Geopolitics around Syria

I just drew a map showing the 30 largest World powers, according to GDP (PPP), and reflecting their governments' political stand on the so-far speculative attack against Syria:

Red: imperialist camp: government declared support for attack against Syria
Blue: anti-imperialist camp: government declared opposition to attack against Syria
Yellow: unknown official stand
Black: Syria (for reference)
Circles' areas are proportional to GDP(PPP)
(IMF data 2012, except Syria: WB 2005-2012)

Notice please that the alignment of governments on this matter may and in most cases does not reflect that of the people or even the parliament. In fact in some cases (UK), the government had to step down from its hawkish stand because of parliamentary opposition. In all cases the citizenry seems very hostile to any new imperialist adventure, especially considering how poorly justified it is (obvious psy-op) and who are the beneficiaries (Islamist terrorists of the worst kind).

Personally I believe (or at least hope) that the attack will never take place and that the various imperialist governments are actually using the parliament card to get an excuse not to intervene, while at the same time using the crisis to gauge the weight of global alliances.

But, whatever the case, we do get an interesting picture of global alignments. First of all the BRICS bloc has responded unanimously against the imperialist aggression, second some important and possibly unexpected non-BRICS states like Mexico, Egypt or Indonesia stand against the intervention. Of these the most notable is probably Germany, which also opposed (along with Italy) the intervention in Libya.

One can speculate that Merkel is just being cautious because of the elections but in fact she has such a wide advantage that she could do anything. The reality is that all this classical Western imperialism (it's just like the old Entente) is hurting German interests, which has long and strong ties with states like Iran, not to mention Russia, etc.

Also very notorious is the stand of India, often ambiguous. But maybe the most interesting development is the stand of Egypt. It is not just a calculated stand to appease the populace but apparently the Egyptian military is very hostile to any intervention in Syria and would like Assad to stay in place. In fact the anti-Damascus stand of the former President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood seems to have been one of the triggers of the military coup.

Not just the military, heavily dependent on US aid, but also Tamarod flatly rejects any intervention against Syria and has called for the government to close the Suez canal to Western military ships in such event, calling traitors to anyone who supported the Western aggression. 

The ghost of Nasser, who nationalized the Suez canal and was adamant of pan-Arabism, has returned strongly to Egyptian politics. Many would like Al-Sissi to be another Nasser, although I suspect that this is quite unlikely.

In any case around the Syrian crisis a new cold war seems to be brewing. True that China, the rising superpower, is keeping a relatively low profile but it is also true that, would the crisis escalate to the Persian Gulf, as it is perfectly possible they would be extremely upset.

England: at least 22 antimilitarists arrested in nonviolent action against nuclear warheads

Antimilitarist activists chained themselves in blockade of the roads leading to AWE Burghfield (nuclear weapons factory near Reading). At least 22 were arrested.

The protesters want to denounce the renewal of the British nuclear arsenal (Trident missiles, mounted on submarines), whose cost to the British taxpayer is of some 100 billion pounds. 

The protest was coordinated by Action AWE and Trident Ploughshares, with the support of the European Antimilitarist Network. This last meant that many of the arrested had passports from states such as Finland, Belgium, Spain, Japan or Argentina.

There was division of labor for the action: the main road was cut by the hardened activists of the Conscientous Objection Movement (MOC), from the Spanish State, which in the past carried on the largest ever civil disobedience campaign in Europe. At least four were arrested. 

The NW construction gate was blockaded by the Belgians, while the southern gate was blocked by the Scots.

Veteran activist of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Pat Arrowsmith, 83, was present and sent a message for the elimination of nuclear weapons, against which she has fought all her life, since 1958. Rebecca Johnson, who helped to create the Greenhan Commons antimilitarist camp in the 1980s was also present. 

A Disarmament Camp has been held for a whole week near AWE Burghfeld. 

A photo-gallery is available here, videos here.

Sources: Action AWE (link 1, link 2), Insumissia[es], Webguerrillero[es].

Note: for those who are not familiar, the use of PVC pipes is meant to delay the dismantling of the human chain, which would otherwise be fairly easy. The activists risk their fingers or even hands by doing that.

Syria: Lavrov warns of imminent NATO attack

Dismissing the claims of Damascus using chemical weapons as unfounded and extremely unlikely (because Assad does not need them to win a war that is almost over), Russia Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov warned that it looks like the USA and allies (France, UK, etc.) are already determined to intervene in Syria with whatever pretext. 

Source: Bloomberg.

Gladio: Nato's shadow state (III): against communism by any means necessary

The third article[es] of Daniele Ganser on the Gladio affair (French version) is most interesting for the present time, especially as communist forces like SYRIZA in Greece (or maybe others in the near future or at sub-state level, as may be the Basque case) aspire to reach to power by purely electoral means.

Some, very naively, expect the state apparatus to obey them as soon as they reach power but the reality is quite the opposite and the increased Nazi penetration in the Greek police forces is the proverbial tip of the iceberg that evidences that the deep state of the Balcanic country is getting ready to counter such an eventuality by all means. 

Gladio investigations established that NATO is not merely a defensive alliance but first and foremost an anti-communist organization of global reach. They also evidence that the real command is in Washington and not Brussels, with Europeans being relegated to a secondary role as auxiliary forces of the American Empire. Role that nevertheless many exert enthusiastically. 

A key organism is the hyper-secret Security Bureau, created in 1949 and whose declared mission is to coordinate, oversee and implement NATO's security policies. It's top officer is the Security Director, main councilor of NATO's Secretary General and President of the Security Committee of NATO. This committee gathers the chiefs of security services of NATO member states and discusses matters such as espionage, terrorism, subversion and other threats, including communism. 

In other words: it coordinates all NATO secret services. However some such services seem to have acted independently from their governments with full blessing by NATO. According to Portuguese newspaper Expresso (1990):

It seems evident that NATO applies a criterion of restricted trust. Under such doctrine some governments are not active enough in the struggle against communism, so it is not useful to inform them about the activities of the NATO's secret army. 

In a closed doors meeting, whose details were revealed by Portuguese media, Manfred Wörner, then NATO's Secretary General, explained that the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) coordinates the activities of the Gladio network through the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC), created in 1952. 

This network was first created in Italy as early as 1947 (the same year in which the CIA was organized) and then extended to the rest of Europe: France, Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Greece.

Former NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns declared to the press that he had no knowledge of the network. Luns implied that every secret operation was part of NATO, emphasizing that NATO is controlled by the USA and that the Commander General of the organization (SACEUR) is always a US-American appointed by Washington (the Deputy SACEUR has been mostly British but, since 1980, also occasionally German).

Thomas Polgar, retired CIA officer, acknowledged that there exists "a sort of group in charge of planning non-conventional war". He also emphasized US control of this department. 

According to the Belgian parliamentary committee, this organization was founded even before NATO itself with the name of Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), which coordinated the allied secret services. This seems to be the same as the Security Bureau, as it's known nowadays, but was known for long as Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC). 

The first public evidence of the existence of secret anti-communist protocols was revealed in 1966, soon after De Gaulle retired France from the NATO structure (not the alliance itself) and expelled NATO headquarters from French soil. It was De Gaulle himself who denounced such protocols as a violation of national sovereignty.

According to US journalist Arthur Rowse (1994):

A secret clause of the original NATO treaty stipulated that every country candidate to adhesion must have established first a National Security authority in charge of directing the fight against Communism through clandestine citizen groups. 

Italian journalist Giuseppe de Lutiis found that in 1949, in the event of joining NATO, Italy had to sign a protocol establishing an unofficial organization in charge of guaranteeing the alignment of Italy's internal policies with those of the Western bloc by all means necessary, even in the event that the population would manifest a divergent inclination.

NATO officers have confirmed on condition of anonymity that such protocols explicitly protect far right members considered useful in the fight against communists. Even West Germany signed such protocols, in which it explicitly agreed to abstain from prosecuting notorious Nazi activists (Searchlight 1991).

The CPC was all the time directed by Washington, with a secondary role for London and Paris (before De Gaulle's walk out). In all CPC meetings there were CIA officers. A parallel structure is the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC), created by order of the fourth SACEUR, Lauris Norstadt, in 1952. It's more relaxed and horizontal ambient allowed Gladio commanders to share their networks more effectively.

To this day NATO still denies the existence of either the CPC or the ACC. But even former CIA officers like Thomas Polgar have acknowledged them as very real. However no public debate has ever existed in the North American federation on these matters. Just a few journalists have attempted to inquire on these matters but had no or very limited success. 

Britain must also be mentioned. In 1991 the BBC reported that the role of Great Britain in the creation of these "stay behind" networks was central. This should surprise nobody considering that London was deeply implicated in the ascent of European fascisms in the 1920s and 1930s, including that of Hitler, naturally (just that he got off the leash by threatening to invade Russia single-handedly, which would have given Berlin too much power if successful). British democracy is a mere facade, serving as cover for terribly secret entities like the MI6, whose very existence was only revealed to the public in 1994.

Almost nothing of the British dirty war is known to this day. Nobody in Westminster seems concerned: the regime has 100% of the seats or almost.

Main source[es]: Daniele Ganser "Gladio: Por qué la OTAN, la CIA y el MI6 siguen negando" (also in French). 

Previous entries: I, II.

Gladio: NATO's shadow state (II)

I continue here synthesizing the most important historical data provided by Daniele Ganser at Voltaire Network in Spanish and French on NATO's secret army, popularly known by its Italian codename Gladio. 

As we saw in the previous entry, Andreotti's confessional discourse revealed that Gladio existed in all other NATO member states and that it was a NATO organization under US ultimate control. His discourse took place however on August 2nd 1990, the very same day in which Saddam Hussein's Army (baited by Washington, who winked to him implying that it was a well earned prize for its efforts against Iran) invaded Kuwait.

The non-free European media saw in that developing conflict the perfect excuse to ignore, as much as possible, the murky story of Gladio. However some investigations did took place, notably in Belgium. 

Most governments tried to avoid the matter altogether or at least minimize its relevance. The most notorious were the British, whose ministers declined again and again to make any comment "on security issues". The Parliament also avoided pushing any investigation.

France explicitly denied the existence of such network in its soil, claiming that it had been disbanded in the 1950s. Andreotti replied that France was present in the latest meeting of the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC), the command of the stay-behind network, in 1990, what forced the authorities to argue that it was just a preemptive force which played not active role.

Portuguese authorities also stepped in to deny that the local Gladio branch was used in defense of the Fascist regime of Salazar. However a retired general contradicted them. 

In Spain, Minister Oliart laughed at the questions by journalists as naive: "here the government itself was Gladio", he said, meaning the fascist government of Franco. However the incipient investigation on the continuity of the Spanish Gladio after 1978 were curtailed by simply firing the journalists researching the matter, as I recall clearly. 

In Denmark the minister in charge was contradictory, appealing to the confidentiality of the matter, while denying the existence of the secret state in the most vague terms. 

In Norway, the authorities acknowledged the existence of the local Gladio but rejected to discuss its details on the grounds of being top secret. 

Luxembourg also acknowledged the existence of the stay-behind network but denied that it had any other activity than being prepared for the event of a hypothetical Soviet invasion. 

In the Netherlands the Prime Minister assumed all the responsibility and denied that the network was under NATO command. 

Greece was the first state to be splashed by the Gladio scandal after Italy. The Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou claimed with his characteristic cold blood that, as soon as he discovered the existence of such secret army in 1984, he commanded its elimination. Some MPs demanded an investigation to find out the role played by the Greek Gladio in the fascist dictatorship but the government ignored them. 

In Germany there was some investigation on demand of the Green Party, while the media revealed that former members of the SS took part in the secret army. Not just in Germany: in other countries also extreme right activists had been recruited into Gladio.

Hans Klein, Speaker of Helmut Kohl's government appealed to military secrecy in order not to reveal any details. The opposition used the scandal for the upcoming elections, being a clear case of unconstitutional structure, which was even compared to the Ku Klux Klan.

A parliamentary commission was created. In it Burkhard Hirsch, on charge of the secret services in Kohl's government, recognized he was very unease with the matter, claiming that he had never heard of it before. He said with unusual sincerity for a spy chief:

If something can remain secret for so long, and you can trust my long experience, is because there is something rotten. 

As soon as the conservative government declared that the socialdemocrat ministers of past governments were also privy to those secrets, the SPD abandoned all belligerence. Therefore the commission met in secret in spite of the protests of Die Grünen. 

One wonders what role played this secret organization in the murder of Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian just a couple of years later. Back in the day it was rumored that they were in the course of investigating something big, possibly this very imperial secret army.

The biggest investigation took place in Belgium, where PM Wilfried Martens declared to ignore everything about it. He said with apparent worry:

I have been Prime Minister for the last eleven years but I have always ignored the existence of a network in our country. 

The investigation revealed that the actual commander of the Belgian Gladio was the secret service boss General Raymond Van Calster. Van Calster initially denied everything but later he admitted that it existed with a mere intelligence goal for the hypothetical event of a Soviet invasion. 

There was great worry because, as in Italy, indiscriminate terrorist attacks had been performed against the civilian population. In 1980, mysterious men dressed in black opened fire against supermarket customers in Brabant, killing many.

But maybe the most striking case with repercussions reaching to this very day was the Turkish one. Ankara admitted that Gladio existed in the country and pretended, as in other states, that it was a mere passive network in preparation of a Soviet invasion. 

However it soon became known by mouth of former PM Bülent Ecevit that the Turkish network, eventually known as Ergenekon, was deeply involved in tortures, terrorist attacks and murders.

In 1996 a car accident at Susurluk killed three not-so-unlikely buddies: a member of the anti-Kurdish terrorist groups, a top police officer and a member of Parliament. Thousands protested against the "deep state".

Two years later, PM Mesut Ylmaz had to acknowledge the existence of a death squad at the very heart of the state with full knowledge of the authorities. The Ergenekon case was only brought to trial recently, but it seems that only some of those involved have been prosecuted, those against whom Erdogan's Islamists wanted revenge. The bulk are probably still at large.

Main source[es]: Daniele Ganser "Cuando se descubrió el Gladio en los Estados europeos…" (also available in French).

Gladio: NATO's shadow state (I)

When Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said that the attackers of September 9th 2001 were "America's chicken coming home to roost" he was nailing it. However the chicken are not, as he implied, bearded Islamists but rather Christian right-wing extremists who make up the real shadow government in Europe, that overseas province of the USA, and now also in the homeland as well. 

Daniele Ganser has written for Voltaire Network a series of articles in Spanish (most also available in French) on the "stay-behind" network of NATO known popularly as Gladio, it's Italian name. 

The work is almost monumental but I will try to synthesize here and in future articles the most essential of it, because it is something that we must all know about, surely more important than electoral politics and the like.

The first article deals with the best known Gladio network and the only properly deserving that name: the Italian one. 

Bologna station after the NATO attack

Between 1969 and 1987, the so-called years of lead, several terrorist massacres against civilians took place in Italy, inspiring fear and serving as pretext to persecute the communists, who were blamed for the attacks (just as they were blamed for the Reichstag fire by the Nazis). Not just the Brigate Rosse were persecuted until their annihilation but many many intellectuals and activists who had no part in armed struggle were as well.

Italy had the belated luck that a judge, Felice Cassone, eventually began investigating the many issues surrounding all these massacres and political attacks. As it became known in the trial, almost 15,000 acts of political violence shattered Italy between those dates, many of them being brutal indiscriminate attacks in which 491 people were killed and 1181 injured.

Cassone indicted one man, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, a fascist member of the secret organization Ordine Nuovo (New Order), who confessed that he enjoyed total protection by a whole well-positioned network in Italy as in other countries.

In the trials, General Giandelio Maletti, former chief of the Italian counter-espionage, declared that not just nearly all the Italian state was involved in Gladio but that every single attack was approved by the White House and the CIA. In his own words:

The CIA, following the orders of their government, wanted to forge an Italian Nationalism able to counter what they considered a slide to the Left and, with that goal, they could use far-right terrorism. (...) One was under the impression that the Americans were willing to do anything to impede that Italy leaned to the Left. (...) Don't forget that it was Nixon who was the head of the government and Nixon was not any common guy, he was a very smart politician but a man of very unorthodox methods. 

In 1988 the Italian Senate created a commission to investigate the matter. It was a difficult process, as witnesses did not want to speak, documents were destroyed and the Right sabotaged the investigation all they could. However in 1990 Gladio was confirmed as a very real thing. 

However the conscience of this terrorist network existed since long before. In 1974, another judge, Giovanni Tamburino, brought General Vito Miceli, commander of the SID (military secret service, later SISMI) to trial, accused of creating a secret organization that gathered civilians and officers alike, whose goal was to stir an armed insurrection in order to illegally modify the Constitution and the composition of the government.

Miceli, who had also been chief of NATO's Security Bureau, declared in anger:

Did I have a super-SID under my command? Of course! But I did not organize it myself in order to stage a coup, I merely obeyed the orders of the USA and NATO!

Giulio Andreotti

Sadly Miceli got away on bail and the network remained poorly known until the revelations of quasi-permanent Prime Minister Andreotti in 1990, who acted only on demand of the Senate and in a climate of many investigations, which even put the very godfather of Italian politics in jail for some time. It was the only occasion in which Gladio was revealed in full.

Andreotti edited his first written declaration. However Senator Gualtieri, President of the Commission, had made copies of the original version. When compared, it became obvious that Andreotti had edited all the references to international connections and the existence of Gladio in other states. 

It was such a poor trick that in his final version Andreotti admitted that Gladio was a network extending through all NATO, which in Italy was originally agreed between the CIA and the local secret services as a "stay behind" network against possible Soviet invasion. 

This cooperation was structured within NATO's Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1959, which was part of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). In 1964 the Italian secret services got incorporated also to the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC). 

However Andreotti's report was in some contradiction with the declarations of Vinciguerra in the sense that the veteran politician claimed that Gladio was not involved in the terrorist attacks. He also declared that every single Prime Minister was informed of the existence of the stay-behind network, causing major embarrassment to the other Prime Ministers of the First Republic. Only the then President Francesco Cossiga acknowledged the fact, declaring his "pride" for contributing to its creation in the 1950s and to be able to keep such a secret for so long. 

Subsequent political turbulence forced his resignation in 1992.

Meanwhile Andreotti had confirmed in public audience that Gladio was a NATO structure and that it existed also in other member states, mentioning by name Germany, Greece, Denmark, Belgium and even France.

The Senate Commission concluded that:

Those massacres, those bombings, those military operations were organized, instigated or supported by people who worked for the Italian institutions and, as was discovered more recently, by individuals linked to the US intelligence structures.

Those are the "chickens" who came back "home to roost". Let's not forget that G.W. Bush' administration was almost exactly that of Nixon.

Fiction story: "we need a Malvinas or something"

Mariano, the President of Spain, which is a Kingdom, was having a hard time deflecting the widespread criticisms against his economic policy of destruction of social services and extremely high unemployment, as well his party's moral collapse into corruption. 

Worse, Mariano, the President of the Sunny Kingdom, had that day to speak before Congress. The opposition does not understand his phobia to multitudes and had forced him to face his worst fear: other people. Strange that someone like him would choose to become politician but you know: Spain is different. 

Not so different anyhow: politicians lie like everywhere else. Just that a lot more, especially Mariano, who never understood that the best lies are the ones camouflaged among many truths.

Whatever the case Mariano was feeling very bad that day. Nobody noticed because he's a good poker player and even a sympathetic tabloid declared he "won" the next day. It was the only one however. 

Before his second turn as speaker he was however recorded¹ talking to his minister, Fátima Báñez:

-- This is getting unbearable, Fátima-- said the President --, we have been months already sleeping in separate rooms. 

And then:

-- This year there is no football, nor Olympic Games... there are some swimming pools but those are Catalan... I believe we can only resort to more extreme measures. 

-- An extreme measure? Which one? -- asked the minister.

-- The Malvinas² measure, of course -- replied Mariano.

-- What do you mean?

-- I don't know: Ceuta and Melilla, The Rock³, Perejil Island⁴... -- he replied --. Let the assessors deal with the details. 

A few days later Spain imposed restrictions to the only land access to Gibraltar, charging 50 euros per car and submitting them to extreme police controls. The pretext? A recent fishing rights dispute and accusations of money laundering and tax evasion.

Sadly for Mariano, every single Spaniard asked on TV was apparently aware that it was a distraction maneuver. The locals even protested because of some of the most harmed were Spaniards working in The Rock. 

But there is a place where Spanish media never properly reports. In a quiet tavern of Bilbao's Old Quarter the feeling was very different. 

-- I know for a fact that the Spanish Navy is about 2/3 of the British one-- said Txomin, whose extense background as antimilitarist activist provided him with a deep knowledge of everything military, somewhat ironically.

-- Then they can perfectly invade Gibraltar unopposed if they want-- concluded Patxi --. By the time the English arrive, The Rock has been secured and there's nothing they can do other than shower Madrid with nukes. 

-- They won't do that-- argued Esteban --. If they did not use them against Argentina, much less they will in Europe.

-- True-- agreed Txomin --. Another one? 

-- Sure. 

The jars were quickly refilled and paid. 

-- Would I be Cameron, I'd invade Bilbao instead-- suggested Patxi.

-- What?-- replied both drinking buddies at the same time.

-- Sure: it's the most logical thing to do-- insisted Patxi --. While the Spanish fleet is pinned in the Strait defending their new conquest, the Royal Navy lands here and gives us weapons, a lot of them. And we fight their war with their air and naval support. It's a sure bet.

As his friends were looking with some disbelief he continued:

-- Catalonia only borders the Mediterranean and France, which will surely not collaborate with London. Anyhow they are a bunch of pansies. They could land in places like Galicia or Canary Islands but the natives may not collaborate too much, unsure. So their best bet is to arm the Basques... and also get Morocco to invade Ceuta and Melilla. 

-- Seen like that... -- agreed Txomin a bit reluctantly. 

-- Actually it may well be the best thing that can happens to us Basques -- concluded Patxi --: the NATO solidarity would be broken and we would have a decent chance to break free from Spain, for a change. 

-- You may well be right -- conceded Esteban --. Now I really hope that Rajoy is as dumb as to invade Gibraltar. 

-- I drink for it -- said then Txomin, raising his half-empty jar --. "Gibraltar Español!"

The jars converged in the air among laughs. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

¹ The conversation between Mariano Rajoy and Fátima Báñez is an Internet rumor (source). Allegedly the original video, recorded in August 1st, was posted by some media and then retired without any explanation but I could not get any confirmation. It still inspired me, together with other anecdotes, this story that I hope you enjoyed. 

² Malvinas Islands, more often known in English as the Falklands. There was a war between Britain and Argentina back in the 1980s if you recall. 

³ The Rock: nickname of Gibraltar, disputed by Spain and Britain. 

⁴ Perejil Island: Spanish name of an islet known in Berber as Tura and in Arabic as Jazirat Tura. Located off the coast of Ceuta it was the subject of a brief and bloodless military dispute between Spain and Morocco in 2002.

Morocco & Spain pedophile pardon scandal "closed": pardon revoked and Galván arrested

Closed? We'll see. But it seems that the scandal was just too big for the power structures to manage. So yesterday, in an unprecedented decision Mohamed VI revoked the pardon to the pedophile under the (probably false) identity of Daniel Galván Viña. He did so in TV in order to calm down the mass protests that his decision had caused. 

However the child rapist and probable former spy was already in Spanish territory (questions arise about how his passport was issued so quickly). According to some last news, he has been arrested.

But many questions remain. As I reported recently, it seems that both Spanish and Moroccan secret services were directly involved in getting Galván's royal pardon. Even Galván's true identity is not known: a story speculates, on his own declarations, that he could be Iraqi but his fluency in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic (as well as other languages) make every scenario possible. He could even be Moroccan after all. 

Whatever the case, what seems clear is that he is an important former spy or similar, sufficiently connected and protected to get a new identity from the Spanish military secret service (CNI) and even to have them getting him pardoned by a back door. 

There are Moroccan top-level spies involved, the whole Spanish secret service is involved since the beginning and it is very likely that higher level imperial (NATO) agencies are involved as well, probably some from Washington, especially if Iraq is in the background after all. 

Will these details ever be known? Will the spy agencies be purged on this most outrageous scandal? Will "Galván" serve his full 30 years' term or will he get away by some other back door soon? Many questions. The focus in any case has moved from Morocco to Spain.

Morocco & Spain: child rapist pardon scandal has a spy story behind

Yesterday I reported outraged that the King of Morocco, on request of the King of Spain, pardoned a serial child rapist, known as Daniel Galván Viña. 

The protest yesterday in Rabat was brutally smashed by police (→ Al Jazeera, extremely hard to find). 

Galván's conviction to 30 years in 2011 was a landmark decision that appeared as a change of course in a state that had for decades allowed child abuse to remain unpunished in essence, behaving in fact as a pimp-state. Therefore this pardon has outraged the people. 

Blogger Maria Karim said:

This decision humiliates the victims of a sexual predator and sends out a message of impunity to the other predators, who are still free.

In the social networks there is an uproar against Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid, but the minister has blamed the King in a quite unprecedented finger-pointing act against the untouchable throne.

Even the most strongly pro-monarchy politicians are demanding an investigation. This pardon has the potency of becoming a vortex of anti-monarchy and pro-freedom feelings, serving as catalyst to bring to light the widespread sentiment of oppression for living in a totalitarian state with a mere varnish of formal democracy.

This is not the first time pedophiles get away from jail thanks to a royal pardon. Wikileaks-released cables (thanks Brad Manning) evidenced the release of two such criminals, of French nationality, in 2010. 

One of the victims of the Rapist of Kenitra has already tried to kill himself, demolished by the lack of protection of his rights. 

Iraqi officer from Basra

The pedophile and spy (El País)

But the most striking revelations come from Madrid newspaper El País[es]. This media reports that the pardon was requested by the Spanish secret service CNI and managed by its Moroccan equivalent DGED. 

It also mentions that while sometimes Galván pretended to be a former Professor of Oceanography at the University of Murcia (who does not show up anywhere), in other occasions he admitted to be an Iraqi officer who collaborated... with foreign secret services against the Baath regime. His Moroccan attorney acknowledged that he was fluent in Arabic including the Moroccan dialect.

So apparently Galván (or whichever is his real name) was born in Basra, was an officer in Saddam's military who betrayed his country and was paid with money and a new identity as Spanish professor. 

However his fluency in the Moroccan dialect makes it possible that his true origin and history is not actually known and that even the Iraq story is a smoke screen he casted in order to satisfy his attorney's curiosity without revealing his true identity. He also speaks fluently English, French and Classic Arabic.

The Moroccan Royal House remains silent. Allegedly the King of Spain only mentioned one name, an ill trucker, when he met his Moroccan colleague and the list of those pardoned has been otherwise elaborated by the Moroccan Royal House. However the name of Galván appears the last of the list, being apparently added in the last minute, a trick in which the Spanish and Moroccan secret services played, it seems, a central role. 

We cannot ignore that these two states are vassals of the USA and that it's probably Pentagon or CIA top bosses who have been pulling the strings from behind the shadows all the time. One wonders why this criminal, whose real name we do not know, is so important to them.

The Empire forces Bolivian Presidential airplane to land in Vienna, evidencing its totalitarianism

In the most scandalous diplomatic incident since there is any sort of international law, the Presidential airplane of Evo Morales was forced to land in Vienna yesterday night. 

The versions so far contradict each other in the details but it seems that:

1. France, Italy and Portugal did not allow the airplane to cross their air space.
2. Spain allowed the transit only on the condition that it stopped in Canary Islands to be subject to military registry. Later it also forbade the transit altogether. 
3. It is unclear by now if the landing in Austria was a mere emergency landing for lack of other options or if it was forced by the military of that country. What is clear is that the Austrian authorities searched the airplane thoroughly in clear violation of international law.
4. By this time France and Portugal first and Spain later on have already lifted the flight ban, obviously after getting the approval of Washington.

The only comparable (actually worse) violations of International Law in recent times have been the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the USA (and vassals), in which no declaration of war was ever made. Excluding undeclared wars, we really have to dig in examples of very ancient times like the imprisonment of Richard Lionheart in Germany or the kidnapping, deceit and murder of Atahualpa by Pizarro.

And which is the pretext, the trigger of this unbelievable violation of sovereignty? The mere suspicion that whistleblower Edward J. Snowden might have traveled in that aircraft. 

The Empire of Terror versus Chaos and Freedom

Gladio ensign

Why is the Empire, not just the USA but also its boot-licking European vassals, so extremely overreacting, not even doubting to show their darkest Gestapo sewers' reality as a few individuals like Julian Assange or Edward Snowden challenge their secretive core in demand of transparency, of freedom of information, of democracy?

As I see it, the reason is that the secrets that have surfaced are just the tip of the iceberg: there is much more to hide like, for example, all the Gladio network of terrorist-spies that acts as underground government through NATO and some other associated countries, the fact that the Al Qaeda is nothing but an imperial sockpuppet or the truth of 9-11 (and many other "terror attacks") being actually false-flag self-attacks.

Most people even today refuse to believe, in spite of all the evidence, that the 9-11 attacks were performed by the USA itself, as a self-coup to impel the imperial totalitarianism both inside and outside its borders, serving as pretext for military invasions outside and emergency rule inside. But what if papers demonstrating this or other similarly outraging maneuvers would come to light? What if internal evidence shows beyond any doubts that we do not live in "democracies" but in fascist regimes with a mere formal varnish, that we are ruled by a terrorist mafia?

The Empire is therefore most nervous and is sending a clear signal to all would-be whistleblowers and researchers of the "deep state" to cower in fear: we will persecute you everywhere in the World, just like Rome did with Hannibal.

Of course many others are just silently killed in "accidents", "suicide" in jail by hanging with their hands tied to their back, or, as happened to Petra Kelly and her husband (former NATO general Gert Bastian) are shot in the most mysterious circumstances and police decrees it was "domestic violence". Other less important ones may lose their jobs, as happened to a CNT research journalist and librarian when she researched the Gladio network in the context of Spain, or, many years before her, Interviú journalists who dared to do the same. 

The shadow of Gladio, the "deep empire" is long and merciless. But then there are billions living precarious short lives on Earth, and many feel the need to do better than being cowardly accomplices of this machinery of terror... and the Empire cannot silence them all. This is surely the case of Snowden, who in spite of all, must feel he is for the first time in his life doing what he must, filling his existence with a wider meaning.

No, Chaos science does not allow for a perfect order in which everything is under totalitarian control forever, as in '1984': one gap after another will tear the dark curtain to rags. Such nightmare can only be a provisional situation, much more in the extremely complex and information-rich society we live in.


News refs.: Naiz Info[es], EXSKF, LINyM[es].

UK planned the Syrian war years ago, admitted Roland Dumas

Former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roland Dumas (pictured), has revealed that the government of the United Kingdom, lead by David 'Babyface' Cameron. 

In declarations to LCP TV channel (widely quoted through World media thereafter), Dumas declared that:

I was in England, for an unrelated reason, two years before the violence in Syria began. I met with high British officials who confessed that they were preparing something in Syria.

This was in Great Britain, not the United States. Great Britain was preparing a rebel invasion of Syria. They even asked me, even if I was not anymore Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to take part in it.

He also implied that the violence in the West Asian country was related to the anti-Zionist stand of the government of Damascus. In this regard, he also declared that Israel had admitted that they would try to destroy every single government in the region that does not collaborate with the Apartheid Regime.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Basque Country: Spanish soldiers march around San Sebastian (video)

Endangering not just the social peace but also road traffic, Spanish troops have marched through the road between Donostia (San Sebastian) and Hernani with all their weaponry and ugly bully's paraphernalia.

The Basque People has shown again and again that they oppose the Spanish and any other army and that they must go home or, even better, totally dissolve for the sake of peace, freedom and civility.

Source: Berria TB[eu] (via Sare Antifaxista[es]).

Turkey: protests keep their numbers and spirit, police attacks at night

Protests have continued today in Turkey, with demonstrations going on for hours in Istanbul (best covered city) even before the massive meeting at Taksim was scheduled to take place.

Similarly in Ankara, after a day of peaceful protests, with tens of thousands gathered in Kugulu Park, police has begun their attacks against the citizens concentrated at Kizilay Square with tear gas and water cannons. As result the concentration moved to Dikimen (also in Ankara).

In Adana, a major port to the South of the state, police had barricaded the streets as of 21:45 local time, preparing to attack the uprising population.

Martyrs

So far only two mortal victims have been confirmed among demonstrators (some initial reports were more alarming). They are Mehmet Ayvalıtaş and Abdullah Cömert.

Mehmet, 19, was murdered by a fascist cab driver who run over him with his car on June 3rd, Abdullah, 22, was shot dead by a policeman using rubber bullets. He was dramatically determined to fight for freedom in his country, as we mentioned earlier.

Policemen are killing themselves

At least six policement have shot themselves since these riots began, denounced the police union, blaming the extreme conditions they are enduring, doing overtime day after day, of as much as 120 hrs without stop, sleeping on their shields or on cardboard pieces like homeless people, not getting adequate food and suffering the counter-attacks of protesters, who are hating them more and more.

Erasmus students assume compromise with the Turkish Revolution

In spite of the risks that imply for them and their careers, several dozens of students within the Erasmus program, from Europe and Egypt, have publicly declared their compromise to spread the word about what is happening in Turkey, defeating bourgeois censorship. 

Working class profile of the uprising

Olga Rodríguez explains[es] that this revolt is not only about middle class secularist youths, irritated by the Islamist involution, much less about alcohol. 

She puts the example of Ümaniye, a worker neighborhood in the Asian side of Istanbul, where 10,000 people set up barricades just a few days ago. That is not "middle class". It was in Ümaniye where a car killed Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, a manufacture worker and, apparently, member of the Anonymous-linked cell Red Hack, which recently revealed the names of 35,000 Mossad personnel. Red Hack has suffered inquisitorial persecution in Turkey (as many other mostly harmless organizations) on the farcical grounds of "terrorism".

Another point she raises is the police state that Turkey actually is under a thin varnish of "democracy". Turkish police is infamous for its brutality and as a point example, in a single night in Ankara 441 people were injured, 15 of them remaining in critical condition. 

Rodríguez also explains that Erdogan wants to become Turkey's Putin. He wants to run for the Presidency next year and concentrate all power in his hands, something that seems most unlikely to happen anymore.

A key point of discontent is, as we have already mentioned, the dramatic privatization policies of Erdogan and the AKP (telecommunications, airlines, tobacco companies, electric network, banks, public lands, highways... and even the water). In fact the Gezi Park controversy that sparked the uprising was yet another mafioso sellout of Turkish collective property, which was (is still as of now) to benefit relatives and personal friends of Erdogan at the expense of society. 

The relative economic stability of the country, with the fastest growth rate of Europe, has not benefited at all the popular classes but just concentrated the wealth within a small oligarchy. In 2011 the 20% richer segment had more than 50% of all wealth, while the 20% poorer had only 6%. 

There is anyhow some fear of military intervention. Erdogan has purged the ranks of the Army, traditionally secularist and Kemalist. Left wing organizations would not trust such an exit, which is more and more considered an option. 

Sources: Occupied Taksim (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4), Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2).

Syria: Meissan warns of NATO plans to take over TV waves

Research journalist Thierry Meissan thinks that NATO will take over Syrian TV media, maybe as soon as June 15, using only electronic means. That way:

... the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

Source and more details: Voltaire Network.

Basque Country: march against the military use of Bardeak (video)

Yet another year hundreds took part in the march against the military polygon of Bardeak (also known as Las Bárdenas or Bárdenas Reales in Spanish), in the heart of a natural protected area of Southern Navarre. 

Source: Ateak Ireki.