BURN DOWN BABYLON: G8 PARANOIA

Indymedia: Eine Stadt verfällt dem Wahnsinn
In Evian (Frankreich) findet vom 1. bis zum 3. Juni der Gipfel der acht mächtigsten Industrienationen statt. Dieses Ereignis lässt eine ganze Region dem Wahnsinn verfallen.
In Genf (Schweiz) werden Schulen und Geschäfte vorübergehend geschlossen, Abschlussprüfungen werden verschoben etc..
Die Kloakenpresse heizt seit Wochen die Stimmung an. So wurde angekündigt, die Post stelle ihren Dienst während des Gipfels ein. Aus Sorge um die Sicherheit der Briefträger. Dieses Vorhaben wurde bereits gestern rückgängig gemacht.
Heute war zu lesen, dass die Kantonsspitäler in Genf und Lausanne geplante Operationen verschieben, das Personal sei in Alarmbereitschaft versetzt worden, um allfälligen schwerverletzten DemonstrantInnen eine angemessene Notfallversorgung zu gewährleisten. Im „Le Matin“ von heute wird Henry Corbaz, der Direktor des CHUV (Kantonsspital des Kantons Wadt) zitiert, es seien Massnahmen getroffen worden um den möglichen Fluss von Schweverletzten zu bewältigen. In dieses Szenario sei auch das Kantonsspital Zürich eingebunden. Die Spitäler sind offensichtlich Teil des repressiven Dispositives.

Blick: Europas Chaoten unterwegs nach Genf und Lausanne
Europas Chaoten drohen:
«Wir werden überall sein»
LAUSANNE. Die ersten G8-Demonstranten sind schon am Genfersee und tausende weitere im Anmarsch. Und sie drohen mit Demos und Blockaden rund um den See.
«Wir starten mit einem Sonderzug in Berlin, fahren quer durch Deutschland und sind dann am Donnerstag in Genf. Der Zug ist mit 1000 Demonstranten ausgebucht. Dazu kommen organisierte Busfahrten», sagt Malte Kreutzfeldt von «Attac-Deutschland». Allein «Attac» wird mit rund 3000 Demonstranten nach Genf reisen. Kreutzfeldt: «Wir werden Blockaden errichten, aber auf keinen Fall Gewalt anwenden.»
3000 weitere G8-Gegner aus Deutschland haben ihre Reise privat organisiert. Ihr Ziel: Lausanne.
Arthur G. aus Karlsruhe zu BLICK: «In Genf wird friedlich demonstriert. In Lausanne treffen wir uns dann mit dem harten Kern der Globalisierungsgegner.» Und G. droht: «Wenn die Schweizer Polizei uns so provoziert wie die Italiener beim Gipfel in Genua, können wir für nichts garantieren.»


Indymedia: G8: Orginal-Schiessbefehl der Schweizer Armee
SELBSTSTÄNDIGER ÜBERWACHUNGSAUFTRAG
ALLGEMEINER AUFTRAG
Im Rahmen eines Assistenzdienstes zu Gunsten des Gipfels von Evian lautet ihr Auftrag: "Überwacht einen Raum oder eine Einrichtung."
Ihr Kommandant trägt die Einsatzverantwortung.
AUFTRAG AN DIE TRUPPE
- Sie stellen durch Beobachten und Horchen Aktivitäten oder Veränderungen in einem Raum oder an Objekten fest, um die Führung von Überraschungen zu schützen;
- Sie alarmieren umgehend Ihren direkten Vorgesetzten wenn Sie eine konkrete Feststellung oder unmittelbare Bedrohung ausmachen;
- Sie können Personen, welche versuchen in den überwachten Raum einzudringen, vorübergehend festnehmen oder an der Flucht hindern;
- Sie können zur Notwehr und Notwehrhilfe von der Schusswaffe Gebrauch machen.
GRUNDPRINZIPIEN
Dialog
Deeskalation
Intervention
ALLGEMEINE REGELN
1. Sie geben grundsätzlich keine Informationen betreffend Ihres Auftrages oder Ihrer Feststellungen;
2. Sie verhalten sich jederzeit korrekt und enthalten sich jeglicher diskriminierender Äusserungen (z.B. duzen oder entwürdigende Ausdrücke);
3. Sie wenden nur die zur Erfüllung Ihres Auftrages minimal nötige Gewalt an (Verhältnismässigkeit)
DER GEBRAUCH DER SCHUSSWAFFE IST ERLAUBT
1. Im Falle eines unrechtmässigen Angriffs oder wenn ein solcher auf Sie oder eine Drittperson unmittelbar bevorsteht, haben Sie das Recht, diesen Angriff mit angemessenen Mittel abzuwehren, um die Gefahr abzuwenden;
2. Wenn Sie oder eine Drittperson am Leben oder körperlicher Unversehrtheit bedroht sind, dürfen Sie als äusserstes Mittel von der Schusswaffe Gebrauch machen, wenn andere Mittel zur Abwehr der Gefahr nicht genügen;
3. Gebrauchen Sie nicht mehr Gewalt, als zur Abwehr der Gefahr oder zur Erfüllung Ihres Auftrages unbedingt notwendig ist.
WARNRUF
Wenn es die Umstände zulassen, ist folgender Warnruf zu machen: Armée suisse! Halte ou je tire!
WARNSCHUSS
Ein Warnschuss darf nur abgegeben werden, sofern die Umstände die Wirkung eines Warnrufs vereiteln
FEUERERÖFFNUNG
- Sie sind persönlich für den Einsatz ihrer Waffe verantwortlich;
- In folgenden Fällen haben sie das Recht von Ihrer Schusswaffe Gebrauch zu machen:
a) Angriffe mit Schuss-, Stich- und Hiebwaffen, brennenden Gegenständen, usw;
b) Sämtliche anderen gefährlichen und gewaltsamen Angriffe, auch ohne Waffe, eines physisch oder zahlenmässig stark überlegenen Gegners (Notwehr/Nothilfe).
- Wenn Sie das Feuer eröffnen müssen, verhindern Sie nach Möglichkeit schwerwiegende Verletzungen;
- Nach dem Schusswaffengebrauch leisten Sie dem Verletzten 1. Hilfe und informieren Ihren Vorgesetzten.

Tagesanzeiger: Zürich vor dem G-8: «Es gibt kein ruhiges Hinterland»
Während Genf dem G-8-Gipfel mit Angst entgegensieht, bleibt ganz Zürich ungerührt. Ganz Zürich? Nein, eine kleine Schar rüstet zum Kampf

Attac: G8 INFO

"BURN IT DOWN"

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

FFF: Property Rights and the “Right of Return”

The Israeli government has been taking the position that any hope for a permanent peace settlement with the Palestinians must be preceded by a number of preconditions. One of the leading preconditions is that the Palestinian authority reject any claim for a “right of return.”

What this refers to is the fact that, during the 1948 war for Israeli independence against the surrounding Arab countries, thousands of Palestinian Arab families left those parts of Palestine controlled or occupied by Israeli military forces. Some of these families left because they found themselves in the line of fire. Others left out of fear of living under Israeli rule. And still others left because of appeals by surrounding Arab governments to clear out of the way of their advancing armies

IRAQ

Swissinfo: Iraqi thieves queue up to plunder pipelines
ZUBAYR, Iraq (Reuters) - Riding a ramshackle donkey cart through the desert wastes of southern Iraq, 15-year-old
Abdullah and his nine-year-old brother Mohammed have taken up a lucrative but deadly trade -- stealing petrol from
pipelines.
Evading British military patrols and gangs of rival looters, they tap into the rusting pipelines running through the desert
from Basra's decrepit refinery, siphoning off petrol that they sell on the black market to feed their family.
In the ruined industrial wasteland south of Basra, among lakes of leaked oil and the skeletons of factories stripped bare
by looters, locals have discovered an emergency valve in a high-pressure pipeline where they can steal as much petrol as
they want -- as long as the British don't catch them.
"We are Iraqis and this is our oil," said Abdullah, a thin teenager in a grubby grey robe. "Why shouldn't we take it? We
have more right to it than foreigners. And we need to eat."

BRITAIN

ZMAG: Britain Supports Terrorism by John Pilger

In recent weeks, a number of apparently unrelated news reports have, in sum, told a truth that is never reported. According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of British and American cluster bombs were fired at and dropped on civilian areas in Iraq. British artillery fired more than 2,000 of them at Basra. Each shell scatters bomblets over a wide area, and many fail to explode. Their victims are "not known", says the Ministry of Defence. They are known. They are often children; Iraq's population is almost half children.
At the same time, HMS Turbulent, a nuclear-powered submarine, returned to Plymouth flying the Jolly Roger, the pirates' emblem. This vessel fired 30 American Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraq, at a cost to the British taxpayer of £21m. What did they hit? How many people did they kill or maim in this nation of sick people and disproportionate numbers of children? The commander would only say that he was "proud to be called forward".
Readers will remember the patriotic calls to "support the troops" regardless of one's misgivings about the war. Why a non-conscripted force deserved our "support" in its illegal and craven actions against a weak and stricken nation was never explained by any politician, newspaper or broadcaster

"CHECK IT"

IRAQ

Bushwarblog: Trouble in the Hinterlands
Now we begin to see what synergy is all about. There's bad news for the Bush administration from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel. Late last week Richard Lugar, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, publicly scolded the Bushmen and warned them that their victory in Iraq was "at risk." But Lugar pulled what might have been his most effective punch when he rather delicately pointed out that continued failure in Iraq would create "an incubator for terrorist cells and activity." The incubator Lugar alludes to is more like a factory, and it has been pumping out product since the invasion of Afghanistan. You have only to look to the waves of foreign volunteers who streamed into Iraq to wage jihad against the Americans at the outset of the war--more than 10,000, according to the European press. And events since then have no doubt galvanized countless more.

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

ABCnews: Israelis Shoot at Diplomatic Cars in Gaza -Sources

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot at a convoy of diplomatic vehicles at a military roadblock in the Gaza Strip on Monday, twice hitting the windshield of one of the cars but causing no injuries, diplomatic sources said.
The diplomats were badly shaken by the incident as the small convoy was stopped leaving the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, close to the main Erez crossing with Israel, the sources said.
They said the convoy included representatives of Switzerland, Britain, Greece, Sweden, and Austria.
A Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman said its representative to the Palestinian Authority and a colleague had come under Israeli fire at a Gaza roadblock on Monday but was unhurt.

BILDERBERG

Americanfreepress: Bilderberg Puts Heat on ‘Loose Cannon’ Bush Over Mideast Policy
Never has a president of the United States been under such Bilderberg pressure as the current George Bush. All U.S. presidents since Richard Nixon have had membership in, or close ties to, the world shadow government.

VERSAILLES, France—President Bush is under heavy Bilderberg pressure to monetarily punish Israel unless the peace process progresses and to share the spoils of war on Iraq with Europe.
Bilderberg also hotly debated establishing a European Union army independent of NATO, whether to accept Turkey into the EU and punishing Belgium because of the rise of a “right wing” party (see related story on page 15).

IRAQ

Islamonline: Four U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq, Iraqis More Furious

BAGHDAD, May 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four U.S. soldiers were killed and six others wounded amid a flare-up of resistance activity and street violence Monday, May 27, that highlighted the continuing dangers in Iraq.
Iraqi gunmen fired machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment near Haditha, 110 miles northwest of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said.
Hours later, an explosion rocked a U.S. military convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding three others and destroying their Humvee military car.
"They deserved it and they deserve more. They are occupiers, not liberators," said Ali Abbas, a resident of the Amiriyah area in western Baghdad, to Reuters.

IRAN

Pakistan Dawn: US lawmakers urge covert action to topple Iran govt
WASHINGTON, May 26: US lawmakers are urging the Bush administration to topple the government in Iran through covert action.
Speaking on television talk shows over the three-day weekend, which ends on Monday, the lawmakers said they believed US intelligence reports that Iran was harbouring Al Qaeda operatives.
Iran, however, has rejected these allegations as baseless and on Monday a government spokesman in Tehran said they have arrested several Al Qaeda suspects.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democratic presidential hopeful, told Fox News that "a regime change in Iran" would help reduce tensions in the Middle East." Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence panel, urged the US government to send "a strong signal" to Tehran that it was supporting "a regime change in Iran."

IRAQ

News24: Tension simmers in Iraq
Baghdad - Tensions between US-led occupation authorities and Iraq's
residents came to the fore on Sunday as the government in the country's
second- largest city was dismissed amid rising popular discontent. But
the top US civilian administrator, Paul Bremer, struck a more hopeful note
on a visit to Iraq's only deep-water port at Umm Qasr, where he examined
reconstruction efforts, and some public service workers were paid.
Bremer declared Iraq "open for business" as he watched ships unloading food
aid just a few days after the lifting of UN sanctions. "I think this is
really a wonderful indication of how things are getting better in Iraq," he
said.

"Open for Business. Open for American Business"

IRAQ

Guardian: UN chief warns of anti-American backlash in Iraq
The UN's most senior humanitarian official in Iraq warned yesterday that US attempts to rebuild the country were overly dominated by "ideology" and risked triggering a violent backlash.
Ramiro Lopes da Silva said the sudden decision last week to demobilise 400,000 Iraqi soldiers without any re-employment programme could generate a "low-intensity conflict" in the countryside.
"The reconstruction of minds is as important. We cannot force through an ideological process too much," said Mr Lopes da Silva, 54, a Portuguese UN official who served in Angola and Afghanistan before becoming the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq last year.
In unusually frank comments, he said the first three weeks after the collapse of the Iraqi regime were characterised by "talk about grandiose plans and a lot of promises but there were no decisions".

ISRAEL

the Nation: Road Map or Road Kill?

Apparently having learned nothing from the collapse of earlier efforts, the mainly American drafters of the road map included several features that almost guarantee its failure. One is the absence of a fixed timetable. Thus either party (in practice the Israelis, if the past is any indication) can hold up movement from stage to stage and within each stage. Another feature is the addition of interim phases to a process that is already prolonged. This means, in effect, the postponement of the most difficult aspect of the resolution of the conflict--the negotiation of issues like settlements, sovereignty, Jerusalem and refugees--until a third phase, which, if past practice is any guide, means indefinitely.

IRAQ

ZMAG: Terminating the Bush Juggernaut by Jeremy Brecher (very long article)

Introduction
The Bush administration is presenting itself to the world as a juggernaut – a “massive inexorable force that advances irresistibly, crushing whatever is in its path.”[1] Bush’s National Security Strategy envisions its “war against terrorism” as “a global enterprise of uncertain duration.” It says the US will act against “emerging threats before they are fully formed.”[2] The Bush administration envisions the coming decades as a continuation of recent US demands, threats, and wars. It intends to continue the aggressive behavior already illustrated by war on Afghanistan and Iraq, armed intervention in the Philippines and Columbia, and threats against Syria, Iran, and North Korea. The Bush administration and its successors are likely to continue this juggernaut until they are made to stop.

As the Bush administration sought global support for its attack on Iraq, the New York Times wrote, “The fracturing of the Western alliance over Iraq and the huge antiwar demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world opinion.”[3] But is that “tenacious new adversary” with whom President Bush appeared “eyeball to eyeball” really a superpower, or is it just a well-intentioned but ineffective protest against the inexorable advance of the Bush juggernaut

OIL

BBC: Iraq halts Russian and Chinese oil deals
The US-run Iraqi administration has cancelled or suspended three oil contracts with Russian and Chinese firms signed by the ousted government of Saddam Hussein.

AFGHANISTAN

Common Dreams: On the Roads of Ruin
Tony Blair vowed that the West would not walk away from Afghanistan. But in a remarkable journey, meeting militia leaders and the heavily guarded President, Peter Oborne found a nation left to fend for itself - and Taliban thugs undeterred
by Peter Oborne

IRAQ

Omaha: Iraq's lost children turning to drugs

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ahmed Abid Sadeh is waiting to inhale.
Just 12 years old, he stares vacantly with bloodshot eyes. He tugs at his soiled red-and-white striped shirt and staggers around the filthy public park, where he sleeps at night and gets high by day.
Removing a dirty blue rag from his pocket, Ahmed douses it with ether and takes a big whiff. By 6 p.m., he has consumed half a clear glass bottle that once held cough medicine. When asked why he likes to get high, he can barely stitch together the words.
"I do it to forget my parents. I do it to forget everything," he said.

ISRAEL

Ananova: Israel approves Palestinians' right to a state
The Israeli Cabinet has approved an American-backed peace plan which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005, but attached a number of conditions.
The Cabinet approved the plan in a vote by by 12 to seven, with four abstentions.
The vote marks the first time that an Israeli Government has formally affirmed the Palestinians' right to statehood.

IRAQ

Straitstimes: 10 weeks on and still no 'smoking gun'
RUTBAH (Iraq) -- Frustrated weapons hunters are turning away from outdated US intelligence leads, which have failed to turn up any evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear arms in Iraq after 10 weeks.
Teams are now moving towards their own intelligence gathering, based on interviews with Iraqi scientists, factory workers and even neighbours who lived near shadowy operations once run by Saddam Hussein.
The switch comes at a time of lowered expectations and increased frustration among the searchers.
US President George W. Bush has said he began the war to disarm Saddam. But there has been no sign of either the ousted leader or the weapons he long denied having.
In the war's early days, American officers said they expected to find such huge stockpiles of unconventional weapons that their main concern was whether they had enough people to destroy the materials.

USBEKISTAN

Guardian: US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists
Abdulkhalil was arrested in the fields of Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year. The 28-year-old farmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to overthrow the constitutional structures".
Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time".
Abdulkhalil was a victim of Uzbekistan's security service, the SNB. His detention and torture were part of a crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamist group.
Independent human rights groups estimate that there are more than 600 politically motivated arrests a year in Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political prisoners, some tortured to death. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August two prisoners were even boiled to death.
The US condemned this repression for many years. But since September 11 rewrote America's strategic interests in central Asia, the government of President Islam Karimov has become Washington's new best friend in the region.
The US is funding those it once condemned. Last year Washington gave Uzbekistan $500m (£300m) in aid.

ACEH

Independent: Summary executions become routine in Aceh as Jakarta's generals break their promises
The handsome young army captain with the elegant moustache lit another cigarette and placed it between his perfect white teeth. "You must understand," he said, languidly blowing a smoke ring into the air. "We want to protect human rights. We don't want to kill the wrong people."
Two miles down the road, the village of Seunade has just experienced the Indonesian military's interpretation of protecting human rights.
On Friday, three men were gunned down on a bridge as they walked home after harvesting rice in the paddy fields. The following day soldiers returned and dragged two men out of their houses, shooting them dead in front of their terrified families.

"Und die USA, Japan, Australien und die EU senden munter weitere Truppen und Geld nach Indonesien. Alle diese Länder stellen sich gerne als Hüter der Menschenrechte dar, unterstützen aber weiterhin weltweit Regimes die ebendiese Rechte mit Füssen treten solange sie ihren Interessen dienen. Die ganze Heuchelei ist zum Kotzen aber dafür können wir am Abend mit einem guten Gewissen einschlafen"

ZMAG: People Are Going To Be Slaughtered
Delivering the 25th annual Menzies lecture last October, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer declared that "bit by bit, leaders of governments that suppress human rights are being made to feel uncomfortable, however much they bluster and hide behind sovereignty arguments".

ZMAG: All In The Timing
Indonesia invades Aceh
Timing is everything, as they say. The day before East Timor celebrated the anniversary of its independence from Indonesia, the Jakarta government launched an all-out attack on another independence movement, this time in Aceh, a northern Sumatran province rich in oil and natural gas. The 30-50,000 Indonesian troops, covered by warships and fighter jets, constitute the largest military operation since, yes, the invasion of East Timor in 1975. Their overarching mission has been clearly defined by General Endriartono Sutarto: "You must chase and wipe out GAM [the Free Aceh Movement]...you are trained to kill, so wipe them out." (1)

ZMAG: Aceh
In trying to justify the actions of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, Indonesia's foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda says that nothing less than the future of the state is at stake. Wirayuda may be right, but not in the way that he thinks.
The behavior of the TNI in Aceh has, by all accounts, been appalling since it started its most recent campaign. The reports published here and elsewhere are disturbing enough.