World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

"In other words, cables revealing state corruption and injustice in places like Tunisia and anywhere else where the Internet and other access to information is restricted, can be a tremendous shock, and then a great motivator. Their contents confirm people’s worst fears. They shame. In the case of Tunisia, the writers argue, there was “a genuinely extraordinary WikiLeaks effect.”

“We will rip freedom from the throat of Mubarak”
Young man, Tahrir Square, 07/02/2011

“We have seen our friends killed here in Tahrir Square. After that how can we leave now, before the revolution succeeds”
Man in his mid twenties, Tahrir Square – 07/02/2011

Mourning for the martyrs of Tahrir Square and of the Egyptian uprising continued yesterday. Banners bearing the images of the martyrs were hung in the square. One Bilal Salem Ayesh Mahmud, ten years old, was killed during the uprising in Rafah. Fourteen demonstrators have been killed in Tahrir Square, and over 300 have been martyred during the uprising.

During the last thirteen days rioting has erupted through downtown Cairo. The property damage caused in the rioting has been well targeted with branches of multinational corporations, government cars and buildings, police and army property and banks destroyed while local cafes, apartments and shops have been left untouched.

"Having slandered the anti-regime protest movement, Suleiman outlined a series of threadbare sops, including a pledge to form a committee comprised of “members of the judicial authority and a number of political figures” that is to spend a month considering possible constitutional and legislative amendments. Another bureau is also to consider complaints about the detention of political prisoners.
The vice president said that media and communications would be “liberalised” but stressed that the state of emergency—continuously in operation ever since Mubarak assumed power in 1981—would only be lifted “based on the security situation and an end to the threats to the security of society.”

Dissident Island interviews Corporate Watch on the subject of 'less lethal weapons'.

 http://reportsfromtheegyptianuprising.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/were-not-going-anywhere-voices-from-tahrir-square-on-the-day-of-the-martyrs/

This is part of a series of post from CairoRising

CairoRising post first hand reports from an anarchist perspective from the Cairo uprising, in solidarity with the direct action of the people of Egypt against state repression.

Drawing together grassroots and alternative media coverage from the Egyptian rebellion and creating a forum for calls to global solidarity.

You can follow our reports via our blog -  http://reportsfromtheegyptianuprising.wordpress.com/ or Twitter at twitter.com/cairorising

"In that context, Obama’s words Friday have an ominous ring. He reiterated previous statements that the US government opposes the use of violence either by the government or the protesters—as though there were an equivalence between a brutal military dictatorship, armed to the teeth, and with a long record of torture and murder, and the Egyptian masses, who successfully defended themselves in Tahrir Square with their bare hands and sheer force of numbers.
If Mubarak is replaced by a caretaker regime based on the military, both the Obama administration and the American media will swing behind the new rulers, vilifying all popular opposition as “terrorism” and endorsing the bloodiest measures of state repression.
Far from representing a concession to the democratic demands of the masses, such a regime would represent a carefully constructed roadblock. It would cement the role of the Egyptian government as a servant of US imperialism, collaborator with Israel, and enemy of the Palestinian people and the oppressed masses of Egypt itself."

Aussies go to High Commission to Demand Defence of Julian Assange's civil rights (4 Feb)

Original article with pictures at  http://reportsfromtheegyptianuprising.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/tahrir-square-autonomy-from-dictatorship/

This is part of a series of post from CairoRising

CairoRising post first hand reports from an anarchist perspective from the Cairo uprising, in solidarity with the direct action of the people of Egypt against state repression.

Drawing together grassroots and alternative media coverage from the Egyptian rebellion and creating a forum for calls to global solidarity.

You can follow our reports via our blog -  http://reportsfromtheegyptianuprising.wordpress.com/ or Twitter at twitter.com/cairorising

This week, 2 contributions by Peter Dale Scott, a long established researcher into what he calls 'deep politics'. We begin with a talk on Continuity of Government from the 2010 Santa Cruz 'Understanding Deep Politics' conference, and conclude with a 90 minute interview on the contents of his new book, "The American War Machine - Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and The Road to Afghanistan", interspersed by 8 minutes of Dwight Eisenhower's valedictory address from half a century ago in which he warns of the military industrial complex.

Deputy Prime Sinister thought he'd sneak into Rotherham today but his visit didnt go unnoticed!

"Mubarak has no legitimacy.

Suleiman has no legitimacy. He was appointed by Mubarak.

The call in Egypt is for true democracy.

Democracy is the last thing that the U.S. wants for it’s third world backyard.

With democracy, the Egyptian people will reject the fundamentals of U.S. policy in that region.

The Israeli government would have to deal fairly with a neighbor on more or less equal terms, something it has never been willing to do, due to it’s fundamentally racists attitude toward Arabs."

@banbarkawi: This is not a war between sects, nor religions. This is a war of the government against its people. 02/02/11

The rapidly unfolding events in Tahrir Square now stand irrefutably as the result of an act of state repression that is at once inherently insidious in nature, but blatant in its staging. The fact that the initiation of attacks and violence in Cairo came at the behest, under the control, and in the interests of a state mechanism attempting to crush its people, is not incidental to the situation, nor is it a complexity of chaos for history to reveal and make sense of at a later date. It is inherent to the reality of the situation – it is the situation itself and everything that is happening stems from that.

Yet despite the constant stream of reports from both paid journalists, and Egyptian demonstrators, on the ground, either immediately, or later, verified in photos, video or witness statements, that first exposed and consistently reaffirmed the truth of today’s events; the reporting of major news channels has, throughout the day, become more and more a passive journalism of the uncertain.

Hussein Al-alak is a journalist, campaigner and chairman of Iraq Solidarity UK.

Can anyone make sense of this Hegelian mind-fck: replacing their own installed tyrant who is empire-friendly, with a street revolution that is empire-inimical? It is like red-teaming blue-teaming an exercise where only the observers know what the real game is, but either team thinks their battle is real.

Reality is almost like an onion.

This week we mark a year since Lyn's last new episode by deviating from our usual format. Instead of a few separate speeches, an audio collage of speakers, some with backing music. The most prominent voice is Noam Chomsky's, but he is supported by a couple of dozen others from earlier episodes and other sources. The overarching theme is the need to question the existing reality, especially to shake off the hierarchical institutions and prejudices of the past, and embrace a new spirit of autonomy that respects the individual.

"The cables demonstrate the courage of the Egyptian demonstrators in the face of the brutality of the Mubarak regime, as WikiLeaks editor Maria Luisa Rivera notes in introducing them. “As an Internet blackout imposed by the state covers the country, every citizen and grassroots organization will now be exposed to arbitrary police forces,” she writes. “As secret documents from US prove, during the demonstrations today, authorities might use physical threats, legal threats and extraordinary laws such the Emergency Law as an excuse to persecute and prosecute activists during the pacific demonstrations taking place in Cairo and other cities.”
She continues, “Excessive use of force by police during the protests [has already] led to arbitrary executions and detentions in a vast array of abuses, a situation that is known and acknowledged in the past by US diplomats based in Egypt. It is important to bear in mind the long record of police abuse and torture by Egyptian police forces.”

Make the whole world aware of the slimy role the US has played in Egypt. The US will try to distance itself from this regime. But one of the reasons it is so hated is precisely because of it’s close ties to US imperialism. Spread these notes widely, everywhere."

TamilNet reports that the use of Wikileaks cables as admissible evidence is to be tested in US courts as Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka runs away from another private visit to the US.
This has significant impact on UK wide legal attempts to indict the perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Sri Lanka, 2009 - many residing in the UK if not frequent visitors.

"Understand that the “War on Terror” is a complete lie, a concoction meant to obscure the imperial attack on the worldwide insurrection of the people’s revolt the imperialist ruling class knew would be coming. Of course 911 was a false flag attack perpetrated largely by imperialism to serve as a defense against this revolt. But before that the outlines of this “defense of the system” was likely behind the crash of a jumbo jet in the ocean when an Egyptian pilot, with no record of radical ideas, supposedly crash dived a fully loaded passenger plane shouting, “God is great.” One can review and study these manipulations and begin to see the strategy and heartless efforts being waged by our rulers in a desperate attempt to maintain our world in bondage. The U.S. will claim to be defending democracy and human welfare while attempting to utterly crush both."