Venezuela Punished For Social Spending.

        In our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, we hear a lot about the plight of the people of Venezuela, mass migration out of the country to escape dire poverty and deprivation, they spout the usual drivel about the collapse of the economy, hyper inflation, and put it down to the failure of socialism/communism. Though most socialists will agree that Venezuela was not a socialist country.

     Never once will they mention the true cause of the plight of the Venezuelan people to the deliberate policy of the US, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia. The US can't hear the word socialism without jumping in with the boot, as such a system would ruin the ability of the grossly over rich parasites from continuing to exploit the world, its people and its resources. 

      The root cause of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy was the deliberate strategy of the US and Saudi Arabia to flood the market with cheap oil forcing the price from $110 a barrel, down to $28 a barrel, pulling the plug from the pool of rich oil resources with which Venezuela was developing the country. The US hypocrites will of course pretend to be the benefactor by organising a totally inadequate supply of food aid to the migrating millions.

      The unbelievable misery foisted on the people of Venezuela is of no consequence to the power mongers of the "free market", any price will be paid to safeguard their privileged position, their wealth and their power. The problems of the people of Venezuela are not internal problems, it is punishment for their failure to pay homage the corporate moguls of the free market. Hoist the flag of socialism and you will feel the wrath of the corporate moguls aided and abetted by their minders, the US state, its allies and puppets.

This from Mint Press News:

        The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.  

        The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: “A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country.” A headline on Reason’s Hit and Run blog proclaims: “Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster.” The Week’s U.S. edition says: “Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela’s collapse.”

         Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation and food lines in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how “Communism just doesn’t work.”

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

        Starting in 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil. This is not a mere business decision, but a calculated move coordinated with U.S. and Israeli foreign policy goals. Despite not just losing money, but even falling deep into debt, the Saudi monarchy continues to expand its oil production apparatus. The result has been driving the price of oil down from $110 per barrel, to $28 in the early months of this year. The goal is to weaken these opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around oil and natural gas exports. And Venezuela is one of those countries. Saudi efforts to drive down oil prices have drastically reduced Venezuela’s state budget and led to enormous consequences for the Venezuelan economy.

         At the same time, private food processing and importing corporations have launched a coordinated campaign of sabotage. This, coupled with the weakening of a vitally important state sector of the economy, has resulted in inflation and food shortages. The artificially low oil prices have left the Venezuelan state cash-starved, prompting a crisis in the funding of the social programs that were key to strengthening the United Socialist Party.-----

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Our Violence Good, Their Violence Bad.

       Bahrain has been in open insurrection since 2011, with protests and molotov attacks on cops a daily occurrence. Many have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured, and thousands of people die in prison in the state where they are tortured, all supported and supplied by Western countries, while the state security forces are being trained by British cops, and backed by Saudi Arabian military.
       However, we don’t hear much about the bloody rebellion within the lands of our Saudi friends. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media doesn’t dwell too much on the savagery of the British manufactured royalty, that governs the rich oil fields of what has become known as Saudi Arabia. After all they are very good customers of our arms industry, and they allow our financial Mafia access to that lucrative oil. So what is there not to love about this public beheading, public flogging, religious extremist regime. Of course what the Saudis are doing to the Shia in their oil rich kingdom, is what states do to any group they see as a threat to the control of their privileges, wealth and power, crush them, or do their damnedest to achieve that end.

 City of Awamiya, in Eastern Saudi Arabia.

       What is going on in Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia is as brutal as what is going on in Syria, perhaps on a smaller area, but the savagery is just as fierce. The might of the Western armed Saudi regime is being unleashed on its own citizens, who respond with resilience and small arms fire. However, our babbling brook of bullshit will gloss over this, but give brutal details of the violence where they portray us as the good guys, putting our lives on the line to help the peoples of that area build “democracy”, a “democracy” where we keep control of the oil rich resources, allowing our financial Mafia to milk the region, to fatten Western parasites and their puppets. 

       Our babbling brook of bullshit, are experts at highlighting the violence of those our masters call the "bad guys", while turning a blind eye to the savagery and brutality of those they deem as our "allies". It is all part of their sworn duty of spewing out the usual brainwashing propaganda, in favour of this insanity we call capitalism.  

        Since May, 2017 an ongoing insurgency has been raging in the Shia heartland town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia and it’s only thanks to the BBC being allowed to enter the area and film the destruction that the world can see how the House of Saud’s war against the Shia population of Yemen has now expanded to include the Shia population of eastern Saudi Arabia.
       The BBC World report shown on Wednesday, August 16, seemed to have come from Syria, with al-Zara, the ancient Shia capital of the Persian province of Bahrain and the rest of the town of Awamiya showing a level of devastation resembling that in Syria or to the Kurdish cities destroyed recently by Erdogan Ottoman’s Janissarris.
       Block by block destruction of the Old City with no visible signs of the Shia people who once lived here for millenia with almost 500 buildings destroyed and over 20,000 driven from their homes by Saudi airstrikes, artillery and mortar fire. 

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

How Dare They Nationalise Their Oil!!

       According to Western propaganda spewing from the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, Iran has been, and still is, the king of the world's evil empire. According to that organ of the state and the corporate juggernaut, the babbling brook of bullshit, all things nasty, all terrorism, all human rights failures, stem from that country. The West's vision of Iran is shaped by nothing more than power and wealth for that elite bunch of parasites, oil is the driving force of that hatred. Some years ago, the people of Iran had the audacity to nationalise their countries oil, and to the West, that is an unforgivable crime. All the wars of the West are for the same reason, wealth and power to that small cabal of obscenely rich moguls who control the world in which we live.

This from The Canary: 

        The US just fired at Iran. But there’s something vital that the media won’t be telling you about ongoing tensions.
On 25 July, the US Navy fired ‘warning shots’ at an Iranian patrol boat in the Persian Gulf. This isn’t the start of World War Three as some media outlets may suggest; but it is a sign of continuing US-Iranian tensions. And it comes just weeks after the release of declassified documents which highlight the issues at the very heart of these tensions. We probably won’t be hearing such historical context in the mainstream media any time soon, though.

Newly released documents show tensions exist for a reason

As Noam Chomsky pointed out in 2013:

-----for the past 60 years, not a day has passed in which the U.S. has not been torturing Iranians… [It] began with a military coup, which overthrew the parliamentary regime in 1953, installed the Shah, a brutal dictator… When he was overthrown in 1979, the U.S. almost immediately turned to supporting Saddam Hussein in an assault against Iran, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, used extensive use of chemical weapons… Right after that, Iran was subjected to harsh sanctions. And it continues right until the moment.

      And in June 2017, newly released documents showed exactly what was at the heart of CIA involvement in the 1953 coup. As Foreign Policy reported:

------the CIA plot was ultimately about oil. Western firms had for decades controlled the region’s oil wealth… [Then, Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad] Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry. A fuming United Kingdom began conspiring with U.S. intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the shah… [Eventually,] Iran’s nationalist hero was jailed, [and] the monarchy [was] restored under the Western-friendly shah…

        The US long denied its involvement in the coup. And Washington only drip-fed documents to the public over the years. But even the 2017 release was incomplete; with a number of original CIA telegrams having either ‘disappeared’ or been destroyed long before. And retired history professor Ervand Abrahamian believes the US was so reluctant to publish this information partly because it “shows how involved the U.S. Embassy was… in internal Iranian affairs”.
As Noam Chomsky highlights, Amnesty International regularly described the shah as “one of the worst, most extreme torturers in the world”. And Foreign Policy stresses that the 1953 coup fueled “a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and [poisoned] U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century”. In 1979, Chomsky says, Iranians “overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path”; and as a result, the US has punished them ever since.

      US hypocrisy and self-interest still at play in Iran

      In 2017, current US President Donald Trump is ramping up tensions with Iran. But not because of democracy or human rights. Instead, his hostility is largely because Iran’s regional enemies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are US allies; because there’s a barely reported conflict occurring over oil pipelines in the Middle East; and because Iran does not bend easily to America’s will.
Indeed, Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia back in May contained no talk of freedom, democracy, or human rights. But it was full of talk about terrorism; full of talk about deals with America’s “magnificent” Saudi “friends”; and full of verbal attacks on Iran. Trump said:

Continue Reading: 

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UK, Defender Of --What??

       The UK establishment always spout how they are the defenders of freedom and human rights, but words are cheap, and actions always speak louder than words. So I suppose we should look at how the UK interacts with other countries, who it chooses as its friends, and who it chooses as its enemies. One of our dear friends and staunch allies is that citadel to medieval barbarism, Saudi Arabia. A country that still carries out pubic be-headings, public floggings, and stoning to death, where women are denied all accepted 21st. century rights, the right to drive, to go into mixed company unaccompanied, where if she is raped and reports it, she will in all probability, be charged with having sex outside marriage, and is likely to have a public flogging. At the head of this barbaric blot on the face of humanity, is a cabal of unbelievably rich religious fundamentalist fanatics, blind to compassion and anything resembling human rights, but an eye for making money and gathering power around themselves.  So the UK in its defence of human rights sells this cesspool of religious extremists, billions of pounds worth of military hardware, sends in special military advisers to assist them in retaining and expanding their power. I think you have to admit, it kind of blots the UK's human rights mantra.

       Now let's look at one of the UK's enemies, one that the UK played a major part in destroying, Libya. I am not, and never have been, a cheer leader for Gaddafi, but he did carry out a program of social benefits that would shock must people who read about them. Libya was a country of free health care, free electricity,  and interest free loans. Mothers received the equivalent of $5,000 for every child born, on getting married each couple were give the equivalent of $ 50,000 to find a home. Naturally, the UK as one of the world's defenders of human rights and of freedom, saw this abomination, and in a welling up of good will to all men, had to step in and destroy such a misuse of wealth. Now that Libya is a land of tribal feuds, blood letting, religious extremism, and dire poverty, the UK pumps up its chest with pride and points to Libya as a success story.

     As I keep saying, don't listen to their words, look at their actions.
Photos courtesy of arrezafe. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

  

Believe Or Die!!

          Nation states, all of them, are morally corrupt authoritarian institutions, that will make bedfellows of any other state, no matter its record on human rights, as long as it is advantageous to the power mongers in charge. Here in the UK, our lords and masters always spout about our high moral values and our respect for human life, but have no problem cosying up to such regimes as Saudi Arabia. A state that is harshly governed by a bunch of intolerant religious fundamentalist psychotic nut-cases. A state that is  so barbaric that it still carries out public beatings, as well as public beheading. In our dear friend, Saudi Arabia's land, a woman who is raped and reports it to the police, is usually charged with having sex out with marriage. In the developed world there are those who believe they have a friend in the sky, who they can talk to and who will personally look after them, and there are those who consider this as a rather stupid idea. Normally there is no real danger in holding the view that the man in sky is an illusion and should be dismissed. However in that land of our dear friend, Saudi Arabia, to speak of atheism, can imperial your life. The late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia introduced laws defining atheists as terrorists, and recently the "justice system" in Saudi Arabia saw fit to sentence a young man to 2,000 lashes and ten years in prison for expressing his atheism on twitter. Of course the lashing was carried out in public, just to bring home to others, that in that country you are not allowed to express your personal view on the man in the sky, you must kneel before authority. I suppose, in that land of sadistic barbarity, you could say that he may have been lucky, there is the case of the poet who renounced Islam and was sentenced to death. Such cases abound in that "holy Land" of a loving god, our bosom buddy in the Middle East.

        Members of the club for deranged young men, know locally as Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of Saudi Arabia, or religious police.

         We can go through nation state after nation state, and they will all be found wanting in a greater or lesser degree, in the way they treat human rights. All states consider human rights expendable, when it come to the safeguarding of the power of the cabal at the top of the festering mess that is the established state.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Death From A Loving Religion.

         For centuries religions have persecuted those who would dare to disagree with their mythological fantasies. They have handed out horrific and barbaric punishments, from burning at the stake, to beheading, the cutting off of hands or feet, to other unbelievable tortures. We like to think that we live in an enlightened age, where we have tamed the beast of religious fundamentalism, but sadly the monster still stalks the earth. There are lands where the only law is the barbaric law of a so called loving good. In Saudi Arabia during 2015 there were at least 151 executions, the highest number since 1995, when there were 192. These executions can be for crimes as petty as drug use, in the case below, where a young man is facing the death penalty, it is for writing poetry. No matter what the poetry contains, what humane, sane individual, can say, hand on heart, the poet deserves to be executed? 

Free Ashraf, poet facing execution in Saudi Arabia

Help us reach 50,000

       Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet and artist who lives in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to death for ‘apostasy’. The Saudi Arabian authorities claim that his poetry has questioned religion and spread atheism.
      Ashraf has committed no crime. He is a prisoner of conscience. Ask the Saudi Arabian authorities to free him now.

      Ashraf, a 35-year-old poet and artist, is sentenced to be executed by Saudi Arabian authorities for his art. On 17 November, the General Court in Abha, south-west Saudi Arabia, found Ashraf guilty of ‘apostasy’ – renouncing Islam – for his poetry and sentenced him to death.

Arrested for poetry and pictures on his phone

      Ashraf was initially arrested on 6 August 2013 following a complaint registered against him by another Saudi citizen, who said that the poet was promoting atheism and spreading blasphemous ideas among young people. Ashraf was released the following day, but then rearrested on 1 January 2014, when he was charged with apostasy – he had supposedly questioned religion and spread atheist thought with his poetry. He was at the same time charged with violating the country’s Anti-Cyber Crime Law for allegedly taking and storing photos of women on his phone.
      On 30 April 2014, Ashraf was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes for the charges relating to images of women on his phone. The General Court accepted Ashraf’s apology for the charges of apostasy and found the punishment to be satisfactory.
     However, the court of appeal recommended that Ashraf should still be sentenced for apostasy, and his case was sent back to the General Court, which in turn sentenced him to death for apostasy.
     Throughout this whole process, Ashraf was denied access to a lawyer – a clear violation of international human rights law, as well as Saudi Arabia’s national laws.

A death sentence for ‘apostasy’

Apostasy (Riddah, in Arabic) is the renouncing of Islam. Saudi Arabia follows Sharia (Islamic) law, and ‘apostasy’ can be punishable by death. Yet ‘apostasy’ is not a crime – it is a violation of someone’s right to belief or choose our own religion. It should never incur punishment.
       In addition to that, the death penalty, according to international law, may only be used for the ‘most serious crimes’ (recently interpreted by UN experts to refer to ‘intentional killing’). Apostasy is not a crime at all, let alone a serious one.
       The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment – it violates our right to life and our right to be free from torture. At Amnesty, we believe the death penalty should never be used.

What we’re calling for

       Quite simply, we’re calling for Ashraf to be freed. He has committed no crime, and as such should not be imprisoned, let alone face execution. We’re asking the Saudi Arabian authorities to drop Ashraf’s conviction and all charges against him. We’re also asking for them to stop executing anyone for ‘apostasy’.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Brutal State Murder By A Friendly Nation.

      The West has gone to war on numerous occasions under the pretext that they were removing an unacceptable tyrant, recently Saddam and Gaddaffi, to mention just two. We were told that they treated their citizens brutally, and we are going to "free" the people.

      However there are extremely brutal regimes that indulge in the most barbaric and horrendous state murders and yet the West is silent, and even honours and anoints them with the highest of hospitality at the highest offices in the land.
    The quote below is of an event ordered and sanctioned by the highest in the land, in that "friendly" nation Saudi Arabia, and that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will let it pass without as much as a ripple of disapproval.

Photo of a women being beheaded in Saudi Arabia for sorcery. 

     I have edited it slightly for translation purposes only, this from Arrezafe:

      The Saudi authorities beheaded, on Monday a Burmese woman, in compliance with the judgement rendered against her, for allegedly murdering her sister, a girl of seven years, as reported by Saudi media. A recording of the beheaded woman, identified as Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, has been released on the internet.
       In the shocking document, you hear her shout, “I did not kill, I did not kill”, while at least four policemen dragged her into the middle of the street, where an executioner was waiting to behead her. She uttered a shriek moments before the executioner's sword fell on her neck. According to Saudi media, it took up to three strokes with the cutlass to sever the neck of the woman.

Read the full article HERE:

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In Fear Of A Loving God.

        Every time the ISIL religious nutters, rampaging through the Middle East, carry out one of their many sadistic be-headings, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, splashes the details across front pages and on TV screens, condemnation rages against such a barbaric act, as it should. However, I couldn't find much coverage of the case of a man sentenced to be be-headed for tearing a Koran. The reason being, that particular case, was taking place in one of our “friendly” nations, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is allowed to carry out be-headings, public floggings, and stoning to death, with impunity, simply because it is a “friendly” nation.
      Just the other day, in another “friendly” nation, a young man and his wife were dragged from their bicycle rickshaw and brutally assaulted by a group with machetes. The young man died on the way to hospital, his wife is seriously injured and has lost a finger. His crime, he was an atheist blogger in Bangladesh, another “friendly” nation. I'm waiting to see just how much coverage our babbling brook of bullshit will give this barbaric crime, committed by the faithful of one of the world's largest religions.

      Across the globe we can put our finger on brutal and vicious killings, savage wars and community conflict, and at the same time, you will be putting your finger on the god loving killing the god loving. Day and daily, you will find the god loving killing those who have no god, all in the name of their particular “loving” god. Religion, insanity, and the curse of the masses.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Syria Chemical Attack, -- Who Dunnit??

      The Western hounds of war are baying for more blood, and useing the chemical attack in Syria as their excuse. To them the truth of who used those chemical weapons is of no real interest, it is the best pretext they can find to do something that they have wanted to do for many a year, bring about regime change in Syria. The Syrian people have the "misfortune" of living in a country where the state does not let  the mighty dollar control its natural resources. So it has to be changed. Fighting a proxy war by backing a ragbag of militias seemed like a good option, but it seems that the Asaad state apparatus is now getting the upper hand. So they have to up their game and stick the boot in, to help the Jihadist get in, and do their dirty work. The Obama/Cameron/Hollande hounds of war wanted a quick fix, get in and bomb the shit out of the regime before people found out who actually used the chemical weapons. However, it is not going that way, and the longer the delay in their use of "smart, democratic" cruise missiles, which only kill bad people, the more information keeps coming out that it was not the Asaad regime that used the chemical weapons. It is now looking more and more that it was our nice friends in the Syrian Free Army. That ratbag of everything from religious fundamentalists, to fascists, from jihadist to power crazy militias, that we have poured affection and millions of dollars into, don't seem to have too much of a problem of gassing their own. Is this the birth of democracy in Syria? Anything backed by the Western corporate greed machine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, etc. does not bode well for the people.

More on "Who Dunnit"? From ZeroHedge: 

     The Obama administration has selectively used intelligence to justify military strikes on Syria, former military officers with access to the original intelligence reports say, in a manner that goes far beyond what critics charged the Bush administration of doing in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war.

     According to these officers, who served in top positions in the United States, Britain, France, Israel, and Jordan, a Syrian military communication intercepted by Israel’s famed Unit 8200 electronic intelligence outfit has been doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion reached by the original report.

       The doctored report was picked up on Israel’s Channel 2 TV  on Aug. 24, then by Focus magazine in Germany, the Times of Israel, and eventually by The Cable  in Washington, DC.

According to the doctored report, the chemical attack was carried out by the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian Army, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother.

However, the original communication intercepted by Unit 8200 between a major in command of the rocket troops assigned to the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division, and the general staff, shows just the opposite.

       The general staff officer asked the major if he was responsible for the chemical weapons attack. From the tone of the conversation, it was clear that “the Syrian general staff were out of their minds with panic that an unauthorized strike had been launched by the 155th Brigade in express defiance of their instructions,” the former officers say.

       According to the transcript of the original Unit 8200 report, the major “hotly denied firing any of his missiles” and invited the general staff to come and verify that all his weapons were present.

     The report contains a note at the end that the major was interrogated by Syrian intelligence for three days, then returned to command of his unit. “All of his weapons were accounted for,” the report stated.

Read the full report HERE:

Blood Money.

      The UK state, like all states, works not so much with double standards but with multiple standards. As the UK state sits on its throne built by past colonialism and brutal exploitation and corruption, it passes judgment on other states criticising their human rights record and their civil rights abuses. While at the same time selling them weapons with which to repress the local population. According to The Independent, the UK state has issued more than 3,000 export licences for intelligence and military equipment to countries which it has put on its official list of, guilty of human rights abuses.

      Of course this shouldn't surprise us as the present system has nothing to do with human rights or civil rights, it's all about capitalism. Profit for the corporations overrides all other human concerns. In our greed driven thirst for profit we deliberately turned Libya into a land of warlords, factions and militia, but still manage to sell them more than £54 million worth of military equipment. Our "Honourable Gentlemen" in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are always banging on about those evil countries of Zimbabwe and Iran, but we still managed to sell the former £3 million worth of military equipment, while selling Iran a whopping £803+ million of military equipment, which if our lords and masters have their way will be used against UK troops when we decide to attack that country for its oil and gas.

       Then there is that bastion of democracy and equal rights for women, Saudi Arabia, our UK purveyors of death managed to sell them a staggering £1,863+ million of weapons and equipment. If we turn our eyes to that land of genocide and apartheid, Israel, well you need a lot of military muscle to maintain such a brutal system, so we were able to sell them an eye watering £7,879+ million of military equipment, which the Zionists and settlers, (stealers of Palestinian land) will be truly grateful. 

      Weapons may seem alright in self defence, but only an insane system of greed would make money from arming yourselves and then selling arms to those you are supposed to be arming yourself against. That's the crazy, greedy, brutal and destructive system that we tolerate today.

       The state is the enemy, the state creates wars, the state needs the arms industry. We the people don't need the state, we don't want wars, we don't need the arms industry. We can create a world of co-operation, mutual aid, and sustainability, free from the corrupting influence of power and profit.

ann arky's home.

Beheading And Other State Murders.

       With so many weird opinions floating around on the internet, I had to convince myself while reading this article on Jadaliyya, on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, that it was indeed irony.

Even though “[t]he beheading issue has always been a source of tension between Saudi Arabia and the international community,” the international community is not satisfied with this new approach. Having a whole bunch of people stand in front of a man, look directly at him as others are watching, and fire directly at him, is just so passé and, in the final analysis, not just inhumane, but also (please don’t let any children who watch CNN read this next word) graphic. Why can’t the Saudi Government kill in a civilized manner like the U.S. government does, with drones. Let someone else clean up the mess. And you don’t have to face your victims (and their families/neighbors/walkers by) after killing them. The Mideast policy preferences of the two countries almost mirror each other, so why not take them a step further? After all, what can go wrong with killing criminals and terrorists?

Read the full article HERE.

ann arky's home.

KILL THE POETS -- THEY MAY INSPIRE.

      As we are all told, the West will not tolerate dictators and repressive regimes, we in the West nurture "democracy" we choose our friends carefully. We sorted out bad bad Saddam in Iraq, we were the power behind the demise of cruel ruthless Qaddafi in Libya, we are 100% behind the overthrow of Assad in Syria, and we are keeping a watchful eye on evil Iran. We befriend such democratic countries like Saudi Arabia, where women are mere chattels, stoning and beheading are part and parcel of daily life. Another of our democratic friends is that beacon of freedom and self expression Qatar, ruled by a "democratic" despot, who recently sentenced a poet to life in prison for reading aloud one of his poems. It seems it appeared to be critical of despot rulers. 

This article from Panther Productions gives a detailed account:

    Life in prison may seem a harsh sentence for reciting a poem out loud, but it’s apparently what state security demands in Doha, Qatar, where a secret court delivered this sentence at the end of a short, secret trial in a state security case tried there in November.

      Muhammed ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, 37, a Qatari poet with a wife and child, was studying literature at Cairo University when the Tunisian revolution broke out in December 2010. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, al-Ajami wrote a short poem, “Tunisian Jasmine” [see below], celebrating the overthrow of repressive elites. He recited the poem to private audiences and the audio of at least one such performance appeared on YouTube, but al-Ajami says he didn’t post it, and doesn’t know who did.
     Qatari authorities took notice of the performance and, some months later, in November 2011, they arrested al-Ajami and held him in solitary confinement for most of a year before bringing him to trial. There is no allegation that he was otherwise tortured. The state charged the poet with “insulting” Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, as well as “inciting to overthrow the ruling system,” an offense that carries the death penalty.

Read the full article HERE:

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IT IS ONE BIG JOINED UP STRUGGLE.

      The world is rapidly changing, no longer are we involved in isolated struggles in our own backyard. We have a world vision, through the means of modern communication we are a joined-up struggle, it is no longer the boss-man, it is the world corporate system that we see as the enemy. We can support and show solidarity across the planet as we see the struggle unfold, we can relate each struggle to our own struggle, it is one gigantic struggle for freedom, justice and sustainability. Anger and resistance is growing, we gain strength from knowing others are struggling with us for the same aims, that makes victory all the more certain. 

This from AdBusters:

Look at what's happening in Quebec ... the boldness of the media democracy movement in Mexico ... the teenagers leading an education revolt in Chile ... the Pussy Riot inspired art war unnerving Putin in Russia ... and the new post-capitalist ways of living being forged in Greece and Spain. Witness the growing tempo of green riots across China, the South African miner strikes, the corruption protests of India, the freedom fight in Bahrain, the tremors of dissent in Saudi Arabia, the total loss of confidence in America's corporate-funded Coke-Pepsi election show. Then, add to that the crippling droughts, looming food scarcity, the end of easy oil and the tipping points hovering ominously on the horizon ...

Read the full article HERE:

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BEHEADING, CORRUPTION AND THE UK'S BLIND EYE.

       The arms industry is a true capitalist enterprise, devoid of any morals. Since 1960 the regime of Saudi Arabia have been a major purchaser of UK made arms. This is not just a series of corporate manufacturers selling to the highest bidder, the hand of the UK state is involved in most of these deals as they are government to government contracts. Governments are expert at putting nice names to despicable affairs, recently BAE arms manufacturer sold 72 Euro fighters to Saudi Arabia, at a cost of £4.4 billion, the project was named The Salam (Peace) Project. UK corporate business with the help and blessing of the UK government, makes billions supplying all manner of weapons to what is probably one of the most repressive regimes on the planet. This regime of Royal despots rule over a country that as well as brutal repression, is in the eyes of most observers is rife with corruption on a massive scale. The Guardian has ran numerous reports of allegations of corruption at the highest level.. In 2004, following revelations about a £60 million "slush fund", the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) began an investigation. There were further allegations in June 2007 that BAE, with approval of the UK’s Ministry of Defence, had made payments worth hundreds of millions of pounds since 1985 to bank accounts under the personal control of Prince Bandar, the son of Prince Sultan. On 14th December 2006 the SFO announced that it was stopping its investigation. CAAT and The Corner House challenged the decision in the courts. In April 2008 the High Court ruled that the SFO had acted unlawfully in curtailing the inquiry, but this ruling was overturned by the House of Lords on 30th July 2008. More information about the case and documents which were released during it can be viewed here.

The whole thing stinks.

      Saudi Arabia is also a country that beheads people, for among other things, the crime of sorcery. The latest case of this was a 60 year old woman who was headed for the crime of sorcery, and recently a man was beheaded for the same crime, it seems he told fortunes. This year alone the Saudis have executed 79 people, 5 of them women, compared to 27 for the whole of last year. It is obvious that they are stepping up the repression with one eye on the “Arab Spring”. It is criminal, but to be expected, that the UK state considers Saudi Arabia to among its “friendly” allies.

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EX-CIA AGENT ON THE MIDDLE EAST.

       An interesting interview with an ex-CIA agent. He seems to talk with a load of common sense and in a way that so many of the ordinary people with a little political savvy talk. Of course I don't think that he will get much cover in our mainstream press.

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FEMINIST SAUDI ARABIA!!!!

         Is it worth it, all that marching and demonstrating against the war, does it make any difference? Well of course it is worth it and of course it makes a difference, if you don't put your ideas on the table, they'll never be taken up. Also, little by little you expose the brutal lies of this corrupt system, consciousness shifts one small step at a time. There is now no doubt in the majority of the people across the world that the Afghan war was built on a series of lies and is maintained by more lies.
      Comedian Mark Steel, with his great sense of the absurd, mocks the endlessly changing justification for the war in Afghanistan - whether it's democracy, the heroin trade, terrorism or women's rights - and celebrates how the anti-war movement across the world has changed people's view of wars and the lies our leaders tell to take us into them.

       Mark Steel will be performing at the Antiwar Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square on 8 October 2011, alongside John Pilger, Billy Bragg, Jemima Khan, Brian Eno, Julian Assange and many more.

Antiwar Mass Assembly details...

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WHAT IS NATO DOING IN LYBIA?

       As the Western take over of Lybia continues with more than 6,000 NATO attacks on Tripoli so far, and the Western imperialists keep mouthing noises about doing it to protect civilians, we have to ask questions. Why not Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia etc. where civilians are being killed on a daily basis? Why did the West support this particular uprising? The information coming out of Libya doesn't show them as a democratic group. There are reports of them moving into towns and villages and  "cleansing" them of "black" Libyans. These are Libyans who found themselves there because of Libya's previous connection with the slave trade. There have also been reports of looting as they enter towns and villages. Hardly the actions of a movement driven by the desire for true democracy.

The following extract is taken from The Commune and the full article can be read HERE.

       Joe Thorne looks at the evidence, and draws some conclusions.

Libyan Proverb "The calamity of a people is beneficial to others"

             The NATO powers are not intervening in Syria or Bahrain, where pro-democracy movements are also subject to brutal suppression. They did not intervene in Gaza during Cast Lead, or in Tamil Eelam during the offensive which wiped out thousands of Tamils. While millions of dollars are spent on cruise missiles and aerial bombing, UNICEF, the same powers in their guise as protectors of children, say they are worried that because of insufficient resources to deal with famine “65,000 children in Kenya alone are at acute risk of dying.” Indeed, “Britain trained and equipped some of the Libyan special forces who inflicted such horrors on cities like Misrata. Western states continue to train Saudi forces, and this may well have much the same effect.”

We don’t need to labour the point: the NATO powers are not ‘humanitarians’, their motives are not ‘humanitarian’, and what they do has nothing to do with the defence of human life. Could it be the case that their malign motives are a given, but the objective outcome of their policy may nonetheless be welcome? It was not the case in Kosovo or Iraq. The point of reminding ourselves of NATO’s hypocrisy is not just that they are hypocrites: it is to understand how the specific, very much non-humanitarian, objectives of the NATO powers will play out in their actual policy in the coming weeks, months, and years.

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