Radioactive Japan's slippery slope: mafias and fascism

Two snippets of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Japan:

On one side Fukushima emergency... mentions that there was a mafioso mass dumping of radioactive materials in a river bed in Western Japan:

A huge amount of contaminated waste was found on the river bed in Shiga prefecture, western region of Japan.
According to the local authorities, among the waste include 2,300 tons of wooden tips contaminated by radiation as well as 77 sandbags filled with the same contaminated wooden tips.
The incident was came to light after an anonymous informant, possibly related to the illegal dumping, called in last month. The survey conducted by the local office shows up to 3000 becquerel per kilogram was detected.
"This is a possible illegal dumping case, though the place where they were brought from remain unknown." the authorities said.

 

Fascist repression against truth

(CC by Masaru Kamikura)

On the other side, actress (and former Miss Japan) Norika Fujiwara (pictured) has stepped forward against the implementation of fascist censorship laws that will severely punish whistleblowing and bring punishments against bloggers who expose the truth about the nuclear catastrophe, mentions EneNews, citing Japanese sources (→ Japan Times).

The new law, known as Secret Security Act, allows government to hide important information like radiation readings, to severely punish whistleblowing officials and even to exert censorship on the Internet at whim.

In a message posted on Friday, Fujiwara accused the government of covering up the truth about the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and spreading misinformation about radiation and leaks of radioactive water there.

“As a citizen I am really concerned about it,” Fujiwara wrote in another message. “Our nation has a right to know.”

Fujiwara joins the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association in opposing the bill as a violation of the right to freedom of speech that will undermine Japan’s democracy.

“Once the bill is signed, the people who will write the truth on the Internet (or through other means) will be punished,” she stressed. “When I think of all the consequences that it will lead to, it really bothers me.”

Bahrain: blogger and journalist aide arrested

From the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:

Bahrain: Arrest of blogger and media fixer Mohamed Hassan

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses grave concern in regards to the recent arrest of blogger and media fixer Mohamed Hassan (27) during a dawn raid on his home.  His whereabouts and charges are still unknown and he has not made any communication with family and lawyer until the time of writing this report.

At around 3am on 31 July 2013, masked men in civilian clothes belonging to the Ministry of Interior raided the house of blogger Mohammed Hassan and arrested him after presenting an arrest warrant but without giving any justification for the arrest or the charges pressed against him. They also confiscated his electronic devices.

This is not the first time blogger Mohammed Hassan is targeted by the authorities in Bahrain.

Mohammed Hassan, also known as @Safybh, was known for expressing his views on twitter and on his blog http://safybh.wordpress.com/ in support of the struggle for freedom and democracy in Bahrain. He stopped tweeting and blogging since April 2013.

Hassan was arrested before on 21 April 2012 while he was escorting reporters to protesting villages to show them the violations of the authorities against peaceful protesters. He was hit with a gun barrel in his leg and reportedly severely beaten before getting arrested. He was denied access to a lawyer, and released the next day. He was then arrested again on 22 April 2012 at a checkpoint in Sanabis with journalist Colin Freeman from The Sunday Telegraph. They were taken to the Exhibition Center police station. Hassan was interrogated about his connection to the journalist and they were later released without any charges.  

In June 2012 Mohammed Hassan was summoned for interrogation, and was accused with three charges: writing for websites and newspapers without a license, illegal gathering and tweeting. He wrote later on his twitter: "They asked me about all tweets, even the ones where I say goodnight, I was also questioned about the articles I write and the journalists I know, especially when I was arrested and beaten last April. I was accused of calling for “unlicensed" marches when I invited people to [participate in] Nabeel Rajab’s “Thank you” march, [the] problem is: it was actually licensed. After asking a lawyer I realized that I was correct about not needing a license for blogging or writing an op-ed for a website."

... continue reading at BCHR.

Honduras: kidnapped journalist found dead

Aníbal Barrow (pictured), who was kidnapped weeks ago, was found dead in a shallow tomb not far from where his clothes were located, near San Pedro Sula.

Before Barrow at least 27 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup:

1. Nicolás Asfura: 17-Feb-2010.
2. Josep Hernández: 1-Mar-2010.
3. David Meza Matamoros: 11-Mar-2010
4. Nahúm Palacios: 14-Mar-2010.
5. Manuel de Jesús Juárez: 26-Mar-2010
6. Bayardo Ramírez: 26-Mar-2010.
7. Luis Chévez: 11-Apr-2010
8. Georgino Orellana: 20-Apr-2010.
9. Carlos Salinas: 8-May-2010.
10. Luis Mondragón: 14-Jun-2010
11. Israel Zelaya: 24-Aug-2010.
12. Henry Suazo: 28-Dec-2010.
13. Luis Ernesto Mendoza: 19-Mar-2011.
14 Erick Martínez Ávila: 7-May-2012.
15. Héctor Medina: 11-May-2011
16. Adán Benítez: 5-Jul-2011.
17. Nery Jeremías Orellana: 13-Jul-2011.
18. Medardo Flores: 8-Sep-2011.
19. Luz Marina Paz: 6-Dec-2011.
20. Saira Fabiola Almendárez: 1-Mar-2012
21. Fausto Elio Hernández: 11-Mar-2012
22. Noel Valladares Escoto: 23-Apr-2012.
23. Alfredo Villatoro: 15-May-2012
24. Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez: 8-Jul-2012
25. José Noel Canales Lagos: 10-Aug-2012
26. Julio César Cassaleno: 28-Aug-2012
27. Angel Edgardo López Fiallos: 11-Nov-2012

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Germany also spies its citizens

Again stating the obvious: nearly every government is breaking the law systematically, what evidences that we do not live in democracies nor states of law. Lawlessness is the "law" in the seats of power, law is only (if at all) for and against the citizens. 

The German secret service BND, heir of the Nazi secret service for Eastern Europe and one of the most efficient secret services in the World, is systematically spying its own citizens in exactly the same manner as the NSA: Internet providers are obliged to give the BND all the information they request. 

This is exactly what the North American NSA, the British GCHQ and the French DGSE do. And as far as my knowledge goes, as former worker of Telefónica, police never needed in practice any judicial approval to listen to any conversation in Spain either, so nowadays it is almost certain that they do inspect any telephone, email and other Internet communications systematically. And it must be common practice in most other states as well. 

What's the law for? Well, for nothing at all. Just a pretext to apply selectively when convenient against the people.

Ref. Webguerrillero[es], citing HispanTV[es].

France: DGSE also spies its citizens illegally

The spy agency General Direction for the Security of the State (DGSE) has been revealed to be doing exactly the same as the NSA. From The Raw Story:

... the DGSE intercepted signals from computers and telephones in France, and between France and other countries, although not the content of phone calls, to create a map of “who is talking to whom”. It said the activity was illegal.

“All of our communications are spied on,” wrote Le Monde, which based its report on unnamed intelligence sources as well as remarks made publicly by intelligence officials.

“Emails, text messages, telephone records, access to Facebook and Twitter are then stored for years,” it said.

Of course nobody should be surprised by that. But we all must know and also feel very outraged. While the news is not really news, it is indeed a clear violation of all the alleged principles of the so-called democracy, in which citizens have the right to privacy and authorities need special reasons and authorizations to breach such fundamental right.

Instead all that is routinely monitored and stored, and much as Winston Smith in the dystopian (but horribly realistic) masterpiece 1984, we must all know that each of our communications is being listened to, that we all are being treated as criminal suspects. 

In other words: that we live under a not-so-subtle totalitarian tyranny.

Cuba: Anarchist media arise in spite of censorship

Cuba also has many shadows. Until a few decades for example homosexuality was illegal and persecuted, fortunately this changed radically. But the persecution of communist libertarian (Anarchist) ideas and organizations, while less intense than in the past, is still ongoing. Therefore the shy rise of these media is to be welcomed and announced. 

Among these there is an irregular and so far clandestine newspaper ¡Tierra Nueva! (New Earth!), which invites to collaborate to all interested people except those who somehow live of others' work.

Anarchists fought in Cuba side by side with Castro and Che but, after the success of the Revolution, were persecuted by a regime that leaned too much in favor of the authoritarian Stalinist model. 

I can only hope that Cuba preserves the socialization of the economy while improving the grassroots participation and freedom of speech, as I believe is doing already to some extent. Not yet enough obviously.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Honduras: fear for kidnapped journalist

A bullet shot, a cap, a dental prosthesis and blood stains were found in the van of  journalist Aníbal Barrow, 58, who was kidnapped yesterday in San Pedro Sula.

It seems that the shot was fired from inside the vehicle.

Barrow was kidnapped by four men, according to other people present (co-worker and relatives of the victim). The kidnappers drove a white car without plates.

Source: LINyM[es].

Turkey: repression continues

As mentioned yesterday, the Islamist authorities of Turkey have launched a campaign of political repression, arresting many dozens, while hundreds were arrested in the general strike of Monday. 

But the campaign of political repression is not only directed against protesters: the four TV channels which gave some half-decent coverage to which is maybe the most important episode in the history of Turkey in this century, were heavily fined, in a clear totalitarian attack against freedom of speech. 

But the most "dangerous" foe that Erdogan faces is the Internet. And he knows it. His government is therefore preparing a new law that aims to restrict access to social networks. People have also been arrested in Izmir on the grounds of "provocative tweets". 

Recently Erdogan claimed, in his usual fascist style, that "a tweet can be more dangerous than a car bomb". 

AKP speaker Ali Sahin claimed that there is "a conspiracy that attempts to depose the government using the social networks" and, shamelessly parroting his boss, that "a calumnious tweet can be more dangerous than a car bomb. The explosion of an armed vehicle may have a limited impact but a tweet loaded with lies can cause an ambient of conflict".

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Occupied Taksim emphasizes how, while government repression has killed four people and injured, often very seriously, to at least 8000 people, the only thing the government seems concerned about is that cars have been burned or that publicity billboards have been broken. 

That is the "democratic" nature of Erdogan: he is extremely ugly and brutally arrogant but he does not seem to notice.

Peru: large protests against fascist control in universities

Some six thousand students marched through the streets of Cuzco against the new University Law, which severely restricts freedom of speech and university autonomy. 

There were clashes between police and students on Thursday and Friday.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

China: Demonstrators in Hong Kong support Snowden

Hundreds demonstrated in Hong Kong in support for Snowden's asylum plea and his revelation of NSA snooping in the USA and around the World. 

Both pro-Beijing and opposition forces have similar position in this matter, being Hong Kong, unlike mainland China, a place where Internet freedom is real and a coveted right.

Protesters gave a missive with their demands to US general consul Steve Young. 

Sources: Webguerrillero[es], EXSKF.

Update on whistleblowers: Snowden missing, Manning's mock-trial transcripts

It has been reported that US NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has disappeared after his asylum request in Hong Kong. It is unclear at this moment if Snowden is in hiding, he has been kidnapped or arrested by Chinese police. He was last seen yesterday at noon, when he checked out of a luxury hotel in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the USA since 1998.

Both Julian Assange (Wikileaks' leader, refuged in Ecuador's embassy since a year ago) and Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers back in the 1970s) have issued separate communications in solidarity with Snowden.

Assange declared that:

Edward Snowden is a hero who has informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade, which was the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state. 

Ellsberg wrote an article at The Guardian in which he said, among other things that:

In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an "executive coup" against the US constitution.

And also:

... what is not legitimate is to use a secrecy system to hide programs that are blatantly unconstitutional in their breadth and potential abuse. 

Manning and Snowden depicted as superheroes by Webguerrillero.

Manning's mock trial transcripts:

The Freedom of the Press Foundation is making a major effort to independently transcript the military trial against Bradley Manning (official transcripts are not available to the public). They explain:

The US military has refused to release transcripts of Bradley Manning's trial. In addition, they've denied press passes to 270 out of the 350 media organizations that applied. Without public transcripts or a press pass, it's virtually impossible for media organizations to accurately cover the trial and for the public to know what the government is doing in its name.

In response, Freedom of the Press Foundation has crowd-sourced funding to place a professional stenographer in the media room covering the trial. We will post full transcripts shortly after each day's proceedings end. The morning session with be posted by 7 pm the same evening. The afternoon session will be posted by 9 am the next morning. The transcripts will be released under an Attribution 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license.

Depending on how long the trial lasts, transcriptions will cost between $60,000-120,000, so please help support this project by going here to donate.

The transcripts are freely available HERE.

Turkey: 13 bloggers arrested, video of the shooting of Ethem Sarısülük

13 bloggers from Adana have been arrested for allegedly spreading subversive messages through Internet, in yet another clear case of Erdogan's dictatorial style in which free speech or even thought becomes a crime and democracy is reduced to a mere routine plebiscite.

These arrests add to the ones performed against dozens of online activists from Izmir days ago.

It has also surfaced now the video in which a riot police shoots with live fire injuring in Ethem Sarısülük, a worker from Ankara, whose death has been reported in the past but who seems to be still alive, according to his attorney Kazım Bayraktar.

All the shooting takes place in the first five seconds.

Bayraktar has repeatedly requested that the agent responsible for the shooting be identified but the authorities have simply ignored the demand. 

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

"I am Bradley Manning"

From I am Bradley Manning:

I am Bradley Manning

Because I believe the public deserves the truth and whistleblowers deserve a fair trial.

1 days of unjust confinement is enough!

Drop the "aiding the enemy" charge

Amidst courtroom secrecy, whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley Manning is on trial after three years of confinement.

The information that Bradley gave to the public has been a catalyst for pro-democracy movements in the Arab world, exposed the unjust detainment of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, shown us the true human cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changed journalism forever.

There is no evidence that anyone died as a result of the leaked information, yet Bradley faces life in prison or possibly death. The greatest charge against him is that of “aiding the enemy,” a capital offense. As the public who benefited from this information, does that make us the enemy? What price will future whistleblowers pay?

Turkey: 24 citizens arrested for twitting, 14 more 'wanted'

Erdogan compared to Hitler

24 citizens of Izmir have been arrested by police on charges of inciting to rebellion via Twitter. Police is trying to arrest 14 others still at large. 

The tweets appear to merely be a show of support for the protesters at the Gezi Park of Istanbul. An attorney of the main opposition party, the Kemalist CHP, has studied the cases and has not found anything that can be considered criminal in said tweets, which merely expressed opinions "that we all share".

It seems that the arrested were previously identified by police and are now being used as scapegoat. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Italy: students defeat riot police and conquer freedom of assembly (video)

Very impressive:

This happened on May 27. Students had called an assembly at the Piazza Verdi of Bologna and the governor had forbidden it (in yet another example of lack of any real democracy in Europe). The students bravely conquered their right of assembly and police run away. 

That's exactly how Ben Ali was kicked from Tunisia: after many protests repressed by police, one happy day, the protesters, much more numerous than the armed forces, turned around and took their rights, their freedom. 

Source: Madriz Rebelde[es].

Ecuador accuses the UK of violating international law in Assange case

The government of Ecuador, in whose embassy is refuged Julian Assange, accuses the United Kingdom of violating international law and the human rights of the journalist by not granting him a safe-conduct. 

Assange has been besieged by UK forces in the Embassy of Ecuador since almost a year ago. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Chile: more police attacks against student marches

Chilean military police (carabineros) violently attacked again freedom of expression and protest in Santiago. The student demonstration was scheduled to march to the Heroes Plaza after marching through the Alameda, the city's main street, but was brutally repressed (again) by the police-soldiers, who arrested 600. 

The government had explicitly forbidden the march through the Alameda in a clear attempt to hide the student protests that are the major challenge that the extremist right-winger President Piñera faces. All previous demonstrations have used this major street as avenue to show their discontent.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Update (Jun 1): video available at Madriz Rebelde[es].

Spain: two photo-journalists arrested and defamed in clear assault against free press

Because to photograph police brutality is no crime
free arrested photo-journalists!

Spanish police forces arrested yesterday two photographers and journalists. The arrested are Raúl Capín, collaborator with Diario Independiente Digital and Mundo Obrero (medium of the Communist Party), and Adolfo Luján (freelance).

The major accusation against Capín, which seems totally made up (the usual), is aggression against police forces. Another accusation is that he would have helped to run away some people whom police tried to arrest. The alleged acts would have happened while he covered popular protests in Madrid on February 23rd and April 25th.

Luján is also being accused of aggression against police forces on April 25th (the usual accusation that police throws around taking advantage of the Spanish penal code, which considers police testimony as "evidence" of much greater weight than that of any common witness, not needing any actual evidence to back up their claims). He's also being accused of defamation for writing at Mundo Obrero that the rioters on that journey appeared to be plain clothes police agents.

Police harasses Rául Capín while working

Prior to the arrest, some far-right Spanish media, ABC, El Mundo, have been carrying a campaign against them, accusing them to be "radicals infiltrated" among the press.

Defense lawyers think that it is a warning message against independent media, because both photographers are well known for reporting without self-censorship on popular demonstrations of all kinds. They had been previously harassed by police.

A protest has been called for today at 18:00. The exact location I could not find out because the reference site tomalaplaza.net seems to be overloaded, so high is the popular interest on these clearly political arrests.

Sources[es]: Naiz Info, DID, Mundo Obrero.

At Twitter: #raullibertad, #adolfolibertad.

Inquisition attacks another Basque counter-information website, arrests one

The Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional, political tribunal created by the fascist regime) has opened procedures to shut down Burlataherria, a website of information on the town of Burlata, near Iruñea-Pamplona. 

The fascist tribunal has arrested one of the collaborators of that website on spurious accusations of "apology of terrorism" for the informative coverage that the site gave to the welcome acts to political prisoners of the Navarrese town since 2009. The same person was previously accused for the same reasons and acquitted.

A protest has been called for today evening. 

Source: Burlataherria[es].