Arab Rev

VIDEO – Yemini Snipers into a Peace Crowd

March 19, 2011 By SocTrap Leave a Comment

At the time of writing, 45 people have been killed in protests. Videos below showing how it started and video of the actual assassins.

It is often difficult to understand context when these numbers are given, imagining a violent riot that results in a violent response. But as the videos show, that is simply not the case. The first video shows that this was a tactic to break the protests from a psychological perspective – to leave the protesters in no doubt about the the psychotic nature of their opponents.

Videos from Youtube but H/T to the following blog – worth a read.
http://yemenrightsmonitor.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-18-massacre-videos-during-friday.html

More detail on the protests below.
Guardian – Yemen Police Massacre

Filed Under: Yemen Tagged With: Massacre, protests, Snipers, Yemen

Egypt update – 2011-03-08

March 8, 2011 By SocTrap Leave a Comment

The Egyptian protesters/revolutionaries are truly leading a campaign of clarity and truth. They have not been pacified or seduced in any way by their initial success.

This must be very annoying to the strategists behind Mubaraks departure (Egyptian Army, CIA, US State Department, Israel etc)

Egyptians demand secret police give up torture secrets

This continual protest is starting to wear down the power structures, and therefore becomes more and more dangerous (particularly as the numbers get less and the eyes of the world are diverted). All the best to them.

Filed Under: Activism, Egypt

The Brutal Mechanics of Stemming migration

March 8, 2011 By SocTrap Leave a Comment

The view from Europe as to how we stop the flow of migrants is significantly distorted – no surprise there.

But reading through the mechanics of how it is done simply brings into question to what extent we are going to go in humiliation and complicit murder (at least manslaughter) in order to keep people off the streets of Europe.

Some uncomfortable reading at the following.

Click Here – Libya and Europe collude in concentration camp arrangements

This particular source simply lacks references to validate all the claims. The reason I accept some of the claims as being potentially true is through extrapolation from other knowledge about the issue.

Filed Under: Activism, Arab Rev, Libya, Migrants

Libya No-Fly and Asset Freeze

March 2, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There is no argument about the moral or ethical aspects of enforcing a no-fly over Libya. To minimize the killing is a no brainer.

But legally, the asset freeze must be problematic, given that there is no official statement or recognition that the previous regime has gone. As such, the asset freeze is close to an act of war (legally, not morally). If the international community get it wrong, it can be seen as a very aggressive act against Libya (not just Gaddafi.

With regards to the No-Fly, there are clearly some in Libya calling for international enforcement of a no-fly. However, this needs to be considered as very deeply and dynamically as the situation develops. There is a tipping point at which the reduction of deaths in the short term is balanced by a positive mutually respectful relationship with Libyan people in the future (regardless of who takes power at the end of the current situation).

The West gained huge kudos by doing absolutely nothing in Tunisia and Egypt. Including not claiming to have supported the eventual winners. This sets a wonderful foundation for future relations between the West and Egypt.

Filed Under: Libya

Arab revolutions media bogey

February 27, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Seems strange that Aljazeera is now regarded in the Middle east as a core player in the democratic revolutions while in the West it is regarded as the mouthpiece of Tyranny.

Filed Under: Egypt

Egypt – Complex and time for change

February 4, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Warning – graphic..

Truck runs over pedestrians

Don’t have a link but have seen on Aljazeera another video worse than this (liveleak.com), but runs over 10-12 people in a crowd. Just shows that although there is much talk of Peaceful Protests it would appear that the longer it goes on, the more there is the opportunity for a lot of damage to be done to the future peace.

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Creepy connections between the power brokers, via the New York Times Lede.

Obama Envoy’s Lobbying Firm Tied to Mubarak Regime

As the United States continues to press Egyptian officials to begin the “orderly transition” President Barack Obama called for on Tuesday night, more attention is being paid to Frank Wisner, the retired American diplomat who met with Hosni Mubarak on behalf of the administration this week.

In my colleague Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s profile of Mr. Wisner, she reported that the 72-year-old retired ambassador and businessman trusted with this delicate mission “joined the lobbying firm Patton Boggs” two years ago.

As the Mideast Wire blog noted on Tuesday, Mr. Wisner’s lobbying firm has worked on behalf of the Egyptian government for two of the three decades Mr. Mubarak has been in power.

According to a description of the lobbying firm’s experience in Egypt on its Web site:

Patton Boggs has been active in Egypt for 20 years. We have advised the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and have handled arbitrations and litigation on the government’s behalf in Europe and the U.S. Our attorneys also represent some of the leading Egyptian commercial families and their companies, and we have been involved in oil and gas and telecommunications infrastructure projects on their behalf. One of our partners also served as the Chairman of the U.S.-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce, promoting foreign direct investment into targeted sectors of the Egyptian economy. We have also handled negotiation of offset agreements and managed contractor disputes in military sales agreements arising under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Act.

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$60 Billion US Aid to Egypt=$60 Billion Current Net-worth of Mubarak Family

From: Sybil Edmonds Blog.

In this post Sybil outlines the simple, clear cycle of corruption, quoting from various sources. Well worth a read.

The background:

List of Important references:
April 6 Movement – from the Food riots of 2008
Optor – Serbian Protest Movement of 1999-2000 – trained on tactics of effective peaceful protest

Filed Under: Egypt, Uncategorized

Goodies and Baddies is not how it is in Revolutions

February 2, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The Media are desperate to have the Good guys and Bad Guys clearly divided. The pro-democracy demonstrators, and the pro-Mubarak demonstrators.

And of course, the pro-Mubarak demonstrators that came out today are being presented as paid thugs carrying Police and Security force ID’s. Unfortunately, this ignores the fact that many were woman and children to start with, there was no logic to trying to appear as civilians and carrying all your Police ID’s. It also is simplistic in not understanding that many people are hungry and impoverished by these protests.

As there is no real co-ordination behind the anti Mubarak protests – they just all want him out but don’t know who they want in, it is highly likely that on the other side there are many who don’t care about Mubarak but are more concerned to just stop the economic freeze.

A very good article about the way revolutions are high-jacked, and don’t even turn out as history wrote them, even when that is a few years ago. The myth and lack of interpretive ability of the media and experts is frightening.

Tunisian Revolution not what it seems – as the Romanian one wasn’t

Filed Under: Egypt, Featured FP

In Chaos – people create their own order

February 1, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

During the Jan25 protests in Egypt, after the police left the streets completely, and all the prisons had been emptied, the people rapidly took control through their community ties.

Some quotes from the article:

Community Building Once Again Proves Its Power – NYT Article source

First seen in…
Colorlines.com
Quote from the Colorlines Article:

It’s notable as well that corporate media is surprised every time this happens. The conventional wisdom, in the U.S. particularly, is that people left to their own devices will turn on one another; that we are naturally competitive and ready at any moment to devolve into violence in pursuit of one another’s property. The opposite is true. Indeed, capitalism has to work mightily to pit people against one another (usually allowing a very few to succeed in hoarding resources amid the supposed competition, but that’s another discussion). When the trappings of capitalism break down amid crisis, community always naturally replaces it.