This day. The 1961 massacre of Algerians in Paris: When the media failed the test

Freedom of press of the reactionary ruling classes

In 1961 and for years after, the French and Anglo-American media colluded with the state to cover up the 1961 massacre of Algerians in Paris, ensuring impunity for those responsible for this heinous crime such as the Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, Prefect of the Paris police. This is an apt time to recall what happened.

Use of state-backed racist militias in the United States

Resistance persists against state-organized attempts to undermine movement for change

Memorial and march in Rochester, New York, September 3, 2020, for Daniel Prude who died in police custody in March 2020.

In the United States, the ruling circles and their elected representatives are going all out to undermine the growing movement for change. They are portraying those protesting for rights and against police violence and impunity as the source of conflict and violence which is, in fact, caused by the state. They also claim the way forward is by choosing sides in the November election or other reliance on the state machinery.

US people’s movement against racism, injustice, impunity and inequality does not relent

March on Washington, August 28, 2020.

By Kathleen Chandler

The movement in the U.S. Against Racism, Injustice, Impunity and Inequality is continuing relentlessly, seen in the massive demonstration under COVID-19 conditions in Washington, DC on August 28. August 27 marked the 90th straight day of protests in Portland, Oregon and a number of other cities which have also sustained actions for 90 days without letup.

August protests have focused on demanding that the country’s resources be directed to guaranteeing rights to security, education, housing, health care, immigration and other crucial matters. This culminated August 28 with more than 70,000 people converging in Washington, DC on the 57th anniversary of the March  on Washington which took place on August 28, 1963.

Eight hundred billion

A large coalition of German parliamentary parties offers charity to Poland | Commentary by Hans-Rüdiger Minow

Old Town Market Place, January 1945. Nazi German forces destroyed 85 per cent of Warsaw.

(german-foreign-policy.com) – Several hundred members of the German Bundestag are planning major construction projects in Warsaw. The non-partisan group of German parliamentarians – ranging from right to left – is discussing transformation plans for the Polish capital, which had been destroyed in the 1940s, when war was raging everywhere. Warsaw could finally be embellished with historical sensitivity and German money from a “Poland Fund.” Berlin is discussing the reconstruction of Warsaw’s huge 18th century Baroque palace, the “Pałac Saski” in reminiscence of the Kingdom of Poland, when Poland was moaning under the reign of the Saxons (“Saxony Poland”) – a serious proposal from the portfolio of Germany’s Poland institutes. Therefore, Warsaw’s museums and libraries must also expect wide-ranging construction measures. They would be expanded, with means from the “Poland Fund,” to make room for cultural goods from Germany, where they have been stored in greater quantities – some already for several centuries. They had unfortunately disappeared from Poland, when “Saxony Poland” had been succeeded by quite varying regimes under German domination. Poland’s cultural heritage had been transferred to Berlin in a cloak-and-dagger operation, supposedly to safeguard it from theft and destruction. The Polish artifacts would, however, remain German property and only loaned out to Warsaw’s museums, as was so caringly suggested in the Germany capital.

US nationwide strike for Black lives to be held on July 20

“Today, in this national moment of reckoning, working people are demanding fundamental changes to America’s broken system. They’re coming together in the Strike for Black Lives to declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our communities can thrive.” – Mary Kay Henry, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

The ugly truth of the ‘world’s greatest democracy’ for all to see

By NICK LIN

Washington, DC protest against the killing of George Floyd, May 30, 2020.

For twelve days, hundreds of thousands of people have burst out in militant protests in more than 140 cities across the United States against police brutality, impunity, racism and injustice. They mourn the death of George Floyd killed in cold blood by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.

US veterans condemn deployment of troops

In addition to the 200,000 troops already deployed across the world, U.S cities are being occupied by military force. Thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and police have been deployed to cities across the nation as Trump calls on the military to “dominate the streets” and that he’d override any local control if governors refuse to deploy the national guard. Threats and intimidation are tactics of terror by this administration. Trump’s statements, as well as past statements, are incendiary and effectively declare war on our communities.

This day. The Paris massacre of 1961

When the Seine was full of bodies – as many as 300 Algerians massacred in Paris by order of the police Prefect, a Vichy Nazi collaborator, who was never prosecuted for this heinous crime. The provocation came in the form of a police order that Muslim “citizens” of Algeria only should be subject to a curfew from 8.30pm to 5.30am, on the pretext that there had been a significant increase in the number of attacks on policemen. What happened on 17 October 1961 is not a matter solely for historians.

This day. Anniversary of US criminal use of Agent Orange in Vietnam with the collusion of Canada

By TONY SEED

August 10 marks the 57th anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam in 1961 without sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the Vietnam War, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring.

43rd anniversary of Vietnamese people’s great victory over the US imperialists: The real American war in Viet Nam – ‘kill anything that moves’

By DOUGAL MACDONALD

Victory monument in Xuan Loc, Vietnam

Forty-three ago, the U.S. imperialists were resoundingly defeated by the heroic Vietnamese people, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the French colonialists and then the U.S. imperialists. Historic photos show the last of the U.S. invaders scrambling frantically to escape Viet Nam by helicopter, trying to save their worthless skins from the wrath of people’s war.

How impunity defines Israel and victimizes Palestinians

Israeli security forces confront Land Day protest near Nablus, March 30, 2016. (Click to enlarge)

by RAMZY BAROD*

Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif was killed. In the style typical of Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinians, he was first wounded after allegedly attempting to stab an Israel occupation soldier in the occupied city of Hebron.

Israel: Hebron assassination – ‘never have so many cheered such a vile murderer’

A mob supporting the detained Zionist murderer outside the court in Occupied Palestine where his hearing was taking place, March 29, 2016 | Ilan Assayag

For your information: Articles from the Israeli press on the cold-blooded assassination of an incapacitated man in Occupied Palestine

Abed al-Fatah al Sharif was lying clearly unconscious on the ground, one of two men who had allegedly attacked an Israeli soldier, wounding him slightly on March 24. Despite having already been shot to the ground, where he lay wounded for several minutes, after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier. He was then shot in the head at point-blank range by another IDF soldier.

“The soldier was not acting in self-defence,” reported Al-Monitor. “He did not fear for his life or for those of other soldiers, and from initial examination of the incident, it turns out that he wasn’t even part of the force operating in the area when the man attacked. Rather, he arrived after the incident was over. He apparently acted the way he did because that was the way the wind was blowing.” Amos Harel of the Israeli paper Haaretz described the killing as nothing less than a “cold-blooded execution.” 

The assassination is hardly exceptional, nor is the Israeli culture of impunity: killing Palestinians is a way of life in the Zionist utopia, which is given carte blanche by the United States, Canada and the European Union and its media. The heroization of the executioner seems to be. Even by the barbaric standards of Zionist forces in Occupied Palestine, the cold-blooded execution of a wounded Palestinian has sent shockwaves around the world, with one senior UN official branding it an “extrajudicial execution” and a “gruesome, immoral, and unjust act,” but not among soldiers on the scene or the wider Israeli public.

On Thursday, March 30, a military judge, Lt. Col. Ronen Shor, ordered that the soldier be released from jail and instead kept under open arrest at his base.

Since last October, more than 200 Palestinians have now been shot dead by Israeli forces, some in clashes, the majority after they had been accused of attacking or attempting to attack Israelis, with nearly 30 Israelis killed in the same period. – TS

• Never have so many cheered such a vile murderer
• IDF grovels – downgrades charges against soldier-executioner who shot subdued Palestinian to manslaughter
• Video shows soldier shaking hands with far-right activist after shooting subdued Palestinian attacker
• Soldier said Palestinian assailant ‘needs to die’ before shooting, army probe finds
• Hebron murder was no exception, but the inevitable result
• The shooting in Hebron was a cold-blooded execution
  

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (8): U.S. military admits to chemical, biological weapons experiments in Puerto Rico

Protest of Puerto Rican fishermen against U.S. Navy base, Vieques Island

From our archives, with an introductory note

THE United States, Canada and NATO and the monopoly media are going all out with their offensive of blaming so-called “axis of evil” countries or “rogue states” for posing the danger of weapons of mass destruction. The disinformation targets Syria and its alleged “chemical weapons arsenal”, as well as the the Islamic Republic of Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Pakistan and other countries on the nuclear issue.

The credibility crisis facing this campaign can be seen in the fact that, along with it, more and more information is being circulated in the official and alternative media that reveal the chemical, biological and nuclear programs of the United States along with those of Britain and Canada.

Much of this information however is, in fact disinformation. Same facts are acknowledged but are being circulated for the deliberate purposes of creating the impression that these programs were in the past, were not directed at human beings, were only used in foreign lands, or were justified as “self-defence.”

Impunity: Israel violates Lebanese sovereignty three times a day

Israeli warplanes violate the territorial integrity of Lebanon, including the skies over Beirut, the capital city, on an average of almost three times a day, according to a study by BRENDA HEARD based on UN reports. “Yet there is rarely a mention in the international press. The UN merely stacks up the reports.” In 2009, Israel’s routine overflights were characterised by UNIFIL as not only a “humiliation to the Lebanese government and UNIFIL,” but also an “act of war.”

friendsoflebanon.org (September 16) – AS WE CHASE the latest headlines and grow dizzy from the daily crises of the Middle East, sometimes we overlook the persistent problems.  Perhaps the element of continuance makes them frustrating, perhaps just boring. But to ignore the drip-drop of Israeli belligerence toward Lebanon is to shrug off the impunity by which it persists.

Harper dictatorship: More sweeping powers for security agencies to engage in black ops and act with impunity

Combating Terrorism Act receives Royal Assent. The alleged ‘Via Rail plot’ or the so-called U.S.-Canadian Operation Smooth “served to divert attention from the sweeping arbitrary and secret powers the Harper dictatorship has given Canadian and U.S. security authorities,” notes the TML Weekly Information Project in a special edition exposing state terrorism.

ON APRIL 24 Bill S-7, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, the Canada Evidence Act and the Security of Information Act, also known as the Combating Terrorism Act, was passed by the Harper government with the support of the Liberals by a vote of 183 to 93. Because it was first introduced in the Senate rather than the House of Commons, it was not required to return to the Senate for review. The next day it received Royal Assent and became law.

The final reading debate on the legislation on April 22 was accompanied by the Harper dictatorship’s announcement that Canadian authorities, working closely with the FBI, had arrested two men suspected of conspiring to derail a Via Rail train on a section of train track between Toronto and New York. In this way the stage was set for a debate in the media on the obvious coincidence of the timing of the alleged plot and to justify the legislation. All of it has also served to divert attention from the sweeping arbitrary and secret powers the Harper dictatorship has given Canadian and U.S. security authorities.

Law used to sanction further state terror and impunity at home and abroad

The precious timing of the U.S.-Canadian Operation Smooth (the alleged “Via Rail plot”) with its rehearsed modus operandi is also aimed at creating a racist fear climate, writes PHILIP FERNANDEZ in an edition of TML Weekly Information Project devoted to state terrorism.

ON APRIL 22, right at the time when Parliament was set to debate Bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act, the RCMP announced that working closely with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other U.S. secret police, it had foiled an alleged Iran-based al-Qaeda cell which had planned to bomb a VIA train on the Toronto-New York line. Two men, 30-year-old Chiheb Esseghair, a Tunisian-born resident and doctoral student, and 35-year-old Raed Jaser, a Palestinian national living in Canada for about two decades, were arrested. The RCMP admitted at the press conference that there were no definite plans for these attacks, but that they had been monitoring these two men since August of last year and that these individuals were “planning” such an attack.

Birds of prey: The record of impunity for Israeli military aircraft

Lebanese National News Ageny

Israel’s routine overflights — characterised by UNIFIL in 2009 as not only a “humiliation to the Lebanese government and UNIFIL,” but also an “act of war …

By BRENDA HEARD* 

friendsoflebanon.org (February 16) – SINCE MARCH 1978, for thirty-five years, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, has been monitoring the conflict between Israel and Lebanon— the tension, the daring, the mayhem, the killing. The enthusiastic efforts UNIFIL made in the early years soon waned. Perhaps it was the politics, perhaps it was the frustration of an ineffectual mandate, or perhaps it was losing 279 troops to-date.    Whatever the cause, public statements from UNIFIL seem to have settled into a laissez-faire yawn.

Maritimers rally against secret trials

The Halifax rally on October 31 against secret trials was held at CSIS offices in the downtown at rush hour and viewed by thousands | Photos by Mark Rushton

Shunpiking Magazine, HALIFAX (November 1, 2003) – Twenty five people vigorously picketed the CSIS office, Maritime Centre, Halifax, for one hour on the afternoon of October 31st as part of the National Day of Action to Stop Secret Trails in Canada.

The action was held during the height of rush hour in downtown Halifax and highly visible. There ws a lot of interest amongst people. Some passer-bys joined the picket and many people in cars also took leaflets.