French Inquisition persecutes Israel boycott activists

A French court has accepted a denounce by the Zionist Lobby (specifically an organization called "National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism", which looks similar to the USA-based Anti-Defamation League, or as it's popularly known: "Defamation League") has brought charges against the Coordination of Appeals for a Just Peace in the Near East (CAPJPO by its French acronym) for allegedly constituting an "offense of incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people on account of their belonging to the Israeli nation", for filming and posting the video below (a festive boycott protest at a Carrefour supermarket against Israeli imports).

Source: Jews Sans Frontieres.

The accusations, obviously meant to criminalize the anti-apartheid movement for a free Palestine, have only been brought against the main promoter of the action and not against the many other signatories, including a Jewish organization (IJAN) and a state-wide party (New Anti-Capitalist Party), which would have been inconvenient for the Zios to attack.

Well, the least I can do is to post here the video again:



Who is the Nazi? Who is persecuting in our dear Europe freedom of speech and democracy? Who is the Antisemite here? We must remember that Palestinians are, by nature of their language, Semites, at least as much as any Jew (many of which don't even speak Hebrew fluently or at all). Furthermore, as I have argued before Palestinians are much more likely to be the genuine descendants of ancient Jews (and Canaanites, etc.) than the Euro-Mediterranean Jewish diaspora, which seems rather related to Lebanese and Cypriots (Phoenicians?). Yes Semitic as well, but not the only ones. The modern Antisemitism is irrational hatred against Arabs, and in this Zios are avant-guard. Hitler would be very proud of them. After all you don't need to be German to be a Nazi, you can perfectly be Jewish or whatever.

I'm damn tired of the tolerance and official protection provided to these Zionazi groups. Jews are not persecuted anywhere anymore, Israel is a genocidal imperialist project that has no right to exist from the viewpoint of Justice and the rights of the peoples. It's time to stop once for all this abhorrent situation in the Mediterranean. It's time to dismantle Israel or what is the same: the Jewish racist state of apartheid and genocide in the land of Palestine.

And it's about time for Europe to fully break all links to Israel and ostracize it as the rogue fascist state it is.

Thousands demonstrate in Bilbao 'for the rights of the Basque Country'

Plaza Zabalburu in Bilbao became yesterday the scenario of another demonstration for the rights of the Basque Country.

This was in fact their motto: Euskal Herriaren eskubideen alde - for the rights of the Basque Country.

Leaders of the 'illegal' Nationalist Left, Kiko Moreno, Miren Legorburu, Tasio Erkizia and Jone Goirizelaia, spoke to the crowd in the current line of trying to build a scenario of democratic solution to the Basque-Spanish conflict.

The official acknowledgement or the legality of Kosovar independence was also cheered in the demo, as it clears the way, in the international legal frame, for Basque self-determination as well.

The demonstration as such was initially banned by the current undemocratic 'Basque government' but was eventually authorized as mere meeting by the judiciary. Still the people were forbidden from demonstrating through the streets of the city and closely watched by the police.

Sources: Boltxe (photos) and Gara [both in Spanish].

Boycott day at Bilbao Fiestas

As mentioned yesterday, wednesday was a journey of protest for freedom of speech and the participative popular model of fiestas, against the persecution of ideas and konpartsak by the authorities, be them remotely located at Madrid or nearby at the local Town Hall.

The konpartsak made a massive concentration at the Town Hall:


They also parodied the mayor, who has not only be as weak and treacherous as to accept the imposition of the Spanish flag but who is also actively cooperating with the repressive policies designed by the Spaniards:


Source: Gara (link 1, link 2)

Bilbao Fiestas on strike

Today at 10 am, the official inauguration of the festive journey, the kompartsak (popular festive teams which are the heart of the fiestas since 1978) went on strike for the whole journey. If you happen to visit today the festive area you will find nearly everything closed.

Additionally this year, all the stands are decorated on black background as sign of protest, a pretty unusual sight.

Why? Because the Town Hall decided to ban three kompartsak (Kaskagorri, Txori Barrote and Komantxe) because they included photos of Basque prisoners in their stands. Such photos have been part of the Basque landscape since I have memory but, as of late, the undemocratic imposed government of Patxi López, has been working to get them out of the streets and taverns on the pretext that they are offensive for "the victims of terrorism".

There is no clear legal frame for such an actuation but, of course, judges are siding with the Spaniards and their local lackeys in this matter as well.

As the photos have been anyhow present in the fiestas, with them hanged from every tree and lamp, yesterday Spanish Neoinquisition judge Velasco ordered for second time their removal and now also investigation on who may be placing them (what a silly question: everybody!, these doctors seem to ignore the best of Spanish literature).

But they also seem to ignore history: the Basque flag was illegal until a campaign of flag-bombs forced its recognition. Such a scenario may happen again indeed with the photos of prisoners or whatever other expression that is formally banned by some distant judge in his crystal palace of Madrid. It happened again indeed with the prohibition of banners of Basque Nationalist content, causing some policemen to be injured in Navarre a few years ago.

Whatever the case, these are the strangest fiestas I have ever witnessed.

Judge Velasko has also ordered police to intervene against the homage to repressed members of Kaskagorri konpartsa (Nationalist Left youth) and even a toast (brindis) to women prisoners in Barcelona, which in his opinion is an act of welcome of recently freed anarchist prisoner Laura Riera, as well as homage to other two Catalan political prisoners: Dolores López Resina and Marina Bernadó.

Image of the police aggression yesterday on orders of the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional).
More photos at Boltxe.

Video: police repression in Barcelona (text and most dialogue in Catalan)
People chant: you fascists are the terrorists, Audiencia Nacional dissolution and Laura Riera welcome home

The konpartsak however made exception to their strike for the visit to children in hospital, being present there with all the festive paraphernalia: Mari Jaia, pregonero, txupinera, circus clowns and even the mayor, who avoided any declarations.

Source: Gara[es] (link 1, link 2)

More info resources on the Louisiana catastrophe

I recently mentioned a couple of resources to follow the oil spill info beyond what the corporate media wants to show. Another fantastic and daily updated blog I found dealing mostly with this disaster is Alexander Higgins Blog, a true research journalism site on the matter, where you can get at least some of the info denied or hidden by the authorities and the media.

Today, among other stuff, he posted this oddly beautiful (albeit sad) video made by himself with pictures of the oil spill and music from Rick Barry ("Atlantis", a song on the effects of Katrina hurricane):




The details (description and dates) for the images can be found here.

There are many interesting articles in this blog, but what really brought me there was this excellent research on the methane gas seeps around the DWH site. It seems that BP may have drilled right away through a methane field, the huge nearby RIGEL field, what may be at the origin of most of the trouble past, present and future. Because this disaster is surely not over.

Update: see also this article with maps from three days ago that contradict the claims that skimmers can't find anymore oil: it is all around!

Greek blogger shot down in Athens

Sokratis Giolias, 37, was shot down before his home in Athens after men possibly dressed in police uniforms rang his bell and said his car had been robbed. They shot 16 bullets of the 19 mm caliber at him.

Giolias run the most popular blog and one of the most visited websites of Greece, Troktiko, which mixed frivolity with wide spectrum journalism, including, it seems, investigative journalism. He may have stepped on the wrong toe of someone with very bad temper and enough power. Who exactly? That I don't know yet.

While the police accuses the mysterious leftist armed group "The Revolutionary Sect" (variously called in the media "Sect of Revolutionaries" or "Rebel Sect"), which possibly means Revolutionary Struggle, which sent a parcel-bomb to the Greek Minister of Interior recently, killing one of his aides. I find this association strange to say the least, as the modus operandi is clearly different, there are reports that the men were dressed in police uniforms and, after hours of reading an automatically translated version of the blog, I get the conclusion the main targets of his reports seem to be the establishment, including the police, wealthy tax evaders, fire arsonists and EU dictator Joao Barroso, as well as fascist Turkish groups like the Grey Wolves.

[Update: a frequent poster at the blog, Anagnostis, says that while "the Sect" had threatened certain journalists, Giolias' name was not in their list. He/she adds other reasons not to believe in the official version].

I suspect that the Greek police is trying to cover up the institutional murder of a free reporter who had become a problem for them. But we'll see because it's not like we can be deceived forever, right?

Most intriguing is this announcement repeatedly placed in the blog yesterday which reads (according to Google translator):

Do not miss tomorrow troktiko

Tomorrow we will see how the state of the relationship between security forces and entrepreneur! With photos and documents

From what I could gather from the media, he was about to publish an investigative report on corruption, possibly those links between the police forces and the capitalists that we can understand from the babbling translation provided by Google.

Mainstream media references: Al Jazeera, BBC, Reuters, New Europe.


________________________

Update (Jul 23): Antimperialista blog[es] reports that all documents and personal objects of Sokratis Giolias have been confiscated by police on the pretext of doing a throughout investigation. That way the investigation on police corruption he was about to publish will never see the light.

It also clarifies that the mysterious "Revolutionary Sect" is believed to be different from other armed groups and a cover up for police and fascist murderous activities.

The blog also links to Il Manifesto newspaper[it], which wonders if Greece is falling again into the Lead Years, name by which are known the period of the 1970s and 1980s that, specially in Italy but also in other areas of Europe, characterized by state terrorism against revolutionaries and complex manipulations leading to farce-trials.

73,000 blogs wiped off overnight

The sheer number is scary. The WordPress powered blog-hosting site Blogetery was closed down on July 14 on initially unknown reasons. The closure brought down some 73,000 blogs.

As I say, it was unclear why the site was closed down because, whatever the possible crimes committed by individual bloggers, it made little sense to close all them. However in the end it seems it was not the FBI nor the judicial authorities which ordered the closure but the hosting server BurstNet on its own (pretty much abusive and unjustified) decision.

Apparently the case is after all not about copyright issues nor child pornography as was speculated early but about one blogger seemingly linked to Al Qaeda who posted a bomb making manual. While the FBI did use the powers granted by the Patriot Act to demand access to hosted data, the closure was decided, admittedly, by the host company.

Sources: various but specially CNET. See also the discussion at this forum between a BurstNet employee and the owner of Blogetery, who was obviously confused and upset. Notice how many people in the thread take the side of the blurry authority figures regardless that it's a clear case of freedom of speech and contractual responsibility and that the victims were not offered any explanation at all. It's quite worrisome that people tend to think that way because that is the gate that lead us to fascism.

Update: seems the issue has snowballed to some dimension. BBC reports on the matter today reflecting the anger of users who blame BurstNet of not caring about their customers. Certainly a bad publicity move, I'd say: would you hire their services?

Another site, iBPFree, hosting forums, has also been closed without apparent reason.

To the ambassador of Israel in Spain

Maybe, in all this stressful week of informations about the Zionist shameless murders and the Freedom Flotilla heroism, you remember that the ambassador of Israel in Spain, Raphael Schutz, totally lost his temper, perspective of reality or just somehow let his dark Nazi-Zionist soul get out of protocol at an interview with newspaper El Períodico... and shamelessly compared the victims of Israeli murders aboard the Mavi Marmara with those of traffic accidents (mentioned here on Friday), exclaiming "who cares?"

Today, the mother of one of the persons aboard the ship, journalist David Segarra (mentioned here), who yesterday returned to his hometown of Valencia among demonstrations of support, has published an open letter to Schutz that I am translating here integrally:


To the ambassador of Israel in Spain

Mister Schutz:

I am the mother of David Segarra Soler. Now it is 5 am of June 2nd. It is dawning at Valencia and I just learned of the liberation of all those kidnapped in Israeli territory, among them my son.

I must confess that right now I don't feel any hatred to you nor towards the state you represent, not because of an altruist nor noble nor religious reason, but because of pure egoism: hate destroys. A good example of this is being offered by your state to the World. Born from the feeling of collective guilt by a cowardly Europe that was not able to defend its Jewish citizens from another monstrous and self-destroying hate, Nazi hate, it would seem as if history has not taught you anything. You are repeating the same patterns of hatred, of death, of dehumanization of the rival, of occupation of lands, of construction of walls and barbed wire fences, of racial arrogance... just that now the victims do not carry a star sewn to their clothes and the ghetto is not in Warsaw. It is in Gaza and the West Bank.

I will not tell you about the personal hell I have gone through these days. It would be ridiculous when compared with the daily and continuous pain of the Palestinian mothers. I am a lucky woman: my son David comes back from the massacre of the Mavi Marmara alive and well. You may have destroyed his only "lethal weapon": the video-camera. But what you forget in your blind hatred is that human beings have eyes, ears, mouth and memory to tell the World all the horror they have witnessed. And against that, Mr. Schutz, all your powerful propaganda can do nothing.

I bid you farewell without further ado and in the more exciting moment of my life I want to transmit to you, as representative of Israel in my country, my deepest pity. As much pity as immense is the admiration for my son, whom you, with all your terror machinery, have not been able to bring into submission. The same that you will never be able to force the Palestinian People into submission either.

Cristina Soler Crespo.


Source: Ciudad Futura (in Spanish).

Petition to Obama to speak against the institutional murder of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal is probably the most famous political prisoner of the USA, along with Leonard Peltier. He is a journalist and a political activist of leftist ideas. Today, Spanish bi-weekly Diagonal interviews his attorney, Robert Bryan, who claims he was declared guilty, 28 years ago, in a clear case of institutional racism, with the judge openly telling to a colleague: "I'm going to get the nigger fried" and banning eight black people from taking part in the jury.

The case is now at an appeal court with a very technical twist on whether the case is similar or different from another case. Bryan blames the situation to poor defense in past trials and would like them to be repeated ex novo. He argues that this is very typical: poor people cannot afford a good defense attorney, what favors the more experienced public accusation. Mumia's former attorney did not even present the racial composition of the original jury in a past revision in 1995, what could have changed the case completely.

This is an example of why death penalty is an error, not just in the case of Mumia but in thousands of other cases in the USA and across the world. People are executed not for comitting a crime but for not being properly represented, for not being able to pay for a good attorney. Death penalty is a privilege reserved for the poor.

He also says that Mumia is being persecuted essentially for being an active voice, for not shutting up, for denouncing all kind of injustice and abuses. So the authorities only see one way to achieve this goal: killing him. However so far they have only achieved to make him globally famous. Bryan says he's not going to stop writing.

He wants to live, he does not want to die. He does not wish to be executed. But he will not shup up, he will not go silent just to save his own life.

He also makes an appeal to sign the petition asking US President Barack Obama to speak, as moral authority, in favor of a moratorium of death penalty for Mumia and the 20,000 people that are sentenced to death in the USA. You can read and sign the petition (in many languages) HERE.

Here there is the trailer of the movie on Mumia's life, In prison my whole life:



Further information: Mumia Abu-Jamal Legal Defense.

Basque newspaper 'innocent' seven years after closure

Seven years after its closure and the arrest of its top staff members, who were tortured... the journalists who lead the first Basque language newspaper, Egunkaria, have been declared innocent.

The sentence declares that neither the accused nor the newspaper had the slightest connection to ETA.

The only "evidence" in the case for all these years were reports from the Spanish police which have been declared not to be evidence after all.

The sentence states that the closure of the newspaper was unconstitutional. The tribunal also admits that the denounces of tortures are plausible, though they decline to judge on them.

Basque political parties demanded swiftness in reparations and judging those who decided such abuse.

Source: Gara[es].

Egunkaria (The Newspaper or The Daily) was created by popular subscription and, after its closure, a new Basque-language daily was created by the same means in just few months: Berria (The News or also The New One). The popular reaction in this case and that of Egin showed that, while the Neoinquisition could slander and do much damage, the Basque people stood firmly with their non-corporative media.

Berria, of course, has a larger and retrospective report on the matter. It is in Basque language but you may want to browse the photo-gallery anyhow.

For instance: this shareholders' assembly back in 1995

Among other items, it denounces that the interview by Sarah Rainsford to Martxelo Otamendi, former director of Egunkaria and one of the victims of this judicial abuse, last month was never broadcasted. The word used is "missing" but it's obvious that it was censored on NATO ideological grounds.

In the Hemeroteka section you can also find articles in various languages: Spanish, Galizian (Portuguese), German, Catalan, English, French, etc.

Leaked video evidences how Reuters jounalists and civilians were killed by US troops in 2007

Directly from Wikileaks (direct link to video page).

Warning: as you can imagine, the video contains brutal violence with many people being killed at cold blood.

No words can comment it. I would just want to praise the work of Wikileaks, one of the very few remaining research journalism media and the courage of the anonymous source. Truth and freedom owe only to the brave like them.

The murder of two Reuters journalists and several civilians, plus to injured children, happened at New Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, in July 2007. The US authorities have refused to release the recordings and have always declared that it was an armed confrontation with insurgents.


Update: notice that if you try to watch this video directly at YouTube (right click on video and select "watch on YouTube", you are demanded to register with the pretext that the video is not suitable for minors. With the same pretext, it has been censored in many media, particularly in the USA.

According to Ciudad Futura, this practice is common at YouTube with videos that show the reality of demonized countries like Cuba or Venezuela. The actual reference however, which you can watch embedded at CubaInformación, in fact shows not just the reality of Cuba but specially, as counterpoint, the reality of a "democratic" country: Spain (and there's some real institutional violence, which may be why YouTube decides to hide it).

Spain: Supreme Court defend corrupts, attacks freedom of speech

No wonder Spain is, along with Italy and other countries a headache for EU: while the head of the Supreme Court lamented some time ago that citizens seldom denounce corruption, they now sentence to a huge fine of 15,000 euros to journalists reporting on corruption in the Canary island of Lanzarote.

It seems obvious that corruption is upheld from the highest instance of the state, which do not stop just at persecuting innocent Basque citizens, hiding systematic tortures, interpreting that the state-backed death squads are not "terrorist" or even bringing to court their colleague Baltasar Garzón for daring to dig too much in the dirty fascist past of the Spanish rotten political system.

They also let go clear cases of corruption such as that of judge José Antonio Martín, former president of the provicial court of Las Palmas (Canary Islands), when he put his legal knowledge at the service of a well known narcotraffic capo and pressed his colleagues for him to be set free. And now they even go further, persecuting media (Cuadernos del Sureste) for reporting that Felipe Fernández Camero, then Secretary of the Town Hall of Arrecife (Canary Islands) doubled as legal representative for for real state companies, which is illegal as well as highly suspicious, suspicions that they emphasized by his thesis as Town Secretary which were usually coincident with the interests of the real state corporations.

Naturally (for Spanish standards of democracy and transparency), the provincial tribunal sentenced, without even proper trial, the magazine and its speaker to pay 6000 and 9000 respectively to the corrupt politician. However this sentence was revoked by the Provincial Court, that decided that the use of the term "corruption" was appropriate (there seems that there are some honest judges who like transparency and free speech too). The issue of course had political repercusions and Fernández Camero was fired by an order issued directly from Madrid and is now being persecuted in two different trials for corruption, along with two former majors.

But the issue did not end there for the Canarian magazine and the prevaricator appealed nothing less than to the Supreme Court. Now it's been known that they initial sentence that fined them has been upheld at the highest tribunal of the Kingdom of Spain.

Antonio Marsá, speaker of the magazine and the main victim of this judiciary abuse, recalled in his declarations to the press, that the behaviour of the Spanish tribunals is worrying. He explicitly metioned the sentence by the Madrid Provincial Court against media corporation SER and specifically its journalists Daniel Anido and Rodolfo Irago for reporting on irregular affiliations of conservative politicians.

In brief: it's clear that Spain is the private ranch of a petty oligarchy and that judges are there to defend their priviliges.

Source: Rebelión.

Ample solidarity with persecuted Basque language newspaper

A diverse array of high-profile people from the areas of culture and politics gathered at the monastery of Arantzazu, symbol of the resistence of Basque culture and language under fascism, to support the persecuted editors of Egunkaria newspaper, gratuitously accused of being part of ETA, in the inquisitorial campaign that has marred Basque and Spanish political situation in the last decade.

Among the supporters were known artists like Fermin Muguruza, linguists like Txillardegi, iconic politicians like Xabier Arzalluz, two former lehendakariak, Carlos Garaikoetxea and J.A. Ardanza, as well as the presidents of the three western Basque provincial governments.

They expressed their solidarity with the accused in the Egunkaria case and specially with former secretary general of major labor union LAB, Rafa Díez, who is now in prison.

Tomorrow the trial against Egunkaria editors, promoted by fascist organizations after the government gave up, will continue at Madrid.

Source: Gara [sp - eu].

Related posts:
- Multitudes support Egunkaria.
- Political trial against Basque-language newspaper.

Multitudes support Egunkaria

Freezing temperatures did not stop Basques from pouring to the streets in support of the language and freedom of speech. An image is worth a thousand words:

Top representatives from nearly all sectors of Basque society were there:

• former Lehendakariak (presidents of the Basque autonomous region): Carlos Garaikoetxea and J.A. Ardanza
• Basque Nationalist Party, president of the Central Basque Committee: I. Urkullu,
• Nationalist Left: Jone Goirizelaia and Rufi Etxeberria
• Minor parties: Eusko Alkartasuna's secretary general Pello Urizar, United Left's coordinator Mikel Arana, Aralar's vice-coordinator Jon Abril
• Workers' unions: ELA's secretary general A. Muñoz, LAB's secretary general Ainhoa Etxaide (other unions, like the pro-Spanish Comisiones Obreras, the teachers' union EILAS, farmer's union EHNE and transport workers' union HIRU, etc. also supported the demo)
  
• Representatives of the Basque culture: Kontseilua's secretary general Xabier Mendiguren, Basque School's Confederation's president Koldo Tellitu, Basque Bertsolari Union's president Iñaki Murua, well-known writers Kirmen Uribe and Angel Lertxundi - among others

Basque language newspaper Egunkaria was clausurated in 2003 on made-up accusations of collaborating with ETA, in spite of the government having dropped the case out of shame, the trial began a few days ago after the the judge in charge admitted the private accusation of two fascist organizations, showing who does in fact rule Spain: Franco's ghost.

Source: Gara.

Political trial against Basque-language newspaper

Egunkaria, the first and then only newspaper in Basque language was created by popular subscription in 1990 and abruptly closed in 2003 by the Spanish Neoinquisition (Audiencia Nacional: political tribunal inherited from the fascist regime). The accusations? The same as for so many other political attacks: all that has a Basque identity is ETA.

Immediately after its closure a new popular subscription managed to create a new Basque-language daily out of the blue in few months: Berria.

After much social and international upheaval against what was perceived as the most blatantly political persecution against press and linguistic freedom of all the Neoinquisition abuses, some months ago the state accusation finally dropped the case. But two fascist organizations: the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and Dignidad y Justicia (Dignity and Justice) have acted as private prosecution and, against all precedent (never before an AN judge had taken a case dropped by the state), the judge in charge, Javier Gómez Bermúdez, accepted the case.

Yesterday, the trial as such has finally begun. Five journalists (Iñaki Uria, Xabier Oleaga, Joan Mari Torrealdai, Martxelo Otamendi and Txema Azurmendi) are being tried for collaboration with ETA. In fact they are being processed for being proud Basques.

Right to left: Joan Mari Torrealdai, Martxelo Otamendi, Iñaki Uria, Txema Auzmendi and Xabier Oleaga just before entering the political tribunal at Madrid

In the first day, the five political victims rejected to reply to the private accusation's questions and, in the defense turn, they denied any relation at all with ETA and denounced again the brutal tortures they were subjected to upon their detention, so they would sign self-inculpatory declarations. The journalists defended the independence and plurality of Egunkaria.

Torrealdai reported that, after being arrested by the Guardia Civil (military police corps), he had to get psychological treatment for a whole year, Otamendi reported the sexual abuses he was subject to while in detention, in addition to be forced to do physical exercise to the point of extenuation, Uria how he was applied "the bag" torture method ("controlled" asphyxia causing near death experiences once and again) and that he was threatened with a gun, including a simulated shot, that he was pointed with infrarred weapons and beaten with a telephone book (doesn't leave marks).

Uria declared that he has a long trajectory of working in Basque-language media (Argia, Egunkaria, Hamaika Telebista) and that he has never belonged to any political organization. He also recalled the birth of Egunkaria, when the platform Egunkaria Sortzen (creating the newspaper) was formed as a plural entity of some 70 people.

One of the accusations is that ETA appointed in fact the executive positions. Uria rejected that that was the case at all but that it was the late Joxemi Zumalabe who proposed him for vicedirector (later, in 1993, he became member of the administration council). He also reported that it was this council who elected Martxelo Otamendi as director of the newspaper.

He declared that in all the time he was in the decission-making structures of the newspaper he never heard of any sort of interference y ETA and that, would have been the case, he would have opposed it.

Oleaga reported that what the Spanish police wanted to get from the tortures he was subject to was that he signed that he was working in Egunkaria in 1993 and that it was Uria who proposed him. The reason for this was known to him later, because all the prosecution is based on some documents taken from ETA and dated to March 1993. However it was made evident from his social security records that he only began working at Egunkaria in 1995.

Otamendi's declaration focused on why Egunkaria has published interviews with ETA, as well as communications and excerpts from ETA's internal bulletin, Zutabe. He defended that such journalistic practices respond to a public interest and are well established in the Spanish and international jurispurdence and that journalists enjoy professional secret, so they can't be forced to reveal their sources.

The trial is due to cotinue today and in the following days. The solidarity with the persecuted journalists, both in and out of the Basque Country is overwhelming, naturally.

Source: Gara.

Australia to follow the steps of China: will filter Internet

On the pretext of fight against crime, Australia will now implement a guvernamental filter. Obviously, human rights watchdogs are very concerned, as they strongly suspect it will serve to much more than block illegal sites, but to implement censorship on the Internet.

Read more at BBC.

I mentioned recently how the EU is also implementing such institutional filters, in this case with the even more pathetic pretext of enforcing corporative copyrights.

Antifascist memorial acts forbidden

The dynamics of re-fascistation in this little Basque Country are reaching unimagined levels: yesterday the Spanish political tribunal (Audiencia Nacional) declared illegal all acts by the perfectly legal association Ahaztuak ("the forgotten ones") that is dedicated to restore the memory of those fallen fighting against fascism or impunely murdered by it. Gudari Eguna (the day of the fighter) was estabilished for this reason in September 26th, to remember the Basque anti-fascist fighters, known as gudariak (fighters or warriors).

This date is also used by ETA supporters to commemorate those militants fallen or imprisoned but the two activities are unrelated.

Yesterday though some of the many demonstrations held by Ahaztuak throughout the country found themselves with police harassment because the Neoinquisitor Eloy Velasco has arbitrarily decided they were illegal. Ahaztuak has wowed to appeal the resolution but this year's acts have found themselves banned anyhow. They have also demanded from the authorities to forbid the fascist demonstration scheduled for the upcoming November 11th in Pamplona.

There is a traditional hymn usually sang in this occasion:

Eusko Gudariak gara
Euskadi askatzeko,
gerturik daukagu odola
bere aldez emateko.

Irrintzi bat entzun da
mendi tontorrean
goazen gudari danok
Ikurriñan atzean.

Faxistak datoz eta
Euskadi da altxatzen.
goazen gudari danok
gure aberria askatzen.

Translated:

We are the Basque fighters,
for the freedom of the Basque Country,
the blood we have ready
to be given for it.

A war cry is heard
on top of the mountain,
let's go all the fighters
after our flag.

Because the fascists are coming
the Basque Country rises up,
let's go all fighters
to liberate our fatherland.

The song was proposed in 1983 to become that of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Western Basque Country) but a different one was chosen instead.

Translation notes:
- Irrintzi (from irri=laughter) is the traditional high pitched cry of Basques, somewhat similar to that of Berber women but expressed with the throat only, not using the tongue, it is more often associated with joy and celebration but can also have that connotation of war cry and I think it has that meaning here.
- Ikurriña (from ikur=sign, ensign) is a proper name (a neologism by Sabino Arana) for the Basque flag, other flags are not called that way (bandera instead, from Spanish), so "our flag" is a logical translation.
- Aberri is another neologism by Sabino Arana that means fatherland, even if the etymology is maybe more based on Sumerian (aba=father, cow) than on real Basque. The root aba- does appear in a couple of Basque words, namely apaiz (priest, surely from the same root as abbot and surely of West Asian origins itself but a recent loanword from Romance in any case) and abere (cattle, domestic animal), from which aberatz (wealth). This one is, in my opinion, a truly old West Asian loanword that surely comes from Neolithic times.
- Gudari is arguably also a neologism, from guda, war but only in the sense of legitimate war or popular upsrising, in particular for the Basque struggle for freedom. For regular wars, the Romance loanword gerra is the correct one. The professional suffix -ari is similar to that one found in other languages (like English -er, Spanish -ero/-era, etc.) but in Basque ari is also an auxiliar verb meaning activity. The etymology of guda is not known but to me it reminds of bagauda, which is said to be a Celtic word (??) but in Basque could well mean emphatically (ba-) "we have" [rights or whatever]. It also reminds me of that typical cry of "gora gu ta gutarrak!": up with us and ours [our people]!

News source: Gara.
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Elderly citizen to prision for waving a Basque flag

In yet another twist of this surrealistic neofascist situation we are being forced into, Kontsuelo Agirrebarrena, 61, has been sentenced to four years of prison for carrying a flag in a protest against the undemocratic municipal government of Lizartza, Gipuzkoa.

In the last elections of 2007, the illegal Basque Left list got 187 votes, while the Spanish Conservative one got 27. Hence the Spanish Conservatives got the local administration with only 10% of the actual votes. This brutal injustice has obviously caused loads of protests and tension in the small town, with the neofascists denouncing everybody around, even against the local priest, who dared to ask the illegitimate mayor's bodyguards not to enter the church armed.

In one of such protests, Mrs. Agirrebarrena was denounced for "aggression" against the mayor. In the trial the accusation was lowered to "attempt" and the sentence gathers that all she did was waving a Basque flag while the officers passed by without any hit or anything of the like. But, in spite of that, the tribunal (Supreme Tribunal at Madrid) sentences that the crime of "attack to authority" must be applied because "who knows that intimidates or charges against a person who has authority has, therefore, the intent of attacking that person".

She has been sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 1800 euros.

In practice, Lizartza is partly self-ruled now regardless of the official government, because the people has boycotted every single initiative of the unelected mayor Regina Otaola. All cultural activities are in fact out of the official muncipal sphere.

Source: Gara.
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Israel official protest draws attention on yet another organ traffick scandal

The Judeonazi Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigador Liebermann, has sparked a diplomatic row with Sweden that reminds somewhat to the pressure put on Denmark a few years ago on the issue of Mohamed cartoons. In a crucial aspect the case is the same: a newspaper publishes something and some freaky Middle Eastern extremist claims to heavens about it. The rest of the details are different.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published a story that tells of Israeli soldiers have repeatedly kidnapped Palestinian youths and returned their bodies days later - the lack of the organs was discovered in the preparations for the funerals. According to the newspaper, the most important of Sweden, these inccidents date back to 1992.

Liebermann, who is widely known for his extremist racist genocidal rantings, accuses the newspaper of "blood libel", whatever that means, and has demanded that the Swedish government intervenes. The foreign minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt (oil magnate and regular of the Bilderberg Group, hence probably a very influential patrician within the Atlantic Empire) has been forced to ratify the right of freedom of speech in Sweden. This in itself is another signal, I understand, of increased, but still limited, clash between important sections of the Zionist Mafia and the more pragmatic elements within the Empire.

The scandal comes to add to the similar and probably connected case in the USA where an organ trafficking network involving influential rabbis and centered in Israel was dismantled by the FBI.

But the Zionists still feel as impune as to openly protest the denounciation of such macabre business as "antisemitism". They do not care at all about the Jewish racism implicit in such operations, so similar to Hitler's disdain for non-German lives, but they claim that anyone denouncing it is a racist. How hypocritical!

Israel is sadly famous now for these organ trafficking schemes but has been for long denounced as a Mecca of female slavery, all protected by the racist laws and powers that govern the controversial country.

Sources: BBC, Intifada-Palestine, Palestine Free Voice, When being anti means being for coexistence, human rights and peace.
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"Freedom of Speech" demo banned

In the line of the latest fascist developments in the Basque Country, a demonstration demanding freedom of speech that will take place today has been forbidden by the Spanish tribunals.

The fascist unelected government of the Western Basque Country, ironically, says that the people calling to the demonstration are "intolerant" and has the shamelessness to say that, if they "keep the challenge it will be proven once again that what they want is confrontation and the opportune measures will be taken to avoid it". What basically means that they will throw the cops against the demonstrators no matter how many victims they cause (I know it sounds like they will avoid doing precisely that but they are that type of shameless hypocrites: peaceful demonstration is violence, police brutality is peace... could be an Orwellian slogan indeed, in the line of "war is peace, freedom is slavery").

In the same line, yesterday, police intervened against the txosnak (festive bars of the kompartsak, festive groups that are the backbone of the fiestas) at Bilbao, removing all photos of Basque prisoners and a totally unrelated item: a banner in solidarity with the Gaztexte, the popular social center. The resistence was peaceful: the repressive action was countered by music with love messages for each of the prisoners and people kept dancing in spite of the tension. Booing, whistling and cries of "go to Madrid" got the policemen stressed and they beat some people (this "detail" has not been broadcasted on TV). Eventually they retired under cries of "keep on, keep on... until you reach Madrid".

Masked riot policemen (known as beltzak: the black ones) deployed at the txosnak.

As fascist pressure mounts up, it has also been known that a municipal worker of Orkoien found his work van grafittied with fascist symbols and death threats. Watch out the "democrats" are coming!

Reads: caution Julio, look under (meaning there could be a bomb)

Let's see what happens today but, considering what we saw in Donostia last week, I expect a brutal intervention against the txosnak with many injured and arrested (hopefully there will be no deaths but you never know) and the interruption of the fiestas, as it happened once in the early 80s.

Source Gara (links in text).

Update: the demonstration was officially un-called at the police station and in a press release. In spite of it three spontaneous demonstrations took place: one was rapidly smashed by the police causing some riots, another, the original one, was prevented by masses of cops and finally a third one managed to walk through Autonomia street, one of the main arteries of Bilbao, gathering thousands and managing to reach the usual destination at the Arenal. At least three people have been arrested an it's reported huge police deployement in the city. I can hear a helicopter as I write this. Sources: Gara and verbal reports.
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