[LAAMN] Defense Rally for Black Riders Jan 29 210 W Temple court, plan mtg Wed 1-16, SCL
Free The Black Riders! Free All Political Prisoners! Tuesday, January 29 8:30 AM L.A. Criminal Courts 210 W. Temple Community Rally Outside After Court Appearance Three leading members of the Black Riders Liberation Party are facing trial in L.A. on a b.s. thought crime set-up for an alleged conspiracy to possess a machine gun. This is an attempt to derail revolutionary struggle and consciousness among African youth to set aside set trippin' and unite against the oppressor. The BRLP have led struggles to free the San Francisco 8 former Black Panther Party members and associates. They have helped established street truces. They led the struggle against the racist Minute-klan in Leimert Park. Stand with them now against this repression. Planning Meeting Wed. Jan. 16, 7pm Southern Cal. Library 6120 S. Vermont For more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 323-873-8016 Jericho Amnesty Coalition 310-495-0299 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Digest: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Help: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Post: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] US War Plans and the Strait of Hormuz Incident: Just Who Threatens Whom? (globalresearch.ca)
US War Plans and the Strait of Hormuz Incident: Just Who Threatens Whom? by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, January 11, 2008 Email this article to a friend Print this article Instigated by the Pentagon, a bungled media disinformation campaign directed against Iran has unfolded. Five Iranian patrol boats, visibly with no military capabilities, have been accused of threatening three US war ships in the Strait of Hormuz. According to a Pentagon spokesman: The Iranian vessels ``showed reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent,'' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The encounter [on 6 January 2008] lasted between 15 and 25 minutes, he said. ``We haven't had an event of this serious nature recently,'' Whitman said, referring to encounters between U.S. Navy vessels and Iranian warships. (Bloomberg, January 7, 2008) At one point the U.S. ships received a threatening radio call from the Iranians, to the effect that they were closing (on) our ships and that the ships would explode the U.S. ships would explode, Cosgriff said. The Associated Press Pentagon Says Ships Harassed by Iran) The Pentagon said the incident was serious. It described the Iranian actions as careless, reckless and potentially hostile and said Tehran should provide an explanation. (Arab Times, 7 January 2008) Media Disinformation Coinciding with Bush's Middle East trip, the intent of the Pentagon's propaganda ploy is to present Iran as the aggressor. The patrol activities of these boats are presented as a serious threat and an act of provocation. The London Times goes even further: in its January 7 morning headlines the Iranian speed boats, barely 30 feet long, were apparently preparing a suicide attack against US war ships equipped with advanced state of art weaponary: Iran speedboats 'threatened suicide attack on US' in Strait of Hormuz (London Times headlines, January 7, 2008) Iranian patrol boats to be used in a kamikaze style terrorist mission, to explode the American vessels? (see photos above) What US war vessels are we dealing with? How do the speedboats compare in size and military capabilities to the US destroyers and frigates, which Iran is allegedly threatening to blow up? According to the reports there were five Iranian speedboats and three American warships which had entered the Strait of Hormuz: Guided Missile Destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) Guided Missile Cruiser USS Port Royal Frigate USS Ingraham USS Hopper (DDG-70) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer equipped inter alia with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which could instantly blow the living day lights out of the Iranian speed boats. USS Hopper (DDG-70) (source: US Navy) Tomahawk cruise missile (source: US Navy) The second vessel threatened by the Iranian suicide speedboats is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal CG73 which carries a sophisticated weapons arsenal including Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, a Phalanx CIWS 2, not to mention Sikorsky SH-60 and Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters. Again the threatening speedboats would be destroyed almost instantly. (source: USS Port Royal CG73 US Navy) Phalanx CIWS Harpoon Missile (source: US Navy) The third vessel threatened by the Iranian patrol boats is frigate USS Ingraham also equiped inter alia with launchers for Mark 46 torpedoes and LAMPS III helicopters (USS Ingraham source: US Navy) What we are dealing with? Iranian speedboats harassed US warships and threatened to blow them up in a radio communication. A naval suicide attack in international waters says the Times of London. But in fact with the exception of alleged verbal abuse on the part of the Iranian coastguard, which Tehran denies in a carefully worded statement, nothing happened other than a routine patrol operation. Just Who is Threatening Whom? The incident must be put in a historical perspective. Realities are turned upside down. Known and documented since 2003, the Pentagon has drawn up detailed and precise plans for U.S. sponsored attacks on both Iran and Syria. Israel and NATO are partners in this military adventure. Moreover, barely mentioned by the Western media, there has since Summer 2006, been a massive concentration of US Naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, which are part of those war preparations. Since 2006, US war ships with advanced weapons systems have been stationed almost continuously within proximity of Iranian territorial waters. Large scale US war games have been conducted. Numerous acts of provocation directed against Iran have been undertaken. These war vessels are deployed in the context of US-NATO-Israeli war plans in relation to Iran. The first phase of these war plans was formulated in the immediate wake of the US led Iraq invasion in July 2003, under a
[LAAMN] Bennis: Bush in the Middle East, Gaza Vigil
Commentaries are sent to Sustainer Donors of Z/ZNet To learn more, consult ZNet at http://www.zmag.org Today's commentary: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-01/10bennis.cfm Bush in the Middle East: Iran Over Palestine, Israel Over-All By Phylis Bennis ZNet Commentary: January 10, 2008 Bush's current visit to the Middle East, despite the official central message of supporting an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has far more to do with Iran. That is not a secret; the lead article in Israel's leading daily, Ha'aretz, describing the Bush meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, begins Iran's nuclear program was at the center of the closed door meeting between Bush and Olmert. Israel rejects the findings of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released last month that found that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and does not necessarily even want one. In spite of that, Olmert told Bush, our unequivocal conclusion is that they [the Iranians] are busy developing nuclear weapons. According to Ha'aretz, Bush agreed, saying the Iranians could resume their weapons program as easily as they froze it in 2003. It was understood before Bush even arrived in the region that a major part of his goal was to reassure Israel that the NIE would have no consequence - that it did not actually signal any change in U.S. posture towards Iran. His trip intended to clear up any confusion in the region regarding Iran, Bush said. The NIE report may have sent a signal to some that the U.S. doesn't think that Iran is a threat, he continued as he went on to disabuse that notion. Iran continues to be a threat to world peace. And that means the U.S. would continue to provide support for Israel vis-à-vis Iran even if Tel Aviv's overtly aggressive threats towards Iran contradict the findings of Bush's own intelligence agencies. Bush told Israel you better take the Iranian threat seriously, and Israeli President Shimon Peres responded that Israel had taken Bush's advice not to underestimate the Iranian threat. He used the opportunity to warn Tehran that Iran should not underestimate Israel's resolve for self-defense. Bush visits to Arab countries will also be about mobilizing against Iran. Iran will also be on top of the agenda of Bush stops in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt. Arab regimes have their own fears about Iran, but they don't match Washington's. The fear is not based on a Sunni-Shi'a divide, as Washington discourse would have us believe, but because, with the U.S. destruction and occupation of Iraq, Iran is today the only country in the Middle East with all three indigenous requisites to be the regional power - oil wealth, sufficient water, and large size population and territory. U.S. troops are based in all the countries Bush will visit. If the U.S. (with or without Israel) attacks Iran, any retaliation aimed at U.S. troop concentrations or U.S. warships (Bahrain is headquarters for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet) could well bring any of those mostly small countries directly into the line of fire. The Bush administration persuaded numerous Arab governments to attend the Annapolis negotiations in November, largely to shore up their backing of Washington's anti-Iran crusade. But release of the NIE just after Annapolis diminished that effect, so this week's Middle East junket is partly about repeating the Annapolis mantra: despite the NIE, the Bush administration is still telling Arab regimes, stick with us, mobilize against Iran and we'll continue to prop you up with new military support. And you can keep your angry populations in line by telling them that we're supporting a Palestinian state. The new rhetorical approach of the Bush administration in their last year in office is to focus on the need to define a Palestinian state. Bush arrived in Israel with two messages on the Israeli-Palestinian front: the creation of a Palestinian state is important for the U.S., and America cannot dictate the terms of what a state will look like. Peres and Olmert, like Bush, spoke of their commitment to the vision of a Palestinian state; Bush also spoke of his commitment to achieve the identity of a Palestinian state while in office. But despite his claim, Bush has in fact already dictated the terms of what a state will [and will not] look like. Back in 2004, in an exchange of letters with then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush guaranteed his administration's support for two key Israeli demands. Looking at the current media and political discourse in Israel, it appears that those letters have emerged as the foundation of the current discussions, despite their complete lack of any legal foundation. The letters serve the same purpose as Bush's often-used signing statements, which spell out his intention to ignore and/or violate U.S. domestic laws even as he signs them. (It remains unclear whether the letters' positions will be reaffirmed by the next
[LAAMN] ..CubanFilmSeries*Fri*Jan 18*7pm
Friday, JANUARY 18, 7:00 pm The Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba presents Cuban Blood directed by Juan Gerard, with Harvey Keitel, Gael García Bernal, and Iben Hjejle. The year is 1958, and in Holguín, Cuba, a boys world is about to change forever. Rebels blow up the local power plant, the lights go out, and everyone must confront the growing turmoil in their midst. A mysterious American blonde is involved. (in English, 110 min) RSVP: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 310-451-2752 (first 20) Home of: Rachel Sene and Jay Johnson 601 - 9th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90402 1 block East of Lincoln and 1 block North of Montana. South East corner. $5 donation for The Cuban Five defense freethefive.org ...My beloved brothers and I must be unjustly kept in prison, but there we shall not cease from defending the cause and the principles we have embraced. Antonio Guerrero ANTONIO GUERRERO RODRÍGUEZ, No 58741-004, U.S.P. FLORENCE P.O. BOX 7000, Florence, CO 81226 Tel: 719-784-9454 Fax: 719-784-9454 You can write to him in English or Spanish. He is fluent in both. C ontinue discussion at: Izzy's Deli -15th and Wilshire, Santa Monica C Free parking in rear + free valet + free street parking READ SIGNS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Digest: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Help: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Post: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
