Military Resistance 12B10 Bosanski Vojska

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Military Resistance 12B10

Portugal 1975 -- A RevolutionDestroyed:

The Far Left Had A Major Fault The Revolutionary Left Had NeitherThe Will Nor The Influence To Move

Rank-And-File Soldiers This Is A Tragedy From Which We Must

All Learn[And What About Bosnia 2014?]
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They told workers to trust Spinola, and the Communists minister of labor framed a newanti-strike law.

But the workers were not to be held back in this way.

There Was A Growing Tendency For Rank-And-File Sold iers To OrganizePolitically For Themselves, Joining Left-Wing Demonstrations And Siding

With Workers To Industr ial Disputes

THE GIANT Lisnave shipyard began a wage of strikes that swept the country in the earlysummer of 1974. These workers faced opposition from all the government parties. Yetthe workers succeeded in forcing massive improvements in pay and conditions and ageneral cleaning out of reactionary managers in industry and the media.

All this was too much for Spinola, big business and the Portuguese right. He tried to stopthe revolution in its tracks in September with a fascist-style rally. But a mass mobilizationof workers stopped it from taking place, and he was forced to resign.

In March 1975, he tried again, this time with a military coup.

But workers argued with soldiers who had been sent to seize the approaches toLisbon and persuaded them to turn against their reactionary of ficers.

Instead of stopping the revolution, the actions of the right spurred it forward.

The banking unions closed down the banks until the government agreed to nationalizethem--and with them some 60 percent of Portuguese industry. Workers occupied morethan 300 factories.

The old generals lost their control over the armed forces to the junior officers of the MFA.

And there was a growing tendency for rank-and-f ile sold iers to organize pol it icallyfor themselves, joining left-wing demonstrations and siding with workers toindustrial disputes.

Foreign socialists who visited Lisbon in the summer of 1975 underwent an experiencethat they would not forget. Here was a city where the majority of the working classwanted socialism and where the old obstacles, in terms of the police, the army and evena well-organized capitalist class, seemed in complete disarray.

Yet other obstacles, just as dangerous, continued to exist.

Within the working-class movement, the two main parties were the recently reformedSocialist Party of Mrio Soares and the Communist Party.

Within The Armed Forces, They Began To Plot With The Old Right-WingGeneral To Oust The Junior Officers Who Had Overthrown Fascism


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The Socialist Party had gone along with he first popu lar mobil izations against theright. But its leaders took fright at the further development of the revolution.They were soon trying to whip up a lynch-mob atmosphere against the left.

In northern Portugal, they encouraged right-wing rioters who burned down the offices of

unions and left-wing parties.

Within the armed forces, they began to plo t with the old right -wing general to oustthe junior officers who had overthrown fascism.

But the Socialist Party alone could not have saved Portuguese capitalism. It only hadsupport from a minority of workers in the key Lisbon industrial belt, and in the unions.

The majority party o f the workers at the time of the overthrow of fascism was theCommunist Party.

If it had fought for socialist revolution by leading the wave of strikes and occupations that

began in the early summer of 1974, it would have been unstoppable.

But it followed a different tack.

It denounced the strike wave, while attempting to get control of the existing stateby secret plots with oppor tunist poli ticians and army officers. Its leaders believedthis would enable them to establish an Eastern European-type society.

The high point of their success was the summer of 1975, when an officer thought toosympathetic to the party, Vasco Goncalves, formed a government. But this soon provedincapable of effectively ruling the country. It refused to unleash the revolutionary energyof the workers and it could not deal with a wave of sabotage and unrest in the rural

areas of the north. Goncalves soon quietly abandoned power to those to the right of him.

A quite considerable minority of workers turned to genuinely revolutionary ideas. Thesmall revolutionary parties mushroomed in size until they exercised considerableinfluence.

The Army Officers Became More And More Impotent

Yet the far left had a major fault .

Although they talked about the working class, they all acted as if some other social force

could substitute itself for the class.

They devoted as much attention to cour ting left-wing army officers as to trying towin factory workers away from the Communist Party.

Time was running out for the left-wing officers.

They could dominate Portuguese politics while the old ruling c lass wasdemoralized and divided.


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But once it began to get its act together--with a lot of help from Westerngovernments and from the Socialist Party--the army offi cers became more andmore impotent.

By November 1975, there were only two choices: either the working class took things

into its own hands, or the old ruling class would stage a comeback.

The right struck on November 25.

The pretext was the occupation of TV stations by a group of left-wing soldiers.

Right-wing officers moved their troops quickly to disarm all the left-wing soldiers in theLisbon area and to restore the power of the old generals.

They met very little resistance. It required only a couple thousand troops to disarm themuch larger left-influenced forces in Lisbon.

The reason lay in the way the left had put its faith in maneuvering by army officers,rather than in mass workers action.

The Communist Party, which only the day before had organized a successful two-hourgeneral strike, refused to take action against the advance of the right. It seemed to thinkit would be able to plot its way to power regardless.

The left-wing officers were not ready to wage what might well be an armed confrontationagainst their fellow officers, and made no move.

The revolutionary left had neither the will nor the influence to move rank-and-fileworkers in the face of the Communist Partys opposition, or rank-and-file soldiers

in the face of opposi tion from the left-wing officers.

The right wing was careful not to use its newfound control of the army and police toattack workers conditions immediately. It knew that to do so might rekindle the fire ofthe revolution.

But the more the revolutionary years of 1974 and 1975 receded into the past, the moresuch gains were taken back by the employing classes. The fact that most of the time theSocialist Party was in the government did not make any difference,

A decade later, average wages were 10 percent lower than they were in 1973, the lastyear of fascism. Hundreds of thousands of workers have to wait six months or more for

wages owing to them. Lisbon is once again a city noted for the large number of peoplebegging in the streets.

Portugal showed the promise of a very different sort of future in 1974 and 1975. Thatdid not materialize because there was not a powerful revolutionary socialist party tochallenge the hold of the Communist and Socialist Parties.

This is a tragedy from which we must all learn.


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MORE:

Bosnia 2014:

Bosanski Vojska?A Revolution Destroyed?

Will Future Historians Say The FarLeft Had A Major Fault

The Revolutionary Left Had Neither TheWill Nor The Influence To Move Rank-

And-File Soldiers

Armed workers and revolutionary soldiers escorting captured policemen. Petrograd,Russia, 1917

From Wikipedia [Excerpt]

The Bosnian Ground Forces is a part of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.The HQ is in Sarajevo.

The Ground Forces is a result o f the new established Armed Forces of Bosnia andHerzegovina. Bosnian Ground Forces has 11,000 active troops today.

The Bosnian army has become a full professional army.

Personnel consist of 10,000 Act ive troops, 5,000 reserve troops, and 1,000 Civil ianstaff.


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There are three brigades, the 4th, 5th, and 6th, and three regiments , each of threebattalions, the Bosniac, Serb, and Croat regiments.

MORE:

The Fate Of Every Revolution At ACertain Point Is Decided By A Break In

The Disposit ion Of The Army

[Excerpt from: The History of the Russian Revolution By Leon Trotsky, Volume One: TheOverthrow of Tzarism: February 23-27, 1917]

The Fate Of Every Revolution At A Certain Point Is Decided By A Break InThe Disposit ion Of The Army

There is no doubt that the fate of every revolution at a certain point is decided bya break in the disposi tion of the army.

Against a numerous, disc ip lined, well-armed and ably led mil itary force, unarmedor almost unarmed masses of the people cannot possibly gain a victory.

But no deep national cris is can fail to affect the army to some extent.

Thus along with the conditions of a truly popular revolution there develops a possibility not, of course, a guarantee of its victory.

However, the going over of the army to the insurrection does not happen of itself, nor as

a result of mere agitation.

The army is heterogeneous, and its antagonistic elements are held together by the terrorof discipline.

On the very eve of the decisive hour, the revolutionary soldiers do not know how muchpower they have, or what influence they can exert.

The working masses, of course, are also heterogeneous. But they have immeasurablymore opportunity for testing their ranks in the process of preparation for the decisiveencounter. Strikes, meetings, demonstrations, are not only acts in the struggle, but alsomeasures of its force.

The whole mass does not participate in the strike. Not all the strikers are ready to fight.In the sharpest moments the most daring appear in the streets. The hesitant, the tired,the conservative, sit at home.

Here a revolutionary selection takes place of itself; people are sifted through the sieve ofevents.


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It is otherwise with the army.

The revolutionary soldiers sympathetic, wavering or antagonistic are all tiedtogether by a compulsory discip line whose threads are held, up to the lastmoment, in the officers fist. The soldiers are told off daily into first and secondfiles, but how are they to be divided into rebellious and obedient?

The psychological moment when the soldiers go over to the revolution is prepared by along molecular process, which, like other processes of nature, has its point of climax.

But how determine this point?

A mil itary unit may be wholly prepared to jo in the people, but may not receive theneeded stimulus. The revolutionary leadership does not yet believe in thepossibi lity of having the army on its side, and lets slip the victory. After thisripened but unrealized mutiny, a reaction may seize the army.

The soldiers lose the hope which flared in their breasts; they bend their necks again to

the yoke of discipline, and in a new encounter with the workers, especially at a distance,will stand opposed to the insurrection.

In this process there are many elements imponderable or difficult to weigh, manycrosscurrents, collective suggestions and autosuggestions.

But out of th is compl icated web of material and psychic forces one conclusionemerges with i rrefutable clarity: the more the soldiers in their mass are convincedthat the rebels are really rebelling that this is not a demonstration after whichthey will have to go back to the barracks and report, that this is a struggle to thedeath, that the people may win if they join them, and that this winning will not onlyguarantee impunity, but alleviate the lot of all the more they realize this, the

more will ing they are to turn aside their bayonets, or go over wi th them to thepeople.

In other words, the revolutionaries can create a break in the soldiers mood on ly ifthey themselves are actually ready to seize the victory at any price whatever, eventhe price of blood.

And the highest determination never can, or wi ll , remain unarmed.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Edward Balli , Salinas Native And Soldier,Killed In Afghanistan

01/21/2014 By PHILLIP MOLNAR, Herald Staff Writer


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The Defense Department has confirmed the death of Edward Balli as the result of"wounds from small arms fire when he was attacked by insurgents."

The department said Balli was killed in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.

Also, Presidio of Monterey spokesman Dan Carpenter said the cemetery on its propertyis filled and unable to take Balli or any other soldiers.

A soldier born and raised in Salinas with dreams of retirement in Hawaii in four yearswas killed in Afghanistan on Monday, his family said.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Edward Balli, called "Eddie" by his family and friends, was killedwhen his outpost was attacked by insurgents and "received a fatal wound," his uncleTony Virrueta said.

The 43-year-old was on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan and had completed twotours in Iraq.

He is believed to be the 14th soldier from Monterey County ki lled since the start ofthe Afghanistan war.

Mr. Balli is survived by his wife, Kristy, in Hawaii, and a mother, brother and two sisterswho all live in and near the county. He raised three adopted children in a previousmarriage.

Mr. Balli spent his formative years in Salinas, attending North Salinas High School. In1991, right after graduation, he joined the Army, his uncle said.

He was promoted to staff sergeant, then transferred to officer status, eventually

achieving the rank of chief warrant officer 2. He was a drone pilot and, in his previoustour in Afghanistan, received the Bronze Star, his uncle said.

"Eddies biggest concern at this point in his career, as a leader, was always for the careand concern of the soldiers that worked with him," Virrueta said.

He said Mr. Balli was the kind of man who "never complained" and did not seeknotoriety.

His most recent address was in Germany, Virrueta said, but he owned a home with hiswife in Hawaii.

The family was informed late Monday by an Army chaplain and received informationfrom a casualty information officer on Tuesday.

Mr. Balli was a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles and freshwater fishing. A favorite fishingspot of his was Pinto Lake in Watsonville, his uncle said.

Virrueta said it was unclear if his nephew was the same unnamed solider described in aNew York Times article as being killed Monday in a "brazen raid" by the Taliban insouthern Afghanistan.


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Mr. Ballis mother and wife are traveling to Dover Air Force Base to escort his body backto the county. The family believes Mr. Balli will be flown to Monterey Regional Airport onFriday or Monday. They have begun plans for a "heros welcome."

Virrueta said they hope his nephew can be buried at the Presidio of Monterey cemetery.

The Army said in May in an article in The Herald that the cemetery was filled up with 389people buried there, but Virrueta said they were holding out hope something could beworked out.

POLITICIANS REFUSE TO HALT THEBLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE

WAR

US Helicopter Shot Down In ShahwalikotDistrict

14 February 2014 by Qari Yousuf,Shahamat-english.com/

HELMAND, Feb. 14 Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate have shot down an OH-58D Kiowa

type helicopter of foreign forces in Shahwalikot district of Kandahar province today,reports say.

Mujahideen took up positions in the surrounding mountains in Shawba area and targetedthe chopper upon its arrival early afternoon hours, causing the helicopter to catch fire inmid-air before violently plunging onto the ground and being destroyed in a blazing fire.

All the invaders and crew onboard were killed in the shoot down while medicalhelicopters arrived to airlift the corpses as the area was cordoned off by the invaders forseveral hours.

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FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convinc ing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery st ream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

For it is not l ight that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

The limi ts of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.

Frederick Douglass, 1852

There is no democracy without socialism and no socialism without democracy.-- Rosa Luxemburg

FTA!The Film Provides A Rare GlimpseInto The Revolt From Below That


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Ultimately Forced The Pentagon ToWithdraw In Defeat From Vietnam:

Behind-The-Scenes Footage Of SoldiersTalking Candidly To The Troupe

Members About Their Frustration AndAnger At The Ongoing War

FTA Trailerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://ima

gineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded

FINALLY, AFTER 35-YEARS IN EXILE

FTA IS BACK! AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 24EXCLUSIVELY ON DVD

FROM DISPLACED FILMS ANDNEW VIDEO/ DOCURAMA

FTA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded


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Ultra-Rare! F.T.A. (aka FREE THE ARMY aka FUN, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE), 1972,Displaced Films, 97 min. Dir. Francine Parker.

F.T.A. was originally released by American-International but pulled fromdistribution after only one week, with rumors of pressure from the Pentagon.

Phil Hall, Fi lm Threat

Vietnam Days

About The Film:

[Thanks to Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against The War & Military Project, whosent this in.]

February 22, 2009 By Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times [Excerpts]

A time capsule of the anti-Vietnam War movement, FTA is also a vivid flashback to aworld-famous movie stars stint as a political radical. At the peak of her celebrity, whichcoincided with the dawning of her political consciousness, Jane Fonda abdicated herHollywood throne and remade herself as the face of the anti-establishment.

With government agents and the news media watching her every move, she led avaudeville troupe on a tour of U.S. military bases in 1971 -- a trip chronicled in thisfascinating documentary, largely unseen since its brief, abortive release and finallyavailable on DVD this week.

In the discs only extra, a 20-minute interview, Fonda recounts how the project cameabout.

She and Donald Sutherland, her costar in 1971s Klute (which won her an Oscar), wereapproached by Howard Levy, a doctor who had become an antiwar cause clbre forrefusing to train Green Beret medics.


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He proposed that they put on a corrective to Bob Hopes gung-ho USO shows, givingvoice not just to the growing peace movement but to antiwar sentiment within the ranksof the military.

The FTA troupe staged its first shows in the U.S., with Fonda and Sutherland (who hadjust played the irreverent Hawkeye in Robert Altmans MASH) headlining a company

that included Peter Boyle and Howard Hesseman. (The all-purpose acronym is short forFree the Army and a more profane variation.)

When it came time to embark on the two-week Pacific Rim tour, Fonda assembled amore politically correct lineup that stressed racial and gender parity -- equal numbers ofblack and white, and male and female, performers, including singer Holly Near andcomedian Paul Mooney.

Fonda, Sutherland and company stopped off in Hawaii, the Philippines, Okinawa andJapan (where they were initially refused entry).

Denied permission to perform on U.S. bases, they set up shop in nearby coffeehouses

and other venues, although military officials apparently tried to minimize attendance bypublicizing incorrect show times.

All told, the troupe played 21 shows, which were attended by some 64,000 servicemenand women.

Many of the male GIs, as Fonda ruefully concedes in the interview, must have beenanticipating the Space Age sex kitten from Barbarella and not the righteous radical whotook the stage in jeans, no makeup and a raised fist.

The show mixes protest songs with broad and bawdy skits, taking potshots at militarychauvinism and top-brass privilege. But what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for with a

raucous energy.

Directed by Francine Parker (who died in 2007), the documentary alternates betweenthe song-and-dance routines and behind-the-scenes footage of soldiers talking candidlyto the troupe members about their frustration and anger at the ongoing war and the

American presence in the region.

As fate would have it, FTA opened the same week in July 1972 that news broke ofFondas trip to Hanoi, where she made radio broadcasts for the North Vietnameseregime and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun.

Within a week, the distributor (youth-flick specialist American-International Pictures) had

pulled the movie from theaters.

Fondas career went into partial eclipse, and she remains to this day a favorite target ofthe right, but she recovered to win a second Oscar for the 1978 war-veteran dramaComing Home.

For years she quietly has distanced herself from her radical past, which might explainwhy FTA, which she co-produced, has been out of circulation for more than threedecades.


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Its recent reemergence points to a change of heart and owes much to the efforts offilmmaker David Zeiger, who used footage from FTA in Sir! No Sir!, a 2005documentary about antiwar resistance within the military.

To Get Your Copy Of FTA:http://www.sirnosir.com/FTA.html

YOURE INVITED:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from servicemen and women, and veterans, are especially welcome.

Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or email [email protected]: Name, I.D.,withheld unless you request publication. Same addressto unsubscribe.
http://www.sirnosir.com/FTA.htmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.sirnosir.com/FTA.html


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OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Tired Of Cutt ing Down Palestinians

Olive Trees, Zionist Occupiers NowForbid Them To Be Planted At All

February 15, 2014 by Chris Carlson, International Middle East Media Center EditorialGroup

Israeli forces prevented, Saturday, anti-settlement activ ists from planting olivesaplings in the villages located to the east of Yatta, in the Hebron district,according to a local official.

Activists from the Popular Campaign against the Wall and Settlements, as well as thePalestinian Farmers Union, were prevented from planting olive saplings in Sussiya andnearby areas, according to Jihad Nawajeh, head of the Sussiya local council.

He told WAFA that, even though the Israeli military has declared the area a close militaryzone to prevent farmers and land owners from reaching their land, the anti-settlementactivists have succeeded in reaching the land, after getting into a fist fight with thesettlers, who tried to force them out of the land.

Nawajeh said that they would continue to plant olive saplings in lands threatened withconfiscation by settlers, who regularly cut trees and steal Palestinian land in order toexpand illegal settlements.

Madleen Kolab, Gazas OnlyFisherwoman:

She Has Been Attacked By Israeli PatrolBoats, And She Says It Has Been

Common For Bullets To Whiz AroundThe Boat And As Madleen Rightly Points Out,They Have The Right To Fish In Their

Own Water


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(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Joe Catron)

9th February 2014 by Charlie Andreasson, International Solidarity Movement

Gaza, Occupied Palestine

I have seen her standing there more then once, at the edge of the port, looking out overthe boats in the harbor and then towards the horizon.

And for a short second, I have seen myself, when as a child I took my bicycle down tothe harbor just to stand at the pier and gaze, for a long, long time, at the boats thatdisappeared beyond the horizon, and wonder what was beyond that line.

And I have briefly asked myself if she does the same.

But she is not a child, she is a young, adult woman.


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A strong woman.

I asked a good friend to arrange a meeting with Madleen Kolab, 19 years old and Gazasonly fisherwoman, for an interview.

Later, she would reveal this was only to tell me face to face tell me that she does not

give interviews. For almost two years, she has declined all requests from journalistsbecause they, as she says, only write for their careers. But she decided to make anexception when she recognized me and knew that I was involved in the rebuilding ofGazas Ark, and thus in work for Palestine. Her firm look told me that she was seriousand I felt honored, but also a little embarrassed, and was grateful that I could lower myeyes towards my notepad.

When she was six years old, she already accompanied her father when he was fishing,and she knew early what her coming profession would be.

She loves her work. It gives her a sense of freedom to be on the sea, and she wascareful to point out that nobody forced her to become a fisherman. Her rapt answers to

my questions, that she never needed any consideration, unwavering eyes and lack ofhesitation left no doubt or room for me to think otherwise.

I could not doubt her word when she said that the other fishermen respect her as anequal colleague.

It was only after I stressed that women all over the world find it difficult to break into anextremely male-dominated industry like fishing that she confessed she too has beenfighting for her rights, and has been treated with prejudice, but that has now changed.

Madleen is the eldest of four siblings. She fishes with the younger of her two brotherson a hasaka, a small open boat, with an outboard motor. Earlier she had a type of boat

she needed to paddle. Now she has the opportunity to go to deeper water and getsomewhat better catches.

Besides, it is safer.

But she has been attacked by Israeli patrol boats, and she says it has been common forbullets to whiz around the boat.

Once she feared she would be arrested, but when the Israeli soldiers discovered therewas a woman on board the boat, they ordered her to instead head back to the harbor,obviously unsure of how they would deal with the unfamiliar situation.

Madleen knows that will not save her forever, and she avoids the edge of the group ofboats that go out, preferring to fight over the catch with others than try to get a biggershare for herself in more open water. But she also knows that when the Israeli militaryhas decided to take a particular boat, it will also be the one they separate from theothers.

I asked her about the escalation of violence.


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In January, thirteen attacks on fishermen were carried out, one at the six nautical-mile limit and the others three or less than three nautical mi les from the coast.

She knows f rom experience that if i t is allowed to go out six miles, the Israeli navykeeps them within five miles, and when they were officially allowed to go onlythree miles, it was in reality only two.

But Madleen believes they now attack so close to land because it is a high seasonand Israel wants to make it dif ficult for Palestinian fishermen to supportthemselves.

This view is consistent with those of fishermen I have talked to after they weretemporarily arrested and had their boats and gear confiscated.

And the Israeli military know they can continue their abuses, since the world is notprotesting.

But what would she do if there was no blockade? Would she leave Gaza?

Madleen did not hesitate. She would stay. Palestine is her home.

But she would fish further out, away from the overfished and shallow waters. And shewishes that global society could make Israel stop the illegal and inhumane blockade.Fishermen themselves cannot.

And as Madleen rightly points out, they have the right to fish in their own water.

Right now, everything is like a dark dream, she continues; the future seems bleak.

Still she hopes that one day they will be free from the blockade. And to hope is the only

thing they can do.

Her phone rang. Someone wondered where she was.

Madleen had never meant to be away for any length of time, and she asked me if I hadany more questions. I took a few photographs of her and thanked her for her time.Before she left, she offered her help to launch Gazas Ark back into water.

But I think I will see her again, standing there at the edge of the port. And it strikes methat I never asked that question, what she thinks about when she gazes towards thehorizon.

MORE:

Zionist Occupiers Attack FishingPalestinians, As Usual:


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Gunboats Stationed Off Beit LahiaShore, In The Northern Gaza Strip,Opened Fire At A Group Of Fishing

Boats

February 12, 2014 The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) via Uruknet

Israeli Naval Forces arrested three fishermen and confiscated two Palestinian fishingboats sailing at approximately 1.5 nautical miles off Beit Lahia shore in the northernGaza Strip.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the continued targeting offishermen and their livelihoods. Economic and social rights of fishermen have beenviolated by the illegal naval blockade imposed by Israeli authorities on the Gaza waters

since June 2007.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 06:30 on Tuesday, 11February 2014, Israeli gunboats stationed off Beit Lahia shore, in the northern GazaStrip, opened fire at a group of fishing boats sailing within about 1.5 nautical miles.

Two Israeli gunboats surrounded a f ishing boat boarded by Fadel Jamal Ramadanal-Sultan (24).

Israeli of ficers then ordered al-Sultan to jump into the water and swim towardsone of the gunboats.

They arrested him and confiscated his fishing boat.

The Israeli gunboat headed directly towards another fishing boat boarded by twofishermen, Mohammed Abdel Nabi Rajab al-Sleibi (41) and his son Ahmed (17)from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

The Israeli off icers ordered the two fishermen to jump into the water and to swimtowards the gunboat, then confiscated their fi shing boat. The three fishermen areso far under arrest.

Since 29 December 2013, Israeli naval forces have started an intensive campaign in theGaza Sea.

They chase Palestinian fishing boats and prevent them from sailing beyond 4.5 nauticalmiles. Moreover, they chase fishing boats sailing within 1 nautical mile off the northernGaza shore and within 1 nautical mile off the Egyptian-Palestinian borders and preventfishermen from approaching those areas. The subsequent period witnessed shootingincidents at the Palestinian fishing boats.

PCHR condemns the continued Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the GazaStrip, and:


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1. Calls for immediately stopping the policy of chasing and arresting Palestinianfishermen, and allowing them to sail and fish freely;

2. Demands compensation for the fishermen for the physical and material damagecaused to them and their property as a result of these violations;

3. Calls upon the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to theFourth Geneva Convention of 1949 Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Timeof War, to immediately intervene to stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinianfishermen and to allow them to sail and fish freely in the Gaza Sea.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous mi litary occupation commandedby foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine.The foreign terroris ts call themselves Israeli. ]

CLASS WAR REPORTS

[Thanks to SSG N (retd) who sent this in with caption. She writes: And theSoldiers/cops will enforce this worldwide.]
http://www.rafahtoday.org/http://www.rafahtoday.org/


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Portland Protesters Show Up At CityHall With Pitchforks And Torches To

Tell Mayor: Stop Arresting HomelessPeople

Portland residents protest the citys policies toward the homeless with torches andpitchforks

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

Feb. 12, 2014 by Mary Silva, Al Jazeera America

Residents of Portland, Ore., gathered in front of City Hall on Tuesday to protest thegovernments treatment of its homeless population. The group, a self-described "angrymob," carried pitchforks and torches while demanding that Mayor Charlie Hales endpolicies that criminalize homelessness.

The city government has come under fire in recent months for enforcing an ordinancethat prohibits camping on public property, which critics say unfairly targets the homeless.

A 2013 city count found nearly 1,900 individuals in the Portland metropolitan area to behomeless and unsheltered, a 10 percent increase from 2011.

Though Mayor Hales is currently in South Africa, event organizer Jessie Sponberghoped that images of residents with pitchforks and torches would send him a clearmessage.


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Inside Fallujah -- An

Eyewitness Report: A Rebel Military CouncilControls The Citys Security

Most Say They Are Not AffiliatedWith Extremists Or Al Qaeda

The Number Of Insurgents InFallujah Grows Every Day Theyre Coming From Ninawa, Diyala

And Salahaddin. They All Want To FightThe Iraqi Army

2.13.2014 by Mustafa Habib in Fallujah; Niqash

NIQASH visits Fallujah and finds a city in flux.

While armed militias control the city and the Iraqi army stands guard outside, marketsand shops are still open and everyday life is relatively calm.

However it wont stay this way: more Sunni militants are entering the city, relishing achance to fight the Shiite government, and medical and fuel supplies are runningdangerously low.

***********************************************************

Six weeks have passed since the Iraqi government lost contro l of the city of

Fallujah.

The city is now surrounded by the Iraqi army and internally it appears to be under thecontrol of Sunni Muslim and tribal militias, although it is hard to tell exactly who is incharge.

As you near the city you see what appear to be preparations for a long battle.


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Barriers made out of dirt effectively block all four sides of the city. Behind themthere are hundreds of armed men, some with anti-helicopter weaponry, andarmoured cars.

Although the winter weather is cold as low as 3 degrees Celsius the militias behindthe barriers avoid making fires because they dont want the Iraqi army to be able to see

their exact whereabouts.

When the government was threatening to invade a few weeks ago, the militants startedplanting improvised explosive devices around the four entrances to the city, Saeed al-Jumaili, a resident of Fallujah, tells NIQASH.

Houses on roads leading into the city have also been mined in order to stop anyattempts to enter, al-Jumaili says. Its a complicated network of mines thats onlyknown to a few of the militants.

So Who Exactly Are The Militants In Charge Inside Fallujah?

So who exactly are the militants in charge inside Fallujah?

Currently what is best described as a rebel military council controls the citys security.

It is composed of various Sunni Muslim factions, most of which are armed or militant.This includes the Army of Al Murabiteen, the Asadullah al-Ghalib brigades, Hamas ofIraq and a number of other Sunni Muslim brigades.

Also on the military council though are local Sunni Muslim men who once served in theIraqi army.

Apparently most of the latter do not consider themselves radical and they say they arenot affiliated with extremists or Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda is also represented on the council though and its faction goes by the now-well-known name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS locally known asDaash.

The only group that doesnt seem to be playing a role on the council are local securityforces, like the police.

The armed factions that are not affiliated with Al Qaeda have many men at their disposalbut they dont have as many arms. And while ISIS only has several hundred men in the

city, they are well armed, well trained and battle hardened. Daash also has severaldozen suicide bombers in the city.

Al l up, the council has 15 members including communi ty leaders, tr ibal elders andmembers of the various armed

factions. It meets twice or more each week to discuss the security situation inFallujah.


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It makes decisions by voting.

One of the most prominent members of the council is the cleric, Abdullah al-Janabi, whois known for his radical opinions; he is from Fallujah and in the past he was in charge ofsetting up Sharia religious courts in the city. Al-Janabi is also a Salafist, an adherent ofa far stricter branch of Sunni Islam. In the 1990s he opposed Saddam Husseins regime

and was arrested for it however he was released shortly before the 2003 US-ledinvasion of the country.

After 2003 Al-Janabi was also well known in the West for opposing the US presence inIraq and for fighting against US forces in Fallujah. Al-Janabi is apparently coordinatingthe various armed groups, including ISIS.

The most significant decision made by the council so far was to persuade ISIS not to killdozens of Iraqi soldiers it had imprisoned around the city in secret locations. The councilwas convinced that it was better to keep the men alive as they could be useful laterwhen negotiating with the Iraqi government.

Its hard to know exactly what else ISIS is doing in Fallujah as there have beenconflicting reports.

At a recent meeting with community leaders in Ramadi another ci ty that thegovernment had lost control of but which has since been pacified acting IraqiDefence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said that al-Janabi was again establishingstric t, religious courts and threatening locals who violated Islamic law withlashing and other punishments.

And Reuters reported that ISIS was handing out leaflets calling for a committee for thepromotion of virtue and prevention of vice. Reuters also reported that ISIS had lootedand burned police cars.

However other locals told NIQASH that the ISIS members they had met had notharmed any of the residents and that they didnt attack local police or the formermembers of the Awakening movement, a home grown ini tiative dating back to2006, which saw tr ibal groups halting their fight against the US military and takingarms up against Sunni Muslim extremists instead, particu larly Al Qaeda, in Iraq.

Instead they just asked them to quit those jobs, the locals said.

If this is correct then that would suggest that ISIS has learned from its past mistakes,where it alienated locals with strict religious rulings. The group seems to be being morediplomatic when dealing with local tribal elders, who could choose to expel them if they

wished.

People Are Moving Around Without Fear, They Can Buy Groceries AndThey Can Gather In Mosques

According to the most recent official figures about half a million people live in Fallujah.Its thought that as much as 60 percent of the population has left the city now though, inorder to escape the potential fighting. The United Nations refugee agency has said that


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as many as 300,000 people have left Anbar province, where both Fallujah and Ramadiare, to escape the violence.

That is why in Fallujah one will see many doors that have pages of the Koran attached tothem the residents have fled and they hope that the holy book will prevent thieves ormilitias from occupying their houses and stealing their belongings.

Still, in the city centre, conditions are generally calm. People are moving around withoutfear, they can buy groceries and they can gather in mosques.

The Iraqi army controls the southern, eastern and western entrances to Fallujah and themilitants control the only other entry point. The latter is the one used by most people toenter and leave the city and it is also how food supplies still get into the city.

Up until now there have been no problems with food supplies.

Shops and markets are still open and people are still buying groceries as usual.

What has changed is the prices. Many things now cost as much as three times more for example, a box of potatoes, which used to go for US$1 is now sold for US$3.50.There is also plenty of bread still available as the city has stocks of flour and its possibleto bake the bread at home in wood burning ovens.

The city is currently relying on stocks of food stored in warehouses, Jamal Mohammed,the owner of a store in the central city, told NIQASH. There are some big supermarketsin Fallujah and they have big warehouses. Although, he added, some of the food isnow past its expiry date. But people are still buying it they dont really have a choice.

The citys mosques are also providing free meals to Fallujahs people and even some ofthe armed groups are doing this, in order to gain the trust of locals.

Fallujah is also connected to nearby agricultural areas and some of these are alsounder the control of the insurgents.

That has actually seen the price of meat drop in Fallujah because farmers are scaredthat their cattle and sheep will be killed by indiscriminate shelling by the Iraqi military, soare trying to sell them early.

In other areas life is not normal: schools and government departments closed their doorsalmost immediately as did banks in Fallujah.

The latter havent been robbed, says one Fallujah resident, Omar Zaidan, because

theyre being guarded by armed men. One bank did open its doors for a few days to payout on pensions but then it closed again, Zaidan says.

Fallujah has not noticed any major power outages. It is however experiencing a fuelcrisis. Several residents told NIQASH they hadnt used their cars for two weeksbecause theres no petrol and theyve been using wood fires because theres no fuelavailable for heating either.

Another big problem is the lack of drinking water.


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The Euphrates River passes through the city and locals have been collecting water fromthere; however this water is not suitable for drinking. This hasnt stopped locals drinkingit though.

The Government Is Collectively Punishing The City, One Tribal LeaderComplained

Perhaps the most alarming issue though is the lack of medical supplies andequipment in Fallujah. According to one source in the central public hospital,several pregnant women have died and viral infections are spreading.

Many of the people who were injured even lightly in the military bombardment ofFallujah are now in danger, or have died, because theres a lack of supplies like blood,medicines and vital nutrients, the source said.

We have started to operate on people without anaesthesia and unfortunately

there have been some deaths on the operating table.

Weve been having to use the same needles over again because were worried weregoing to run out. Also there are about 65 foreign employees working here mostly fromBangladesh and they all want to leave the city.

The medical source also estimated the number of deaths in the city: 72 killed and 441wounded, mostly because of the Iraqi army shelling of the city. The shelling, which didntseem to be well targeted, has only caused further resentment of the Iraqi government,led by Shiite Muslim Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the Iraqi military outside thecitys borders.

The government is collectively punishing the city, one tribal leader complained.

And despite some humanitarian aid, this situation does not look likely to be resolved anytime in the very near future.

The Number Of Insurgents In Fallujah Grows Every Day

The number of insurgents in Fallujah grows every day, Rashid al-Muhammadi, aFallu jah local and a tribal elder, told NIQASH. Everyone wants a gun now. Theparents of the younger people who were killed want guns and theyve decided to

jo in the insurgent groups because theyre upset at the governments behaviour

and at the shelling.

Additionally, as a h igh ranking securi ty source who wished to remain anonymous,said: there are hundreds of mil itants coming to the city every day. Theyrecoming from Ninawa, Diyala and Salahaddin. They all want to fight the Iraqi army.


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For several years now, Fallujah has been a symbol of Sunni Muslim rebellionagainst the powers that be, whether those were US-led forces or the current ShiiteMuslim-led government.

Most people in the city dont seem to believe there is any diplomatic solution available tothem. They think they are in a similar situation to Iraqs Kurds, who fought to separate

themselves from Iraq in the past, after years of deadly persecution by former Iraqi leaderSaddam Hussein.

It will be very difficult to make things the way they were before, agrees ShakirMohammed, a university professor living in Fallujah. The people of Fallujah wontaccept the governments injustice and theyre very much convinced that they need agenuine and lasting solution to their current problems.

Perhaps the current attitudes of those in Fallujah are best summed up by recent goings-on in some of the citys major mosques. Militant cleric al-Janabi has been givingspeeches at one of the citys central mosques before prayers begin al-Janabi will oftenbe harshly critical of the Iraqi government and the countrys politicians.

Meanwhile at another large mosque in the city, speeches are given by Abdul HamidJadou, a very popular tribal leader; these focus only on humanitarian issues in Fallujah he doesnt say anything good or bad about the presence of militants.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK


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