CINA

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About the "Summit of the Americas" in preparation of FTAA the UK daily Guardian wrote today: Latin America prepares to 'say no to Bush' · Maradona leads protests at summit in Argentina · Opponents gather in high profile alternative meeting George Bush left his problems at home yesterday only to find himself flying into a whole new world of hurt at the Summit of Americas in Argentina, where tens of thousands of protesters, led by the football star and broadcaster Diego Maradona, were due to greet the president in a "say no to Bush" march. The president can expect an equally unfriendly welcome from some of the leaders and top officials attending the summit in the seaside town of Mar del Plata. Among those he can expect to come face to face with is Hugo Chavez, the outspoken president of Venezuela who has accused the Bush administration of attempting to orchestrate a coup against him and last week said the US was planning to invade his country. Around 10,000 police and security agents have erected a ring of steel around the town, while Argentinian navy vessels have been positioned off the coast. Most commercial flights are due to be suspended once the 34-nation summit begins. But with so many protesters in the area, there are fears that trouble could break out. Last weekend small bombs were thrown at several American bank branches and chain store branches. Maradona has urged viewers of his popular television show to join him in a protest outside the meeting. Argentina's "piquetero" movement - made up of protesters known for blocking roads and confronting authorities - has promised to descend on the resort in force. Cuba, the only country in the hemisphere not invited to the summit hosted by the Organisation of American States, will be attending a People's Summit in Mar del Plata set up by leftwing groups to counter the official version. Family members of fallen US soldiers in Iraq as well as Iraqi civilians who have suffered at the hands of US troops will also be there. Mr Chavez, an important ally of Cuba's president Fidel Castro, is due to visit the People's Summit today and give a speech at a basketball stadium timed to coincide with the start of the Summit of Americas. Before flying there he said Venezuela would object to any attempt by the US to revive proposals for the creation of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would overtake the European Union as the world's largest tariff-free zone. Mr Bush has been a forceful proponent of the idea, but talks have repeatedly stalled, with opponents fearful it would allow corporations to dominate the poor. "They aren't going to revive it, even if they produce a 10,000 page document," Mr Chavez told the Caracas-based TV channel Telesur. "Latin America remains the region of most inequalities in the world," Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque told the Associated Press. "The FTAA is just more of the same neo-liberal policies." Yesterday government officials at the summit site were still bickering over whether the event's final declaration would include crucial language on when high-level FTAA talks might resume. Victor Hugo Varsky, an Argentinian representative, said negotiators were advancing very slowly. "Some countries don't want any mention," he told AP. "Others want to progress towards a trade accord."

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The Guardian, UK, reported yesterday, 11.2 Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids · UN condemns night noise attacks as indiscriminate · Agencies say they cause trauma and miscarriages Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening "sound bombs" that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside". The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children. The shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing thousands of windows. "I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes you hear the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I thought I might find the rest of the street was gone." Over the past week, Israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at high speed and low altitude over the Gaza Strip, sometimes as little as an hour apart through the night. During five days in late September, the air force caused 29 sonic booms. A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would not permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups. "We are trying to send a message in a way that doesn't harm people. We want to encourage the Palestinian public to do something about the terror situation," he said. "What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who shoot civilians. We are cautious. We make sure nobody is really hurt." Yesterday, two medical human rights groups asked the Tel Aviv high court to outlaw the use of sound bombs on the grounds it amounts to illegal collective punishment and is detrimental to health. "The stress is phenomenal," said Eyad El Sarraj, a psychologist and director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, one of the groups filing the petition. "The Israelis do it after midnight and then every one or two hours. You try to go to sleep and then there's another one. When it happens night after night you become exhausted. You get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously for it to happen. People suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness. "For children, the loud noise means danger. Adults may know it's only a sound but small children feel threatened. They are crying and clinging to their parents. Afterwards they are dazed and fearful, waiting for something to happen." The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties. Although the Israelis say the shockwaves do not cause casualties, doctors at Gaza's Shifa hospital said the overflights had forced women to miscarry. The number of miscarriages had increased by 40%, according to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other symptoms and the rise happened after the sonic booms. We can see no other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac care unit doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm." Dr Saqqa said one overflight occurred while he was operating. The Palestinian health ministry estimates the sonic booms have caused at least 20 miscarriages. The UN's Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, wrote to the Israeli high command this week saying he was "deeply concerned at the impact on children, particularly infants, of the use of sonic booms". ...

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Bush faces mass protests, opposition to trade pact in Argentina

The two-day quadrennial Summit of the Americas being held in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata Nov. 4-5 will be marked by one of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history—called to repudiate the policies of the Bush administration.

Wracked by multiple political crises at home and receiving the lowest approval rating for any recent US president, George W. Bush is leaving the country Thursday to face an even more hostile audience. The two-day quadrennial Summit of the Americas being held in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata Nov. 4-5 will be marked by one of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history—called to repudiate the policies of the Bush administration. On the eve of the summit, the Argentine daily Pagina 12 reported a poll showing that six out of ten Argentines oppose Bush’s presence in the country. By contrast, 75 percent welcomed the visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been vilified by Washington and has in turn denounced US foreign policy. Protests began yesterday over the Bush visit—three days before his arrival—with blockades of bridges and highways in the Buenos Aires area and the appearance of posters throughout the Argentine capital bearing the slogans “Stop Bush” and “Fuera Bush,” in some cases superimposed over photographs of wounded Iraqi children. Nor are the protests limited to Argentina. Last Wednesday, some 6,000 people marched on the US Embassy in Brasilia in an anti-Bush protest. The US president is scheduled to visit the Brazilian capital following the summit, going from there to a stop in Panama before returning to Washington. The presence of the US president in Argentina has been preceded by the imposition of a massive security clampdown. An army of 7,000 additional police has been deployed in the resort city, which has been divided with three concentric circles of chain-linked fencing. Residents of the area surrounding the summit site have been identified and provided with passes to enter and leave their own homes. “We’ve been imprisoned,” one of them told a local television network. A 100-mile no-fly zone has been declared surrounding the city, with orders to shoot down unidentified planes. In addition to the blanket of security imposed by the Argentine government, Bush is arriving with an entourage of some 2,000, much of it composed of security personnel. Last Friday, two giant US military cargo planes arrived in Buenos Aires carrying large quantities of arms and two helicopters for use in guarding the US president. On Friday a mass march expected to draw as many as 100,000 people will take place in Mar del Plata. Leading it will be popular football star Diego Maradona and Argentine Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Bush is “a torturer, violator of human rights, an assassin, a violator of United Nations resolutions, of international treaties and of the sovereignty of peoples, as has happened in Iraq,” Pérez Esquivel said in a radio interview Saturday explaining his participation. Maradona, who now hosts one of Argentina’s most popular television shows, said, “In Argentina, there are people who are against Bush being there. I am the first. He did us a lot of harm. As far as I’m concerned, he is a murderer; he looks down on us and tramples over us. I am going to lead that march along with my daughter.” Also participating in the march will be Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier slain in Iraq, and Javier Couso, the brother of the Spanish television cameraman who was killed when an American tank fired on the Hotel Palestine, the headquarters of international journalists, during the US storming of Baghdad in April 2003.

A riot in one of the suburbs of Buenos Aires last Monday against the privatization of the public traffic. The denationalized trains for example now more expensive, but poor and late as before the privatization.

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This article I found y'day in the Guardian. Perhaps it is not a really representative story, but it is a interresting story. 'We don't need al-Qaida' Abu Theeb is the leader of a band of Sunni insurgents that preys on US targets north of Baghdad. Last week he openly defied al-Qaida in Iraq by actively supporting the referendum. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad spent five days with him - and uncovered evidence of a growing split in the insurgency Thursday October 27, 2005 The Guardian Abu Theeb is a tall, handsome, well-built man with a thin beard and thick eyebrows. His name is a nom de guerre: it means Father of the Wolf. He is a farmer during daylight and a commander of a mujahideen cell, a group of holy warriors, at night. He and his men roam the farmland north of Baghdad in search of prey - a US armoured Humvee, perhaps, or an Iraqi army unit. On the eve of last week's constitutional referendum, Abu Theeb, the leader of a group of Sunni insurgents, was to be found in the middle of a schoolyard in a village north of Baghdad. The school was to be a polling centre the next day. He stood flanked by 10 bearded fighters in white robes and chequered headscarves. There were a few posters on the walls, and plastic ribbons marking out lanes where voters would queue, but other than Abu Theeb and his men, the building was deserted. The security guards hired by the referendum committee in Baghdad had failed to show up - not all that surprising an event in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq. The local tribe, ie Abu Theeb and co, are notorious for kidnappings and executions. Abu Theeb looked around him, a commander inspecting the field before battle. He moved with his men around the school, inspecting the adjacent streets and the back gate, looking for weak points, looking for easy access for a car bomb or an armed onslaught. The school guard sheepishly followed the entourage around, a Kalashnikov on one shoulder. At one point, Abu Theeb grabbed a piece of paper and drew a sketch of the school, marking out where his men should be posted the next day. He turned to a short, chubby ginger-haired guy in his 30s with a big jihadi beard. "You will be the commander tomorrow," he said. "Distribute some of our weapons to the men." The stakes were high for Abu Theeb and his men. Al-Qaida forces in Iraq - forces that are, at least on paper, allies of the Sunni insurgents - had vowed to kill anyone who took part in the referendum. But in the Sunni areas of Iraq, the people and the local Iraqi insurgents among them had a different view: they were eager to vote. There was a widespread sense of regret about the boycotting of the last elections, which left the parliament in Baghdad dominated by Shia and Kurdish parties - and left the Sunnis, who held the power in Saddam's Iraq, out in the cold. The Sunnis wanted to take part in last week's referendum; they wanted a "no" vote on the draft constitution. This left Abu Theeb, a man who has devoted himself and his resources to fighting the Americans, in a curious position. His battle on polling day would be to secure a safe and smooth voting for his people - in a referendum organised by the enemy. In doing so he would be going up against the al-Qaida forces, and risking a split in the insurgency in Iraq. I spent five days with Abu Theeb and his people last week, and I witnessed a very curious thing: a bunch of mujahideens talking politics and urging restraint. "Politics for us is like filthy dead meat," Abu Theeb told me. "We are not allowed to eat it, but if you are passing through the desert and your life depends on it, God says it's OK." This is a profound shift in thinking for these insurgents, a shift that might just change the way things develop in Iraq. While we were at the school, Abu Theeb pulled one of his young men aside and rebuked him for an IED - improvised explosive device - bombing the night before: "I thought we agreed that nothing will happen for the next few days." The short young man mumbled that it wasn't his group - someone else must have done it. Abu Theeb's village, where the polling station was based, is a small hamlet that lies on the banks of the Tigris river north of Baghdad. A serpent-like road passes through the village. The palm groves on either side of the road are pockmarked by bomb craters. A couple of thousand Sunni Arabs from one tribe live here. Everyone is related; they say they can trace their history back to the prophet Muhammad. Women are rarely seen in public and almost everyone is a fundamentalist Salafi Muslim. The men sport big bushy beards and wear ankle-length dishdashas [robes]. Mosques are scattered everywhere and at prayer time the place grinds to a halt. There are two ways into the village. The official way in takes you through a 100m-long checkpoint of blast walls, concrete barriers and barbed wire. It is manned by masked Shia Iraqi soldiers from the south of the country and commanded by US soldiers. Cars and cards are checked regularly and the roads are closed down, forcing people to drive for hours through the farmlands around the village before hitting the main road again. Driving in and out through this checkpoint reminds one of a second world war movie of an eastern European town under German occupation. The locals call the checkpoint the Rafah crossing, in reference to the notorious checkpoint in Gaza. Then there is the unofficial way in. A narrow, bumpy farm road provides the mujahideens with safe access into the village away from the weary eyes of the Iraqi soldiers. This is the road Abu Theeb took in last week. I went with him on condition that I did nothing to reveal his identity or the location of the village. For the purposes of the assignment, I was advised to pray, fast and dress like the men of the village, although I am not religious. The road to jihad Abu Theeb was born in this village four decades ago. He was one of five brothers and several sisters and his father was an illiterate farmer who went everywhere with his short-wave radio and loved to talk politics. In the 80s, Abu Theeb's eldest brother was killed fighting in the Iran-Iraq war. Abu Theeb studied law at university in Baghdad before joining the Institute of National Security, an elite academy reserved mostly for Sunni Arabs. It was the graduates of this academy who were used to staff Saddam's secret services; Abu Theeb was a loyal citizen, and he went on to a job in the security services. But his nationalism evaporated after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. "I hated the government," he says. "I realised that all that they were telling us about the nation and the leader was false. They had no pride, no honour. I wanted to leave, to take a long break, so I left the service to do religious studies." He joined an Islamic Sharia school to train as a cleric. There he fell in love with two subjects: the teachings of Ibn Taimia, the father of the fundamentalist Salafi school of thinking, and religious politics. Later, however, he was obliged to return to his old job at the Amn al-Aam, the General Security, one of Saddam's feared security apparatuses, and there he stayed until the American occupation toppled the regime. "When the fall happened, I went to a cleric I knew who was preaching jihad and asked him for weapons," he says. "I was weeping. He said, 'Go away, things are too dangerous.' I roamed the streets with a dagger in my pocket. I was too ashamed to come back home and see my family while Baghdad was under the occupation, dead bodies and bullet shells everywhere." He finally met up with a group of Syrian volunteers in Baghdad. They, like him, were looking for a fight with the Americans. He brought them back to his home, he says, and formed one of the first jihadi cells. They got to work. "When the infidel conquers your home, it's like seeing your women raped in front of your eyes and like your religion being insulted every day," says Abu Theeb. He joined others and started first with direct rocket-propelled grenade hits and small arms attacks on US convoys around his area, until a fellow Salafi fighter taught him how to set an IED using primitive techniques, a TV remote control and some artillery shells. A visiting Iraqi army general laid the ground rules for the group: IEDs were the most successful weapon, but should always be laid at least two kilometres outside the village to spare the people the wrath of the Americans. "Everyone was fighting, men who under Saddam spent years as military deserters became zealous fighters," says Abu Theeb. "Something like fire was inside us. We would go out to fight for days, leaving our families and wives behind." He and other Salafi fighters became known as the Anger Brigade, an insurgent group that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on US and Iraqi targets and is involved in kidnapping those who are perceived as collaborating with the much-hated occupation. This is truly a holy war for Abu Theeb. He tells me how once he was driving to Baghdad carrying a sack filled with anti-tank rocket heads for an operation in Baghdad. He was stopped at a checkpoint and American soldiers ordered him to step out and begun a car search. "I prayed to God," he says. "I told him, 'God, if I am doing what I am doing for your sake then spare me this. If it's not, let them get me.' The American soldier opened the boot where I had the sack filled with rocket heads. He moved it aside and started to search. When he finished and asked me to leave, I knew then I was blessed by God." God has not been so merciful with the rest of his family. One of his brothers and a nephew have died fighting the Americans; another brother was killed a month ago as he was setting an IED on the side of the road. But Abu Theeb's faith remains strong. For more than two years, Abu Theeb had been taking part in insurgent attacks on US and Iraqi targets, laying IEDs, carrying out ambushes and kidnappings. Then, about eight months ago, a group of Syrian men visited him. They identified themselves as part of the al-Qaida group in Iraq, and they asked for his cooperation in establishing a foothold for their organisation in his area. "They told me that they had support and money and wanted to open a new front here," says Abu Theeb. "I said to them, 'What about the village - do you want this to become a new Fallujah?'" Abu Theeb didn't want al-Qaida, even if their aims were ostensibly the same. "When al-Qaida came here I was the first to fight it," he says. "They went to the clerics and said, 'Denounce this man. If not, your blood will be spilled.' They can kill and slaughter easily." Abu Theeb and other Salafi clerics and leaders of the insurgency north and south of Baghdad are now talking about a rift - a split between Iraqi Islamist and nationalistic insurgent groups, and the mainly foreign led and supported al-Qaida forces. They say that al-Qaida initially gained support among the Sunnis because of its ferocity and meticulous planning, and because it had money pouring in from jihadis all over the Arab world. Made up mostly of foreign Arabs, it quickly became the most feared insurgent group in Iraq, claiming responsibility for the bloodiest attacks against not only US and Iraqi forces but also civilians. "If it wasn't al-Qaida fighting with the Sunnis in Iraq the whole battle would have had a different outcome," says Abu Hafsa, another mujahideen commander based north of Baghdad. Abu Qutada, a mujahideen leader based in south Baghdad, agrees. "Lots of the mujahideen groups are in need of money and weapons so they join the umbrella of al-Qaida for support," he says. But he adds: "They differ with them in ideology." The arrival of al-Qaida The tipping point came when al-Qaida, known then as the Tawhid al-Jihad, decided to target the Iraqi police and army and other Iraqi ministries and institutions. Its goal was to prevent the Americans establishing an Iraqi state that could lead the fight against the insurgency - and allow the Americans to take a back seat. "They have experience in fighting and they did very clever stuff," says Abu Theeb. "They attacked all the centres of the Iraqi state and prevented the Americans from creating a puppet state that they could hand everything to. The Iraqi resistance was occupied by fighting the Americans and couldn't see that strategic goal." Perhaps inevitably, though, the insurgents turned out not to have the same stomach for Iraqi blood. "Al-Qaida believes that anyone who doesn't follow the Qur'an literally is a Kaffir - apostate - and should be killed," says Abu Theeb. "This is wrong." Al-Qaida marked down not only those who cooperated with the American occupation, but everyone who worked with the Iraqi government, police or army, as Kaffirs. Then they said that the entire Shia community were Kaffirs. For Sunnis like Abu Theeb, this was a step too far. The second serious stumbling block has been al-Qaida's call for the establishment of an Islamic state (caliphate) based on the Taliban model in Afghanistan. This has already started taking place in towns and villages where al-Qaida is dominant. "The resistance now is made up of nationalist and religious elements," says Abu Theeb. "By calling for a caliphate you will alienate not only the resistance but the support we get from Syria and the gulf countries." The last thing these countries want is a Taliban state as a neighbour. Al-Qaida's policies have drawn a furious response from the Iraqi security forces and the Shia militias, and it is Sunnis who have suffered. Scores have been executed after being kidnapped by paramilitary units. In Abu Theeb's area alone, more than 300 Sunni families have taken refuge after fleeing Shia areas in Baghdad. "Every time al-Qaida attacks a Shia mosque we are making all the Shias our enemies," he says. "We are cementing them against us." Later he says: "We have lost more men to the Shias than we have lost to the Americans." This rift in the insurgency has already gone far beyond angry words. Clashes erupted between al-Qaida fighters and Iraqi mujahideen cells after al-Qaida killed a group of Iraqi insurgents who they claimed were spying for the Americans. Back in the village, politics has become a hot issue. Everywhere - in the mosques after prayers, at weddings, in the main market and in private mujahideen circles - the talk is of politics. Abu Theeb says his move into politics has come at a price: he has had to shave off his beard so that he can visit Baghdad. For weeks he has been travelling, visiting houses, urging people to register to vote. "It's a new jihad," he says. "There is time for fighting and a time for politics." I went back to the school with Abu Theeb on polling day. There was a festival atmosphere. Two of his guards were already at their positions, but the rest were more relaxed - their weapons lay against the wall and on tables. "No one will attack," said Abu Theeb. Inside the classroom that had become the polling station, an old sheik sat on a wooden bench. "The judge and the monitors didn't come from Baghdad - they said this is a hot area - so the sheik of the village is going be the monitor," said Abu Theeb. People began to trickle in. The officials present soon decided that it was not realistic to expect the women to come in, so each man who came in with an ID card was given a whole stack of ballot papers. "Nine papers to Haji Abu Hussein," shouted a registration official. Another official sitting on another table handed Haji Abu Hussein the nine ballots. The man took his ballots, but instead of voting in private in the ballot box, he publicly ticked the "no" boxes, folded the papers, and then chucked them in the box. By midday people had stopped coming and the officials started ticking the boxes on ballot papers themselves. The next day, America and the authorities were crowing about how well the referendum had gone; yesterday - after a "yes" vote had been returned - leading Sunni politicians accused the Shia in the south of stuffing ballot boxes. Well, some of the Sunnis in the north are certainly guilty of it. Two days after the balloting, Abu Theeb and two other clerics sat on the floor of a mosque debating the political future of their group and the Sunnis in general. "We should keep all the options open," Abu Theeb told them. Even a coalition with the enemy.

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A short report in todays (10.27) UK daily GUARDIAN 11 detainees dead in Dutch airport fire At least 11 people were killed today in a fire at a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The Dutch news agency ANP said a further 15 people were injured and that the death toll could rise. All the dead are detainees but some fire fighters and police are among the injured. The detention centre at the airport is generally used to detain illegal immigrants. ANP said there were 350 people in the cells. The wing were the blaze started was holding 43 people. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. It began shortly after midnight and was brought under control several hours later. A report on Dutch television said it was unclear if any one held in the detention centre had escaped.

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Today's German daily Berliner Zeitung - you can call it a bourgeois paper - wrote in a comment that now, after the UNO report about the assault against the former Lebanese premier Hariri (last Feb.) - it will be certain that Syria will be the next "domino stone" which will fall. "In Iraq the democracy project is dashing. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is not existing anymore. An intervention in Iran would have just disadvantages. But some Domino must fall now: this part the poor Syria - with its weak president, its catastrophic economy and its weary army – is becoming now.", Berliner Zeitung wrotes.

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Fortress Europe is Still Killing Refugees from the South

The situation for the African refugees, who were trying, or want to try to reach the Spanish zones in the North of Morocco is now dramatically worsen. Today’s UK daily The Guardian reported that the humanitarian organization Medics without Borders (French MSF) detected 500 African refugees in the Sahara desert zone near the Algerian border. Some days ago the Moroccan police and military arrested them near the Spanish Melilla and deported them handcuffed to there. WITHOUT TO GIVE THEM ANY FOOD OR WATER! Already last weekend German newspapers reported that between 1000 and 2000 African refugees were deported under the same conditions in the desert. THIS MEANS PLANNED MASS MURDER! But it was/is demanded by politicians of the European Union. Of course now there is an outcry about this situations in the public, but already the presence of this act of inhumanity, terror of the "develope" North against the poor in the South, in the European media is decreasing. But that’s just the reality of IMPERIALISM.

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Months ago I posted something about the Lunatic With the Bomb (KIm jr./북한..) But (at least) now we have the proof that there is another lunatic on the power of a state: G. W. Bush Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did.", the UK daily The Guardian wrote yesterday. Here you can read the entire article: George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq' President told Palestinians God also talked to him about Middle East peace Ewen MacAskill Friday October 7, 2005 The Guardian George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month. Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did." Mr Bush went on: "And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it." Mr Bush, who became a born-again Christian at 40, is one of the most overtly religious leaders to occupy the White House, a fact which brings him much support in middle America. Soon after, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz carried a Palestinian transcript of the meeting, containing a version of Mr Bush's remarks. But the Palestinian delegation was reluctant publicly to acknowledge its authenticity. The BBC persuaded Mr Shaath to go on the record for the first time for a three-part series on Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy: Elusive Peace, which begins on Monday. Religion also surfaced as an issue when Mr Bush and Tony Blair were reported to have prayed together in 2002 at his ranch at Crawford, Texas - the summit at which the invasion of Iraq was agreed in principle. Mr Blair has consistently refused to admit or deny the claim. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who was also part of the delegation at Sharm el-Sheikh, told the BBC programme that Mr Bush had said: "I have a moral and religious obligation. I must get you a Palestinian state. And I will." Mr Shaath's comments came as Mr Bush delivered a speech yesterday aimed at bolstering US support for the Iraq war. He revealed that the US and its partners had disrupted at least 10 serious al-Qaida plots since September 11, including three planned attacks in the US. "Because of this steady progress, the enemy is wounded - but the enemy is still capable of global operations," he said. He added that Islamic radicals had used a series of excuses to justify their attacks, from conflict with the Israelis to the Crusades 1,000 years ago. "We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," he said. He conceded that al-Qaida, led in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and other insurgents had gained ground in Iraq but the US would not leave until security had been established. "Some observers also claim that America would be better off by cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion, refuted with a simple question: Would the United States and other free nations be more safe, or less safe, with Zarqawi and Bin Laden in control of Iraq, its people, and its resources?" Mr Bush asked.

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THE MELILLA REFUGEE TRAGEDY, OR BETTER THE EUROPEAN WAR CRIME AGAINST IMMIGRANTS

In the night to Wednesday, local time, during a new assault to the Spanish ex territorial area of Melilla about 65 African refugees were able to enter the Spanish territory. But also many people were injured during the attempt to reach the Fortress Europe, a.k.a. European Union. Also on Wednesday the governments of Spain and Morocco agreed that from now the Spanish “authorities” will deport all “illegal” African migrants back to Morocco. But this means for the most of them their INEVITABLE DEATH!! Here is a report by a European, bourgeois magazine from the last weekend about the refugee tragedy there (yesterday was a very impressive article about it in the German daily Berliner Zeitung, but I dont know if I have the power or endurance to translate it...): ASSAULTING CEUTA AND MELILLA Through the Razor Wire and into the EU By Yassin Musharbash in Ceuta, Spain It's a gruelling journey and many get left behind on the way. But for those who manage to finally scale the razor-wire fence surrounding Ceuta and Melilla in northern Africa, it's a dream come true. They have left poverty behind in the hopes of a new life in the EU. The new arrivals are obvious. Exhaustion written on their faces, many of them are still not up for speaking even after days in the holding center. Several sit motionless, faces propped up by their hands, on a worn-out sofa. Quiet sighs come from the wounded. They stare into empty space. The first impression of desperation is deceptive though: Behavior which normally might be mistaken for depression means victory in Ceuta. After a long battle, they have finally hit the Jackpot. The six men in the room -- all from sub-Saharan Africa -- have arrived in the waiting room for a better life in Europe. The journey is not an easy one. After a several-week-long odyssey across Africa, they've managed to get across the three-meter-high barbed-wire fence that separates Africa from the Spanish city of Ceuta. Now, even though they're still physically on the African continent, they are politically beyond Africa's reach and under the protection of EU law. The Christian organization "La Cruz Bianca" provides them with food and clothing, and since they've all "lost" their passports, they can't be sent back to their countries of origin. But the men, all between 20 and 30, are too exhausted to show their joy. Ayuba, 21, is one of them. He fled the Ivory Coast because of the political insecurity and lack of work. "That was 2003," he says. He arrived in Morocco only after trekking on foot across Mali and Algeria. Then he lived for 16 months in the forests outside of Ceuta. Until last week, that is, when he decided, along with hundreds of others, to attempt to scale the fence. Five of his companions died during the incursion. And they keep on coming Determining who shot them is the subject of serious discussion in Spain and Marocco and Spain immediately sent more security to guard both Ceuta and the country's second northern African enclave, Melilla. But the wave of would-be immigrants has continued, and on Monday morning, hundreds more assaulted the fences surrounding Melilla with some 200 managing to get through according to Red Cross officials. "I want to work in Europe and send money back home," says Ayuba. In the Ivory Coast, he was a farm laborer, he says. He lived in a simple hut and hated his life more and more. "Now everything will get better," he hopes. In a couple of weeks, the Spanish authorities will likely have to take him to the Spanish mainland; the holding center in Ceuta is once again filled to overflowing. Ayuba will then be officially asked to leave the country. But, unofficially, everyone knows that Ayuba won't do that. Instead, Ayuba will labor in the plantations of the Iberian Peninsula, or sell sunglasses on the streets, or move to northern Europe where he'll work on the black market. No one who has made it this far will go back voluntarily. He's dreamed about this moment for a long time. Ayubas story is a typical one among sub-Saharan African migrants -- a group that makes up the majority of the thousands each year who try to reach Ceuta. But, Africans are no longer the only ones dreaming of Ceuta. Indeed, globalization has made a deep imprint on the paths taken by refugees. The 16-square-kilometer enclave has become a world-wide symbol of hope. Indeed, a quick trip to the "Centro de Estancia temporal de Inmigrates" -- CETI for short -- reveals a vast array of peoples and nationalities. The camp is occupied by Iraqis, Indians, Pakistanis, and Algerians, among others, all clad in donated clothes and in possession of green, plastic ID cards. Even Chinese have turned up in the camp -- some of whom took the long way in by actually swimming out to sea from the African mainland and then back to the Ceuta waterfront. Raising the fence won't help Ceuta -- a city that is half vacation paradise and half grimy border town -- deals with the flood of migrants in astoundingly calm fashion. There is little violence say the residents of CETI, and there are several organizations, like "La Cruz Blanca", that help out when CETI fills up. But the residents of Ceuta are aware that things can't continue this way forever. The numbers of would-be immigrants continues to rise and Thursday's deaths show that the EU doesn't have any productive answer to the pressure that migrants are putting on the small city. The fence is now being raised to six meters and the army is taking control of security while Spain itself is determined to allow even fewer immigrants in. In reality, though, the problem is not the height of the fence, but the failure to address the root causes of immigration. No one has an answer to the most pressing question: how to prevent immigrants from leaving their countries in the first place? Ceuta lies on the seam between the first and third world. And as long as Europe seems like a paradise, people will continue to fashion home-made ladders in hopes of crossing over the fence. The story of Nadem Waheed, who was born in Bangladesh, gives a fair sense of the hardships migrants are willing to endure for the sake of reaching Europe. "My income in Dhaka wasn't enough to support my wife and two sons," reports the 38 year-old, who stands in the sunshine wearing a jogging suit and flip-flops. "It wasn't even enough to send my kids to school." Nadeem struggled to save €5,000 for the man who promised to smuggle him "directly to Europe." It was a lie. Instead of a direct path, Nadeem undertook a miserable trek that ended up taking the lives of many of his fellow travelers. Dying of thirst in the Sahara The journey began when the smuggler loaded Nadeem and his fellow migrants onto a cargo ship. After several weeks -- Nadeem doesn't know how many -- the vessel arrived on the West African coast and Nadeem and his companions went on to Mali by foot. "There, they packed 15 of us into a pick-up truck and we crossed the Sahara," says Nadeem. "That took 23 days, and there was almost nothing to drink." Many died of dehydration; their corpses were left behind in the sand. "Most of the time, I was barely coherent. I thought that it would never end. I didn't know where I was. I was scared," he recalls. "Finally, we saw the ocean." Nadeem's group thought that this was the end of the journey. Actually, they had just reached the Moroccan city of Casablanca on the Atlantic Coast. Here, the smugglers herded the Indians and Bangladeshis onto tiny boats, or "pateras." The horror continued. "The boats capsized repeatedly," says Nadeem. "Again, many people died. They just let them drown." Now Nadeem is waiting to be shipped to the Spanish mainland. Nadeem has trouble sleeping because of the terrible journey. He's lonely. For over a year, he hasn't spoken with his wife and his sons; he doesn't know if he'll ever see them again. Nonetheless, he says, "I am happy." Such is a typical portrait of a winner: at least it is here in Ceuta.

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10.4 GENERAL STRIKE IN FRANCE

Nothing was going anymore on Tuesday, 10.4, in France – except, according to the trade unions, millions of people on demonstrations across the entire country. For this day in a strong unity all left parties, from the anarchists to the communists, and trade unions were calling for a nation wide 24-hours general strike against privatization, termination of jobs and deterioration of working conditions of the masses of the working class. So nothing was going anymore. No near and far public traffic. Many flights were cancelled. There were no news papers, no baguettes, no city cleaning, all the restaurants were closed... “A unity like that since 30 years it was not happen in France”, so a reporter of the German TV news ARD. And at least 75 per cent of the French population, according to the bourgeois media, supported the strike. By the way THIS is a GENERAL STRIKE!! PS... It is a little difficult for me to write an article here. At first I have to think if I want to use pictures. If I want to do this, I have to go to pc bang and to select and process them. Then I can upload there this stuff. And later at “home” I add the article...