CINA

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GUERNICA 70 YEARS AGO

FASCIST ARIAL TERROR ATTACK

"Guernica", by P. Picasso, 1937

"Guernica, a city with 5,000 inhabitants.. has been literally razed to the ground. Bomb craters can be seen in the streets. Simply wonderful.", April 26, 1937 the commander of the 'Condor Legion' wrote in his war diary.

It has been exactly 70 years since German and Italian fighter planes backing the fascist forces of Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War leveled this historic Basque town on April 26, 1937.

According to the Basque government 1,654 citizens were killed and nearly 900 injured during the bomb attack. (Der Spiegel, Germany, 4.26)

Actually it was the first arial terror attack against civilian targets in the entire history.

Related:

☞ Bombing of Guernica (Wikipedia)

☞ 70 years later, Guernica holds secrets (AP)

☞ Practicing Blitzkrieg in Basque Country (Der Spiegel)

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Already about half year ago, when I heard the first time that the British Prince Harry will go to Iraq to join the occupation forces there, I thought that will be really funny. After his arrival there, all the Iraqi militant groups in opposition to the occupation will be involved in a race - who will be able to take him as hostage (or alternatively kill him).

Now today the German magazine Der Spiegel (in its online edition) headlined: "Iraqi Militias Publishing Harry-Pictures".. Harrharr!!!

"Abu Zaid, commander of the Malik Ibn Al Ashtar Brigade of the Mehdi Army militia, said: 'We are awaiting the arrival of the young, handsome, spoilt prince with baited breath and we confidently expect he will come out into the open on the battlefield.

'We will be generous with him. He will return to his grandmother [the Queen] but without ears,'(*) added Zaid..", according to today's Observer (UK).

Related articles (by the Observer):

☞ Harry is target in Iraq

☞ Harry 'the mother of all targets' in Iraq

Jan. 2005

So what..?? If he will be kidnapped/killed or not..(^^)

* Wow, that's a f.. great idea, really!! BTW it seems that (at least some parts of) the Iraqi "resistance" has developed in the recent month a very special kind of humor..^^

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RACISM IN THE GERMAN ARMY

Well, it seems that the Bundeswehr, the German Army is already preparing for RAHOWA (*). Just watch following short docu:

The "dialog":

The order by the sergeant:

"You now are in the Bronx.
A black Van stops in front of you.
Three Afroamericans step out and insult your mother on the roughest." 
The sergeant continues:
"Before each fire burst I want to hear a loud
'Motherfucker'."  

"Move on".

* ☞ Racial Holy War

Last year in Afghanistan:

German troops on "peace mission"

Related:

The German Defense Ministry said Monday that an incident in which a soldier was told to imagine facing hostile blacks in the Bronx while firing a machine gun was "absolutely unacceptable."
"This behavior is absolutely unacceptable and contradicts the training standards of the German army," defense ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said. (AP, 4.16)

☞ German Army to Investigate Racist Incident (Der Spiegel)

☞ Macabre Photos Disgrace German Military

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It was reported that last Saturday(2.24) the final candlelight vigil was held in Daechuri. So it seems that the struggle to save the villages of Daechuri and Doduri is "over"...

But finally, in my opinion, I think that the govt's decision to relocate the USFK base, the decission to force the inhabitans of Daechuri and Doduri out off their homes and field, is - simply said - complete nonsense. You just should read following: Doug Bandow, a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, wrote few days ago that "Even if GNP wins, U.S. should pull troops out". Read it and you will find out how stupid it was/is to tear down the two villages!!

BTW.. in my opinion the decision to kick out the inhabitans of Daechuri.. was/is an CRIMINAL ACT!!

Ha, and I would not wonder when - at the very end, perhaps in five years or so - the area will be used to build a new finance center or expensive appartment skyscrapers..

Here two reports about the final candlelight vigil in Daechuri:

Daechuri and Doduri, Forever! (VoP, 3.27)

The final candlelights in Daechuri were held up last weekend.

The residents in Daechri and Doduri have had a meeting every day, demanding to stop the Pyeongtaek U.S. base extention, with candlelight since Sep. 1st, 2004.

However, the Korean government kept them in submission by the policemen and soldiers.
The residents in both villages concluded to give up and leave their houses, farms and memories before April at all.

About 400 village keepers and activists who fought with the residents also joined the final candlelight meeting.
They held others' hands and tried to make a smile. But Their eyes were filled with tears.

The minister Han Sangyeol said that he was so sorry that all of the activists failed to stop the U.S. base extention and keep the residents to live in their home.

However, Sin Jongwon the delegation of residents in Daechuri village answered that they could come back to their home because the U.S. troops couldn't stay longer than 10 years.

People put their most valuable things in one big pot would be buried in somewhere in Daechuri village. It means that they would never forget those villages, residents and their struggle. And it also means that they will recover those villages and lands.

http://www.vop.co.kr/english/news_view_eng.html?serial=67568

Last candlelight vigil in Daechuri, but the fight against base expansion goes on (Days in Daechuri, 3.27)

Daechuri residents held their last candlelight vigil on March 24. Saturday's vigil was the 935th since the villagers began the nightly gathering to protest their expulsion from their land. Last month, villagers were forced into an “agreement” to leave their land by the end of March. (see previous articles).

 
Several hundred supporters came to Daechuri for the last vigil, to honor the residents' struggle and continue the fight against the base expansion. During the vigil, residents celebrated and remembered their village and the amazing community that has grown to fight alongside them, and denounced and mourned the impending destruction of their homes. The mood was not the satisfaction and peaceful resolution that has been presented in the mass media. When the vigil ended with a long wordless shout, as it has every night for two and a half years, the shout lasted much longer than usual, and some residents and supporters cried when it finally ended.

Residents expect to actually leave sometime in April. They will stay in temporary housing until their new homes, in a new village, are ready. One of the villagers' main demands, once they accepted the governments' final ultimatum to leave or be forced out with nothing, was to be able to live together in a new village.

Some activists who have made Daechuri and neighboring Doduri their homes will continue to live in the villages. These activists have the support of Daechuri villagers and will continue their fight against the base expansion. The activists, and supporters from around Korea, will hold their third meeting in Daechuri on Saturday, April 7. The KCPT coalition of Korean social movements will also continue to oppose the base expansion.

http://saveptfarmers.org/blog/2007/03/last_candlelight_vigil_in_daec.html

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Iraq, Palestine, Israel:

PEACE & LOVE..

..just everywhere (^^):

Following is just a small "collection" of today's "news" about the M.E.:

Iraqi police shoot Sunnis in 'revenge attack' (Guardian/UK)

At least 45 Sunni men have been killed by off-duty police officers enraged at bombings targeting the Shia community, police and security officials said today.
The shootings in Tal Afar, a city in the north-west of Iraq, were an apparent revenge attack for yesterday's bombings that killed at least 63 people in a Shia district.

The officers were said to have started roaming around Sunni neighbourhoods on foot early in the morning, shooting at Sunni residents and homes, the Associated Press reported.

The shootings continued for more than two hours, officials said, before Iraqi army troops moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence.

Police said dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, but they had no precise figures. A senior hospital official in Tal Afar said at least 45 men aged 15 to 60 were killed with shots to the back of the head, and four others were wounded.

"I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don't have enough space in the hospital," a doctor at Tal Afar's main hospital told the Reuters news agency.

The Iraqi army has placed a curfew on the entire town, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brigadier Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

"The situation is under control now," said Mr Hamdani. "The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them."

Brig Jibouri said he was heading to Tal Afar to take charge of the situation.

Two truck bombs hit markets in Tal Afar yesterday killing at least 63 people and injuring some 150 more. The attacks were part of an upsurge in violence in Baghdad and outside the capital in recent days.

Tal Afar is 260 miles north-west of Baghdad and is in the province of Ninevah, of which Mosul is the capital.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2044532,00.html

Haha, just yesterday a high-ranking official of the US Army (aeh~, I mean the occupation forces) told CNN Int'l TV: "Civil war in Iraq? There is no civil war, not at all.."

*****

'Islam will enter every house' (Ynet/Israel News)

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar: Religion of Islam will take over entire world

Islam will enter "every house" and become the dominant religion across the entire planet, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said during a mass rally in Gaza this week.

Zahar was previously the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister. He spoke at a rally held for the late Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, and his comments were translated by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) organization. 

"The prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world," Zahar was quoted as saying.

"The divine promise made in the 'Al-Israa Sura' is that we will liberate the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, and we will enter it as we have entered it the first time," he added.

 
"Our position is the liberation of Palestine," Zahar declared, adding: "All of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us. There is a Quranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam."

Commenting on Zahar's comments, PMW Director Itamar Marcus and Associate Director Barbara Crook wrote: "While the Hamas goal of destroying Israel is well known, its aspiration for Islamic subjugation of the entire world is just as basic to Hamas dogma."

 
"Both aims appear in the Hamas Charter as God's irrepressible will, and both aims were reiterated this week by senior Hamas leader and former PA foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar," they added.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3381932,00.html

*****

‘Marriage to an Arab is national treason’ (Ynet)

Recent poll reveals steep rise in racist views against Arabs in Israel; many participants feel hatred, fear when overhearing Arabic, 75 percent don’t approve of shared apartment buildings

 
Over half of the Jewish population in Israel believes the marriage of a Jewish woman to an Arab man is equal to national treason, according to a recent survey by the Geocartography Institute.

 
The survey, which was conducted for the Center Against Racism, also found that over 75 percent of participants did not approve of apartment buildings being shared between Arabs and Jews. Sixty percent of participants said they would not allow an Arab to visit their home.

Five hundred Jewish men and women participated in the poll, which was published Tuesday.

According to the survey, racism against Arabs in Israel has seen a sharp rise since a similar survey was conducted two years ago.

In 2006, 247 racist acts against Arabs were reported, as opposed to 225 one year prior.

About 40 percent of participants agreed that “Arabs should have their right to vote for Knesset revoked”. The number was 55 percent lower in the previous survey. Also, over half of the participants agreed that Israel should encourage its Arab citizens to immigrate from the country.

Over half of the participants said they would not want to work under the direct management of an Arab, and 55 percent said “Arabs and Jews should be separated at entertainment sites”.

‘Arab culture inferior’

Participants were asked what they felt when they overheard someone speaking Arabic. Thirty-one percent said they felt hatred, while 50 percent said they felt fear.

Over 56 percent of participants said they believed that Israel’s Arab citizens posed both a security and a demographic threat to the country.

When asked what they thought of Arab culture, over 37 percent replied, “The Arab culture is inferior.”

 
“The Center Against Racism has set itself a goal to monitor all racial incidents against Arab citizens, and to fight racism as much as possible under the law through public action,” the center’s annual report said.

Bachar Ouda, the center's director, said the survey’s findings were worrisome, and urged the government to intervene in the situation.

“We call on the education minister to take the gloves off and deal with the issue seriously, because it is dangerous to coexistence. We call on the state prosecutions office, and the attorney general to take action,” Ouda said.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3381978,00.html

To learn more about some "ideas" in/about Israel/Pal. just check out the "talkbacks" to this and the previous report!

*****

And the very latest news (5:30 pm, CET):

'Talking is over'

IDF strikes in Gaza..

Army attacks target in northern Strip from air, hits Qassam launching cell. Palestinian report civilians hurt in strike, one of them sustaining critical wounds. Military sources say no change in policy, targeted killings will not be resumed..

Please read the entire stuff here:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3382435,00.html

I'm sorry that there are no better news.. 

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Yesterday's Peace Rally/Demo in Seoul

Well, actually, when I understood the Korean reports well, it was a little better than the last peace/anti-war demos in Seoul. According to Jinbonet/Chamsesang 1,500 people (according to VoP 1,000 people) joined the event.

The riot cops were prepared for CIVIL WAR^^! Thousands of them were ready to SMASH THE REVOLUTION^^! But unfortunately the revolution was not scheduled..(What a surprise!!)^^

Related articles and pictures:

☞ 3.17 국제공동반전행동...경찰의 집회 방해는 여전 (VoP report, incl. 2 videos)

☞ 국민행동, '3.17 이라크 침략 4년 규탄 국제공동반전행동' (Tongil News report)

☞ “이라크 점령 종식! 즉각 철군!” (Chamsesang report)

☞ 3.17 반전집회서 이주노동자단체들 이주인권 캠페인 진행 (Blog report)

☞ 20070317 - 국제공동반전행동 (Photo report)

☞ More photos about the event

이주노동자.. 反戰투쟁

제국주의 박살내자!

(毛主席..!!)

PS:

Of course N.K.'s KCNA mentioned the event (even it took four days for them to check the "news" from the South^^):

U.S. War of Aggression Denounced in S. Korea

    A meeting and a demonstration were reportedly held in Seoul on March 17 under the sponsorship of the south Korean People's Action against Troop Dispatch.
    The meeting titled the "international joint action against war to denounce the U.S. on the lapse of four years after its aggression of Iraq" took place in the plaza of Seoul Railway Station.
    Speakers at the meeting disclosed the wars of aggression committed by the U.S. in different parts of the world in recent years and denounced it for invading Iraq and killing Iraqi people in a brutal way.
    Noting that the south Korean "government" dispatched troops to the U.S. war of aggression but it resulted in death of innocent young people, they denounced the "government" for its persistent troop dispatch.
    The U.S. pays lip service to the improved relations with the DPRK externally but is planning to stage war drills against it internally, they pointed out, urging the U.S. not to mock at the world people with its double-dealing tricks any longer but opt for the road to peace.
    Solidarity letters from peace movement organizations in various countries were introduced at the meeting.
    A resolution, read out at the meeting, demanded that the U.S. stop the wars of aggression of Iraq and Afghanistan at once and the south Korean "government" withdraw the overseas-dispatched troops.
    At the end of the meeting the participants held a demonstration.
    Information activities and a signature campaign denouncing the U.S. war of aggression were conducted around the venue of the meeting.

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3.17 ANTI-WAR RALLY/DEMO

in Seoul

일시 : 3월 17일(토) 오후 3시
장소 : 서울역

Tomorrow (Sat.), 3 pm

Seoul Stn

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3.17 Anti-war rally/demo in Seoul (propaganda video):

Source: 파병반대국민행동

PS:

The background music - the German band Rammstein, some people are calling them the modern sound of Nazism (??) - is completely senselessly. "Amour (Love).. is a wild animal.. Please give me poison.".. It's like someone would use Jaurim as background music for a documentary about Auschwitz (aeh~ of course Jaurim have nothing to do with Nazism!! And the Iraq War is not to compare with Auschwitz..).

And about Yoon Jang-ho.. NO COMMENT anymore!!

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About following case several German newspapers were reporting today, even some bourgeois like Berliner Zeitung, Die Welt..:

US SOLDIER CONVICTED OF DESERTION
Aguayo Follows His Conscience to the Brig

Agustin Aguayo, convicted by a US military court martial in Würzburg on Tuesday, says he is a conscientious objector. The US military considers him a coward. For the stalled anti-war movement, the Iraq veteran has become a symbol.

Anti-war protesters offer their support to conscientious objector Augustin Aguayo, a Mexican-American convicted of desertion in court martial proceedings at a US base in Germany on Tuesday.
Is it possible to become a conscientious objector once you have signed up to fight a war? According to United States military regulations, the answer is yes. But as confirmed by a US Army court martial in the case of former Army Specialist Agustin Aguayo near the western German city of Würzburg on Tuesday, the Army also reserves the right to answer no.

Aguayo, a 35-year-old Mexican-American from Los Angeles, served a tour of duty in Iraq as a combat medic from 2004 to 2005. Early on in basic training, however, he began to realize that he was opposed to war. When his unit was ordered to return to Iraq for a second tour of duty in the war-torn country, Aguayo decided he simply could not obey with a clear conscience. He deserted through a bedroom window.

In a small cramped courtroom on the Leighton Barracks near Würzburg, Germany on Tuesday, Aguayo was found guilty of desertion, slapped with a bad-conduct discharge, stripped of pay and benefits and sent to the brig for eight months. It could have been much worse -- the prosecution had asked for Aguayo to be locked away for two years.

"I never intended to cause any disruption," a visibly nervous Aguayo told the military judge hearing his case. "I always tried to do the best I could. I sincerely believe I am a conscientious objector. My life reflects that and it's what I have become at the very core of myself."

In the 161 days since he turned himself in to military authorities in California -- where he traveled after deserting his unit just as it was deploying to Iraq in early September last year -- Aguayo has also become something else. A symbol.

A court martial and a message
 

In closing arguments, an Army co-prosecutor made perfectly clear the court martial's message is for those increasing number of men and women in uniform who are dissatisfied with what they are being asked to do in Iraq: "It is not OK to abandon your brothers in arms."

But thrown in among the couple dozen journalists on hand for the trial were those for whom Aguayo symbolizes a much broader message. They were representatives of the anti-Iraq War movement in the US and in Europe. For them, Aguayo is something of a hero.

It is a role that Aguayo himself is ambivalent about taking on. For him, it was always about his changing beliefs once he entered the Army. About his growing discomfort with picking up a weapon. About his refusal to carry a loaded gun even while serving in the war zone in Iraq. Or, as his civilian defense attorney David Court put it: "This is a case of a man of conscience who did not want to break the law."

Refusing to fight in Iraq

Whether he likes it or not, though, Aguayo has become the latest in an ever-growing list of US soldiers hitting the headlines for refusing to fight in Iraq. Some, like Lt. Ehren Wutada -- who recently became the first US officer to be court martialed for opting not to obey orders sending him to Iraq -- argue that the fight is illegal. Others, like Aguayo -- and Mark Wilkerson, who was sentenced to seven months behind bars in February for desertion -- choose the conscientious objector route, saying that their belief systems have changed.

All, though, are needed by an anti-war movement that -- despite widespread disapproval of the war "state-side" -- has had difficulty gaining traction in the United States. Soldiers who oppose the war, reason those on the front lines of that movement, could be just the catalyst they need.

"Those who take a public stand give support to those (still in the military) who are against the war and thinking of resisting," Kelly Dougherty, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The only ones who can destroy the myth (that the Iraq War is necessary) are the military."

Dougherty, in Germany this week for the Aguayo court martial and one of the many on hand showing their support for the Aguayo family, was with a military police unit in the Army National Guard and served a tour of duty in the town of Nasiriyah south of Baghdad from 2003 to 2004. She became a founding member of Iraq Veterans Against the War in July 2004. Now, the group -- which at a retreat in January elected to focus more of its attention on fostering resistance within the military -- counts over 400 members, all current or former soldiers.

Other peace and anti-war groups have also recognized the potential of supporting real soldiers as they try to turn their backs on the military. Lori Hurlebaus of Courage to Resist was also in Würzburg on Tuesday. A number of groups based in Germany including Tübingen Progressive Americans and American Voices Abroad were also there.

Support for the organizations is growing. The group Veterans for Peace joins Dougherty's group in seeing rapid growth. Furthermore, nearly 1,600 active soldiers have now signed a petition to the US Congress that reads in part: "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price." Likewise, according to the War Resisters Support Campaign in Canada, there may be as many as 200 to 300 US soldiers who have headed north across the border to escape deployment.

Help from foreign governments?

With the growing numbers has come a growing self-confidence. Dougherty and Hurlebaus, for example, are also hoping to get foreign governments, including the German government, to help resistance efforts. In fact, the two met with members of the Left Party in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, on Monday. The message? It is the responsibility of the German people to monitor what happens in German territory.

"Even if the German military was not involved in the invasion of Iraq," says Hurlebaus, "there is a military conducting a war of aggression from German soil."

Reluctant hero Aguayo, for his part, is now heading to Mannheim for his term -- and then he will be where he has wanted to be since he first filed his conscientious objector papers just days before his first deployment to Iraq in February, 2004: at home with his family. And far from any battlefields, orders to commit violence and guns.

Indeed, he had been hoping to be granted conscientious objector status from the beginning. It was only after his application was refused, despite being initially rubber-stamped by his immediate superiors, that Aguayo realized he had to move to plan B. Which wasn't much of a plan. On the evening of Sept. 1, 2006, his unit began its journey back to Iraq. And Aguayo elected not to join them. The next day, he turned himself in, only to be told that he might still be sent to Iraq. After being brought to his on-base apartment to collect his belongings, Aguayo took off out the bedroom window leaving his wife Helga in the front room.

"Until he is back, our lives are at a standstill," Helga told the court during the sentencing proceedings. In as little as 40 days, the standstill will be over.

Related: 

☞ Casualties of Conscience (Der Spiegel, 2.27)

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One week ago Yoon Jang-ho, a Sgt. in the S. Korean unit of the int'l occupation forces in Afghanistan, was killed by a suicide attack.

Yesterday in front of Seoul's Dong-A building about 200(?) "anti-war" activists staged a vigil to mourn his dead and to protest against the S.K. policy of joining the occupation forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

☞ 윤장호 하사 추모 촛불문화제

Meanwhile the S.K. "Anti-war" movement is calling for the main demo against the Iraq war (3.17) - and is using Yoon Jang-ho's case:

But.. just read

Yoon wanted to go to Afghanistan. As a (occupation) soldier he had the duty to KILL!

And he was ready to kill! But he was killed by the "enemies"! So, ..what?? BTW the war in Afghanistan, like in Iraq is just the struggle between several gangs of war criminals!! And everyone who wants to take a part in this struggle must live with it ..and possibly die!!