Showing posts with label blow-back. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Ukraine threatens 'anti-terrorist operation' against protests

Riot police take a break near Kiev's Independence Square Wednesday afternoon after two days of clashes with the opposition. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)

KIEV, Ukraine -- In the wake of violence that claimed 25 lives and left hundreds injured, the Ukrainian government declared Wednesday that it was launching "an anti-terrorist operation" that some feared would escalate its conflict with pro-Western demonstrators.
“What is happening today is a conscious use of violence by way of arson, murder, hostage-taking and intimidation ... for the sake of pursuing criminal goals,” the country's security agency chief, Alexander Yakimenko, said in a statement published on the agency's website. “All of that with the use of firearms. These are not just signs of terrorism but concrete terrorist acts.
“By their actions, radical and extremist groups bear a real threat to lives of millions of Ukrainians,” his statement said.
Yakimenko's statement followed two days of the worst violence the country has seen during several months of political conflict over President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to align Ukraine economically with Russia, not the European Union.
Hours after Yakimenko issued his warning, the Associated Press reported that Yanukovich had fired the head of Ukraine's armed forces.
[Updated, 10:58 a.m. PST Feb. 19: The UNIAN news agency said the armed forces chief, Vladimir Zamanu, had been replaced by Yuri Ilyin.
One analyst said the move may have been prompted by Zamanu's reluctance to use the army against civilian demonstrators.
“The sudden switch can be explained by Yanukovich's desire to use the army in combating the growing protests,” Vadim Karasyov, head of the Institute of Global Strategies, a Kiev-based think tank, said in an interview. “Zamanu has recently hesitated to express readiness to get involved in helping to defuse the political crisis.”]
As dusk set over Independence Square in central Kiev, several thousand protesters armed with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails faced hundreds of police armed with teargas and stun grenades, water cannons and shotguns firing rubber bullets.
An eerie fog descended on the square, where several thousand protesters were praying together. At a square nearby, police buses arrived, disgorging new units of riot police and interior troops, who joined government forces positioned near Independence Square.
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Ukraine’s Yanukovich agrees ‘truce’ with opposition, start to negotiations

A portrait of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich burns near the destroyed building of the security service in Lviv yesterday after a night of violence when protesters seized public buildings and forced police to surrender

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Wednesday he had agreed a “truce” with opposition leaders, after street violence in which at least 26 people were killed, and a start to negotiations to end further bloodshed.
A statement on the presidential website said that during talks with the three main opposition leaders, Yanukovich had agreed firstly a truce and secondly “the start to negotiations with the aim of ending bloodshed, and stabilising the situation in the state in the interests of social peace.”
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Obama condemns Ukraine violence, threatens ‘consequences’ if clashes escalate

Published time: February 19, 2014 22:11

US President Barack Obama.(AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)

President Barack Obama said the US “condemns in the strongest terms the violence” in Ukraine, adding that the Ukrainian government must uphold the rights of peaceful protesters. Obama said there would be consequences should “people step over the line.”
“We expect the Ukrainian government to show restraint, to not resort to violence in dealing with peaceful protesters,” Obama said Wednesday from Mexico ahead of a summit with other North American leaders. “We’ve also said that we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful.”
As Tuesday’s riots and clashes between protesters and police in Kiev continued into Wednesday, the European Union announced that a rare meeting of its 28 member countries would occur on Thursday to address what is to be done about the ongoing violence, AP reported.
“We’ll be monitoring very carefully the situation, recognizing that, along with our European partners and the international community, there will be consequences if people step over the line,” Obama said.
At least 26 people, including 10 police officers, have been killed and some 800 injured since the start of violent riots in Kiev on Tuesday. The most recent, deadliest wave of violence in Ukraine started with an attempt by radical protesters to storm the building of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada), which prompted fierce clashes with police. Several buildings in central Kiev – including the office of the Party of Regions – were stormed, looted, and set on fire.
At least 426 people have sought medical help following the clashes in Kiev, the city’s health department said. There are currently 277 people being treated in hospitals for injuries, including gunshot wounds and burns.
Despite the fierce battles on Independence Square (Maidan) and the possibility of further violence in coming days, Obama said the US and its partners would watch vigilantly to make “sure the Ukrainian military does not step to what should be a set of issues that can be resolved by civilians.”

Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have “agreed to continue to do everything so that there is no escalation of violence” in Ukraine, Merkel said, as quoted by Reuters. The German Chancellor spoke with the Russian president over the phone.
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Vitali Klitschko : The face of the opposition in the Ukraine is a heavyweight boxing champ with a Ph.D who has lost only two fights but is now locked in the battle of his life.

Image: Vitali Klitschko, Ukrainian opposition leader and former world champion boxer

Etienne De Malglaive / Getty Images, file an hour

Ukraine Crisis

Ukraine Opposition Leader Vitali Klitschko in Fight of His Life

By Tracy Connor, Henry Austin and Alastair Jamieson

The face of the opposition in the Ukraine is a heavyweight boxing champ with a Ph.D who has lost only two fights but is now locked in the battle of his life.

Vitali Klitschko, a 6-foot-7 father of three, is known as Dr. Ironfist for his achievements in the ring and the academic arena.

Once feared for a devastating left jab, the 42-year-old is now landing political blows as head of the Ukranian Democratic Alliance for Reform and the protests that have erupted into deadly clashes in Kiev.

At least one old opponent is in his corner. Lennox Lewis, who defeated Klitschko in a controversial 2003 match, tweeted his support on Wednesday.

Prayers and safety to my brother in arms Vitali @Klitschko and the citizens of Ukraine. #ukraineprotests
— Lennox Lewis (@LennoxLewis) February 19, 2014

Klitschko's new rival is Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich — and he demanded Yanukovich resign on Wednesday, saying he's responsible for "murder and terror against peaceful civilians."

"Blood is shed on the streets of Kiev," Klitschko said in a video address. "The main reason for this is actions of the authorities. Therefore, people today demand Yanukovich and his government to resign.

"The sooner this happens, the less blood is shed, the faster Ukraine will move to a civilized future for which people has taken to the streets."

Earlier, he had appeared in Independence Square — after fierce fighting left 26 people, including 10 police officers, dead — to urge demonstrators to hold their ground.

"We will not go anywhere from here," he told the crowd. "This is an island of freedom and we will defend it."

The son of a Soviet pilot and former colonel who launched his boxing career in 1995, Klitschko got involved in politics during an injury-forced temporary retirement. In 2005, he made a bid to become mayor of Kiev — the first of three failed runs for the seat.

Vitali Klitschko, Sergei Bubka speak out on Ukraine violence

By Cindy Boren

February 19 at 9:19 am

Vitali Klitschko, the UDAR (Punch) party head, helps anti-government protesters carry a wounded man. (Yury Kirnichny / AFP Getty Images)

As protests turned deadly violent Tuesday in Kiev, two of the Ukraine’s more vocal and visible leaders are men who became household names in the world of sports.
Vitali Klitschko, the former boxing champion and the head of the pro-Western Udar opposition party in Ukraine, urged protesters to continue their actions while Sergei Bubka, the former pole-vaulting great, urged peace from the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Klitschko addressed a crowd of about 20,000 Wednesday, telling people to defend their camp even as fires burned around it.
“We will not go anywhere from here,” Klitschko told the crowd (via the Associated Press) at the main encampment at Independence Square. “This is an island of freedom and we will defend it.”
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Friday, February 7, 2014

State lawmakers take action in the US as individuals prepare a globalized mobilization against encroaching digital surveillance

Published on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 by Common Dreams

Not Waiting for Feds, 'Fight Back' Against Surveillance Goes Local, Global

- Jon Queally, staff writer

Not content to wait for action at the federal level, those opposed to the ongoing mass surveillance of the NSA and other agencies are speaking out and pushing laws at the state level to ensure privacy rights are protected. (Image: thedaywefightback.org)Concerned about the government's increasing surveillance powers but unimpressed with the congressional response in Washington so far, state lawmakers from both major political parties are now taking it upon themselves to protect the online and communication privacy of their constituents.
Meanwhile, individuals and privacy groups are planning their own grassroots response to mass surveillance, hoping to repeat past victories by harnessing the power of digital communications to ensure they are adequately protected from government overreach.
As the Associated Press reports Wednesday, efforts are now underway "in at least 14 states are a direct message to the federal government: If you don't take action to strengthen privacy, we will."
According to AP:

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have joined in proposing the measures, reflecting the unusual mix of political partnerships that have arisen since the NSA revelations that began in May. Establishment leadership has generally favored the programs, while conservative limited government advocates and liberal privacy supporters have opposed them.
Supporters say the measures are needed because technology has grown to the point that police can digitally track someone's every move.
Devices such as license plate readers and cellphone trackers "can tell whether you stayed in a motel that specializes in hourly rates, or you stopped at tavern that has nude dancers," said David Fidanque, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
"It's one thing to know you haven't violated the law, but it's another thing to know you haven't had every one of your moves tracked," he said.

Next week, on February 11, privacy advocates and online freedom groups are mobilizing against NSA and other government surveillance in a day of action they've dubbed 'The Day We Fight Back.'
According to Katitza Rodriguez at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the groups organizing the action, those participating will be demanding "an end to mass surveillance in every country, by every state, regardless of boundaries or politics."
Galvanized by what they see as 13 Principles of internet and communication freedoms, activists will use the day to call attention to those goals, lobby on their behalf with their representatives, and declare an end to the encroaching, unaccountable, and unregulated surveillance apparatus.
"The Principles spellout just why mass surveillance is a violation of human rights," explained Rodriguez, and they "give sympathetic lawmakers and judges a list of fixes they could apply to the lawless Internet spooks. On the day we fight back, we want the world to sign onto those principles. We want politicians to pledge to uphold them. We want the world to see we care."

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine : Removing advertising videos ,a screen on the Passage mall is used to defy the government. in response to a draconian law against dissent

The Telegraph

Ukraine Chief Loses Support in Stronghold

By ANDREW HIGGINSFEB. 5, 2014

The European Union flag outside the Passage mall in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, a gesture of revolt in a Russian-speaking region. Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine — As violence flared late last month in Kiev after Parliament approved a draconian law against dissent, two of the richest men in this industrial city 300 miles to the east of the Ukrainian capital met in an expensive Italian restaurant that they own and made a fateful decision.

The men, Hennadiy Korban and his partner Borys Filatov, decided to remove advertising videos featuring glamorous models from a large outdoor screen at an upscale shopping mall called Passage and replace them with a live broadcast of raucous anti-government protests at Independence Square in Kiev.

They also ordered their local properties to hoist the flags of the European Union and Ukraine, a gesture of open revolt in a Russian-speaking region where economic and political power have traditionally been united in looking more to Moscow than to Europe for guidance.

Retribution, or at least some extraordinarily bad luck, swiftly followed. Hours after the flags went up on Jan. 25, all three of their company’s shopping malls in Dnepropetrovsk lost their electricity, and panicked shoppers scrambled through the dark for the exits.

A screen on the Passage mall in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, is used to defy the government. Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

The video screen outside went dark, silencing the antigovernment chants from Kiev and, at least on the surface, restoring Dnepropetrovsk as a bastion of calm support for Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Caught in a titanic tug of war for influence between Russia and the West, Ukraine is also being tugged in opposite directions by the forces facing off at the Passage mall in Dnepropetrovsk. In an economy dominated by a relative few wielding enormous wealth, the outcome of the struggle could well hinge on how many other businesspeople make the same switch as Mr. Korban and Mr. Filatov and join the street in rejecting Mr. Yanukovych’s tilt toward Russia.

The defection of two provincial businessmen — motivated as much by resentment of the strong-arm tactics of rivals in league with the government as by lofty ideals — will not tip the balance of power in Kiev or even here in this city of more than a million people, its economy dominated by huge Soviet-era factories like Yuzhmash, a rocket maker still owned by the state.

But it underscores how a protest movement that the government dismisses as the work of nationalist extremists from the country’s west has reached into Mr. Yanukovych’s political power base in the east and is even eroding the loyalties of those who have thrived under him.

And it shows how, for all their differences, the disaffected moguls and the protesters are driven by a deep frustration with what they see as the country’s lawless law-enforcement system and ubiquitous corruption. Both camps call for not just democracy but for a more “normal,” European-style government with transparent institutions, secure property rights and an impartial justice system.

Fearing arrest, Mr. Korban and Mr. Filatov fled Ukraine for Israel last week. A Dnepropetrovsk judge ordered on Jan. 29 that Mr. Korban be detained and interrogated as a witness in connection with a previously dormant investigation of a 2012 murder.

According to the pair’s lawyers, state security officers then raided the premises of their accountant, saying they were looking for bombs or other evidence of terrorism. They found none, said one of the lawyers, Oleksandr Sanzhara.

The businessmen do not regret their decision. “We decided that we had to do something as citizens, to send a signal that not all businessmen are afraid,” said Mr. Korban, an aggressive local tycoon whose interests include a string of hotels, three big shopping centers and stakes in many of Ukraine’s biggest companies.

“We want to live in Europe, not in an outpost of the Russian empire,” added Mr. Korban, 43, speaking by phone from Israel.

The president ignited the current turmoil in November when he abruptly spurned a sweeping trade and political accord with the European Union and instead went to Moscow to secure a $15 billion credit deal, which has since been suspended.

Ukraine’s biggest business moguls, known as oligarchs, have so far mostly hedged their bets, with the exception of Petro Poroshenko, a shipping, confectionery and agriculture magnate whose television station, Channel 5, has been broadcasting around the clock from Independence Square.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Militias spring up across Mexico to defend communities but authorities fear 'rebel force' and an 'undeclared civil war'

Mexican vigilantes take on drug cartels - and worry authorities

Jo Tuckman in Tixtla
theguardian.com, Monday 28 October 2013 15.43 EDT

Self-defence forces gather near Buenavista in Michoacan, Mexico, part of a growing movement of militias taking on the drug cartels. Photograph: ZUMA/REX

With their scuffed shoes, baggy trousers and single shot hunting guns, the eight men preparing to patrol their hillside barrio in the southern Mexican town of Tixtla hardly looked like a disciplined military force. But this motley collection of construction workers and shopkeepers claim to have protected their community from Mexico's violent drug cartels in a way the police and military have been unable – or unwilling – to do.
"Since we got organised, the hit men don't dare come in here," said one young member of the group, which had gathered at dusk on the town's basketball court, before heading out on patrol. "Extortions, kidnappings and disappearances are right down."
Over the past year, vigilante groups like this have sprung up in towns and villages across Mexico, especially in the Pacific coast states of Guerrero and Michoacán. They make no pretence to be interrupting drug trafficking itself but they do claim to have restored a degree of tranquillity to daily life.
In a country where the police are commonly felt to commit more crime than they prevent, the militias have won significant popular support, but they have also prompted fears that the appearance of more armed groups can only provoke more violence.
Tensions exploded this weekend when a march by self-defence groups triggered a gun-battle between gunmen and federal forces in the city of Apatzingán, followed by attacks on power stations that left hundreds of thousands without electricity.
Nearly seven years after the government launched a military-led crackdown on the cartels, the weekend's events have caused many to ask if the new government of President Enrique Peña Nieto is presiding over the first rumblings of an undeclared civil war.
"Perhaps the closest antecedent is the civil wars of central America," said an editorial posted on the widely-read news site Sin Embargo.
The weekend's violence began on Saturday when a group of militiamen marched on the city, saying they were responding to calls for support by residents there who want to set up their own self-defence group. Similar groups claim to have forced the brutal Knights Templar cartel out of smaller towns in the region, but Apatzingán, capital of the Tierra Caliente region, has remained largely in the hands of the drug barons.
Troops allowed the marchers into the city after they had disarmed, but when they gathered in the central square, they came under attack from gunmen on the rooftops – including some who were reportedly stationed in the cathedral belltower. A video shows people running for cover as federal police officers appear to return fire at the attackers.
At the end of the day, the marchers withdrew after the army agreed to step up patrols and include observers from the self-defence groups. But the movement's leader, José Mirales, warned reporters that the fight was not over. "We are going to make sure that organised crime is expelled from Apatzingán," he said. "They will try to respond."

That response came just hours later, when, shortly after midnight, nine electricity substations were firebombed in a string of almost simultaneous attacks. More than 400,000 people were left without electricity. At least four petrol stations were also torched.

In a statement, Mexico's interior ministry promised that: "The actions of the criminals will not stop the actions of the government to protect the population."
But while the government claimed order had been restored to Aptazingán, the tension continued into Sunday when a second group of civilians marched on the local army base. The Knights Templar were widely believed to be behind this second march that demanded federal forces withdraw their protection from the self-defence groups. Also on Sunday, five bodies were reportedly found on the outskirts of the city, all wearing t-shirts identifying them as members of the self-defence groups.

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5 Dead as Mexican Vigilante Groups, Cartel Clash

MORELIA, Mexico October 28, 2013 (AP)

By GUSTAVO RUIZ and MARK STEVENSON Associated Press

Clashes in which self-described "self-defense" forces sought to oust the Knights Templar drug cartel from the western Mexico state of Michoacan left at least five men dead and hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.

The weekend confrontations followed a daring march by a self-defense force into the city of Apatzingan, the central stronghold of the pseudo-religious Knights Templar cartel that for years has dominated Michoacan, a state that sends a steady stream of avocados and migrants to the United States.

State Interior Secretary Jaime Mares said soldiers and federal police had taken over security in Apatzingan following the clashes.

Since rising up in February against systematic extortion by the Knights Templar, residents of a half dozen towns that formed self-defense patrols have lived without access to Apatzingan, a commercial and road hub that is home to the region's main hospital and markets.

Self-defense leaders said they finally grew tired of the cartel blocking services and commerce in an attempt to strangle their uprising and showed up Friday on Apatzingan's outskirts, armed and ready to "liberate" the city. They were turned back by soldiers who said they couldn't enter with weapons.

A convoy of hundreds of unarmed self-defense patrol members returned on Saturday and successfully entered the city, where they were met by gunfire, presumably from the Knights Templar.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Angry protests erupted on Thursday in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, as thousands of people took to the streets after the assassination of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi.

Tunisians hold a portrait of slain opposition politician Mohamed Brahmiin Tunis on July 25, 2013 (AFP, Khalil)

Tunisia Protests- Brahmi murdered - Egypt Daily News

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Protests erupt in Tunis after opposition leader shot dead

Angry protests erupted on Thursday in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, as thousands of people took to the streets, blocking roads and burning tyres, after the morning assassination of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi.

By News Wires
Tunisian opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead outside his home in Tunis on Thursday in the second such assassination this year, setting off mass protests against the Islamist-led government in the capital and elsewhere.

“He was shot in front of his house when he was with his disabled daughter,” Mohamed Nabki, a member of Brahmi’s secular, nationalist Popular Party, told Reuters. “The killers fled on a motorbike.”

The assassination of another secular politician, Chokri Belaid, on Feb. 6 ignited the worst violence in Tunisia since the 2011 fall of autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

“This criminal gang has killed the free voice of Brahmi,” his widow Mbarka Brahmi said, without specifying who she thought was behind the shooting.

Brahmi was a vocal critic of the ruling coalition led by the Islamist Ennahda party and a member of the Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution for the North African nation, which is split between Islamists and their opponents.

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Thousands take to the streets after opposition leader gunned down in Tunisia

Published time: July 25, 2013 12:25
Edited time: July 26, 2013 04:52

Tunisians gather outside the hospital in Ariana, on the outskirts of Tunis, after opposition figure and critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, Mohamed Brahmi was gunned down in front of his home, near the capital, on July 25, 2013 (AFP Photo)

Tunisian opposition member Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead in the capital Tunis on Thursday, six months after the murder of another secular leader sparked a national crisis. Thousands of secularists have poured on to the streets in protest.
Several Islamist party offices and government buildings have been set on fire. Police in Tunisia’s second-largest city of Sfax have fired teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters who stormed a local government office while demonstrators threw stones at them. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
President Moncef Marzouki, who leads a secular center-left party, has called for calm in the face of “plots against Tunisia’s national security”.

Tunisian opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi.(AFP Photo / Fethi Belaid)

Brahmi was the leader of the nationalist and secular People's Movement party, which has two seats in the National Constituent Assembly, the temporary parliamentary body charged with drafting a new constitution for the country. Twitter reports, citing eyewitnesses, say two men on a motorcycle shot the politician as he stood by his car, before speeding away. Brahmi's family witnessed the assassination.
Interviewed by local news station Mosaique FM, his pre-teen daughter said that her father "didn't want to leave the house" but then "received an urgent phone call and rushed out to his car", where he was mowed down.
Brahmi was declared dead upon arrival in hospital, with at least 11 bullet wounds.
"He died as a martyr to his opinion and position - he was killed by a terrorist gang," his wife told Mosaique FM, placing the blame at the hands of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party.

The wife and daughter of #brahmi are accusing #ennahda of the murder of their husband and father #tunisia pic.twitter.com/eeHnasRaRd
— Zied Mhirsi (@zizoo) July 25, 2013

"This is the biggest catastrophe that could happen in Tunisia. We have now had a series of political assassinations of anyone with a different, loud voice,” said fellow opposition deputy Najla Bourriel, a member of the Democratic Bloc, to local news portal Tunisia Live.
Spontaneous protests broke out on an already charged day that officially marks the foundation of the republic, a significant date for secularists.
"Down with the rule of the Islamists!" the crowd chanted as it gathered outside key government buildings, the opposition headquarters, and the hospital to which Brahmi was taken.
Some demanded for Brahmi's body be brought out of the morgue and displayed in front of the crowd.

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