Greece: Nazis murder musician with full police complicity

Nazi terrorists murdered antifascist hip-hop musician Pavlos Fyssas (aka Killah P) in Piraeus. One of the criminals is Georgios Roupakias, 45, already arrested, but it was a well organized murder with many culprits, including the cops, who allowed it. 

According to the victim's father:

Pavlos’ friends made a remark against Golden Dawn inside a cafe where they were watching a football match. Somebody from a nearby table overheard them and made a phonecall to Golden Dawn members. Golden Dawn squads arrived almost simultaneously with DIAS motorbike police. Pavlos tried to help his friends evade the scene, but he was ambushed by another Golden Dawn squad and surrounded. Then another Golden Dawn associate drove with his car opposite in an one-way street, stopped and stabbed him to death, while the DIAS policemen did not intervene. One girl asked them to help but they didn’t. They only approached afterwards to arrest the man with the main suspect.

As reaction demonstrations have been called through the country for this evening. In some cities like Patras, morning protests of teachers (on strike) were joined by antifascists angry for the crime and its outrageous impunity. At least one Nazi see has been attacked.

Let's face it: Greece is already a Nazi state and Golden Dawn rules with the Samaras government being nothing but a transitional puppet, which does not want nor can oppose the Nazi terror, equally targeting immigrants, Roma, reds or the last honest judges. Police is completely in Nazi hands and that means that they control the state altogether. Democracy is not anymore for real at any meaningful sense but the situation is almost identical to Italy at the ascent of Mussolini: it popular self-defense is not urgently organized and exerted, the Nazis will soon march to Athens and take out the last pretense of freedom. 

This surely does not only apply to Greece but to much of Europe, as the fascists are growing everywhere in arrogance and boldness, usually with complicity of the bourgeois governments, police forces and secret services, as well as the upper bourgeois class, which sees in them the last line of defense of their privileges in societies that are quickly collapsing.

Source and more details: From the Greek Streets (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5).

Basque Country: police forcibly enters worker-occupied industry

Police forces entered this morning with force in the factory of INCOESA in Bedia (Biscay) in order to allow the capitalist to retrieve the produce, raw materials and machinery. 

The workers had occupied the factory in order to prevent delocalization to Castile (Soria and Extremadura). 

Police not only employed violence but also charged seven workers for resistance.

The company is dedicated to the production of electrical transformers.

Real democracy means democratic control of the economy

This instance, like many others, highlights the importance of the democratic social control of the economy, not allowing the capitalists (if these exist at all) to dump the workers who have produced all the wealth at whim. 

It also highlights the importance of nation-peoples to effectively be able to decide independently of higher instances, be them old-school imperialist states like Spain or more complex modern entities like the EU. 

Real democracy means popular control of the economy and exerting that control at local and national levels. Nothing of this could happen under true democratic control by the people, because they would not allow such abuses (or do you think that Bedia would suicide by allowing such abuse to happen if these matters were subject to local democratic control?)

Sources: Naiz Info[es], BGD[eu].

Greece: large anti-fascist demo

"Thousands" according to The Guardian took to the streets in Athens to protest the brutal attack by Nazis against KKE activists earlier this week.

There are growing fears that the Nazi party, with full support of the weak bourgeois government and the European (EU) and Imperial (NATO) authorities, are trying to stir up a civil war type of conflict, conflict in which they have the upper hand because they have already taken effective control of the police and are influential in the Army's officialdom (not among the soldiers however, who are recruits). 

Much as in Italy in the 1920s, the only way out of this situation is active popular self-defense, because the government is not willing nor probably able anymore to control the Nazis, which are going out of control and may well stage a coup of some sort unless the Working Class is ready to fight them.

An electoral exit to the Greek impasse may well be out of reach because, even if there are elections and the Radical Left wins, how are they going to keep control of a state apparatus so deeply penetrated by Nazi terrorists? There is urgent need, and not just in Greece but also elsewhere in Europe, to get ready to fight against fascism by all means necessary. 

Source: I can't relax in Greece.

Turkey: protests and repression continue for third night

Obviously the Turkish socio-political conflict is far from solved. Repression is once again not any solution and only feeds more and more anger. 

Large protests took place in Ankara, Antalya and Antakya (Antioch) in anger for the latest mortal victim of Islamo-Fascist repression, Ahmet Atakan, hit by a gas canister. They were once again brutally repressed by a government that does not know how to get out of their own trap of ultra-violence and dogmatic totalitarianism.

There are local elections in 6 months and state ones in a year. At least that's the schedule. But meanwhile the regime continues with the most brutal repression it can fathom. 

Source: WG[es].

Turkey: renewed protests and repression after young man killed in Antakya

A man aged 22 was murdered on Monday by police forces in Antakya (Antioch, near Syria) upon being hit by a gas canister thrown by police forces in the context of yet another anti-Islamist demonstration, incidentally in memory of another victim of police brutality in the same town earlier in the year. 

As reaction, yesterday there were new demonstrations in central Istanbul, which were repressed by police forces by means of water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets among others. People who were not taking part in the demo were also attacked.

There were also demonstration on Monday in the bicontinental metropolis, demanding punishment for those responsible of the injuries against a minor who has been in coma since he was hit by a gas canister months ago. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].


Update: photos and video of the clashes now also at WG. 

Catalan Countries: Spain forbids independentist human chain in Valencia, German think tank ponders Catalan independence

Tomorrow is the Diada, the national day of Catalonia, which last year was marked by some two million people marching (or rather just standing because there was no room) through the streets of Barcelona in demand of independence.

This year instead the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) plan to do a human chain through 400 kilometers of roads. 

However when this initiative was extended to the Valencian Country, the Spanish proconsuls have moved to ban them altogether, in yet another indication of the lack of real democracy in the only remaining Southern European kingdom.

The subdelegation of the Spanish Government in Castelló forbade the extension of the human chain to Vinarós, a mere kilometer south of the Catalan border on grounds of "fundamental rights", such as "road security" (for real!) This extension of the chain was going to include famous artists like Lluis Llach and Carles Santos, and also relatives of Guillem Aguilló, murdered by a fascist death squad 20 years ago in Castelló. 

Another ban was imposed to the concentration of solidarity with the Diada in Guardamar del Segura, in Alacant province, also in the Valencian Country. In this case the Spanish neofascist authorities alleged technical reasons: the request was forwarded too late (or whatever, you know).

Germans pondering Catalan independence

A bourgeois German think tank that gives advice to Angela Merkel, the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP), thinks that Catalan independence makes good sense. 

The report, signed by Kai-Olaf Lang, thinks plausible that Catalonia declares independence if Spain does not make major concessions. The report emphasizes that the movement for independence is a civil society one, independent from parties. 

He warns that the EU must be ready for such a scenario and, considering the issues regarding EU membership for a newly independent state, he believes that the initial formula could be one in which, while Catalonia is not part of EU (yet), EU laws still apply inside their territory. Of course he's thinking about the legal protection of some 600 German companies present in Catalonia. 

The most interesting point is that the traditional European stand of defending Spanish territorial integrity no matter what has been dropped. Realism is winning the day. 

Source: Gara[es].

Brazil: protests take over Independence Day

The Independence Day demonstration in Rio de Janeiro has been violently repressed by police forces using tear gas and rubber bullets. The demonstration coincided in time and space with the ritual military parade, which had already been reduced in size because of the expected protests, which have been called for all the country against corruption and anti-social policies. 

We are tired of the most expensive World Cup ever, of the politicians, of the highest interest rates on Earth, of teachers living with misery salaries, of public works that never end, of the mercenary and manipulated press, said one of the demonstrators.

Events still unfolding in this Brazilian Independence Day.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Quebec: thousands march pot-banging against anti-social policies and lies

Thousands marched through the streets of Quebec banging pots in protest for the lies and betrayals of the government of Pauline Marois (Partí Québécois) which is applying almost exactly the same policies as their Liberal predecessors in spite of running with a social-democratic program. 

According to polls 70% of Québécoises are unhappy with their government after just one year in charge. As it seems to be the rule in the so-called "democracies" these days, politicians make promises that they systematically fail to fulfill, blindly obeying to the bankster oligarchy in all. 

That way the Marois government has continued cutting in education, healthcare and social services, much to the dismay of the citizens, who now demand their resignation.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: tens of thousands protest in the South-West

In spite of militarization, the popular uprising in Colombia is far from over. Yesterday a 10,000 strong march of Native Americans took over the city of Popayán (Cauca) blocking a major road in solidarity with the National Strike led by the small farmers.

Also it has been known that the government sent the infamous riot police squad (ESMAD) to the city of Florencia (Caquetá), also in the SW of the country, where more than 15,000 farmers have been protesting since August 19th.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2).

Basque Country: French police beats protesters against speculation

A peaceful protest at a real state company in Donibane-Lohitzune (St. Jean de Luz) was tainted by the blood of the Basque youth as the French military police (gendarmerie) violently beat the protesters.

Three peaceful protesters were injured and other two arrested.

The Basque Country is not for sale

And then they fill their dirty mouths with the word "democracy"!

Source: Boltxe Info[es].

See also: Altsasu occupied by military police in fiestas

Turkey: the Islamist regime continues with repression as the masses march against war in Syria

At least 40 people were arrested in a journey of renewed protests, this time with the cause of peace. Again Gezi Park and Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul were the epicenter of protests and brutal fascist repression by police forces. The protest in Istanbul was not the only one, in the last weeks concentrations and marches have been spreading again through Turkey after a summer downtime, all them have been met with the brutal repression of a regime that calls itself "democratic" but obviously does not want to know what the word means. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Update: short video of some of the protests and police deployment:

Former NSA analyst: the intelligence services rule the USA, "this is a police state"

This is a most interesting video interview with former NSA analyst Russel Tice (military, conservative but still outraged).

Some key points:

• The whole political, business classes and even the Supreme Court is being spied on. Even Barack Obama and Gral. Petraeus used to be.
• In his time it was VP Richard Cheney who was directing this shadowy business (of course).
• The upper echelon of the "intelligence community" rules the USA in practical terms.
• Direct comparison with Orwell's totalitarian dystopia: everything is being watched, everyone. 

The direct source for me of this video is an article by Gaius Publius at Naked Capitalism. He pinpoints Gral. Keith Brian Alexander, Director General of the NSA, as a key person of megalomaniac character. He's probably not the only one with a say but these seem limited to a very few top-tier spies and billionaires. As Publius puts it:

Do we send every cop in an Occupy city to join the spook state in a national one-day takedown? With a Yes from every full-blown billionaire and each junior-mint Keith Alexander, Obama couldn’t stop it if he wanted to.

Paraguay: special powers to use the army cause social alarm

Paraguay is in imminent danger of return to outright fascism, as the newly elect President, Horacio Cartes, managed to pass a law that allows him to use the Army arbitrarily, even against the civilian population, which is now held perpetually suspect as "alleged terrorists". This law is similar to the one that granted fascist dictator Alfredo Stroessner absolute power, but even Stroessner did not act so fast in his consolidation as totalitarian ruler. 

Source: LINyM[es].

Colombia: major protest in Tunja against repression

A pot-banging demonstration took the city of Tunja (Boyacá, Central Colombia) in protest for the disdain and brutal repression that President Santos is adopting against the General Strike, already a week long. 

They demand a comprehensive agrarian policy that takes in account the small farmers, as well as a stop to repression. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Marx as "Anarchist"

Or almost. Maybe more like modern Autonomists.

The Commune publishes today a very interesting article by David Adams questioning in depth the notion of Marxism, or more precisely Marx' own thought, as authoritarian and statist, being in fact quite different from the Leninist model (as well as from the Socialdemocratic or Bersteinian one).

A key excerpt on the dictatorship of Proletariat as being nothing but radical grassroots democracy:

A little-known text by Marx, his 1874 “Notes on Bakunin’s Book Statehood and Anarchy,” explains the concept of proletarian dictatorship more clearly than any other. In his book Bakunin ridicules Marx’s concept of the transitional state power of the proletarian dictatorship, and Marx critically responds in his “Notes.”  Bakunin writes, “If there is a state, then there is domination and consequent slavery. A state without slavery, open or camouflaged, is inconceivable-that is why we are enemies of the state. What does it mean, ‘the proletariat raised to a governing class?’”²⁶ Marx responds, “It means that the proletariat, instead of fighting in individual instances against the economically privileged classes, has gained sufficient strength and organisation to use general means of coercion in its struggle against them; but it can only make use of such economic means as abolish its own character as wage labourer and hence as a class; when its victory is complete, its rule too is therefore at an end, since its class character will have disappeared.”²⁷ The claim that through revolution the proletariat will be “raised to a governing class” thus has nothing to do with creating a dictatorship of a political sect, but is rather a claim that the proletariat will use “general means of coercion” to undercut the bourgeoisie’s power (by abolishing the private ownership of the means of production, disbanding the standing army, and so forth). It is the entire proletariat that is to exercise this power.  Bakunin asks, “Will all 40 million [German workers] be members of the government?”²⁸ Marx responds, “Certainly! For the system starts with the self-government of the communities.”²⁹

Can there be a more Anarchist statement? Or rather we may want to describe it as genuine Communism. 

Another excerpt: Leninism as Blanquism:

Blanqui, for example, advocated an educative dictatorship of a small group of revolutionaries. Marx’s use of the word “dictatorship” in the phrase “dictatorship of the proletariat,” however, is original and deliberately distinct from Blanqui’s usage. Engels emphasizes this point in a passage on Blanqui: “From the fact that Blanqui conceives of every revolution as the coup de main of a small revolutionary minority, what follows of itself is the necessity of dictatorship after it’s success-the dictatorship, please note, not of the entire revolutionary class, the proletariat, but of the small number of those who made the coup de main and who themselves are organized beforehand under the dictatorship of one person or a few. One can see that Blanqui is a revolutionary of the previous generation.”³⁷ It is clear that the Leninist model of a particular sect or political party exercising political power is much closer to the Blanquist conception of “dictatorship” than to Marx’s (...)

Much of the divergence between Anarchists and Marx seems merely semantic: the use of the word "state" (polity):

For Marx, this form of power can be a “state” from the perspective of its political, coercive function of uprooting the foundations of the rule of capital. It cannot be a “state” in the sense of a “parasitic excrescence” usurping power from the mass of workers.⁵⁰

Again much closer to Kropotkin or Durruti than to Lenin, never mind Stalin.

Marx saw the mandated and revocable delegates of the Commune as an example of working class state power in action.

Mandated and revocable delegates? Isn't that precisely what Anarchists propose?

So what do Marx and Engels mean by "state" and "class dictatorship"? In the words of Richard N. Hunt:

The full-time army as parasite disappeared, but the part-time National Guard remained as the coercive instrument of the workers’ state. Here in sharpest focus one can perceive Marx and Engels’ double usage: the parasite state is to be smashed immediately; the state as instrument of class coercion is to remain until the need for it fades away.

A people's militia under popular command, it seems.

The criticism of bourgeois "democracy" and state is persistent and merciless, and Engels charged against the USA as archetype of this separation between society and state by means of ritual and pointless elections:

Nowhere do “politicians” form a more separate and powerful section of the nation than precisely in North America. . . . It is precisely in America that we see best how there takes place this process of the state power making itself independent in relation to society, whose mere instrument it was originally intended to be. Here there exists no dynasty, no nobility, no standing army, beyond the few men keeping watch on the Indians, no bureaucracy with permanent posts or the right to pensions. And nevertheless we find here two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends-and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.

Naturally, although many have forgotten, the term Communism itself derives from commune (municipality or local government in French and other languages) and very specifically from the 1871 Paris Commune.

In this pioneering communist "state", not just the army became part of the people in full but the whole state did by suppressing the bureaucracy and getting managers to be paid common workers' salaries and be under the command of the People directly. Totally different to what happened in the Soviet Union.

Marx did not live to see the Russian Revolution but he witnessed the beginnings of the rise of what is now the Socialdemocracy, especially in France and Germany. It was then when he famously declared "I am not a Marxist myself". He was very critical of Lassalle and his socialdemocratic or proto-Keynesian ideas of building socialism from above by means of state loans and other nonsense. 

One of the key issues is democratic centralism, centralization or central planning. In this certainly Marx and Bakunin were very much at odds:

While Bakunin was a sworn enemy of all political and economic centralization, Marx had a very different perspective, but one that was in no way more “authoritarian”: “National centralization of the means of production will become the natural basis of a society composed of associations of free and equal producers, carrying on the social business on a common and rational plan.”⁷⁰ Marx thought that both centralism (a common plan) and democratic control from below were necessary for building socialism.

Read the original article, "Karl Marx and the State", at The Commune.

USA: police is becoming an army

And again nice insight from Naked Capitalism (originally at Corrente, by Lambert Strether):

“We’re Building a Domestic Army” – Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino Before Concord, NH Town Council.

The centerpiece is this video from Concord Town Council meeting:

Key excerpt:

And so what we’re doing here, and let’s not kid about it, we’re building a domestic army and we’re shrinking the military because the government is afraid of its own citizens. 

Maybe even more interesting is what the authorities, led by that Gestapo which is Homeland Security, pretend to do with such a domestic army:

[On] the domestic front, the threat is real and here. Groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire are active and present daily challenges.

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.

And an iron curtain descended on the USA

A quite interesting story on the person who served as contact for Edward Snowden before his complicated exile is available at the New York Times (needs cookies enabled).

But maybe the most interesting stuff is not when they talk about the spy who became a whistleblower but how Laura Poitras, a journalist, was, long before that, subject to a very extreme political persecution every time she traveled outside her country for reporting transparently on the invasion of Iraq, it seems.

Though she has written to members of Congress and has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests, Poitras has never received any explanation for why she was put on a watch list. “It’s infuriating that I have to speculate why,” she said. “When did that universe begin, that people are put on a list and are never told and are stopped for six years? I have no idea why they did it. It’s the complete suspension of due process.” She added: “I’ve been told nothing, I’ve been asked nothing, and I’ve done nothing. It’s like Kafka. Nobody ever tells you what the accusation is.”

And not just her:

William Binney, a former top N.S.A. official who publicly accused the agency of illegal surveillance, was at home one morning in 2007 when F.B.I. agents burst in and aimed their weapons at his wife, his son and himself. Binney was, at the moment the agent entered his bathroom and pointed a gun at his head, naked in the shower. His computers, disks and personal records were confiscated and have not yet been returned. Binney has not been charged with any crime. 

This kind of totalitarian police state is not at all the kind of idea US-Americans have or would like to have about their country. However it is very real: since the false-flag attacks of September 2001, the federation has been taken over by a perpetual state of emergency, renewed each year by the President, that allows police and spy corps to operate beyond any judicial supervision. This police state is justified with continuous allegations of "terrorist" threats, which in most cases, if not all seem extremely suspicious when looked at critically. 

The police state feeds the "terrorist" paranoia, probably even forging real attacks, some of which have been covered in detail in this blog, in order to justify itself. It's a total Gestapo coup whose main goals are clearly to hide the very police state from public scrutiny and to perpetuate its "need" by continuous threats and even some very real false-flag attacks. 

Another example:

Jacob Appelbaum, a privacy activist who was a volunteer with WikiLeaks, has also been filmed by Poitras. The government issued a secret order to Twitter for access to Appelbaum’s account data, which became public when Twitter fought the order. Though the company was forced to hand over the data, it was allowed to tell Appelbaum. Google and a small I.S.P. that Appelbaum used were also served with secret orders and fought to alert him. Like Binney, Appelbaum has not been charged with any crime. 

These are I guess the lucky ones. The police state, which is now legally authorized to murder anyone, has probably killed quite a bunch: suspicious deaths like the "suicide" of Aaron Swartz and many other people with lower profiles pile up. Why? The North American Gestapo trying to hide their tracks. 

So is the USA anymore the country of freedom it presumed of just a decade or two ago? Not at all. It is quickly decaying into a totalitarian police state. The forms are retained by the moment but any close scrutiny evidences an almost total lack of democracy: media concentrated in few hands, politicians that only serve the corporations, a judiciary that has been completely neutralized... and police eavesdropping even in your breakfast bowl. And it is worsening by the hour.

And, of course, what happens in the USA affects all the World.

Tunisia: 40,000 people demand government's resignation

Some 40,000 people gathered in Bardo Square in Tunis to demand the resignation of the Islamist government and justice for the Socialist leaders murdered by what seem to be their death squad. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Japan's first astronaut on Fukushima catastrophe

Japan Times has an extensive interview with Toyohiro Akihama, the first ever Japanese astronaut, who was also the first journalist in space. Some time after his adventure, he moved to the countryside to experience the agricultural life, with the bad luck of ending up just 60 km from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The whole interview is of interest but he has something to say in particular about the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe and how Japan mismanages it:

In the world of engineering, you can’t have “absolute safety” — that’s why the “nuclear village” engineers can’t be trusted. How can they say nuclear power plants are absolutely safe? That’s not possible. Experts who call something safe when it can’t possibly be safe are living in a world of religion, not science.

(...)

I had reported on the fifth anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (in present-day Ukraine) and the Three Mile Island accident (in Pennsylvania in 1979), so I knew all too well what the governments of the U.S. and Russia had done. 

I had read books on how the Japanese government has dealt with nuclear accidents in the past. When there’s an emergency, what the authorities try to do is to maintain “law and order.” What is order? It’s protecting the system presiding at the time. (...) What does maintaining order mean to them? To maintain the order of the existing “nuclear village.”

(...)

What gave me the best pointer was the fact that President Barack Obama ordered all Americans to evacuate from within a 50-mile (80 km) radius (of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant). There was no better message than that. The government was bound to lie.

(...)

In Kyoto (where he now lives) we had a welcoming outcome (in July 21′s Upper House elections), with a member of the (antinuclear) Japanese Communist Party winning a seat. I don’t particularly like the JCP and I’m not a communist — if anything, I’d be more black than red (laugh). But when I read the statements by all the candidates running for the Upper House from Kyoto, nobody except for the JCP candidate said they were clearly opposed to the restart of nuclear reactors.

So the antinuclear voice was clearly expressed in the election. But the mass media failed to inform the voters. They treated the nuclear-power issue almost like a good luck charm. And Tepco only announced after the election that radioactive water from the Fukushima plant had seeped into the groundwater and flowed into the sea — but they should’ve known that already! Isn’t this media control? So my biggest theme at the moment is to stop the restart of nuclear reactors in Japan.