“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” …I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…. I would rather … resort to arms in order to defend … honour than…, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to [our] own dishonor. – Mahatma Gandhi

As usual I’m catching some shit for affirming tactics that are considered violent by some – see side bar videos. All this from some of my “liberal friends” who think standing in line for a camping permit so they can “occupy the park” is the revolution. I really struggle with those who have turned “non-violent resistance” into an infallible religious tenet that now stands as the “eighth deadly sin”. They confuse legitimate anger and subsequent action with Wrath. Recently some have had the audacity to “parrot”, “too bad about Bahrain, the movement has gone violent, no one will listen to them now”. Even the US State Department has uttered such nonsense. Seriously??? – …like anyone in the US was listening to begin with, aside from NGOs who are required to hold such lines in order to maintain funding sources… It would seem many find “violence” as a convenient excuse to abandon moral responsibility for the actions of their own government(USA) and a mechanism to reinforce their own “self righteousness”. Anyway, for those of you who might be struggling with such things, I found the article below to be edifying and affirming… – Phlipn

Against Chris Hedges and Some Others
anon – 24 July, 2012 – Anarchist News dot org

– There is a special hatred reserved for the journalists of moral authority. It appears to be difficult for them to conceive that a revolt may be a revolt against them. Their signs of race, class and establishment undermine their writing and the more they harp on the imperfections of those who riot, the more they make themselves the enemy of the different.

– This is nowhere clearer than in the demand that revolt articulate itself eloquently. The value of the journalist’s critique is lost in a social system of dominance in which the journalist is uncritical of his own situation, and dominates. Thus does the academician fall into step with the fat policeman and the great body of so-called intellectual work conforms to that of the night-stick.
[I’ll do the first two for you: Argument from final Consequences, Confusing association with causation]

There are at least two ways in which Black Bloc anarchists are not cancers: one, in a theory of difference (Deleuze) in which the repetitions of the Black Bloc exhibit a difference which is not compossable with the established left – with consciousness raising; the other, in a theory of symbolic retribution (Baudrillard) in which the Black Bloc assumes its position as a violent and evil yang to the beautiful souls’ – to the Business/ Rulers and their journalists’ – white yin.

In a first scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for having gone too far: they’re undoing the possibilities and great advances (sic) of the official, professional, pacifist and business left; they aggress rather than accept their historical place of punishment and self-sacrifice; they act upon material conditions rather than mouthing the (rather lame) official platform; they’re dangerous to the children in strollers who’ve been brought to witness and legitimize Daddy’s and Mommy’s discontent.

With Deleuze, we can respond that the Black Bloc is a ‘different’ which is comprehended in its repetitions: it is an anarchic, nomadic minority which does not benefit by integrating; which speaks a language of its own in contrast to the King’s English; and which, as a minority exerts its own selectivity in relation to its affections and its repulsions. There’s as little room for this type of difference as there is, say, in a classroom: if you can’t conform, if you can’t speak properly, you’re a failure. This is in fact the central reason why racial, cultural and class Others find little space in majoritarian protests – the dominant hasn’t been undone.

In a second scenario, the Black Bloc is criticized for not having gone far enough: they haven’t really harmed capital, only bumped up its defense mechanisms; they haven’t achieved a real and lasting change to the system which can only happen in attacks on the brain-centers and at connecting nodes in the system; they lack the proper tools, can only destroy and never build the new society which must replace the present one.

With Baudrillard, it is possible to state that the Black Bloc is simply the projection of the established left’s violent and evil twin. In his explanation of symbolic duality, every light has its shadow, every white its black, every yin its yang. When an entity can’t admit to and accept its own violent and evil tendencies it projects them onto a cultural other who becomes the black sheep – the Black Bloc. In this way, the Black Bloc carries all the violent fantasies and the dark eros to which the beautiful soul can’t admit.

There remains then, at least in logic, two tasks for the Black Bloc: to detach itself from the official, professional and established left, refusing to be its shadow; and as an anarchic, and nomadic minority, to increase its strength in the selection of its affections and repulsions. One would think that since it does not benefit from integration into the majoritarian, dominant reality that it should increase its invisibility to that system and pursue its own desires underneath the establishment’s radar. Along with the Black Bloc’s production of a surface for action, one hopes there will be a surface of recording by which others might share in their joy. The only question is whether one has been careful enough.

Long, Live Anarchy!
…source

tuyo en la lucha. su amigo – Phlipn.

Police violence in Anaheim: The class issues
by World Socialist… 26 July, 2012 – Socialist Equality Party

Statement by Jerry White, SEP candidate for US president

As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for US president, I condemn the brutal shooting of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz in Anaheim and the subsequent violent crackdown on protesters. These acts of police brutality are an attack on the entire working class and must be met with a unified political response.

The killing of Diaz, who was unarmed, was followed by the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful demonstrators, including children. Barely 24 hours later, 21-year-old Joel Acevedo was shot dead, allegedly in the course of a chase in which he drew a weapon. Acevedo was the sixth person killed by Anaheim police this year.

In response to the second killing, there were even larger protests Tuesday outside City Hall, with as many as a thousand people taking part, and 24 arrested. There was sporadic window-breaking and water bottles thrown, which was seized on by police as a pretext for unleashing nightsticks and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

These protests show the widespread anger among working people, not only over police brutality, but over the deepening economic and social crisis that has driven unemployment in California well into double-digit figures. The plight of Anaheim’s Hispanic working class population, the target of increasingly draconian anti-immigrant policies, is particularly dire.

The police violence, and the social crisis behind it, are not, however, primarily racial issues. They are class questions, manifestations of an economic system in which a relative handful monopolize the wealth, while the vast majority of all races struggle to survive.

According to one recent report, median family income has fallen 6 percent since 2000, the worst drop since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the top one percent of households has doubled its share of national income, from 10 percent to 20 percent, since 1972. Under Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president, the top one percent has swallowed up 93 percent of all income gains since the beginning of the so-called “recovery.”

Under such conditions, it is impossible for the ruling elite to maintain its wealth and power through democratic and peaceful means. Instead, there has been a systematic buildup of the powers of the police, initially in name of fighting “crime,” more recently using the pretext of the “war on terror.” The real social function of the police, however, is to defend the interests of the corporate and financial elite. …more

Elusive FinFisher Spyware Identified and Analyzed
25 July, 2012 – By Parker Higgins – Electronic Frontier Foundation

The FinFisher spyware, produced by the UK-based Gamma Group, has been for years as elusive as it was notorious. Since protesters found FinFisher company records in an abandoned Egyptian state security building last year, security researchers and activists around the world have been eager to get their hands on a copy of the tools in the FinFisher suite, especially the component called FinSpy. FinSpy has been the subject of particular interest because of its ability to wiretap calls made over the Skype network, which is widely used among activists all over the world, often in the belief that it is more secure than other forms of communication.

Now for the first time, a copy of the spyware has been publicly analyzed. Morgan Marquis-Boire, a security researcher at Citizen Lab, and Bill Marczak, a founding member of Bahrain Watch, have published an in-depth analysis of FinSpy after obtaining a copies of the program used to target pro-democracy activists.1 The targeted activists were each involved with the government transparency organization Bahrain Watch, but were located in different cities around the world. The spyware was included in targeted attachments that purported to come from an Al-Jazeera journalist and contain pictures and information about current events in Bahrain.

It’s not clear that Bahrain Watch was being targeted specifically. “The malware seemed to have targeted people who are involved in activist organizations, particularly activists who have significant contacts outside of Bahrain,” said Marczak.

The activists were suspicious of the email attachments they had received and passed the files along to Bloomberg News, which turned them over to Marquis-Boire. In addition to posting materials on the Citizen Lab site, he will be presenting the results of his analysis at the BlackHat security conference today in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most notable difference Marquis-Boire has revealed between FinSpy and less sophisticated malware tools like those used by the Syrian government is the way in which this software was designed to defy analysis: not only was FinSpy actively avoiding detection by anti-virus programs, but it was also heavily “booby-trapped,” causing many of the most popular debugging programs to crash during attempts to analyze and identify the code.

Gamma and FinFisher have come under heavy international scrutiny for their apparent willingness to export sophisticated surveillance technologies to oppressive government regimes. Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt is just one example. According to Privacy International, “there is also evidence that this technology has been deployed in Turkmenistan, a one-party state that Human Rights Watch labelled ‘one of the world’s most repressive countries’ in March 2012.” Privacy International is currently engaged in legal action against the British government. The action arose after Privacy International issued repeated requests for information about why the government has chosen not to exercise its powers under the Export Control Act of 2002 to restrict sales of technical goods or services to governments that could be used to commit human rights abuses. FinFisher’s products appear to fall into that category.

Similarly, EFF has been calling for companies that produce surveillance technology to adopt “Know Your Customer” standards, like those required by Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other export regulations, and avoid becoming “repression’s little helper.” An EFF white paper from April of this year, “Human Rights and Technology Sales,” addresses the problem in greater depth.

For its part, FinFisher has chosen to hide behind claims of client confidentiality. In an article in the Wall Street Journal last year, a lawyer for Gamma said it “cannot otherwise comment upon its confidential business transactions or the nature of the products it offers.” But promotional materials, obtained through the files discovered in Egypt and through Wikileaks releases, are more forthcoming. As reported by OWNI, one 2007 presentation boasted of “Black Hat Hacking tactics to enable Intelligence Agencies to gather information from target systems that would be otherwise extremely difficult to obtain legally.”

Citizen Lab has provided a set of straightforward recommendations that advise against opening unsolicited attachments, even from links that appear to be from friends. And now that security researchers have obtained a copy of FinSpy, work can begin on preparing tools that can detect and remove the program from infected computers. …source

Foreign jihadists swell rebel ranks in Syria
26 July, 2012 – Al Akhbar

In restive northwest Syria, the insurgency has found an unlikely new partner in the struggle against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad: foreign Islamists who are arriving in large numbers.

But rather than adopt the revolt’s calls for democracy and the fall of a dictatorial regime, such jihadists have taken a sectarian stance, promoting hatred against the minority Alawi sect, which they consider as “apostates.”

At the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, seized by Islamist militants last week, dozens of men claimed to have traveled from several Arab and Muslim countries.

Some said they were from Algeria, others claimed to be from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. A few say they are from even farther away, including insurgent hotbeds such as Chechnya and Somalia.

From the start of the 16-month uprising – which has grown into an armed insurgency backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey – the Syrian regime has claimed rebels were hosting al-Qaeda fighters, and that the revolt was a foreign conspiracy.

It is unclear just how many foreign jihadist fighters have entered the country.

What is clear is that Syria’s rebels do not want to admit that the jihadist phenomenon exists.

In the central province of Hama, a rebel who identifies himself as Abu Ammar says he commands a 1,200-strong battalion.

“We will never let al-Qaeda take root here – we’ll kill them if they try,” he says. “The revolution belongs to the Syrians.”

But eyewitness accounts suggest those fighters are coming whether he likes it or not, some of them likely to have been spurred by militant websites urging Islamists to join the uprising. …more

Israel’s Barak calls for swifter action against Iran
26 July, 2012 – By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Reuters

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for major powers to speed up efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program, cautioning it would be tougher to confront it once Tehran managed to cross an atomic threshold.

Israeli media interpreted Barak’s comments as pushing for a possible Israeli strike against Iran to stop a project the West sees as a drive to achieve nuclear weapons though Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

“I am very well aware and know in depth the difficulties and complexity involved in preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons,” Barak told a graduation ceremony for security officers, in remarks later released by his office.

“But it is clear to me beyond any doubt that confronting that (nuclear) challenge in itself once it ripens if it ripens, will be infinitely more complex infinitely more dangerous and infinitely more costly in human life and resources,” he said.

“This is the time for the entire world to ready for united action, united goal in political desire in order to put a swift and definite stop to the Iranian nuclear project,” Barak said.

In his lengthy remarks, Barak said Israel now faced “its most complex challenges ever”, adding “we may need to make fateful and difficult decisions with regard to Israel’s security,” pointing also to what he called growing instability posed by popular revolts in neighboring Arab countries.

“The events of the Arab spring, which have gradually evolved into an Islamic summer, show that at the ultimate hour of decision we can rely at the moment of truth on ourselves alone,” Barak said.
…more

Bahrain’s Leeds Utd takeover likely in 2 weeks – report
By Shane McGinley – 26 July, 2012 – Arabiain Business

A group of investors, led by a member of the Bahraini royal family, is likely to conclude its takeover of English football club Leeds United within the next two weeks, according to a report in the UK.

Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, the man who led a failed takeover of the side in 2003, is reportedly part of a consortium close to completing a deal for the Championship side.

“The club has been talks with a group of investors led by the Bahrani royal Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa… [and] are now, as we understand it, on the brink of a takeover which should be completed in the next fortnight,” talkSPORT, the UK’s biggest national commercial sports radio station, said in a report this week.

Sheikh Abdulrahman’s representatives are believed to be carrying out due diligence on the club’s finances and the asking price has been estimated at around GBP£50m (US$77.6m), the report added.

Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling dynasty, was part of a consortium including representatives from Saudi Arabia and Asia which failed to push through a takeover deal just under a decade ago, local newspaper the Yorkshire Post reported earlier this month.

A successful takeover would follow hot on the heels of Nottingham Forest’s sale to Kuwait’s Al Hasawi family. The Kuwaitis were reported to have also considered buying Leeds United.

The Yorkshire club said in a statement: “Leeds United can confirm they have granted an exclusivity period to enable a potential investor to carry out the appropriate due diligence.

“It is anticipated this will be a fairly straightforward process. A confidentiality clause prevents the club from making any further comment.”

The statement did not mention the value of the potential deal or names of anyone involved.

The latest acquisition would give Al-Khalifa automatic membership to an elite club of Gulf investors that own European football teams. Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited, led by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, acquired Manchester City for a reported US$321m in summer 2008.

Qatar Sports Investments bought a 70 percent stake in French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in June last year. The investment firm became the sole shareholder of the club after purchasing the remaining 30 percent stake in March.

Dubai’s Royal Emirates Group owns the Spanish La Liga side Getafe. …source

Syrian FM: Dabagh Excluded from Office, Hariri and Tahsin not Ambassadors
Local Editor – 26 July 2012

On the backdrop of news circulated on employees at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic work and travel to certain Arab countries, Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday, pointing out that not only Dabagh is excluded from office, but also Hariri and Tahsin are not ambassadors and actions will be taken against them.

The News of Syrian Diplomatic Defections is Greatly Exaggerated

“Over the past two days, the media outlets tackled news related to workers at the Syrian Foreign Ministry who chose to quit their diplomatic missions and travel to a specific Arab capital which committed itself to fund and encourage this kind of employees to dissent,” the statement read.

The Foreign Ministry made clear that the Syrian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Dabbagh, has quit work since last June 4, adding that Lamia Hariri “did not hold in previous and currently doesn’t hold the title of Syrian Ambassador, but she is just a diplomat working in the Syrian embassy to Cyprus and committed to manage the embassy on behalf of the pending appointment of an acting chargé d’affaires or ambassador.”

“Mohammed Tahsin al-Faqir does not hold any diplomatic status but he is an administrative officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working at the embassy to the Sultanate of Oman. His mission at the embassy has been completed under the resolution No. 129 issued since 21/05/2012 and is awaiting for retirement within months. He does not have any security status at all,” the statement added.

“The Foreign Ministry has taken the necessary measures against dissident diplomats, noting that the Syrian embassies to the concerned countries are still on regular service for Syrian nationals,” the statement concluded. …more

While this seems to be a great service, it only provides a filter to obscure the faces of those who protest and speak-out against their governments. Keep in mind this is a filter, the unfiltered video still exists, leaving an unprotected copy available and vulnerable to both warranted and unwarranted requests from government agencies and “security contractors”. Phlipn

YouTube Offers a Way to Blur Faces, Protecting Identities in Videos
By JENNIFER PRESTON – 26 July, 2012 – NYT

To help protect dissidents using video to tell their stories in countries with repressive government regimes, YouTube made available a new tool on Wednesday allowing people to obscure faces within videos uploaded onto its platform.

Protecting the identity of activists using social media has become a growing concern among human rights groups as authoritarian governments in some countries, including Syria, have been turning to citizen-generated videos of protests and other user-generated content on social media sites to identify and jail dissidents.

“Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not,” Amanda Conway, a YouTube policy associate, wrote in a statement about the new tool. She pointed out that “human rights footage, in particular, opens up new risks to the people posting videos and to those filmed.”

Sam Gregory, program director for Witness.org, the leading human rights video advocacy and training organization, praised the move. Witness.org recently began collaborating with YouTube on a new human rights channel.

Mr. Gregory has been trying to raise awareness among dissidents and operators of social media sites about the importance of anonymity for activists when speaking out can put them at risk of retaliation.

In recent years, Mr. Gregory said, government officials in places like Myanmar, Iran and Syria have used videos of protests to identify dissidents. “There have been clear attempts to use citizen-shot footage to target people and punish them for speaking out against the regime,” Mr. Gregory said.

But Mr. Gregory said the tool would help more people than the activists involved in protests. He said that it would also protect the identity of people who want to use video to speak out about subjects like sexual assault and abuse. …more

Iran urges Syrian sides to fully implement Annan’s peace plan
25 July, 2012 – Shia Post

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Mohammad Reza Sajjadi has called on sparring sides in the Syrian conflict to support the full implementation of the plan by the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

In a meeting between Sajjadi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Wednesday, the two sides called for the settlement of the Syrian issue through peaceful ways and negotiations.

They stressed that the Syrian issue should be resolved without foreign meddling in the country’s internal affairs, urging “foreign players” to refrain from pursuing the approach of interference as it would bear no results.

The Iranian and Russian officials stressed the importance of putting an end to violence in Syria and called on countries which are supporting the opposition to the Syrian government to push them to stop terrorist attacks against civilians in the country.

Bogdanov, for his part, said Russia’s principled stance is based on the joint efforts by the international community with the purpose of implementing Annan’s peace plan.

Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its full support for Annan’s six-point plan on ending the unrest in Syria.

On March 11, Annan said he had presented a set of concrete proposals to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during two rounds of talks in Damascus. His six-point plan was to begin with a cease-fire in mid-April between government forces and rebels seeking to topple the Syrian government. …more

Iran ready to share “capabilities” with Assad
26 July, 2012c- Al Akhbar

A high-ranking Iranian official says his country is ready to share “experience and capabilities” with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

In a report published late on Wednesday by official news agency IRNA, Iran’s vice president in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou, described the two countries as powerful nations able to influence regional and global stability.

“Tehran is ready to give its experience and capabilities to its friend and brother nation of Syria,” he said, after meeting with Syria’s deputy prime minister, Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji.

IRNA said Ghalawanji described Syria as facing serious challenges as a result of “cruel sanctions” imposed by the US, European Union, and Arab countries on Damascus over its handling of a 17-month uprising. …source

Turkey warns it would strike PKK fighters inside Syria
26 July, 2012 – Agence France Presse – The Daily Star

PARIS: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkey’s Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them.

“In the north, it (President Bashar Assad’s regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization,” Erdogan told Turkish television late Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Asked if Ankara would strike fleeing rebels after an attack on Turkish soil, Erdogan said “That’s not even a matter of discussion, it is a given. That is the objective, that is what must be done.”
…source