ANTI-SEMITISM IN ISRAEL - SAY WHAT?

Below you are about to find an article that I had to read twice to believe.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) reports that in recent years sporadic acts of anti-Semitism have hit Israel, most of them carried out by disaffected immigrant youths from the former Soviet Union. Although the youths came to Israel under the Law of Return, they are among those who identify not as Jews but as ethnic Russians.

Experts say the perpetrators of such acts feel rebuffed and marginalized by Israeli society, so they turn their furor into the same anti-Semitism with which they may have been tormented in their countries of birth.

Zalman Gilichinsky, who immigrated to Israel from Moldova, started a center for victims of anti-Semitic attacks or harassment.

"Neo-Nazism is the same development they see in Russia and they transplant it here," he said, referring to the youth.

Gilichinsky said he has been frustrated by what he sees as the relative lack of seriousness with which Israel has taken the issue.

Gilichinsky claims Israel is embarrassed by the issue, which he said stems from too many non-Jews being allowed into Israel under the Law of Return.

Roughly one-quarter of immigrants who have come to Israel since the major wave of immigration began from the FSU in the early 1990s are not considered Jewish according to halacha, or Jewish law.

"Israel wants to maintain its image as a refuge from anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, so they don't want to publicize anything that would go against that image," he said.

Gilichinsky said that according to the calls his center receives, there are almost daily incidents. They are exacerbated, he said, by connections forged online between young immigrants here and their counterparts in the FSU through neo-Nazi Web sites and chat rooms.

David Zelventsky runs a museum at an immigrant club in Hadera about Jews who fought for the Red Army during World War II. He said much still needs to be done to tackle anti-Semitism around the world, including in Israel.

It was hard for him to see the swastikas and slurs against Jews spray-painted on the center's walls, but he was not necessarily surprised.

"I've seen many things in my lifetime," said Zelventsky, whose father was a World War II veteran. "What I know is that it is too early to lay down arms in the battle against anti-Semitism."

The following is from AFP.

Rising anti-Semitism in Israel meets state's blind eye

Rabbi Avraham Levine never imagined that years after immigrating from Russia to Israel he would fall victim to a brutal anti-Semitic attack in the heart of the Jewish state.

But less than three months ago, he was beaten up by teenage skinheads as he walked home in the city of Petah Tikva on Tel Aviv's outskirts.

"They jumped on me, beat me and cursed my mother in Russian, then they returned with sticks and beat me up. My arm was broken but only God saved my life," said Levine, 38, who arrived in Israel from Russia in 1995.

"They shouted 'Zhids leave Russia!' In Russia, I would hit someone if he said 'zhid.' How can someone do it in Israel?" he said.

"Zhid" is a derogatory term in Russian for a Jew, roughly equivalent to north America's "kike."

The number of incidents with a neo-Nazi, fascist or anti-Semitic streak has increased dramatically over the past 15 years in the Jewish state, which prides itself of being a safe haven for Jews from all over the world, according to the Dmir Centre, which monitors and assists victims of such attacks.

Although the Jewish state is no stranger to anti-Israeli attacks, a new trend has developed since the 1990s -- anti-Semitic attacks carried out by "Jewish" citizens, says the centre's chief Zalman Gilichenski.

The vast majority of these incidents are thought to have been carried out by Russian nationalists who identify with anti-Semitic ideology, says Gilichenski.

"Nowadays it has become a phenomenon," says Gilichenski, a 40-year-old ultra-Orthodox who had emigrated from Moldova in 1989.

The nationalists came to Israel as part of the massive immigration wave from former Soviet states in the 1990s. While they are Jewish under Israel's law of return -- meaning that either they, one of their parents or one of their grandparents are Jewish -- they do not consider themselves as Jews.

Gilichenski receives reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Israel on a daily basis and he estimates there are some 500 incidents a year in Israel.

Official figures are hard to come by -- the police, and justice and interior ministries all refuse to provide statistics.

And Israeli police are reluctant to brand the incidents as anti-Semitic, instead using the term vandalism for racist attacks and desecration of graves and synagogues.

"The law does not provide us with the ability to even define an incident in Israel as being of an anti-Semitic character, and they all fall within the general term of vandalism," says one justice ministry official who asked to remain anonymous.

Petah Tikva police station closed Levine's case without finding the assailants, saying it was "an isolated case which does not reflect a trend", even though a series of similar incidents have occurred there in recent months.

Gilichenski says the authorities turn a blind eye: "Israel is very swift to criticise anti-Semitism abroad but remains silent in the face of anti-Semitism within."

There is no law explicitly banning anti-Semitism in Israel, because such a situation was never imagined by the lawmakers, he said.

According to Gilichenski, the increasing trend is partly due to the fact that out of the nearly 1.2 million immigrants who have arrived from ex-Soviet states since the early 1990s, over 300,000 do not consider themselves Jews, according to official figures from the Immigrant and Absorption Ministry.

"People who do not identify themselves as Jews arrive here, after learning about the Jewish people from the most extreme sources of anti-Semitism in former Soviet states," Gilichenski said.

"There is a group of several dozens anti-Semites in almost every Israeli city. All in all, there are several hundreds neo-Nazis in Israel," he says.

Despite the lack of official statistics, expressions of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in Israel are abundant.

Dozens of school and synagogue walls have been sprayed with swastikas and racist slurs in Russian in recent years. The most serious incident was recorded when the great synagogue of Petah Tikva was vandalised and desecrated with anti-Semitic slurs in May 2005.

The same month, military police arrested a soldier of Soviet origin who had a Nazi swastika tattooed on his arm and who said he hated Jews.

Shortly afterwards, another soldier was indicted for setting up the first neo-Nazi website in Israel, which included links to the text of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and a photo of him and two other soldiers performing a Nazi salute in uniform. He was sentenced to 200 hours community service.

Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum, says that the anti-Semitism in Israel reflects "popular anti-Semitic stereotypes in Europe, especially Ukraine, which are very hard to counter."

The extremists shy away from talking to reporters -- repeated messages left at an Israeli Russian nationalist website, the "Russian Nationalist Centre," went unanswered.

But the website itself offers a glimpse into the world of anti-Semites who live, work and are citizens of the Jewish state.

Among its goals is to "accustom Russian people living in Israel to Russian national culture and awaken national consciousness," to prevent "any and all forms of Russian people converting to Judaism," to help Russians in Israel return to the motherland, and prevent "Jews from returning to Russia."

In statements posted on the website, the nationalists say they choose to live among the people they despise because their duty is to help fellow Russians get in touch with their roots.

"If we don't help them choose their destiny, what kind of nationalists are we?" says the site, vowing that "in any case sooner or later we'll all return to Russia."

Faced with this grim reality, Gilichenski believes that "here in Israel the phenomenon is much more dangerous because there are many targets and potential victims."

ANNOUNCEMENT: BASEBALL TO HONOR NURSES

Just because I love baseball and I support the heck out of nurses, I give you the following major announcement from out west.

Major League Baseball Teams Take Their Hats Off to Nurses

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The work of America's 2.9
million registered nurses to save lives and maintain the health of millions
of individuals is the focus of National Nurses' Week, celebrated annually
May 6-12 throughout the United States. This year, the American Nurses
Association has selected "Nursing: A Profession and a Passion" as the
theme.

In conjunction with the California Nursing Students' Association
(CNSA), three major league baseball teams in California have designated at
least one "Nurses' Night at the Ballpark" this May in honor of National
Nurses' Week. The Giants, Dodgers and Padres have agreed to donate proceeds
from ticket sales for designated games to the CNSA Foundation, benefiting
scholarships for nursing students throughout California. "We are fortunate
to have these major league baseball teams recognize the contributions of
nurses and importance of supporting future nurses," says Patricia
McFarland, CEO of the Association of California Nurse Leaders and executive
director of CNSA.

Game times and tickets are available through the CNSA Web site at
http://www.cnsa.org.

STILL WITH US, BUT BARELY

The Amur leopards are listed in international, federal and regional levels as critically endangered and are in immediate danger of extinction. With maybe no more that 34 left on the planet, the future of this beautiful cat seems extremely bleak.

Recognized as one of eight leopard subspecies and named for the Amur River that forms much of the border between China and Russia, it has a long winter coat and is easily distinguished from other leopards by its large rosettes. Many specialists consider it to be the most beautiful of the leopards. It certainly is a remarkable large cat, in some ways reminiscent of the snow leopard. In the sixties and seventies the Amur leopard was still found in considerable numbers in former Manchuria in China, on the Korean peninsula and in the southern part of Primorye in the Russian Far East. The Amur leopard is now restricted to a small patch of habitat in Southeast Russia along the Chinese and Korean borders

Major causes of the Amur leopards decline have been due to:

Habitat destruction caused by wildfires which burn unattended and out of control.

Intensive logging and clear cutting.

Elimination of its prey, hunting both legal and illegal (poaching) have all played a role in reducing the leopards to a fragment of its former habitat.

The Amur leopard is also being poached for its beautiful coat and for its bones.

The following is a release from the World Wildlife Fund.

Amur Leopard Remains on the Brink of Extinction, Scientists Say

Vladivostok, Russia—A new census of the world’s most endangered cat, the Amur or Far Eastern leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), shows that as few as 25 to 34 are left in the wild, renewing fears for the future of the species.

In February and March, World Wildlife Fund along with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science, conducted a routine snow-track census of leopard numbers.

“The recent census confirmed once again that the Amur leopard survives on very shaky ground,” said Pavel Fomenko, biodiversity conservation program coordinator at the Far-Eastern branch of WWF in Russia.

Fomenko said encroaching civilization, new roads, poaching, exploitation of forests, and climate change had contributed to the leopards’ plight.

“From my perspective, the leopards’ exact number is not the big question.” Fomenko said, “What is really important is that the predator is on the brink of extinction. And still a unified protected area with national park status has not been established, which is the most important thing for the leopards’ survival.”

At least four leopard litters were encountered during the census. This is a good sign because it means that the population is not completely depressed and is still able to restore itself. But for long-term survival, at least 100 animals are needed.

“Conservation of large predators needs vast territories with minimal anthropogenic changes, which is difficult,” said Dr. Dmitry Pikunov, the coordinator of the 2007 leopard census and head of the laboratory of animal ecology and conservation of the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science.

According to Dr Pikunov, a mature leopard needs 500 square kilometers of habitat with good forests and high and stable amounts of ungulates, including deer. Two to four female leopards would live in the same amount of land, reproduce and nourish their cubs.

“Maybe this is the reason why leopards practically completely disappeared from the Korean Peninsula and north-east China,” said Dr. Pikunov. “At the beginning of the past century, the Far Eastern leopard was a common species in the southern parts of Sikhote-Alin and in some Khanka lake areas. Right now it roams only in south-west Primorye.”

About 5000 square kilometers of land in the south-west Primorye region, close to the border between Russia, China and North Korea, were transected for the census and tracks left by the leopards in the snow were counted. Scientists were able to determine the number of the leopards by examining the shape, size and patterns of the tracks as well as determine the direction and time of the animals’ movement.

In all, 35 field workers took part in the census, working in more than 158 transected sections.

“The snow track census is an important method to monitor leopard numbers. We see that its population has been balancing on the edge of survival for many years,” said Dr. Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia program and coordinator of the previous census in 2005.

“But to understand the reasons, we should research the ecology of the predator in a more profound way, using latest techniques such as automatic camera traps, radio tracking, genetic and veterinary research.”

The census 2007 found 7-9 male leopards, 3-7 females without cubs, 4 females with cubs, 5-6 cubs in all, and 6-8 undefined tracks. Total: 25-34.

This compares with 9 males in 2003, 7 females without cubs, 4-5 females with cubs, 4-5 cubs in all, and four undefined. Total: 28-30.

In 2000, the results were 4-5 males, 8-9 females without cubs, 1-2 females with cubs, 1-3 cubs in all and 8-9 undefined. Total: 22-28.

TERRORIST WALKS: POSADA FREE TO BE IN MIAMI

They did it. They released known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Around the world there is nothing but anger at this hypocritical action of the Bush regime.

Lawyer Jose Pertierra, who represents the Venezuelan government in the request to extradite the terrorist, said from Washington that the decision makes a mockery of US justice.

Guatemala's Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights, Frank La Rue shortly before the release became a reality stated, "It would be a scandal for the international justice system and an insult for victims and their relatives if Posada Carriles is freed." Director of the Legal Action Center for Human Rights, Edda Gaviola condemned Washington's decision and criticized their stand as the champion against terrorism while protecting men like Carriles. Hector Nuila, general secretary of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, demanded that the US fulfill its international obligations and try Posada Carriles or grant the extradition request from Venezuela.

The Mexican press in dozens of headlines reported the release of the international terrorist and condemned it roundly.

El Salvador wants nothing to do with the guy. Salvadoran President Tony Saca said his country would not open the doors to the aging anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles. Saca said that if Posada arrived in the Central American nation he would be arrested on document falsification charges dating back to 2000, when he allegedly entered Panama on a false Salvadoran passport. Posada lived in Salvador during the nation's 1980s civil war.

Nicaragua will request the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, President Daniel Ortega announced Thursday, while he condemned the terrorist's release by US authorities.

Wayne Smith, a retired U.S. diplomat and Cuban affairs analyst said, "Posada's release shows the Bush administration's position against terrorism for the cynical sham it is. It takes us back to one man's terrorist being another's freedom fighter."

Under the Patriot Act, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales has had the option of declaring Posada a terrorist and detaining him indefinitely.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also is empowered to keep Posada imprisoned by declaring his release a threat to stable international relations.

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times declared,

"WITH A MISGUIDED decision upholding bail for Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has done more than free a frail old man facing unremarkable immigration charges. It has exposed Washington to legitimate charges of hypocrisy in the war on terror.

... Posada is the Zacarias Moussaoui of Havana and Caracas. Moussaoui is serving a life sentence without parole in a federal prison in Colorado for conspiracy in the 9/11 attacks; Posada is free to live in Miami.

The U.S. government has done many odd things in 46 years of a largely failed Cuba policy, but letting a notorious terrorist walk stands among the most perverse yet."

Posada traveled to Miami after his release. His arrival there yesterday afternoon set off mixed reactions among the area’s many Cuban exiles, who see him as both a patriot and an embarrassment.

“We have been fighting this war on terror, and here we are releasing a man who has a history of terrorist acts and is a fugitive of justice in other countries,” said Elena Freyre, executive director of the Cuban-American Defense League, a moderate exile group in Miami. “It’s absolutely appalling.”

In Havana, Camilo Rojo, the son of a Cubana de Aviacion official who died aboard the bombed plane, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that Posada's released showed "a lack of respect for all the victims of terrorism, not only in Cuba but throughout the world."

The following is taken from La Demajagua (Cuba)

Statement from the revolutionary government of Cuba

Cuba condemns the shameful decision to release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and points to the United States government as the only one responsible for this cruel and despicable action, which seeks to buy the terrorist’s silence regarding his crimes in the service of the CIA, particularly during the time when Bush Sr. was that agency’s general director.

With this decision, the U.S. government has ignored the clamor that has arisen throughout the world, including in the United States, against the impunity and political manipulation involved in this action.

This decision is an insult to the people of Cuba and other nations who lost 73 of their sons and daughters in the abominable 1976 attack that brought down a Cubana de Aviación civilian airliner off the coast of Barbados.

This decision is an insult to the people of the United States themselves, and a categorical refutation of the so-called "war on terrorism" declared by the government of President George W. Bush.

The U.S. government had only to certify Luis Posada Carriles as a terrorist to prevent his release and, in line with Section 412 of the U.S. Patriot Act, to acknowledge that his release would "threaten the national security of the United States or the safety of the community or any person."

The U.S. government could also have implemented the regulations enabling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain a foreigner who is not admissible to U.S. territory and subject to deportation.

For that, it would have sufficed for U.S. authorities to have determined that Posada Carriles is a threat to the community, or that releasing him would involve a flight risk on his part.

Why did the U.S. government allow the terrorist to enter U.S. territory with impunity, despite the warnings sounded by President Fidel Castro?

Why did the U.S. government protect him during the months he remained illegally in its territory?

Why, having all the elements to do otherwise, did it limit itself this past January 11 to charging him with lesser crimes, essentially immigration-related, and not with what he actually is: a murderer?

Why is he being released, when Judge Kathleen Cardone herself, in her April 6 ruling ordering the release of the terrorist, admitted that he was accused of "...having been involved in, or associated with, some of the most infamous events" of the 20th century? Some of the events include "the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Iran-Contra affair, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the tourist bombings of 1997 in Havana, and even — according to some conspiracy theorists — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."

Why is the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency not using the mechanisms it has at its disposal for maintaining the terrorist in prison, with the irrefutable argument, already used by the U.S. Attorney General’s office on a date as recent as this past March 19, that if he were released, there is a risk that he could flee?

Why has the U.S. government ignored the extradition application submitted, in line with all relevant requirements, by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela?

How is it possible that today, the most notorious terrorist who has ever existed in this hemisphere is being released while five Cuban men remain in cruel imprisonment for the sole crime of fighting terrorism?

For Cuba, the answer is clear. The terrorist’s release has been organized by the White House as compensation so that Posada Carriles will not divulge what he knows, so that he won’t talk about the countless secrets he holds in relation to his long career as an agent of the U.S. special services, in which he acted as part of Operation Condor, and in the dirty war against Cuba, Nicaragua and other nations in the world.

The full responsibility for the terrorist’s release and the consequences deriving from it, fall directly on the United States government, and most particularly on the president of that country.

Even now, after his release, the U.S. government has all the information and legal mechanisms to re-arrest him. All that is lacking is the political will to seriously combat terrorism, and to recall that, according to President Bush, "if you harbor a terrorist, if you support a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you will be as guilty as the terrorists."

Havana, April 19, 2007

Translated by Granma International

BARF ALERT: PHELPS AND CLAN HEAD FOR VIRGINIA

Since these idiots hail from not all that far away I figured I'd best put out the alert. The "God Hates Fags" Topeka, Kansas Church is still on the loose and reportedly heading for Virginia to preach their peculiar brand of hate near the funerals of those killed at Virginia Tech. As sad as I am to say it, I can't say I'm surprised. The Wrong Rev. Phelps loves his moments of publicity and since he hates just about everyone but himself how could he miss this opportunity to make hay at others grief.

The following is from Life Style Extra (UK).

Religious group to protest at Virginia Tech funerals

A sick American hate group recently exposed by a Louis Theroux documentary is planning disgraceful protests at the funerals of the Virginia Tech massacre victims.

Warped religious group the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) want to disturb the services of all the 32 victims of loner Cho Seung-Hui's shooting spree to preach that the killings were "ordered by God."

Leader Fred Phelps despises the United States and a post on one of WBC's websites, godhatesamerica.com, said the 32 were killed as a punishment for America's attacks on the group who see themselves as "God's servants."

WBC say God sent Seung-hui to perform the slaughter.

And the crazed message warns all Americans that they will come to know more "horror" than caused in the tragic killings.

The chilling post reads: "WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror - yet.

"Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is 'horrified' by it all. You know nothing of horror -- yet. Your true horror is coming.

The message continued: "Why did this happen, you ask? It's simple. On April 16, 2007, this nation, through the offices of your military and conspirators therewith took a shot at the servants of God - your marksman was limp and lame and he had terror all around, so he did a lousy job.

"But what you get for your trouble is that your God shot at you!

"The Lord your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children, and he didn't miss.

"Get this straight - God sent this South Korean madman to kill 31 of your children at Virginia Tech.

"Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants."

And in response to WBC's threats, one Virginia Tech alumni student contacted the Patriot Guard Raiders who try to ensure funerals of soldiers and other victims are observed peacefully.

But Ryan Merrell, who left the university in 2005, said on social network they couldn't attend the funerals without consent from the grieving families.

Mr Merrell wrote: "Many may not know but there is a man and his group who are planning to protest each and everyone of the funerals of the victims of this event. His name is Fred Phelps, and his organization is the Westboro Baptist Church.

"I urge you that if you know any of the families, that at the appropriate time and place, please mention this to them and ask if they'd like Patriot Guard to be invited.

"This horrific event should never be overshadowed by groups who wish to make a political statement at victim's expense."

In a BBC 2 documentary called 'The Most Hated Family in America', Louis Theroux followed the church who despise homosexuality and protest at US soldier's funerals.

They say the soldiers die because of their sins and continual persecution of the WBC.

Another post on their website reads: "It is plain to the servants of God, that America is taking a blood bath in Iraq because America is busily persecuting WBC for preaching the Word of God to this evil nation of perverts.

"God hates America. Her end is near, and approaching fast."

The group seems to thrive on whatever publicity they get, however critical, with another online message saying: "Soon the whole world will have heard of Westboro Baptist Church and the unwavering message of Her little flock of slaughter.

"You will have no excuse once the BBC and Channel 4 release their pieces on the WBC. No matter what perverted light they display us in, you will receive the message."

OF HEALTH CARE, STARBUCKS AND BOSSTALK

Sometimes the boss just doesn't tell the whole truth.

Back in 2005, the Chairman of the Board of Stabucks was asked about concerns over employee health benefits. "We're not ever going to turn our backs on our partners [employees]," said Howard Schultz reassuringly even as he bemoaned the cost.

In 1999, when workers were thinking about unionizing at one of the coffee giant's plants, Howard rushed to the scene to talk about his working class roots and about how much he cares for his employees. Howard reiterated as he had done many times before that because of his early experiences with poverty, even his part-time workers would always have health insurance.

According to the an article on the website of the Organic Consumer Association, one of the workers at the meeting Jeff Alexander remembers looking out the window after the talk and wondering what percentage of Howard’s $14 million salary he had spent on the brand new Jaguar parked near his own aging Suburban.

In May 2004, Starbucks proudly sponsored “Cover the Uninsured Week,” an annual campaign of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused on expanding access to affordable, quality health care coverage.

So how come fewer Starbucks employees are receiving health care coverage than workers at Walmart of all places.

Well Starbucks points out that its workers are covered under other health plans: from other jobs, spouses, and Medicaid.

Covered by medicaid? Kinda calls into question wages, doesn't it?

Oh well, as we said at the start, sometimes the boss just doesn't tell the whole truth.

The following is from the IWW.

SWU Condemns Health Care Decline at Starbucks
Percentage of Starbucks Employees Covered by Company Health Care Decreased Over 2006, Early 2007

New York, NY- The Starbucks Coffee Co., which has come under increasing criticism in recent months over its health care policies, was dealt a further setback with the admission that 75,000 of its 127,000 U.S. employees are not covered by company insurance. According to the company's own figures, the coffee giant provides health care to just 40.9% of its employees, down from 42% in late 2005. Critics have accused the company of misleading consumers about its health care plan, pointing out that Wal-Mart- a company widely criticized for its health care offering- insures a higher percentage of its employees than Starbucks.

"Starbucks' latest health care figures confirm what baristas already know- the majority of us either don't have health insurance or rely on outside sources including Medicaid for care," said Suley Ayala, a Starbucks barista in NYC whose family is insured under the Medicaid program. "Starbucks should stop lying to the public about its health care plan and make its insurance affordable."

In a long-term campaign sure to be memorialized in public relations textbooks for years to come, Chairman Howard Schultz and Starbucks have turned the company's below-average health care plan into a competitive advantage for the Starbucks brand. However, the customer goodwill Starbucks has created is steadily eroding as the facts behind the health care myth emerge.

Two hurdles keep the majority of Starbucks employees from obtaining company insurance. First, baristas must work 240 hours per quarter to qualify to purchase health care. Starbucks maintains a 100% part-time hourly workforce in its cafes and no baristas are guaranteed any work hours per week- thus, obtaining the 240 hours is far from assured. For baristas who do hit the 240 hour mark, they are faced with an unaffordable combination of premiums, co-pays, deductibles, "payment percentages," and other out-of-pocket expenses to obtain coverage.

"The company's rhetoric on health care is a prime example of its hypocrisy," said Matt Rolls, a Starbucks barista in Maryland and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. "Starbucks needs to move beyond the rhetoric, guarantee a minimum amount of work each week, and make its health care plan affordable."

Founded on May 17, 2004, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union [StarbucksUnion.org] is an organization of employees at the world's largest coffee chain united for a living wage, secure work hours, affordable benefits, and an independent voice on the job. Starbucks does not recognize the union's right to exist and is currently engaging in a relentless union-busting campaign. Using an organizing model known as solidarity unionism, the SWU does not seek certification through the flawed government process. Instead, worker-members take collective Direct Action to win systemic gains and remedy individual grievances with the company.

IRAN'S CHIEF COP SAYS COVER UP

No sooner were two women's rights activist released after two weeks in detention the police announced they'd be cracking down on women whose dress violates "Islamic codes."

Iranian women who do not respect the Islamic dress code are instruments of the enemy, Iran's police chief, Gen. Ahmad Moghaddam, said on Wednesday, the country's Army Day. "Women who do not wear the veil and don't abide by the Muslim dress code are tools of the enemy, who tries to destroy the system by spreading a cuture which goes against Islamic values," he said. AKI reports the general slammed recent criticism of a police measure which will become effective starting on 21 April under which women who do not respect the Islamic dress code will be arrested.

"The police must solve this problem because it is intolerable to accept the challenge posed by some women to the Islamic principles on which our system is based and which the enemy would like to overthrow," said General Moghaddam.

Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi says the government "dress code" is committed to safeguarding women's rights particularly in social arena. He said the government's plans to confront non-conventional dress codes are only intended to ensure a healthy public presence for women.

What a guy.

Women in Iran are by law obliged to cover their head with hijab (Islamic head covering) and a full length overcoat that covers all bodily contours. Visiting foreigners and religious minorities are not exempted.

Each year, as Iran's hot summer begins, the authorities announce a crackdown on loose dressing as hem lines become shorter.

However in recent years many Iranian women, especially in the capital Tehran, have sought to test the boundaries by pushing their headscarves back to reveal more hair as well as wearing shorter and tighter mantos.

The following is from OneWorld.

Iran Releases 2 Activists, Imposes 'Dress Controls' for Women

We are pleased to share with you that Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh and Nahid Keshavarz, activists in the One Million Signatures Campaign, arrested on April 2nd, were released from Evin prison on April 15th. They were incarcerated for nearly two weeks for collecting signatures in support of a petition to change discriminatory laws against women in Iran.

The released women activists and campaign members extend their gratitude to all individuals, civic organizations, and human rights and women's rights networks who have supported them and who have helped bring worldwide attention to their struggle.

However, harassment of activists continues. Since this weekend, 11 more of our activist colleagues, have been summoned by the Revolutionary Court and charged with "violating national security," "publicity against the Islamic Republic," and "participating in an unauthorized demonstration."

The Iranian news agency ILNA reported yesterday that Information Minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, declared the women's movement and the students' movement as "elements of soft subversion" against the regime. In escalating crackdown on women's rights, the police have announced that starting this Saturday they will begin apprehending women whose dress is deemed to be in violation of the Islamic code. Women wearing short mantos (coats), tight outer garments, and inadequate headscarves will be taken to four centers. Tehran's deputy head of police Hossein Sadjedi-Nia explained, "They will have to give a written engagement not to repeat the offense and can then leave when their family brings the appropriate clothing."

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR NYC AREA

MAY 15 AT THE BRECHT FORUM

"Can’t Jail the Spirit: Art by Political Prisoner Tom Manning" exhibits Manning’s paintings of political prisoners, freedom fighters, the earth and people struggling against oppression. Alongside the paintings is a media collage documenting radical struggles Tom Manning was connected with from anti-prison work in Portland, Maine to actions he took against the US government’s role in the apartheid regime in South Africa and genocide in Central America. For his actions, Tom Manning became a political prisoner and has taught himself to paint inside the prison walls. Tom’s paintings transcend concrete and razor wire, and show that they still can’t jail the spirit!

Can't Jail the Spirit was first displayed at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. A week after it went up, it was censored following intense pressure by state troopers and the police to shut it down. Tom's paintings transcend concrete and razor wire, and show that they still Can't Jail the Spirit!

at The Brecht Forum
451 West Street (West Side Highway, between Bank & Bethune Streets)

New York, New York

Friends and Comrades:

Susan Rosenberg
Luis Rosa
Atty. Bob Boyle
& Other Comrades
to be announced
Interview with Tom Manning

For more information, call the Brecht Forum at (212) 242-4201 or NYC Jericho at (718) 853-0893

Sponsored by New York City Jericho

Paintings donated by the Can’t Jail
the Spirit Portland Victory Gardens Project

Directions: A, C, E or L to 14th St. & 8th Ave, walk down 8th Ave. to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the river, turn left. 1, 2, 3 or 9 to 14th St.& 7th Ave, get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th Street to 8th Ave, left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the river, turn left. PATH Train to Christopher Street, north on Greenwich St to Bank Street, left to the river.

The exhibit of Tom Manning’s art
will be at the Brecht until June 15

Co Sponsor: National Jericho Movement • P.O. Box 340084 • Jamaica, NY 11434

To download a flyer for this event, click here!

Tom Manning is a Vietnam veteran, working class revolutionary and US political prisoner. He militantly struggled against the war in Vietnam and supports the right of self-determination of all oppressed peoples. Tom Manning was captured in 1985 and sentenced to 53 years in federal prison for a series of bombings carried out as "armed propaganda" against apartheid and U.S. imperialism. He tirelessly fought against racist, genocidal capitalism in the USA. According to supporters Tom Manning was also wrongly sentenced to 80 years in prison for the self-defense killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

Tom Manning has been subject to human rights violations that include physical abuse, lock-down, and solitary confinement.

The BRECHT FORUM is a place for people who are working for social justice, equality and a new culture that puts human needs first. Through its programs and events, the Brecht Forum brings people together across social and cultural boundaries and artistic and academic disciplines to promote critical analysis, creative thinking, collaboartive projects and networking in an independent community-level environment.

Throughout the year, the Brecht Forum offers a wide-ranging program of classes, public lectures and seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops, and language classes. These activities are developed in collaboration with the many social movements and the diverse communities of this most cosmopolitan of cities, and our programs bring together leading intellectuals, activists and artists from New York, across the U.S., and internationally.

BIGOTS ABOUND, BIGOTS APOLOGIZE

Another radio show. Another racist remark. This time its a Houston city Councilman by the them of Michael Berry opening his big mouth.

Besides being a Houston city councilman, Berry is that city's mayor pro tem. That means he fills in for certain duties when the mayor's not available.

Former Hopi Tribal Chairman Ivan Sidney told the three-term Houston councilman and now mayor pro tem that his comments "are inaccurate, demeaning and singularly insult the history of America and the contributions of the American Indian. Although you may pride yourself on the controversial subjects presented on your radio program to increase ratings, it is not a laughing matter for us."

"The statements only serve as a mechanism that creates a wider gorge between our cultures. Your listeners deserve the opportunity to hear the truth as well as the perspective of an American Indian. I herewith request equal time on your program to address your concerns," Sidney said. "We pray for you and all mankind."

Like everyone else of his Berry later apologized. Berry said he has decided to treat the occasion as "a learning experience," and promised to have an American Indian expert guest on the show within the next week to discuss issues and answers. "If I had misconceptions, perhaps others do, too," he said.

He'll probably soon be checking in to rehab.

By the way, Jim Roberts, a Sioux/Chippewa challenged Berry's premise that American Indians lost a war. "If American Indians were 'conquered,' why did the United States put peace treaties on the bargaining table to end the wars?" he posted. "A conquest is an unconditional defeat of an enemy, and many Indian tribes were never defeated (since they were never at war with the U.S. in the first place)."

The following is from Indian Country Today.

Houston councilman makes offensive remarks on radio

Houston resident Cheryl Melendez, Cree, had just dropped her kids off at school and was listening to one of her city councilmen on her car radio when she heard something that floored her.

Councilman Michael Berry was saying American Indians don't deserve the federal assistance that they're getting because they ''were whipped in a war.''

''We conquered them,'' he said. ''That's history. Hello?''

The March 27 remarks on the Michael Berry Show - archived online and available for anyone to hear - have sent shock waves through Indian country. They've been a hot topic on Indianz.com and on another Houston radio show, one about Indian culture.

What Berry said was especially galling for Melendez and her husband, Steve, who have dedicated themselves to teaching the real story about being ''whipped.'' They're the co-founders of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston.

''My only question was, 'was Sand Creek and Wounded Knee a war?''' Cheryl Melendez said April 4, referring to the slaughter of more than 163 Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colo., in 1864 and of some 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1890.

''You want to believe that things are changing. You want to believe the best in people. And then, wham, something like this happens,'' Melendez said. ''I guess it kind of just takes your breath away and leaves you disappointed.''

Besides being an at-large councilman, Berry is Houston's mayor pro tem, meaning that he fills in for certain duties when Mayor Bill White isn't available. Berry did not return messages left April 4 by The Associated Press.

The Michael Berry Show airs weekdays on KPRC 950-AM in Houston. A message left for station officials seeking comment also wasn't returned April 4.

Berry made the remark while speaking out against a proposal in the Texas Legislature for the state to apologize for slavery.

''If we're not going to apologize for slavery, then we need to stop the continuous apology for what was done to the American Indians,'' he said.

Berry said the federal government in effect apologizes to American Indians every day by expending ''incredible resources from our treasury.''

''We continue to give land,'' he said, without elaborating.

He said the government had given tribes the right to print money.

''Which is also known as a casino,'' he said. ''Why are we still doing that?''

And he said he was qualified to say such things because he has Indian blood.

''If you're against apologizing for slavery, then you've got to be against giving welfare to the American Indians because of the fact that 200 years ago they were whipped in a war. And let's just call it what it is. They lost a war,'' he said.

''Why don't we go hand the Germans a few million dollars, and the Italians, and the Japanese? OK, so we did rebuild their country. We don't continue to give them aid because they sit around whining about a war from 200 years ago. Are you kidding me? Seriously.''

Steve Melendez said that the second elected president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, declared an ''extermination war'' against Indians.

''Here in Texas, the war that was taking place 200 years ago was a war of genocide,'' he said.

He said newspapers of the day advertised Indian scalps selling for $200. To this day, he said, there aren't many Indians to be found in Texas compared to other states.

''That was one of the strange things that happened to me when I came from Nevada to Houston. There were no Indians,'' said Melendez, who identified himself as Paiute.

Jacquelyn Battise, host of the weekly Houston community radio show People of Earth, which focuses on Indian culture, said she read some of Berry's remarks on the air.

She got a lot of calls and e-mails in response.

''It's ignorant, some of the remarks that he made about casinos,'' she said. ''It just shows, I guess, a real disconnection.''

She said there was talk about circulating a petition to counter some of the remarks.

H. Mathew Barkhausen III, a media specialist for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and a freelance writer based in Denver, got word of the radio show through a chain of e-mails.

''It's really frustrating to me, for example the casino issue, when people make sweeping moral judgments about something they obviously know nothing about,'' Barkhausen said.

He said Berry ''obviously doesn't know anything about the Indian gaming act.''

''For some reason, there's a ridiculous assumption that the 500-some-odd recognized tribes in the United States have become wealthy through casino money, and that's not the case,'' he said.

Part Tuscarora and part Cherokee, Barkhausen also questioned the notion that American Indians had been ''whipped.''

''The Indian wars never ended, they just changed format,'' he said. ''They're battles that are fought in the courtroom.''

FLAG OFFICERS ISSUE WARNING ON WARMING

Maybe a bunch of military hot shots can get the attention of the Commander in Chief with a report that says global warming will lead to some big national security problems.

Probably not though.

Anyway, for the second time in a month, private consultants to the American government are warning that human-driven warming of the climate poses risks to the national security of the United States.

The report, called "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change," was commissioned by the Center for Naval Analyses, a government-financed research group, and written by a group of retired generals and admirals called the Military Advisory Board.

In March, a report from the Global Business Network, which advises intelligence agencies and the Pentagon on occasion, concluded, among other things, that rising seas and more powerful storms could eventually generate unrest as such crowded regions as Bangladesh's sinking delta become less habitable.

In addition, last month, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) introduced bipartisan legislation that would require a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to assess the security challenges presented by the world's changing climate. NIEs are the federal government's most authoritative written judgments concerning national security issues and are developed to address the most serious of threats. They contain the coordinated judgments of all U.S. intelligence agencies regarding the likely course of future events.

Durbin and Hagel's bill, the Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act, asks the intelligence community to provide a strategic estimate of the risks posed by global climate change for countries or regions that are of particular economic or military significance to the United States or that are at serious risk of humanitarian suffering. This National Intelligence Estimate will assess the political, social, agricultural, and economic challenges for countries and their likely impact.

In 2003, Pentagon analysts Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall released a report that explored how an abrupt climate change scenario could potentially destabilise the geopolitical environment, leading to skirmishes, battles and even war due to resource constraints.

The study suggested that as tensions mount around resource shortages, nations with the resources to do so may build virtual fortresses around their countries, preserving their resources while other nations will engage in struggles for access to food, clean water or energy.

One wonders how many reports saying exactly the same thing we need before some real action is taken.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch President Bush looks forward to retiring in the next couple of years and spend his days cleaning brush.

In what may be a first for the Oread Daily, the following article is taken from the Army Times.

Report: Climate change a major military issue

Sweltering flight deck crews couldn’t launch Navy jets for extended periods of time. U.S. ground troops would find themselves splitting time between humanitarian relief operations and fighting insurgents bent on winning over desperate third-world peoples. Low-lying logistics hub Diego Garcia would be swallowed up by the Indian Ocean.

Global warming isn’t often thought of as a matter of interest for the U.S. military. But it should be, an advisory board of 11 retired flag officers concluded in a report issued Monday under the auspices of the Center for Naval Analyses, a non-profit national security analysis group. Climate change is happening, the blue-ribbon panel concluded, and is a “serious national security threat.”

Extreme weather would be disruptive to the military in and of itself, more frequently driving Navy ships to sea to skirt hurricanes or blinding combat units preparing to attack somewhere overseas. But the board found that climate change “acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.” Projected climate changes will “add to tensions even in stable regions.”

For instance, global warming will worsen third-world living conditions, with the problems ranging from drought as well as flooding to the spread of infectious diseases. This, the report concludes, would lead to “widespread political instability and the likelihood of failed states.” Internal conflict and extremism could easily follow.

The U.S., the report said, could subsequently be drawn in to help provide aid and stability, such as after the 2004 Asian tsunami, or to defend its overseas interests. Drought and food shortages in Latin and South America, for instance, could lead to large numbers of refugees and increased missions for “our already stretched military, including our Guard and Reserve forces,” the report stated.

“The stresses that climate change will put on our national security will be different than any we’ve dealt with in the past,” said retired Vice Adm. Richard H. Truly, a former NASA administrator and shuttle astronaut. “For one thing, unlike the challenges that we are used to dealing with, these will come upon us extremely slowly, but come they will, and they will be grinding and inexorable.

“But maybe more challenging is that they will affect every nation, and all simultaneously,” Truly said. “This is why we need to study this issue now, so that we’ll be prepared and not overwhelmed by the required scope of our response when the time comes.”

The board acknowledged the debate over whether global warming is a natural, cyclical event or is caused or exacerbated by mankind. But it sidestepped arguing over the causes, instead agreeing with the broad scientific consensus that the Earth’s temperature is slowly rising.

“The trends are clear,” the board said in its introductory letter. “The nature and pace of climate changes being observed today and the consequences projected by the consensus scientific opinion are grave and pose equally grave implications for our national security.”

“We never have 100 percent certainty,” said retired Army Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, former Army chief of staff. “If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield. That’s something we know. You have to act with incomplete information. You have to act based on the trend line. You have to act on your intuition sometimes.”

The report contains some daunting conclusions. By 2050, rising oceans would swamp much of the world’s population. Nearly 40 percent of Asia’s 4 billion people live within 45 miles of the coast, for instance. Water from melting glaciers would also cause flooding near mountain areas, yet later leave hundreds of millions of people without sufficient water to drink or irrigate crops.

Closer to home, a rise in sea level would flood U.S. coastal areas and inundate close-to-shore military bases, particularly those of the Navy and Marines. Norfolk, Va., for instance, is only about 10 to 12 feet above sea level.

In addition, the panel found, climate change, national security and energy dependence “are a related set of global challenges.” Dependence on foreign oil leaves the U.S. more vulnerable to hostile regimes and terrorists, the report cites President Bush as saying in his most recent State of the Union address. That, and climate change itself, underline the need for energy alternatives and energy independence, the report concludes.

“The military should be interested in fuel economy on the battlefield,” said retired Lt. Gen. Lawrence P. Farrell Jr., former Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs. “It’s a readiness issue. If you can move your men and materiel more quickly, if you have less tonnage but the same level of protection and firepower, you’re more efficient on the battlefield. That’s a life and death issue.”

The intensity of global temperature change can be mitigated somewhat if the U.S. begins leading the way in reducing global carbon emissions, said retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former commander of U.S. Central Command.

“We will pay for this one way or another,” Zinni said. “We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll.

“There is no way out of this that does not have real costs attached to it,” Zinni said. “That has to hit home.”

The panel suggested a number of recommendations:

• The national security consequences of climate change should be fully integrated into national security and national defense strategies.

• The U.S. should commit to a stronger national and international role to help stabilize climate changes at levels that will avoid significant disruption to global security and stability.

• The U.S. should commit to global partnerships that help less-developed nations build the capacity and resiliency to better manage climate impacts.

• The Defense Department should enhance its operational capability by accelerating the adoption of improved business processes and innovative technologies that result in improved U.S. combat power through energy efficiency.

• DoD should conduct an assessment of the impact on U.S. military installations worldwide of rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and other possible climate change impacts over the next 30 to 40 years.

FBI TO HOST TERRORIST

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on April 19 is scheduled to host Cambodia's national police chief for discussions on counterterrorism, even though Hok Lundy has been implicated in what the FBI itself has classified as a terrorist act, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on the US State Department to cancel his visa.

"Hok Lundy’s alleged involvement in political violence and organized crime in Cambodia means that the FBI should be investigating him, not hosting him,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Aside from his boss, Prime Minister Hun Sen, there is hardly anyone in Cambodia who has shown more contempt for the rule of law than Hok Lundy.”

The group was referring to the 1997 grenade attack against anti-government demonstrators which killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 120 others.

The FBI officially called the attack an act of terrorism.

"According to information Human Rights Watch has shared with the US government, Hok Lundy was part of a conspiracy to carry out" the attack, the group said in a statement.

It added that security personnel loyal to Hok Lundy carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings following the July 1997 coup against then co-prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

Hok Lundy has also been implicated in drugs and human trafficking, the group said, citing evidence given by US Drug Enforcement Agency officials and a former US ambassador to Cambodia.

"The State Department's human trafficking office specifically cited Hok Lundy's alleged involvement in human trafficking as grounds for denying him a visa," Human Rights Watch said

As in the Posada case the US Government simply picks and chooses who it wants to label a terrorist and who it wants to have as a friend.

The following is from the Australian Broadcasting System.

Claims Cambodian police chief is implicated in crimes

A US-based human rights group has condemned Washington's decision to host Cambodian police chief Hok Lundy for counter-terrorism talks, saying he is implicated in numerous crimes.

Cambodia's top police officer will be in Washington Thursday for discussions with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Rights Watch says the invitation was made even though he has been implicated in what the FBI itself has classified as a terrorist act.

The group was referring to the 1997 grenade attack against anti-government demonstrators which killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 120 others.

The FBI officially called the attack an act of terrorism.

The group says according to information Human Rights Watch has shared with the US government, Hok Lundy was part of a conspiracy to carry out the attack.

It claims security personnel loyal to Hok Lundy carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings following the July 1997 coup against then co-prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

SWEDEN'S NAZIS

The following is from the British anti-fascist mag Searchlight. I can't really add anything to it.

Sweden: With violence as their weapon...

Physical assaults, armed crimes, violent riot, murder and bank robberies are the horrific inventory with which the Swedish Resistance Movement has gained a reputation as one of the most violent and feared nazi groups in Sweden.

Soon after Klas Lund, the former leader of the Swedish White Aryan Resistance (VAM), was released from prison in 1996, he went around recruiting activists for a new organisation that would take over where VAM had left off a few years earlier. Lund’s prison sentence was for bank robbery, but he had a previous conviction from 1986 for the vicious manslaughter of Ronny Landin, an anti-racist.

The new group was the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR) and its offshoot, National Youth (NU). With Lund at its head it soon attracted Sweden’s most violent and pro-terrorist nazis. Instead of holding political meetings, it instructed its members in paramilitary skills by running survival courses and paintball battles.

Since founding the SMR Lund, 38, has continued his criminal activities. In March 2005 police in Norway seized him after he absconded from a prison in Sweden where he was serving a sentence for illegal possession of weapons. This was not his first weapons offence. In 2003 the Swedish police picked him up during raids on several leading nazis, when they found a loaded pistol beside his bed. At his trial Lund claimed he had been practising getting hold of the pistol quickly in case of attack.

In an interview in the SMR’s paper National Resistance Lund explained his ideological background, describing how as a 15-year-old he had had a revelatory experience of the concept of “people and race” through reading Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Lund and his followers also take their inspiration from the “terrorist bible” The Turner Diaries, by the late US nazi National Alliance leader William Pierce. The book is a manual for starting a “race war” by bombing and murdering Jews and black people.

One of Lund’s most notorious SMR allies is the so-called “Sätra murderer” Hampus Hellekant, who was recently released from prison after serving his sentence for the cold-blooded assassination of the trade union official Björn Söderberg in 1999. Before he was shot, Söderberg had publicly exposed the activities of another well known nazi, Robert Vesterlund of Info-14.

Hellekant’s name also came up in the investigation of an armed robbery of the armoured P10 regiment in Strängnäs in 1998. Hellekant was doing his military service in the regiment when two people overpowered the guards and escaped in a military lorry with 11 automatic rifles, 1,200 rounds of ammunition, armoured vests, gas masks and other military equipment. Hellekant could not be tied to the robbery and was absolved of any guilt.

For the SMR, organised violence is exactly what it was for VAM, the rule rather than the exception and directed towards clear goals. Immigrants are harassed and physically abused, seemingly arbitrarily. Homosexuals, journalists, left-wingers and others who do not share the nazis’ twisted view of the world are likewise subjected to violence at times.

People linked to the SMR often appear in court on charges involving weapons or violence. Apart from his concealment of arms, Emil Hagberg’s trial is typical. Serious physical abuse, gun crime, violence against a civil servant, violent resistance to the police, violent riot, knife crime, illegal possession of dangerous objects and illegal threats appear in many of the charges brought against SMR associates, often together with racial agitation.

These are just some of the convictions of SMR members and supporters:

In 2005, a court in Stockholm sentenced a 26-year-old man to eight years in prison for attempted murder and a serious arms offence after he tried to kill two people at a drug rehab-ilitation centre.

In 2005, a 21-year-old man was sentenced in Sollentuna to 240 hours’ community service for a serious assault and battery outside a restaurant in Märsta. The court heard that he headbutted his victim and continued stamping on his face when he lay unconscious on the ground. A friend from the SMR, whom the accused brought to court as a witness, himself had convictions for assault and battery and violent resistance. The 21-year-old was also mentioned in the police investigation in Hagberg case.

In summer 2004, two people were violently attacked outside the Tip-Top gay club on Sveavägen in Stockholm city centre. The culprits, all nazis connected to the SMR, had been hanging around outside the club earlier in the evening trying to pick a fight with club-goers. After asking a man wearing make-up, “Are you homosexual you bastard”, they hit him over the head with a club. Tip-Top’s doormen seized one of the nazis and police arrested another later at the nearby Rådmansgatan tube station.

In December 2003, three people linked to the SMR were sentenced in Solna for physical and verbal abuse. The targets were a man and a woman aged about 50 who had an immigrant background. Their attackers kicked and beat the man, made Nazi salutes, verbally abused the woman as a “damned Finnish gipsy” and accused her of coming to Sweden to steal social benefits. The couple, who had been taking an evening walk, had unwittingly turned into a road where SMR sympathisers sat drinking. The court also sentenced one of the accused for beating up an immigrant on another occasion.

The SMR’s activities – from shield production in Gothenburg to newspaper distribution in Härnösand – are reported on its website. In February, according to the website, a group of 15 to 20 activists gathered at Stockholm central station to distribute back copies of National Resistance. After distributing newspapers the nazis usually use the cover of darkness to put up posters with slogans such as “The US governs the world – who governs the US?” a reference to the nazis’ belief in Jewish world domination.

The SMR tries to present itself as the defenders of Sweden against “foreigners”, claiming that immigrants supposedly all come to the country to commit crimes and sponge off the state. But the SMR’s violent history and ideology speak volumes about the about the kind of society it really wants to build.


© Searchlight Magazine 2007

GERMANY ARMY INSTRUCTOR TRAINS SOLDIERS TO SHOOT BLACKS

During its campaign against France in 1940, the German army massacred several thousand black POWs belonging to units drafted in France's West African colonies. Apparently, there are some in today's German Army who want to revive the old tradition.

A video of a German army instructor telling soldiers to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African-Americans aired on German national television this weekend. The instructor who is seen ordering a soldier to envision himself in New York City facing hostile blacks while firing his machine gun is still on duty, a spokesman for the army said today.

German Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said Monday that the army was investigating the incident. "This behavior is absolutely unacceptable and contradicts the training standards of the German army," Raabe said at a press conference, where he emphasized that the incident was an "isolated case."

The incident is the latest in a series of incidents which has marred the German Army's reputation. As well as the skull incident in Afghanistan, four former army instructors who allegedly abused recruits in 2004 are currently being prosecuted in an on-going court case. And two former commanders of German special forces were recently criticized for praising a World War II Nazi commando unit as an inspiration for Germany's modern-day elite soldiers.

The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. However, there was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups.

Blacks, including African Americans, were also imprisoned or sent to internment or concentration camps. There, they were often treated more harshly and subjected to medical experiments or extreme brutality. The SS and Gestapo commonly mistreated Black prisoners of war, working them to death in concentration camps or killing them immediately rather than imprisoning them.

The following little ditty is from The Independent (UK).

German army 'depicted blacks as target practice'
By Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin

A German army instructor has been shown on television ordering a soldier to fire his machine gun while imagining he was in the Bronx facing hostile African Americans.

In New York, the Bronx borough president demanded an apology from the German military and said the clip on German television "indicates that bias and assumptions and racism is alive and well around the world".

Coming after scandals involving photos of German soldiers posing with skulls in Afghanistan and the abuse of recruits by instructors, the video seemed likely to raise more questions about training practices in Germany's conscript army.

The Defence Ministry said the video was shot in July 2006 at barracks in the northern town of Rendsburg and that the army had been aware of it since January.

"We are currently investigating the incident," an army spokesman said.

The clip shows an instructor and a soldier in camouflage uniforms in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier: "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother ... act."

The soldier fires his machine gun several times and yells an obscenity several times in English.

The Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrion Jnr, said whoever was responsible for the video should be disciplined. "We need to put to rest the prejudices and the hate that is allowed ... to be perpetuated so easily and cheaply," Mr Carrion said.

The Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, said he was outraged that Germans were "depicting blacks as target practice".

"I think this is an incredibly racist kind of insult to African Americans and it speaks to the kind of institutional racism that people think we are hallucinating about," he said.