassam lands near Sderot; no injuries"
In pictures: Gaza conflict steps up

An Israeli soldier jumps down from a tank on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on 11 January 2009ADVISORY: This gallery contains images viewers may find distressing. Israel's military has reportedly been involved in fierce fighting around Gaza City, after its warplanes launched another night of air strikes

Israeli soldiers prepare their tanks at their position on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on 11 January 2009The conflict showed no sign of abating despite last week's UN resolution - rejected by Israel and Hamas - calling for an immediate ceasefire. Correspondents say it could well intensify before it ends.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2nd R) waits for the media to leave before a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on 11 January 2009Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the state was nearing its goals in Gaza, as he signalled the offensive would continue. It comes weeks before a parliamentary election in Israel.

A car burns near the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, 11 January 2009Strikes took place near the Rafah refugee camps. Israel has also been accused of using white phosphorus shells in the Gaza campaign - a charge it denies.


The wreck of a car hit by a militant rocket in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on 11 January 2009But militants have still been able to fire barrages of rockets from Gaza deep inside southern Israel.

Man gathers firewood amid rubble in Gaza City, 11 January 2009Aid agencies say Gaza's 1.5 million residents are in urgent need of food and medical aid.

An Israeli boy walks past a wall of a house that was hit by a shrapnel of a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the southern Israeli town of Beersheeba on 11 January 2009Thirteen Israelis - 10 soldiers and three civilians - have died since the conflict began on 27 December.

The body of a Palestinian boy lies in a morgue in Gaza City on 11 January 2009But Palestinians have borne the brunt of the bloodshed. Medics say the number of people killed in Gaza is now approaching 900 and estimate nearly a third of the dead have been children.




Palestinian woman mourn after the death of relatives in front of a morgue in Gaza City on 11 January 2009A Palestinian protestor makes a gesture to Israeli soldiers during a protest in the West Bank near Ramallah on 11 January 2009

A demonstration in Tokyo against the Israeli assault in Gaza on 11 January 2009

In addition to the fatalities, about 3,600 people have been wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials in Gaza. Meanwhile pro-Palestine protests continued throughout the Middle East......and across the world, including, Rome, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Tokyo. Demonstrations have also been held in support of Israel.

UK protesters call for Gaza peace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7821928.stm

Thousands of demonstrators have marched through London to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza.

The protest started peacefully but there were confrontations as police tried to move demonstrators away from the gates of the Israeli embassy. The windows of a Starbucks was smashed and three police officers were injured as a minority of people threw missiles

The Metropolitan Police says 20,000 people marched but the BBC estimates the figure could be as high as 50,000.  It is estimated there were several hundred police officers dealing with around 200 protesters outside the embassy. This group were being allowed to leave the cordon one at a time, some were being identified by police and are being taken away for questioning. BBC correspondent Robert Hall said given the number of people involved, the protest had been peaceful. "But as darkness fell a small number of people, several hundred, have begun confronting police and missiles have been thrown," he said. "Although these are ugly and unwelcome scenes, they do not represent what has happened for most of the afternoon."

'Irresponsible actions'

Metropolitan Police Commander Bob Broadhurst said: "We are very disappointed by the irresponsible actions of those who have challenged police by ripping apart security barriers and throwing objects at them. "A hard core of demonstrators are undermining the cause of the vast majority of people on this demonstration, who are law-abiding citizens wishing to protest peacefully." Approximately 15 people have been arrested, 12 for violent disorder; one for aggravated trespass; and two for assaulting a police officer.

'Half hearted'

The march was organised by groups including Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Protests have also taken place in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Belfast, Newcastle and Southampton.  In Edinburgh around 300 shoes were thrown towards the US consulate by protesters and three police officers suffered minor injuries. Celebrities including musicians Brian Eno and Annie Lennox joined the march. Rallies were addressed by speakers including Eno, former London mayor Ken Livingstone and Cherie Blair's half-sister Lauren Booth. Lindsey German, Stop the War's convenor, said: "We are calling for an end to the massacre and for Israel to get out of Gaza and Palestine."We want the British government to take a much stronger position. There would have been outrage from governments around the world if this had happened anywhere else - the condemnation has been at best half-hearted." Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said in a statement: "The British government and European Union have the economic leverage to stop this carnage. "They must take decisive action to force Israel to end the slaughter." On Sunday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews will also hold a rally calling for peace in Israel and Gaza in Trafalgar Square. The conflict in Gaza is entering its third week, despite international calls for a ceasefire. Israel said it launched 40 overnight air strikes, while Hamas militants fired several rockets at Israeli towns. Senior Palestinian officials are in Egypt for talks on how to end the conflict. Health officials in Gaza say more than 800 Palestinians have died. Israel says 13 Israelis have been killed.





Emblem of "Gladio", Italian branch of the NATO "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations. The motto means "By being silent I preserve freedom".
Emblem of NATO's "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations.

Cyprus
The Turkish branch of Gladio Counter-Guerrilla formed the TMT Turkish Resistance Organisation in Cyprus in 1958 and manned it with turkish officers. The 1960 constitution of the republic of Cyprus only had provision for a very small professional army of a few hundred men from both Cypriot communities. Following the 1963-64 clashes that led to the collapse of the power sharing between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the National Guard was created as a conscription Greek cypriot army. The officers for the National Guard where almost exclusively Greek nationals, officers of the Greek Army. LOK units were created in Cyprus modelled on the Greek LOK units, though Cyprus never joined NATO and was at the time a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Reporter Makarios Drousiotis[82] has written about Greek officer Dimitris Papapostolou, commander of LOK in Cyprus at the time, conspiring with ex-interior minister Polykarpos Yorkatzis to kill elected presidentMakarios by attacking his helicopter, and after the failure of that attempt, being involved in the assassination of Yorkatzis. The 15 July 1974 coup d'etat against Makarios was executed by National Guard units, with the attack on the presidential palace perpetrated by 31 and 32 Moira Katadromon LOK units with the help of 21 Epilarhia Anagnoriseos tanks reconnaissance unit.[83]

Emblem of
Special Forces Command.













Operation Gladio
 (ItalianOperazione Gladio) is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Europe after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a Soviet invasion and conquest. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, "Operation Gladio" is used as an informal name for all stay-behind organizations, sometimes called "Super NATO". The name Gladio is the Italian form of gladius, a type of Roman shortsword.[1]

Operating in many NATO and even some neutral countries,[2] Gladio was part of a series of national operations first coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), founded in 1948. After the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was integrated into the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe), transferred to Belgium after France’s official withdrawal from NATO's Military Committee in 1966 — which was not followed by the dissolution of the French stay-behind paramilitary movements.

The role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in sponsoring Gladio and the extent of its activities during the Cold War era, and its relationship to right-wing terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the "Years of Lead" (late 1960s to early 1980s) and other similar clandestine operations is the subject of ongoing debate and investigation. Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have had parliamentary inquiries into the matter.[3]

Origins

The origin of Gladio can be traced to the so-called "secret anti-Communist NATO protocols", which were allegedly protocols committing the secret services of NATO member states to work to prevent communist parties from coming to power in Western Europe. According to the Italian researcher Mario Coglitore, the protocols required member states to guarantee alignment with the Western block "by any means".[citation needed] According to US journalist Arthur Rowse, a secret clause exists in the North Atlantic Treaty requiring candidate countries, before joining NATO, to establish clandestine citizen cadres standing ready to eliminate communist cells during any national emergency. These clandestine cadres were to be controlled by the country's respective security services.[4]

[edit]General stay-behind structure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Cossiga

Francesco Cossiga

Francesco Cossiga (26 July 1928 – 17 August 2010)[1] was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari.

Cossiga was born in Sassari in the north of Sardinia.[1] He started his political career during World War II. His name is now usually pronounced Italian pronunciation: [kosˈsiːɡa], but it was originally pronounced Italian pronunciation: [ˈkɔssiɡa], with the stress on the first syllable, meaning "Corsica".[2] He was the cousin of Enrico Berlinguer.[3]

After World War II, the UK and the US decided to create "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations, with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Arms caches were hidden, escape routes prepared, and loyal members recruited: i.e., mainly hardline anticommunists, including many ex-Nazis or former fascists, whether in Italy or in other European countries. In Germany, for example, Gladio had as a central focus the Gehlen Org — also involved in ODESSA "ratlines" — named after Reinhard Gehlen who would become West Germany's first head of intelligence, while the predominantly Italian P2 Masonic lodge was composed of many members of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), including Licio Gelli. Its clandestine "cells" were to stay behind (hence the name) in enemy controlled territory and to act as resistance movements, conducting sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassinations.

However, Italian Gladio was more far reaching. "A briefing minute of June 1, 1959, reveals Gladio was built around 'internal subversion'. It was to play 'a determining role... not only on the general policy level of warfare, but also in the politics of emergency'. In the 1970s, with communist electoral support growing and other leftists looking menacing, the establishment turned to the 'Strategy of Tension' ... with Gladio eager to be involved."[5]

CIA director Allen Dulles was one of the key people in instituting Operation Gladio, and most of Gladio’s operations were financed by the CIA.[citation needed] The anti-communist networks, which were present in all of Europe, including in neutral countries like Sweden and Switzerland, were partly funded by the CIA.[6] Some went as far as claiming that Christian Democrat (Democrazia Cristiana) leader Aldo Moro had been the "founder of (Italian) Gladio".[7] However, whether these allegations are correct or not, his murder in 1978 put an end to the “historic compromise” (sharing of power) attempt between the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Christian Democrats (DC), thus accomplishing one of the alleged objectives of the strategy of tension.

Operating in all of NATO and even in some neutral countries such as Spain before its 1982 admission to NATO, Gladio was first coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), founded in 1948. After the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was integrated into the "Clandestine Planning Committee" (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), transferred to Belgium after France’s official retreat from NATO — which was not followed by the dissolution of the French stay-behind paramilitary movements.

Daniele Ganser alleges that:[4]

Next to the CPC, a second secret army command center, labeled Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC), was set up in 1957 on the orders of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR). This military structure provided for significant US leverage over the secret stay-behind networks in Western Europe as the SACEUR, throughout NATO's history, has traditionally been a US General who reports to the Pentagon in Washington and is based in NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium. The ACC's duties included elaborating on the directives of the network, developing its clandestine capability, and organizing bases in Britain and the United States. In wartime, it was to plan stay-behind operations in conjunction with SHAPE. According to former CIA director William Colby, it was 'a major program'.

Coordinated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), {the secret armies} were run by the European military secret services in close cooperation with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British foreign secret service Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also MI6). Trained together with US Green Berets and BritishSpecial Air Service (SAS), these clandestine NATO soldiers, armed with underground arms-caches, prepared against a potential Soviet invasion and occupation of Western Europe, as well as the coming to power of communist parties. The clandestine international network covered the European NATO membership, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, as well as the neutral European countries of Austria, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Central Intelligence Agency's response to the series of accusations made by Mr. Ganser in his book regarding the CIA's involvement in Operation Gladio, deals with the fact that neither Ganser nor anyone else have solid evidence supporting their accusations. At one point in his book, Mr. Ganser even talks about the CIA's covert action policies as being "terrorist in nature" and then accuses the CIA of using their "networks for political terrorism". After being attacked by Ganser, the CIA has responded to these unfounded attacks by demonstrating that Daniele Ganser's sourcing is "largely secondary" and that Ganser himself has complained about "not being able to find any official sources to support his charges of the CIA’s or any Western European government’s involvement with Gladio".[8]

The existence of these clandestine NATO armies remained a closely guarded secret throughout the Cold War until 1990, when the first branch of the international network was discovered in Italy. It was code-named Gladio, the Italian word for a short double-edged sword [gladius]. While the press said that the NATO secret armies were 'the best-kept, and most damaging, political-military secret since World War II', the Italian government, amidst sharp public criticism, promised to close down the secret army. Italy insisted identical clandestine armies had also existed in all other countries of Western Europe. This allegation proved correct and subsequent research found that in Belgium, the secret NATO army was code-named SDRA8, in Denmark Absalon, in Germany TD BJD, in Greece LOK, in Luxemburg Stay-Behind, in the Netherlands I&O, in Norway ROC, in Portugal Aginter, in Switzerland P26, in Turkey Ozel Harp Dairesi, In Sweden AGAG (Aktions Gruppen Arla Gryning), and in Austria OWSGV. However, the code names of the secret armies in France, Finland and Spain remain unknown.

Upon learning of the discovery, the parliament of the European Union (EU) drafted a resolution sharply criticizing the fact (...) Yet only Italy, Belgium and Switzerland carried out parliamentary investigations, while the administration of President George H. W. Bush refused to comment, being in the midst of preparations for war against Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf, and fearing potential damages to the military alliance.

If Gladio was effectively "the best-kept, and most damaging, political-military secret since World War II",[9] it must be underlined, however, that on several occasions, arms caches were discovered and stay-behind paramilitary organizations officially dissolved – only to be created again. But it was not until the 1990s that the full international scope of the program was disclosed to public knowledge. Giulio Andreotti, the main character of Italy’s post-World War II political life, was described by Aldo Moro to his captors as "too close to NATO", Moro thus advising them to be wary. Indeed, before Andreotti’s 1990 acknowledgement of Gladio’s existence, he had "unequivocally" denied it in 1974, and then in 1978 to judges investigating the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing. And even in 1990, "Testimonies collected by the two men (judges Felice Casson and Carlo Mastelloni investigating the 1972 Peteano fascist car bomb) and by the Commission on Terrorism on Rome, and inquiries by The Guardian, indicate that Gladio was involved in activities which do not square with Andreotti's account. Links between Gladio, Italian secret services bosses and the notorious P2 Masonic lodge are manifold (...) In the year that Andreotti denied Gladio’s existence, the P2 treasurer, General Siro Rosetti, gave a generous account of 'a secret security structure made up of civilians, parallel to the armed forces' There are also overlaps between senior Gladio personnel and the committee of military men, Rosa dei Venti (Wind Rose), which tried to stage a coup in 1970.”[5]

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/European_Parliament_resolution_on_Gladio

European Parliament resolution on Gladio

European Parliament resolution concerning Gladio

On November 22, 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution on Operation Gladio

Joint resolution replacing B3-2021, 2058, 2068, 2078 and 2087/90

A. having regard to the revelation by several European governments of the existence for 40 years of a clandestine parallel intelligence and armed operations organization in several Member States of the Community,

B. whereas for over 40 years this organization has escaped all democratic controls and has been run by the secret services of the states concerned in collaboration with NATO,

C. fearing the danger that such clandestine network may have interfered illegally in the internal political affairs of Member States or may still do so,

D. whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries,

E. whereas these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law since they are not subject to any parliamentary control and frequently those holding the highest government and constitutional posts are kept in the dark as to these matters,

F. whereas the various 'Gladio' organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military ressources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating,

G. greatly concerned at the existence of decision-making and operational bodies which are not subject to any form of democratic control and are of a completely clandestine nature at a time when greater Community cooperation in the field of security is a constant subject of discussion,

1. Condemns the clandestine creation of manipulative and operational networks and Calls for a full investigation into the nature, structure, aims and all other aspects of these clandestine organizations or any splinter groups, their use for illegal interference in the internal political affairs of the countries concerned, the problem of terrorism in Europe and the possible collusion of the secret services of Member States or third countries;

2. Protests vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network;

3. Calls on the governments of the Member States to dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary networks;

4. Calls on the judiciaries of the countries in which the presence of such military organizations has been ascertained to elucidate fully their composition and modus operandi and to clarify any action they may have taken to destabilize the democratic structure of the Member States;

5. Requests all the Member States to take the necessary measures, if necessary by establishing parliamentary committees of inquiry, to draw up a complete list of organizations active in this field, and at the same time to monitor their links with the respective state intelligence services and their links, if any, with terrorist action groups and/or other illegal practices;

6. Calls on the Council of Ministers to provide full information on the activities of these secret intelligence and operational services;

7. Calls on its competent committee to consider holding a hearing in order to clarify the role and impact of the 'Gladio' organization and any similar bodies;

8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General of NATO, the governments of the Member States and the United States Government."

European Parliament resolution concerning Gladio

On November 22, 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Gladio, requesting full investigations – which have yet to be done – and total dismantlement of these paramilitary structures. In 2005, the first academic examination of Gladio was published by Swiss historian Daniele Ganser. Mr. Ganser, as of 2010, is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology in ZurichSwitzerland. His book, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, is a documented study of how Gladio operated.

British journalist Philip Willan, who, by 2010, was writing for the UK Guardian and Observer newspapers, described in the book, Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, how the US intelligence services used their relationship with the P2 Masonic lodge to prop up Christian Democrat governments, undermining the growing political influence of the Italian Communist Party.

The 1990 European resolution condemned "the existence for 40 years of a clandestine parallel intelligence" as well as "armed operations organization in several Member States of the Community", which "escaped all democratic controls and has been run by the secret services of the states concerned in collaboration with NATO." Denouncing the "danger that such clandestine network may have interfered illegally in the internal political affairs of Member States or may still do so," especially before the fact that "in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime," the Parliament demanded a "a full investigation into the nature, structure, aims and all other aspects of these clandestine organizations or any splinter groups, their use for illegal interference in the internal political affairs of the countries concerned, the problem of terrorism in Europe and the possible collusion of the secret services of Member States or third countries." Furthermore, the resolution protested "vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network," asking "the Member States to dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary networks" and to "draw up a complete list of organizations active in this field, and at the same time to monitor their links with the respective state intelligence services and their links, if any, with terrorist action groups and/or other illegal practices." Finally, the Parliament called "on its competent committee to consider holding a hearing in order to clarify the role and impact of the 'Gladio' organization and any similar bodies," and instructed "its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General of NATO, the governments of the Member States and the United States Government."

Allegations

The first academic examination of Gladio was published in 2005 by Swiss historian Daniele Ganser. Mr. Ganser is currently a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. His book, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, Gladio has been accused of trying to influence policies through the means of "false flag" operations: a 2000 Italian Parliamentary Commission report from the Olive Tree left-wing coalition concluded that the strategy of tension used by Gladio had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI (Italian Communist Party), and to a certain degree also the PSI (Italian Socialist Party), from reaching executive power in the country".[10][11][12]

Propaganda Due (also known as P2), a quasi-freemasonic organization, whose existence was discovered in 1981, was said closely linked to Gladio[citation needed].

P2 was outlawed and disbanded in 1981, in the wake of the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, which was linked to the Mafia and to the Vatican Bank. Its Grand Master, Licio Gelli, was involved in most of Italy’s scandals in the last three decades of the 20th century: Banco Ambrosiano’s crash; Tangentopoli, which gave rise to the Mani pulite ("Clean hands") anticorruption operation in the 1990s; the kidnapping and the murder of Aldo Moro in 1978 – the head of the secret services at the time, accused of negligence, was a piduista (P2 member). Licio Gelli has often said he was a friend of Argentine President Juan Perón. In any case, some important figures of his circle were discovered to be piduista, such as José López Rega, founder of the infamous anticommunist organization Triple A and provisional president Raúl Alberto Lastiri. Some members of later Jorge Videla’s dictatorship were part of the P2 as well, such as Admiral Emilio Massera and General Guillermo Suárez Mason. The Vatican Bank was also accused of funneling covert US funds for the Solidarnosc trade union movement in Poland and the Contras in Nicaragua.[13]

Furthermore, Gladio has been linked to other events, such as Operation Condor[14][improper synthesis?] and the 1969 killing of anticolonialist/independentist Mozambican leader Eduardo Mondlane by Aginter Press, the Portuguese "stay-behind" secret army, headed by Yves Guérin-Sérac - the allegation on Mondlane's death is disputed, with several sources stating thatFRELIMO guerrilla leader Eduardo Mondlane was killed in a struggle for power within FRELIMO. In 1995, Attorney General Giovanni Salvi accused the Italian secret services of having manipulated proofs of the Chilean secret police’s (DINA) involvement in the 1975 terrorist attack on former Chilean Vice-President Bernardo Leighton in Rome. A similar mode of operation can also be recognized in various Cold War events, for example between the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires (Argentina), the 1976 Montejurra massacre in Spain and the 1977 Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul (Turkey).

After Giulio Andreotti's revelations and the disestablishment of Gladio, the last meeting of the "Allied Clandestine Committee" (ACC), was held according to the Italian Prime minister on October 23 and 24, 1990. Despite this, various events have raised concerns about "stay-behind" armies still being in place. In 1996, the Belgian newspaper Le Soir revealed the existence of a racist plan operated by the military intelligence agencies. In 1999, Switzerland was suspected of again creating a clandestine paramilitary structure, allegedly to replace the former P26 and P27 (the Swiss branches of Gladio). Furthermore, in 2005, the Italian press revealed the existence of the Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies (DSSA), accused of being "another Gladio".

[edit]Gladio's strategy of tension and internal subversion operations

Further information: Strategy of tension

NATO's "stay-behind" organizations were never called upon to resist a Soviet invasion, but their structures continued to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Internal subversion and "false flag" operations were explicitly considered by the CIA and stay-behind paramilitaries. According to a November 13, 1990 Reuters cable,[15] "André Moyen – a former member of the Belgian military security service and of the [stay-behind] network – said Gladio was not just anti-Communist but was for fighting subversion in general. He added that his predecessor had given Gladio 142 million francs ($4.6 millions) to buy new radio equipment."[16] Ganser alleges that on various occasions, stay-behind movements became linked toright-wing terrorism, crime and attempted coups d'état:[4]

"Prudent Precaution or Source of Terror?" the international press pointedly asked when the secret stay-behind armies of NATO were discovered across Western Europe in late 1990. After more than ten years of research, the answer is now clear: both. The overview aboves shows that based on the experiences of World War II, all countries of Western Europe, with the support of NATO, the CIA, and MI6, had set up stay-behind armies as precaution against a potential Soviet invasion. While the safety networks and the integrity of the majority of the secret soldiers should not be criticized in hindsight after the collapse of the Soviet Union, very disturbing questions do arise with respect to reported links to terrorism.

There exist large differences among the European countries, and each case must be analyzed individually in further detail. As of now, the evidence suggests the secret armies in the seven countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands, focused exclusively on their stay-behind function and were not linked to terrorism. However, links to terrorism have been either confirmed or claimed in the nine countries, Italy, Ireland,[citation needed] Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Sweden, demanding further investigation.

According to Daniele Ganser, only Italy, Belgium and Switzerland carried on parliamentary investigations, while the prosecution of various "black terrorists" (terrorismo nero, neofascist terrorism) in Italy was difficult.

A 1990 article from The Guardian featured the following quote from judge Libero Mancuso:[17]

On the eve of the 1980 Bologna bombing anniversary, Liberato [sic] Mancuso, the Bologna judge who had led the investigation and secured the initial convictions [of the Bologna bombers] broke six months of silence: "It is now understood among those engaged in the matter of democratic rights that we are isolated, and the objects of a campaign of aggression. This is what has happened to the commission into the P2, and to the magistrates. The personal risks to us are small in comparison to this offensive of denigration, which attempts to discredit the quest for truth. In Italy there has functioned for some years now a sort of conditioning, a control of our national sovereignty by the P2 – which was literally the master of the secret services, the army and our most delicate organs of state."

Examples of such alleged terrorist acts include the strategy of tension in Italy, or the Oktoberfest bomb blast of 1980 in Munich.[citation needed] A Gladio official said that "depending on the cases, we would block or encourage far-left or far-right terrorism".[18][19]

[edit]Gladio operations in NATO countries

[edit]First discovered in Italy

Main article: Gladio in Italy

The Italian NATO stay-behind organization, dubbed "Gladio", was set up under Minister of Defense (from 1953 to 1958) Paolo Taviani's (DC) supervision.[20] However, Gladio's existence came to public knowledge when Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed it to the Chamber of Deputies on October 24, 1990, although far-right terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra had already revealed its existence during his 1984 trial. According to media analyst Edward S. Herman, "both the President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, and Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, had been involved in the Gladio organization and coverup..."[21][verification needed]

[edit]Giulio Andreotti's October 24, 1990 revelations

Christian Democrat Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti publicly recognized the existence of Gladio on October 24, 1990. Andreotti spoke of a "structure of information, response and safeguard", with arms caches and reserve officers. He gave to the Commissione Stragi, the parliamentary commission led by senator Giovanni Pellegrino in charge of investigations on bombings committed during the Years Of Lead in Italy, a list of 622 civilians who according to him were part of Gladio. Andreotti also assured that 127 weapons' cache had been dismantled, and pretended that Gladio had not been involved in any of the bombings committed from the 1960s to the 1980s (further evidence implicated neofascists linked to Gladio, in particular concerning the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, the 1972 Peteano attack by Vincenzo Vinciguerra, the 1980 Bologna massacre in which SISMI officers were condemned for investigation diversion, along with Licio Gelli, head of the P2 Masonic lodge, etc.). Andreotti declared that the Italian military services (predecessors of the SISMI) had joined in 1964 the Allied Clandestine Committee created in 1957 by the US, France, Belgium and Greece, and which was in charge of directing Gladio's operations.[22] However, Gladio was actually set up under Minister of Defense (from 1953 to 1958) Paolo Taviani's supervision.[20] Beside, the list of Gladio members given by Andreotti was incomplete. It didn't include, for example, Antonio Arconte, who described an organization very different from the one brushed by Giulio Andreotti: an organization closely tied to the SID secret service and the Atlantist strategy.[23][24]According to Andreotti, the stay-behind organisations set up in all of Europe did not come "under broad NATO supervision until 1959."[25]

[edit]2000 Parliamentary report: a "strategy of tension"

In 2000, a Parliament Commission report from the "Gruppo Democratici di Sinistra l'Ulivo" concluded that the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI, and to a certain degree also the PSI, from reaching executive power in the country". A 2000 Senate report, stated that "Those massacres, those bombs, those military actions had been organized or promoted or supported by men inside Italian state institutions and, as has been discovered more recently, by men linked to the structures of United States intelligence." According to The Guardian, "The report [claimed] that US intelligence agents were informed in advance about several rightwing terrorist bombings, including the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan and the Piazza della Loggia bombing in Brescia five years later, but did nothing to alert the Italian authorities or to prevent the attacks from taking place. It also [alleged] that Pino Rauti [current leader of the MSI Fiamma-Tricolore party], a journalist and founder of the far-right Ordine Nuovo (new order) subversive organisation, received regular funding from a press officer at the US embassy in Rome. 'So even before the 'stabilising' plans that Atlantic circles had prepared for Italy became operational through the bombings, one of the leading members of the subversive right was literally in the pay of the American embassy in Rome,' the report says."[26]

[edit]General Maletti's testimony concerning alleged CIA involvement

General Gianadelio Maletti, commander of the counter-intelligence section of the Italian military intelligence service from 1971 to 1975, alleged in March 2001 during the eight trial for the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombings that the CIA had foreknowledge of the event.[27] According to The Guardian, he said:[28]

...his men had discovered that a rightwing terrorist cell in the Venice region had been supplied with military explosives from Germany. Those explosives may have been obtained with the help of members of the US intelligence community, an indication that the Americans had gone beyond the infiltration and monitoring of extremist groups to instigating acts of violence...

General Maletti told the Italian court that "the CIA, following the directives of its government, wanted to create an Italian nationalism capable of halting what it saw as a slide to the left and, for this purpose, it may have made use of rightwing terrorism," and continued on by declaring: "I believe this is what happened in other countries as well." Gianadelio Maletti also said to the court: "Don't forget that Nixon was in charge and Nixon was a strange man, a very intelligent politician but a man of rather unorthodox initiatives."[citation needed]

General Maletti himself in the first Piazza Fontana trial received a four year sentence for providing a false passport to one of the accused bombers, this sentence was overturned in 1985.[29] Maletti received, while in exile, a 15-years sentence in 2000 for his role in trying to cover up a 1973 bomb attack in Milan against the Interior minister, Mariano Rumor (DC - 4 killed and 45 injured), but was acquitted on appeals.[30] According to the court, General Maletti knew in advance of the plan of the attacker, Gianfranco Bertoli, allegedly an anarchist but in reality a right-wing activist and a "long-standing SID informant" according to The Guardian, but had deliberately failed to inform the interior minister of it.[28]

Responding to charges made by Maletti in La Repubblica one year earlier, the CIA called the allegation that it was involved in the attacks in Italy "ludicrous."[31]

[edit]A quick chronology of Italy's "strategy of tension"

[edit]1964 Piano Solo

In 1964, Gladio was involved in a silent coup d'état when General Giovanni de Lorenzo in the so-called Piano Solo ("Operation Alone") forced the Italian Socialists Ministers to leave the government.[32]

[edit]1969 Piazza Fontana bombing

According to Avanguardia Nazionale member Vincenzo Vinciguerra: "The December 1969 explosion was supposed to be the detonator which would have convinced the politic and military authorities to declare a state of emergency".[33]

[edit]1970 Golpe Borghese

In 1970, the failed coup attempt Golpe Borghese gathered, around fascist Junio Valerio Borghese, international terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie and P2 grand master Licio Gelli.[citation needed]

[edit]1972 Gladio meeting

According to The Guardian, "General Geraldo Serravalle, a former head of "Office R", told the terrorism commission that at a crucial Gladio meeting in 1972, at least half of the upper echelons "had the idea of attacking the communists before an invasion. They were preparing for civil war." Later, he put it more bluntly: "They were saying this: "Why wait for the invaders when we can make a preemptive attack now on the communists who would support the invader? The idea is now emerging of a Gladio web made up of semi-autonomous cadres which – although answerable to their secret service masters and ultimately to the NATO-CIA command – could initiate what they regarded as anti-communist operations by themselves, needing only sanction and funds from the existing 'official' Gladio column (...) General Nino Lugarese, head of SISMI from 1981 to 1984 testified on the existence of a 'Super Gladio' of 800 men responsible for 'internal intervention' against domestic political targets."[5]

[edit]May 31, 1972 Peteano massacre

Magistrate Felice Casson discovered that "the explosives used in the attack came from one of 139 secret weapons depots of a secret army organized under the code name Operation Gladio".[21] Neofascist Vincenzo Vinciguerra confessed in 1984 to judge Felice Casson of having carried out the Peteano terrorist attack, in which three policemen died, and for which the Red Brigades (BR) had been blamed before. Vinciguerra explained during his trial how he had been helped by Italian secret services to escape the police and to fly away to Francoist Spain. However, he was abandoned by NATO as soon as he started talking about Gladio, declaring for example during his 1984 trial:

{{quote |with the massacre of Peteano and with all those that have followed, the knowledge should now be clear that there existed a real live structure, occult and hidden, with the capacity of giving a strategic direction to the outrages. [This structure] lies within the states itself. There exists in Italy a secret force parallel to the armed forces, composed of civilians and military men, in an anti-Soviet capacity, that is, to organise a resistance on Italian soil against a Russian army... A super-organization which, lacking a Soviet military invasion which might not happen, took up the task, on NATO's behalf, of preventing a slip to the left in the political balance of the country. This they did, with the assistance of the official secret services and the political and military forces..." He then said to The Guardian, in 1990: "I say that every single outrage that followed from 1969 fitted into a single, organised matrix... Avanguardia Nazionale, like Ordine Nuovo (the main right-wing terrorist group active during the 1970s), were being mobilised into the battle as part of an anti-communist strategy originating not with organisations deviant from the institutions of power, but from within the state itself, and specifically from within the ambit of the state's relations within the Atlantic Alliance."[4][5]

[edit]November 23, 1973 Bombing of the plane Argo 16

General Geraldo Serravalle, head of Gladio from 1971 to 1974, told a television programme that he now thought the explosion aboard the plane Argo 16 on 23 November 1973 was probably the work of gladiatori who were refusing to hand over their clandestine arms. Until then it was widely believed the sabotage was carried out by Mossad, the Israeli foreign service, in retaliation for the pro-Libyan Italian government’s decision to expel, rather than try, five Arabs who had tried to blow up an Israeli airliner. The Arabs had been spirited out of the country on board the Argo 16.[34]

[edit]1974 Piazza della Loggia bombingItalicus Express massacre, and arrest of Vito Miceli, chief of the Army intelligence service and member of P2, on charges of "conspiracy against the state"

In 1974, a massacre committed by Ordine Nuovo, during an anti-fascist demonstration in Brescia, kills eight and injures 102. The same year, a bomb in the Rome to Munich train "Italicus Express" kills 12 and injures 48. Also in 1974, Vito Miceli, P2 member, chief of the SIOS (Servizio Informazioni), Army Intelligence's Service from 1969 and SID's head from 1970 to 1974, got arrested on charges of "conspiration against the state" concerning investigations about Rosa dei venti, a state-infiltrated group involved in terrorist acts. During his trial, he revealed the existence of the NATO stay-behind secret army.[citation needed]

[edit]1977 Reorganization of Italian secret services following Vito Miceli's arrest

In 1977, the secret services were thus reorganized in a democratic attempt. With law #801 of 24/10/1977, SID was divided into SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare), SISDE (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica) and CESIS (Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza). The CESIS was given a coordination role, led by the President of Council.[citation needed]

[edit]1978 Murder of Aldo Moro

Prime minister Aldo Moro was murdered in May 1978 by the Second Red Brigades (BR), headed by Mario Moretti, in obscure circumstances. The head of the Italian secret services, accused of negligence, was a P2 member. The so-called "historic compromise" between the Christian Democrats and the PCI was abandoned:[35] The Italian Government led by Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga (a member of the extreme right faction of Italy's Christian Democrat party, a pro-NATO atlantist was also suspected of involvement in the killing of Aldo Moro).[citation needed]

As the conspiracy theorists would have it, Mr. Moro was allowed to be killed either with the acquiescence of people high in Italy’s political establishment, or at their instigation, because of the historic compromise he had made with the Communist Party[citation needed].

During his captivity, Aldo Moro wrote several letters to various political figures, including Giulio Andreotti. In October 1990, "a cache of previously unknown letters written by the former Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, just prior to his execution by Red Brigade terrorists in 1978... was discovered in a Milan apartment which had once been used as a Red Brigade hideout. One of those letters made reference to the involvement of both NATO and the CIA in an Italian-based secret service, 'parallel' army."[36] "This safe house had been thoroughly searched at the time by Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the head of counter-terrorism. How is it that the papers had not been revealed before?"asked The Independent[35] Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was murdered in 1982 (see below).

In May 1978, investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli thought that Aldo Moro's kidnapping had been organised by a "lucid superpower" and was inspired by the "logic of Yalta". He painted the figure of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa as "general Amen," explaining that it was him that, during Aldo Moro's kidnap, had informed Interior Minister Francesco Cossiga of the localization of the cave where Moro was detained. In 1978, Pecorelli wrote that Dalla Chiesa was in danger and would be assassinated (Dalla Chiesa was murdered four years later). After Aldo Moro's assassination, Mino Pecorelli published some confidential documents, mainly Moro's letters to his family. In a cryptic article published in May 1978, wrote The Guardian in May 2003, Pecorelli drew a connection between Gladio, NATO's stay-behind anti-communist organisation (which existence was publicly acknowledged by Prime Minister Giulio Andreottiin October 1990) and Moro's death. During his interrogation, Aldo Moro had referred to "NATO's anti-guerrilla activities."[37] Mino Pecorelli, who was on Licio Gelli's list of P2 membersdiscovered in 1980, was assassinated on March 20, 1979. The ammunitions used, a very rare type, where the same as discovered in the Banda della Magliana 's weapons stock hidden in the Health Minister's basement. Pecorelli's assassination has been thought to be directly related to Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who was condemned to 20 years of prison for it in 2002 before having the sentence cancelled by the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2003.[citation needed]

[edit]1980 Bologna massacre

"The makings of the bomb... came from an arsenal used by Gladio... according to a parliamentary commission on terrorism... The suggested link with the Bologna massacre is potentially the most serious of all the accusations levelled against Gladio, and comes just two days after the Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, cleared Gladio’s name in a speech to parliament, saying that the secret army did not drift from its formal Nato military brief."[38] In November 1995, Neo-Fascists terrorists Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, members of the Nuclei Armati Revoluzionari (NAR), were convicted to life imprisonment as executors of the 1980 Bologna massacre. The NAR neofascist group worked in cooperation with theBanda della Magliana, a Mafia-linked gang which took over Rome's underground in the 1970s and was involved in various political events of the strategy of tension, including the Aldo Moro case, the 1979 assassination of Mino Pecorelli, a journalist who published articles alleging links between Prime minister Giulio Andreotti and the mafia, as well as the assassination of "God's Banker" Roberto Calvi in 1982. The investigations concerning the Bologna bombing proved Gladio's direct influence: Licio Gelli, P2's headmaster, received a sentence for investigation diversion, as well as Francesco Pazienza and SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte. Avanguardia Nazionale founder Stefano Delle Chiaie, who was involved in the Golpe Borghese in 1970, was also accused of involvement in the Bologna massacre[19][39]

[edit]1982 murder of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, head of counter-terrorism

General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa's 1982 murder, in Palermo, by Pino Greco, one of the Mafia Godfather Salvatore Riina's (aka Toto Riina) favorite hitmen, is allegedly part of the strategy of tension. Alberto Dalla Chiesa had arrested Red Brigades founders Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini in September, 1974, and was later charged of investigation concerning Aldo Moro. He had also found Aldo Moro's letters concerning Gladio.

[edit]October 24, 1990 Giulio Andreotti’s acknowledgement of Operazione Gladio

After the discovery by judge Felice Casson of documents on Gladio in the archives of the Italian military secret service in Rome, Giulio Andreotti, head of Italian government, revealed to the Chamber of deputies the existence of "Operazione Gladio" on October 24, 1990, insisting that Italy has not been the only country with secret "stay-behind" armies. He made clear that "each chief of government had been informed of the existence of Gladio". Former Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi said that he had not been informed until he was confronted with a document on Gladio signed by himself while he was Prime Minister. Former Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini (Republican Party), at the time President of the Senate, and former Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani, at the time secretary of the ruling Christian Democratic Party claimed they remembered nothing. Spadolini stressed that there was a difference between what he knew as former Defence Secretary and what he knew as former Prime Minister. Only former Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga (DC) confirmed Andreotti's revelations, explaining that he was even "proud and happy" for his part in setting up Gladio as junior Defence Minister of the Christian Democratic Party. This lit up a political storm, requests were made for Cossiga's (Italian President since 1985) resignation or impeachment for high treason. He refused to testify to the investigating Senate committee. Cossiga narrowly escaped hisimpeachment by stepping down on April 1992, three months before his term expired.[40]

[edit]1998 David Carrett, officer of the U.S. Navy

David Carrett, officer of the U.S. Navy, was indicted by magistrate Guido Salvini on charge of political and military espionage and his participation to the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, among other events. Judge Guido Salvini also opened up a case against Sergio Minetto, Italian official for the US-NATO intelligence network, and pentito Carlo Digilio. La Repubblicaunderlined that Carlo Rocchi, CIA's man at Milan, was surprised in 1995 searching for information concerning Operation Gladio, thus demonstrating that all was not over.[33]

1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, which started Italy's anni di piombo, and the 1974 "Italicus Expressen" train bombing were also attributed to Gladio operatives. In 1975, Stefano Delle Chiaie met with Pinochet during Franco's funeral in Madrid, and would participate afterward in operation Condor, preparing for example the attempted murder of Bernardo Leighton, a Chilean Christian Democrat, or participating in the 1980 'Cocaine Coup' of Luis García Meza Tejada in Bolivia. In 1989, he was arrested in Caracas, Venezuela and extradited to Italy to stand trial for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing. Despite his reputation, Delle Chiaie was acquitted by the Assize Court in Catanzaro in 1989, along with fellow accused Massimiliano Fachini (as yet no convictions have been made for the attack). According to Avanguardia Nazionale member Vincenzo Vinciguerra: "The December 1969 explosion was supposed to be the detonator which would have convinced the political and military authorities to declare a state of emergency."[33]

[edit]The DSSA, another Gladio?

In July 2005, the Italian press revealed the existence of the Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies (DSSA), a "parallel police" created by Gaetano Saya and Riccardo Sindoca, two leaders of the National Union of the Police Forces (UNPF), a trade-union present in all the state security forces. Both said they were former members of Gladio. According to the DSSA website — closed after these revelations — Fabrizio Quattrocchi, murdered in Iraq after being taken hostage, was there "for the DSSA". According to the Italian investigators, the DSSA was trying to obtain international and national recognition by intelligence agencies, in order to obtain finances for its parallel activities. Furthermore, Il Messaggero, quoted by The Independent, declared that, according to judicial sources, wiretaps suggested DSSA members had been planning to kidnap Cesare Battisti, a former communist activist. "We were seeing the genesis of something similar to the death squads in Argentina" (the AAA groups) the magistrate is reported to have said.[41][42][43][44][45]

[edit]Belgium

Main article: Belgian stay-behind network

After the 1966 retreat of France from NATO, the SHAPE headquarters were displaced to Mons in Belgium. In 1990, following France's denial of any "stay-behind" French army, Giulio Andreotti publicly said the last Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) meeting, at which the French branch of Gladio was present, had been on October 23 and 24, 1990, under the presidency of Belgian General Van Calster, director of the Belgian military secret service SGR. In November, Guy Coëme, the Minister of the Defense, acknowledged the existence of a Belgium "stay-behind" army, lifting concerns about a similar implication in terrorist acts as in Italy. The same year, the European Parliament sharply condemned NATO and the United States in a resolution for having manipulated European politics with the stay-behind armies.[32]

New legislation governing intelligence agencies' missions and methods was passed in 1998, following two government inquiries and the creation of a permanent parliamentary committee in 1991, which was to bring them under the authority of Belgium's federal agencies. The Commission was created following events in the 1980s, which included the Brabant massacresand the activities of far right group Westland New Post.[46]

[edit]France

In 1947, Interior Minister Edouard Depreux revealed the existence of a secret stay-behind army in France codenamed "Plan Bleu". The next year, the "Western Union Clandestine Committee" (WUCC) was created to coordinate secret unorthodox warfare. In 1949, the WUCC was integrated into NATO, whose headquarters were established in France, under the name "Clandestine Planning Committee" (CPC). In 1958, NATO founded the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) to coordinate secret warfare.[citation needed]

The network was supported with elements from SDECE, and had military support from the 11th Choc regiment. The former director of DGSE, admiral Pierre Lacoste, alleged in a 1992 interview with The Nation, that certain elements from the network were involved with terrorist activities against de Gaulle and his Algerian policy. A section of the 11th Choc regiment split over the 1962 Evian peace accords, and became part of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), but it is unclear if this also involved members of the French stay-behind network.[47][48]

La Rose des Vents and Arc-en-ciel ("Rainbow") network were part of Gladio. François de Grossouvre was Gladio's leader for the region around Lyon in France until his alleged suicide on April 7, 1994. Grossouvre would have asked Constantin Melnik, leader of the French secret services during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62), to return to activity. He was living in comfortable exile in the US, where he maintained links with the Rand Corporation. Constantin Melnik is alleged to have been involved in the creation in 1952 of the Ordre Souverain du Temple Solaire, an ancestor of the Order of the Solar Temple, created by former A.M.O.R.C. members, in which the SDECE (French former military intelligence agency) was interested.[49]

[edit]Denmark

The Danish stay-behind army was code-named Absalon, after a Danish archbishop, and led by E.J. Harder. It was hidden in the military secret service Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste(FE). In 1978, William Colby, former director of the CIA, released his memoirs in which he described the setting-up of stay-behind armies in Scandinavia:[50]

"The situation in each Scandinavian country was different. Norway and Denmark were NATO allies, Sweden held to the neutrality that had taken her through two world wars, and Finland were required to defer in its foreign policy to the Soviet power directly on its borders. Thus, in one set of these countries the governments themselves would build their own stay-behind nets, counting on activating them from exile to carry on the struggle. These nets had to be co-ordinated with NATO's plans, their radios had to be hooked to a future exile location, and the specialised equipment had to be secured from CIA and secretly cached in snowy hideouts for later use. In other set of countries, CIA would have to do the job alone or with, at best, "unofficial" local help, since the politics of those governments barred them from collaborating with NATO, and any exposure would arouse immediate protest from the local Communist press, Soviet diplomats and loyal Scandinavians who hoped that neutrality or nonalignment would allow them to slip through a World War III unharmed."

On November 25, 1990, Danish daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, quoted by Daniele Ganser (2005), confirmed William Colby's revelations, by a source named "Q":

"Colby's story is absolutely correct. Absalon was created in the early 1950s. Colby was a member of the world spanning laymen Catholic organisation Opus Dei, which, using a modern term, could be called right-wing. Opus Dei played a central role in the setting up of Gladio in the whole of Europe and also in Denmark... The leader of Gladio was Harder who was probably not a Catholic. But there are not many Catholics in Denmark and the basic elements making up the Danish Gladio were former [WW II] resistance people - former prisoners of Vestre FængselFrøslevlejrenNeuengamme and also of the Danish Brigade."

[edit]Germany

Reinhard Gehlen, German military intelligence officer on the East front during the war, turned towards the US after the war, and set up the "Gehlen Organisation", which used manyformer Nazi party members for intelligence purposes during the Cold War. But alongside the Gehlen organisation, which became the nucleus of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Federal Intelligence Service), West Germany's intelligence agency created in 1956, US intelligence also set up a German stay-behind network parallel (and juxtaposed) to the Gehlen Org (which also had a role in the organisation of the ODESSA network, used to exfiltrate Nazi war criminals). CIA documents released in June 2006 under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, more than fifteen years after Prime minister Giulio Andreotti's revelations concerning Gladio, show that the CIA organized "stay-behind" networks of German agents between 1949 and 1955.[51]

One of these networks supported by the CIA was the Technische Dienst (TD, Technical Service) section within the Bund Deutscher Jugend (BDJ, Union of German Youth). The anti-communist BDJ was founded in 1950 by ex-Nazis Erhard Peters and CIA money-contact Paul Lüth. The existence of TD came to light, after a speech in the Hesse Landtag by PM Georg August Zinn.[52] During the investigations into BDJ, which started in September 1952, a couple of arms caches were found, including one in the Odenwald region, Hesse.[53] The claim by August Zinn that the BDJ supposedly was in the possession of a list of Social Democrats and Communists to be liquidated in case of a Soviet invasion, including leading figures of the opposition Social Democratic Party[54]) was denied by German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.[53] The BDJ was outlawed in January 1953.[55][56]

Documents shown to the Italian parliamentary terrorism committee revealed that in the 1970s British and French officials involved in the network visited a training base in Germany built with US money.[54]

In 1976, the secret service BND secretary Heidrun Hofer was arrested after having revealed the secrets of the German stay-behind army to her husband, who was a spy of the KGB.[32]

[edit]The 1980 Oktoberfest terror attack

Main article: Oktoberfest terror attack

Revelations of a witness in the investigation of the Oktoberfest bomb blast of 1980 in Munich lead to the conclusion that the explosives might have come from the German Neo-Nazi Heinz Lembke.[57] In 1981, German police by chance found an arms cache in the Lüneburg Heath, which led to the arrest of Lembke and the discovery of other arms caches in Lower Saxony. A few days later Lembke hanged himself in his prison cell. Lembke had been questioned in Oktoberfest investigation, but the public prosecutors found no evidence that he supplied the explosives for the bombing.[58]

Lembke's arms caches were supposed to be connected to Gladio by a number of researchers and journalists.[4]

[edit]CIA's documents released in June 2006

One network included Staff Sergent Heinrich Hoffman and Lieutenant Colonel Hans Rues, and another one, codenamed Kibitz-15, was run by Lieutenant Colonel Walter Kopp, a formerWehrmacht officer, described by his own North American handlers as an "unreconstructed Nazi."[59] In an April 1953 CIA memo released in June 2006, the CIA headquarters wrote: "The present furore in Western Germany over the resurgence of the Nazi or neo-Nazi groups is a fair example — in miniature — of what we would be faced with." Therefore some of these networks were dismantled. These documents stated that the ex-Nazis were a complete failure in intelligence terms. According to Timothy Naftali, a US historian from the University of Virginia who reviewed the CIA documents then released, "The files show time and again that these people were more trouble than they were worth. The unreconstructed Nazis were always out for themselves, and they were using the West's lack of information about the Soviet Union to exploit it."[59] The US NARA Archives themselves stated in a 2002 communique, concerning Reinhard Gehlen's recruiting of former Nazis, that "Besides the troubling moral issues involved, these recruitments opened the West German government, and by extension the United States, to penetration by the Soviet intelligence services."[60]

Hans Globke, who had worked for Adolf Eichmann in the Jewish Affairs department and helped draft the 1935 Nuremberg laws, became Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's national security advisor in the 1960s, and "was the main liaison with the CIA and NATO" according to The Guardian.[59] A March 1958 memo from the German BND agency to the CIA wrote that Adolf Eichmann is "reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias CLEMENS since 1952." However, the CIA did not pass the information on to the Israeli MOSSAD, as it feared revelations concerning its use of former Nazis for intelligence purposes — Eichmann, who was in charge of the Jewish Affairs department, was abducted by the MOSSAD two years later. Among these information that might have been revealed by Eichmann were the ones concerning Hans Globke, CIA's liaison in West Germany. At the request of Bonn, the CIA persuaded Life magazine to delete any reference to Globke from Eichmann's memoirs, which it had bought from his family.[51]

[edit]Norbert Juretzko's 2004 revelations

In 2004 the German spymaster Norbert Juretzko published a book about his work at the BND. He went into details about recruiting partisans for the German stay-behind network. He was sacked from BND following a secret trial against him, because the BND could not find out the real name of his Russian source "Rübezahl" whom he had recruited. A man with the name he put on file was arrested by the KGB following treason in the BND, but was obviously innocent, his name having been chosen at random from the public phone book by Juretzko.[citation needed]

According to Juretzko, the BND built up its branch of Gladio, but discovered after the fall of the German Democratic Republic that it was 100% known to the Stasi early on. When the network was dismantled, further odd details emerged. One fellow "spymaster" had kept the radio equipment in his cellar at home with his wife doing the engineering test call every 4 months, on the grounds that the equipment was too "valuable" to remain in civilian hands. Juretzko found out because this spymaster had dismantled his section of the network so quickly, there had been no time for measures such as recovering all caches of supplies.[citation needed] Civilians recruited as stay-behind partisans were equipped with a clandestine shortwave radio with a fixed frequency. It had a keyboard with digital encryption, making use of traditional Morse code obsolete. They had a cache of further equipment for signalling helicopters or submarines to drop special agents who were to stay in the partisan's homes while mounting sabotage operations against the communists.[citation needed]

In a German documentary about the Munich massacre happening at the 1972 Summer Olympics Juretzko further claims that BND stay-behind forces were activated and on alert shortly after the hostage taking. The German police had no specially trained counter-terrorist units at hands at that time. The BND agents however, according to Juretzko, were uniquely skilled and equipped for covert operations, which included sharpshooting and helicopter insertion. Due to fears of revealing the German stay-behind operation to the public, these vital forces were ultimately not used to free the Israeli hostages, resulting in the catastrophic outcome of the crisis and subsequent formation of the GSG 9 counter-terrorism and special operations unit.[61]

[edit]Greece

The aim of British Prime minister Winston Churchill was to prevent the communist-led EAM resistance movement from taking power after the end of World War II. After the suppression of a pro-EAM uprising in April 1944 among the Greek forces in Egypt, a new and firmly reliable unit was formed, the Third Greek Mountain Brigade, which excluded "almost all men with views ranging from moderately conservative to left wing."[62] After liberation in October 1944, EAM controlled most of the country. When it organized a demonstration in Athens on December 3, 1944 , members of rightist and pro-royalist paramilitary organizations, covered by "British troops and police with machine guns... posited on the rooftops", suddenly shot on the crowd, killing 25 protesters (including a six-year-old boy) and wounding 148.[63] This marked the outbreak of the Dekemvriana, which would lead to the Greek Civil War.[citation needed]

When Greece joined NATO in 1952, the country's special forces, the LOK (Lochoi Oreinōn Katadromōn, i.e. "Mountain Raiding Companies") were integrated into the European stay-behind network. The CIA and LOK reconfirmed on March 25, 1955 their mutual co-operation in a secret document signed by US General Trascott for the CIA, and Konstantinos Dovas, chief of staff of the Greek military. In addition to preparing for a Soviet invasion, the CIA instructed LOK to prevent a leftist coup. Former CIA agent Philip Agee, who was sharply criticized in the US for having revealed sensitive information, insisted that "paramilitary groups, directed by CIA officers, operated in the sixties throughout Europe [and he stressed that] perhaps no activity of the CIA could be as clearly linked to the possibility of internal subversion."[64]

The LOK was involved in the Greek military coup d' État on April 21, 1967,[65] which took place one month before the scheduled national elections for which opinion polls predicted an overwhelming victory of the centrist Center Union of George and Andreas Papandreou. Under the command of paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel Costas Aslanides, the LOK took control of the Greek Defence Ministry while Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos gained control over communication centers, the parliament, the royal palace, and according to detailed lists, arrested over 10,000 people. Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup which established the "Regime of the Colonels" (1967–1974), complaining that it represented "a rape of democracy" - to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered: "How can you rape a whore?".[66]

Arrested and then exiled in Canada and Sweden, Andreas Papandreou later returned to Greece, where he won the 1981 election for Prime minister, forming the first socialist government of Greece's post-war history. According to his own testimony, he discovered the existence of the secret NATO army, then codenamed "Red Sheepskin", as acting prime minister in 1984 and had given orders to dissolve it.[67]

Following Giulio Andreotti's revelations in 1990, the Greek defence minister confirmed that a branch of the network, known as Operation Sheepskin, operated in his country until 1988.[68]The socialist opposition called for a parliamentary investigation into the secret army and its alleged link to terrorism and the 1967 coup d'état. Public order minister Yannis Vassiliadis declared that there was no need to investigate such "fantasies" as "Sheepskin was one of 50 NATO plans which foresaw that when a country was occupied by an enemy there should be an organised resistance. It foresaw arms caches and officers who would form the nucleus of a guerilla war. In other words, it was a nationally justifiable act."[citation needed]

In December 2005, journalist Kleanthis Grivas published an article in To Proto Thema, a Greek Sunday newspaper, in which he accused "Sheepskin" for the assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Athens in 1975, as well as the assassination of British military attaché Stephen Saunders in 2000. This was denied by the US State Department, who responded that "the Greek terrorist organization '17 November' was responsible for both assassinations", and that Grivas's central piece of evidence had been the Westmoreland Field Manual which the State department, as well as an independent Congressional inquiry have alleged to be a Soviet forgery.[69] The document in question, however, makes no specific mention of Greece, November 17, nor Welch. The State Department also highlighted the fact that, in the case of Richard Welch, "Grivas bizarrely accuses the CIA of playing a role in the assassination of one of its own senior officials" while "Sheepskin" couldn't have assassinated Stephen Saunders for the simple reason that, according to the US government, "the Greek government stated it dismantled the “stay behind” network in 1988."[69]

[edit]Netherlands

A large arms cache was discovered in 1983 near the village Velp. In 1990 the government by means of then-prime-minister Ruud Lubbers was forced to confirm that the arms were related to planning for unorthodox warfare. He insisted that the Dutch organisation was, contrary to the operations in other European countries, totally independent from NATO command, and during wartime occupation would be commanded by the Dutch government in exile. The operating bureaus of the organisation would also move to safety in England or the USA at the first sign of trouble.[citation needed]

In his television show of 22 April 2007 Dutch crime journalist Peter R. De Vries revealed that weapons had been illegally supplied to Gladio well after the network was supposed to have been disbanded.[32]

A Dutch investigative television program revealed on September 9, 2007, that an arms cache that belonged to Gladio was ransacked in the 1980s. The cache was located in a forest nearScheveningen. Some of stolen weapons later turned up, including hand grenades and machine guns, when police officials arrested criminals Sam Klepper and John Mieremet in 1991. The Dutch military intelligence agency, MIVD, feared at that time that the disclosure of the Gladio history of these weapons was politically explosive.[70][71]

[edit]Norway

In 1957, the director of the secret service NISVilhelm Evang, protested strongly against the pro-active intelligence activities at AFNORTH, as described by the chairman of CPC: "[NIS] was extremely worried about activities carried out by officers at Kolsås. This concerned SB, Psywar and Counter Intelligence." These activities supposedly included the blacklisting of Norwegians. SHAPE denied these allegations. Eventually, the matter was resolved in 1958, after Norway was assured about how stay-behind networks were to be operated.[72][page needed]

In 1978, the police discovered an arms cache and radio equipment at a mountain cabin and arrested Hans Otto Meyer, a businessman accused of being involved in selling illegal alcohol. Meyer claimed that the weapons were supplied by Norwegian intelligence. Rolf Hansen, defense minister at that time, stated the network was not in any way answerable to NATO and had no CIA connection.[73]

[edit]Portugal

Further information: Aginter Press

In 1966, the CIA set up Aginter Press which, under the direction of Captain Yves Guérin-Sérac (who had taken part in the founding of the OAS), ran a secret stay-behind army and trained its members in covert action techniques amounting to terrorism, including bombings, silent assassinations, subversion techniques, clandestine communication and infiltration and colonial warfare. Aginter Press was suspected of having assassinated General Humberto Delgado (1906–1965), founder of the Portuguese National Liberation Front against Salazar's dictatorship (prominent historians and several sources also claim Delgado's assassination was performed by PIDE operational Rosa Casaco), as well as anti-colonialist leader Amilcar Cabral (1924–1973), founder of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) and Eduardo Mondlane leader of the liberation movement FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), in 1969 (prominent historians and several sources also claim Cabral's assassination was performed by individuals within Cabral's guerrilla movemment, thePAIGC, and Mondlane's death was work of his enemies inside FRELIMO - according to these versions, both assassinations were the result of struggles for power within the independentist movements).[32][74]

[edit]United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940 to assist resistance movements and carry out subversive operations in enemy-held territory across occupied Europe. Guardian reporter David Pallister wrote in December 1990 that a guerrilla network with arms caches had been put in place following the fall of France. It included Brigadier "Mad Mike" Calvert, and was drawn from a special-forces ski battalion of the Scots Guards which was originally intended to fight in Nazi-occupied Finland.[25] Known as Auxiliary Units, they were headed by Major Colin Gubbins, an expert in guerrilla warfare who would later lead the SOE. The Auxiliary Units were attached to GHQ Home Forces, and concealed within the Home Guard. The units were created in preparation of a possible invasion of the British Isles by the Third Reich. These units were allegedly stood down only in 1944. Several of their members subsequently joined the Special Air Service and saw action in France in late 1944. The units' existence did not generally become known by the public until the 1990s though a book on the subject was published in 1968.[75] In fiction, Owen Sheers' Resistance (2008), set in Wales, takes as one of its central characters a member of the Auxiliary Units called to resist a successful German invasion.

After the end of World War II, the stay-behind armies were created with the experience and involvement of former SOE officers.[32] Following Giulio Andreotti's October 1990 revelations,General Sir John Hackett (1910–1997), former commander-in-chief of the British Army on the Rhine, declared on November 16, 1990 that a contingency plan involving "stay behind and resistance in depth" was drawn up after the war. The same week, Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley (1924–2006), former commander-in-chief of NATO's Forces in Northern Europe from 1979 to 1982, declared to The Guardian that a secret arms network was established in Britain after the war.[54] General John Hackett had written in 1978 a novel, The Third World War: August 1985, which was a fictionalized scenario of a Soviet Army invasion of West Germany in 1985. The novel was followed in 1982 by The Third World War: The Untold Story, which elaborated on the original. Farrar-Hockley had aroused controversy in 1983 when he became involved in trying to organise a campaign for a new Home Guard against eventual Soviet invasion.[76]

Gladio membership included mostly ex-servicemen but also followers of Oswald Mosley's pre-war fascist movement.[citation needed]

[edit]General Serravalle's revelations

General Gerardo Serravalle, who commanded the Italian Gladio from 1971 to 1974, related that "in the 1970s the members of the CPC [Coordination and Planning Committee] were the officers responsible for the secret structures of Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Italy. These representatives of the secret structures met every year in one of the capitals... At the stay-behind meetings representatives of the CIA were always present. They had no voting rights and were from the CIA headquarters of the capital in which the meeting took place... members of the US Forces Europe Command were present, also without voting rights. ".[77] Next to the CPC a second secret command post was created in 1957, the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC). According to the Belgian Parliamentary Committee on Gladio, the ACC was "responsible for coordinating the 'Stay-behind' networks in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States". During peacetime, the activities of the ACC "included elaborating the directives for the network, developing its clandestine capability and organising bases in Britain and the United States. In wartime, it was to plan stay-behind operations in conjunction with SHAPE; organisers were to activate clandestine bases and organise operations from there".[78] General Serravale declared to the Commissione Stragi headed by senator Giovanni Pellegrino that the Italian Gladio members trained at a military base in Britain.[54] Documents shown to the committee also revealed that British and French officials members of Gladio had visited in the 1970s a training base in Germany built with US money.[54]

[edit]Column 88

Column 88 was a neo-nazi paramilitary organization based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in the early 1970s, and disbanded in the early 1980s. The members of Column 88 undertook military training under the supervision of a former Royal Marine Commando, and also held regular gatherings attended by neo-nazis from all over Europe. The name is code: the eighth letter of the alphabet 'HH' represents the Nazi greeting 'Heil Hitler'. Many suspected that this group were behind the arson attack that destroyed the Albany Empire in Deptford, south London in July 1978 during the Rock Against Racism campaign.[79]

In January 1991, the well known UK anti-fascist Searchlight magazine as part of a series of often contradictory articles variously alleging that C88 was the paramilitary wing of the British nationalist movement or a "honeytrap operation set up by British Intelligence, claimed that Column 88 was part of an alleged European Gladio "stay-behind" network, set up and trained by special forces units (such as the British SAS) to conduct sabotage and assassinations in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. This European-wide underground network is also alleged to have recruited neo-Nazis in NorwaySwedenGermanyItaly and other European countries.[79]

References

  • Ganser, Daniele: NATO's Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. (London: Frank Cass, 2005). ISBN 0-7146-8500-3.

[edit]The Guardian's November 1990 revelations concerning plans under Margaret Thatcher

The Guardian reported on November 5, 1990, that there had been a "secret attempt to revive elements of a parallel post-war plan relating to overseas operations" in the "early days of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative leadership". According to the British newspaper, "a group of former intelligence officers, inspired by the wartime Special Operations Executive, attempted to set up a secret unit as a kind of armed MI6 cell. Those behind the scheme included Airey Neave, Mrs Thatcher's close adviser who was killed in a terrorist attack in 1979, and George Kennedy Young, a former deputy chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6." The newspaper stated that Thatcher had been "initially enthusiastic but dropped the idea after the scandal surrounding the attack by the French secret service on the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, in New Zealand in 1985."[80] The Swiss branch, P-26, as well as Italian Gladio, had trained in the UK in the early 1970s.[80][81]

[edit]Parallel stay-behind operations in non-NATO countries

[edit]Austria

In Austria, the first secret stay-behind army was exposed in 1947. It had been set up by far-right Soucek and Rössner, who both insisted during their trial that "they were carrying out the secret operation with the full knowledge and support of the US and British occupying powers." Sentenced to death, they were then pardoned under mysterious circumstances byPresident Körner (1951–1957).

Franz Olah set up a new secret army codenamed Österreichischer Wander-, Sport- und Geselligkeitsverein (OWSGV, literally "Austrian hiking, sports and society club"), with the cooperation of MI6 and the CIA. He later explained that "we bought cars under this name. We installed communication centres in several regions of Austria", confirming that "special units were trained in the use of weapons and plastic explosives". He precised that "there must have been a couple of thousand people working for us... Only very, very highly positioned politicians and some members of the union knew about it".

In 1965, the police forces discovered a stay-behind arms cache in an old mine close to Windisch-Bleiberg and forced the British authorities to hand over a list with the location of 33 other caches in Austria.[32]

In 1990, when secret "stay-behind" armies were discovered all around Europe, the Austrian government said that no secret army had existed in the country. However, six years later, theBoston Globe revealed the existence of secret CIA arms caches in Austria. Austrian President Thomas Klestil and Chancellor Franz Vranitzky insisted that they had known nothing of the existence of the secret army and demanded that the US launch a full-scale investigation into the violation of Austria's neutrality, which was denied by President Bill Clinton. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns - appointed in August 2001 by President George Bush as the US Permanent Representative to the Atlantic treaty organization, where, as ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department United States Mission to NATO and coordinated the NATO response to the September 11, 2001 attacks - insisted: "The aim was noble, the aim was correct, to try to help Austria if it was under occupation. What went wrong is that successive Washington administrations simply decided not to talk to the Austrian government about it."[4]

[edit]Cyprus

Emblem of Special Forces Command.

The Turkish branch of Gladio Counter-Guerrilla formed the TMT Turkish Resistance Organisation in Cyprus in 1958 and manned it with turkish officers. The 1960 constitution of the republic of Cyprus only had provision for a very small professional army of a few hundred men from both Cypriot communities. Following the 1963-64 clashes that led to the collapse of the power sharing between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the National Guard was created as a conscription Greek cypriot army. The officers for the National Guard where almost exclusively Greek nationals, officers of the Greek Army. LOK units were created in Cyprus modelled on the Greek LOK units, though Cyprus never joined NATO and was at the time a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Reporter Makarios Drousiotis[82] has written about Greek officer Dimitris Papapostolou, commander of LOK in Cyprus at the time, conspiring with ex-interior minister Polykarpos Yorkatzis to kill elected presidentMakarios by attacking his helicopter, and after the failure of that attempt, being involved in the assassination of Yorkatzis. The 15 July 1974 coup d'etat against Makarios was executed by National Guard units, with the attack on the presidential palace perpetrated by 31 and 32 Moira Katadromon LOK units with the help of 21 Epilarhia Anagnoriseos tanks reconnaissance unit.[83]

[edit]Finland

In 1944, the Swedes worked with Finnish Intelligence to set up a stay-behind network of agents within Finland to keep track of post-war activities in that country. While this network was allegedly never put in place, Finnish codes, SIGINT equipment and documents were brought to Sweden and apparently exploited until the 1980s.[84]

In 1945, Interior Minister Yrjö Leino exposed a secret stay-behind army which was closed down (so called Weapons Cache Case). This operation was organized by Finnish general staff officers (without foreign help) in 1944 to hide weapons in order to sustain a large-scale guerrilla warfare in the event the Soviet Union tried to occupy Finland in the aftermath of theContinuation War. See also Operation Stella Polaris.

In 1991, the Swedish media claimed that a secret stay-behind army had existed in neutral Finland with an exile base in Stockholm. Finnish Defence Minister Elisabeth Rehn called the revelations "a fairy tale", adding cautiously "or at least an incredible story, of which I know nothing."[32] However, in his memoirs, former CIA director William Colby described the setting-up of stay-behind armies in Scandinavian countries, including Finland, with or without the assistance of local governments, to prepare for a Soviet invasion.[50]

[edit]Spain

Main article: Montejurra Incidents

Several events prior to Spain's 1982 membership in NATO have also been tied to Gladio: In May 1976, a year after Franco's death, two left-wing Carlist members were shot down by far-right terrorists, among whom were Gladio operative Stefano Delle Chiaie and members of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A), demonstrating connections between Gladio and the South American "Dirty War". This incident became known as the Montejurra massacre.[85] According to a report by the Italian CESIS (Executive Committee for Intelligence and Security Services), Carlo Cicuttini (who took part in the 1972 Peteano bombing in Italy alongside Vincenzo Vinciguerra), participated in the 1977 Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, killing five people (including several lawyers), members of the Workers' Commissions trade-unions closely linked with the Spanish Communist Party. Cicuttini was naturalized Spanish and exiled in Spain since 1972 (date of the Peteano bombing)[86]

Following Andreotti's 1990 revelations, Adolfo Suárez, Spain's first democratically elected Prime minister after Franco's death, denied ever having heard of Gladio.[87] President of the Spanish government in 1981-82, during the transition to democracyCalvo Sotelo stated that Spain had not been informed of Gladio when it entered NATO. Asked about Gladio's relations to Franquist Spain, he said that such a network was not necessary under Franco, since "the regime itself was Gladio."[88]

According to General Fausto Fortunato, head of Italian SISMI from 1971 to 1974, France and the US had backed Spain's entrance to Gladio, but Italy would have opposed its veto to it. Following Andreotti's revelations, however, Narcís Serra, Spanish Minister of Defense, opened up an investigation concerning Spain's links to Gladio.[89][90] Furthermore, Canarias 7newspaper revealed, quoting former Gladio agent Alberto Volo, who had a role in the revelations of the existence of the network in 1990, that a Gladio meeting had been organized in August 1991 in the Gran Canaria island.[91] Alberto Vollo also declared that as a Gladio operative, he had received trainings in Maspalomas, in the Gran Canaria island between the 1960s and the 1970s.[92] El País daily also revealed that the Gladio organization was suspected of having used former NASA installations in Maspalomas, in the Gran Canaria island, in the 1970s.[93]

André Moyen, former Belgian secret agent, also declared that Gladio had operated in Spain.[94] He said that Gladio had bases in Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastián and the Canarias islands.

[edit]Sweden

In 1951, CIA agent William Colby, based at the CIA station in Stockholm, supported the training of stay-behind armies in neutral Sweden and Finland and in the NATO members Norwayand Denmark. In 1953, the police arrested right winger Otto Hallberg and discovered the preparations for the Swedish stay-behind army. Hallberg was set free and charges against him were dropped.[32]

[edit]Switzerland

Main article: Projekt-26

In Switzerland, a secret army named P26 was discovered, by coincidence months before Giulio Andreotti's October 1990 revelations. After the "secret files scandal" (Fichenaffäre), Swiss parliamentaries started investigating the Defense Department in the summer of 1990. According to Felix Würsten of the ETH Zurich, "P26 was not directly involved in the network of NATO's secret armies but it had close contact to MI6."[95] Daniele Ganser (ETH Zurich) wrote in the Intelligence and National Security review that "following the discovery of the stay-behind armies across Western Europe in late 1990, Swiss and international security researchers found themselves confronted with two clear-cut questions: Did Switzerland also operate a secret stay-behind army? And if yes, was it part of NATO's stay-behind network? The answer to the first question is clearly yes... The answer to the second question remains disputed..."[96]

Swiss Major Hans von Dach published in 1958 Der totale Widerstand, Kleinkriegsanleitung für jedermann ("Total Resistance," Bienne, 1958) concerning guerrilla warfare, a book of 180 pages about passive and active resistance to a foreign invasion, including detailed instructions on sabotage, clandestinity, methods to dissimulate weapons, struggle against police moles, etc.[97]

In 1990, Colonel Herbert Alboth, a former commander of the Swiss secret stay-behind army P26 declared in a confidential letter to the Defence Department that he was willing to reveal "the whole truth". He was later found in his house, stabbed with his own military bayonet. The detailed parliamentary report on the Swiss secret army was presented to the public on November 17, 1990.[32] According to The Guardian, "P26 was backed by P27, a private foreign intelligence agency funded partly by the government, and by a special unit of Swiss army intelligence which had built up files on nearly 8,000 "suspect persons" including "leftists", "bill stickers", "Jehovah's witnesses", people with "abnormal tendencies" and anti-nucleardemonstrators. On November 14, the Swiss government hurriedly dissolved P26 — the head of which, it emerged, had been paid £100,000 a year."[80]

In 1991, a report by Swiss magistrate Pierre Cornu was released by the Swiss defence ministry. It said that P26 was without "political or legal legitimacy", and described the group's collaboration with British secret services as "intense". "Unknown to the Swiss government, British officials signed agreements with the organisation, called P26, to provide training in combat, communications, and sabotage. The latest agreement was signed in 1987... P26 cadres participated regularly in training exercises in Britain... British advisers — possibly from the SAS — visited secret training establishments in Switzerland." P26 was led by Efrem Cattelan, known to British intelligence.[81]

In a 2005 conference presenting Daniele Ganser's research on Gladio, Hans Senn, General Chief of Staff of the Swiss Army between 1977 and 1980, explained how he was informed of the existence of a secret organisation in the middle of his term of office. According to him, it already became clear in 1980 in the wake of the Schilling/Bachmann affair that there was also a secret group in Switzerland. But former MP, Helmut Hubacher, President of the Social Democratic Party from 1975 to 1990, declared that although it had been known that "special services" existed within the army, as a politician he never at any time could have known that the secret army P26 was behind this. Hubacher pointed out that the President of the parliamentary investigation into P26 (PUK-EMD), the right-wing politician from Appenzell and member of the Council of States for that Canton, Carlo Schmid, had suffered "like a dog" during the commission's investigations. Carlo Schmid declared to the press: "I was shocked that something like that is at all possible," and said to the press he was glad to leave the "conspirational atmosphere" which had weighted upon him like a "black shadow" during the investigations.[98] Hubacher found it especially disturbing that, apart from its official mandate of organizing resistance in case of a Soviet invasion, P26 had also a mandate to become active should the left succeed in achieving a parliamentary majority.[95]

[edit]FOIA requests and US State Department's 2006 communiqué

Three Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have been filed to the CIA, which has rejected them with the Glomar response: "The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of records responsive to your request." One request was filed by the National Security Archive in 1991; another by the Italian Senate commission headed by SenatorGiovanni Pellegrino in 1995 concerning Gladio and Aldo Moro's murder; the last one in 1996, by Oliver Rathkolb, of Vienna university, for the Austrian government, concerning the secret stay-behind armies after a discovery of an arms-cache.[32]

Furthermore, the US State Department published a communiqué in January 2006 which, while confirming the existence of stay-behind armies, in general, and the presence of the "Gladio" stay-behind unit in Italy, in particular, with the purpose of aiding resistance in the event of Soviet aggression directed Westward, from the Warsaw Pact, dismissed claims of any United States ordered, supported, or authorized skullduggery by stay-behind units. In fact, it claims that, on the contrary, the accusations of US-sponsored "false flag" operations are rehashed former Soviet disinformation based on documents that the Soviets themselves forged; specifically the researchers are alleged to have been influenced by the Westmoreland Field Manual, whose forged nature was confirmed by former KGB operatives, following the end of the Cold War. However since then counter sources from within gladio and the CIA have admitted its authenticity. The alleged Soviet-authored forgery, disseminated in the 1970s, explicitly formulated the need for a "strategy of tension" involving violent attacks blamed on radical left-wing groups in order to convince allied governments of the need for counter-action. It also rejected a Communist Greek journalist's allegations made in December 2005 (See above).[69]

[edit]Politicians on Gladio

Whilst the existence of a "stay-behind" organization such as Gladio was disputed, prior to its confirmation by Giulio Andreotti[citation needed], with some skeptics describing it as aconspiracy theory, several high-ranking politicians in NATO countries have made statements appearing to confirm the existence of something like what is described:

  • Former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti ("Gladio had been necessary during the days of the Cold War but, that in view of the collapse of the East Bloc, Italy would suggest to NATO that the organisation was no longer necessary.")[citation needed]
  • Former French minister of defense Jean-Pierre Chevènement ("a structure did exist, set up at the beginning of the 1950s, to enable communications with a government that might have fled abroad in the event of the country being occupied.").[citation needed]
  • Former Greek defence minister, Ioannis Varvitsiotis (Greek: Ιωάννης Βαρβιτσιώτης) ("local commandos and the CIA set up a branch of the network in 1955 to organise guerrilla resistance to any communist invader")[citation needed]

As noted above, the US has now acknowledged the existence of Operation Gladio.[citation needed]

[edit]Books

  • NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe (Contemporary Security Studies), by Daniele Ganser, 2005, ISBN 0-7146-8500-3
  • Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, by Philip Willan, 2002, ISBN 0-595-24697-4

[edit]Films

  • Alan Francovich , BBC Documentary Gladio (1992 three-part BBC documentary)
  • Michele Placido, Romanzo Criminale (2005, concerning the strategy of tension and the Banda della Magliana)
  • Renzo Martinelli, Five Moons Plaza at the Internet Movie Database (Piazza delle cinque lune) (2003)
  • Conspirator: The Story of Licio Gelli at the Internet Movie Database (2009)
  • German documentary Gladio - Geheimarmeen in Europa (Germany, 2010, 85mn), SWR © tvschoenfilm, Directors: Frank Gutermuth, Wolfgang Schoen
  • Turkish fiction movie "Kurtlar Vadisi Gladyo"
  • Joe Wright, Hanna at the Internet Movie Database (2011) CIA uses neo-nazi forces to capture a fugitive assassin

[edit]Gladio in Fiction

A precise analogue of Operation Gladio was described in the 1949 fiction novel An Affair of State by Pat Frank.[99] In Frank's version, U.S. State Dept officers recruit a stay-behind network in Hungary to fight an insurgency against the Soviet Union after the Soviet Union launches an attack on and captures Western Europe.

In the Archer episode "Lo Scandalo", the character Mallory Archer mentions having been involved in Operation Gladio when younger.

[edit]Literature

John Douglas-Gray in his thriller 'The Novak Legacy' ISBN 978-0-7552-1321-4

[edit]See also

  • Stay-behind
  • Fifth column
  • Counter-guerilla
  • Italian Communist Party (PCI) (1921-1991)

[edit]References

  1. ^ Çelik, Serdar (February/March 1994). "Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force". Kurdistan Report 17. Retrieved 2008-09-20. quoting Bülent Ecevit from "a newspaper interview" (in Turkish). Milliyet. 1990-11-28. "Özel Harp Dairesinin nerede bulunduğunu sordum 'Amerikan Askerî Yardım Heyetiyle aynı binada' yanıtını aldım."
  2. ^ Haberman, Clyde (1990-11-16). "EVOLUTION IN EUROPE; Italy Discloses Its Web Of Cold War Guerrillas". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-11. "Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Luxembourg have all acknowledged that they maintained Gladio-style networks to prepare guerrilla fighters to leap into action in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion. Many worked under the code name Stay Behind. Greece called its operation Red Sheepskin. News reports in recent days assert that similar programs have also existed in Britain, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Turkey and Denmark, and even in neutral countries like Switzerland and Sweden."
  3. ^ Belgian parliamentary report concerning the stay-behind network, named "Enquête parlementaire sur l'existence en Belgique d'un réseau de renseignements clandestin international" or "Parlementair onderzoek met betrekking tot het bestaan in België van een clandestien internationaal inlichtingenetwerk" pg. 17-22
  4. ^ a b c d e f Ganser, Daniele. "Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO’s Secret Stay-Behind Armies PDF (162 KB)," Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, South Orange NJ, Winter/Spring 2005, Vol. 6, No. 1.
  5. ^ a b c d Vulliamy, Ed (1990-12-05). "Secret agents, freemasons, fascists... and a top-level campaign of political 'destabilisation'". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Fitchett, Joseph. (1990-11-13) "Paris Says it Joined NATO 'Resistance'," International Herald Tribune
  7. ^ Duraud, Bernard (2005-10-07). "La critique - Récit d'un brigadiste" (in French). L'Humanité.
  8. ^ Peake, Hayden B.. "Intelligence in Recent Public Literature". The Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf. Central Intelligence Agency.
  9. ^ O’Shaughnessy, Hugh. "Gladio: Europe’s Secret Networks," The Observer, 18 November 1990.
  10. ^ (Italian) "Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul terrorismo in Italia e sulle cause della mancata individuazione dei responsabili delle stragi (1995 Parliamentary Commission of Investigation on Terrorism in Italy and on the Causes of the Failing of the Arrests of the Responsibles of the Bombings)". 1995. Archived from the original on 2006-08-19. Retrieved 2006-05-02.
  11. ^ (Italian) "Strage di Piazza Fontana – spunta un agente Usa". La Repubblica. February 11, 1998. Retrieved 2006-05-02. (With links to juridical sentences and Parliamentary Report by the Italian Commission on Terrorism)
  12. ^ (English)/(Italian)/(French)/(German) "Secret Warfare: Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies". Swiss Federal Institute of Technology / International Relation and Security Network. Archived from the original on 2006-04-25. Retrieved 2006-05-02.
  13. ^ "Gelli arrest is another chapter in Vatican bank scandal". American Atheists. 1998-09-16. Retrieved February 2006.
  14. ^ See for ex. links between Italian neofascist terroristStefano delle Chiaie, who was protected by the ItalianSISMI, and the DINA; including assassination attempts on Bernardo Leighton, Carlos Altamirano, Andrés Pascal Allende (Salvador Allende's nephew), etc. Delle Chiaie also worked with Argentine death-squad Triple A and Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer. Las relaciones secretas entre Pinochet, Franco y la P2 , Conspiración para matar, Sergio Sorin, February 4, 1999
  15. ^ "Secret Cold-War Network Group Hid Arms, Belgian Member Says". Brussels: Reuters. 1990-11-13.
  16. ^ Pedrick, Clare; Lardner, George Jr (1990-11-14). "CIA Organized Secret Army in Western Europe".Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  17. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (1990-08-03). "Grieving Bologna looks back in anger on bombing". The Guardian.
  18. ^ Patrice, Claude (1990-11-07). "ITALIE : face aux interrogations de l'opinion M. Andreotti lève le voile sur le passé d'une structure armée parallèle patronnée par l'OTAN et la CIA" (in French). Le Monde.
  19. ^ a b Gardais, Pierre (1990-11-29). "Le chef du gouvernement italien a dû reconnaître son existence"(in French). L'Humanité. Retrieved 2008-08-21. "Selon les cas, on excitait ou en empêchait le terrorisme d’extrême gauche ou d’extrême droite"[dead link] (English translation)
  20. ^ a b Willan, Philip. "Paolo Emilio Taviani", The Guardian, June 21, 2001. (Obituary.)
  21. ^ a b Herman, Edward S (June 1991). "Hiding Western Terror". Nation: 21–22.
  22. ^ Barbera, Myriam. "Gladio: et la France?," L'Humanité, November 10, 1990 (French).
  23. ^ "Caso Moro. Morire di Gladio" (in Italian). La Voce della Campania. January 2005.
  24. ^ Gladio e caso Moro: Arconte su morte Ferraro, "La Nuova Sardegna" (Italian)
  25. ^ a b Pallister, David. "How M16 and SAS Join In," The Guardian, December 5, 1990
  26. ^ Willan, Philip. "US 'supported anti-left terror in Italy'",The Guardian, June 24, 2000.
  27. ^ CIA knew, but didn't stop bombings in Italy – report. CBC
  28. ^ a b Willan, Philip. Terrorists 'helped by CIA' to stop rise of left in Italy, The Guardian, March 26, 2001.
  29. ^ "Protest marches as the Milan bomb outrage five go free". The Guardian. 1985-08-03.
  30. ^ "Neo-fascists Cleared of 1973 Bomb Attack for Second Time". ANSA. 2004-12-01.
  31. ^ "CIA rejects accusation of involvement in bombings in Italy". AFP. 2000-08-04.
  32. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chronology, Secret Warfare: Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies, ETH Zurich
  33. ^ a b c "Strage di Piazza Fontana spunta un agente USA" (in Italian). La Repubblica (IT). 1998-02-11. Retrieved 2006-02-02. (With original documents, including juridical sentences and the report of the Italian Commission on Terrorism.
  34. ^ Richards, Charles (1990-12-01). "Gladio is still opening wounds" (press cutting). The Independent(Cambridge clarion): p. 12. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  35. ^ a b Charles Richards & Simon Jones, "Skeletons start emerging from Europe's closet," The Independent, November 16, 1990, quoted in (Statewatch 1991).
  36. ^ Agnew, Paddy (November 15, 1990), "Report of NATO-sponsored secret army shocks Italy", The Irish Times: 8. Quoted by (Statewatch 1991).
  37. ^ Willan, Philip. "Moro's ghost haunts political life", The Guardian, May 9, 2003.
  38. ^ Vulliamy, Ed. The Guardian, January 16, 1991. Quoted by (Statewatch 1991).
  39. ^ (in Italian) Bologna massacre Association of Victims, Italy: Stragi
  40. ^ Ganser, Daniele (2005-04-07). "The Secret Side of International Relations: An approach to NATO’s stay-behind armies in Western Europe" (PDF). Political Studies Association Annual Conference. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
  41. ^ "Italy probes 'parallel police'". BBC News. July 1, 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  42. ^ Philips, John (2005-07-05). "Up to 200 Italian police 'ran parallel anti-terror force'". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-07-30.[dead link]
  43. ^ Selvatici, Franca (2005-07-02). "Macché Gladio bis, le autorità sapevano Gaetano Saya si difende" (in Italian). La Repubblica. (Google translation available)
  44. ^ Ceccarelli, Filippo (2005-07-03). "Gladio, P2, falangisti l'Italia che sogna il golpe" (in Italian). La Repubblica.
  45. ^ Imarisio, Marco (2005-07-03). "Così reclutavano: "Facciamo un'altra Gladio"" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera.
  46. ^ Official site of the Belgian Permanent Committee for the Control of Intelligence Services See "history" section in the "Presentation" part.
  47. ^ Kwitny, Jonathan (1992-04-06). "The C.I.A.'s Secret Armies in Europe". The Nation: pp. 446–447. Quoted in Ganser's "Terrorism in Western Europe".
  48. ^ Cogan, Charles (2007). "'Stay-Behind' in France: Much ado about nothing?". Journal of Strategic Studies 30 (6): 937–954. doi:10.1080/01402390701676493.
  49. ^ Daeninckx, Didier. "Du Temple Solaire au réseau Gladio, en passant par Politica Hermetica...," February 27, 2002.
  50. ^ a b Colby, William. "A Scandinavian Spy," Chapter 3. (Former CIA director 's memoirs.)
  51. ^ a b Lee, Christopher. CIA Ties With Ex-Nazis Shown,Washington Post, June 7, 2006.
  52. ^ "Alleged Secret Organization". The Times. 1952-10-09.
  53. ^ a b "'Partisans' in Germany". The Times. 1952-10-11.
  54. ^ a b c d e Norton-Taylor, Richard and David Gow. Secret Italian Unit," The Guardian, November 17, 1990
  55. ^ "Ban In Hesse On Youth Union". The Times. 1953-01-10.
  56. ^ "Further Ban On Union Of German Youth". The Times. 1953-01-15.
  57. ^ Daniele Ganser:http://blogs.shu.edu/diplomacy/files/archives/08_ganser27.pdfTerrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO’s Secret Stay-Behind Armies The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
  58. ^ "Police say suspect committed suicide". United Press International. 1981-11-01.
  59. ^ a b c Why Israel's capture of Eichmann caused panic at the CIA, The Guardian, June 8, 2006
  60. ^ Opening of CIA Records under Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, May 8, 2002 NARA communique(English)
  61. ^http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/hauptnavigation/startseite#/beitrag/video/1597574/M%C3%BCnchen-%2772---die-Dokumentation
  62. ^ Peter Murtagh, The Rape of Greece. The King, the Colonels, and the Resistance (London, Simon & Schuster, 1994), p.29, quoted by Daniele Ganser (2005), p.213
  63. ^ Ganser (2005), pp.213-214 (his quote)
  64. ^ Philip Agee and Louis Wolf, Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe (Secaucus: Lyle Stuart Inc., 1978), p.154 (quoted by Daniele Ganser (2005) p.216
  65. ^ "Due to the direct involvement of the Hellenic Raiding Force the Greek military coup has been labelled 'a Gladio coup'." (NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser, p. 221.) "In Greece, where it was given the code-name, Sheepskin, a cell was set up by the CIA in the 1950s but was dismantled in 1988, according to the government. Officers in the underground unit were involved in the Colonels' coup in 1967." (Richard Norton-Taylor, "The Gladio File: did fear of communism throw West into the arms of terrorists?", in The Guardian, December 5, 1990)
  66. ^ NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser, p. 221.
  67. ^ NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser, p. 223.
  68. ^ "NATO's secret network 'also operated in France'",The Guardian, November 14, 1990, pg.6
  69. ^ a b c "Misinformation about "Gladio/Stay Behind" Networks Resurfaces". United States Department of State.
  70. ^ "'MIVD verzwijgt wapenvondst in onderwereld'". Nu.nl. 2007-09-09. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  71. ^ "GLADIO IN NEDERLAND". Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  72. ^ Olav Riste (1999). The Norwegian Intelligence Service: 1945-1970. Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-4900-7.
  73. ^ "Secret Anti-Communist Network Exposed in Norway in 1978". Associated Press. 1990-11-14.
  74. ^ (Ganser 2005, p. 119) Quotes Joao Paulo Guerra, "Gladio actuou em Portugal", in O Jornal, 16 November 1990 and Stuart Christie, Stefano delle Chiaie, London, 1984, p.30.
  75. ^ David Lampe, The Last Ditch: Britain's Resistance Plans against the Nazis Cassell 1968 ISBN 0-304-92519-5
  76. ^ Dan van der Vat. "Obituary: General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley," Guardian. 15 March 2006
  77. ^ Gerardo Serravalle, Gladio (Rome: Edizione Associate,ISBN 88-267-0145-8, 1991), p.78-79 (Italian)
  78. ^ Belgian Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry into Gladio, quoted by Daniele Ganser (2005)
  79. ^ a b http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=384
  80. ^ a b c Richard Norton-Taylor, "The Gladio File: did fear of communism throw West into the arms of terrorists?", in The Guardian, December 5, 1990
  81. ^ a b Norton-Taylor, Richard. UK trained secret Swiss force" in The Guardian, September 20, 1991, pg.7.
  82. ^ http://www.makarios.eu/cgibin/hweb?-A=3664,printer.html&-V=makarios
  83. ^ Official list of the dead of the coup from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic of Cyprus.http://www.mfa.gov.cy/mfa/mfa2006.nsf/All/22F188281F443892C22574E5003E1F85/$file/%CE%A0%CE%A1%CE%91%CE%9E%CE%99%CE%9A%CE%9F%CE%A0%CE%97%CE%9C%CE%91.xls?OpenElement Dead coupists at the presidential palace area are from LOK units 31 MK and 32MK and tanks unit 21 EAN
  84. ^ C. G. McKay, Bengt Beckman, Swedish Signal Intelligence, Frank Cass Publishers, 2002, p. 202
  85. ^ Crimes of Montejurra (Good Google translation)
  86. ^ Un informe oficial italiano implica en el crimen de Atocha al 'ultra' Cicuttini, relacionado con Gladio, El País, December 2, 1990 (Spanish)
  87. ^ Suárez afirma que en su etapa de presidente nunca se habló de la red Gladio, El País, November 18, 1990(Spanish)
  88. ^ Calvo Sotelo asegura que España no fue informada, cuando entró en la OTAN, de la existencia de Gladio,El País, November 21, 1990 (Spanish)
  89. ^ Italia vetó la entrada de España en Gladio, según un ex jefe del espionaje italiano, El País, November 17, 1990 (Spanish)
  90. ^ Serra ordena indagar sobre la red Gladio en España, El País, November 16, 1990 (Spanish)
  91. ^ La 'red Gladio' continúa operando, según el ex agente Alberto Volo, El País, August 19, 1991 (Spanish)
  92. ^ El secretario de la OTAN elude precisar si España tuvo relación con la red Gladio, El País, November 24, 1990(Spanish)
  93. ^ Indicios de que la red Gladio utilizó una vieja estación de la NASA en Gran Canaria, El País, November 26, 1990 (Spanish)
  94. ^ La red secreta de la OTAN operaba en España, según un ex agente belga, El País, November 14, 1990
  95. ^ a b The Dark Side of the West, Conference "Nato Secret Armies and P26," ETH Zurich, 2005. Published 10 February 2005. Retrieved February 7, 2007.
  96. ^ Ganser, Daniele. "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland: An Unfinished Debate on NATO's Cold War Stay-behind Armies", published by the Intelligence and National Security review, vol.20, n°4, December 2005, pp.553-580 ISSN 0268–4527 print 1743–9019 online.
  97. ^ Major Hans von Dach, 1958. Der totale Widerstand...;Total Resistance reed. Paladin Press, 1992 ISBN 978-0-87364-021-3.
  98. ^ "Schwarzer Schatten" (in German). Der Spiegel 50: 194b–200a. 1990-12-10. Retrieved 2008-10-28.[verification needed]
  99. ^ Pat Frank. An Affair of State. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1949

External links

  • Operation Gladio (BBC Timewatch, 1992) State-Sponsored Terrorism in Europe
  • BBC 2 Gladio - 1992 tree part Documentary Video
  • Bibliography
    • Statewatch (January 1991). "Operation Gladio". Retrieved 2008-07-30
    • Secret Warfare : Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies. Edited by Daniele Ganser and Christian Nuenlist. 29 Nov 2004. Parallel History Project, ETH Zürich
    • Ganser, Daniele (2005). NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe. Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 0-7146-8500-3 (resume)
    • Daniele Ganser, Les Armées Secrètes de l'OTAN, Gladio et Terrorisme en Europe de l’Ouest, ISBN 978-2-917112-00-7 éditions Demi-Lune, 2007. Same book as above, in French. (a quick resume in French)
    • William Colby (former CIA director), Honorable Men (1978) extract
    • David Hoffman, "The Oklahoma City bombing and the Politics of Terror", 1998 (chapter 14 online on strategy of tension
    • Giovanni Fasanella and Claudio Sestieri with Giovanni Pellegrino, "Segreto di Stato. La verità da Gladio al caso Moro", Einaudi, 2000 (see civic website of Bologna) (Italian)
    • Jan Willems, Gladio, 1991, EPO-Dossier, Bruxelles (ISBN 2-87262-051-6). (French)
    • Jens Mecklenburg, Gladio. Die geheime Terrororganisation der Nato, 1997, Elefanten Press Verlag GmbH, Berlin (ISBN 3-88520-612-9). (German)
    • Leo A. Müller, Gladio. Das Erbe des kalten Krieges, 1991, RoRoRo-Taschenbuch Aktuell no 12993 (ISBN 3499 129930). (German)
    • Jean-François Brozzu-Gentile, L’Affaire Gladio. Les réseaux secrets américains au cœur du terrorisme en Europe, 1994, Albin Michel, Paris (ISBN 2-226-06919-4). (French)
    • Anna Laura Braghetti, Paola Tavella, Le Prisonnier. 55 jours avec Aldo Moro, 1999 (translated from Italian: Il Prigioniero), Éditions Denoël, Paris (ISBN 2-207-24888-7)(Italian)/(French)
    • Regine Igel, Andreotti. Politik zwischen Geheimdienst und Mafia, 1997, Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich (ISBN 3-7766-1951-1). (German)
    • Arthur E. Rowse, "Gladio: The Secret U.S. War to Subvert Italian Democracy" in Covert Action #49, Summer of 1994.
    • Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), "Staying Behind: NATO's Terror Network" in Fighting Talk #11, May 1995.
    • François Vitrani, "L’Italie, un Etat de 'souveraineté limitée' ?", in Le Monde diplomatique, December 1990. (French)
    • Patrick Boucheron, "L'affaire Sofri : un procès en sorcellerie?", in L'Histoire magazine, n°217 (January 1998) Concerning Carlo Ginzburg's book The judge and the historian aboutAdriano Sofri (French)
    • "Les procès Andreotti en Italie" ("The Andreotti trials in Italy") by Philippe Foro, published by University of Toulouse II, Groupe de recherche sur l'histoire immédiate (Study group on immediate history). (French)
    • Angelo Paratico "Gli assassini del karma" Robin editore, Roma, 2003.

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Cossiga during his Presidency

President
Francesco Cossiga

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Cossiga_Francesco.jpg

8th President of Italy

In office
3 July 1985 – 28 April 1992

Prime Minister

Bettino Craxi
Amintore Fanfani
Giovanni Goria
Ciriaco De Mita
Giulio Andreotti

Preceded by

Sandro Pertini

Succeeded by

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

42nd
Prime Minister of Italy

In office
4 August 1979 – 18 October 1980

President

Alessandro Pertini

Preceded by

Giulio Andreotti

Succeeded by

Arnaldo Forlani

President of the Italian Senate
Acting President of the Republic
from 
29 June 1985 to 3 July 1985

In office
12 July 1983 – 3 July 1985

Preceded by

Vittorino Colombo

Succeeded by

Amintore Fanfani

Italian Minister of the Interior

In office
12 February 1976 – 11 May 1978

Prime Minister

Aldo Moro
Giulio Andreotti

Preceded by

Luigi Gui

Succeeded by

Virginio Rognoni

Lifetime Senator

In office
28 April 1992 – 17 August 2010

Constituency

Former President

Personal details

Born

26 July 1928
Sassari, Sardinia, Italy

Died

17 August 2010 (aged 82)
Rome, Latium, Italy

Nationality

Italian

Political party

Christian Democracy

Spouse(s)

Giuseppa Sigurani

Children

Anna Maria Cossiga,Giuseppe Cossiga

Religion

Roman Catholicism

Minister for the Christian-Democracy

He was a minister several times for the Democrazia Cristiana party (DC), notably during his stay at Viminale (Ministry for internal affairs) where he re-structured the Italian police, civil protection and secret services. In 1977, when Cossiga was minister of internal affairs, police squads organized by Cossiga shot against a demonstration in Rome, killing student Giorgiana Masi. Cossiga for many years stated that she was killed by her companions.[4]

He was in-charge during the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by Red Brigades, and he resigned when Moro was found dead in 1978.[5]According to Italian journalist Enrico Deaglio, Cossiga to justify his lack of action "accused the leaders of CGIL and of the Italian Communist Party to know the location where Moro was detained".[4] Cossiga was also minister of internal affairs when Fascist terrorists bombed Bologna station in 1980. He initially declared that it was a Fascist attack, but he later stated it was a Palestinian transport of weapons which went wrong. He also supported the innocence of Giusva Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, who were later condemned for the bombing and for numerous murders, declaring: "They are good guys and they want me well."[4]

During the early 1980s, Cossiga attacked several times the antimafia judges and spoke in favour of judge Corrado Carnevale, a member of the Corte di Cassazione (Italy's supreme court) who had annulled numerous sentences against mafia leaders and was later tried for these actions.[4]

Cossiga was elected President of the Italian Senate 12 July 1983, a position he held until 24 June 1985, when he became the President of Italy.

[edit]Election as President of Italy

Following his resignation as president of the Senate in 1985, Cossiga was elected President of Italy (Head of State). This was the first time a candidate had won following the first ballot (where a majority of over two thirds is necessary).

It was not until his last two years as President that Cossiga began to express some unusual opinions regarding the Italian political system. He opined that the Italian parties, especially the DC (his own party) and Italian Communist Party, had to take into account the deep changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.[6]

These statements, soon dubbed "esternazioni", or "mattock blows" (picconate), were considered by many to be inappropriate for a President and, often, beyond his constitutional powers; also, his mental health was doubted and Cossiga had to declare "I am the fake madman who speaks the truth."[6]

Tension developed between Cossiga and the President of the Council of Ministers Giulio Andreotti. This tension emerged when Andreotti revealed the existence of Gladio, a stay-behind organization with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Cossiga announced his involvement in the establishment of the organization.[7][8] The Democratic Party of the Left (successor to the Communist Party) started the procedure of impeachment (Presidents of Italy can be impeached only for high treason against the State or for an attempt to overthrow the Constitution).[9][10] Although he threatened to prevent the impeachment procedure by dissolving Parliament, the impeachment request was ultimately dismissed.

Cossiga resigned two months before the end of his term, on 25 April 1992.[11]

[edit]Life senator

According to the Italian Constitution, after his resignation from the office of President, Cossiga became lifetime senator, joining his predecessors in the upper house of parliament, with whom he also shared the title of President Emeritus of the Italian Republic.

In February 1998, Cossiga created the Unione Democratica per la Repubblica (a political party), declaring it to be politically central. The UDR was a crucial component of the majority that supported the D'Alema government in October 1998, after the fall of the Prodi government which lost a vote of confidence.

Cossiga declared that his support for D'Alema was intended to end the conventional exclusion of the former Communist Party (PCI) leaders from the premiership in Italy.

In 1999 UDR was dissolved and Cossiga returned to his activities as a senator, with competences in the Military Affairs' Commission.[12]

In May 2006 he brought in a bill that would allow the region of South Tyrol to hold a referendum, where the local electorate could decide whether to remain within the Republic of Italy, take independence, or become part of Austria again.[13]

On 27 November 2006, he resigned from his position as a lifetime senator. His resignation was, however, rejected on 31 January 2007 by a vote of the Senate.

Cossiga died on 17 August 2010 because of respiratory problems.

[edit]Controversial statements

In 2007, in a statement published by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Cossiga commented on the 11 September attacks and on a video attributed to Osama Bin Laden 2001. He wrote that "all of the democratic circles of America and of Europe, especially those of the Italian centre-left, now know well that the disastrous attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world to place the blame on Arabic countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan".[14][15]However, the previous year Cossiga had stated that he rejects theoretical conspiracies and that it "seems unlikely that the rather impossible September 11 was the result of an American plot."[16]

In the same statement, Cossiga claimed that a video tape circulated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and containing threats against Silvio Berlusconi was "produced in the studios ofMediaset in Milan" and forwarded to the "Islamist Al-Jazeera television network." The purpose of that video tape (which was actually an audio tape) was to raise "a wave of solidarity to Berlusconi" who was, at the time, facing political difficulties.[14]

In 2008, Francesco Cossiga told about Mario Draghi: "He is a craven moneyman".[17]

[edit]Honours and awards

As President of the Republic, Cossiga was Head (and also Knight Grand Cross with Grand Cordon) of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (from 3 July 1985 to 28 April 1992), Military Order of ItalyOrder of the Star of Italian SolidarityOrder of Merit for Labour and Order of Vittorio Veneto and Grand Cross of Merit of the Italian Red Cross. He has also been bestowed honours and awards by other countries.

[edit]References

  1. ^ a b Page at Senate website (Italian).
  2. ^ See http://www.dizionario.rai.it/poplemma.aspx?lid=75285&r=424.
  3. ^ (Italian) Mio cugino Berlinguer: Cossiga racconta un leader (Cossiga talking about Enrico Berlinguer in an interview to Gian Antonio Stella – Corriere della Sera, 10 June 2004)(Italian)
  4. ^ a b c d Deaglio, Enrico (18 August 2010). "La lepre marzolina che attraversò la storia senza pagar dazio". L'Unità.
  5. ^ Sassoon, Donald (18 August 2010). "Francesco Cossiga obituary". The Guardian.
  6. ^ a b The Washington Post: Veteran Italian politician Cossiga dies
  7. ^ Bloomberg: Francesco Cossiga, Italy's Combative Former President, Dies at Age 82
  8. ^ ADN Kronos: Former president Francesco Cossiga dies at 82
  9. ^ (Italian) Il Sole 24 ore: Occhetto, lo strappo mai ricucito su Gladio
  10. ^ (Italian) La Repubblica: Il PDS vota l'impeachment di Cossiga (4 December 1991)
  11. ^ (Italian) La Repubblica: E l'uomo grigio prese il piccone (26 April 1992)
  12. ^ (Italian) Cossiga's activity as a Senator, on the Senate's website
  13. ^ Cossiga, Francesco (8 June 2006). "Riconoscimento del diritto di autodeterminazione al Land Südtyrol – Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano". Disegno di Legge Costituzionale N. 592. Senato della Repubblica XV Legislatura. Retrieved 21 February 2009.
  14. ^ a b "Osama-Berlusconi? "Trappola giornalistica"". Corriere della Sera. 30 November 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  15. ^ Scherer, Steve; Totaro, Lorenzo (17 August 2010). "Francesco Cossiga, Italy's Combative Ex-President, Dies at 82". Bloomberg. Retrieved 20 August 2010.[dead link]
  16. ^ http://archivio.lastampa.it/LaStampaArchivio/main/History/tmpl_viewObj.jsp?objid=7190957Sassoon, Donald (18 August 2010). "Francesco Cossiga obituary". The Guardian (London).
  17. ^ Francesco Cossiga told that during an interview at the morning television program "Uno Mattina", Rai Uno [1]
  • "Le confessioni di Cossiga: 'Io, Gelli e la massoneria'". La Repubblica. 11 October 2003. (on links between Cossiga, Licio Gelli and Propaganda Due masonic lodge; Massera, part of Videla's junta in Argentina, is also named)
  • Obituary – Fox news

[edit]External links

  • Works by or about Francesco Cossiga in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Political offices

Preceded by
Title jointly held

Italian Minister without portfolio
1974–1976

Succeeded by
Title jointly held

Preceded by
Luigi Gui

Italian Minister of the Interior
1976–1978

Succeeded by
Virginio Rognoni

Preceded by
Giulio Andreotti

Prime Minister of Italy
1979–1980

Succeeded by
Arnaldo Forlani

Preceded by
Vittorino Colombo

President of the Italian Senate
1983–1985

Succeeded by
Amintore Fanfani

Preceded by
Sandro Pertini

President of the Italian Republic
1985–1992

Succeeded by
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Italian Senate

Preceded by
Title jointly held

Senator
Legislatures
IX

1983–1985

Succeeded by
Title jointly held

Preceded by
Title jointly held

Lifetime Senator
Legislatures
XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI

1992–2010

Succeeded by
Title jointly held

Italian Chamber of Deputies

Preceded by
Title jointly held

Member of Parliament for Sardinia
Legislatures: III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII

1958–1983

Succeeded by
Title jointly held

Honorary titles

Preceded by
Masayoshi Ohira

Chair of the G8
1980

Succeeded by
Pierre E. Trudeau

[show] 

Francesco Cossiga

[show]

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