On Tuesday, October 25, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, discussed the recent killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and Western action and policy toward the North African country on the Cliff Kelly Show over the airwaves of WVON-AM 1690, Chicago’s Black talk radio station, between 4 pm and 6 pm Central Time (5-7 PM Detroit time.)
A round table discussion of U.S. policy and developments in Libya followed from and include noted activists, Pan Africanist and human rights advocates. After the segment with Min. Farrakhan, the on-air panel discussion about Libya included Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Nation of Islam; Zaki Baruti of the Universal African Peoples Organization; Ali Baghdadi of the Arab Journal; Conrad Worrill of the National Black United Front; and activist Pat Hill of Black People Against Torture.
Libyans take pictures with their mobile phones of the body of strongman Moamer Kadhafi in Misrata on October 20, 2011. Note bullet hole in his left forehead.
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said his sources in Libya provided information revealing Moammar Gaddafi was set-up in an assassination plot.
Early on October 19, Twitter messages from Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte reported the presence of white flags across the devastated town. Flags were reported at multiple locations in the town, leaving some to believe the rebels were surrendering,
The use of white flags to signal surrender is an ancient tradition going back to the Eastern Han dynasty in China and the Roman Empire. Violating the widely accept convention is considered an act of extreme treachery.
Under both the Geneva and Hague protocols of international humanitarian law, it is forbidden to kill or injure persons hors de combat (outside of combat) and doing so constitutes a major war crime.
Madsen’s sources said Gaddafi was told to surrender to the al-Qaeda rebels besieging Sirte before morning prayers at 5 am, but that it was decided to surrender after the sun was well up in the sky so the white flags would be clearly visible.
According to official accounts, however, Gaddafi was attempting to flee Sirte and avoid surrender.
He was wounded in a Predator drone attack and subsequently killed by crossfire, either from the rebels or Gaddafi supporters. Video footage released hours after the attack, however, clearly reveals a seriously wounded Gaddafi abused by a crowd of rebels. A choppy cell phone video then shows the body of the deposed leader.
A NATO rebel fighter later bragged that he had killed Gaddafi.
Both Madsen and Jones said the official cover story does not make sense. If Gaddafi wanted to escape Sirte, why didn’t he do it under the over of darkness? It makes little sense to attempt an escape convoy in broad daylight in rebel territory with U.S. predator drones likely on constant patrol.
Many men from Calipatria ASU who have been on the mass Pelican Bay hunger strike remain in the hospital at Centinela according to prisoner advocate Kendra Castaneda on Thursday.
Castaneda stated in an email to the Examiner that many men from Caliatria ASU who were on California’s Pelican Bay hunger strike are still hospitalized an suffering at Centiela where they were eventually transferred “after falling to the ground.”
According to Castaneda, the men are reportedly suffering “organ damage from the mass retaliation the prison did to them during both of the hunger strikes.”
In retaliation for the strike, the men were subjected to withholding water, withholding fluids, and denying medical access until an inmate dropped to the ground or lost 22lbs.
“That mass retaliation was ordered by Calipatria’s Warden Leland McEwen during the hunger strikes,” she stated.
“Please pray for these men.”
Mediators who met with hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay, one of whom had been transferred to Corcoran due to the strike, confirmed on October 13 that prisoners there decided to stop on day 18 of the strike after nearly 3 weeks.
The prisoners had cited a memo from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that detailed a comprehensive review of every Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisoner in California whose SHU sentence is related to gang validation according to Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Solidarity.
“The review will evaluate the prisoners’ gang validation under new criteria and could start as early as the beginning of next year,” the group reported.
“This is something the prisoners have been asking for and it is the first significant step we’ve seen from the CDCR to address the hunger strikers’ demands,” stated Carol Strickman, a lawyer with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
“But as you know, the proof is in the pudding. We’ll see if the CDCR keeps its word regarding this new process.”
Gang validation is a practice CDCR uses throughout California prisons.
Hundreds of prisoners who have been validated at Calipatria have been held in Adminstrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) for as long as four years, awaiting transfer to Pelican Bay where they will go into solitary confinement.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the U.S. drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution.
Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement—Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them—the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews.
Thirty years later, this lush collection was found languishing in the basement of Swedish Television. Director Göran Olsson and co-producer Danny Glover bring this footage to light in a mosaic of images, music and narration chronicling the evolution one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement.
Music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African-American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle—including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles—give the historical footage a fresh, contemporary resonance and makes the film an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution.
Featuring music by The Roots and Michael Jackson. (Partially subtitled)
Director: Göran Olsson Cast: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, William Kunstler, Angela Davis
Run Time: 1hr 32mins Release Year: 2011 Country Of Origin: Sweden/USA
NOTE: THE “BUY TICKETS” BUTTON DOES NOT WORK ON THIS PAGE.
P.O. Kata-Ante Taylor snatched Aiyana’s body from home despite her family’s pleas; he previously executed teen in 2008, not charged in either case
Federalist Society member WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny was “one-man grand juror” for Weekly, A&E photographer
WCCC Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, married to a law enforcement officer, is to preside over their trials
By Diane Bukowski
Oct. 21, 2011
Killer kop Kata-Ante Taylor
DETROIT – Killer cop Kata-Ante Taylor was the officer who snatched Aiyana Stanley-Jones away from her family after she was shot in the head by Detroit cop Joseph Weekly May 16, 2010. Taylor ran the child out of her home “like a rag doll,” in the words of Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, thus depriving Aiyana in the last moments of her conscious life from being held by family members who loved her.
Attorney Jonathan Marko of the law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney and Giroux, P.C.. who represents Aiyana’s parents in a civil lawsuit against Weekly, provided this information to VOD. He said he has taken depositions of several of the other officers involved in the raid, but cannot release any other details at this point because the process is still ongoing.
Artrell Dickerson, 18 at time of death
Taylor and his partner Aubrey Wade shot 18-year-old Artrell Dickerson to death as he ran from them after a friend’s funeral at the Cantrell Funeral Home on Mack in Detroit, in 2008. (Click on http://michigancitizen.com/police-executed-teen-at-funeral-say-witnesses-p4173-1.htm to read article by this reporter.) No charges were ever brought against them, despite the fact that eyewitnesses said the cops shot the teen in the back as he lay on the ground, already wounded.
“One officer stood over him and executed him,” a relative of the family of 24-year-old Dontell Martin, who was being buried that day, said at the time. “I saw this because I was on the street corner watching. There was no gun nowhere near him. His hands were visible, he was face down, and the officer shot three times. He executed that boy. He didn’t have to do him like that. All he had to do was put handcuffs on him.”
Worthy’s treatment of killer kops, Aiyana’s dad, differs drastically
Joseph Weekly, Aiyana Jones, depiction of killing after second autopsy
This new revelation starkly illustrates the disparity between Worthy’s treatment of Aiyana’s father and that of killer cops Weekly, Taylor and the police command involved.
She directly brought first-degree murder charges against Jones in the killing of Je’rean Blake May 14, for “aiding and abetting” defendant Chauncey Owens, not for shooting Blake. But she brought no “aiding and abetting” charges against Taylor or other Detroit police involved in Aiyana’s death.
Heckler & Koch MP5, gun indictment says Weekly used to kill 7-year-old Aiyana
“Are they going to charge the cops that threw the flash bomb and the ones that tried to cover it up?” Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones asked Oct. 5 after her son was arraigned.
Ducking police criticism which has come anyway, Worthy said she used a “one-man grand jury” to bring only involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm charges against Weekly, the actual shooter. Allison Howard, a photographer with A&E’s “The First 48,” faces perjury and obstruction of justice charges. She is allegedly the only person on the TV show’s crew who had enough compassion for the family to show the video to Attorney Fieger.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
Weekly was released on a $100,000 personal bond, Howard on a 10 percent $50,000 cash bond, while Jones was remanded to jail without bond.
Weekly and Howard will not have a preliminary exam in 36th District Court under the grand jury proceeding, but will first appear before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway Friday, Nov. 11 for a “calendar conference.”
Jones’ preliminary exam is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 18. He will be represented in his criminal case by Fieger’s firm, which asked for time for discovery before the exam.
Worthy claimed that under state law she cannot comment on the alleged “grand jury” proceedings which resulted in charges against Weekly and Howard.
Federalist Society member WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny was “one-man grand juror”
WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny, "one-man grand juror"
However, a review of the court files for the two shows that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny, who is presiding judge of the Criminal Division, brought the “grand jury indictment” Oct. 4. There is a separate case file for the “grand jury” proceedings, #11-501-GJ, but Kenny told VOD that the file is not open for public review.
Kenny is a member of the Federalist Society, “a well established network of right-wing lawyers, politicians, pundits, and judges [who] advocate a rollback of civil rights measures, reproductive choice, labor and employment regulations, and environmental protections,” according to “Right Wing Watch.”
Howard’s indictment for perjury says that on May 21, 2010, she “testified that she did not show third parties the video recording, and/or that she did not provide third parties with copies of the said video recording,” and that that “slowed the investigation.”
Allison Howard at arraignment
It further states that she “committed the crime of obstruction of justice by providing false testimony under oath at an Investigative Subpoena requiring redirection and expenditure of law enforcement resources to uncover the falsity of the testimony and the truth of the underlying matter.”
Marko said a video he alluded to in the civil proceedings which is in the Fieger firm’s possession is not the A&E video, but another murky film that was shot from a distance away.
What does “The First 48” lead to? Former First 48 Detroit cop Ed Williams shot and killed himself and wife Patricia
Worthy’s media representative, Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller, said she could not comment on the date testimony was taken by the “grand juror.” Worthy had announced shortly after Aiyana’s killing that she was turning the investigation over to the Michigan State Police. It is thus unclear WHO took her allegedly perjured testimony May 21, 2010.
During the civil suit, it was “The First 48” TV series and its producer Kirkstall Rd. Enterprises of New York who refused to provide their videotapes of the Jones homes raid. However, no corporate representatives have been charged with “obstruction of justice.” It is unknown whether the A&E tape is in the prosecutor’s possession.
Abbe Raven, CEO of A&E: why isn't she charged for "wantonly" causing Aiyana's murder for the sake of profit?
Weekly’s indictment for involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm says he “did because of carelessness, recklessness, or negligence but not willfully or wantonly cause or allow a certain firearm under his/her immediate control, to wit, a 9 mm. submachine gun, to be discharged so as to kill another person.”
The phrasing leaves open the opportunity for his defense to claim, as have city attorneys in the civil suit, that Mertilla Jones caused the gun to go off by having contact with Weekly, a charge she has vehemently denied.
Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, married to cop, to preside over Weekly trial
Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway with husband DeWayne Hayes
Whether Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway was picked by blind draw to preside over Weekly’s and Howard’s trials is another matter open to question.
According to her official biography, “Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway is married to Rev. DeWayne R. Hayes, Wayne County Deputy Sheriff and Founder of The DeWayne R. Hayes Law Enforcement Officers and Youths Support Foundation.
The State of Michigan “business entity” site listed the foundation is listed as a non-profit corporation created first in 2008 and dissolved, then re-created in 2009. There are however no tax returns or other financial statements available for it on guidestar.org, which receives documents for non-profits from the IRS.
Gray Hathaway is divorced for WCCC Judge Michael Hathaway but has maintained the well-known Hathaway name, likely for electoral purposes.
Jason Gibson with his attorney Susan Reed in Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway's court
Hathaway presided over the trial of Jason Gibson in March for the killing of police officer Brian Huff in May, 2010, and the wounding of three other cops. The improbable scenario presented at that trial was that Gibson shot Huff in the living room of what many believed to be a drug house operated by the police.
Cops testified he then jumped out on the front porch, gun blazing, and shot three other cops, among dozens who were aiming their guns at him. Mysteriously, Gibson ended up with only one bullet in his buttock, rather than shot dozens of times as normally would have been the case.
Hathaway facilitated the guilty verdict by allowing the testimony of police officers involved in two prior arrests of Gibson, in 2007 and 2009, over the strenuous objections of his attorney.
Means-Curtis sealed depositions of both Weekly and Jones in the civil proceedings. The family’s brief contended, “Charles Jones’ criminal proceeding has absolutely nothing to do with how and why Defendant Weekly shot Aiyana. This Court should recall that it already ruled Charles Jones’ conduct was not relevant to the gross negligence claim in this case. . . This court should not allow the City to dictate the direction of this action through nothing less than executive fiat.”
During a meeting with members of the NATO-rebels’ TNC in Libya on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington wants to see Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi captured or killed.
In a comment on Clinton’s bloodthirsty statement, Professor Paul Sheldon Foote from the California State University explains that the Obama administration believes this killing would be a justified one:
“Warmongers in the Obama administration will argue that Gaddafi is a former leader and therefore he’s fair game. Don’t forget who Hillary Clinton is. In 2008 as a candidate for president she threatened to kill every man, woman and child and turn Iran into a waste basket.”
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama behind the execution of Col. Qaddafi and the devastation of Libya and its poeple.
Foote says that behind this unannounced visit there is the desire of the Obama administration to put some American ‘fingerprints’ on the so-called ‘success’ of NATO in Libya.
“In addition to saying that they’ve killed Bin Laden, they want to say next year in Obama’s campaign for re-election that they’ve brought a great ‘victory’ in Libya,” he says.
Keith Harmon Snow, a war correspondent and independent investigator, says that killing Gaddafi would be an illegal targeted assassination and that there is obviously a hidden agenda behind Hillary Clinton’s apparently spontaneous visit.
“There is a lot of fighting in Libya at present and almost everything we’ve been told, everything we’ve seen, is false. We are getting just a complete propaganda story of what’s going on in Libya,” he says.
“Why is she there? Clearly to make it look to the American public like the U.S. is in absolute control of Libya. Cover up the atrocities, put a white, clean, shiny, happy, lovely face on the death and destruction.”
However, judging by comments, few are those who would think Hillary Clinton herself has a white, clean, shiny, happy, lovely face. Typical of comments on Pan-African websites are hostile reactions to her call, such as the below (with spelling corrections):
“Yes Hillary Clinton was courageous enough to call for the death of an African Hero. Now we will see between her and Qaddafi who will be dead the first. She just called for her own death as well. Qaddafi is not Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden. Qaddafi is an African Hero and our Leader. Hillary just called for her own death. I know she is a monster as Samantha Powell told us. But she crossed the red line. She must count her days from now. She will be killed before she killed Qaddafi. The African Muslim Ummah just issued a fatwa for her death. Yes African people will never let her get away with this call. She did not see the protest movement in Mali lately…”
The commenter was referencing this protest in Mali, with similar taking place across other parts of Africa but going largely unreported.
Not only are African citizens venting their anger in online posts and mass demonstrations but also some European media that are outside the clutches of the warmongers, such as Russia’s collective publication Pravda, are responding vehemently against the ugly persona of Clinton.
Does the female have sufficient gray matter to realize that what she hopes about Gaddafi, millions of people around the world also express the same hope about her and her filthy, genocidal cohorts? – Source
VOD ed: Below is a section of a Reuters report indicating that it was a US drone that took out Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s convoy as it fled Sirte, which had been destroyed by US/NATO bombs. In the video link, Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News’ chief Pentagon correspondent, says the U.S. knew Qaddafi was in the convoy and deliberately targeted him. Only the day before, Hillary Clinton had met with the NTC to tell them the U.S. wanted Qaddafi captured or dead. (See following story.)
“U.S. officials told NBC News that a Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile and a NATO warplane also launched a missile at the 15-vehicle convoy about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, destroying several vehicles and scattering the rest. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said a French aircraft was involved in the attack. Click on link for video below.
Some two miles west of Sirte, 15 pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 meters from the main road.
Nelson Mandela and Col. Gadhafi outside his home, which the U.S. bombed in 1986, killing his infant daughter.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or that it had been strafed by a fighter jet.
‘My master is here’
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Gadhafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have run through a stand of trees toward the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.
But a group of government fighters were on their tail.
“At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use,” said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. “Then we went in on foot.
“One of Gadhafi’s men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me,” he told Reuters.
“Then I think Gadhafi must have told them to stop. ‘My master is here, my master is here,'” he said, ‘Moammar Gadhafi is here and he is wounded,'” said Bakeer.
Another of the fighters who said he took part in the capture toted a heavily engraved a golden pistol he said he took from Gadhafi as he was hoisted on the shoulders of his comrades.
Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. National Transitional Council officials later announced he was dead along with Gadhafi’s fourth son, Muatassim.”
VOD ed: Below is a video from CBS News that illustrates the suffering of the people of Sirte as their city was destroyed.
Read the following article from The Final Call, “The Gadhafi I Know–A Commentary on the Libyan Leader,” which details what Gadhafi achieved for the Libyan people and the whole of Africa under his administration, including housing, jobs, education, and all the necessities of life. The U.S. and NATO forces have now laid waste to a country that was a virtual paradise. The enormity of their war crimes cannot be measured.
The capture and summary execution of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is being hailed by imperialist politicians and media as “liberation” for the Libyan people. In fact, it means just the opposite. While the final bullets that killed Gaddafi may have been fired by troops of the Libyan “National Transitional Council” (NTC), the real victors in this war are the U.S. government and its British, French and Italian allies.
Without NATO intervention, the Libyan rebel forces would have long ago been defeated. The NTC billboard welcoming Sen. John McCain to Benghazi, Libya a few months ago read: “USA: You have a new ally in North Africa.” To be really accurate, “client” should have been substituted for “ally.”
Video: NATO-led rebels parade and outrage the bodies of Muammar Gaddafi and his son Muttassim in Misrata
Wefaq Libya
While facetiously pretending that their 7-month-long intensive bombing campaign was to “protect civilians,” the NATO air forces waged a ruthless war that left cities like Sirte in utter ruin. The defenders of the city determinedly held out for months against overwhelming NATO force until the city was completely destroyed.
The U.S./NATO conquest of Libya is another step in a new scramble for Africa, this time with the U.S. rather than the European powers in the lead. Libya was the first war of the recently formed AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s military command for Africa, established to facilitate a new type of colonization of the resource-rich continent.
Brian Becker
In an interview on Russia Today, ANSWER Coalition national coordinator Brian Becker said: “[This is] the act of the NATO powers, the United States, Britain and France, the former colonizers and enslavers of Africa, who have carried out regime change in many countries, they’ve done it again. They’ve taken out the leader and replaced him with a new government, which will be basically a NATO client regime. I think it’s a great tragedy for the people of Libya.”
Drones kill Somalians as Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama celebrates
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford Tue, 10/18/2011 – 20:53
“The overlapping entanglements have allowed the U.S. military to achieve deep penetration of the armed forces of most African nations.”
Africa, under President Obama, is an expanding theater of war for the United States. There are few points on the African map where the U.S. military does not operate, independently, through proxies, or by agreement with local governments and militaries. AFRICOM has penetrated the armed forces of the continent to a degree no single European power could have ever aspired. Indeed, “the U.S. has so thoroughly infiltrated African armies, many, if not most, would be of no use for national defense against the Americans.”
Scores of Somali civilians have been killed in U.S. drone attacks in the southern region of the country, as Washington tightens its military grip on much of the continent. The current offensive involves thousands of Kenyan troops that are threatening the major Somali city of Kismayo. The American drones are supporting the Kenyan invasion. The drones’ origins are officially secret, but it is known that the U.S. operates drone bases in Ethiopia and Djibouti, which is home to a huge American base.
For all practical purposes, the U.S. has made proxies of Ethiopia and the five member states of the East African Community: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. The Ugandans and Burundians safeguard the airport that is the lifeline for Somalia’s puppet regime in Mogadishu, where the CIA operates a major facility. In September, the militaries of the East African Community held joint exercises with AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command.
Such exercises with American forces have become commonplace. The U.S. Defense Department is busily training the militaries of Mali, Chad, Niger, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Gabon, Zambia, Uganda, Senegal, Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi, and Mauretania. ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is considering asking the U.S. navy to help it out with its pirate problem. Most of the militaries of the African Union already communicate with American command-and-control equipment, requiring U.S. advisors. The overlapping entanglements have allowed the U.S. military to achieve deep penetration of the armed forces of most African nations.
“Most of the militaries of the African Union already communicate with American command-and-control equipment.”
In such a web of dependency, few standing African armies are capable of defending themselves – if the aggressor is the United States. But in most cases, the U.S. would likely get its way without a fight, since the officer class of so many African militaries have direct ties with their American counterparts. The U.S. has so thoroughly infiltrated African armies, many, if not most, would be of no use for national defense against the Americans.
The Americans are almost everywhere, but the French never left Africa. Although France and the U.S. were longtime rivals in Africa, waging proxy wars against each other through their African flunkies, their joint actions against Haiti and Libya, and in bringing down the government in the Ivory Coast, signal that the French and Americans are full partners in neocolonialism.
Now President Obama has officially sent 100 U.S. Special Forces troops to Uganda and neighboring countries, (click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/18/obama-sends-us-troops-to-uganda/) ostensibly to track down a rebel force. They will also operate in the new nation of South Sudan.
Meanwhile, the NATO attack on Libya threatens to set the whole northern tier of Africa ablaze, a pretext for further U.S. and French operations. American penetration of Africa has reached the point that any nation – such as Eritrea – that does not have a military relationship with the United States is marked for regime change. Instead of the pan-Africanist dream of a United States of Africa, we are seeing an Africa under the military thumb of the United States. For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to http://BlackAgendaReport.com.
The Black defenders of Sirte and Bani Walid fight like lions because they have no choice
By Glen Ford
Both NATO and their Libyan rebel surrogates express wonder at the fact that loyalist forces continue to fight so fiercely in the contested cities of Sirte and Bani Walid, despite being vastly outnumbered on the ground and unceasingly pummeled from above by the world’s largest air armada. But one look at a picture of Gaddafi loyalist prisoners, captured at a hospital in Sirte, tells the story: they are all Black. The assault on Libya has largely devolved into a race war, and the Black soldiers are fighting for survival against the world’s biggest lynch mob, armed to the teeth by the United States and Europe.
Bulldozer in Tawergha digging mass grave
Where are the people of Tawergha, the mostly Black Libyan city that was wiped from the face of the earth by the rebels? Many of those who were not killed or captured have clearly made their way to Sirte and Bani Walid, to make a last stand against the racist killers that westerners like Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now! call “revolutionaries.” The rebels are brazen – absolutely without shame – in their determination to cleanse Libya of its Black population. They are like Arab Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, backed by a European and American air force, a racist militia whose fighters have vowed to “purge Black skin” and who scrawl the Arabic equivalent of “nigger” on the homes of their vanquished Black countrymen.
Their rationalizations for ethnic cleansing and summary executions of Black prisoners are quite familiar to the American ear, identical to our own practitioners of White Terror. The Tawerghans raped women, the rebels claim, even as international observers report that it is the rebels and the riff-raff that surrounds them who have systematically raped and captured Black girls and women. The Tawerghans, say the rebels, tried to “slaughter all the Misuratans” – and “this is something they have to answer for.”
Many of those who were not killed or captured have clearly made their way to Sirte and Bani Walid, to make a last stand against the racist killers.
Of course, the town of Tawurgha, with only 30,000 mostly Black Libyan citizens, could not possibly have terrorized Misurata, the third biggest city in the country, 25 miles away. But racists always claim to be the victims of crimes in which they, themselves, specialize. So, the Tawurghans – standing in for all Blacks – are labeled rapists, to justify the racist rampages of the Misurata Brigade.
According to a report by none other than the Voice of America, one-third of all prisoners of the rebels are Black. And they appear to be the lucky ones. The captured Tuwarghan men are nowhere to be found, an indication that the rebels don’t give them a chance to surrender, or keep them long after they do. Wounded Blacks that have made their way to hospitals are snatched from their beds, to an unknown fate.
NATO says it will keep bombing until the last resistance to their Libyan rebel surrogates, is crushed. That appears to mean, until the last free Black men in Libya are captured or killed, their families caged at the mercy of racist brutes and sexual marauders. Black civilians are clearly not the kind of people that the Euro-Americans had in mind, when they claimed to be on a mission to protect civilians.
No wonder, then, that the defenders of Sirte and Bani Walid fight like lions, against all odds. They are heroes, but they also have no choice. The racist death squads will have no mercy. Black skin will be purged, Black women raped and then killed. The First Black President of the United States has unleashed a hell on Black Libya. No decent person can ever forgive him.
Tens of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid on Saturday, part of the global movement against corporate greed. Photograph: Arturo Rodriguez/AP
‘Occupy’ anti-capitalism protests spread around the world
Thousands march in Rome, Sydney and Madrid as Occupy Wall Street protests go global
Protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and the “Indignants” in Spain have spread to cities around the world.
Tens of thousands went on the march in New York, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney and Hong Kong as organisers aimed to “initiate global change” against capitalism and austerity measures.
There were extraordinary scenes in New York where at least 10,000 protesters took their message from the outpost of Zuccotti Park into the heart of the city, thronging into Times Square.
Only 36 hours earlier, police were preparing to evict the protest from Zuccotti Park. On Saturday they escorted thousands of marchers all day as they made their way uptown through Manhattan, and looked on as they held a rally at a New York landmark.
Occupy Wall Street protesters take part in a demonstration at Times Square in New York/Photo:Eduardo Munoz /Reuters
Dave Bonan, who was at Occupy Wall Street on the first day of the protest a month ago, said it was “a little surreal” that the protest had spread. “I didn’t expect it to last more than 15 minutes,” he said. “The fact it lasted more than a day inspired people all over the world to capitalise – no pun intended – on our success.”
In Madrid, tens of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, home of the “Indignants” movement, which has been building through the summer as Spain’s economy faltered.
In London, dusk fell on more than 2,000 protesters assembled in front of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, earlier addressed by the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Protesters who are part of the "Indignants" movement based in Madrid burned police cars and otherwise rose up in defiance
There was civil unrest in Rome, where police turned teargas and water cannon on the crowds. Smoke hung over Rome as a small group broke away from the main demonstration and smashed windows, set cars on fire and assaulted television news crews. Others burned Italian and EU flags. “People of Europe: Rise Up!” read one banner in Rome. Fights broke out and bottles were thrown between demonstrators as some tried to stop the violence.
Occupy solidarity demonstration in Berlin, Germany October 15 AP photo
In Germany, about 4,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin, with banners calling for an end to capitalism. Some scuffled with police as they tried to get near parliamentary buildings. In Frankfurt, continental Europe’s financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank.
In the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, marchers carried pictures of Che Guevara and old communist flags that read “Death to capitalism, freedom to the people”.
Another 500 people gathered at a peaceful rally in Stockholm, holding up red flags and banners that read “We are the 99%” – a reference to the richest 1% of the world’s population who control its assets while billions live in poverty.
“There are those who say the system is broke. It’s not,” trade union activist Bilbo Goransson shouted into a megaphone. “That’s how it was built. It is there to make rich people richer.”
Occupy Manila, Philippines
Asian nations, where the fallout from the banking crisis has been less severe, saw less well attended protests – 100 turned out in the Philippines.
A group of 100 prominent authors including Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham signed an online petition declaring their support for “Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement around the world”.
Occupy Sydney, Australia
Police in London made seven arrests and contained the crowd near St Paul’s. Assange made a dramatic appearance, bursting through the police lines just after 2.30pm, accompanied by scores of supporters.
Occupy Stockholm, Sweden
To clapping and some booing, he climbed the cathedral steps to condemn “greed” and “corruption”. In particular he attacked the City of London, accusing its financiers of money laundering and tax avoidance. “The banking system in London is the recipient of corrupt money,” he said, adding that WikiLeaks would launch a campaign against financial institutions.
Occupy Lisbon, Portugal
Assange is on bail as he fights extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over claims of rape and sexual molestation made by two women.
Police in New York said they made 70 arrests. These were mostly at two flashpoints: 42 were detained near Times Square when attempts to disperse a crowd led to confusion; 24 Citibank customers who attempted to close their accounts in protest were led away for trespass after they opposed an order by the branch manager for them to leave.
Barbara Quist, 67, was pushed around by police in Times Square. Quist, who used to work in the pharmaceutical industry but described herself as unemployed, said the treatment would not put her off further action. “I’m just another person that’s just been run over by capitalism and greed.”
Ethan McGarry, 18, who had travelled to New York from Boston for the day, said it was “fantastic” how the occupy movement had spread. “People identify with us, then hey will find reasons in their own community for action.”
Lauren Zygmont had travelled from the Occupy Denver protest to New York a week ago ago. “Borders don’t matter at all,” she said. “Were all human beings, were all in this together. This is a global movement.”
Occupy Athens, Greece in Syntagma Square Oct. 15; the country is in the throes of mass strikes and walk-outs over austerity measures
Rampage, tear gas in Rome
Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
October 15, 2011
Hundreds of hooded, masked protesters rampaged through Rome in some of the worst violence in the Italian capital for years Saturday, torching cars and breaking windows during a larger peaceful protest against elites blamed for the economic downturn.
Police repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannon in attempts to disperse them but the clashes with a minority of violent demonstrators stretched into the evening, hours after tens of thousands of people in Rome joined a global “day of rage” against bankers and politicians.
Smoke rose over many parts of the neighborhood between the Colosseum and St John’s Basilica, forcing many residents and peaceful demonstrators to run into buildings and churches for shelter as militant protesters ran wild.
After police managed to push the well-organized radicals away from the St. John’s area, they ravaged a major thoroughfare, the Via Merulana — building barricades with garbage cans and setting the netting of the scaffolding of a building on fire.
Athens: protesters call for world revolution to overthrow the global capitalist system
Discontent is smoldering in Italy over high unemployment, political paralysis and 60 billion euros ($83 billion) of austerity measures that have raised taxes and the cost of health care.
The violence at times resembled urban guerrilla warfare as protesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police, who responded by repeatedly charging the demonstrators.
Around 70 people were injured, according to news reports, including one man who tried to stop the protesters from throwing bottles.
Protesters from France, Spain and Portugal participated in Occupy Paris Oct. 15
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno blamed the violence on “a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe, who infiltrated the demonstration.” Some Rome museums were forced to close down and at least one theater canceled a show.
Protesters also set fire to a building, causing the roof to collapse, reports said. The Defense Ministry denied reports it was one of its offices.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi called the violence a “worrying signal,” and added that the perpetrators “must be found and punished.”
Occupy Seoul, South Korea
Berlusconi barely survived a confidence vote Friday, with many questioning his leadership. Italy’s debt burden is second only to Greece in the 17-nation eurozone and the country is rapidly becoming a focus of concern in Europe’s debt crisis.
At one point radicals surrounded a police van near St John’s Basilica, pelted it with rock and bottles, and set it on fire. The two occupants managed to escape, television footage showed.
Occupy London
Some peaceful demonstrators also clashed with the militants and turned some of them over to police.
A day of worldwid protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States began Saturday with the hundreds of people gathering in cities from Japan and South Korea to Australia.
Organizers had hoped to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.
Frankfurt
In continental Europe’s financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank , while in London, around 500 people marched from St. Paul’s cathedral to the nearby stock exchange.
A website called 15october.net urged the people of the world to “rise up” and “claim their rights and demand a true democracy.”
“Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end,” the website says.
Sydney About 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.
“I think people want real democracy,” said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org. “They don’t want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable.”
The crowd cheered a speaker who shouted, “We’re sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!”
